Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation (21 page)

 
“Just do it, Will,” Marcus said.

“It’s okay, son. My knee is feeling better. I can stand on my own,” Melissa told him.

“Yeah… just do it, William.” David was smiling now, and all it did was fuel the hate inside of Will.

In the end, Will did the thing that would at least temporarily keep him alive. He let go of his mother, turned around, and went to his knees like the others.

The man with David started at the far end of the line from Will, securing each prisoner’s hands. Will could just barely hear the clicks the plastic zip ties made over the crying of the four women in the group.

 
“On your feet,” David demanded. Will was standing before the others in his group were.

He watched David look back to the man who had been holding Gabriel hostage before they’d had him join the others.

“Take this guy and go down to the storage closet,” David said to one of the other men in his group, nodding toward Trevor. He then looked over to Brandon. “Do you have the keys to the ambulance?”

Brandon nodded. “They’re still in my pocket.”

David looked over to the other man in his group and nodded. The man walked over to Brandon and removed the keys from his pocket while David kept the shotgun aimed directly at Brandon’s head. He then looked back over to the man was holding Gabriel.

“Alright, Cody, go down there with her and start taking the guns to the ambulance.”

David then looked Will right in the eyes. “I have something special to show these folks.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Will

David and one of the men he came with, whose name Will now knew to be Trent, led the group down the hallway of the hospital. They passed room after room that the survivors had been staying in until they reached the end of the hall. Will looked one direction and saw a set of four elevators. Each one of them had signs posted on the doors that warned against using them. When he looked the other way, he saw a set of double doors with small windows on them that Will was unable to see through because of the darkness on the other side.

“Through the doors,” David directed them from the back of the group.

Will was near the middle of the pack with Holly to his right and Marcus directly in front of him. The group followed his instructions, and Rachel was the first to push through the double doors, as everyone else followed.

“I think you know exactly where we’re going, don’t you?” David shouted to Rachel at the front of the group. “Go on, take us there.”

“Where is he taking us?” Will asked Rachel.

“Tell him and I’ll start shooting,” David said. “I want it to be a surprise.”

Will took a deep breath, trying to contain his frustration. He wiggled his hands in the restraints with little hope of getting out. David had made sure that his zip tie was extra tight, so much so that it was now cutting off the circulation and he was losing feeling in his wrists.

The group entered a dark corridor and Will could feel his heart thump in his chest. He wondered where David could be taking the group to where it needed to be a surprise. Just behind him, he could hear his mother sobbing. Will slowed down enough for her to catch up to where he was walking.

“It’s okay, Mom.”

“I’m scared, Will,” Melissa said, her eyes red from crying.

“I know. So am I. But you’re going to be fine.” In truth, Will really wasn’t sure if they were going to make it through this. He knew what a monster that David Ellis was, and he knew that the man would get off from toying with them. How much longer until he would finally get bored and decide to do away with them?

“I’m not scared for me. I’m scared for you, son.”

“Don’t be. It’s going to be fine, Mom.”

“She should be scared for you,” David said from behind them. He jammed the barrel of the shotgun into the small of Will’s back, causing him to grimace. Will heard him chuckle before he did it again. Fed up with it, Will finally turned around and stood inches from David’s face.

“Do it, then! Just go ahead and shoot!”

“Will!” Holly yelled. Like his mother, she was crying and had a shudder in her voice.

“Do it!” Will shouted again.

Before Will could react, David threw a punch catching Will under his left eye. He hit a wall before falling to the ground, unable to brace himself with his hands bound behind his back. He felt the blood pool in his mouth and used his tongue to check for any teeth missing. Still, he was only missing the tooth he’d lost as a teenager playing hockey.

“That’d be too fucking easy,” David said. “Now, get on your God damned feet.”

Spitting blood onto the white tile floor, Will slowly made his way back to his knees. Before he could get to his feet, David kicked him in his ribs, sending him back down to the ground.

Will coughed, trying to catch his breath as more blood came from his mouth. He made it to his knees again, and this time, David let him stand all the way.

“Now, fucking move,” David said, pressing the shotgun back into Will’s spine.

They reached the end of another hallway and only had the option to go left. This area of the hospital looked much like the one the group was living in, rooms on either side, most of them closed.

When Will moved around the corner, he saw a light shining at the end of the hallway. The entire group was being quiet, aside from the sobs of his mother and Holly. As they reached the end of the hall, Will heard a sound that was all too familiar. His eyes widened. His heartbeat sped up.

When they went around another corner at the end of the hall, Will saw the source of the light.

Inside a small room with a large window at the front, there was an Empty, strapped to a bed, fighting to get out of its restraints.

“What is this doing here?” Will asked.

David pointed down to the other end of the group. “Ask her.”

Will looked and saw the rest of the group already looking at Rachel.

She licked her lips. “We… we’ve been studying her. Running tests and such. Trying to see what we can find out about them.”

“What have you found out?” Holly asked.

“Only that the disease isn’t viral. We ran many tests and couldn’t find any signs that she’s ill. Other than that, nothing much.”

“What do you think is making them like that?” Will asked.

“We don’t know,” Brandon added. “We were supposed to run some more tests with Lawrence tonight.” He looked over to David. “Guess that won’t be happening now.”

“Guess not,” David said, laughing right after the words came out.

Will watched as David walked past him. He walked to the end of the line and stopped in front of Rachel. At first, she gasped when he unsheathed his knife. Then, David cut through her zip tie, and Rachel rubbed her burning wrists.

“Remove the restraints,” David told her.

“What?” Rachel asked, as if she hadn’t heard the question.

“The creature in there, let it go.”

“Um, okay. Let me just go and get a sedat—“

“No,” David said.

Her jaw dropped and tears welled up her eyes again. “Please.”

“Don’t do this, David,” Marcus said.

David moved within inches of Marcus’ face. Will thought about making a move, almost forgetting that there was another man in the room with a gun pointed at them.

“Or what, Marcus? You gonna pretend like everything is okay and then just leave me for dead again?”

“Mother fucker, you shot me!”

“Yeah, and you fucking deserved it. I saved your God damned life and you fucking betrayed me. I should have just left you in that room to rot.”

Will almost spoke up after hearing David trying to take the credit for saving Marcus, but decided against it.

“Now,” David said, turning his attention back to Rachel. “Go in there and undo her restraints.”

Will looked on as Rachel began to tremble. The tears were pouring out of her eyes now, and she was trying to say something that couldn’t be made out through how upset she was.

The nurse standing next to Rachel was crying as well, and Will watched as David put the shotgun into her chest.

“You can either do as I say, and go in there and let that thing go, or you can watch as I put a slug in this bitch’s chest. Then, we can all wait around and see what happens after she’s dead for a while.”

David pumped the shotgun, and Sarah screamed. Inside the small room, the creature was snarling and writhing in the bed, trying desperately to get out of the restraints.

“Okay, okay,” Rachel finally said. She made her way to the door and started to type the code to enter it, but her hand was moving around too much from her nerves to allow her to hit the buttons. As David counted down from five, giving her a time limit before he’d presumably fire, Rachel finally punched in the code and the door clicked and the light turned from red to green.

She hesitated before she walked through the door, the snarl of the creature louder now that she had pushed the door to where it was cracked. Will could see from her profile that her eyes were closed and her mouth was moving, and he assumed that she was praying.

Finally, Rachel pushed the door all the way open and walked through. The growl of the creature became more rampant, and it chomped its jaws as Rachel approached the bed. When she’d made it about halfway to the bed, Rachel turned around and looked at David.

“Please, don’t make me do this.”

“Alright,” David said. He pressed the shotgun against Sarah’s chest again, who screamed and continued to cry.

“Don’t!” Rachel yelled.

Marcus looked over to David. “Stop it!”

Trent was laughing as David looked back at Rachel and started counting. “Three, two…”

“Okay, okay! Stop!” Rachel said.

She turned around again and walked up to the Empty’s left leg. It spit and snarled at her as she unbound the leather strap that was around its ankle. When it was all the way undone, the beast kicked its leg, which startled Rachel and made her jump back, almost sending her down onto the ground. Will looked over when he heard Trent begin to laugh again.

Rachel crept back up to the body and made her way to the Empty’s right arm. Will assumed she was going to use a criss-cross pattern to unbind the creature so that it would stay somewhat contained. If she went ahead and unstrapped the right leg, the thing would be able to maneuver much easier.

Just as she got the strap undone, she tried to move back as quickly as she could, but she wasn’t fast enough. The creature grabbed her, and Rachel screamed. Its jaws chomped more rapidly, but it was unable to keep a grasp on her and she backed up until she hit a small table behind her. Will watched as she looked back at the table and saw the array of surgical tools that were lying on it. She stared at the scalpels and other tools for a few moments before David spoke.

“Don’t even think about it. If you stab that thing, everyone out here is dead, and so are you.”

Rachel gripped the side of the table and closed her eyes, trying to fight off more oncoming tears from what Will could tell. She took another deep breath and then moved back down to the foot of the bed to undo the other leg.

The Empty reached for her and Will couldn’t even begin to imagine how terrified she was. Though he didn’t know the woman, he did have an understanding of how sick and twisted David Ellis was, and he felt for Rachel, knowing that anything could happen next.

Almost as soon as the creature’s leg was released, it kicked and reached for Rachel. The thing looked almost as if it was having a seizure, wanting nothing except to get to Rachel. Because that is all the Empties wanted: to feed on human flesh.

“She’s never going to get that arm undone,” Will mumbled to himself. Holly apparently heard him, looking over to him with her eyes full of tears.

Rachel made her way to the bound left hand, but stopped when the creature rolled over and tried to grab her. When it did, it rolled all the way off of the bed. The creature’s arm bent a strange way, and Will heard the snap and saw the hand rip away as the thing disappeared onto the floor.

Rachel screamed and ran for the door.

Just as she came through the doorway, David grabbed onto her and threw her back into the room. He pulled the pistol from his holster and fired a shot into her leg. Will couldn’t see where the bullet hit her, but she screamed out and fell to the ground. He watched as David pulled the door shut.