David patted them both on the shoulder and then turned around.
“Oh,” David added. He waved his finger in the air at them. “If you try anything funny, these two will put you down. Got it? If you try and escape, I assure you that we have ways to find you. Now, go and complete your mission.”
David moved to the other end of the room before turning around again. He crossed his arms and looked over to Jonas, one of his men who was standing by the door. He used his finger to signal Jonas to raise the door.
The light glared off the warehouse floor as the door opened, the screams of the Empties echoing inside the building. From the dock, the front door to the other building was about twenty yards away.
Will swallowed and wondered to himself if telling Holly that they were going to make it was nothing but an empty promise; a lie giving them false hope.
Outside, there were at least thirty Empties clawing at the edge of the loading dock. Their nails scraped the concrete, inches in front of Will and Holly’s feet. Even though their lives were long over, Will scanned their faces and wondered about the lost clouds of memories behind each set of eyes. He wondered who these people were, what kind of lives they lived, and if any of them deserved to be reduced to a limping nightmare. It was hard for him to fathom that anyone really deserved it. Even David Ellis.
Jonas stepped toward Will and Holly and pulled a road flare out of his back pocket.
“Ready?” He asked.
Will and Holly looked at each other, and then Will nodded his head at Jonas.
Jonas struck the flare, lighting it, and threw it across the parking lot.
It caught the attention of almost all the Empties, who turned and began to walk toward it.
Will looked back and saw David smiling.
“Good luck,” David said, tapping his fingertips together repeatedly in front of his face.
***
With the Empties distracted, Will jumped down off the dock to the ground. He stuck his hand out, offering it to Holly. She took it and joined him in the parking lot.
They got the attention of a group of Empties that were scratching at the building next door which they headed to. The group of eight turned around and began to walk to them.
Will brought the rifle to his shoulder, took aim, and looked over to Holly before firing.
“Remember to aim for their heads and to move quickly. When we start firing, that road flare isn’t gonna do shit to help us.”
She nodded and held the pistol up in front of her face. Her hands were shaking and she could barely keep aim on the male Empty walking toward her.
Will had already looked away, cocked the rifle, and taken aim.
He took down four of them in succession, inhaling and exhaling to keep in control of every movement. When he looked over to Holly, he saw that she was still shaking and hadn’t yet fired a shot, and that the Empty in her sights was moving closer.
“Shoot him, Holly,” Will yelled. He could hear the snarls grow behind them as they were now about ten yards from the front of the building they were headed to.
She didn’t shoot. Only remained frozen, except for her hands which continued to shake, as the Empty moved closer to her.
As it reached out to grab her, the top of its head flew through the air, landing on the ground next to her. She woke from her trance, looking over at Will, who had the gun pointing where the Empty had stood.
“Holly, I need you. Breathe, and shoot these fucking things.”
She shook her head and raised the gun again, taking one hand off it briefly to move her hair out of her face. She wished she had remembered to put her hair up before jumping off the dock.
There were only three left in front of them. Holly’s first shot went wide and the Empty she missed howled at her. Without hesitation, she fired another round and connected with a shot right in the middle of its forehead.
Will managed to take down the other two and looked back to see the horde behind them gathering closer. He reached out his hand toward Holly.
“Come on,” he said.
Holly grabbed his hand and they sprinted the remaining distance to the front door.
Six steps lead up to the door, and when they reached the top, Will looked back and he saw David standing on the edge of the dock, clapping his hands and sporting an arrogant smile across his face.
***
When they walked through the front door, they entered an office with a layout similar to the one at Element. The power was out, leaving the only light to illuminate the space coming from the glow of the sun outside. Office furniture was scattered around the room, turned over like a tornado had swept through the inside of the building.
Will checked the room and saw that it was free of any immediate threat. He sat down in a chair and reloaded his weapon, looking over to Holly.
“I need you, Holly. Make sure you breathe. You can do this.”
Holly stood in the middle of the room, her gun down at her side, nearly hyperventilating. Her adrenaline was slowing down and the shock of potential death was starting to reach her mind. Will stood to put his hand on her shoulder and she turned to him.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he said. “We are gonna get through this.”
Holly let her head fall into Will’s chest as she began to cry. He embraced her, letting his hand run through her soft hair. Her warmth comforted him, especially in such a cold and dark moment. He let his fingers intertwine through her locks as his hand made its way down to her back to provide her the comfort of a strong embrace.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“For what?” Will asked. He knew what she was talking about, but part of him wanted to hear her say it.
“Getting you involved in this,” Holly began. “When I signaled you from that dock, David had a gun pointed at my head from the other end of the room.
“He has people that keep watch from the roof. They noticed you the other day when you went outside and took down some of those things. Ever since, David had someone keeping a close watch on you in case you made a move and tried to escape. He figured that you would after the plane came down and all the Empties started to move away from your building.”
Will let go of his embrace and stepped back from Holly.
“The plane?”
She nodded. “Didn’t you hear the explosion?”
“That’s what that noise was?” He asked.
She nodded. “Came down yesterday about the same time everything happened.”
Will licked his dry lips. “Earlier you said something about a fall. What did you mean?”
After grabbing a nearby office chair, Holly sat down and took a deep breath. Holding back tears, she began to speak.
“I was in our lunch room grabbing some coffee. Rachel, one of my co-workers, walked in and we started having a conversation. She suspected her boyfriend was cheating on her, it was a big mess.”
Holly let out a sigh.
“One thing that was kinda strange was this cough she had. The few minutes we were in there, she kept letting out this wrenching cough. I asked her if she was okay a few times, and she just waved me off like she was fine. I reached into the refrigerator to grab some half and half, and when I turned around, she was just lying there. I heard a gasp throughout the building. When I kneeled down to help her, she wasn’t breathing. So I ran out of the lunch room to get help.
“When I left the room, I saw that Rachel wasn’t the only one who fell. Almost everyone in the office had. A few other people were performing CPR. One of them was Bruce, our accountant. He pointed at me and asked me to call 911.”
She began to cry now, and Will put his hand on her shoulder, which she clutched for comfort.
“The line was busy. Craziest thing I ever experienced. How could 911 be busy? Then I heard the first screams.”
She was crying more now and couldn’t describe what she saw. But she didn’t have to. The story resembled Will’s all too well.
“I locked myself in the offi
ce and just watched. Marcus, the guy we are going after, is the one that finally came and got me out of there. I don’t even remember how much time had passed. Twenty, maybe thirty minutes? It seemed like hours.”
She wiped her face and cleared her throat, still holding tight onto Will’s hand.
“Apparently, everyone fell. That’s why I said that calling them ‘Empties’ made a lot of sense to me. They aren’t the same people. It seems exactly like you said: that their souls were taken.”
For the first time during the conversation, Holly looked up from the ground into Will’s eyes.
“It’s almost like it was an act of God.”
It hung in the air for a few moments before Will changed the subject.
“Who is David?” Will asked.
Holly handed her pistol to Will so that he could reload it. She pulled a hair tie out of her pocket and began to put her hair up. Will noticed how her breasts collected in the v-neck of her tank top she wore under the green jacket as she lifted her arms.
“He owns these buildings,” she said. “This building and the other one, they’re one company. The company is a metal heat treating facility. We all worked here. David just happened to be here in town from St. Louis when all this shit started happening. He always comes here this time of year to check on the business and to go hunting. That’s why he has all those weapons. The man brings a fucking arsenal with him just to go out and kill Bambi.” She licked her lips. “Marcus, the guy we are here to find, was the plant manager at this location and a huge suck-up to David. I think he only does it because he has to. He’s a really good guy, and David actually cares for him a lot.”
She looked up at him.
“They’re all loyal to him. They think that he’s going to get us out of this mess. It’s bullshit. He’s a rich, control-hungry, smug, asshole. And he’s using this situation to try and become some kind of dictator or saint, as he thinks.”
Will’s face went cold. He knew that going back to David wasn’t the ideal situation, but trying to escape and not going back would be much worse. All he needed was some loyal, cult-following assassins coming after him and Holly.
“I don’t wanna go back there,” she said.
Will stood and looked down at her. “We have to. But we won’t be staying long when we do.”
She cocked her head slightly at him.
The radio at Will’s waist let out a static hiss.
“What’s going on? Are you guys there?”
It was David.
Will took a deep breath, put the radio up to his mouth, and pressed the button.
“We’re here, over.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GABRIEL
The heavy duffle bag hanging from his side swung and hit Gabriel in his right quadricep with every stride as he rounded the corner at the end of the row of stores. When he made it to the parking lot in the front of the mall, he saw that it now consisted primarily of empty vehicles. The loitering dead were now behind him, completing their circle around the back of the buildings after following him into the sporting goods store.
As he ran, the place where the boy was supposed to be standing came into view, but Dylan wasn’t there.
Gabriel arrived at the spot at the edge of the woods and looked side to side, scanning for the boy.
“Dylan,” he called out.
No response.
“Dylan,” Gabriel cried out again, his voice shaking.
He looked back to see the horde, a couple hundred yards away, coming around the corner at the back of the shopping center.
Then he heard a faint sniffle and cry.
Gabriel ran into the woods, following the sound of a child in fear. He didn’t have to run far before he came across Dylan, sitting on the ground in front of a tree, his face buried into his arms. In front of him, a body lay on its back with ghostly eyes and pale, faded skin. It had a hole in its forehead, seeping with blood.
Gabriel approached the boy and knelt down. He reached out to comfort him.
“Dylan. It’s Gab…”
The boy panicked, waving his arms and bringing the pistol up in front of his face. Gabriel reacted before Dylan pulled the trigger and the bullet went just over his shoulder.
“Whoa,” Gabriel said, reaching out and snatching the gun from the boy’s grasp.
Dylan fell into tears, jumped to his feet, and embraced Gabriel’s neck.
“I’m so sorry. I had to. I had to kill him,” Dylan said.
Gabriel ran his hand up and down the boy’s back, sending autumn leaves back to the forest floor.
“It’s okay,” Gabriel said. He put his hands on the boy’s shoulder and pushed him away to where he could look him in the eyes. “Why didn’t you run back to the plane like I asked?”
Dylan wiped his eyes and shook his head. Sniffling, he said, “I couldn’t. My legs locked up and I fell down right here. He lunged at me and I had no choice.”
Gabriel rubbed the boy’s head, running his fingers through his hair as he would to comfort his own child.
Behind them, they heard the faint howls of the approaching herd.
He put his hands on Dylan’s cold cheeks. “Can you move your legs now?”
Dylan nodded.
“Good. Come on.”
***
The sun had completely hidden, leaving Gabriel and Dylan in the dark among the dead. They came out of the trees and heard the horde to their left, getting closer. For a moment, they came to a stop while Gabriel thought of their next move. Most of the tall light posts in the parking lot still worked, powering up at their usual, automated time. Gabriel used the light to scan the parking lot and, to his right at the edge of the lot, saw a large SUV.
“Come on,” Gabriel told Dylan, and they ran away from the horde, towards the SUV.
The door on the truck had been left open by the driver, but no body was in sight. Gabriel opened the back door and threw the two bags and the rifle onto the back seat. He looked to Dylan.
“Get in the back.”
The boy did as he was told, using the step on the side of the truck to elevate himself onto the leather back seat.
Gabriel jumped into the driver’s seat and checked the ignition for keys that weren’t there. Then, like every movie he had ever seen, he checked under the sun visor and in the glove compartment for a spare. Nothing.
“Hurry! They’re coming,” Dylan yelled.
And he was right. The congregation of the dead were limping their way closer and closer to the truck, gathered like the runners of a marathon.
Before Gabriel shut the glove box, he felt something made of steel and pulled it out. He smiled as he clicked on the flash light with a turn of the head, realizing the mistake he’d made in not picking one up while in the sporting goods store. He considered himself lucky for having found one and handed the light back to Dylan.
“I need you to lean up here and shine this light under the steering wheel. And I need you to hold it steady. Can you do that for me?”
Dylan nodded.
Gabriel got out of the truck and knelt down, reaching under the wheel and busting open a compartment full of wiring.
“Do you know what you are doing?” Dylan asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Gabriel lied. Jimmy, his brother-in-law, who’d taught him how to shoot, had shown him how to hot wire a car once, just because he knew how to do it and wanted to brag about it to his visiting in-laws. It was the last thing Gabriel ever thought he would have been thankful for, until now.
Now, Gabriel split the wires and began to run them together, trying to create a spark that would start the truck. Nothing happened.
“Hurry,” Dylan shouted.
The undead were only about fifty yards away now, using their cannibalistic sense to follow the trail of the man and the boy.
“Fuck! Come on,” Gabriel mumbled to himself.
He ran the copper innards of two of the wires together and heard a bolt. A small spark came off the wires and he heard the motor
begin to rumble.
“Come on!”
The engine turned over.
“Yes,” Gabriel shouted.
He looked up and saw a wide-eyed Dylan pointing behind him.
“Look out!”
Gabriel turned and saw it lunging at him. It was his instinct that pulled the knife from its sheath and brought it down into the thing’s head. The others were almost to the truck, and Gabriel withdrew the knife, turned, and jumped into the driver’s seat before slamming the door behind him.
He threw the column shift into drive and floored the gas pedal, sending the tires into a wailing screech, leaving the horde aimlessly reaching at them from their left as they sped away down one of the lanes of the parking lot.
***
Five minutes later, on the open road, Gabriel pulled the truck over onto the shoulder. Every car they passed was abandoned. Either most of the population had turned, or Gabriel was the only person dumb enough to be driving around at night while the beasts lurked in the streets.
Gabriel shut off the lights so they wouldn’t gather any attention, and looked back at Dylan.
“You okay?”
Dylan nodded. “I’m hungry. Did you find me something to eat?”
Gabriel shook his head.
The boy sighed, looking down to his hands as they moved to his stomach. Gabriel’s own stomach screamed at him, but nothing hurt him more than seeing the scared, innocent child aching with hunger.
Gabriel looked down and noticed a bottle of water three-quarters full in one of the cup holders. His first instinct was to grab it and squeeze the plastic bottle dry. But the boy needed it more than he did. He took the bottle and handed it back to Dylan.
“Drink this,” he said. “We can’t get food right now, but you need to get some water in you.”
Dylan accepted the bottle, smacking his dry lips. He unscrewed the cap, tossed it to the side, and began to drink the water as fast as he could, squeezing the plastic bottle in his small hand. Because of the mild temperature outside, the water was still cool, and comforted his throat on the way down.
Empty Bodies: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Dystopian Survival (Book 1) Page 11