Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation (20 page)

 
He smiled at her and watched as Marcus let her out of the room first, and then shut the door behind him as he exited.

***

Jessica

When Holly closed the door behind her, Jessica remained standing just a few feet inside the room. Will extended his hand, inviting her to sit down.

“I don’t mind standing,” Jessica said.

“Please, sit down. It’ll make me more comfortable.” Will was smiling as he said it. It was difficult for Jessica to look at him, as she could see Walt’s resemblance so distinctly in him, especially in his eyes. Though she hadn’t known the man but for a few hours, Walt was the only reason she was even standing in front of his son today. Walt would forever hold a place in her heart for what he’d done.

“Thanks for giving me a few minutes,” Jessica said.

“It’s not a problem. What’s on your mind?”

Jessica drew in a deep breath. “Your mom, she’s a sweet lady. We’ve both been through a lot over the last few days. Between what happened to your father, the accident, and her waking up from a coma... I’m just not really sure where she is mentally and emotionally.”

“Yeah, I’ve been worried about that,” Will said, looking down as he clasped his hands together. After a few moments, he looked back up to Jessica. “Thanks for taking care of her.”

Jessica smiled. “She took care of me, too.” Her smile then quickly turned into something somber as she began to cry. “I lost people I love this week, too, Will. Both of my parents.”

 
“Oh, my God,” Will said. “I’m so sorry.”
 

Jessica nodded, wiping her eyes. “Your mother saved me from lying on the bed beside them and taking my own life. She fought with me, helped me move on.”

Jessica felt Will’s hand come over hers, and she grabbed onto his fingers as she continued to cry.

“I just want for her to be okay. She needs you.”

“Sounds like she needs you just as much,” Will added.

Jessica laughed and wiped her eyes again, also using her hand to move her hair from her face. She sniffled a few times, gathered herself, and then continued.

“There’s something else I need to tell you about this place,” Jessica said, wanting to tell him about the creature that was being held in the hospital.

Right as she was about to tell Will about what she’d seen, a scream came from the end of the hallway, closely followed by gunfire.

Jessica looked over to Will, who’d let go of her and jumped to his feet. He looked down to her.

“Get in the closet, now!” he demanded. “And stay there. Okay?”

Jessica nodded, breathing heavily now.

“Do it, now!” Will commanded her.

Jessica quickly got to her feet and got into the closet, shutting the door and trapping herself in total darkness.

CHAPTER TWENTY

David

David stood near the welcome counter. He held a shotgun in his hands while Cody and Trent stood behind him. Cody held a pistol to Gabriel’s right temple, the hostage’s hands bound with rope. Two of the nurses whose names David couldn’t remember were in the receptionist area chatting, and screamed when the men came busting through the door. They continued to scream until David pumped the shotgun.

“Shut the fuck up!”

The two women trembled, but ceased their yelling.

“I’ve got a hostage!” David shouted, looking all around the hospital, calling everyone. “It’s your friend, Gabriel! If you don’t want us to blow his fucking head off, then I suggest you
all
come out right now!”

David moved to the doorway next to him, pointing the gun back toward the area where the kitchen was. In the short time he’d been at the hospital, there had always been people hanging out back there, and he was sure there would be now. He grinned when two very familiar faces appeared in front of him.

Marcus and Holly looked at David with their mouths wide open as he pointed the shotgun at them.

“David?” Marcus said. “How did you—“

“Shut the fuck up, Marcus! Just get your ass out here!”

David stood just outside of the doorway and their eyes didn’t leave his as they passed by him and joined the rest of the group near the nurses’ station.

More people followed behind them. Brandon, Kristen, Sarah, and Sam all followed.

“I’ve got a hostage. If any of you try anything, Cody back here won’t even hesitate killing him.”

“You alright, Gabriel?” Marcus asked.

David turned around and punched Gabriel’s left cheek, and watched the man spit blood almost as soon as his fist had connected.

“David!” Marcus shouted. Next to him, Holly was in tears.

“You guys know each other?” Brandon asked.

Marcus looked at Brandon. “Yeah.” Then he looked back toward David. “Yeah, we do.”

“Where is everyone else?” David asked. “I know we’re missing a few people. Surely, your friend Will is here, too.” David looked back around the hospital. “Everyone else, come out!”

Almost simultaneously, Rachel came out of her room to his right and Trevor came out of an office to his left.

“Good,” David said. “Gang’s almost all here.”

“What’s going on here? Where’s Lawrence?” Rachel asked.

“Lawrence that nigger we kilt?” Trent asked from behind David.

“Yeah.” David said it without turning around to acknowledge Trent.

“Oh, my God,” Rachel said. She covered her mouth and began to sob. David looked at the other survivors and could see the clear states of shock and disappointment in their faces.

“Where is he?” David asked.

“Where is who?” Holly asked.

He watched her tremble as he approached her, stopping just before he made contact with her. “You know
exactly
who. Where is Will?”

David looked up from Holly when he heard a voice coming from one of the rooms. He walked closer to the room he thought it was coming from and then the words became clearer.

“Will? Son, where are you?” There was a tremble in her voice.

David kicked down the door and saw the older woman lying on the bed.

“Son?” David asked, smiling.

The woman screamed.

***

Will

The scream of a woman echoed down the hall. Will had remained inside the room while he waited to try and get a grasp of what was happening outside, but knew he needed to go out and help.

“Stay put,” Will told Jessica, who was still inside the closed closet. “Do not leave.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

Will pushed the handle to the door down and stepped into the hallway.

He could see a group gathered at the end of the hallway, near the entrance from the parking garage. Gabriel was surrounded by two men with guns. The other survivors of the hospital, including Holly and Marcus, stood near the welcome counter.

“Will!” The scream of his name came from his mother, and he ran to the room. Holly yelled something at him, but he ignored her.

When he looked inside the room, his mouth fell open.

“Surprised to see me, kid?” David Ellis asked.

The man had one arm wrapped around Will’s mother, and he had a pistol to her head. Will looked over onto the bed and saw a shotgun lying there. Will eyed it.

“I dare you to try it,” David said. “She’ll be gone before you even get three steps over here.”

Will looked back up to David. “She didn’t do anything, David. It’s me you want. Let her go.”

David cocked his head. “And what makes you think that it’s
you
that I want?”

“Just let her go, and we can go talk. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

David pushed Will’s mother toward him, and he wrapped his arms around his sobbing and now only parent.

Will watched David push the pistol into its holster and then pick the shotgun up off of the bed, and then point it toward Will and his mother.

“I’ll be the one telling y’all exactly how it’s going to be. Now, move your asses out there with the others.”

With his arm wrapped around his mother, Will made his way over to the others. Behind him, David kept pushing the barrel of the shotgun into his back.

“You can stop that. I get it,” Will told David.

The pain shot right through Will’s leg as the shotgun hit the back of his knee. He tumbled to the ground, taking his mother with him.

“Mom!”

Melissa lay on the ground, clutching her knee and writhing in pain. Will looked up to David.

“You son of a—“

The click of the shotgun being pumped resounded throughout the room, and Will stared down the barrel.

David stared right into Will’s eyes and said, “Get… the fuck… up… now.”

***

David

From what David could remember, the group standing in front of him represented all the survivors from the hospital, along with Will, Marcus, Holly, and Gabriel, who Cody was still holding at gunpoint.

David looked at Rachel. “Where do you keep all the weapons?”

Rachel looked confused. “What?”

“I know that you have a supply of weapons here and I know that you know where they are. Lawrence wouldn’t let any outsiders in here with them, and no one ever carried them around the hospital. Where did he hide them?”

“I don’t know,” Rachel said, shuddering.

David let out a long sigh, withdrew the pistol from his waist, pointed it at Kristen’s head, and pulled the trigger.

Everyone screamed as the young nurse fell limp and her body hit the floor, blood pooling from the wound just above her right eye.

“David!” Marcus yelled. He looked at David as if he could convince him to stop, but David knew he was no longer the same man that Marcus had once known.

Rachel was sobbing now as David looked back to her. “You still don’t know where they are?”

“There’s a service elevator in a restricted area,” Rachel said, her words trembling. “One floor down, the elevator will take you out to a room that’s secure. There’s no creatures down there. There’s a supply closet and that’s where he keeps the guns. There isn’t much, but what we have is in that room.”

“And what about yours?” David asked, looking at Marcus and Will.

“They’re there, too,” Brandon said. “We moved them in there just after these guys got here.”

David looked over to Rachel. “Take me down there.”

Rachel blushed. “I-I-I… I lost my access key. I was scared to tell Lawrence. Didn’t think he would trust me anymore if he didn’t think I was responsible enough to hold onto some keys.”

As he reached into his pocket, David scoffed. He pulled out the keys he’d taken from Lawrence’s corpse and waved them in front of his face. “Well, lucky for your friends here, I’ve got a set of keys. That may be the only thing that keeps me from shooting someone else.”

***

Will

Will had helped his mother up off the floor and was now supporting her as she grimaced from the pain in her knee, though she assured him she’d be fine. One of the men behind David was wearing a backpack, and Will watched as he slipped the straps off of his shoulders and opened the main compartment. “Shit,” Will mumbled.

The man was pulling out long, thick zip ties.

“What did you do with Dylan?” Holly asked.

“That pretty little boy? He gonna be
just
fine, don’t y’all worry,” the man with the backpack commented.

“You son of a bitch,” Gabriel said. “If you—”

“Everyone, get down on your knees and put your hands behind your back!” David commanded the group, cutting Gabriel off. He looked over to Will’s mother. “Let her stand. She’ll be fine.”

Will was reluctant, only glaring at David, who was looking back to him with a similar face. All Will wanted was to kill the David Ellis. He had regretted leaving David alive at the warehouse, but knew that Marcus and Holly would never have killed the man, considering all the history they had. Now, Will wondered if they were sharing the same regret.