Yesterday's Gone: Season One

a book. Stanley Train Goes To School. Brent said, “Tomorrow, buddy, Daddy’s tired.”
    Brent dismissed Ben’s complaints at the time, a temporary disappointment that Ben would soon get over.  
    “Please, Daddy.”
    “Tomorrow,” Brent said. Of course, the next night, Brent was working, along with every evening after that. Now the look of sorrow on his three-year-old’s face would be frozen in Brent’s brain forever.
    “I’m so sorry,” Brent said staring at the bodies around him. “Daddy’s so sorry.”
    Luis dropped his guns and hugged Brent. Both men cried.

    * * * *

CALLIE THOMPSON

    Callie held the gun against the back of the closet door, waiting for the creatures to make their way into the bedroom. She prayed there weren’t more than two, three at most. She was confident she could take one of them out, maybe two. Any more than that, she was pretty sure they’d overwhelm her.
    She heard the monsters stumble up the stairs, bumping between banister and wall the entire way. Her heart pounded so loudly in her chest, she was sure they’d hear. As one of them passed the bedroom door, Callie caught her breath and held it. The second creature didn’t pass, though. It turned into the room and it was all she could do to hold the breath in her lungs.  
    The creature was similar to the others: long, dark, black, and wet looking with lights moving beneath its skin. Its face was an abomination of misshapen parts. It had just one eye, off to the side. It’s nose was missing, with only two dark holes for nostrils. Its mouth was impossibly wide, almost so wide that if it chose to open it fully, the top of its head would probably fall back like a Pez dispenser. Rows of razor-sharp rotted teeth filled the creature’s mouth.
    The gun shook in Callie’s hands as the creature stopped in front of the closet, lifting its head up and sniffed.  
    Fuck, fuck, fuck.
    The creature’s face inched closer until it was maybe two feet from the closet opening. It sniffed again. Its eye widened as it stepped back, and pointed at the closet, letting loose with a ear piercing scream that sounded like an alarm.
    Callie let out her breath and slid open the door so hard it nearly bounced back and hit her as she stuck her arms out and fired two rounds at the creature’s head. The bullets sank into its skull like she were shooting a slab of beef. The first creature fell to the ground just as the second stormed into the room. She raised the gun to fire, but the creature’s arm was too quick. It slammed hard into her hand and knocked the gun to the ground. The creature charged at Callie, mouth gnashing and open. Callie stumbled back into the closet, gripped the inside of the door and slammed it shut.
    The creature shrieked and clicked as it hit the door with its body.
    Callie cried out, the closet doors shaking in her hand. Another hit made the doors rock in their track. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to hold the doors shut before the creature either ripped them open or pushed them off the tracks.
    Another hit. And then more clicking and shrieking as one hit against the door was followed by another and another, and in such quick succession, Callie figured three of them had to be outside the closet working together.
    Callie’s inability to cry had found its cure. Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded, “Please, no! Don’t kill me!”
    She didn’t even think about whether or not they’d understand her, let alone listen to her pleas. But those were the only words that would fall from her mouth between cries and gasps for air.
    The closet door kept rocking in its frame as she desperately clutched them, trying to keep them together. The bullets in her pocket mocked her as the gun lay just outside the closet. No way would she be able to get to the gun before one, or all the monsters got her.
    Another hit.
    She cried out.
    Another hit and she heard something a horrible wrenching sound above as the doors broke loose from the track. The right door fell in and on top of her as a long black arm reached in and swiped at her, its dark claws sinking into the meat of her forearm.
    She screamed again, falling down and kicking out. Her foot found what seemed to be one of the creatures’ knees, and it cracked with a sickly wet crunch, but the monster was unfazed, taking another swipe at her. Instead of hitting her, it lifted her last bit of protection, the door that was on top of her. Now it was just her and them. Her eyes