Read Online Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation by Zach Bohannon - Free Book Online

couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but something about the way he’d been acting was just rubbing him the wrong way. He was about to ask David about how he ended up in a ditch on the side of the highway before Lawrence had rescued him when David spoke first.
    “Where are we going?”
    Lawrence thought of changing the subject, but they were close to their destination, and so he decided against it.
    “There’s a small clinic up the road here. It’s a little off the beaten path, so it may not have been raided yet. I know some of the people that worked there so I want to go check it out.”
    He looked over to David, who didn’t respond. The man just sat there, looking out the window.
    “You know how to fire a gun?” Lawrence asked.
    David looked over to him and nodded. “I can hold my own, yeah.”
    “Good.”
    With one hand on the wheel, Lawrence reached down and grabbed a pistol that was hidden between the driver’s side door and his seat. He held it in his hand where David could see it, all while staring at the man. He was trying to get a read on the mysterious man to see if he should give him the gun or not. In the end, he knew that it wouldn’t be safe for him to go into the clinic alone, and he couldn’t send David in unarmed. So, he handed David Ellis the small firearm.
    David accepted the weapon into his hand as Lawrence put all his focus back onto the road. He heard David pop out the clip to confirm that the gun was loaded.
    “It’s a 0.38. Should give you plenty of punch to take any of those things down.”
    “Thanks,” David said.
    Lawrence looked up the road and saw the exit he needed to take to get to the clinic.
    “Here we go,” Lawrence said.
    As Lawrence continued to drive toward the exit, he heard a window open. He looked over and saw David pointing the gun outside with both hands gripping the weapon. Up the road just a bit, Lawrence saw one of the creatures limping down the shoulder on the other side of the metal railing. David had the gun focused on it.
    As they passed by the beast, Lawrence heard David fire off a round, and then he looked into the passenger side mirror.
    Lawrence could just see the beast roll down the hill and come to a stop at the bottom, lying motionless.
    He looked over to David, who was rolling up the window with the gun in his lap. The man never looked over toward Lawrence. He only continued to stare outside, and Lawrence wondered what the man could have been thinking.
    ***
    David
    “It’s just up ahead,” Lawrence said.
    Just as Lawrence had told him earlier, the small clinic sat off an uninhabited road. They must have been on the outskirts of Knoxville, because there wasn’t much out here. As they got closer, David noticed something. Behind the building was a large wooden structure with chain link fence built into the sides of it. It ran a good twenty yards off the back of the building. Then, David could finally read the sign out front: Volunteer Kennels.
    Lawrence pulled into the parking lot, and David watched as four Empties banged at the front door of the building. As the ambulance approached, the creatures turned around and walked toward them.
    “Alright, let’s…”
    But before Lawrence could finish, David was already out of the vehicle.
    He walked toward the first Empty, raised the handgun, and fired a bullet right through its skull. Then, he hit the creature walking next to it. The next Empty was a few yards away and, still moving forward, he fired without missing that one, too. With one remaining, David stopped. He waited for the beast to get within just a few feet of him and, as it reached out to grab him, he kicked it in the stomach as hard as he could. The Empty stumbled to the ground, and David looked down at it. Just as it was about to reach for him, he lifted his leg and slammed his size eleven boot down onto the thing’s skull, crushing it.
    David stood there, looking down at the last Empty. Barking from the dogs inside the kennels sang