Jessica kept a keen eye out the windows, looking for any Empties or other survivors. A place as reclusive as this one would’ve been the perfect place for survivors to make camp—just as long as there’d been no Empties infesting it already.
When they didn’t see any immediate threat, Gabriel parked.
The area had old playground equipment and a barbecue grill which looked like it had been used several hundred times without being cleaned. Not that it mattered since they had nothing worth cooking on it. The kids had no interest in going and playing on the playground equipment. They’d sat in the back with Jessica in almost complete silence, other than some gentle whimpers that mainly came from Mary Beth. Jessica had given them their space, knowing they’d talk to her or hug her if they needed to.
Jessica had actually spent most of the trip staring at Will in the front seat. For the whole ride, he’d pretty much kept his eyes down toward the floor. No one had spoken to him. In fact, no one had spoken at all, aside from the discussion about stopping.
Gabriel exited the vehicle holding a pistol and a flashlight. He walked around the vehicle to meet Jessica.
“I’m gonna scour the area and make certain it’s secure. Stay here and keep an eye on everyone.” He clicked on the flashlight and looked around, then heading off into some nearby trees.
The kids stepped out of the SUV and Jessica led them over to a nearby picnic table. When she looked back to the vehicle, the passenger side door was still closed and Will remained inside, continuing to stare at the floor.
“Do you think he’ll come out?” Dylan asked.
“Eventually,” Jessica said. “We just have to give him some time.”
Gabriel returned soon after and said, “Looks good. I think we’ve got a place to sleep for the night. But I want to get up and get going first thing.”
Their attention was drawn to the car when Will opened the door and got out. He shut it behind him and walked through the small campground, never looking at the others in the group. He sat down on a rock near the lake’s shore with his back turned to them.
“Should we go say something?” Mary Beth asked.
“No,” Gabriel said. “Just give him time.”
Dylan said, “But I don’t want him to—”
“He’s right, kids,” Jessica said. “I'll go grab some food out of the car so we can eat. Let Will have his space.”
Once they’d eaten, Gabriel gathered wood for a fire. While he and the kids piled it up in the middle of the campground, Jessica sat on the top of the picnic table and watched Will. It had been almost an hour and he still hadn’t moved.
“We’ve gotta go grab a little more wood; then we’ll come back and light this,” Gabriel said. “Going to take them both with me.”
“All right,” Jessica said. “Just be careful.”
Gabriel and the kids disappeared into the woods and she continued to stare at Will’s back.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.
Jessica hopped off the picnic table and went to him.
In between the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking, it was eerily quiet. Will wasn’t crying. He just stared out over the water, completely silent and still. He had to know she was there, though, because her feet had made a lot of noise crunching the leaves beneath them.
Instead of saying anything, she simply took a seat on the ground next to him.
Will didn’t even look over to acknowledge her. He continued to stare into the horizon. Across the water was another campsite with more trees, and the sky above it was clear, making the stars visible. It was beautiful, and being on the edge of the water looking at it, Jessica felt a peace that she was no longer used to. The only interference in that feeling was that her friend sitting next to her was devastated. And even though she and Holly had never really gotten along, Jessica had lost someone she’d considered a friend. They had survived this long in the new world together, so she couldn’t help but consider her as such.
“Why?”
The sound was so faint, that Jessica almost wasn’t sure if it had come from Will’s mouth. She turned to him, her brow creased.
“What?” she asked.
Will repeated the word again, this time a little louder.
“Why?” He turned to face her. “Why is everyone around me dying, but I get to live?”
Jessica simply stared at him, unsure what to say. He eventually turned away, looking back out to the water and wiping his mouth with his fist. He’d started to tear up again.
“I just don’t understand,” Will said. “I’m losing everyone around me. It just keeps happening. Dylan would have both his arms still if it weren’t for me. All this shit keeps happening, and yet I get to live. But why? Why the hell did I get lucky enough to have Samuel around to save me, but everyone else around me keeps falling?”
“You just can’t think like that,” Jessica finally said. “We live in a cruel world, more now than ever. People are going to die. But you can’t blame yourself for that. And you sure as hell can’t blame yourself for Dylan getting hurt.”
“You weren’t even there,” Will said.
“I know, but Charlie and Holly were, and they both said you weren’t responsible. That you saved him. Everything happens for a—”
“Don’t say that,” he snapped, harshly enough for Jessica to jump back.
Will used both of his hands to wipe his face as he sighed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. He’d started to cry now. “I just can’t believe she’s gone, and I can’t help but to think it was my fault. I should’ve been there to keep that Empty away from her. I should be the one lying on the floor of that warehouse right now.”
Not knowing what else to say or do, Jessica scooted over next to him and put her arm around him. He could’ve either pushed her away or embraced it. He chose the latter, leaning into her and resting his head on her shoulder.
She let him cry for a while before she spoke his name and he looked up.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
They stared into each other’s eyes. Jessica could see every bit of his pain. It hurt her to look at him.
She’d started to turn away when he took hold of her face, and then leaned in and kissed her.
The move caught Jessica off guard, and her eyes went wide for a moment before closing. She cupped his face in her hand, deeply kissing him back as her heart raced.
When they were done, their foreheads met and they looked into each other’s eyes. Will tilted his head to kiss her again, but Jessica backed away. He looked at her, eyes narrowed.
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said. “I can’t do this.”
She turned when she heard footsteps approaching. It was Dylan.
“We’re about to start a fire,” he said. “Are you going to join us?”
Jessica stood up and said, “Sure.”
“Um, I’ll be there in just a few minutes,” Will said.
Jessica turned to look at him, and he glanced up at her for a moment before turning back toward the water.
“Just give me a minute, please,” he mumbled.
Jessica could tell from the tone in his voice how embarrassed he was. She understood because she was, too. Will’s girlfriend hadn’t been dead for more than three hours and they’d already kissed.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get past the guilt.
***
Curled up in a ball on the ground, Will opened his eyes and sat up. He mopped the sweat off his forehead and looked around the room, squinting. It was a tiny space with a desk and a couple chairs. A window let in no light. In fact, it looked like there was nothing outside at all.
When he looked back to the front of the office and saw through the window that looked into the hallway, it came to him just how familiar the place was.
He was back at the warehouse and office he had once worked at.
This was where it had all started after The Fall.
He g
ot to his feet and patted his legs down. He looked down to see himself wearing a neatly pressed pair of khakis and a clean white button-up shirt. He had forgotten how nice it felt to wear fresh clothes. It was a luxury he’d never thought he would know again.
Will reached for the door, then hesitated.
Flashbacks came to him about the last time he had been there. He’d witnessed several of his coworkers being devoured by monsters created from other people he had known and worked with. He’d woken up in this same office he stood in now to a pure nightmare. Literal hell on earth.
He stood still, listening for the shrieking snarls of Empties.
But he heard nothing.
He slowly reached for the handle and pulled the door open.
Will stepped into the middle of the hallway, activating the motion sensor which turned the lights on. He glanced both ways down the corridor. Though the layout of this building looked exactly like Element, there were other subtle differences he noticed. All the pictures Element had had hanging on the walls, of professional musicians playing their product, were gone. The walls themselves were pure white as opposed to the pale tan color he remembered. Also gone were the bodies and the blood stains that had come after The Fall.
He headed down the hall toward the front of the building. As he passed each of the offices, he looked through the adjacent windows and saw they were vacant. The room he’d woken up in had been furnished exactly as he’d remembered it, but the desks, computers, shelves, and all else had been removed from the other offices.
Will stepped into the large front room of the building to see the same thing. There had once been several desks in the room, where the company’s traveling sales staff had worked on the days they were working in the office instead of out on the road. Now the room was just white walls and carpeting.
He took a peek into the office of his old boss, Andrew, to see the same thing.
Turning back around, he was able to see through the windows and out into the warehouse. He squinted his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right as he made his way over to the door leading out there.
Will stepped into the huge warehouse and looked around.
The concrete floor had a glow to it like someone had waxed it. The dull lighting Will had once worked in had been replaced by stark white lights, making it the brightest room Will had ever seen. Stranger still was that all the racking was gone, and with it all their inventory. The warehouse was 30,000 square feet of nothing.
He took several steps into the humungous space, glancing up and around.
When he turned around to look back through the office windows, there was nothing but a white wall there. The windows and the door were gone.
He narrowed his eyes and ran to the wall. He slammed against it, spreading his palms wide and running them along the wall.
“Hey!” he yelled, banging on the wall. The reverb was big as his voice carried through the room. “Let me out of here!”
Will moved down the wall, continuing to knock and looking for the door.
“Will,” a familiar female voice said.
Will quit banging on the wall and stared into it, getting lost in the white. He felt his eyes fill up as he slowly turned his head.
“Mom?”
His mother stood there in a dress as white as the walls. Her dark hair was down and curled, flowing and beautiful. She had a smile stretched across her face.
“Hey, sweetie.”
Will pushed off the wall and ran into his mother’s open arms.
He cried into her shoulder. “You’re really here,” he said. “This is all real.”
They pulled apart and his mother was shaking her head.
“No, baby, it’s not. You’re dreaming.”
“But I can feel this. You’re not real?”
She shrugged. “Perhaps I am. It is possible that you’re talking to my spirit, yes, but you’re still dreaming. Soon you’ll wake up in the middle of the woods with your friends.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because we really wanted to see you.”
Will furrowed his brow. “We?”
His mother stepped aside, and it was as if his father appeared out of nowhere. Not surprisingly, he too was dressed in all white, outfitted in a tailored suit. His beard was trim and clean and his smile protruded from under it.
As he had with his mother, Will rushed into his father’s arms. His dad held him tightly, and Will buried his head into the taller man’s chest.
“I’ve missed you so much, Dad.”
“I’ve missed you, too, son.”
When Will pulled away, he looked at both of his parents standing side by side in front of him. It had been too long since he’d seen them together. Tears flooded his eyes.
Still talking to his father, he said, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. And I’m so sorry I couldn’t save Mom. I—”
“Will,” his father said, cutting him off. “Stop with that talk.”
“But I—”
His father put his hand up. “No. You need to stop blaming yourself for what happens to others. What happened to me and your mother had nothing to do with you.”
“It’s okay,” Will’s mother said. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of you, Will, and how happy I am that I got to spend my last moments with you. I’m fortunate I didn’t die without knowing whether or not you were alive.”
Will continued to cry, and his mother reached out and wiped the tears from his cheek.
“You have to keep living, son. Those other people depend on you.”
Will bowed his head. “I just don’t know if I can handle anymore death. Everyone I love keeps leaving me.”
His mother tilted her head and smiled. “But we haven’t left you, sweetie. We’re right here. All of us.”
Both his parents looked past him, and he furrowed his brow and turned around.
His mouth fell open.
“Hi, Will.”
“Holly?”
She was there in a low-cut flowing white dress. Her bright eyes reflected off the white in the room. Will had never seen her dressed up and with makeup on, and his heart hurt at seeing her now. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He turned all the way around to face her.
Holly approached him and ran her hand down his face before placing both of her palms on his chest.
Crying, he cupped her face and kissed her. It felt so real. He wanted to kiss her forever and never let go. When he finally pulled away from her, she still had her eyes shut, and then she slowly opened them.
“You’re so beautiful,” Will said. “I miss you so much.”
“One day we’ll be together again,” she said. “Just not yet. But I’ll be here waiting for you. I promise.”
Will shook his head. “I don’t want to wait. I want to be with you now.” Looking back, he said, “All of you.”
His parents walked around to where they stood on either side of Holly. A strange feeling came through him.
“It’s time for me to go, isn’t it?”
Holly nodded.
“They need you,” his father said. “Especially the children.”
“And you have a promise to fulfill to Gabriel,” Holly said.
It hit him that he couldn’t stay. Everything in front of him was nothing but a dream. As his mother had said, he’d soon wake up and be at the barren campground. He bowed his head.
He didn’t look up again until Holly lifted his chin. She was smiling at him.
“Everything’s going to be all right, Will. Stay strong. Gabriel, Jessica, the kids; they all need you.”
Will nodded.
“You were the best thing that ever happened to me,” Holly said. “I promise I’ll wait for you.”
She ran her hand on his face once more and then gave him another kiss.
When she turned around, so did both of his parents.
Will watched them walk away, tears flowing from his eyes.
“Oh, Will,” his father
said, turning around.
“Yeah?”
“Say ‘hi’ to Jessica for us.”
Will smiled. “I will.”
They turned around, walked away, and faded into the white light. It swallowed them, and they were gone.
Will closed his eyes.
***
When Will opened his eyes again, it was exactly as his mother had said. He was back at the campground in the exact place he’d fallen asleep. The fire had almost died out, now just barely crackling to stay alive. It was still dark out, but the sun wasn’t far from creeping out to bring a new day.
He sat up and looked over to see everyone else still sleeping. Gabriel lay on one side of the fire, curled up by himself. The two kids had fallen asleep cuddling Jessica. They had all passed out before Will had made it over by the fire to lie down. After his talk with Jessica had ended in that awkward kiss, he’d remained by the water, thinking and reflecting.
All those thoughts had come to a head in the dream he’d just had.
It felt more real than any of the other dreams he’d had since The Fall. But he’d known it had only been a dream. Even still, he wondered if he’d actually talked to his parents and his girlfriend. He refused to believe it wasn’t possible. A few weeks before, he would’ve laughed if someone had told him demons were real and that they could infect the living, turning them into an army of walking monsters. If that were possible, why couldn’t he talk to his lost loved ones in his dreams?
The dream had felt so real, in fact, that he filled with guilt, thinking back to the previous night and the kiss with Jessica. It was that guilt that now kept him awake.
Knowing he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, he stood up quietly and went into the nearby trees to relieve himself. When he was finished, he made his way back over to the water.
In the same place he’d sat the night before, he looked out onto the water as the sun came up. Something so simple as watching the sunrise, an event he’d taken for granted so often, now brought such a peace over him. It helped calm him on this morning and prepare him for the day ahead.
Stay strong, Holly had said.
Empty Bodies 6: Revelation (Empty Bodies Series Book 6) Page 14