Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation (8 page)

“Sure.”

***

Sarah led Jessica down the hallway to a small room near the front corridor. She went inside and picked up a large plastic tote, then smiled at Jessica. “Laundry day.”

“Do you do everyone’s laundry?”

“It’s not a huge deal. It’s not like everyone has very much. I mainly just end up washing sheets and linens.”

Sarah rested the bin on the ground and then walked back into the room, returning moments later with an additional laundry basket in tow, which had wheels and a handle.

“Mind pulling this one?”

“Not at all.”

Jessica used the hand on her good arm to grab the bin, and they walked back down the hallway.

The two women went from one room to the next, collecting the dirty laundry from the floor. Sarah explained to Jessica that the survivors occupying the hospital had been instructed to just leave their dirty clothes or linens on the floor just inside the door, and whoever had laundry duty next would come by and pick it up.

Once they’d gathered all the dirty laundry, they headed back toward the front of the hospital wing, and Sarah led them to a door and opened it.

“Wash is through here.” The two women headed inside.

***

The small laundry room had been built inside one of the guest lounges for visitors to use if they were required to have an extended stay at the hospital. They’d begun to load the washing machine with the pile of laundry when Jessica finally turned and asked the question that had been on her mind.

“What happened here?”

Sarah stopped, mid-lean over a laundry bin, while collecting another pile of linens. She dropped them as she stood back up, looking at the wall for a moment before sitting down in the nearest plastic chair.

Jessica leaned back against the washing machine and ran her hand through her hair.

“I’m sorry to have asked,” Jessica said.

Sarah looked down to the floor and shook her head. “No, it’s okay. It’s just still really… new, you know?”

The young nurse cleared her throat and then finally spoke, keeping her eyes focused on the ground.

“I was making my rounds, checking in on different patients. My shift had only started about a half hour before, so I was seeing some of them for the first time. I went into a room where a young boy was, maybe around twelve years old. His name was Harrison. He was recovering from surgery. The day before, his dog had run out into the street and he’d chased after it. The guy driving was allegedly text messaging when he hit the kid.”

“Asshole,” Jessica mumbled.

“Yeah, no shit,” Sarah added. “Anyway, I’d gone in to check on him. His surgery had gone well and he was resting. There had been a good bit of internal bleeding, which is always scary, but the doctor had done a good job and stabilized the boy. When I walked in, he shot me a big smile, which is always satisfying to see when you know a child is in pain. Harrison’s mother was in the room with him. We talked for a few moments, and then I went on with doing some of my normal procedural stuff.

“While I was checking his blood-pressure, I heard a thud on the ground behind me and Harrison cried out. When I turned around, his mother was on the ground. I kneeled down and checked her pulse and, of course, there wasn’t one. Almost at the same time, I heard the panic in the hallway.

“I rushed out of the room and the entire hospital was in a panic. There were bodies on the floor, people leaned over performing CPR. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. There was so much going on, it was as if I had been dropped right in the middle of a war zone. I stopped and tried to help a few people, until I remembered that I’d left Harrison back in his room with his mother collapsed next to him. So, I hurried back to him.”

Sarah began to cry, and Jessica reached over and put her hand on the young woman’s shoulder. Sarah took her hand, and let the tears flow. After a few moments, she continued.

“She was… on top of him. The screams… they were like nothing I’d ever heard before. Blood sprayed from both sides of the bed, staining the mattress. I started to run to help the boy, but when his mother looked up at me, I stopped dead in my tracks. She was one of
them
, and I watched her tear her own son apart.”

Sarah couldn’t hold back now. Jessica watched the girl slump over and her shoulders begin to move up and down as she cried. She patted Sarah on her back, and knelt down to embrace her.

“It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it anymore.”

Sarah picked up her head and wiped her eyes. She shook her head.

“No, it’s okay. I need to.” She sniffled, and moved her hand under her nose to wipe it down. Sarah took a deep breath, and then started again.

“She moved to where I could see the boy… at least, what was left of him. It was horrible. I’ve seen people come into the hospital after devastating car wrecks, but I’d never seen anything like this.

“Then, the boy’s mother was crawling over the bed toward me. I thought of running for the door, but the screams outside were deafening. I could hear people running up and down the halls, yelling out, and could hear what I now know was the snarling of these monsters. My back was against the door to a bathroom, so I turned around and trapped myself inside. When I went to lock the door, I couldn’t. The damn doors on these patient bathrooms don’t have locks. Within seconds, she was banging at the door. I pulled on the handle, just waiting for her to try and turn it. But all she did was bang and slam on it instead of trying to open it. I couldn’t stop crying and trembling. All I wanted was to be home in my bed.”

Jessica was covering her mouth, just listening to the story. “How long did you stay in there?”

“It was at least a couple of hours before I heard the door to the room open. I heard gunfire coming from somewhere inside the hospital. I jumped and cried more with every burst I heard. Then, the door to the room opened, and the banging at the door finally stopped. A loud gunshot rang through the room, followed by a crash. The snarling stopped, and I fell back against the wall, crying and shaking. I couldn’t feel my hand from gripping the door handle so tight.

“When the door to the bathroom did finally open, I screamed and balled myself up, waiting for one of the creatures to attack me. Instead, I turned to see a hand extended and a familiar face.”

“Lawrence?” Jessica asked.

Sarah nodded.

“When I walked out into the hallway, I couldn’t believe my eyes. And the smell was awful. There were bodies everywhere. Lawrence led me to a room where the rest of the survivors were hiding. He came back a bit later with Trevor, who had been helping him clear the place out.”

“What did you guys do with the bodies?” Jessica asked.

“We spent the rest of that afternoon moving them into a couple of the stairwells. It was exhausting, but we were at least able to get
some
of the smell out of here.”

“What about the rest of the hospital?”

“Lawrence, Brandon, and this guy Kyle went down to the floor below us. Lawrence and Brandon barely made it back. Kyle... he didn’t. Ever since then, we’ve kept ourselves isolated up here. Apparently, it was really bad, and Lawrence doesn’t want to risk looking around, at least not yet. If enough of those things get up here, we’re done.”

Jessica just crouched there, letting everything Sarah told her sink in. She thought about the hotel, and what happened after her escape. Did anyone survive? Maybe there was a small group there, like there was here. Just maybe some of her friends from her old workplace were still alive. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever know.

Sarah stood up and filled the washing machine with as many dirty clothes as she could before turning it on.

“Come on,” Sarah said to Jessica. “Let’s go grab some food and check on your friend; then we can come back later and throw this stuff in the dryer.”

CHAPTER NINE

Lawrence

“We’ve got to make a stop,” Lawrence told David. They’d driven for about an hour, occasionally seeing survivors pass by in their own vehicles, but not finding anyone stranded. Lawrence would wave at the other vehicles in hopes that they would stop, but they didn’t, and David kept reiterating how people had already lost their trust and hope in others.

Lawrence was getting a strange vibe from David. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but something about the way he’d been acting was just rubbing him the wrong way. He was about to ask David about how he ended up in a ditch on the side of the highway before Lawrence had rescued him when David spoke first.

“Where are we going?”

Lawrence thought of changing the subject, but they were close to their destination, and so he decided against it.

“There’s a small clinic up the road here. It’s a little off the beaten path, so it may not have been raided yet. I know some of the people that worked there so I want to go check it out.”

He looked over to David, who didn’t respond. The man just sat there, looking out the window.

“You know how to fire a gun?” Lawrence asked.

David looked over to him and nodded. “I can hold my own, yeah.”

“Good.”

With one hand on the wheel, Lawrence reached down and grabbed a pistol that was hidden between the driver’s side door and his seat. He held it in his hand where David could see it, all while staring at the man. He was trying to get a read on the mysterious man to see if he should give him the gun or not. In the end, he knew that it wouldn’t be safe for him to go into the clinic alone, and he couldn’t send David in unarmed. So, he handed David Ellis the small firearm.

David accepted the weapon into his hand as Lawrence put all his focus back onto the road. He heard David pop out the clip to confirm that the gun was loaded.

“It’s a 0.38. Should give you plenty of punch to take any of those things down.”

“Thanks,” David said.

Lawrence looked up the road and saw the exit he needed to take to get to the clinic.

“Here we go,” Lawrence said.

As Lawrence continued to drive toward the exit, he heard a window open. He looked over and saw David pointing the gun outside with both hands gripping the weapon. Up the road just a bit, Lawrence saw one of the creatures limping down the shoulder on the other side of the metal railing. David had the gun focused on it.

As they passed by the beast, Lawrence heard David fire off a round, and then he looked into the passenger side mirror.

Lawrence could just see the beast roll down the hill and come to a stop at the bottom, lying motionless.

He looked over to David, who was rolling up the window with the gun in his lap. The man never looked over toward Lawrence. He only continued to stare outside, and Lawrence wondered what the man could have been thinking.

***

David

“It’s just up ahead,” Lawrence said.

Just as Lawrence had told him earlier, the small clinic sat off an uninhabited road. They must have been on the outskirts of Knoxville, because there wasn’t much out here. As they got closer, David noticed something. Behind the building was a large wooden structure with chain link fence built into the sides of it. It ran a good twenty yards off the back of the building. Then, David could finally read the sign out front: Volunteer Kennels.

Lawrence pulled into the parking lot, and David watched as four Empties banged at the front door of the building. As the ambulance approached, the creatures turned around and walked toward them.

“Alright, let’s…”

But before Lawrence could finish, David was already out of the vehicle.

He walked toward the first Empty, raised the handgun, and fired a bullet right through its skull. Then, he hit the creature walking next to it. The next Empty was a few yards away and, still moving forward, he fired without missing that one, too. With one remaining, David stopped. He waited for the beast to get within just a few feet of him and, as it reached out to grab him, he kicked it in the stomach as hard as he could. The Empty stumbled to the ground, and David looked down at it. Just as it was about to reach for him, he lifted his leg and slammed his size eleven boot down onto the thing’s skull, crushing it.

David stood there, looking down at the last Empty. Barking from the dogs inside the kennels sang through the air. The way his boot had sandwiched the thing’s brain into the concrete tickled him funny on the inside. It made him feel good to end a being and to watch it stop moving. He only wished the Empties had the obligation to breathe so he could have watched the thing draw its last breath.