Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation (19 page)

He was watching the road, but felt the sandwich get snatched out of his hand. Gabriel looked over and, before he could react, Dylan had lowered the window and thrown the sandwich outside.

Gabriel made sure there was no immediate threat of Empties around and then he slammed on the brakes.

The force caused Dylan to lean forward and scream, and his body whiplashed and slammed against the seat as the car came to a stop. Gabriel watched the boy look up at him, crying again.

“Look!” Gabriel started. “I know you hate this. I know that you got close to Holly and Will and Marcus. I get it. I liked them, too. But we couldn’t stay with them.”

“But why?”

“Because, I have a wife and daughter at home that I have to get to, and your parents have to be worried sick about you. The longer we wait, the more of a chance that we never find them.”

Dylan’s face changed from sorrow to pure anger. “You don’t get it, do you? I hate them! I hate my mom and dad! I hope that they’re dead!”

Gabriel’s mouth opened and he leaned back against the door. As the parent of a child similar in age, it was extremely difficult for him to hear. He watched as Dylan worked to open the door and leave. Luckily, the child safety lock feature on the vehicle was engaged, leaving Dylan unable to get out. The boy started to bang on the glass.

“Let me out of here!”

“Dylan,” Gabriel said, reaching over to try and hug the boy. Dylan fought it at first, but then embraced Gabriel and started to sob into his shoulder.

“I don’t want to go home. Please, don’t take me there. Just either take me back to the hospital or let me stay with you.”

Rubbing the boy’s back, Gabriel said, “Alright, alright. Don’t worry, I won’t take you back home.” But what Gabriel wasn’t sure about was if he was telling the truth or not.

***

A few minutes later, Gabriel saw a gas station and decided to pull in and try to find some fuel to fill the tank with. They had about a quarter of a tank, but he feared that once they got all the way out of Knoxville, it may be a while before they saw another station. He only hoped that this one would have some gasoline.

As they pulled up closer, he saw that there were three Empties in the parking lot, but he still decided to stop, as they seemed to be the only threat lurking in the area.

“Hang on!” Gabriel told Dylan.

He pulled the car into the gas station parking lot and slammed on the brakes, turning the car around to where the back end faced the front of the store, wanting to avoid a collision with the vehicle’s engine. He watched in the rearview mirror as two of the Empties grouped together and headed for the vehicle. Gabriel threw the car into reverse and punched the gas. He yelled out as the rear bumper of the car made contact with the two creatures, sending them to the ground. The car ran over them and he could hear their bodies crush beneath them in the process.

When the two beasts came back into view, Gabriel leaned over the dash and saw that neither of them were moving. He noticed a third Empty approaching the car, arms outstretched, aiming to come at Dylan’s window. The boy was breathing heavy, screaming out Gabriel’s name for him to do something.

Gabriel looked at the back seat and saw the baseball bat lying on it. He reached back and grabbed it, then got out and walked around the car.

The Empty turned its attention to Gabriel, who was coming around to the hood of the sedan. He had the bat down at his side, but raised it onto his shoulder, preparing to swing at the creature.

“Come on, you son of a bitch,” Gabriel mumbled toward the thing.

The Empty snarled and spit at Gabriel.

As it came within a few feet of him, Gabriel reared back and swung the bat with a grunt, connecting with the side of the thing’s skull. It had been a little while since he last took one of them down, and it felt good. He stood over the beast and, grabbing the bat by the top, drove the butt end down into the creature’s face like a stake. Blood splattered from the ground as the thing’s head molded into the concrete.

When he looked back to the car, he saw Dylan watching him. Gabriel thought back to days earlier when this same child had had to kill one of the creatures himself in self-defense. It had crushed the boy. Now, the boy had no emotion whatsoever on his face. In just days, Dylan had adapted to the cold ways of the new world.

Gabriel stood up straight and walked over to the car, tossed the bloody bat into the back, and got back in. He didn’t say a word to Dylan as he put the car into drive and moved it next to one of the gas pumps close to the front of the convenience store.

As he put the car into park, Gabriel set his head back against the seat and let out a deep breath. After a few moments, he looked over to Dylan, who still expressed no emotion on his face. Gabriel cracked a small smile and ran his hand over the boy’s head, which had a hat sitting on it.

“Come on, let’s go inside for a minute.”

Gabriel made sure he had the pistol on his waist that they gave him at the hospital, then stepped out of the car and met the boy on the other side. He took Dylan’s hand, and they headed inside.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Dylan

The inside of the convenience store was trashed. Most of the display racks were completely emptied and left scattered on the floor. Dylan scanned the ground, hoping to maybe at least find a candy bar, but it didn’t appear that he was going to have much luck.

Gabriel led him over near the restroom and then leaned down to his face.

“I’ve got to use the bathroom, okay?” Gabriel said.

Dylan nodded. “Okay.”

“I want you to wait right here.
 
You have the gun I gave you, right?”

Again, Dylan nodded, and he patted his right hip.

“Good. Just stay right here. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

Gabriel smiled down at him and then stood up straight and opened the door to the bathroom, closing it behind him. Dylan heard the faint sound of the fan inside and then he stood there, just as Gabriel had asked.

He scanned the ground again, still hoping to find some candy. While he didn’t see any, he did see something else that piqued his interest.

On the ground near the window, a magazine rack had tipped over. He walked over to it and saw the various magazines spread across the floor. He flipped through them, and a big smile came across his face when he saw one of his favorite comic books.

When he picked it up, there was a magazine just below it that had a black cover on it. He grabbed the magazine and ripped the plastic open. A look of surprise came across his face when he saw the naked woman and read “Playboy” across the top. He’d never seen a naked woman before, and knew that his parents would kill him if they knew he had this in his hand. But they weren’t around to ground him, were they? He opened up the magazine and let out a giggle at what he saw, then quickly closed it. He didn’t think there was any way that Gabriel would let him keep it, and he’d left his bag in the car. Dylan licked his lips and slowly crept toward the door.

Dylan opened the front door to the store, careful to make sure that it didn’t make any noise when it shut. He didn’t want to startle Gabriel into thinking something was wrong. He hurried over to the car and opened the door to the back seat. He reached over and grabbed his backpack, unzipping the main compartment and slipping in three comic books he’d found that he liked, as well as the Playboy.

He zipped up the bag, and as he was just about to turn around and shut the door, a hand came around his belly and another covered his mouth. He tried to scream, but it was muffled by the palm over his mouth.

Dylan’s feet left the concrete and he was turned around. Two men were standing in front of him, one of who had a gun pointed at the boy.

“Hey, kid,” the man said in a Southern drawl.

Dylan flailed his arms and legs, and the man holding him picked him up and forced him back inside the convenience store.

***

Gabriel

Gabriel was almost finished when he heard the front door to the convenience store open. He looked up from the ground and his hand immediately went to his holster and grabbed the pistol.

“Dylan?”

There wasn’t an answer.

Gabriel stood and simultaneously grabbed the handle of the bathroom door and took a deep breath. He pushed the handle down and then pushed the door open.

When he saw the boy being held in front of him with a gun to his head, he quickly raised his gun up and aimed it at the man.

Gabriel wasn’t all the way out when the door came swinging toward him. It hit him in the face and sent him tumbling to the ground, and he nearly hit his head on the toilet when he fell back. His hand immediately went to his face and he felt his warm blood pooling at his nose, then confirmed he was bleeding when he looked down at his crimson hand.

When the door opened again, he looked up to see the barrel of his handgun pointed right between his eyes. He looked beyond the gun and his eyes went wide when he saw the man who was holding it. It was a familiar face, one that he could never forget. He’d seen the man’s face many times over in his head the past couple of days, after he’d laid him out across the warehouse floor with the baseball bat.

“Oh, shit,” Gabriel mumbled.

***

Will

After going out into the parking garage and helping Gabriel and Dylan safely depart, Will came back inside to meet with Holly and Marcus. Rachel, one of the survivors at the hospital who seemed to be running things from what Will could tell, had assigned each one of them their owns rooms. From what Will could see, there were plenty of open rooms, which made him and the others feel like they weren’t intruding on the space of the hospital’s existing group. Will put his few belongings in his room, and then went to Marcus’ room where the three had agreed to meet.

When Will arrived, Holly was already inside the room waiting. She was sitting on the edge of the bed while Marcus was lying down, stretching his legs.

Will chuckled. “Something tells me that bed is probably more comfortable now than it would have been if you were here for other reasons.”

Marcus smiled. “Yeah, you could say that.”

Will took a seat in a chair with a thin and uncomfortable cushion.

“So,” Will said.

“So, what are we going to do?” Holly asked, cutting straight to the chase.

Will and Marcus looked at each other, waiting for the other to speak. Will decided to go first.

“Do you think they’re going to let us stay here?” Will asked.

“I can’t see them saying no, especially with your mom here,” Holly said.

“They
could
kick us all out,” Marcus said. “We don’t know how much food and resources they have to go around.”

Will shook his head. “No, I think Holly is right. Plus, my mom and that Jessica girl kept going on about what good people they are.”

“I heard that Lawrence guy we met at that gas station is the one who’s in charge here,” Marcus said. “That’s what that Brandon fella told me. Said he’s out on a run picking up some supplies with one of the other survivors.”

“Well, then, we should wait until he gets back, and we can meet with him and see where he’s at on us staying here.”

Marcus and Holly nodded. Holly then reached out to Will, and she was close enough for him to take her hand.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

Will shrugged and put his head down, running his free hand through his hair. “
Relieved,
I guess, is the best word. I honestly wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see either of my parents again. It’s a little overwhelming.”

A knock came at the door, and Jessica walked inside the room. Will saw her eyes go straight to his hand clasped with Holly’s.

“Oh, sorry,” Jessica said. It looked as if she was blushing.

“No, it’s okay,” Marcus said. “What’s up?”

She looked over to Will. “I was hoping that I might be able to talk to you alone for a few minutes.”

“Yeah, sure,” Will said. He looked over to Holly. “Why don’t you see if you can go get something to eat?”

“Okay, sweetie.” Holly stood and then leaned down to give Will a kiss.