“You don’t know that she’s gone,” Gabriel cried. “You should know that more than anybody. What if we had just assumed there was no saving you, huh?”
“That was different,” Will said, raising his voice now. “You weren’t even there. You didn’t see what that preacher did to save me. And there’s no one here who can do what he did to me.” Will looked past Gabriel again to look at the creature. It still couldn’t make it past the table. “We don’t have to kill it, all right?”
“Her,” Gabriel said. “Kill her.”
“Right,” Will said, his hands still raised. “We don’t have to kill her. But we can’t stay here.”
Gabriel shook his head. “I can’t leave her. And I’ve gotta find my daughter. She’s gotta be here.”
Will feared Gabriel would find his daughter and that she’d also be Empty, like her mother. Perhaps she was on the other side of the door, already turned. Or worse, perhaps Empty Katie had turned their daughter into something Gabriel wouldn’t even recognize. Will pushed the thought aside and refocused his attention on Gabriel and the gun.
“Look, Gabe, just give me the gun, all right? I promise you, I’m not going to shoot your wife. But you don’t need to have a gun in your hands right now, and you need to stop pointing it at me.”
“I can’t do that, Will.”
Will could see in Gabriel’s eyes that he’d mentally checked out. He wasn’t thinking. Will himself had been in a similar situation after he’d watched David Ellis throw his mother into the room with the Empty, so he understood how Gabriel felt, whether Gabriel knew that now or not.
But he had to get the gun from his hands.
He saw his chance when Gabriel turned back to look at the Empty.
Will lunged forward, and Gabriel looked back to him just as Will grabbed onto his wrist. Gabriel’s grip on the pistol tightened, and Will couldn’t get him to drop it. He grabbed onto his friend’s wrist, twisting it and trying to get him to let go.
The two men jostled for another few moments before the gun went off.
Will fell back, clutching his shoulder where he felt a deep burn. When he pulled his hand away, it was covered in fresh blood.
Gabriel looked down at Will, stunned at what he’d done.
“Shit,” Gabriel muttered.
Will sat against the wall, putting pressure on the wound. The bullet had gone into his right shoulder in almost the same place Holly had been shot at the school. It wouldn’t be a life-threatening injury, so long as he could stop the bleeding. Right now he was only worried about the pain, while keeping his eyes on the Empty that had been Gabriel’s wife and who still trying to make its way to them in the kitchen.
Gabriel took several steps back, eyes wide and hands trembling.
Will used his good arm to push himself up to one knee. He remained there, trying to garner the energy to rise all the way to his feet.
The creak of a door sounded from the living room, and Will watched Gabriel’s gaze redirect that way. His eyes went wide and his hands trembled, the gun still held firm in one hand.
“Daddy?” a voice called from the living room.
“Sarah?” Gabriel called back.
Will stood all the way up to look into the living room and see a young girl standing in the doorway.
“Mom?” she said next.
The girl took a step into the living room as the creature turned around and snarled at her. Sarah’s eyes went wide and she lost her footing, falling backward to the ground.
“Sarah,” Gabriel called, the gun still down at his side.
He finally raised it, arms shaking, and tried to aim it at the beast who’d been his wife. Even with his daughter now in danger, he still couldn’t bring himself to take the creature down.
With mere moments before the Empty pounced on the little girl, Will ran toward the end of the kitchen. Even if he would’ve been able to raise a gun with his dominant arm or fire with his healthy but non-dominant hand, there was no time to take it from Gabriel and try.
Will slid across the top of the table and landed in the living room. The little girl was crawling backward, trying to get away from the beast, all while calling out for both her mom and her dad.
Will took one quick glance over to Gabriel to see if he was going to shoot, but Gabriel’s hands trembled more than before, and his face was pale as he looked on.
With no other choice, Will ran toward the creature.
It was just about to fall down on top of the girl when Will wrapped his arms around the creature’s neck. He pulled back, meaning to throw the Empty down onto the ground, but lost his balance, sending them both falling together.
The Empty twisted around as they fell, and when Will landed on his side, the creature was lying next to him, facing his way.
The beast snarled and lunged its head toward Will’s face. In a desperate effort to block the blow, Will punched the creature in the back of its head. But while the move deflected the monster’s teeth from Will’s face, its head banged against his ribs.
He screamed as the Empty sank its teeth into his side, tearing away flesh.
Chapter 31
Jessica had just been working to keep the kids calm and distracted when she heard the first gunshot. She couldn’t leave the kids in the car, but she also couldn’t risk putting them in harm’s way, not knowing exactly what was going on inside the cabin.
But when the second shot went off, she had to make a decision.
Pulling the handgun from her side, Jessica said to the kids, “You guys stay here. Keep the doors locked.”
“Don’t leave us,” Mary Beth said. “I’m scared.”
Jessica grabbed a nearby handgun and checked that it was loaded. When she was sure it was, she handed it to Dylan.
“Take this, and don’t use it unless you absolutely have to, all right?”
Dylan accepted the weapon and nodded.
“Nothing is going to happen to you,” Jessica said to Mary Beth. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
Crying, the young girl nodded.
Jessica opened the door and stepped out.
“Remember, lock this behind me.”
She shut the door and watched as Dylan locked the vehicle. She gave him a thumbs up and then hurried around the back of the cabin and raced through the open door.
When she entered the cabin, she found herself in the kitchen. She looked to the far corner to see Gabriel holding a little girl as he sobbed. She ran over and kneeled next to them.
“Gabriel, are you guys all right?”
A groan from another room drew her attention. She turned and looked into the living room to see Will lying on his side, an Empty next to him.
She shot up and ran to him.
There was so much blood. Noticing the bullet wound on his shoulder, she put pressure on it with her bare hand and he groaned.
When he flipped over and looked into her eyes, though, she saw his hand pressing against his stomach. She looked at the blood coming out, and then at the creature lying next to him. There was a bullet in the Empty’s forehead. Her eyes then looked back over to Will’s. He looked down at his body, lifting his hand from his mid-section.
With it removed, Jessica saw the bite mark on his side. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back tears.
“She was going to get the girl,” Will said, short on breath. “I had no choice.”
Jessica ran her free hand through his hair, continuing to press against the wound on his shoulder in hopes of stopping the bleeding. She was crying harder now, coming to the realization of what had happened. Of what was coming.
“Damnit, Will.”
Outside, the kids screamed. Jessica looked up, then back down at Will.
“Go,” Will demanded.
She got up and made it into the kitchen just in time to watch Dylan and Mary Beth race into the cabin. Dylan slammed the door and locked it behind him.
“What’s the matter?” Jessica asked.
“They’re coming!” M
ary Beth cried.
“Who?” Jessica asked.
“The Empties,” Dylan said.
Jessica raced into the living room and looked out the windows at the front of the cabin. A pack of Empties as large as forty strong were making their way toward the cabin, coming from the woods.
“There’s more coming from this way,” Dylan said, looking out the window in the kitchen.
“The gunshots must’ve drawn them here,” Jessica said.
“You have to leave,” Will said.
“What do you mean ‘you’? You actually think I’m leaving here without you?”
“You don’t have a choice,” Will said. “You guys have to get out of here before they completely surround the place. There’s no point in taking me. I’m as good as—”
“No,” Jessica said, cutting him off. “I’m not leaving you. We’ll stay here until they run away.”
Jessica stood and went into the nearby hallway, going into the bathroom and grabbing a few hand towels. She tied off Will’s arm where he’d been shot, and used another to apply pressure to the bite wound.
As she held the towel on his wound, she looked over to the Empty body lying on the ground.
“Is that his wife?” she asked Will.
“It was,” he replied.
She looked over to Gabriel. He continued to hold his daughter, crying through bloodshot eyes. He shot one look to Jessica before closing his eyes and pressing his head back against his daughter’s body.
Jessica startled when the monsters began banging on the outside of the cabin. It came in one large wave, as if the horde had timed their first strike on the side of the home. In the kitchen, Gabriel’s daughter pressed her head into her father’s chest and screamed. The other two children ran over to him then, and he held them as well.
Jessica raced to the window at the front of the cabin to see Empties shoulder to shoulder, banging on it. Through the windows in the kitchen, she saw much the same. Then the pounding started on the sides of the cabin.
“We’re trapped,” Jessica said, standing back in the middle of the living room. “Surrounded.”
“I told you to go when you could,” Will moaned, clearly in pain and frustrated.
“We can’t leave you here,” she said. “Right now, I just want to stop the bleeding. We can wait them out.”
She doubted whether the creatures would ever actually leave, but refused to believe otherwise, telling herself they eventually would.
Dylan pulled away from Gabriel and approached Will. He was skittish, hesitantly observing Will’s wounds as he approached.
“Hey, buddy,” Will said as best he could.
Tears came to Dylan’s eyes as he looked at his friend and realized there was no coming back. Not like before when the preacher had been there to save him.
“Are you going to be all right?” Dylan asked anyway.
Will smiled and slowly shook his head. “I don’t think so, buddy.”
Dylan looked at Jessica, then over at Gabriel. “There’s gotta be something we can do. Anything.”
Mary Beth clutched at Jessica now, and Jessica wrapped her arm around the girl. She cried as she looked into Dylan’s pleading eyes.
Will grabbed Dylan’s arm to get his attention. The boy turned to him.
“Everything’s going to be all right. Gabriel and Jessica are going to take good care of you. And I know you’ve been doing a good job keeping Mary Beth safe, and now you’re gonna have to help out with Sarah, too. All right?”
Jessica cried harder as she watched the boy nod, unable to keep the tears from coming from his eyes.
Outside, the creatures pounded on the house.
“Those things have got to leave eventually,” Jessica said. “We can wait them out here and make you as comfortable as we can.”
“No,” Will said.
He slowly sat up, groaning as he moved. Jessica tried to stop him but he waved her off.
“You’re sitting ducks in here,” Will said. “Who’s to say those things won’t come crashing in here, maybe through a window or even through the door.” He shook his head. “You can’t wait here. Especially with all of our ammunition and guns out in the car. It’s too risky.”
Jessica swallowed the lump in her throat, scared to ask the question lingering on everyone’s mind. She ended up not having to because Mary Beth asked first.
“So what are we gonna do? Please don’t make me go out there. Please.” The girl hugged Jessica even tighter.
“You’re not going out there,” Will said. “At least not until I draw those creatures away from the cabin.”
“No,” Gabriel said, finally standing. He went over to Will. “This is my fault. I shot you. I’m the one who got selfish and couldn’t put that thing down when we first walked in here. My hesitation did this to you. I’ll draw them away from the cabin.”
Will smiled, spitting out a shallow laugh as he coughed. “Are you nuts? Look at me, Gabe. I’m already dead.”
Those three words sent a chill through the room. Jessica knew it was the eventual outcome of all this, and she assumed the kids did, as well. But hearing him own up to his eventual fate only made the reality of the situation stronger.
“I can’t let you do it,” Gabriel said.
Shaking his head, Will said, “You don’t have a choice.” He looked past Gabriel to the little girl shaking against the wall. “You’ve got a child to look out for. Three, now. You’re not gonna risk your daughter losing both her parents just ‘cause you want to be the hero.”
Gabriel bowed his head, still crying.
“I’m so sorry, man,” he coughed out, “I messed up.”
Will leaned in and hugged Gabriel, groaning from the injuries.
“It’s all right,” Will said. “You just promise me that you’re gonna take care of Dylan, Mary Beth, and your little girl, all right? Promise me.”
Gabriel pulled away and looked Will in the eyes as he nodded. “I promise.”
Dylan and Mary Beth ran together over to Will and wrapped their arms around him. It pained Jessica to see how destroyed the kids looked. Their faces were flush, and they cried harder than Jessica had ever seen.
“I don’t want you to go,” Dylan said. “Please don’t go.”
“I have to,” Will said.
“No,” Mary Beth cried, taking a tighter hold onto his leg.
Will looked to the ceiling, pinching his eyes shut, trying to hold in his emotion and stay strong for the kids. But his shoulders began to shudder, and he was unable to hold back. He let his tears go.
“I love you guys so much,” he said. “Gabriel and Jessica are going to take good care of you, okay? Don’t give them a hard time just because I’m not around and you like me more.”
This made Jessica laugh, if only slightly. She covered her mouth, eyes flooded as Will looked at her.
Dylan and Mary Beth pulled away, but Jessica couldn’t find the strength in her weak legs to go to Will. She couldn’t tell him goodbye. She’d seen so many others leave the world in the weeks since The Fall, but she couldn’t say goodbye to him. Not Will.
He stopped in front of her and cracked a smile.
“Hey,” he said.
The simplicity of the unnecessary greeting made her smile.
“Hi.”
“Everything’s going to be okay,” he said.
Unable to look at him any longer, Jessica looked to the ground and said, “It’s not. You keep saying that, but it’s not going to be okay.”
Will put his hand on her chin and lifted her head, looking again into her bright eyes. “Yes, it is. You guys are going to live on. Take the kids to Florida before it gets too cold here, just like we promised them we’d do.”
With nothing else to say, she threw her arms around him.
“I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’m gonna miss you, too.”
He pulled away from her and looked into her eyes. He brought his hand to her face and used his thumb to
wipe the tears away from her cheek. Then he ran the back of his hand down her face and stepped past her to go to Gabriel.
“Once I’m out that back door, you guys be on the look-out in the front to make sure I’m drawing those creatures away. I’ll make sure that I get them, and when they get away, I’ll yell ‘Go’. Then you guys run like hell.”
Gabriel sniffled and nodded.
Will went to the kitchen and picked the Glock up off the floor. Sarah was still in the corner, curled up and crying.
“You might never know just how much your daddy loves you,” Will said to her. “Cherish him for the rest of your life. All he wanted was to get to you.”
Jessica had to turn away. She couldn’t take anymore. When she finally turned around again, Will was at the back door.
“Wait,” Jessica said.
Will turned back to face her.
Jessica shuffled into the kitchen, cutting the distance between the two of them in half.
“I have to tell you something,” Jessica said.
Shaking his head, Will said, “No, you don’t.”
“Please,” Jessica said. “I need to tell you that I—”
Will put his finger to his lip, urging her to be quiet.
“I already know.”
He turned back to the door and put his hand on the handle. Then he looked back to Jessica.
“My mom and dad say ‘hi’, by the way.” He smiled at her and then turned back toward the door.
When he opened it, the sound of angry and hungry Empties poured into the cabin.
He shut the door behind him before any of the creatures could get in.
And with that, Will was gone.
Chapter 32
“Everyone just stay together,” Jessica said.
She held Mary Beth and Dylan close as she looked out the window and watched Will run up the slight hill near the side of the cabin. He was waving his arms and shouting at the Empties.
Through the windows at the front of the cabin, she saw the creatures turn their heads toward Will’s commotion. They remained in front of the window for another few moments before turning and heading his way.
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 102
