Free Empty Bodies 3: Deliverance (Empty Bodies Series Book 3) by Zach Bohannon Page B

later. Holly stood at the front and, without a word, took Will’s hand as he approached her. She turned and walked with him down the long hallway toward the elevators as the rest of the group followed. Everyone was silent.
    As they reached the elevators, they turned to the double doors which were now decorated with flowers. Holly would later mention that she’d collected them from the various vases that sat around the hospital. Gabriel moved in front of them and finally broke the silence.
    “You ready?” he asked, looking at Will.
    Will drew in a deep breath. He knew what lay on the other side of the doors. It had been the hardest day of his entire life, and he hoped this makeshift ceremony could bring some kind of closure. He looked to Gabriel and nodded. As Gabriel moved to open the doors, Will’s grip on Holly’s hand tightened. She returned the gesture, stroking the top of his hand with her index finger.
    Gabriel pushed open the doors, and there they lay.
    The four bodies had been placed on the ground, each covered with a white sheet. Their only identifiers were pieces of paper neatly placed on each of them, the given victim’s name handwritten in a beautiful script.
    The first in line was Rachel, the hospital receptionist who David had thrown into the room with the hospital’s experiment Empty, forcing her to let the creature loose. When she’d tried to escape after her task was complete, David had shot her in the leg so that she couldn’t get away. The rest of the group had had to listen and watch as the Empty had devoured her.  
    Next to her was Kristen, the innocent nurse who David had killed in his attempt to show Rachel and the rest of the group that he wasn’t bluffing. Will sensed that everyone in the group knew that it could have been any of them lying there; Kristen had just so happened to be the unlucky person standing next to David when he’d decided to pull the trigger just to prove a point.
    Trevor lay adjacent to Kristen, his body having been retrieved from the area where the group had stored their weapons. From what Jessica had overheard, he’d been stabbed after he’d helped the two rednecks and David with stealing all their weapons.
    Will’s eyes moistened as he looked at the last body in the line, and Holly shifted in reaction to the new tension from him, going   from clutching his hand to wrapping her arm around him.
    Though he couldn’t see her face, Melissa Kessler, Will’s mother, lay under the third sheet, her name beautifully written across a piece of paper placed on her chest. Marcus held the door opposite Gabriel, and Will, Holly, and Sarah stepped through.
    Marcus stepped forward, moving to the other side of the bodies so he could face the group.
    “Would anyone like to say anything?” Marcus asked.
    After another few moments of silence, Sarah stepped forward, wiping her eyes, and began to talk about Kristen. Working as nurses on the same floor of the hospital, the two women had worked together often and become close. Sarah spoke about the first time she’d met Kristen. It had been her first day in the hospital, and Kristen had been on the same shift. Sarah shadowed Kristen most of the day, and they’d sat down and had their first lunch together, as well. This had been less than a year ago, and now Kristen was gone.
    She tried to gather herself to talk about Rachel and Trevor, but she was too distraught. She had to step out of the room.
    All eyes seemed to fall on Will after Sarah departed. He had barely paid attention to what Sarah had said about the other two women, focused solely on his mother. It pained him that he couldn’t see her. How was he supposed to get closure if he couldn’t actually see what lay under the sheet? His gaze finally left the body and he looked around to see the rest of the group looking at him in silence. He hoped they didn’t expect him to speak, as no words came to him.
    “Melissa Kessler was an amazing woman.”
    Will looked to the side