Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation by Zach Bohannon

while before we’re comfortable with you up walking around,” Lawrence said. “We think you suffered some pretty substantial head trauma, but don’t think it’s permanent. I’m just not sure it would feel too good if you tried to get up and move around.”
    “I’d really just like to know where I am and what happened.”
    Jessica told her about the accident, and about how Lawrence had come along, taken out the Empties that had been surrounding them, and brought them here to the hospital. She told Melissa about the place and how it was safe.
    “Where’s my phone?” Melissa asked.
    Jessica shook her head. “It didn’t make it here with us,” she said.
    “Phones aren’t working anyways,” Sarah added. “They worked for a few seconds the day you guys got here, and then they went down again. Very strange.”
    Melissa sobbed. “My boy. He’s out there somewhere.”
    “I understand, Mrs. Kessler,” Lawrence said. “We all have family out there.”
    This made Jessica cry again. She thought of her parents lying on the bed and how she no longer had anyone ‘out there’. Melissa Kessler and the people in the hospital were now her only family.
    Lawrence looked over to the two nurses in the room. “Come on, ladies. Let’s let Mrs. Kessler rest and catch up with Ms. Davies, here.”
    “Thank you, Lawrence,” Jessica said.
    “No problem.” He looked over to Melissa. “Just page us if you need anything, alright? I’ll have someone bring you some food in just a bit.”
    “That’d be great, thanks,” Melissa said, smiling.
    Lawrence and the two nurses left the room, leaving Jessica and Melissa alone to talk and be thankful that they were both alive.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

    David
    The hallway was empty when David emerged from his room. He was hungry and would eventually go eat, but he wanted to check on something else first. He was barefoot, which allowed him to walk on the tile floor without making enough noise to attract anyone.
    He stepped all the way out of the doorway and shut the door behind him, then turned down the hallway, away from the break room. Kristen, one of the nurses, came out of a nearby room, and he smiled at her.
    “You going to go eat?” she asked him.
    “Yeah, yeah. Just stretching my legs.”
    “Alright,” she replied with a smile. “I’ll see you in there.”
    David reached the end of the hallway. In one direction were the elevators, and to the other were the double doors that led back to the wing of the hospital where only the survivors who worked at the hospital, apparently, were allowed to go.
    He looked behind him to make sure that the hallway was clear. When he saw it was, he turned and headed through the double doors, once again ignoring the “Employees Only” sign.
    ***
    The hallways in this wing were still dark. David moved more quickly this time, having already navigated this part of the hospital before. He only slowed down when he came closer to her.
    Like before, the hallway was dark except for the light coming out of the room that housed the creature. As he reached the corner that led around to the room, he could see the light shining out of the large window. He stepped around the corner and heard the snarls.
    David looked into the room, and there was Joanne. Their experiment. It was still lying on the bed, restrained with all the machinery still attached.  
    As he approached the window, it looked up at him. Its growling became more intense and it tried to fight its way out of the restraints. David looked down at them and noticed that they’d used leather straps, which were locked in tight. Joanne wasn’t going anywhere.
    He looked around inside the room and noticed a scalpel sitting on a small table. The urge to kill was crawling inside of him again. There was no reason for this creature to be here. They’d already found out that the disease wasn’t viral and, as far as he knew, hadn’t discovered anything else. If they had, why wouldn’t they share it with the