Empty Bodies (Book 6): Revelation

by Zach Bohannon

  Sarah asks about you all the time. She misses you so much. I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t get to us. I can’t raise our little girl alone in a place like this.

  Please find us.

  I love you so much, Gabriel. WE love you SO much!

  Katie

  All Gabriel could do was stare at the note. He read through it three more times, hearing his wife’s voice in his head. When he was finished, he clutched the paper and pressed it to his chest.

  With glassy eyes, he looked up to Will and Jessica from his knees.

  “They’re alive.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “You find anything, Jessica?” Gabriel asked.

  Jessica was in the kitchen, shuffling through drawers and trying to find anything of use.

  “Nothing but expired coupons and bread ties,” Jessica said.

  “There’s nothing here,” Will said. “Let’s just leave.”

  “Let me just go grab one thing,” Gabriel said.

  He hurried from the living room to the downstairs guest bedroom. All the linens and pillows had been stripped clean from the bed, and the dresser drawers were either open or had been pulled completely out and thrown onto the ground.

  Gabriel rummaged through the drawers.

  “Come on, damn it.”

  He kneeled on the ground and flipped over one of the upside down drawers, and he smiled when he found it. Reaching down, Gabriel grabbed the photo album.

  There were several others in the house, but this one was the most important. It was the one he couldn’t leave without. They’d kept it in the guest room for visitors, such as their parents, to look through when they stayed there. He opened the album, passing the first few pages by to see a picture of he and Katie swapping cake on their wedding day. The photo on the next page showed them laughing, both now with white icing all over their faces.

  Gabriel flipped to the middle of the book and came across one of his favorite pictures. It had been taken in the hospital, just hours after Sarah had been born. When she had come into the world, Sarah had only been with Gabriel and Katie for a few minutes before she’d been taken away from them. Katie had been able to hold her the second after she was born, but after they’d cut the umbilical cord and weighed her, Sarah had begun having breathing problems. Several nurses came into the room and gathered around her as the doctor calmly explained to Gabriel and Katie that their newborn daughter had taken in some fluid on her way out, but he assured them she would be fine. Gabriel couldn’t see his daughter through the crowd of nurses, but later found out that they had administered CPR on her.

  Sarah spent the next eight hours in a section of the NICU called Transition with tubes going into her, helping her breathe. Gabriel spent a couple of hours down there while Katie rested. When the nurses assured him everything would be fine within a few hours, he went back up to the room and slept himself for a while.

  That night, Gabriel picked up a pizza from a place nearby and he sat with Katie, who’d requested pizza after not eating for over thirty hours, and waited for the call that Sarah had been cleared. Eventually, they gave in and decided to get some sleep.

  But the phone rang just as Gabriel dozed off, and they were ecstatic to find out that a nurse would be bringing Sarah up to them immediately.

  Gabriel’s heart raced as the nurse knocked on the door and then entered. There, lying on the nursery cart, was his daughter, no tubes present. A tear came to his eye as the smiling nurse stopped in front of the bed.

  She handed Sarah to Katie, who snuggled with her daughter, holding her close to her bare chest. She was about to try feeding her for the first time when she looked over to Gabriel and her eyes went big.

  “Oh, God. You haven’t held her yet.”

  Gabriel smiled and shook his head.

  “Here,” Katie said.

  Gabriel went to the bed and cradled his daughter into his arms, taking her from Katie. He smiled as he looked into a reflection of his own face.

  He sat down in the rocking chair, and this was when Katie had snapped the photograph he was looking at now.

  “Gabe,” Jessica said, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  He looked up.

  “Come on. There’s nothing here.”

  He looked down at the photograph once more.

  “I’m coming to get you, sweetheart.”

  ***

  When they walked out of the house, they saw there were two creatures gathered around the vehicle. Several more were heading down the street toward the house.

  “No guns,” Will said.

  Gabriel pulled the knife from his waist and whistled, drawing the attention of the two creatures. They turned their attention away from Holly and the kids inside the vehicle as they saw fresh meat out in the open.

  Gabriel rushed to the nearest creature, driving the knife into its skull. He looked over to see Will doing the same with another, taking out the Empty closest to him.

  Holly unlocked the car from the inside and Jessica was the first to jump in.

  “I’ll drive,” Will said to Gabriel. “I need you to navigate.”

  Gabriel turned and looked at the monsters coming down the street as Will loaded into the driver’s side. Taking a couple of steps away from the vehicle, Gabriel looked into the faces of the Empties, trying to see if he recognized any of them as his neighbors. With as many creatures as there were heading down the road—perhaps as many as two dozen—it hit Gabriel just how lucky he was. How the hell had the core of this group survived? Especially with all the other stuff they’d been through. For whatever reason, none of them had been ‘chosen’ for The Fall. Then they had survived all the atrocities that had followed.

  “Jesus, Gabriel, come on.”

  Snapping out of his thoughts, Gabriel turned around to see Will, eyes narrowed and yelling at him.

  “We’ve gotta go, now.”

  Gabriel gave one last glance to the oncoming horde and then turned around.

  He was around the hood of the car when he heard his name again, this time not coming from the inside of the vehicle.

  Glancing around, he saw someone waving from the front porch across the street. It was Tiffany Brooks, the forty-five-year-old banker and wife of Pierce Brooks. They had moved into the house about six months after Gabriel and Katie had bought theirs.

  “Shit,” Gabriel said, moving back around to the side of the vehicle.

  “Gabriel, we have to go,” Will said.

  “But what if they need help?” Gabriel asked.

  “Your family needs your help.”

  Gabriel considered it for a moment. “You’re right.”

  He turned around again.

  “Gabriel, wait!” Tiffany shouted.

  When he turned around again, Gabriel’s eyes went wide.

  The woman had moved from her porch and was walking through her yard, still yelling and waving her arms. Many Empties in the pack had turned their attention to her. What was worse was that she seemed oblivious to it. She kept shouting and waving, only further drawing the attention of the creatures.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Holly asked.

  Gabriel took off running.

  “Gabriel!” Will shouted.

  The woman fell in the middle of the yard, crying and screaming. It didn’t look like she’d hurt herself or tripped over anything; she was just exhausted. The Empties continued toward her.

  “Tiffany, get up and move!” Gabriel yelled, but the woman did nothing.

  One of the Empties was about to reach her, and Gabriel drew his sidearm, firing and hitting the creature in the head. Another Empty came up beside him and he kicked it, knocking it into another one of the creatures and sending them both to the ground.

  Tiffany stood up and yelled Gabriel’s name as two creatures pounced on her. She screamed as they ripped out her throat.

  Gabriel screamed at them in anger, and turned when he heard a snarl and saw another one of the creatures coming at him. He was ab
out to draw his gun when the thing’s head disappeared following a blast. A hand grabbed him by the arm and he turned to see Will.

  “Come on.”

  Will pulled a stunned Gabriel away, firing at the pack of creatures again and taking down one more. They ran back to the SUV, and when they got there, Will made sure that Gabriel got into the passenger seat, leading him there and pushing him inside. He then shut the door and ran around to the driver’s side.

  Gabriel looked across the street as the beasts gathered around Tiffany. In the back seat, Jessica and Holly worked to keep the children calm.

  The tires squealed as Will threw the car into reverse and shot out of the driveway, running over at least two Empties. He shot the car forward, speeding away from Gabriel’s house. It was more than likely the last time Gabriel would ever see his home, but he couldn’t help but watch the Empties tear apart Tiffany Brooks until they were around the corner and she was out of sight.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  When they were out of Gabriel’s neighborhood and had made it down the street, Will pulled over in the parking lot of a small shopping center.

  He took a deep breath and sighed as he threw the SUV into park.

  “I didn’t know if we were gonna make it out of there,” Will said.

  “What was wrong with your neighbor, Gabriel?” Holly asked.

  “I don’t know,” Gabriel mumbled.

  “She looked like she’d just gone crazy,” Holly said.

  Will glanced over to Gabriel and saw the blank stare on his face as he stared out the windshield. Without looking over to Will, he opened the door and stepped out of the SUV, slamming the door behind him.

  Turning around, Will looked at Holly.

  “I didn’t mean to upset him,” she said.

  “I know,” Will said. “He’s just really sensitive right now.”

  “Want me to go talk to him?” Jessica asked.

  “I’ll go,” Will said.

  He got out of the SUV and walked around the front of it.

  They had parked at the edge of the parking lot. Empties walked in front of the stores, at least a hundred yards away from where they were. The immediate area was clear, and Gabriel paced back and forth between two abandoned vehicles.

  “Everything all right, man?”

  Gabriel looked up for a moment before staring back down at the ground. His hands trembled, something Will hadn’t noticed when they were in the car.

  “I don’t know,” Gabriel said.

  “Talk to me then.”

  “Tiffany—my neighbor—what was she doing? Why would she just walk out in the middle of the road like that when there were Empties around? Could she really have not seen them?”

  “I don’t know,” Will said, thinking for what to say. “What if she was the only one in that house and she’s been there the whole time? Maybe she hasn’t seen any living people in a while. I have to think, if I were in that situation, that I might be in a similar mental state.”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense,” Gabriel said.

  “Nothing makes sense anymore, man.”

  Gabriel stopped pacing and stared ahead, past the trees at the edge of the parking lot.

  “This whole time, I thought all I’d have to do was get home and my journey would be over. That Katie and Sarah would be there waiting for me.” He looked down and scoffed. “How stupid was I for thinking that? With all the shit we’ve seen and been through, what made me think that they’d be in the house, just hanging around until I showed up, like nothing happened?”

  “But we know now where they are. We’re going to get to them.”

  Gabriel looked up to Will. His face was pale and showed no emotion.

  Before Will could find the words to say anything more, the SUV opened and Jessica stepped out, closing the door behind her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, approaching the two men. “But I wanted to talk to the two of you before we jetted out of here.” She took a deep breath as the two men looked to her. “What about Dylan’s parents? We can’t just leave Alexandria without going to find them.”

  Will looked over to Gabriel, who still held the same blank stare. Before Gabriel let loose on Jessica over putting another obstacle in front of finding his family, Will spoke. “We’re not going to go and find Dylan’s parents.”

  Jessica cocked her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “And what happened to the Will who was going to discuss these things with the rest of us before jumping to conclusions?”

  Shaking his head, Will said, “It wasn’t my decision. It was Dylan’s.”

  “What do you mean?” Jessica asked.

  Even Gabriel’s face had changed. Gone was the pale stare, now replaced by curiosity. So Will told them about the conversation he’d had with the boy on the patio earlier that morning.

  “Jesus,” Jessica said when Will was through, massaging her temples.

  “And look, here’s the thing: he doesn’t want any of us asking him about it, okay? He clearly told me if he wants to talk to any of us about it, he will. But he’s just trying to adapt to us being his family, so let’s not bring it up. I just hadn’t had a chance to tell you guys yet, away from the kids.”

  Both Jessica and Gabriel nodded. Will approached Gabriel, reluctantly placing his hands on his shoulders.

  “There’s nothing else standing between us and your family. So let’s get to that cabin.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  As they rode down the interstate, Gabriel remained silent. The kids played in the back seat with Holly and Jessica while Will drove, allowing Gabriel to sit in peace.

  The scene from his bedroom played in his mind as Gabriel flipped the note from his wife over in his hands. Every few turns, he would look down at it and read what she’d written, and then he’d go back to nervously playing with the paper.

  When he closed his eyes, he pictured Katie trying to escape the house, getting herself and Sarah to safety. And he had many questions, one of which was more important than any others.

  Had they made it to the cabin?

  It didn’t take long for him to realize it was better for him to just to keep his eyes open for what would come next.

  He looked up from the letter in his hand and stared outside. It hadn’t taken long for them to move away from the city and surround themselves with more rural landscape again. There were Empties roaming the fields alongside the highway. Some lumbered in the road, but the interstate was wide enough to maneuver around them. And as was normal, cars had been left abandoned, creating more obstacles in their path.

  His gaze faded away from the field when something ahead caught his attention. Squinting his eyes, he stared up the road.

  A car on the shoulder looked familiar. It was a red Ford Escape—a fairly common vehicle. But something told him that this just wasn’t another Escape. Something inside him said it was the one he’d bought Katie just a couple of years ago.

  As they got closer, he saw the familiar Beatles sticker on the rear window.

  “Stop the car,” Gabriel said.

  “Why? What do you see?” Will asked.

  “Stop,” Gabriel repeated, raising his voice.

  Will hit the brakes, and before the vehicle came to a full stop, Gabriel had the door open and was running toward the red SUV.

  As he ran, he read the numbers on the Virginia license plate, which confirmed it was Katie’s vehicle.

  He slammed his hands against the driver’s side window and looked inside. Scanning the interior, he searched for any sign of his wife or daughter. When he looked in the back seat, chills rode up his body.

  Lying on the back seat was the pink bear he had given Sarah on her 5th birthday.

  The sight brought tears to his eyes, but he was suddenly pulled away when a creature jumped from the other side of the Escape, snarling. Gabriel hesitated, looking the Empty up and down to make sure it wasn’t his wife. It had definitely been a woman when it had been alive, but her build didn’t match Kat
ie’s.

  As he backed away from the Empty, he reached for a weapon and realized only belatedly that he didn’t have his gun or a knife.

  He lost his footing and fell back.

  The creature prepared to lunge, but Will came from behind the monster and jammed a knife into the side of its head, sending it crumbling to the concrete.

  Gabriel gasped in relief and Will reached down to help him up.

  Back on his feet, Gabriel returned to the SUV and opened the driver’s side rear door.

  He scanned the cargo area, checking the entire interior of the vehicle for not only clues to where his wife and daughter might have gone, but also for any blood stains that might indicate they’d been hurt.

  “This is her car?” Will asked.

  Gabriel’s eyes fell upon the bear again and he picked it up. Lips parted, he stared at the stuffed animal as he ducked out of the back seat, standing back in the open air.

  He didn’t have to reply for Will to know.

  Will opened the front door and sat in the driver’s seat. He opened the glove box and reached under both front seats.

  Stepping back out, he said, “Doesn’t seem like she left any kind of note.”

  “Maybe she didn’t have the chance,” Gabriel said, looking down into the plastic eyes of the bear.

  “There’s no way that bear is all they had with them,” Will said. “Surely they each had at least one bag. Clearly, they had time to grab those if she had time to write that note.”

  “Or someone has already been here and taken what they had,” Gabriel muttered.

  “Hey,” Will said. “Your family is alive. There’s nothing in this vehicle indicating there was a struggle.” Will’s face lit up and he jumped back into the front seat.

  He reached for the ignition, and found the keys dangling there together. The engine whined as Will turned the key, but it wouldn’t turn over. He tried a few more times before he stepped back out.

  “They ran out of gas,” Will said.