Empty Bodies 3: Deliverance (Empty Bodies Series Book 3) (2 page)

Opening the door was like turning up the volume on the inside of the room. The creature growled and moaned as it continued to feast on its kill. Gabriel put aside the thought that it was Will’s mother lying on the ground, and he carefully moved toward the beast. Just as he came just within reach of it, the Empty turned and hissed at him. Gabriel reacted quickly, bringing the scalpel into the side of the creature’s head. It slumped over, and Gabriel turned away right as Mrs. Kessler came into view, but not before he caught a glance of what remained of her corpse. He leaned over and coughed, then hurried out of the room.

Brandon shut the door behind Gabriel, who retched, just holding back from vomiting all over the floor. Brandon patted him on the shoulder.

“You alright?” Brandon asked.

Gabriel looked up. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” He wiped at his mouth, cleaning the saliva from his lips. “Come on, let’s move Marcus.”

Brandon went back into the same room where he’d found a scalpel and returned this time with a mobile bed. They each lifted an end of Marcus’ limp body, and loaded the unconscious man onto the bed. Brandon began to push Marcus down the hall, while Gabriel gave Will one last glance. He still sat in the same spot, Jessica crying next to him, his face vacant of any emotion.

Gabriel understood the fight ahead. Will would want to seek revenge, there was no doubt of that. And Gabriel would back the decision, but he also knew they would need a plan. He wouldn’t allow Will to just march out of the hospital like a loose canon. He was confident that, wherever David was headed, Dylan would be there. In Gabriel’s mind, the boy’s safety was the number one priority now. There was nothing they could do about Mrs. Kessler. She was gone. But they had to find Dylan and bring him back into the group safely. Gabriel was responsible for the boy being taken, and he was determined to be the one responsible for getting him back. The boy dying wasn’t an option. Gabriel would put a bullet in his own head before he’d live every day of the rest of his life with
that
guilt.

When Marcus finally came to, Holly was the one who decided to explain to him everything that had happened. When she was finished, he joined Gabriel in the hallway while the rest of the group stayed in the large room.

“How you feeling?” Gabriel asked.

“Like shit. I feel like I got hit with two ton of bricks.”

“Sorry about that, man.”

“Why you sorry?” Marcus asked. “Don’t worry about me.” Marcus nodded his head down the hall toward the place they’d come from. The place where Melissa’s body still lay. “What we gonna do about Will?”

“I don’t know,” Gabriel replied. “But I’m gonna need your help with keeping him from doing anything stupid. He’s gonna be emotional, ready to go raise hell on David. You know as well as I do, we can’t just rush in there without a plan.”

Marcus scoffed. “That shouldn’t be a problem. We don’t even know where
there
is.”

Gabriel was silent, and he let his head rest against the wall as he shut his eyes.

When he opened his eyes and looked over to Marcus, he noted, “It’s my fault he’s gone, Marcus. I was careless. I should have never let him out of my sight.”

“Come on, man. You had no way of knowing that asshole was gonna find us. Hell, I thought he was dead.”

“He should’ve been,” Gabriel said, regret in his voice. “We shouldn’t have left that warehouse with him still breathing.”

“And had we done that, what would that have really said about us? What kind of person do you want to be?”

“The kind who doesn’t let children get kidnapped and people’s mothers get eaten alive by those fucking things.”

“At the time, killing David wasn’t the answer. You know that.”

“Yeah?” Gabriel continued. “Well, what about now?”

Marcus looked to the ground and rubbed his eyes. Shaking his head, he then moved his hands to his hips.
 

Exhaling, Marcus looked up to Gabriel and said, “I think we both know what needs to be done.”

***

Will

He simply sat there. No movement. No talking. Just still and silent.

Will’s back lay against the wall underneath the window. He had one knee up with his arm resting on top, his foot flat on the ground. Just on the other side of the wall lay his mother and the beast that had killed her. Though, the real beast that had killed her had escaped.

Will stared into the wall opposite him, and all he saw in it was the face of David Ellis.

Just a week earlier, Will had been a forklift operator at one of the world’s most popular cymbal and percussion manufacturers. When the world fell, he’d looked on as all his co-workers had been destroyed. He now lived in a world full of flesh-eating creatures, and those things weren’t even his biggest threat or enemy. This man, who owned a company just down the road from where he’d worked for so long, had taken his own mother from him. And for what? Will had no answer.

Will thought back to when they’d left Ellis Metals. David had just been lying there on the ground, unconscious. Why had he let him live? If he would have just killed the man right there, none of this would be happening. He’d have his mother, and they’d be thriving at the hospital, working through the trouble of this new world together.

But it wasn’t to be.

Then there was Jessica—the girl who had apparently come to love his mother. She’d been lying next to him, but had moved some time ago. She now sat across the hall, weeping. After having sat in the same spot for some time, turning over all his emotions in his mind, Will decided to go to her.

He stood up and breathed heavily, ignoring the urge to turn around and look inside the room. He closed his eyes and walked over to the corner where Jessica sat.

When he approached her, she looked up from her arms where she’d buried her head. Her eyes were beet-red and she looked exhausted. Will took a seat next to her, and she immediately leaned into his arms and started to cry again.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

Will remained silent. He still couldn’t find the words to speak. His face stoic, he just held her and comforted her with his presence while his mind wandered.

But Will couldn’t just sit anymore. He looked over toward the room, knowing his mother was lying in there. He had to get away.

 
And with that, Will stood and headed down the hallway.

***

Gabriel

“How much longer are we just going to let them sit down there?” Holly asked.

“As long as he needs to,” Marcus replied.

“We can’t do that,” Holly explained. “What if he does something to himself? He just lost his mother!”

“Holly—”

“I’m going down there,” she said, and started out of the room. Brandon grabbed onto her shoulder.

“Marcus is right,” Brandon said. “You need to just give him some time. He will snap out of it, then we can all come up with a plan together.”

“Get your hands off me,” Holly demanded.

“Come on, Holly,” Marcus said, trying to calm her down.

Gabriel stood near the door, away from the crowd. He leaned his back against the wall, watching as the group argued amongst themselves. His head pounded, overwhelmed by the thought that Dylan was out there somewhere, the boy likely terrified and waiting on them to come and get him. He was just about to raise his own voice and shut the group up when he heard footsteps coming down the hall.

It caught the rest of the group’s attention, and they stood quiet.

Gabriel watched as Will moved past the room, and when he turned to look at the group, Marcus was already headed after their friend. Holly tried to follow, but Gabriel stopped her.

“Just wait here,” he demanded.

“No, I’m not—”

“Just do it, Holly!” He was demanding, but he knew that he and Marcus needed to handle it. He then calmed his tone. “Please, just stay here with the others. Marcus and I got this.”

He turned and started after Marcus and Will.

***

Gabriel followed them all the way to the main corridor where the survivors had been living. When he raced through the double doors near the elevators and moved around the corner, his eyes went wide.

Will and Marcus were each fighting off an Empty. Will had his assailant pinned against a wall, while Marcus struggled to stay on his feet in the middle of the hall. The thing had its hands around Marcus’ neck as the other man made eye contact with Gabriel.

“Help! Get this thing off me!”

Their firearms having been stolen by David, Gabriel scanned the room for a weapon, finally deciding to pull a fire extinguisher off of the wall. He darted over to Marcus and reached him just as the thing pushed him down onto the ground. The creature looked up toward Gabriel, who swung the fire extinguisher as hard as he could, leveling the beast in the face. Gabriel spun around, dropping the weapon as he did. He then stepped up beside the Empty, which reached for him, and slammed his foot down onto the creature’s face, looking away so he couldn’t see the result; the grotesque sound and the feeling underfoot provided plenty of sensory confirmation.

He then turned and saw Marcus scooting on the ground toward a wall, staring over toward Will.

Will was on top of the beast he’d been fighting, the fire extinguisher in hand. He wouldn’t stop continuing the assault, bringing the metal down into the Empty’s face again and again. Blood sprayed up from either side of Will’s body, and he’d begun to yell.

Gabriel took his eyes off of Will and looked down the hall. The rest of the group was starting to gather, Holly at the front. She had a look of shock and terror on her face, covering half of it with her hands as tears poured out of each eye. The rest of the group shared similar looks. All except for Jessica, who stood with her hands at her sides, just watching the assault on the creature.

Will continued, and Gabriel didn’t think he was even aware that everyone was looking on.

Marcus went to Will, and Gabriel followed. Together, they pulled Will off of the Empty. He nearly hit Gabriel in the face with the fire extinguisher, and Gabriel managed to wrangle it from his hands.

“Easy, easy,” Gabriel said.

“Come on, Will. Ease up, kid,” Marcus added.

Gabriel was taken back by the look in Will’s eyes. He looked like a man possessed. Blood now covered his face and he gasped for air. His eyes were wide, and he stared down into the creature’s face.

“Will, come on, snap out of it,” Gabriel said.

Will looked over to Gabriel, those eyes still spread, but his breathing starting to level off. After a few moments, he was breathing almost normally, and his eyes relaxed.

Then he let go.

Will hugged Gabriel, allowing all his emotion to come out. He cried in his friend’s arms. Gabriel held him close, running his hand up and down Will’s back.

Holly ran to them, and she wrapped her arms around the two of them, letting her own tears go.

Gabriel held them both, as if they were his younger siblings, while the rest of the group watched. He thought again of Dylan, and hoped that he’d have the chance to hug the boy soon.

CHAPTER TWO

Jessica

After Holly had taken Will into his room and the rest of the group had settled, Jessica stole a moment to speak with Gabriel and Marcus. She invited them into her room and asked them to sit.

“What’s up?” Marcus asked.

“I know why those two things were out there,” Jessica started. “Will left me in a closet after those men arrived. I was actually just about to come and look for you all when I heard David and those other two guys come running down the hallway.”

“What the hell happened to them?” Gabriel asked.

“David shot them.”

“Son of a bitch,” Marcus said, sitting back in his chair. “Dude has gone totally off his rocker.”

“Well, he did shoot that nurse right in front of us and then throw a woman into a cage to be slaughtered by one of those things,” Gabriel added, then
 
noticing the change in Jessica’s face when he brought up Melissa’s death. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “He was on the radio with someone when he killed them. He was lying, saying that you guys were the ones that shot them.”