Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation (4 page)

Sarah stopped just as she opened the door about halfway.

“Are you ready?”

Jessica took a deep breath and then nodded.

Sarah opened the door the rest of the way and stood with her back against it, clearing a path for Jessica to look down at Melissa on the bed.

She lay there on her back, facing the pale ceiling above. There were lights mounted to the wall above the headboard on either side of the bed, both powered on and shining just enough for Jessica to see her. Melissa’s eyes were closed, and an oxygen mask over her face helped keep her breathing steady. A blanket covered her all the way up to just below her neckline, and Jessica could see she was wearing a similar gown to the one she herself had been wearing. Melissa’s chest rose and fell every few seconds, almost in the same rhythm as the machines around her. Her face looked older than it had before, as if the accident had drawn ten years out of her life in one instant.

Jessica moved to the side of the bed and the hurt rose up inside of her. She covered her mouth to muffle the initial sob and started to cry. She’d only known Melissa for a few days, but felt like she’d been through a lifetime with her. Jessica had been saved by the woman’s husband, Walt, and then was there with Melissa when he turned into one of
them
. Similarly, Melissa had comforted Jessica after she walked into her parents’ bedroom only to see them dead of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Jessica and Melissa had been through a lot together, and now the older woman was clinging onto her life right before Jessica’s eyes.

Sarah stepped into the room behind Jessica and began to rub her hands over her back.

“She seems strong,” Sarah said. “I think she’ll get better.”

Jessica just continued to cry.

“Here, let’s sit down, sweetie,” Sarah suggested. She led Jessica over to a pair of chairs, and they both took a seat.

“Have you known her a long time?” Sarah asked.

Jessica sniffled and shook her head. “Just a few days.”

“Oh. Did you meet…
after?”

Jessica nodded. “I work in…
worked
in a hotel in the mountains, kinda near Asheville.” She tilted her head toward Melissa. “She and her husband had just checked in that day.” Jessica really wasn’t in the mood to talk about any of this at the moment with this stranger, and realized her mistake right after mentioning Walt, and predicted the question that would follow.

“Husband?” Sarah asked. “Where is he now?”

Jessica looked toward the wall for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking back to the nurse. “He didn’t make it.”

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said.

“It’s okay, I just really don’t want to talk about this right now. Can we just go eat?”

Sarah nodded and put her arm around Jessica. “Come on, let’s go.”

They both stood, and Jessica walked over to the side of the bed. She grabbed Melissa’s hand and held onto it for a moment.

“I’ll come back and see you later,” she whispered. “Just rest.”

She gently set Melissa’s hand back down, and then turned around and made her way out of the room with Sarah.

***

“How’s it feel walking on that ankle?” Sarah asked.

Jessica was looking down toward her feet as she limped down the hallway. “It’s okay. I think it’ll be better once my lower body wakes up a little bit. Laying in that bed the past couple of days hasn’t done a whole lot for my lower back.”

Sarah smiled. “That’ll all subside, I promise.”

Just past where Jessica’s room was, a door was open to one of the other rooms. As they passed by the door, Sarah stopped and looked inside. There was a man sitting on the bed, and Jessica made eye contact with him for just a moment. He was a good-looking man, a bit older than her, and didn’t look like he had worked at the hospital.

“Everything okay in there, Mr. Ellis?” Sarah asked with a smile.

The man nodded and waved. “Just fine.”

“Will you be joining us for dinner?”

“Maybe in a little while,” Ellis replied. “I’m not really hungry right now.”

“Alright. Well, we’ll be eating in the lounge if you want to join us.”

Jessica made eye contact with him again, and smiled. He curved his mouth slightly, and then looked back down at his hands.

“You mind shutting that door?” he asked politely.

“No problem. Just buzz if you need anything, okay, David?”

“Thank you,” he said, and the two women continued their slow trek to the break room.

As they walked away from the room, Jessica turned to Sarah and asked, “What happened to him?”

Sarah shrugged. “We aren’t really sure yet. He hasn’t said much. Lawrence found him in a ditch on the side of the interstate. We think he may have a concussion, but he has been pretty vague about where he was before here. Not sure if he remembers, to be honest.”

“Oh, my God.”

“Yeah. He’s lucky that Lawrence was there, or he for sure would have been killed by those things outside.”

Jessica thought back to all the creatures they saw during their trip that led them here, and wondered if the nurse had any concept of just how bad it was out there.

Sarah smiled. “Come on, the lounge is just over here.”

***

As they approached the room, Jessica could hear light chatter coming from inside. Sarah had told her that they were headed to the nurses’ break room and lounge. It was behind a door that required a key card to open it and had a sign on the door that read “Staff Only”.

Jessica walked into the room, and saw
four people were sitting inside: two women and two men. The room featured a countertop with a microwave, a small sink, a refrigerator, a sofa and love seat, and a large table in the middle of the room where the four survivors were eating. Three of them had plates in front of them with only scraps left on them, and the other
—
one of the women, a nurse who’d treated Jessica some since she arrived at the hospital
—
was still working on her dinner. Inside, Jessica was elated. They’d fed her well since she’d been bedridden in the hospital, but it felt like years since she last sat down at a table and had a real meal with other people.

The group stopped talking and stared at Jessica. Sarah stepped into the room, smiling.

“Guys, this is Jessica Davies,” Sarah said. She looked over to Jessica. “You’ve already met Kristen.” She was the other nurse who had tended to Jessica.

“This here is Brandon; he’s an anesthesiologist.”

“Good to see you up and walking,” Brandon said.

Sarah pointed to the other woman. “This is Rachel. She is an administrator here.”

Rachel raised her glass of water toward Jessica.

“And finally, this is Trevor. Lawrence found Trevor out there just like he found you and Mrs. Kessler.”

Trevor smiled and nodded at Jessica. “Hi,” he said timidly.

Sarah walked over to a counter on the other side of the room. “You can grab a plate right here. We’ve got salad, some chicken, a few different veggies, and some fruit. Grab what you want.”

“Thank you,” Jessica mumbled, and she limped over to the counter and fixed herself a plate.

As she sat down at the table, she looked over and saw Lawrence walk into the room. He was wearing a red plaid shirt tucked into a pair of jeans. He noticed Jessica and raised his eyebrows.

“Well, very nice to see you, Jessica.”

Jessica nodded and smiled.

“She walked in here herself without any help,” Sarah said.

Lawrence put his hands on his waist and nodded. “Excellent. Glad to see that you’re doing better.”

Jessica turned from him and grabbed a fork with the hand on her left arm, her good arm. She was right-handed, so eating would take a little bit more effort than normal, but she was so hungry that she didn’t care.

“Did you find anyone else?” Kristen asked Lawrence.

Jessica turned to see him shaking his head.

“I know you’re tired of hearing this and I know that you’re still hurting from what happened, but you’ve got to take one of us with you when you go out there,” Brandon told Lawrence. “It’s too dangerous for you to be going alone. Hell, you almost got yourself killed when you found Jessica, here.”

Lawrence sighed. “I know.”

“I’ll go,” Rachel said. “I wanna see what it’s like out there.”

“No you don’t,” Jessica mumbled before Lawrence could answer. She looked around the room and everyone was just staring at her. She cleared her throat and took a sip of the water in front of her. “You’ve got a good thing here. Enjoy it. You don’t want to go out there.”

Rachel looked frustrated and was about to speak, but Trevor butted in.

“She’s right,” he said. “You don’t want to go out there.”

“They are right, Rachel,” Lawrence added.

Rachel put down her fork and stood up. “Okay, then. Guess I’ll just go back to my fucking desk and wait for the phone to ring, how about that?”

She stormed out of the room before anyone could stop her.

Jessica looked up at Lawrence. “Sorry.”

Lawrence smiled and patted her on her good shoulder. “It’s fine. She’s just getting a little bit of cabin fever and she doesn’t understand. Go on and finish your dinner. You’ve got to be starving.”

She was, and she went back to scarfing down the food in front of her.

CHAPTER FOUR

David

David Ellis sat at the edge of the bed, staring down at the floor. Before Lawrence and the girl stopped by the room, a nurse came in and suggested that he lie back down and rest. He ignored her, and instead chose to sit up. He’d been lying down in that bed since the moment he arrived the previous day, and he was becoming antsy.

He felt the urge in his bladder to use the restroom, and walked to the toilet.

The bathroom inside the hospital room was simple. It had only a toilet and a sink, which had a very small vanity in front of it as well as a mirror plastered to the wall above it The luxury of having indoor plumbing was one he hadn’t been sure he’d ever know again, and he was pleased to be experiencing it here after two days of hell out on the road.

When he was done, he flushed the toilet, and then looked at himself in the mirror. He had on a gown, which he was already tired of. He didn’t care for the tickle of the open air hitting his bare backside. His curly hair looked like he’d just woken up from a week-long nap, and the stubble on his face looked like it had increased ten-fold overnight.

On a table near his bed, there was a fresh set of clothes for him. On top, there was a note that read: “Hope these fit. Had to guess on the size. Not too many options. - L”. David stared at the clothes after he was done reading the note, and slipped out of the gown. The pants fit just about right, while the shirt was a little tight, but he was okay with it. His toned biceps strained the short sleeves of the shirt, and it felt great to wear a fresh pair of underwear.

While he wasn’t hungry, David was going to go stir crazy if he stayed in the room any longer. He figured that, with everyone presumably at dinner, it’d be a good time to go have a look around.

So, that’s exactly what he planned to do as he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

***

He looked both ways after he stepped out of the room, and saw that it was clear in both directions. He quietly pulled the door shut behind him, so as to not catch the attention of anyone who might be lurking around. David could hear the chatter down the hallway, presumably coming from where the group was eating dinner, so he headed the opposite direction. They’d kept David in his room since he arrived here the day before, and he was curious to learn more about where the stranger had brought him.

Either side of the hallway was lined with doors, each one numbered with a small metal plate, just like the room he was staying in. Most of them were open and didn’t appear to have anyone occupying them. Two of the open rooms he passed did have belongings in them, proving to David that other people were in fact living in at least some of these hospital beds.

When he reached the end of the hall, he looked to to one side and noticed a pair of double doors just a few steps around the corner. To the other, there was a set of elevators at the dead end of the hall, also just a few yards from where he was standing. He stepped toward the elevators and read the signs taped to the metal doors that read “Do Not Use”.