Empty Bodies 3: Deliverance (Empty Bodies Series Book 3) (5 page)

“What did you say?” Holly asked.

Will looked up at her and she was glaring at him.

“Holly, that’s not what I meant.”

“Well, what exactly did you mean? ‘Cause that sure as hell sounded like you don’t give two shits about what happened earlier.”

Will sighed. “Come on, Holly. All I’m saying is that I got caught in the moment. Needless to say, the timing kinda sucked.”

“Are you saying you ‘anger-fucked’ me?”

Will stood and rolled his eyes. “I don’t have time for this petty bullshit.”

Holly’s eyes filled with tears as she started to back away from him. What was strange to Will was that he didn’t feel guilty about any of it, and he was sure the look on his face showed that. She shook her head, then turned and stormed out of the room.

When she was gone, Will drew in deep, heavy breaths. He walked over to the wall and braced himself against it with both his hands. Dark energy rose inside him and he could feel the blood rush. When he looked up, he realized he’d come to a place at the wall where a mirror was just in front of him. He saw the blood and the paleness in his eyes. A version of himself he’d never seen before stared back at him. One filled with anger and hate. In an instant, he reared back his fist and punched the mirror as hard as he could, causing the whole mirror to crack, growing out like a spiderweb.

Blood pooled on the floor as Will clinched his fists, looking back at his worn face through the broken mirror.

***

Jessica

The rest of the group stood in the hallway, waiting on Will. Moments earlier, they’d seen Holly exit the room in tears. Marcus had followed her down the hall, and neither of them had come back. Jessica looked over to Brandon, seeing that he appeared even more nervous than she did. She knew he’d been on plenty of runs before, and wondered why he was so nervous about this one.

“You sure you want to do this?”

Jessica looked over and saw Gabriel standing next to her. She nodded her head.

“What about your shoulder?” he asked.

“It feels fine, really. You guys aren’t going to stop me from going.”

Gabriel smiled. “Fair enough.”

The door to Will’s room opened, garnering everyone’s attention. Jessica’s eyes immediately went to his hand. It was wrapped in what had once been a white towel, which he clutched with his opposite hand. Most of the white color of the towel was gone, replaced by stains of his blood.

Brandon looked over to Sarah as he walked toward Will. “Go grab something to clean and wrap it in, quick. Let me see that.”

“It’s fine,” Will said. “No big deal.” Will pulled the towel away and revealed a laceration across the middle knuckle on his left hand.

“Shit, man,” Brandon said. He leaned in to observe the wound. “You’re gonna need stitches.”

“What the hell did you do?” Gabriel asked him.

Will shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” He then looked back over to Brandon. “How long will it take to stitch me up?”

“Shouldn’t take but a few minutes, but I can’t do it. I don’t know how.”

Sarah came back with some gauze and a bottle of peroxide to disinfect the wound.

“Can you do stitches?” Brandon asked Sarah.

She shook her head. “I’ve never done it, but I could try.”

“I’ll do it.”

They looked over at Jessica.

“You’ve done this before?” Sarah asked.

“Well, not on a human. Or with skin. But I’ve sewn since I was nine years old.”

Brandon and Sarah looked at each other, and Brandon shrugged.

“Alright. I’ll go grab the supplies you’ll need and Sarah can set you up with a spot to do it.”

***

Sarah prepared one of the small observation rooms for Jessica to stitch up Will’s hand. While grabbing the supplies, Brandon retrieved a light numbing agent and administered the shot into Will’s hand so he wouldn’t feel the needle. When they had finished getting the room ready, Brandon and Sarah left Jessica alone with Will to stitch up his hand.

She ran the needle through his skin as he faced the wall and refused to watch. Once the bleeding had mostly ceased and she could see the wound, it was a fairly easy task. She treated it just like one of her craft projects, and it made her miss the hours she’d spent putting little pieces of art together.

“Thanks for doing this,” Will said, still looking toward the wall.

“It’s no problem. I don’t even think those other two wanted to try.”

Will chuckled. “Yeah, I was getting a little worried myself. Honestly, I’m surprised you’re able to do this with your arm hurting.”

“Well, if I’m being honest with you, I think Lawrence didn’t really know what he was talking about. I’m pretty sure I just have a minor sprain or something, not a broken collarbone. A lot of my movement has come back—I just still have some discomfort.”

“Gotcha,” Will replied.

“Dare I ask how this happened?” Jessica asked.

Like the rest of the group, she’d seen Holly leave the room abruptly, and though she wasn’t the type to gossip, Jessica still found herself a little curious.

“Just not a good day,” he replied.

“Yeah. You could say that.”

After a few moments of awkward silence, Will spoke again.

“Sounds like you really got pretty close to my folks over a short period of time.”

“I was inches away from being eaten by one of those things when your dad opened their door and pulled me into their room. Then he kept them off your mother and I so we could get away, and got bit himself in the process. I owe everything to that man.” She pulled away from his hand for a moment to gather herself. She wasn’t crying, but she was fighting back tears. Then, she leaned in and continued. “And your mom was there for me when we found my parents. I was ready to lay down and die beside them, but she wouldn’t let me. She made me get up and keep going.”

Will was quiet after that, and just continued to stare at the wall.

“All she wanted was to find you,” Jessica continued. “That was one of the things that kept me going. I felt I owed her that.”

For the first time since she had started sewing up his hand, Will looked away from the wall and peered into Jessica’s eyes. She had a couple of tears running down her cheek, and he used his free hand to reach over and wipe them off one side of her face with his thumb.

“Thank you for helping her find me,” he said softly.

Her only response was to smile at him. Then she wiped her eyes as he pulled his un-injured hand away and allowed her to continue working on the stitches.

A few minutes later, she set the needle down on a nearby table.

“All done,” Jessica said.

Will looked down at his hand. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Now let’s get ready to get out of here.”

 
CHAPTER FIVE

Will

The group gathered at the end of the long hallway by the elevators. Opposite the elevators were two doorways. One of them led to the staircase that would take Will, Brandon, Jessica, and
Sam
to the level below, and the other housed the double doors that went back to the wing where David had taken the group earlier in the day.

They stood in front of the stairway entrance, but Will found himself staring at the double doors.

Deep down, he wanted to rush through the doors and sprint back to the area where his mother had been killed. Her body was still back there. Part of the reason Will wanted to go with the others was because he knew Gabriel was going to lead a clean-up of that room while he was gone, and pull his mother out in the process. He wanted to be away when that happened, and he could guess that this was also part of the reason Gabriel had shown little resistance to him going.

Will turned away from the door when he felt a hand grip his shoulder.

“You about ready?” Gabriel asked.

Will nodded. He looked down at the broomstick he held in his hands and chuckled. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The best thing they’d been able to find for weapons were some mops and brooms in a supply closet. They’d taken the heads off of them to create three makeshift Bo Staffs. They’d also found kitchen knives in the break room, and the four of them each carried one of those on them as well, but the broom sticks would give them a little more range. They’d agreed that the best strategy was going to be to run like hell down the hallway and reach the garage as quickly as possible. There was no need to take out the Empties—only to get past them. But, in truth, they had no idea how many of the creatures would be down there.

Will looked over to Brandon, who had sweat dripping down his cheeks. He nervously rotated his staff in his hands with sweaty palms. Standing next to Brandon,
Sam
looked much the same. His eyes were closed and his lips moved as he mumbled something to himself.

Then he looked over to Jessica. Her arm was out of the sling and she was moving it around, trying to loosen it up. Apparently, she’d been right about the misdiagnosis the EMT had given her. It didn’t look like her arm would be a hindrance. Aside for this first part of their journey, her legs were going to be much more important anyway.

“You ready?” Will asked her.

“Yeah,” Jessica replied. She had a focused look in her eyes.

He felt a presence from his other side and looked over to see Holly. She rubbed her eyes with her free hand, and her other arm was crossed over her chest. Her face was flush, and she looked exhausted.

“I still don’t want you to go,” she mumbled.

“I know,” Will said.

“But I know you have to.” There was a pause as they stared at each other, and then she said, “I’m sorry about earlier.” She looked down at his wrapped hand, the gauze having a light stain of blood to it.

“Don’t be,” Will told her. “I was an asshole. You’ve done nothing but tried to be supportive today.”

The last line made her smile, and she leaned in to hug him.

As she cried on his shoulder, Will’s eyes wandered to Jessica, who was looking at them with that same serious and focused look on her face. She cracked a small smile, then turned away, moving her hair out of her face. Will pulled away from Holly.

“Just get back to me safe, okay?” Holly said.

Will leaned in and kissed her on the forehead, then embraced her. “I will. I promise.”

She stepped away from him, holding his hand until she had backed up to join the rest of the group, standing next to Marcus as he clutched her from the side. Gabriel then approached Will again. He reached his hand out and Will took it.

“Everything will be handled when you get back,” Gabriel told him.

Will pulled him into a fast hug. “Thanks, bro. I really appreciate it.”

They pulled apart and Gabriel said, “No problem. Now go get us some guns so we can go get that son of a bitch and rescue Dylan.”

Will nodded, then turned toward the stairway door. He,
Sam
, Brandon, and Jessica stood in a line facing it. He opened the door, and they headed inside.

They reached the bottom of the first ten steps, then turned around the corner for a slightly longer descent.

When they reached the bottom, Will put his ear to the door. There wasn’t a window pane, so the only way to know if there was something waiting for them on the other side of the metal frame would be to listen. He looked over to his cohorts and shook his head.

Above them, the group looked down to them from the top of the wrapped staircase. Will looked up to give Gabriel and Marcus a thumbs up, and then winked at Holly. The group above retreated back through the door.

He glanced over his shoulder.

“Ready?” he whispered.

The three people with him nodded.

“Alright, watch my back.”

Will closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. His hand grasped the metal handle and he opened the door.

***

Light on the 7th floor of the hospital appeared to be almost non-existent. In spots, the overhead lamps flickered, illuminating some of the shadows. There was a strong buzzing sound that came from the bulbs, and it could be heard stretching down the hallway. Will poked his head through the door to examine the area. Just outside the door, a table that had sat between the elevator doors had been turned over, and a small bouquet of flowers sat in the middle of a shattered vase on the floor. When the light flashed, he could see a splatter of blood on the wall above the space where the table looked to have sat, but there wasn’t a body anywhere on the ground.