Empty Bodies (Book 4): Open Roads Page 5

  “Good to meet you gentlemen,” Charlie said. “Where you from?”

  “All over,” Will said. “We all kinda met in Nashville, and now we’re headed to D.C. That’s where Gabriel’s from and where his family is.”

  “I see. Any contact with them?”

  Gabriel shook his head.

  “Sorry, man,” Charlie said. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Been having trouble finding gas,” Will replied. “We came in here hoping to find a hose and maybe a gas can or two.”

  “Definitely not gonna find any cans,” Charlie said. “Those’ve been gone a while.”

  “You’ve been here?” Gabriel asked.

  Charlie nodded. “Many times.”

  Gabriel turned, readying the rifle to his shoulder, when he heard approaching footsteps.

  “It’s just me,” Holly said.

  She showed her face around the corner of the aisle’s end cap. Holly’s eyes widened when she looked to the floor and saw the bodies, and then she hurried over to Will.

  “You okay?” Holly asked him.

  “Fine. Where’s Jessica and the kids?”

  “In the van, keeping an eye on things.”

  While Will explained to Holly what had happened, Charlie turned and stepped around the back corner of the aisle. When he reappeared, he wore a jacket and was adjusting the collar. Gabriel pushed past Will. Charlie looked up just as Gabriel approached him, and he opened his eyes wide and raised his eyebrows. Gabriel grabbed Charlie by the collar and slammed him against a display of faucet parts.

  “What the fuck, man?” Charlie said.

  “Gabriel!” Will yelled.

  “Where’d you get that jacket?” Gabriel asked.

  “What?” Charlie asked, face painted with confusion.

  Together, Will and Jessica worked to pry Gabriel away from Charlie, who lost his balance and fell onto the ground. He stumbled to his feet again and backed away.

  “Let me go,” Gabriel demanded. “He’s wearing my fucking jacket!”

  The blue ski jacket looked identical to the one he’d grabbed at the sporting goods store right after The Fall.

  “You’re crazy, man,” Charlie said. “This is my jacket. It was a Christmas gift.”

  “Let it go, Gabriel,” Holly said. “That’s a common jacket.”

  Gabriel didn’t buy the lie. “Take it off and show me the tag.”

  “What?”

  Gabriel drew his sidearm and pointed it at Charlie, who put his hands up and moved backward away from the group.

  “Gabriel, chill out,” Will said.

  “What the fuck?” Charlie said.

  “Quit backing up,” Gabriel said. “Pull off the jacket and show me the tag. If it’s my jacket, it won’t be there because it got ripped off in a struggle with an Empty. That whole part of the inside is torn.”

  Sweat pouring down his face, Charlie said, “Come on, man. I told you, this was a Christmas gift from my mother.”

  “Show me the tag,” Gabriel said, shaking the weapon at Charlie. “I’m not gonna ask you again.”

  “Charlie?” a female voice called out.

  Will and Holly raised their weapons, aiming them in the direction of the new voice.

  “Who is that?” Will asked.

  A woman appeared at the end of the aisle, and she drew her own gun, holding it up in front of her face and pointing it at Gabriel. She didn’t have a clear shot with Charlie standing between them, and Gabriel quickly grabbed Charlie, turned him toward the woman, and held the handgun affixed to Charlie’s temple.

  “Drop it,” Gabriel demanded.

  Hands shaking, the woman continued pointing the gun at the group.

  “Drop it, now, or he’s done.”

  His voice shaking, Charlie said, “Do it, Claire.”

  Claire’s hands continued to shake. She looked to be in her mid to late twenties, around the same age as Jessica and Holly. She looked more than uncomfortable holding a gun.

  “Do it!” Charlie said once more, and the girl finally kneeled down and placed the gun on the ground.

  “Kick it over here,” Gabriel said.

  Claire kicked the gun, sending it floating over the tile floor. It landed just to Gabriel’s right, and Holly kneeled down to pick it up.

  With Charlie his captive and Claire unarmed, Gabriel pulled at the back of the jacket collar and smiled. He leaned out of the way so the rest of his group could see that the jacket had been torn where the tag should’ve been, just like he’d said. Will’s face turned from feeling confusion over how they’d got into this situation to anger. He pulled Charlie away from Gabriel, pushed him against the display wall, and punched him square in the jaw. Charlie crumbled to the ground and Claire cried out.

  “Is it just you two?” Will asked Charlie.

  “Y-yes,” Charlie replied.

  Will drew his own sidearm, pointed it down at Charlie’s head, and asked again.

  “Yes, I promise!” Charlie cried.

  Gabriel kept a steady aim on the woman, watching to make sure she didn’t do anything rash, while Will put away his gun, reached down, and picked up Charlie. He grabbed Charlie’s shoulders and yanked the jacket off of him, then threw it back to Gabriel. Will then looked back to the rest of the group.

  “Come on, let’s go,” he said.

  “That’s it?” Gabriel asked. “They know the vehicle we’re in and everything.”

  “They’re not gonna come after us,” Will said.

  “How can you be so sure?” Gabriel asked, keeping his gun aimed at Claire.

  “Come on,” Will said again.

  Gabriel peeked over his shoulder to see Will walking away, and then he looked back to Charlie. Charlie had his eyes on Will and said, “Wait.”

  Gabriel looked back again to see that Will had stopped and turned to face Charlie. Gabriel followed his gaze back to the cowering man on the floor, waiting for him to speak.

  “You saved my life,” Charlie said. “I would’ve been eaten by those things if you hadn’t showed up.”

  “Consider it a goodwill gesture,” Will said.

  “Let me pay you back,” Charlie said.

  Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “How, and why the fuck would you do that?”

  Charlie looked down to the ground and shook his head. “Look, man, I’m sorry that I broke into y'all’s van and stole your jacket and gasoline. We’re just out here trying to survive like y’all are. You gotta understand that.”

  “Yeah,” Gabriel said. “That’s why we’re leaving.”

  Gabriel lowered the gun and turned around. He nodded to Will, signaling to him that he was right in saying they needed to go try to find a hose and then get out of there.

  “We have gasoline,” Charlie said.

  Gabriel immediately looked to Will and shook his head. Will’s eyes moved back and forth between Gabriel and Charlie.

  “Where?” Will asked.

  “About twenty minutes from here,” Charlie said. “We have a place up in the mountains. None of these monsters are up there.”

  Gabriel laughed, “What? So we’re just supposed to follow you up into the middle of nowhere and expect you’re just gonna give us some gasoline?”

  When he looked back to Will and Holly, neither of them were laughing.

  “I owe you guys my life,” Charlie said. “We’re good people up there, and we don’t mean you any harm. We’re just trying to survive this mess, just like y’all.”

  “How much can you give us?” Will asked.

  Gabriel scoffed and said, “You’re not really considering this, are you?”

  Will pulled Gabriel aside, out of earshot of both Charlie and Claire.

  “Look, I’ve got a pretty good read on people,” Will said. “They aren’t a threat to us. I saw it in his eyes when I saved him. Just trust me on this one, okay?”

  To Gabriel, none of this felt right. He simply wanted to get the fuck out of there and get on with their business. All he cared abou
t was getting to his wife and kid, and he could give two shits about either of these people or their group up in the mountains. But when he looked into the face of not only Will, but Holly, as well, he knew he’d be fighting a battle he wouldn’t win. So, instead of throwing a verbal jab, he simply sighed.

  “We go there, we get gas, and we leave,” Gabriel said. “Cool?”

  Will nodded. “Cool.”

  He patted Gabriel on the shoulder, then turned back to Charlie and Claire.

  “So, where exactly is this place you speak of?”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Will followed Charlie and Claire through the exit located at the rear of the store. Outside, Charlie and Claire’s four-door sedan sat nearly blocking the back door, giving the door just enough room to swing open. The vehicle looked to be in less-than-stellar condition, the right side of the front end bashed in.

  “I think you guys need a new car,” Will said.

  Claire said, “We’ve got others at camp. We just use this one for runs since it’s already beat-up.”

  “How many times have you guys made this trip down here?” Will asked.

  “Too many to count,” Charlie said. “This is a small town, and it’s gotten easier and easier to come down here because less people have been around. Not really sure if they’re staying in their homes or… well…”

  “Yeah,” Will said, not needing Charlie to finish the sentence. He assumed the latter, unsaid notion that people were either not surviving, or worse, being possessed by the Empties.

  An engine hummed at the far corner of the building, and Will looked over to see the minivan coming toward them. Gabriel brought the van to a stop a car-length away from the sedan’s front bumper, and then he and Holly stepped out of the front seat. Jessica remained in the middle row with the kids.

  “How far you say this place we’re going is?” Gabriel asked.

  “We’re gonna go east down the interstate for about five miles, then we’ll have a twenty minute hike up into those mountains over there,” Charlie said, pointing out to the horizon.

  Gabriel scoffed. “Well, I can tell you right now that we’re not gonna make it up any mountains. We’d be lucky to get that five miles down the interstate on the fuel we’ve got in the tank.”

  From the driver’s side of the sedan, Charlie smiled, hinged over on one foot, and popped the trunk. He walked around to the back of the car, reached into the trunk, and pulled out a five gallon gas can.

  “This one should have enough inside to get you where we’re going,” Charlie said. He offered the gas can to Gabriel.

  Hesitance in his eyes, Gabriel slowly put his hands out to take the gas can.

  “Thanks,” Gabriel mumbled.

  “No problem, man,” Charlie said.

  Will walked to the passenger side panel door of the van and slid it open. He pulled out the handgun they’d taken from Claire, and handed it over to Jessica.

  “You mind putting that back there for now?” Will asked.

  Jessica reached back and placed the gun into one of the duffle bags.

  “You need anymore ammo for yours?” she asked, looking back while still leaning over the seat.

  “I should be good,” Will said, shaking his head.

  He felt a presence behind him and turned to see Holly.

  “I wanna ride with you,” she said.

  “You need to stay with the others in the van. Besides, I don’t think they have room for me in that car, much less two of us.”

  “Why can’t you just ride with us, too?” Holly asked. “I’m with you, I’m not getting bad vibes from them, but you never know. Just ride with us and we can all just follow them up there.”

  “That’s why I want to ride with them. If I get the sense that something isn’t right, I can do something to get us out of it before they get us all the way up that mountain. But I think we’re going to be fine.”

  Her eyes faced down, signaling to him that she still felt uneasy. He cupped her face in his hands and leaned in to kiss her on the forehead.

  “Trust me,” Will said. “It’ll be fine.”

  ***

  Charlie merged onto Interstate 40 and headed east. Claire rode in the passenger seat and Will sat in the back, his sidearm neatly tucked away at his side. The sun sat in the sky, bringing with it a midday’s heat. Grey clouds shifted in the distance, hinting at rain.

  “Gotta think these warm days’ll be past us soon,” Charlie said, striking up friendly conversation.

  “I’m lucky if I even know what month it is at this point,” Will said.

  “Some of the others in our group keep a calendar up-to-date, but I try not to look. It’s not as if it really matters.”

  Will smiled. Time to him seemed so futile now. He’d thought he’d have plenty more holidays with his parents, and that they’d be around when he finally decided to settle down and get married, and even have a child. But none of that would happen now, and time seemed not to matter much to him, either. In fact, time was bullshit.

  “How many are in your group?” Will asked.

  “Including Claire and I, there’s seven of us now.”

  The now definitely caught Will’s attention, and the next logical question of wondering what happened to the others nearly came spewing out of his mouth. He caught himself, though, knowing that either Charlie or Claire would prod right back if he chose to question how many people they’d had in their group to begin with. Will wasn’t ready to give his own answer back, in hopes that it could maybe come up later for Gabriel, Holly, or Jessica to answer.

  Instead, Claire came at Will with another question he wasn’t ready to give a direct answer to.

  She asked, “Any idea what in the world caused all this?”

  Will chewed on the question for a moment, thinking carefully how he’d answer. He even found himself involuntarily pulling away his shirt sleeve and massaging the bite marks on his arm, before realizing what he was doing and quickly pulling the sleeve back down to his wrist.

  “I don’t know,” Will said, lying.

  “Gotta be some kind of virus,” Charlie said. “At least, that’s what we think. One of the guys with us is hellbent on thinking that it’s a biological terrorist attack, like ISIS or something. Like maybe someone contaminated our food or water system somehow.”

  “Terrorist attack,” Will said. He nodded in agreement and said, “Makes a lot of sense.”

  And in a way, it really did. Only Will knew that ISIS wasn’t behind the attack, but that instead it was some sort of supernatural being.

  “So is that why you’re headed to D.C.?” Claire asked. “To see if they have any answers there?”

  “Kinda,” Will said. “We’re mainly going because that’s where Gabriel and Dylan are from. Gabriel’s the one who wanted to shoot Charlie.”

  A nervous laugh came from Charlie. “Yeah, well, glad he didn’t. That his son?”

  “Dylan? No. They were in a plane when The Fall happened. It crashed. They were the only two survivors.”

  “Damn,” Claire said. “They survived a plane crash?”

  Will nodded.

  “You said ‘The Fall’,” Charlie said. “What do you mean?”

  “Yeah, that’s what we call it. I was sleeping when it happened, but apparently everyone who was initially infected just randomly fell to the ground. So, we started referring to it as ‘The Fall’ in our group.”

  Charlie had enough awareness to turn on his turn signal before exiting off the interstate, or perhaps it was just an old habit he’d held onto. Will looked outside and saw the sign that said ‘Campgrounds’ and had an arrow pointing to the left, the same direction that Charlie headed at the end of the ramp, again applying his turn signal as a courteous gesture to Gabriel, still driving the van behind them.

  Cars were vacant, scattered across the bridge. A truck had even driven into the concrete barrier, its front tires now hanging off the edge, looking down onto Interstate 40. Will had one of those rare moments where he
reminded himself that each one of the vehicles he saw along the road represented a life. He’d put himself past thinking about such things, but occasionally the thought snuck up on him. And for just a moment, he wondered if the person who’d been driving the truck had wrecked because they fell Empty, or wrecked in sheer confusion at the chaos around them.

  Charlie navigated through the vehicles as if he could have done it with his eyes shut, and about another mile down the road, he pointed to a large billboard.

  “That’s where we’re headed.”

  The billboard showed your typical asshole American family, complete with a happy husband and wife, a son and a daughter — all white, of course — and a yellow Labrador Retriever. The parents stood in an embrace on the front porch of a log cabin, looking out into the yard as the two children played with Old Yeller, little Timmy rearing back to throw the dog a tennis ball. The top of the billboard read, in big yellow letters, ‘Visit Point View Cabins - Where North Carolina Vacations’. The sign also informed those passing by that they were 15 miles out.

  “Looks quaint,” Will said.

  Charlie chuckled. “Yeah, it might be just a little different than that now.”

  Will noticed how quiet Claire had been. Considering everything that had gone down in the store, he couldn’t blame her for being unsure about him and his group.

  “So, how do you two know each other?” Will asked. “Friends? Couple? Brother and sister?”

  The last suggestion got a small laugh out of the two, considering Charlie’s light chocolate skin and Claire’s a-typical suburban white girl appearance, complete with the blonde hair and blue eyes.

  “New friends,” Claire said.

  “So, you guys met after The Fall?” Will asked.

  Charlie peeked at Will through the rearview mirror, and replied with a very shortened, “Yes.”

  Pain lay behind those eyes in the mirror, and Will felt as if he might be stepping over the line, prying too much. Just like he didn’t want them doing to him. Charlie clearly had his own newly acquired memories that he was trying to block out.

  “Sorry,” Will said. “Wasn’t trying to get too personal.”

  Charlie sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “No, it’s okay, man.”