Yesterday's Gone (Season 5): Episodes 25-30 (2 page)

Desmond then stepped through a portal to save Mary and Paola and bring them back to the other world. 

Luca, while on the run, found himself in a surreal desert where he met a man named Roman, a friend of Will Bishop. Roman was with Will when they found the alien vials in Alaska. 

On the alternate Earth with its timeline, the men found the vials and brought them to the Black Island Research Facility. However, on this earth, the men saw the vials as a threat and decided to leave them alone and never tell anyone of their existence. 

Years later, Roman had become obsessed and went back to Alaska and took the vials, which began giving him disturbing images of the future.

Roman then told Luca that Will had told him that Luca would appear and that Roman was to give Luca the vials, as he was the only one pure enough to hold them.

There are also six other vials, which Roman had given to J.L. Harmon.

After Luca took possession of the vials, Dog Vader appeared, and Roman, who was a bit insane at this point, realized that Luca wasn’t pure. Roman attempted to get the vials back. 

Luca managed to escape through a portal, but not before being shot.

Luca found himself in the motel with The Darkness, now inside Rose’s body. She told him that he’s been lied to and he is not who he thinks he is. She then forced him to swallow one of the vials containing the alien life-form.

Brent Foster hasn’t been the same ever since he came back. Estranged from his wife Gina, and his son, Ben, he found himself renting out a room in an elderly couple’s house. 

One day Brent ran into Stan (or this world’s version of one of the 2:15ers who died on the other world). Brent chased him down to see if he had also seen visions like the other world’s Stan. Wanting nothing to do with Brent, Stan chased him off.

Brent decided that he might have better luck with one of the other 2:15ers. He decided to try and find the Earth version of Luis, whom he had made friends with on the other planet.

Luis was reluctant to help him, or admit to the visions he’d had of October 11. But after a while, he told Brent of a man, Roman Rosetti, who was also a member of the 2:15ers, and said perhaps Roman could help him.

Meanwhile, Ed Keenan, working with Sullivan (from the other world) at Black Island Research Facility, was trying to track down Brent at their boss, Bolton’s, directive.

After they picked up communications from Brent that might expose the whole alien threat, Bolton demanded that Keenan track down all the survivors of October 15 and kill them in order to keep the public from learning any more about the threat. Though Keenan was reluctant to agree, Bolton used Keenan’s family’s safety as leverage.

Keenan agreed, though internally he was still undecided.

After finding out that Rosetti was in a mental hospital, Brent contacted an old reporter colleague of his, Lara, to help him get into the place using her contacts. Lara agreed, but only if Brent will tell her what’s going on. Brent arranged to meet her.

However, when Brent arrived, he found Lara dead, with Ed Keenan in her apartment. Brent realized that Keenan killed her to silence her, and it’s all Brent’s fault. Keenan then took Brent into custody, handcuffing him in the back of his agency van.

Keenan then went to the hospital to follow up on the Rosetti lead, but when he got there, the man was gone without explanation. And written on his wall was all sorts of ramblings about “It” being here. Also on the wall, a message directly to Keenan, as if the man knew he’d be there. The message told Keenan to get away.

On Black Island, Sullivan was infected.

When Keenan called to inform Sullivan about Rosetti not being there, Sullivan uncharacteristically barked at him, demanding that he find the man or Keenan’s family would suffer.

Keenan decided to uncuff Brent so Brent would lead him to the other 2:15ers in attempt to find where Rosetti has gone. Their first stop — Stan’s apartment.

When they got there, they were greeted by two Black Island Guardsmen who had killed Stan, and have been ordered to do the job Ed was supposed to have done — kill all survivors of October 15, including Keenan and Brent.

Keenan and Brent manage to kill the men. Brent then decides he must go to his wife, Gina, and convince her to come with him — that it’s too dangerous for her in the city now.

Keenan decided to go to the safehouse where his daughter, Jade, and Teagan and Becca were staying, to also move them.

Brent ran home and tried to convince his wife that he wasn’t crazy and she had to come with him. Before he could do so, however, Guardsmen showed up and killed her. They were about to kill Brent and his son too, until Keenan (who backtracked after considering that Brent might be walking into an ambush like the one at Stan’s apartment) showed up to save them.

Keenan then took Brent and his son upstate, telling them to wait in a diner as the safehouse might be compromised. Keenan was right. When he arrived at the house, he found Sullivan waiting.

He realized that Sullivan was now infected by The Darkness.

Sullivan offered to evolve Keenan and his family, rather than kill him. He explains that they’ll be far better off, and seems to actually believe what he’s saying.

Sullivan, Keenan, Jade, and Teagan all discussed the offer, and Teagan asked to speak to Sullivan — the man inside, not The Darkness.

Keenan then jumped Sullivan. They struggled, with Sullivan gaining the upper hand. However, just as Sullivan was giving his ultimatum (join or die) once again, Steven’s body was killed by Rose, and The Darkness had momentarily lost
Its
control over Sullivan. In that moment, Sullivan realized what was happening, and shot himself in the head to save Keenan and his family.

Keenan and company then went to the diner to meet up with Brent and find a new place to lay low, unsure of who they could trust any longer since there was a hit out on them.

Marina woke in her father’s crypt, and while searching for an escape, discovered a secret room. In that room, her father’s ghost (or spirit) somehow spoke to her, telling her where to find two of the alien vials. He told her to take them to a Father Thomas Acevedo, and it was their job to save the world.

AND NOW, YESTERDAY’S GONE: SEASON FIVE…

CHAPTER 1 — LUCA HARDING

Irvine, California

October 2013

Beneath a blue sky baked by an Indian summer sun, astringent chlorine blended with the too-sweet scent of coconut suntan lotion and the happy sounds of careless play coming from the two hundred or so children and adults swimming under Luca, who couldn’t feel more out of place. 

The water park was thriving with life, and he was teeming with something that could eradicate it all.

Luca stood on the diving platform, staring down at the pool’s surface, trying to calm the paralyzing fear that gave his body a tremble and threatened to send him back down the ladder.

Luca had thought that being at the pool was supposed to help test his ability, and that Rose had brought him to such a crowded place because it would be easy to infect and control others. 

People’s defenses are always low when they’re gathered together and distracted by fun. 

That’s what Rose had said when she was telling Luca where they were going to go, then again once they got there. But after seeing Luca’s crushing fear of heights, she had decided it was time for an impromptu lesson in overcoming that fear. 

“Come on,” a boy called out impatiently from the ladder behind him.

“Jump!” a girl ordered, and added to Luca’s already heavy apprehension.

The Darkness inside him spoke.
You’ll be safe.

The Darkness, as the alien had thought of itself, was comfortably nestled in Luca’s thoughts, but unlike Rose it had not taken over his body. Luca wasn’t a mere puppet or host like most other humans the alien had entered. The alien promised that he was a partner, because
It
found him different than the others.
It
said
It
wanted to work
with
Luca, not just through him.
It
could have easily forced Luca to leap from the edge of the board, but
It
merely advised him instead, knowing that given time Luca would make the right decision.

For that, Luca was thankful. When Rose had forced him to ingest the blue liquid full of alien life just two weeks ago, he had thought it was the end of himself. But it had been the opposite: Luca had been changed by the alien’s brother, calling itself The Light. Luca’s memories had been replaced with those from another Luca, from this world. The Darkness lifted the veil, scrubbed false memories away, and proved to Luca that his life was a lie. 

His parents were not his parents. Nobody could ever understand him, not what he’d already gone through, or what he still had to survive. 

No one could understand him as The Darkness did.

“Come on, faggot.” The boy behind him was getting louder, petty impatience filling his voice. Luca could feel him, halfway up the ladder, staring holes into the back of his head.

Luca flinched with the word, remembering the kids who’d taunted him at school. 

Ignore them,
The Darkness said.
Just focus on the water’s surface.
See
that it is only a distance of ten feet, and
know
it.

To Luca the board wasn’t ten feet above the water. It was five hundred, and thin as a reed, slippery, with a ladder that took an hour to climb. If he hit the water wrong, he’d be dead for sure.

It’s a clear drop to the water below, Luca. There is no danger unless you slip. Your desire to retreat is only the fear. You must kill the doubts and whispering fears that will never be true. If you turn around and scramble down that ladder, you’re more likely to slip and fall, plunging to the ground and cracking your head like a melon on concrete.

Luca looked down at the water, gleaming bright beneath the sun. He felt dizzy, his stomach churning.

“I can’t.” Luca turned from the water. He was about to scramble back down the ladder, even though he could crack his head like a melon on concrete. 

But the ladder was blocked by the boy who had been yelling at him. He broke the rules and climbed to the top of the ladder before Luca had dived. He was tall, a few years older than Luca, probably around sixteen. The boy’s face was big and full of zits, his thick brow was low and angry. He made Luca think of a shovel.

The Darkness said:
Funny how the angriest of people look the least evolved.

Luca laughed.

“Whatcha laughing at, faggot?” Shovel Face asked.

Luca looked down. Even though The Darkness ran through him, and gave Luca certain gifts, he’d not yet learned to master his new abilities. Part of The Darkness not claiming his body meant that Luca had to tap into these abilities on his own. That’s why Rose was helping him. She was like a coach, like when Luca’s father who wasn’t really his father was teaching him how to fight.

But in the meantime Luca was still vulnerable, and about to get his ass handed to him by a bully at the top of a diving board.

“Jump
,” said a voice in his head. 

This time it was Rose, who could tap into Luca’s thoughts, seemingly whenever she wanted. Unlike Luca, she was controlled by The Darkness. It was a collective alien with shared memories and experiences, but her Darkness felt different. Better, Luca was certain. His Darkness had changed somehow, evolved for having been in him. Luca wasn’t sure how he knew this, whether he was picking up on thoughts from The Darkness or realizing these differences with his own senses.

Luca looked down at the chairs lined up around the pool and found Rose lying back, reclined in a pink-and-blue bathing suit, looking just as carelessly happy as everyone else in the park. She looked up at Luca and smiled. 

“OK,” he said, both to the jerk and to the voices in his head.

Luca turned and walked from the platform to the ice pack-colored diving board, which bowed slightly beneath his weight. The distance between Luca and the blue water below seemed to somehow expand by another hundred feet. He was staring down from the top of a building into the rippling surface of an inescapable death. 

Luca remembered watching the people who had jumped before him. They had bounced on the board then launched into the air. He used his weight to jostle the board. 

One, two, th— 

Shovel Face screamed, “Boo!”

Startled, Luca turned to look back. He lost his balance and slipped, his leg banging the board hard as he plunged over the side.

Luca screamed on the way down, his stomach hurled down an elevator shaft.

He slammed into the water, his stomach and face smacking the surface and knocking the air from his lungs.

Time turned to goo as Luca plunged deeper into the pool, desperate to touch bottom, propel himself to the surface, and suck some air into his lungs. Panic stabbed his brain and made his limbs do stupid things, screaming inside that he was seconds from dying, sending his legs into kicks and his arms into thrashing. 

He’d never reach the surface in time. Luca would drown and no one would miss him, all because of some asshole kid.

His feet hit the bottom, and Luca kicked, thrusting upward toward the refracted sunlight. 

He broke the surface, gasping, filling his lungs and feeling like a target for the park’s every eye. He turned, desperate to orientate himself and locate Rose. He longed for their hotel, now. Practice was over.

He spotted her, sitting on her lounge chair, leaning forward, looking at Luca, making sure he was OK.

As he started to swim toward her, Luca felt a sudden danger descending a moment before the shadow draped him. He looked up to see Shovel Face diving like a blade straight at him.

Luca tried to move, but wasn’t fast enough.

The boy barely missed, instead crashing through the water about two feet away, splashing Luca, getting water in his mouth, and causing him to gasp again.