Empty Bodies (Book 5): Damnation (37 page)
“I already told you what I wanted before. But you had to go and fuck that up, didn’t you?”
“I’m just trying to survive,” Gabriel said.
“Aren’t we all?” Ambrose laughed. “I gotta give you some credit, though. That shit you pulled, getting the crowd on your side; it was smart. You knew I couldn’t kill you without having a riot on my hands.”
“As I said: I just want to live. So, how do we all get out of here alive?”
Ambrose smiled. “You’ve got to be out of your fucking mind if you think you’re making it out of here alive. The only question I’m asking myself is which one of you assholes I’m gonna kill first.”
Jessica closed her eyes and bit her lip. When she opened them again, Gabriel told her that everything was going to be okay.
Ambrose scoffed. “You just keep telling her that. Maybe I’ll just kill them first and make you watch. How about that?” He jammed the gun into Jessica’s ribs, and she squirmed and squealed.
Will stepped forward, stopping only when he reached the edge of the desk. “If you’re gonna shoot somebody, asshole, shoot me. Leave them out of this.”
“Will, stop,” Gabriel said.
A bigger smile grew across Ambrose’s face. “As you wish.”
He pulled the gun’s barrel away from Jessica, lifting it and pointing it at Will’s chest.
“Don’t do this,” Gabriel said.
Ambrose shook his head. “It’s too late.”
Aiming the gun higher, Ambrose now pointed it at Will’s head.
“You got any last words?” Ambrose asked Will.
“Fuck you.”
Gabriel kept waiting for the gun to go off and kill his friend, but then he heard the first snarl.
There was a low rumbling growl, and Ambrose turned his attention away from the prisoners and looked onto the floor.
“What the—”
A snarl was followed by a crunch which sounded like someone biting into an apple. Ambrose grimaced and his legs buckled. The aim of the gun shifted above Will’s head and went off, sending a bullet into the wall.
“Jessica, move!” Gabriel shouted. She did, running to the door and exiting the room.
Even through all the pain, Gabriel leaped over the desk and tackled Ambrose, sending the gun flying out of his hand. They fell to the ground, and Ambrose continued to scream. Gabriel heard ripping and tearing, and the smell hit his nose immediately. He rocked back when Ambrose punched him in the face.
“Get off me!” Ambrose shouted.
Gabriel looked down to his feet and saw Claire tearing into Ambrose’s leg. Blood spit out from the wound. Gabriel fought to get up, but Ambrose had thirty, perhaps even fifty pounds on him.
Claire pulled away from Ambrose’s leg and looked up. Her eyes had gone pale and vacant. Blood covered her mouth and cheeks. It dyed her blonde hair. She snarled as Gabriel looked into her cold, dead, Empty eyes.
She dipped her head again, and Gabriel felt his heart jump. He waited for the pain of her teeth diving into his leg, but instead Ambrose screamed again. He grabbed hold of Gabriel’s shoulder. The hand moved down to Gabriel’s throat.
Gabriel’s eyes bulged as Ambrose choked the life out of him.
“You’re coming with me,” Ambrose said. He gripped Gabriel’s throat harder. “You’re coming—”
There was the bang of a gunshot, and Ambrose’s grip loosened. His head went limp, slamming into Gabriel’s nose.
Another gunshot married with a scream, and the snarling at Gabriel’s legs ceased.
Ambrose’s weight came off of him, and he saw Will.
“I couldn’t get a good shot,” Will said. “He was all over you.”
With Ambrose off of Gabriel, Will reached down and offered his hand. He took it, gripping Will’s wrist as he was lifted off the ground.
The door opened and Jessica rushed back into the room.
“Oh, God,” Jessica said.
Gabriel looked to her and saw that she had noticed Claire’s body on the ground.
“They poisoned her,” Jessica said. “She might have been dead long before you guys got here.”
“How’s Holly?” Will asked.
“She’s gonna be all right,” Jessica said. “Timothy and Charlie are with her.”
“And the others?” Gabriel asked.
Jessica shook her head.
“Shit.”
As they exited the office, Gabriel listened. The gunfire outside had ceased.
“Is it over?” Gabriel asked.
Timothy nodded. “Whoever was left surrendered. My people have a small group of prisoners outside.”
Gabriel looked to Will. He patted Will on the shoulder and said, “Thank you for coming to get me.”
He pulled Will in for an embrace, and then Will went to be with Holly.
“What are we going to do with the prisoners?” Timothy asked.
Gabriel pondered this for a moment. He thought about his time at the school, and everything these people had done to him. Then he thought of Timothy. Some of his people had been killed, coming to rescue him and Jessica.
“How many people did you lose in the fight?” Gabriel asked.
Timothy bowed his head and shrugged. “We’re not quite sure yet. But I think it was at least a dozen. One of my guys is out there trying to find all the bodies right now and gather names.”
“Well, you’re as much a part of this decision as I am,” Gabriel said. “Your people came here and sacrificed for us. So we have to make this decision together.”
For several minutes, they thought about it before collectively arriving at a decision. Together, they left the office, heading outside the school.
When they walked outside, Gabriel felt like he should pinch himself just to see if he was dreaming. Bodies lay sprawled everywhere. They spread out from the parking lot, up the stairs, and all the way up to the front door. Blood surrounded his feet. Sitting around the flagpole were the prisoners, each with their hands behind their head. Timothy’s men stood with assault rifles and shotguns fixed on them. A few of Ambrose’s men were awaiting medical attention, but Timothy had somebody tending to his own injured people first.
Gabriel turned his attention back to the prisoners sitting around the flagpole. Their eyes shifted toward him as he approached.
“Are you gonna kill us?” Gabriel hadn’t seen this man during his time at the school.
“What do you think we should do with you?” Gabriel asked.
“With all the shit that Ambrose put you through? Well, I suppose that if I was in your shoes, I’d probably kill me.”
“Then I suppose you’re lucky that I’m not you.” He looked over to Timothy’s men. “Let them go.”
One of Timothy’s men scratched his face. “Let them go? They killed a dozen of our people. And you expect us just to let them go?” He looked over to Timothy. “Timothy, we can’t do this.”
“Brian, let them go,” Timothy said.
One by one, Ambrose’s men stood up. Gabriel approached the man he’d been talking to.
“Don’t think about coming back here and trying to build this place back into a prison. My people here will be watching this place closely, and there’s a lot more of them than what showed up here today. Got it?”
Ambrose’s man smiled, and not a friendly smile. “Yeah, we got it.”
Timothy said to a small group of his men, “Lead them a few miles down the road. Then come back here and guard this place until we can get back. If they try to return, shoot ‘em.”
Timothy’s men nodded.
Ambrose’s men who’d been injured were loaded into the back of the pickup truck. It followed the rest of the guards out of the school. When they were far enough away, Timothy’s group would let the men take the truck, but not give them any weapons.
Gabriel turned to Timothy and extended his hand. The doctor accepted the handshake.
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“Well, your friends here are good people. They helped us out, and we like to help look after good people.” He glanced at the bodies on the ground. “It doesn’t look like there’s many of those around anymore. We need to stick together.”
They spent some time scouring the school for things they could use. They found food, medical supplies, generators, and more weapons than they could even take with them. Later, they could come back for what they couldn’t take on the first trip. They also went back to the room where the male prisoners were. The ones who hadn’t been able to help in the fight. One of the men was beyond saving. Timothy gave him enough morphine to make him comfortable. He died before they left. The other man was carried up front with the other injured people. He would be taken back to Timothy’s community.
Jessica also showed them to another room where there were women prisoners. One of them had died, and the others looked terrified when they saw the group. Jessica assured the women that they meant them no harm, and it was proven so when they let them loose. It took some time for the women to warm up to the group. When they did, they agreed to head back to Timothy’s community.
Within two hours, they were all heading out of the school’s parking lot.
Gabriel rode with Will and the others. He took one last look at the school as they pulled out of the lot. He shook his head, thankful that he could look forward now. Forward to getting to Washington and finding his family. And, more immediately, forward to seeing Dylan once again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Will thought Gabriel might jump out of the moving vehicle when he saw Dylan waiting for him on the front porch. When the vehicle did finally come to a stop, the boy was already halfway across the yard. Gabriel was the first one to exit the vehicle, and Dylan ran to him. They had explained to Gabriel what had happened to Dylan’s arm, but Gabriel still cried when he saw it was missing as he held the boy close.
Mary Beth appeared in the doorway. She ran across the yard to join them, sprinting into Jessica’s arms.
As Will watched the reunion, he began to cry. Especially when he witnessed Gabriel examining Dylan’s missing limb for the first time. Though Charlie and Holly had told him different, Will still blamed himself for the accident.
He wiped his cheek with his arm as Timothy arrived from another vehicle.
“We’re going to move Holly inside to remove the bullet and stitch her up,” Timothy said. “She should be feeling better by this evening, or the morning at the latest.”
“Do you need my help?” Will asked.
Timothy shook his head. “We can handle it.”
Together, they looked on as Gabriel and Dylan continued their embrace.
“Gabriel really cares for that boy, doesn’t he?” Timothy asked.
“He does,” Will replied. He turned and shook Timothy’s hand again. “Thank you for everything.”
As they shook hands, the doctor said, “I want you to stay. All of you.” He looked around. “We’ve got plenty of room. I could let you have three separate houses.”
Will looked over to Dylan and Gabriel again. Dylan was now hugging Jessica, but Gabriel had left his hand on the boy’s shoulder. Dylan looked back to Will and smiled. Will returned the gesture and waved.
“I appreciate your offer, but I can’t pull them apart again. We’ll stay here for at least the night, maybe a couple of days, but Gabriel is going to want to get to Washington. It’s all he’s wanted since all this happened.”
“Are you sure?” Timothy asked.
Will sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow. “We’ve separated from Gabriel twice, and this is the second time we’ve been reunited. I think the universe wants us to stay together.”
Timothy put his hand on Will’s shoulder and he smiled. “Not the universe, but God.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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