Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (29 page)

Will stepped past Ed. As Ed was about to turn and follow Ed, he caught movement in the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw someone outside walk past the window — a man in what looked like a black uniform — though he was past the window before Ed could be certain.

“Oh!” Ed shouted, surprised, his heart racing.

“What is it?” Will asked, looking around.

Ed ran to the window, rifle ready, but saw no one outside.

“What is it?” Will repeated, immediately beside him.

“I think I saw someone out there,” Ed said, then turned back to the open door on the far side of the room. “Quick. Let’s go.”

The door slammed shut when they were three feet away.
 

Will jumped back and Ed raised his rifle. A shadow tore across the floor, racing from the window behind him. Ed spun around, and this time saw the man in black standing in the window, his back turned to them. It looked like a Guardsman in uniform. He was without a helmet or mask, which confused Ed, like the man’s thick and unkempt mop of dark hair.
 

What the hell?

Ed approached the window for a closer look. Just as he was five feet away, the Guardsman turned and revealed a face without any mouth, eyes, nose, or
anything
. His face was smooth and pale as if someone erased his features, with something, or
some things
, moving beneath the flesh, pushing at the skin like bones trying to find their way to right.

Ed raised the rifle.

Behind him, the door flew open and Will let out a startled yell.

Ed turned back to the front door and saw Dr. Williams standing there, completely nude, his saggy skin caked in dirt, mud, or something else. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and his eyes were as wide and demented as his hair was wild and crazy.

On either side of Dr. Williams were two of the infected — now fully devolved, barely resembling the humans they once were — a woman and child found recently in the city.

“Give us the vials,” Williams said, his voice sounding not like one person, but several, almost like he were speaking while gargling.

“There are no more vials,” Will said, his voice surprisingly strong and defiant.

“Lie!” Williams said, pointing an accusatory finger at Will. “I know what you did! I know what you did! You have them!”

The window crashed behind them, reminding Ed of the man without a face who’d been behind them.
 

It was too late to do anything. Ed spun to fire, but the man raised an arm and swung it hard, knocking Ed to the ground. His rifle fell and the thing leaped on top of his body before Ed could calculate a response.

The thing gripped Ed’s neck tight, choking him and shoving his head back hard into the dusty ground. Ed struggled to pull the man-thing’s hands away, mesmerized by its face, shifting beneath the skin until it started to tear along the center like a bloody seam, followed by the sickening wet sound of ripping.

From that seam, flowed something dark and fibrous, as blood and black goo gushed from the wound and spilled down onto Ed’s chin.

He cringed, turning away and clenching his mouth closed so as not to ingest the putrid smelling shit. It started to spatter Ed’s cheek as he struggled and twisted, swinging his legs enough to try and kick the creature from his body.
 

The liquid began to dribble up and toward Ed’s eye.

If it gets in me, I’m infected.

Ed clenched his eyes shut as the thing’s grip grew stronger around his neck, choking breath from his body as pain shot through him. Ed felt like his was seconds from being ripped from his body.

A gunshot thundered in the otherwise empty room, followed by a high-pitched whine, as the body on top of him froze and a fresh batch of hot liquid spilled onto his chest and face.

Ed rolled over, quickly wiping his face off with the side of his jacket, and spinning around to see Will holding his rifle and taking aiming at Williams.

He fired, hitting the infected woman in the head and sending her deformed blackened body to the ground in spasms. Will fired again as the child ran toward them, but missed.

The wee monstrosity was fast. It screeched from some part that was still a child, wailing that Will had shot its mother.

Five feet from Will, it sprang to its feet, swinging its clawed hands at the old man, knocking the rifle to the ground and hitting him hard in the chest as he flew backwards to the ground. The thing tumbled onto the floor as Will rolled over gasping for air and clutching his chest.

The creature got up, ready to finish Will for good.

Ed’s hand found his Glock on his holster and was blasting before the creature made it an inch farther. He fired twice, tearing its small head to nuggets of flesh, bone, and goo. Ed looked up, searching for a Dr. Williams that was already gone.

“Damn it!” he screamed, ignoring Will and running out the front door and into the night, looking for Williams.

There was no Williams, just six Guardsmen, all of them staring with pitch black eyes and faces beginning to congeal, standing between Ed and the woods where his truck waited. They began walking toward him.

Ed raced back inside and slammed the door shut, locking it, then turned to a staring Will.
 

“What is it?” Will asked.

“There’s six more Guardsmen out there,” Ed said. “They’ve been infected, and at a rapid acceleration.”

“It’s impossible to become infected and to change so quickly,” Will said, “unless . . .”

Ed finished Will’s hypothesis. “They’ve been infected all along and it’s been dormant? If that’s the case, then . . . Oh God.” He shook his head and tried to close his mouth. “It might have infiltrated the Facility already.”

* * * *

Chapter 10 — Boricio Bishop
 

Boricio waited until he knew Will was gone, then crossed the street and opened the door to his old house without knocking.
 

Sarah looked up in surprise. “Will’s not here,” she said. “He won’t be back until the end of the day.”
 

“That’s fine,” Boricio said. “I’m here to see my main man, Mr. Luca Bishop!”
 

Luca tore into the front room yelling, “Boricio!”
 

He smiled; even after two long years of Luca doing it, Boricio couldn’t believe anyone could ever be so consistently happy to see him.
 

“How come you’re here?” Luca asked.

“I came to visit you, Little Man. That’s all.”

Luca eyed Boricio with suspicion. Boricio nodded at Sarah. She took the hint and left the room. Boricio led Luca to the couch and sat. Before he could say anything, Luca said, “You’re here to talk about Dad?”

Boricio nodded.
 

“Why is he mad?”

Boricio sat in silence before wrapping his arm around Luca and pulling him into a relaxed lean against the back of the couch — much like he imagined they’d be leaning in another ten years or so, each of them holding a beer — then said, “Dad just has a lot on his mind right now. It’s crazy how occupied the old man gets.” Then, for a sprinkle of truth, he added, “And there’s a lot happening at work that he didn’t expect. Nothing for you to worry about, but definitely stuff that’s keeping him busy, and not quite here even when he is, if you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean,” Luca nodded.
 

Boricio smiled.
 

Luca said. “But that’s not all the story, or even a lot of it.”

“It’s all the stuff that matters,” Boricio said.
 

Luca shook his head. “No, it isn’t. And now I feel sad because you’re lying to me.”
 

“Aww, little man,” Boricio said. “It’s not like that.” He squeezed his little brother tighter. “There’s just some stuff I don’t think you need to know. Not because I don’t care if you do, but because I don’t think you need to worry about stuff you don’t need to be worried about, you know?” He didn’t wait for Luca to answer. “A kid should have the chance to be a kid.”

“I see it all anyway.” Luca said pointing to his head. “If you don’t lie to me, then you can help me understand it.”

“Oh,” Boricio said, “I forget.” He paused, then added, “How much can you see?”

Luca said, “I see the
what
in what you’re thinking, but can’t see the why.”
 

Boricio scooted from Luca and pulled his arm back to his side. “Is this about you digging into other people’s minds?”

Luca nodded, then said. “I can see inside everyone now.” He swallowed. “And there’s more.”

Boricio could feel it, a special sort of bullshit that wasn’t really bullshit at all. Maybe he was only catching rebounds from Luca’s brain, but it felt to Boricio like they were sitting just seconds away from everything changing. He swallowed.
 

“There’s another Earth, mostly just like ours. And I know how to get there.”
 

Boricio laughed. “Hahaha, at least that’s funnier than that ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ thing you made me watch on YouTube.”
 

Luca’s face was cool marble, desperately wanting to warm.
 

Boricio swallowed again and asked, “What do you mean there’s
another
Earth?”

He repeated, “There’s another Earth, and I can go there.” Then probably because Luca knew what Boricio would say next, he added, “I’ve gone there before and I’ll go there again. I can even bring stuff back with me.”
 

“No way!” Boricio yelled, loud enough to pull Sarah to the doorway. He turned to Sarah, shook his head, and gestured for her that everything was kosher. Sarah left with a shrug and Boricio turned to Luca.
 

“That’s not possible!” he said, even though he could clearly see in Luca’s eyes that it was.
 

There was nothing but silence and faster breathing from Boricio, until Luca finally spoke. “You want to believe me, Boricio, but you can’t,” he said. Then after another second, he said, “Dad already saw it. So I can show you too.”
 

“Wait,” Boricio said. “Will has seen this?”

“Yes,” Luca nodded. “And call him Dad.”

“When did
Dad
see this?”

“I dunno, a few weeks ago,” Luca said. “But he didn’t go with me, even though I think I can might even be able to take people. He didn’t want to come. Do you want to come with me?”

“That sounds like six pounds of vanilla ice cream, covered in fudge, kid soldier. Just tell me what to do and you’ll be halfway to having it done.”
 

“You don’t have to do anything,” Luca said. “You can close your eyes, but you probably won’t have to. I like to close mine.” Luca closed his eyes as he finished his sentence.

Boricio had no idea whether he would have had to of closed his eyes or not, since the millisecond he did, he was already somewhere else.

He opened his eyes to a chain link fence, a few feet away from where the two of them were standing beneath a stop sign, with patches of grass growing through the cracks in the sidewalk around it.
 

“Where are we?” Boricio said.
 

Luca pointed to the chain link. “That’s my old school.”
 

“Wait...what?” Boricio turned to Luca in disbelief, and then up the puffy white clouds in the perfect California summer sky. “This is Las Orillas?”

Luca nodded again, then turned around and curled his fingers into the chain link, except for his pointer, which was aimed straight at another Luca, who was on a playground pretending like he was Indiana Jones, swinging from a plastic slider, then onto the rubber mat while loudly humming the theme song. The other Luca sprang up from the mat, then ran to the back of the line of kids, laughing.

Boricio shook his head. “It’s not possible.” He pointed to his chest. “Can he see us?”

Luca nodded. “If he looked over, he could. But I think he’s too busy playing. But I talked with my dad, . . . or his dad, anyway. He thought I was the other Luca, so I didn’t get caught.”
 

Luca looked like he might cry, and then said, “But Luca hasn’t seen me. I’m afraid of what will happen if he does. That’s why we have to go now. I just wanted to show you so you could believe me like you wanted to.”

By the time Luca finished his sentence they were standing in his bedroom, even though they’d been sitting on the couch when they teleported away.

Boricio said, “Can you control where you come back?”

There was a light knock on the door. Sarah said, “Are you guys in there?”

“Yup!” Boricio said.

“I could’ve sworn you were downstairs.”

“We were, Boricio said,” but then we came upstairs. He waited a second, then said, “Sorry we didn’t ask first.”
 

There was light laughter, followed by a long pause, then “Okay,” before Boricio heard Sarah’s slowly fading footsteps.

“How specific can you get with where you come back?” Boricio asked again. “We were downstairs and now we’re upstairs. How much can you control that?”