Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER)

by Platt, Sean

  Ed shook his head, “I’m doing this for all of us.”

  “No,” Other Keenan said. “You’re not doing it at all. You’re far more equipped to deal with rebuilding. I’ve seen what you’re capable of. While we might look the same, and have more than a few similarities, you’re obviously more suited to the tasks that must be done than I am. Trust me.”

  Ed looked at Jade, who stared at him as if waiting for him to disappoint her again. Waiting for him to run off to fight again. It was all he’d ever done, after all. Live to serve.

  But whose interests was I serving all those years? Certainly not my family’s.

  Something told him to stay put.

  It’s time to stop running away. Stay and fight to rebuild the life with Jade. Stay and make sure Teagan and Becca are okay. Stop fucking running.

  Ed wasn’t sure if it was his instincts, which had never led him astray, fear, or perhaps the emotion of seeing the girls again after such a long time.

  Whatever it was, Ed decided to listen to his gut. “OK,” he said. “I’ll stay, but only under one condition.”

  “What’s that?” Other Keenan said.

  “Brent Foster and the little girl he’s with stay here too.”

  “No problem,” Other Keenan said.

  Teagan threw her arms around Other Keenan, tears streaming down her face, “Please, don’t go.”

  He shook his head, “I’m sorry. But believe me, if something goes bad, you and Becca are better off with this man.”

  She cried, hugging him tighter.

  Other Keenan kissed Teagan on the cheek, gently pushed her from his body, then picked Becca up from the bed, kissed her on the head, and said, “I’ll be back soon, Baby Doll.”

  Ed watched how Other Keenan was so gentle and caring with Teagan and the baby while saying his goodbyes, and figured that he was probably wrong after all. Maybe Other Keenan was a good guy, better than he was, and possibly one of the rare men who would actually be a decent father.

  Then again, maybe Ed was getting his second chance right now.

  * * * *

  Chapter 10 — Boricio Wolfe Part 2

  Black Island, New York

  April 2012

  SIX MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT…

  It was like a Very Special Episode of The Brady Bunch or some goddamn shit, how the entire fucking short bus was hitting the road, headed for Will’s house to pull some magical fucking vial out of a globe.

  Except in this case, instead of a short bus, they were riding two small black trucks.

  The Brady Bunch in this very special episode was himself — the Original Gangsta Boricio; his fugly body double, Pirate Boricio; Nerdy Die Hard; Mary and her Little Lamb; and Will’s less crazy looking double, who apparently let Pirate Boricio sit on his lap through puberty. Of course, there was also Grandpa Luca, some cunt hair named Sullivan, and Chuckie Cheese Dick’s cock warmer, Callie, all of them whistling while they worked like the Seven Fucking Dwarves on their way to get the vial.

  There was quite the melee at the Ponderosa, before they hit the trail, when Nerdy Die Hard, Keenan, suggested that Mary and her Little Lamb stay behind at the ranch. That was just fine with Miss Mary, but Luca wouldn’t hear it. He said they both had to come because “Paola and Mary increased the power inside him.”

  Luca didn’t say shit past that, though everyone wanted to know what in the fuck it meant. Apparently having a raisin cock gave you the juice to call the shots.

  Shit was a mile and a half past nucking futs, but at least Boricio figured the end was near enough to hit when he spit. Whatever was about to happen, it was going to happen goddamn soon. If Old Man Luca was right, then they could be home soon, which meant Boricio could finally quit playing babysitter and get back to what it was he did best, hunting solo — even though he wasn’t sure if Luca had “fixed him” too well to go after the same types of targets.

  Boricio wondered how long he’d actually think about shit like people’s feelings before he took what he wanted. He thought again of the little girl, Emily — Why the fuck do I remember her name? — and the guilt he felt for being an orphan factory.

  Fuck you, Luca, for stripping the fun from this shit!

  Boricio wasn’t too worried, though. Because even though the man child had broken him, he'd left his taste for murder intact. Perhaps Boricio would make his murder premium. It would be like that four months when he gave up beef because some bitch bet he couldn’t. He didn’t give up meat, entirely, though. Just because he couldn’t have a burger, didn’t mean he couldn’t eat the fuck outta some hot wings. Same rules, different coat of paint.

  Boricio’s nose was bothering him, his inner wolf insisting something was following behind. He wished he knew what it was, especially since he couldn’t shake the feeling, but predator’s guess said it was something even worse than one of them aliens or mutants.

  A few minutes before they reached Will’s house, they started seeing all sorts of holy shit, aliens and mutants running past them in the woods, like they were tailing them, and confirming Boricio’s suspicions that they were being followed. But that holy shit was only a teaser for the main attraction waiting on the street they needed to pass through to get to the one which led to Will’s house by the shore. There were around 40 of the alien and mutated fuckers, maybe more. Boricio gripped his pistol, itching to fight, and hoping for one of the first times in his life that he wasn’t outgunned — or outclawed, as the case may be.

  The aliens gathered, blocking both the road ahead and the road back — trapping them. The woods on either side of the road bubbled in darkness, though it was tough to tell what was shadows and what was aliens and mutants. Whatever the case, they were fucked.

  “OK, Team Boricio,” he said to both groups as they got out of their trucks, and got their guns ready for a firefight, “Let’s kill some fuckers. And remember, we’ve gotta protect Luca!”

  The creatures were clawing, and gnashing, and screaming into the air as the Brady Bunch tensed in a half-circle between the two trucks, creating a barrier to protect Luca.

  Boricio smiled, looking around at his team, everyone with guns drawn and ready. His smile went especially wide when he saw Paola, remembering how he taught her to shoot a fucker dead before she took a second to think.

  With the creatures closing in around them, Boricio was surprised at his pride. He winked at Paola and she smiled back. “Y’all ready for shit to get steamy?” he asked.

  No one answered, though Nerdy Die Hard looked like he was about to bark an order. He never got a chance, just fired his gun as the first creature reared its head, eye slits to the sky and screeching, then charged toward the group at a full gallop, fast enough for Boricio to hear its slippery slosh.

  Boricio stepped forward, taking lead, and opened fire, joining the chorus around him. Laughing, he pulled the trigger on repeat, dropping fuckers one by one without blinking, surprising himself again as he slowly took aim around the Brady Bunch, guarding the circle, and knocking anything down which came even close to Team Boricio.

  Too soon his gun went empty.

  And at that exact moment, several of the aliens broke through, racing toward them, scattering the group in all directions from the protection of the two trucks.

  Fuck, fuck!

  No time for a fresh clip, Boricio dropped the gun, then dropped to his knees as a giant claw whistled through the air above his head. He swept the creature’s feet from its body then rolled out of the way as it crashed to the ground with a squishy thud. Boricio sprang to his feet, then slammed his heel into the back of the alien’s head.

  The creature’s body was the softest Boricio’d yet seen, and his heel went straight through its flesh, like it was made of nothing but rotten fruit. An eruption of black goo bubbled out.

  Another creature shrieked, so close it was like a lion roaring in his ear. Boricio pivoted, expecting to see the creature barreling toward him, but it flew by on its way toward Paola, gun jammed and cowering behind Boricio,
near the front of one of the trucks.

  Boricio screamed, suddenly furious. Wasn’t no creature on this planet gonna hurt Mary’s Little Lamb. Fuck that shit — they’d have to go through him first.

  Boricio roared, causing the mutant to turn and look at him, though its body was still moving toward Paola. Boricio grabbed his blade from his waistband and unsheathed it, brought it up and through the mutants face, tearing its head into two as he wrestled it down to the ground.

  Paola jumped back as the mutant died just inches from her, and she met Boricio’s eyes.

  Boricio smiled at her and winked as he wiped the gore off his blade, sheathed it, then found his gun on the ground. “Get in the truck,” he said, because he sure as shit didn’t have time to fix her gun. “Stay down.”

  She got into the truck and Boricio was about to load a fresh clip into it when another mutant rushed him, a fast black blur and sent him to the ground, gasping for air.

  Fuck!

  Boricio scrambled to his feet, searching for the mutant, grabbing his blade again, but didn’t see the beast until it knocked him to the ground again and landed on top of him, pinning his arms beneath its tree-sized legs. It stared down into Boricio’s eyes with its cold, black eyes full of nothing, and Boricio felt a chill which momentarily paralyzed him.

  The mutant raised its bladed hand high and shrieked something akin to a battle cry. The scream reached into some part of Boricio and hurt his insides.

  Boricio stared up, still paralyzed — not by fear, but by something he couldn’t quite comprehend. It was something which he’d never have time to figure out before the blade ended his life.

  The mutant’s death blow was cut short by two shots, however, sending it to the ground, shrieking.

  Boricio looked up to see Mary standing over him, offering him a hand up.

  “Thanks,” he said, smiling as she hoisted him up.

  It looked like she wanted to say something, but spun around and started emptying her gun into another charging creature instead.

  Boricio grabbed his gun again and loaded a clip as Mary kept him covered. Callie ran toward them, and crouched as she reloaded her pistol.

  “Stay here and protect the kids in the truck, can you?” Boricio asked.

  Callie looked inside, saw Old Man Luca and Paola, and nodded.

  Mary yelled, “I think someone needs to go get Luca.” He followed her gaze to Luca, cowering behind Nerdy Die Hard, who was holding his own while protecting the man-kid, tearing through creatures with an M-16, probably faster than anyone else. However, he was so focused on pulling the trigger at the approaching horde, that he was leaving Luca in danger from a growing mass coming from the other side.

  Boricio said, “I’m on it,” then ran to Luca and dragged him back toward the relative safety of the truck where Paola was hiding. As he got Luca settled inside the truck and told Paola to keep an eye on him and scream if she needed anything, the creatures began to recede. Boricio looked up, slowly shaking his head and trying to understand.

  This isn’t right.

  He looked around at the crowd of creatures, and sure as shit, every one of them fuckers was falling back into the shadows. The aliens had never seemed smart enough to retreat simply because they were being decimated, at least they’d never shown those sorts of smarts before. Predator’s guess was back — this time saying the creatures were getting called like puppies to the mama bitch.

  Boricio looked down at Luca, who looked like he wanted to say something, though he seemed too tired, or maybe too old or too RipVanWhateverTheFUCKed to do anything other than lay splayed across the back seat like a half-dead body.

  Boricio moved his eyes from Luca to the Brady Bunch and, crap on a cracker, saw Charlie strolling toward them, his eyes straight ahead and a stride that said he owned half the goddamn island, along with Park Place, Boardwalk, and all four of the fucking railroads.

  “Be right back, kids,” Boricio said to Luca and Paola and shut the door of the truck and jogged over to the group to see what the hell was going on.

  Charlie stopped walking, his eyes on Boricio and waiting.

  Pirate Boricio asked, “How the hell did you get out?”

  Charlie’s face suddenly feigned distress. “There was a disaster at the Facility. The aliens got in and went on a full rampage. I barely managed to escape the elevator shaft. Everyone is dead.”

  Charlie was an emotional kid, but there wasn’t a drop of feeling in his story. He said that shit like he was ordering off a menu, without seeing nothing he liked.

  “Wait,” Nerdy Die Hard said, “Everyone is dead? Everyone?”

  He reached for his two-way radio and tried to reach someone.

  The radio only offered silence and static, however.

  “How?” Nerdy Die Hard asked, staring at Charlie. “How?!”

  “I dunno,” Charlie said, backing up, hands out defensively. “They tried to kill me, too.”

  “You motherfucker!” Nerdy Die Hard said, enraged, aiming his M-16 at Charlie’s face.

  “Woah, wait a second,” Boricio said, stepping between them. “He said he didn’t do it!”

  Nerdy Die Hard put the gun down, collapsing to the ground in tears. “Oh God, Teagan. Becca.”

  Boricio swallowed, looking back at Charlie, trying to suss out what he didn’t like about his story.

  Nerdy Die Hard stood up, glaring at Charlie, “No. There’s no way they breached the bottom levels. No way. You’re lying.”

  Charlie practically laughed, “Don’t believe me, I don’t care. Go check for yourself.”

  Boricio stared at Charlie then looked at Nerdy Die Hard as he was clearly trying to decide whether or not to go back and check.

  Sullivan grabbed the man’s shoulder, “We can go back when we’re done. You’re not going back alone.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” a man’s voice called out from the darkness behind them.

  “What the fuck?” Boricio said, suddenly falling a step back and into a defensive position as a half-creature half-man suddenly surfaced into view, walking side-by-side with some tough looking chick Boricio’d never seen, dressed like one of the black-clad Guardsmen.

  Boricio saw the recognition all around him — the guns that weren’t being aimed, and the general lack of worry despite the slippery Frankenfucker-looking mutant that looked like someone had sewn half an alien to half a man, almost right down the middle. This was the first mutant Boricio had seen that still had human qualities, save for Charlie, if what they’d said about him was true.

  Nerdy Die Hard looked plenty worried, but Pirate Boricio shot him a look that said shit was cool.

  “I take it you know Girl and Monster here?” Boricio asked, looking at the creature again, with its twisted torso of terror; two claws jutting from a set of charred looking limbs, slick and dangling from its side.

  Pirate Boricio nodded, his eyes narrowed like he was trying to get the colors the same on the side of the Rubik’s Cube.

  Boricio looked at Charlie. He knew nervous when he saw it, and sure as shit that was exactly what Charlie was, shifting on his feet and taking a light step back as he pulled the group’s attention away from Girl and Monster.

  “Did you escape Black Mountain?” Charlie said to the Frankenfucker.

  Frankenfucker didn’t answer Charlie, turning to the group instead, and aiming his eyes at Pirate Boricio. “He’s lying,” Frankenfucker said. “There was no accident at the Facility, and no alien attack. He is the monster.” Then, probably because he saw the same whatthefuck on all the faces as the one being worn by Pirate Boricio, added, “The Darkness is inside him.”

  Boricio tensed. Sure Charlie might have been infected, but he wasn’t some evil monster, or Darkness, or whatever the fuck Frankenfucker wanted to call it. Boricio wasn’t about to stand by and let anyone say shit about Charles in Charge, not when he’d been as loyal as he had. Sure, he probably wanted to catch up with Callie so he could get to the center of her Tootsie Roll Tootsie
Pop, but Boricio was sure Charlie’s return had something to do with his allegiance to Boricio, too.

  “What fucking Darkness?” Boricio said, taking a step toward Frankenfucker, as though he didn’t have a dangerous black claws that could tear Boricio’s flesh like meat from a lobster’s shell. “You’re the one who looks like Alien Raped Predator!”

  Mary was suddenly in front of Boricio, her mouth hanging open, standing a short half-step in front of her little lamb, whose mouth was hanging even lower than her mother’s.

  “Ryan,” Mary said, stepping forward and reaching her hand out toward Frankenfucker’s face, which still looked mostly normal, except for the giant black goiter bubbling on his neck, and an ashen pallor like a shadow spilled on his face.

  “You know him?” Boricio asked, even though it was as obvious as day.

  Miss Mary didn’t need to answer. Her little lamb said, “Daddy?”

  Holy fucking shit!

  They were one John Williams score away from a goddamn melodrama.

  Pirate Boricio looked as confused as the rest of The Brady Bunch, but he stepped to the front of the crowd, then turned and said, “Everyone stay calm. Everything is okay. He turned to Girl and Monster. “What’s going on, Lisa?”

  Charlie used the happy reunion and Pirate Boricio’s confusion to drift closer to Callie, pulling her hand into his. She seemed more uncertain than Boricio would’ve expected, but finally softened, then rested her head against Charlie’s body.

  Frankenfucker said, “I’ll take it Lisa,” then turned to Mary and his daughter. “Yes, it’s me.” Boricio thought the half-alien might’ve been crying, but with the shadows all over his face, it was impossible to tell. “I’ve been searching for you since October.” He looked down. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”

  Mary choked, then sobbed and said, “It’s okay,” through a harsh curtain of tears as her baby girl shuddered beside her. Neither of them had gone close enough to hug him, however.