Empty Bodies 6: Revelation (Empty Bodies Series Book 6) Read online

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  REVELATION

  (Book Six of the Empty Bodies Series)

  by Zach Bohannon

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  REVELATION

  Zach Bohannon

  www.zachbohannon.com

  Copyright © 2016 by Zach Bohannon. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction of this publication in whole or in part without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  Edited and Proofread by:

  Jennifer Collins

  Cover design by Johnny Digges

  www.diggescreative.com

  For YOU, the awesome loyal reader who has taken this journey with me.

  Thank you.

  Now let’s finish this…

  CHAPTER ONE

  The kids played in the backyard of a survivor’s house like everything was completely normal. And, for once, it kind of was. Aside from their happy yelling, there was no shouting, no firing of guns, nor the sounds of any blade slicing flesh. No monsters, undead or human, threatened them. Things were simply… normal.

  But even with the smiles across the children’s faces and the onlooking mothers laughing as they conversed, Jessica couldn’t feel any sense of the ordinary.

  Her time spent at the school had been anything but normal—even in a world filled with possessed, flesh-eating monsters. Her imprisonment had confirmed what she’d feared even before she’d been taken captive: that the real monsters were not those who had been directly affected by The Fall, but those who were still alive among them. Those were the real purveyors of evil in this dark new world. Men like Nathan Ambrose. Monsters like David Ellis. As had been the case through centuries of hate and war over religion, race, and political alignment, humanity’s biggest enemy had been itself. Not even a world filled with walking corpses had united them.

  But as if everything was normal, Jessica sat on a curb while Dylan and Mary Beth played with other kids from the neighborhood. One of the families had a swing set in their backyard, and this had become the children’s favorite place to hang out. It also gave the parents time to mingle and chat with one another. To, again, find some sense of normality.

  Occasionally, Jessica would poke her head up to smile at the children. Aside from that, she kept her head low, working to ignore the attention of the other women watching their kids. In turn, though, all she was really doing was drawing more attention to herself. Regardless, she continued with this routine, and it had so far worked well enough, as none of the other women had spoken to her.

  “Jessica!”

  She looked up when Dylan called her name, worried that something was wrong. She even shot to her feet. But when she saw the young boy hanging upside down on a pull-up bar, she sighed and shook her head.

  “Isn’t this cool what I can do?” the boy said.

  “Amazing,” Jessica said, smiling and sitting again. “Just be careful getting down.”

  Before, Dylan might have just reached back up to the bar and flipped himself over, landing gracefully on his feet. But now that he only had one arm, a boy who he was playing with helped him down off the bar. His face was red, so much blood having rushed to it from him being upside down. It took him a second to regain his bearings, and this in itself made Jessica laugh.

  Out of the corner of her eye then, she saw one of the women coming toward her. She glanced away, hoping to avoid the woman’s gaze, wanting only to sit on her own. If she had had it her way, she wouldn’t even have been down there watching the children. But Will was with Holly as she recovered, and Gabriel was in the bedroom he’d been given to stay in, still recovering from the events at the school and thinking about getting to his family. Charlie was helping reinforce the fence that protected the group from the outside world. The kids couldn’t be left alone, so Jessica had been forced to take them to the backyard to play with the other children. Ironically, had she taken even a few minutes to get to know any of the other women, she might have considered leaving the children under their watch.

  “Excuse me,” the woman said.

  Jessica raised her head. The woman wore blue jeans and a faded polo shirt—green with white stripes. She had dirty blonde hair which somehow managed to still have curls in it.

  “It’s Jessica, right?”

  “That’s right,” Jessica mumbled.

  “My name is Jodie.”

  The woman stuck out her hand and Jessica reluctantly shook it. It wasn’t that she was trying to be rude, as she just didn’t want to talk to anyone.

  Jodie nodded toward the playground. “Dylan and Mary, right?”

  “Mary Beth,” Jessica corrected.

  “Right,” Jodie said. “Yours?”

  Jessica shook her head.

  “Gotcha. Someone else in your group, then?”

  “Orphans.”

  “Oh, I see,” Jodie said. She apparently sensed Jessica’s lack of willingness to elaborate, so she didn’t pry any further. She just pointed to a red-headed boy who was standing at the top of the jungle gym with Dylan. “That’s my boy, Hayden. He seems to be getting along pretty well with Dylan.”

  “It’s nice to see. I just want them to be happy.”

  “Same here,” Jodie said. She sighed and added, “I feel fortunate that my little boy still has his daddy. His name’s Anthony. He’s out working on the fence right now. There’s other kids around here who’ve lost one of their parents. One little girl, bless her heart, she lost both her parents.”

  Jessica looked away from the woman. Though she wasn’t a little girl, Jessica had lost both her parents, and the conversation had pushed her to flash back to the image forever burned into her mind—that of her parents lying in their bed, dead. Of the blood and of the guns lying next to them. She put her fist to her mouth and choked back tears.

  “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?” Jodie asked.

  Jessica could feel her own eyes filling. She swiped her bangs in front of her face and then looked to the woman.

  “Do you mind keeping an eye on Dylan and Mary Beth for a minute?”

  “Sure,” Jodie said, a frown showing her concern.

  Jessica stood and walked through the sliding glass door into the house. Two more people she hadn’t talked to were mingling in the kitchen, each drinking a glass of water, and Jessica moved quickly past them, ignoring their quizzical gazes. She found a half-bathroom under the stairs and shut herself inside. As soon as she locked the door behind her, she let loose. Sitting down on the toilet, she allowed herself to cry. There had been so few opportunities for her to just let everything out. At the school, she’d had to stay strong for Claire. Other times, she was around the children, and didn’t want to make them more scared than they already were. This was one of the first times she had been alone since before the events at the school.

  After several minutes, she stood and looked at herself in the mirror. Tears had formed trails through the dirt on her face. She hardly recognized herself. She had lost several pounds off of her already gaunt frame over the past couple of weeks. Food had already been scarce, but then at the prison they had hardly fed her. Much of the weight had come out of her face and arms, the
bone structure of her cheeks more defined now, and her wrists gaunt.

  “Who are you?” she said to her reflection.

  A soft knock came at the door, pulling Jessica’s attention away from the mirror.

  “Ms. Jessica, are you all right?” The voice was Mary Beth’s.

  Jessica wiped her eyes with the collar of her shirt, seeing just how dirty she was as grime rubbed away with the tears. She drew in a deep breath and opened the door.

  The young girl stood there, frowning as she stared up at Jessica. Jessica forced a smile, not wanting the child worrying about her.

  “I’m fine, sweetie. I just had something in my eye and had to run to the restroom.”

  If the girl knew she was lying, she didn’t say so or show it. And before she could, Jessica reached out and grabbed her by the hand.

  “Come on. Let’s go back outside so you can play.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  He sat next to the bed holding her hand. Candles illuminated the room, and the blinds had remained drawn to keep out the sun’s light so she could sleep. Several times, Will had dozed off in the chair, but only for a few minutes at a time. He’d wake thinking her hand had moved, but each time it had only been an illusion.

  Holly had been conscious for about an hour in the time since Timothy had put her under a light anesthetic to remove the bullet from her shoulder, but now she’d lost her battle with exhaustion and had been sleeping all day. Timothy had encouraged Will to go into another room to get his own rest, but he’d vowed to be there for her when she woke. It might have just been a bullet wound to her right shoulder, but it hurt him to see her in pain. And as was his nature, he wished the bullet had hit him, not her.

  Every time he closed his eyes, he thought of Holly's face after she’d been shot, or Dylan’s after the Empty had attacked him. The scream Dylan had let out after the sudden field amputation of his arm echoed in Will’s head over and over. It had become impossible for him to find peace and try to sleep, even though he knew rest would be crucial before the group headed out to find Gabriel’s family. Finding another safe place with a bed was no guarantee.

  A knock at the door pulled Will’s droopy eyes away from Holly, though his sweaty grip on her hand remained.

  Timothy entered the room, slowly opening the door so as not to startle Will or wake Holly. He closed the door behind him just as carefully, turning the handle so the lock didn’t click.

  “How’s she doing?” Timothy asked.

  “Still hasn’t woken up,” Will said. He forced a light chuckle and said, “Either you gave her more anesthetic than you thought, or she’s just that damn exhausted.”

  The doctor smiled. "I’d say she’s just really tired. And I don’t think she’s the only one. Your friend Gabriel hasn’t left his room since he got here.”

  Will shook his head. “He isn’t tired. He’s just anxious to find his family. Believe me when I say this: it’s better that he’s in his room. I don’t think any of us want him to be around right now. How are the survivors we brought back from the school?”

  “Doing well for the most part. The biggest issue we’re facing is most of them are dehydrated and malnourished. That’ll just take some time.”

  “Glad to hear they’re doing all right.”

  Timothy nodded, then looked down to the ground. After a moment, he looked up again. “And how are you doing?”

  “Just frustrated,” Will said, looking back at Holly and gripping her hand tighter. “It should be me laying on that bed, not her.”

  “I know it’s easy to tell yourself that, Will. You and your group—y’all have been through a lot. But you can’t blame yourself for the things that have happened.”

  “That’s a lot easier said than done,” Will said. “I’ve made a lot of decisions since all this started. Some have been easy, and some haven’t. But with that comes the responsibility to be there for these people.” He looked into Holly’s resting face. “Because I love them so much.”

  “I understand. Believe me, I do.”

  The doctor went to the corner of the room where there was an old wooden rocking chair. He slumped down into it with a sigh.

  “That letter you gave me before you left: all that stuff really true?”

  Turning his focus back to Timothy, Will said, “Every damn bit of it.”

  “Why did you wait until you were leaving to tell me?” Timothy asked.

  Will turned his eyes to the floor, thinking. “I just wasn’t totally sure I could trust you.”

  “I can understand that,” Timothy said. “That’s a pretty surreal story to expect somebody to believe.”

  “But you do believe it.”

  “Yeah, I do,” Timothy said. “I sat at the edge of my bed and read that letter several times. Each time, I tried to convince myself that you were making all that stuff up. But after going through it so many times, I just couldn’t bring myself to reason why you’d lie to me about something like that.”

  “Have you told anybody else about it?” Will asked.

  “Just Samantha,” Timothy said. “She found it hard to believe at first, too. She read the letter three times and I couldn’t get her to say anything. Eventually, she looked up at me and just asked me what we’re going to do. I told her I wasn’t sure, and to be honest with you, we still haven’t decided. We don’t really know how to share the information with everyone.”

  Will thought about it and then said, “Would you like me to tell them myself? If you guys think it’s best for them to know.”

  “What makes you think these people who hardly know you are going to believe it?”

  Will looked down to his arm, covered by a long sleeve shirt. For the first time in what had seemed like hours, he let go of Holly’s hand. He realized in that moment just how much moisture had gathered on his palm, and how cramped it was from holding her grip. He used that free hand to roll up his shirt sleeve. Then he held his arm out where Timothy could see it.

  “Because I can show them this.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Gabriel lay on the bed, looking up at the stars. They weren’t real stars. The people from this surprisingly quiet little community had placed him in a room that had once belonged to a young boy. The walls were painted blue, covered with superheroes and famous professional football players. The glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceiling would have been distracting if he slept on his back, but luckily he was a side-sleeper. That being said, sleep had been out of the question with his mind racing.

  He wondered how he could be just sitting in some little boy’s room when he was finally so close to home. Several times during the night, he had thought to just leave. He could have just sneaked downstairs and walked right out the front door, or crawled through the window and hopped off the edge of the roof. But instead, he’d decided to wait it out. If there was anything he’d learned during this journey, it was that traveling at night was stupid, traveling alone was difficult, and traveling alone at night was damn near suicide.

  But as he lay there on the child’s bed, looking around at all his fun childish things, he couldn’t help but think about his own.

  Daydreaming, he pictured himself in Sarah’s room. He had painted her room several times before she and Katie had settled on the soft lavender tone, which had been there since she was about five years old. Like the boy who had once occupied this room, Sarah had plastered her room with things she loved. While superheroes and professional athletes weren’t to her taste, Sarah had a love for all things fantastical. Dragons, unicorns, and anything having to do with English wizard schools piqued her interest. The girl had quite the imagination, and it always brought a smile to both Gabriel and Katie’s faces. Gabriel had been able to see his daughter being whatever she wanted, whether that was a doctor, a lawyer, a filmmaker, or even a bestselling novelist.

  But that had been before.

  Before The Fall.

  Before the government, the economy, and humanity itself came crashing down.

&nb
sp; Now Gabriel just hoped he would see his daughter again. And with all the things that had happened to him, it was becoming harder and harder to convince himself that he ever would.

  Outside, he could hear children shouting. Finally, he sat up and went to the window, pushing aside the Batman curtains.

  Down in one of the nearby yards, he saw several kids playing. A few others headed out through the front door of the same house, including Dylan and Mary Beth. Seeing Dylan with a smile on his face brought one to Gabriel’s own. As much as he missed his own family, Dylan had become like a son to him. It tore at him to see the boy’s arm missing, as he hadn’t had to work hard to convince himself things would’ve been different had he been there. That he would have done something that Will hadn’t to make sure the boy hadn’t been bitten. Deep down, he knew he shouldn’t feel that way. He was just happy the boy was okay, and he knew Will had been feeling enough guilt from the situation just from how he’d talked about it. But the thought still crossed his mind.

  A knock came at the door, and Gabriel closed the curtains.

  “Come in.”

  The door swung open and Will appeared.

  “How’s everything going?” Will asked.

  Gabriel shrugged. “You tell me. How’s Holly?”

  “Exhausted. She’s all good, just wants to sleep. The doctor finally convinced me to get out and take a walk. He gave me this in case she wakes.” Will lifted the tail of his shirt to show a walkie-talkie on his waist.

  “I’m sure she’ll wake up soon,” Gabriel said. He gestured toward the window. “Looks like the kids are doing fine.”

  “Yeah, almost as if everything is normal. Kinda crazy to think that’s such a big deal, huh?”

  Gabriel scoffed. “Yeah.”