Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation (10 page)

In an instant, Will’s hearing became clear and he heard the Empties banging on the truck from all sides, and the frantic yelling from within the SUV.

He fell down and covered his ears once he heard the first gunshot. He stayed there for a moment, curled up with his ears covered. The gunshots continued from within the truck, with frantic yelling surrounding them.

Will sat up again and saw Marcus firing out of the broken back seat window on the driver’s side. He looked toward the front of the truck and saw that they had hit a tree. Gabriel was still in the driver’s seat, his head buried into an air bag, and Will wasn’t sure if he was alive. Dylan was in the front seat, covering his ears and screaming. Marcus was in front of Will, and Miranda was…

Where is Miranda?

When he looked out the driver’s side of the SUV, he noticed a small group of Empties gathered around something. For a brief second, he saw one of the things pull its head up and spit something pink into the air while chomping its jaws.

“I need you, man!” Marcus yelled. “We’re fuckin’ surrounded. Miranda’s dead, man. They fuckin’ got her. And I’m not sure if Gabriel is alive or not. But, I need you!” The weapons were stored behind the front seats in the floor, giving Marcus easy access to them. He reached down and grabbed a rifle and a Glock, then handed them to Will.

Will felt a pit in his stomach as he came to realize that the horde was ripping Miranda apart. He wanted to throw up, but stopped himself.

“Will! Focus!”

Will rapidly blinked his eyes a few times and shook his head, then started to assess their situation. Most of the Empties on the driver’s side of the vehicle were distracted by the feasting on Miranda’s body. The group on the passenger side and the back of the truck—right on the other side of the glass from where Will sat—were banging on the truck and rocking it back and forth, making it even more difficult for Will to focus.

“I need you to give me some cover!” Marcus said.

Will slanted his eyes. “Cover? For what?”

“We can’t stay here. I’ve got to go and get us another vehicle.”

Will shook his head. “Nah, man. You’re still beat to shit. I’ll go.”

“Look who’s talkin’. You should see your face, brotha.”

“Seriously, Marcus. Let me go.”

One of the creatures reached through the open window where Miranda once sat, and Marcus put a bullet between its eyes immediately. The beast hung motionless over the window, halfway inside the vehicle.

Marcus sighed in relief and shook his head at Will. “Alright. What are you going to do?”

Will looked out and saw several vehicles near the fire engine they’d almost collided with. From what he could see, it appeared that the only Empties on that side of the SUV were the ones banging on it, trying to get inside.

“I’ve gotta make a run for one of those cars,” Will said.

“You know how to hot-wire it?” Marcus asked.

Will nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I hope so.”

“I’m gonna have to go out that door you’re leaning against,” Will told Marcus. “It’s the only way. Here.” Will handed the rifle back to Marcus. “I need to travel light. I’ll just take the .45. Leave that dead Empty in the window. It should fill up enough space to keep any others from reaching in.” Will looked up to the front seat. “Dylan.”

The boy was crying with his hands over his ears and didn’t look up.

“Dylan!” Will yelled.

The boy looked up, and Will looked into his bloodshot eyes.

“Buddy, I know you’re scared, but we need your help, okay?”

The boy nodded.

“You need to watch Marcus’ back and let him know if any danger is coming from behind him. Can you do that?”

Dylan nodded again, then sat up straight in his seat, moving his hair from in front of his eyes, though still crying.

“Good.”

Will looked down at Holly and ran his fingers through her hair. He could feel a lump right where he figured their heads had collided during the turbulence of the crash. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be back,” he whispered. He then hopped over the seat and sat next to Marcus. They switched places so that Will could be next to the door. There were two Empties right on the other side of it.

Will took a deep breath. “Alright. On the count of three, I’m gonna break open the window so we can clear a path before I open the door and run for it. You ready?”

“Ready!” Marcus said.

“One… two…”

Will took a deep breath and mumbled to himself, “Please, be with me.”

Then, at the count of
 
“Three!” Will shattered the window with the butt of the rifle and fired consecutive shots into each of the two Empties’ skulls, then opened the door and jumped out.

A creature came at him from behind the truck, and he saved a bullet by pulling the knife off his waist and driving it into the thing’s skull. He then looked back and saw that a couple of the Empties were pulling away from Miranda’s body and moving toward him.

“Go!” Marcus yelled.

Will watched Marcus turn to shoot the Empties leaving the body, but they were already behind the truck and out of the view of any open window. Will knew that Marcus couldn’t break the rear window with Holly lying unconscious in the back. It’d be too easy for one of the things to reach in and hurt her.

“Fucking go!” Marcus yelled again. “Or I’m gonna shoot your ass and run to one of those cars myself!”

Finally, Will came out of his trance and hurried away from the truck.

He had to dodge the remains of the dead in the middle of the road, and a couple of vultures flew away from the rotting corpses when he began to run.

There were an array of abandoned vehicles to choose from, but Will just ran to the first one he could get to. When he tried to open the door, it was locked, and an Empty appeared in the window and banged on the glass. Will fell backward, landing on his tailbone, grimacing. He then heard a snarl, and one of the creatures was over him. He quickly drew his Glock and unloaded a round into the Empty’s head, rolling out of the way before it fell on him.

He jumped to his feet and ran to the next car he could reach. Behind him, he heard gunshots and bodies hitting the pavement. He took a quick glance back and saw Marcus firing at the Empties out of the window. It looked like the entire group was migrating away from Miranda’s body now.

Will readied his firearm and pulled the handle on the door to a four-door sedan. It opened, and he prepared to shoot if one of the creatures jumped out at him, but none did. He slid into the driver’s seat and looked for keys. He checked in all the obvious places—under the sun visor, in the glove box, in the sunglasses compartment—but he couldn’t find any. He got out of the seat and squatted down next to the car, and opened the compartment under the steering wheel, exposing the wiring.

As he started to mess with the wires, he heard a continuous snarl amidst a fury of gunshots.

“Will! Look out!” Marcus shouted.

Will stood, and an Empty was in his face, pushing on the door and pinning him between the door and the body of the vehicle. It was dressed in a fireman’s uniform, wearing a helmet with a shield covering its face. It leaned in to Will’s face, and if it hadn’t been for the shield the thing was wearing, it would have easily been able to bite Will.

Will pushed the door, sending the Empty stumbling back, but it stayed on its feet. He pulled up his gun and fired, but the bullet ricocheted off of the helmet, and the creature kept walking toward him. After another two shots, the gun clicked; it had run out of ammo.

“Shit!”

He went to reach for the knife, but the beast was already on him.

It pushed Will back against the car. He could just see over the thing’s shoulder, where Marcus was unloading more rounds into Empties who were trying to come over to Will. He gripped the creature’s jacket, which was slick with blood, making it difficult to keep a good grasp on it.

The Empty was a few inches taller than Will, giving it leverage. Its face was right over the top of Will’s, and saliva was dripping off of the bottom of the shield and down onto Will’s cheek.

Will let out a grunt, and pushed the creature back. It had a hold on him still and they both tumbled to the ground.

When they hit the highway, the thing’s helmet flew off, freeing its jaws. It snapped at Will’s right hand, which was still gripping the jacket at the shoulder, and Will quickly moved his hand before it bit him.

As Will went to put his hand back to hold it down, the Empty shot up and came at his arm.

Right as it was about to bite Will’s forearm, a single gunshot rang through the air and blood sprayed onto Will’s face. The Empty fell limp and let go.

Will wiped his face and looked up.

Marcus was standing halfway between the truck and him, slowly lowering the rifle.

Will stood up and narrowed his eyes at Marcus.

“You could have fuckin’ shot me!”

Marcus tilted his head and smiled with a single, muffled laugh. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

Will patted down his shirt and his pants, shaking his head.

“Let’s just see if we can get one of these things started and move Holly and Gabriel into it, okay?” Marcus said.

Marcus walked over to the sedan that Will was trying to jump when the former firefighter attacked him. Will watched him kneel down and begin to play with the wires.

At Will’s feet, the Empty lay motionless. He looked at it, wondering how many times the man in the suit had escaped a life-threatening situation when he’d been alive, only to have it end like this.

Will kneeled down and looked the thing in the eyes. They were still open, a pale white. He scanned its body, until he noticed something hanging out of the right pocket of its pants.

He reached in and grabbed the object, smiling.

“Hey!” Will said to Marcus.

Marcus turned back and Will dangled the keys in the air.

“I think I got us a ride.”

***

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lawrence

Trevor and Sam were waiting to let them in when Lawrence and David returned. As the ambulance pulled through the makeshift gate, Lawrence heard three gunshots muting the two snarling beasts that were standing near the gate as David pulled up to it.

Lawrence stepped out of the ambulance and the two men immediately rushed over.

“Holy shit!” Trevor said. “You guys alright?”

Lawrence nodded. “Fine. Just a close call.”

He had an intense pain in his right shoulder. Fighting with the large beast and trying to hold it off of him had fatigued his muscles, and his brain was just now starting to receive the signal, the adrenaline finally wearing off. Blood stained his clothes and his hands.

If Lawrence looked like he had been to hell, David looked like he was the fucking president of the underworld. Blood was everywhere, barely leaving a clean place on his clothes or his body.

Sam and Trevor stood next to Lawrence as the three men watched David step out of the vehicle and head inside without saying anything. He had on a short-sleeved shirt and his arms were covered in red. When he walked, he did so with a slow limp.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Sam asked David, but the man didn’t turn around. Lawrence, Sam, and Trevor watched as David entered the hospital.

Behind him in the distance, Lawrence heard snarls growing louder as they came up the ramp of the parking garage toward the gate. He took a deep breath and took a step toward the door.

Sam put his hand on Lawrence’s shoulder and asked, “What happened?”

Lawrence sighed and found a clean place on the back of his hand that he could use to rub his eyes. He then held up the bag he had in his hand and said, “We got some supplies.” He threw the bag over his shoulder, grimacing as the sudden movement shot a pain into the joint that connected his arm to it.

“Here,” Trevor said, extending his hand out and offering to take the bag.

Lawrence glared at him for a moment and then sighed. He removed the bag from his shoulder and handed it over to Trevor.

“Thanks,” Lawrence said.