As David sat there watching the animal and waiting for the right time to take a shot, he looked around at the vast open woods around him. What if I just found Michael and we ran away? Just fled through these woods and never saw that asshole again? The thought was intriguing. David hated his father, and the thought of independence from the bastard crawled up inside him.
There was a rustle in the leaves behind David, and the deer raised its head. The boy came out of his daydream of leaving his abusive father behind and hurried to aim, but it was too late.
The deer looked his way before running away into the trees.
David sighed and shook his head.
“Good job, faggot.” The voice was that of his father.
David turned around to see the man walking toward him. He was about fifteen yards away, taking a swig straight out of a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. He’d left his gun resting on a large rock just behind him. James stumbled over the sticks and leaves on the ground, and David thought the man could fall to the ground at any time.
“You just don’t have it in ya to get the job done, do ya, boy?”
The anger crept up inside of David again. He glared right into his father’s eyes. A sensation built up from the pit of his stomach. When he looked into his father’s gaze, which was so much like his own, he saw nothing but emptiness. Hatred. David’s palms were sweaty, and his arms were trembling.
“You’re a fuckin’ puss-ass loser, son. A no-good piece of shit!”
Right as the last word came out of his father’s mouth, David raised the rifle up and aimed it directly at his hatred.
James raised his hands into the air. “What? You gonna shoot me, son?” The man laughed.
His father stood within ten yards of David, and the boy had the gun pointed right at his chest, looking down the barrel with one open eye.
His father smiled from ear to ear. “You don’t have the balls to pull that trigger, you little queer. Just wait until you put it down. I’m gonna beat the shit out of your brother in front of you, then I’m gonna beat the shit out of you. And your mother? I’ll beat her ass just for making me drag you little faggots out here with me.”
The feeling in David’s stomach grew stronger. His heart was beating a hundred miles per hour, like it would erupt right out of his chest at any moment. His hands still trembled, and the gun made a faint clicking sound as he shook it.
David’s father laughed again. “You’re worthless.”
He brought down the hand that held the bottle and took another long swig of the whiskey. Once the bottle had begun to tip back, James’ eyes went wide and he reared the bottle back, preparing to throw it at his son.
Before he could, David pulled the trigger.
The glass bottle shattered on a rock next to James’ feet. David watched his father look down at the blood seeping out of his chest, in complete shock at what had happened. The blast hit him in the left part of his chest. Blood poured out of the wound, turning the man’s hands crimson as he clutched it.
James fell to his knees, gave one last look at his young son, and then fell onto his face.
David stood alone in the middle of the woods, staring at the motionless body of his father. He felt no regret. No remorse. The man who’d brought him, his brother, and his beautiful mother so much pain was dead.
And David Ellis was changed forever.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Will
Since they’d been together, the fire truck was quite possibly the best thing that had happened to them. The large fire engine easily plowed over the Empties causing little to no damage to the vehicle. Marcus even collided with a few cars and they barely felt the impact. Will let Marcus drive since he claimed he had experience operating heavier machinery in the past. Will was thankful that Marcus felt well enough to drive now.
Dylan was asleep, sitting upright in one of the seats behind them. The two men laughed when the boy began to snore. Holly and Gabriel were lying on the floor of the truck in the back, still passed out from the crash. They were breathing and in stable condition, but Will and Marcus only hoped that they could find help soon.
Will was elated when he saw the large green sign reading: Knoxville 26. They were finally getting close.
“About damned time!” Marcus said.
Will leaned over and put his head into his hands. He looked up and Marcus was looking over at him.
“What’s wrong, bro?” Marcus asked.
“I just hope we aren’t too late, and I hope we can find them.”
“We will, man. We will.”
“It’s taken too long, Marcus. What if they’re hurt… or worse?”
“You can’t think like that. You have to believe that we are going to find your mom and dad, and we will.”
Will looked out the window and watched a group of Empties on the eastbound side of the interstate.
“I hope you’re right.”
***
Jessica
Jessica had finished up helping out with laundry and was now in the nurses’ lounge making herself a sandwich. No one else was in there, which surprised her since it was around lunchtime.
Just as she finished making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the mysterious man she saw sitting alone in his room earlier walked in. She noticed his arms were stained with blood, though he smelled and otherwise appeared as though he had just showered. When he entered the room, he didn’t even acknowledge her. He walked right past her to the refrigerator.
As he opened it, Jessica awkwardly cleared her throat.
“Uh, hi,” she said.
The man turned around, holding a pitcher of sweet tea in his hand, and nodded at Jessica.
“I’m Jessica.”
“David,” the man said, pouring himself a glass.
“What happened to your arms?”
David looked down to the blood that was still painted on his forearms. “Got into a scuffle with a couple of Empties.”
“A couple of what?”
“Nothing.”
Jessica thought about asking the man why they called them that where he came from, but she was more interested in just that: where he came from.
“Why are you here? Where were you before?”
“Look, no offense, but I’m not really in the mood to talk.”
“Oh, come on. What else are you gonna do?”
David sighed. “Nashville. I got out because there was nothing left there for me. Got stranded out on the highway. Lawrence picked me up.”
“He’s been great,” Jessica said, speaking of Lawrence.
“Yeah, he’s alright.”
Jessica turned as she heard a door open and saw Sarah poke her head into the kitchen, panting.
“Jessica, come on. She’s awake.”
Without saying goodbye to David, Jessica ran out of the kitchen and headed for Melissa’s room.
***
Gabriel
Katie Alexander was wearing his favorite outfit. He loved the way the jeans hugged his wife’s hips and the simple white tank top she wore when the weather was warm. Sarah, his daughter, was at the park with them, running around and chasing after butterflies, trying to get one to land on her arm. He looked over and saw his wife’s warm smile. He walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek, embracing her tightly. Her warm body rubbed up against his as her hand ran up his back and clutched his neck. He moved his head back and looked her in the eyes, leaning in and kissing her soft lips.
As he pulled away, he looked over toward his daughter again.
She was gone.
He ran around the park searching for Sarah, but he couldn’t find her anywhere.
When he finally found her, the little girl’s back was turned to him. She was staring at a tree where somebody had carved a broken heart.
“Sarah?” he said.
When the girl turned around, he cried out.
Sarah was Empty. Her eyes and skin had both turned pale, and her innocent voice had turned into a malicious snarl. As
she approached him, his eyes went wide and he shook his head. Was this really his daughter?
He took a few steps back until he ran into something, and he turned around to see that his wife had also turned. Katie came at him, her mouth wide open, with saliva spilling from it, and she bit into his neck.
A moment later, he felt a sting on his leg and was running his fingers through his daughter’s hair as she bit into his calf.
Then, it was as if he was watching a movie. He saw himself being savagely torn apart by the two people he loved most in the world. The green grass browned, and the sun quickly fell until everything was black.
The only thing Gabriel could hear was his own screaming.
***
When Gabriel awoke, he was panting. He rubbed his face, and the back of his hand came up moist with sweat.
He looked around, completely disoriented. The ride was bumpy, and he was lying on a hard surface. Next to him, Holly was curled up with her eyes closed, and she sighed with each heavy breath. When he tried to sit up, he felt a rush to his head and quickly had to lie back down.
“Just stay down, bro,” Will said. He was kneeling over Gabriel and placed a hand on his shoulder, encouraging Gabriel to follow his instructions. Dylan was also nearby, buckled into a seat and looking down at him.
“Where are we?” Gabriel asked, a haziness in his voice.
“A firetruck.”
Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“I’ll explain when you’re feeling a bit better.”
“What happened?”
“We were in a car accident. You don’t remember?”
Gabriel nodded. “Just barely. I remember swerving then running off the road. Everything went black after that. Did anyone get hurt?”
Will put his hand on his forehead and was silent.
“What, Will?”
“Miranda,” Will said, removing his hand from his head and looking down into Gabriel’s eyes.
Gabriel covered his eyes and shook his head. “Shit.”
“She didn’t die in the accident. The window by her busted out and I think she was hanging out of it. A group of Empties got her.”
“Fuck.”
Gabriel could feel the guilt creep up into him. He was driving when the accident happened. How could he ever live that down? Essentially, he killed a woman; a friend. He could never go back and fix that. As long as he lasted in this new world, he’d think about that every single day.
And what about the dream? What did it mean? While it might have meant nothing and only been a nightmare, Gabriel couldn’t stop worrying that his wife and daughter had either turned into some of the walking creatures outside, or they’d been killed by them. The last few days had been the most difficult in his entire life. He felt absolutely hopeless, having not spoken to them. And while he knew that his best chance of staying alive was to remain with this group, he also knew it wasn’t the best thing for his family, if they were still alive at all. The time was fast approaching that Gabriel would have to decide between waiting on the group to help him get home, or abandon them and risk going it alone.
***
Jessica
Jessica ran into the room and saw Melissa lying on the bed, clutching her forehead. Lawrence was in the room along with the other active nurse, Kristen. As Jessica stood just inside the room, Melissa looked over at her and smiled.
“Hello, dear,” Melissa said.
Jessica, with tears already streaming from her eyes, ran over to the woman. Lawrence moved out of the way, allowing Jessica to reach down and hug the woman with her good arm. She stayed there for at least thirty seconds, crying into the woman’s shoulders as Melissa patted her back. With her parents both gone, Melissa was the closest thing Jessica now had to a mother.
Jessica pulled away from Melissa and moved her hair out of her eyes before rubbing the tears away.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Jessica said.
Melissa took the girl’s hand and smiled. “Yeah, me too.”
“We’re going to need to monitor you for a while before we’re comfortable with you up walking around,” Lawrence said. “We think you suffered some pretty substantial head trauma, but don’t think it’s permanent. I’m just not sure it would feel too good if you tried to get up and move around.”
“I’d really just like to know where I am and what happened.”
Jessica told her about the accident, and about how Lawrence had come along, taken out the Empties that had been surrounding them, and brought them here to the hospital. She told Melissa about the place and how it was safe.
“Where’s my phone?” Melissa asked.
Jessica shook her head. “It didn’t make it here with us,” she said.
“Phones aren’t working anyways,” Sarah added. “They worked for a few seconds the day you guys got here, and then they went down again. Very strange.”
Melissa sobbed. “My boy. He’s out there somewhere.”
“I understand, Mrs. Kessler,” Lawrence said. “We all have family out there.”
This made Jessica cry again. She thought of her parents lying on the bed and how she no longer had anyone ‘out there’. Melissa Kessler and the people in the hospital were now her only family.
Lawrence looked over to the two nurses in the room. “Come on, ladies. Let’s let Mrs. Kessler rest and catch up with Ms. Davies, here.”
“Thank you, Lawrence,” Jessica said.
“No problem.” He looked over to Melissa. “Just page us if you need anything, alright? I’ll have someone bring you some food in just a bit.”
“That’d be great, thanks,” Melissa said, smiling.
Lawrence and the two nurses left the room, leaving Jessica and Melissa alone to talk and be thankful that they were both alive.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
David
The hallway was empty when David emerged from his room. He was hungry and would eventually go eat, but he wanted to check on something else first. He was barefoot, which allowed him to walk on the tile floor without making enough noise to attract anyone.
He stepped all the way out of the doorway and shut the door behind him, then turned down the hallway, away from the break room. Kristen, one of the nurses, came out of a nearby room, and he smiled at her.
“You going to go eat?” she asked him.
“Yeah, yeah. Just stretching my legs.”
“Alright,” she replied with a smile. “I’ll see you in there.”
David reached the end of the hallway. In one direction were the elevators, and to the other were the double doors that led back to the wing of the hospital where only the survivors who worked at the hospital, apparently, were allowed to go.
He looked behind him to make sure that the hallway was clear. When he saw it was, he turned and headed through the double doors, once again ignoring the “Employees Only” sign.
***
The hallways in this wing were still dark. David moved more quickly this time, having already navigated this part of the hospital before. He only slowed down when he came closer to her.
Like before, the hallway was dark except for the light coming out of the room that housed the creature. As he reached the corner that led around to the room, he could see the light shining out of the large window. He stepped around the corner and heard the snarls.
David looked into the room, and there was Joanne. Their experiment. It was still lying on the bed, restrained with all the machinery still attached.
As he approached the window, it looked up at him. Its growling became more intense and it tried to fight its way out of the restraints. David looked down at them and noticed that they’d used leather straps, which were locked in tight. Joanne wasn’t going anywhere.
He looked around inside the room and noticed a scalpel sitting on a small table. The urge to kill was crawling inside of him again. There was no reason for this creature to be here. They’d already found out that the disease wasn’t viral and, as far as he knew, hadn’t dis
covered anything else. If they had, why wouldn’t they share it with the other survivors? Joanne… this thing, had served its purpose. He could eliminate it, thus satisfying his hunger to destroy.
David took two steps to his right, never letting his eyes leave those of the creature’s. He reached down to open the door, but it was locked. Frustrated, he pulled harder, but it wouldn’t open. He slammed his hand against the glass and watched as the Empty tried to raise up, almost as if it were toying with him. David let his forehead rest against the glass and he could feel the sweat drip down his brow.
“So, we meet here once again, Mr. Ellis?”
Startled, David looked over to Lawrence and sighed.
Lawrence approached David. “Why are you here, David?”
“I was just stretching my legs. Thought I’d come take a look at it again.” David nodded his head toward the restrained Empty.
“Uh huh, I see.”
“Maybe you guys should lock those God damned doors if you don’t want people coming back here. Aren’t you trying to hide this thing?”
“Most everyone knows about Joanne. I only asked you earlier not to share that you’d been back here because the two women we picked up, Jessica and Melissa, they aren’t aware yet.”
Lawrence stepped closer to him, and David clenched his fist, not sure what the man’s intentions were.
“Humanity is devolving, Mr. Ellis. Just look. Between her and the ones we saw earlier, this is what we are becoming. It may take a long time to happen, but it will happen.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because, this patient isn’t sick. If she’s not sick, I’m not sure how she can be cured. And if she can’t be cured, then, well…”
David let the words hang in the air, waiting on Lawrence to finish his thought.
“I want to go out again.”
David narrowed his eyes. “We just fucking got back.”
Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation Page 8