Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Read online

  The door opened.

  A gentle breeze hit his face and he heard at least two dogs barking. The girls tried to scream through their gags but they were muted. He was doing the same as his heart raced and he pissed himself, again.

  The barking was getting closer. Before he knew it, he felt a wet nose on his leg and one of the dogs was sniffing the piss that had run down to his shin.

  “Come on, you little shit,” a male voice demanded. The dog pulled away from his leg and began to bark again, and the prisoner jolted. His hands were tied above his head and his feet barely touched the ground, leaving him vulnerable to whatever these people or dogs wanted to do to him.

  He stopped trying to vocalize through the sock stuffed in his mouth when he heard another type of growl.

  It was familiar.

  It was one of them.

  The thing snarled and the sound was unmistakable. It lurked closer until it stopped just a few feet in front of where the prisoners were restrained. All four of them were silent now, other than the trembling that came through their heavy breathing.

  “You got ‘em?” a man asked.

  “Yeah, yeah. Get those ready.”

  Chains rustled and he heard one of the girls yelp through her gag. The snarling intensified and it sounded as if the men were struggling.

  “Hold him!”

  “I’m fucking trying! Get his arms!”

  The two men were breathing heavily and, next to him, he heard the man of faith begin to pray again.

  “Father, please be with me. O’ holy Lord, hallowed be thy name…”.

  The struggle sounded like it had stopped, and all he could hear now was the snarls, chains clanking, and the men in front of him working to catch their breath.

  Then he heard footsteps approach him. They stopped right in front of him, and he felt warm breath hit his cheek.

  “You ready for this, boy?” the man asked.

  He didn’t respond. If they’d given him any water, he might have pissed again, but instead he revealed his fear with a constant shudder and tears.

  They removed his blindfold.

  Face to face with one of the creatures now, all he could do was scream.

  Chapter 1

  Lawrence

  Lawrence

  It was the fourth day that Lawrence Holloway had traveled these roads, and five days since humanity’s sudden fall. As much as he wanted to explore and find out what was happening elsewhere, he couldn’t bring himself to veer off of this now familiar route. Further keeping him from breaking his habit was the fact that it was raining and he didn’t want to get caught in the middle of a bad storm. He made at least one run a day, usually by himself. His goal: to find more people who were alive.

  Lawrence had a sort of knack for helping others. In his younger days, he started medical school with high hopes of becoming a surgeon and using his education and gift to help people live better lives. He had always done well in school, and was smart and ambitious. Only a year into the program, however, he got his girlfriend pregnant with their son, forcing Lawrence to drop out of school to support a child. After working a middle-grade office job for about eighteen months, Lawrence decided to enter the medical field as an EMT, later becoming a full-fledged certified paramedic. He loved the job, and continued to study higher levels of medical practice on his own time with hopes of returning to medical school someday to fulfill his dream of becoming a surgeon. Now, as he scanned the desolate highway, he doubted that day would ever come. But, his desire to help people hadn’t left him, as he now looked for others to bring into the small community they were building at the hospital.

  So far, he had found only four survivors.

  There was Trevor, who he actually picked up on the way to the hospital, just hours after everything had gone to hell. Lawrence had been driving down the road in his pickup truck when he came across a man in his 30’s struggling with one of the monsters. He’d pulled the car over and, though terribly frightened, jumped out of the vehicle and ran towards the beast with a baseball bat. It had distracted the thing long enough to where Trevor could escape its grasp and look on as Lawrence bashed the thing over the head with the aluminum bat. And he didn’t stop at one swing. Lawrence knocked the thing down and continued to attack the monster, even long after it had stopped moving. Blood had shot up from the creature’s body, painting Lawrence’s powder blue dress shirt a crimson red. Time had slowed down, and after what had seemed to be an hour—he looked back and saw the young man he’d saved looking toward him with a dropped jaw, and eyes wide enough to throw a football through—before Lawrence broke down and started to cry. The young man walked over to try and comfort him, and Lawrence allowed it, though he didn’t tell Trevor why he was so distraught.

  Then, there were the two women he saved from the accident off of the highway. He’d been driving down I-40, the same path he was taking now, looking for more survivors on the second day. It was his first run since finding refuge at the hospital and had foolishly gone out alone. As he approached a bridge, a van came into view from the on-ramp. He occasionally saw other survivors driving out on the road, but spent most of his time and energy dodging abandoned vehicles and the walking corpses of the sick. Lawrence was about a half mile back from the van when he saw it skid and then flip off the side of the road.

  When he reached the van, creatures were already beginning to surround it, and he was forced to act quickly and take them down before they could reach whoever was inside the van. He pulled out the Glock he’d taken off of a fallen police officer, and gunned down the few beasts that were ambling toward the van.

  As he checked inside the vehicle for survivors, he found an older woman unconscious behind the wheel, and a younger woman around thirty beginning to stir in the middle row of the van. He called in for back-up and an additional ambulance, and was lucky that no other creatures were in the immediate vicinity.

  Their names were Melissa and Jessica, and he hadn’t had a lot of time to get to know them yet. Melissa, the older woman, was still unconscious, but she was stable and being looked after at the hospital. The younger girl, Jessica, was awake and responsive, resting easy at the hospital.

  Then, just yesterday on another run, Lawrence picked up a man named David, who he found wandering down the side of the road just before he fell into a ditch. At first, Lawrence thought the man might be one of them, based on the way he was favoring his left leg when he walked, creating a sort of limp and sway similar to how the creatures moved. Lawrence pulled up close enough to realize that it was, indeed, a man that he saw, and rushed out of the ambulance to the man’s side once he saw him fall.

  David had acted a little strange ever since Lawrence picked him up, which Lawrence just assumed was because the man was exhausted. The new world had quickly become accustomed to draining people of energy, and even hope, and David looked like he had run out of both.

  Unfortunately, Lawrence himself had little to be hopeful for anymore, as well.

  His most recent run had lasted about an hour and a half. Again, he’d chosen to go alone, a decision that made others in the group uncomfortable. They wanted to help him, but Lawrence was still grieving from things he’d witnessed and done over the past five days, and he used these runs as a type of therapy.

  With the hospital in his sight now, Lawrence reached down and grabbed the radio.

  “I’m back, over,” he said.

  “Great, we’ll be ready for you.” The voice was Sam’s, a hospital janitor in his late thirties.

  Lawrence pulled through the entrance of the parking garage, where a group of creatures were loitering. He heard their snarls as he drove by, and did his best to avoid eye contact with them as he continued up into the garage and headed for the top level.

  He had to climb eight levels to the top level of the parking garage where the group had found a way to block themselves in. They used large boards left over from a construction project to create a barrier between themselves and the creatures. Not many of
the creatures loitered there, so the group lived with only minimal worry that the things might be able to bust through and get to them.

  “I’m almost there,” Lawrence said.

  “We hear ya coming,” Sam replied.

  Lawrence took the final turn around the corner to the eighth level, and he saw three of the creatures walking around near the makeshift gate.

  “Can you see how many there are?” Sam asked.

  “Just three.”

  “We’ll get ‘em.”

  The large board in the middle moved, and two men came out from behind it and fired at the beasts. It took a few shots, but the three bodies were down and Sam waved Lawrence through the fence.

  “Thanks, Sam,” Lawrence said.

  “Don’t sweat it, man.”

  Lawrence shook his hand as Sam clipped the two-way radio back onto his belt. He and Trevor, the man that Lawrence had found on day one of the new world, had been manning the gate to allow Lawrence back inside.

  “Find anything?” Sam asked.

  Lawrence shook his head.

  “Damn.”

  “I’m gonna go on and head in,” Trevor said. Like Sam, he also looked disappointed that Lawrence had come back empty-handed.

  Lawrence nodded at him. “Thank you.”

  Trevor nodded back and then opened the metal access door into the hospital.

  Lawrence grabbed a small duffle bag out of the back of the ambulance, one that he kept some supplies in specifically for runs, and then shut the double doors before turning around to face Sam.

  “It’s getting worse out there. I saw more of those things, and I only saw a couple of other people driving.”

  Sam shook his head. “You’ve got to quit going on those runs by yourself, man.”

  Lawrence put his hand on Sam’s shoulder and patted it. “I know.”

  And he did know. Lawrence was pushing his luck going out on his own, and knew that it was time for him to do the right thing and quit using the runs as his chance to get lost in his thoughts. There were plenty of places in the wing of the hospital they’d secured where he could be by himself to think.

  Lawrence let his arm slip off Sam’s shoulder and moved it around the top of his back.

  “Come on. Let’s head on in.”

  The door from the parking garage led into a narrow access walkway that had windows to the outside. Lawrence tried to avoid looking out, but it was impossible. Every time he walked by, he looked down and saw the creatures limping around the area. Each night stuck in here, he stood on this bridge for at least half an hour, watching the things walk mindlessly around under the light of the moon and the few remaining street lamps. This time, he kept walking, though he still looked down.

  At the end of the bridge, they opened another door that led them into the hospital.

  Lawrence and Sam entered a corridor with two elevators on each side of the hall. The nurses’ station was just past that, and then a collection of rooms down hallways on either side of the desk. The group had isolated themselves in this area of the hospital, which had once housed postpartum care for new mothers and their babies. Now, the area was a refuge for the small group that had managed to get past the first wave of creatures.

  “I think that everyone is having an early supper. You gonna join us?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah,” Lawrence responded. “Let me just get settled in. I wanna wipe myself down and wind down for a few.”

  “No problem.”

  Sam headed over to what was once the nurses’ break area, and now being used as a kitchen and dining room for these survivors.

  Lawrence walked to his room to clean himself up.

  Lawrence laid the duffle bag down on the bed. He opened it and took inventory of what was there. He still had plenty of ammo for his Glock, the first aid kit was fully stocked with everything he needed, and he still had two full bottles of water.

  He sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his hand over his forehead. For the past few days, he’d had headaches on and off that were reaching a near-migraine level of intensity. One was flaring up now, as he could feel the vein on his left temple pulsate under his fingertips.

  On the bedside table, there was a small plastic container of ibuprofen that he’d snagged from the medical supply a few doors over, and he popped two of the pills into his mouth, swallowing them without any water. He noticed the 4-by-6 photograph sitting on the table next to it, but ignored it.

  Lawrence instead walked over to his table and picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels. He unscrewed the cap and drank straight from the bottle before walking over to the bedside table.

  He picked up the picture, taking another swig of the whiskey as he did, the first shot still burning inside his throat. When he turned the photograph over, he began to tear up.

  The photograph showed Lawrence with his wife, Bailey, and their son, Carter. The picture was only a few months old, taken at Six Flags Over Georgia. Lawrence was old-fashioned, and still liked collecting printed photographs, even in the digital age. He’d only just recently been convinced by Carter to switch to a digital camera, and bought a nice photo printer so that he could print out photos and still collect the physical prints he was so accustomed to. The photograph he held in his hand was the last one that all three of them had taken together.

  Lawrence took another swig of the whiskey before setting the photo back on the bedside table, face down. He stroked it with the back of his hand, as if to try and comfort his family the only way he could now.

  “I love you,” he mumbled, before he changed into a different t-shirt, and then headed out the door.

  Chapter 2

  Will

  It’d been raining for hours. Driving down Interstate 40 was difficult enough as it was with all the Empties staggering around and all the vehicles left abandoned by their owners, cluttering the path; but trying to navigate through all the obstacles during a downpour proved even more difficult. The past two days had been hell even before the rain, but the group kept on going.

  The only thing that Will wanted was to find his mother and father. The group had been trying to reach Knoxville for the past two days, but had only made it just over halfway. They’d gone on and off the interstate, trying to find a back road that might provide a less treacherous path to travel, but they hadn’t had any luck. It seemed like every exit they tried, the narrow back roads would be blocked by Empties. After a few attempts, Gabriel convinced Will to just stay on the interstate.

  Many times, Will contemplated separating from the group. They were only slowing him down from getting to Knoxville and finding his parents. Between hauling a man recovering from a gunshot wound, a child, and dealing with other people who had their own ideas of what the group should do and where they should go, Will was frustrated. But he knew he couldn’t leave Holly and, in the end, he always came back to the same conclusion: I have a better chance of surviving if I stay with the group.

  They had many confrontations with Empties, which depleted most of their supply of ammunition, and they were now sidetracked again, trying to find somewhere to obtain more bullets for their guns.

  “If we run into another large group, we might not make it out. We can’t just depend on a baseball bat to kill these things. We’ve got to find more ammunition, Will,” Gabriel said.

  Will took his hands off the wheel and put them up. “No shit, dude. Wanna point me to the nearest armory?”

  “Quit being an asshole,” Gabriel replied.

  “Guys!” It was Holly. “Both of you, shut up. Arguing isn’t going to do us any good. Let’s just chill out, and we’ll figure something out. Together.”

  Both men sighed.

  Will gripped the wheel tight, trying to contain his frustration. Everyone in the group was exhausted. They’d fought through horde after horde, and it was taking its toll on all of them, especially Will, Gabriel, and Holly, who were the ones fighting off all the creatures. Marcus was in no position to help, Dylan was just a child, and Miranda didn
’t know how to use a gun; her medical skills were far too critical to the group’s survival for them to put her on the front line anyway.

  “Guys, look,” Miranda said, pointing down the road.

  Will was focused on maneuvering through yet another group of Empties, and hadn’t looked far enough down the interstate to see they were fast approaching an exit that had a small shopping center just off of it.

  “Try this exit?” Gabriel asked.

  Will nodded, and a mile down the road, he took the exit.

  As they approached the shops, Will had his eye on only one of them.

  In between a small convenience store and a discount shoe store, there was a pawn shop. These stores were old and run down, which made them fit perfectly into the new world. He wondered if eventually every building would look like these, or worse. There were Empties in the parking lot, but not more than they could handle. The town looked very small, and the simple shopping center they were approaching might have been the only place for the residents to shop.

  “There’s no way that place hasn’t already been picked apart,” Gabriel said of the pawn shop.

  Will shrugged. “Maybe. But we’ve gotta at least check it out.”

  “Okay, so, what’s the plan?”

  “It doesn’t look too bad. I think you and I can go alone. We’ll just take a couple of the handguns. And be sure you’ve got a knife.”

  “Fine by me,” Gabriel replied. “Pull as close as you can to the door.”

  There were only about seven Empties in the parking lot, but they all limped toward the SUV as it approached the front door of the pawn shop.

  “Holly, can you cover us?” Will asked.