Read Online Empty Bodies 3: Deliverance (Empty Bodies Series Book 3) by Zach Bohannon - Free Book Online

yet.
    Brandon walked over and tried to turn the handle to the back door, but it was locked.
    “No surprise there,” he said.
    Will looked to the houses on either side of them and saw that they were shrouded in darkness. The closest house with lights on was three houses down on the other side of the street. What made him most nervous were the Empties that he could hear in the distance behind the house.
    “We’re gonna have to be quick,” Will said. “Those things don’t sound too far away. Is there a ditch or anything back there that would prevent them from getting to us?”
    “No,” Brandon said. “It’s a clear path. All that land is undeveloped.”
    “Do you know exactly where he keeps his guns?”
    “Yeah, he’s got a case back in his bedroom.”
    Will drew in a deep breath. A shovel leaned against the wall next to him and he grabbed it.
    “Well, I hope so,” Will said. “‘Cause there’s no easy way to do this, and we’re definitely going to attract attention.”
    He lifted the shovel up onto his shoulder, almost like a baseball bat.
    “Ready?”
    Brandon drew in his own deep breath. “Yeah, I guess.”
    On that mark, Will reared back and swung the shovel into the window, shattering the glass on the first try. The sound was deafening. Their clock began to tick.
    Brandon reached through the window and unlocked the door. He opened it, and the two men headed inside.
    ***
    Jessica
    Jessica turned around, looking to other houses on the street to see if anyone had heard the window break. Everything looked the same, but she now worried that any Empties in the area would have been attracted by the crash and be heading toward the house. They’d heard some of the creatures when they’d come from the end of the street, so they knew there were some lurking around, though she couldn’t hear any now.
    “Everything okay, Sam ?” she whispered.
    Sam poked his head through the passenger side window. “So far, so good.”
    She turned her wrist over, gripping the steering wheel tight.
    “Please, hurry,” she mumbled under her breath.
    ***
    Will
    Directly on the other side of the back door was the kitchen, and Will found himself standing on the tile floor near a granite top island that reflected the moon’s light coming in from a window above the sink. He awaited Brandon’s lead.
    “Come on, his bedroom is back this way.”
    Will followed Brandon through the living room, running into the back of the sofa and nearly falling. He stopped to gather himself, gripping the top of the couch as he guided himself around it.
    Brandon hadn’t waited on Will, and a door swung open in the hallway, its knob slamming into the adjacent wall.
    Brandon screamed.
    “Brandon!”
    Will let go of the sofa and ran toward the hallway. Paying no attention to his unfamiliar surroundings, he tripped over a coffee table in the middle of the room and stumbled onto the floor. He braced himself with his hands, grimacing when all his weight fell onto the bandaged hand he’d punched the mirror with earlier. Still, adrenaline pumped through him and he jumped to his feet, running toward the direction of the scream.
    When he reached the end of the hallway, Will came to an open room. Inside, he saw Brandon sitting on the carpet with his back against a dresser. One of his hands covered his mouth as his shoulders shuddered, and he stared up at something on the other side of the room. Will crept closer until he was through the doorway, and his gaze followed Brandon’s.
    “Oh, shit.”
    A man sat upright against a headboard on a king size bed. What remained of his head had slumped to his shoulder. A large handgun lay beside him, suggesting he’d died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Will looked back down to Brandon, who sniffled as tears ran down to his hand on his face.
    “I thought he was in Florida,” Brandon mumbled. “I had no idea he’d even be here.”
    The man on the bed was Jack Nix, Brandon’s father, dead of an apparent