Yesterday's Gone: Season One

getting worse out there,” he said. “Desmond’s been watching the bleakers, and it’s looking bad. Their numbers are growing and they seem to be moving faster and getting smarter. They’re opening unlocked car doors and climbing inside. Desmond’s getting worried about the cargo van, but still thinks we should wait until morning to leave. I’m not so sure.”  
    He turned to Will. “I was thinking we could use the helicopter and shuttle out to the airport. You could fly us in turns. Maybe we could get a plane. What do you think?”
    “Not gonna work. I don’t think we should split up.” Will said with a pleasant keeping-the-peace sort of smile.   “I think that when we’re ready to leave, we should all leave together. And besides, it’s not as easy as grabbing a plane and getting it in the air. You’ve no idea how hard it is to find the right one, fuel up, make sure everything is working. It isn’t like we have a ground crew. Took me a helluva lot of prep to get us here in the first place. Plus, we have a lot more weight to handle now. Of course, we can find plenty of transportation at the airport, guaranteed, but it might be smarter to stay on the ground, at least until we know where we’re going. Altogether, I’m not so sure the airport is the best idea. But,” Will shrugged, “if that’s where we elect to go, I’ll get us there safe.”
    “You don’t seem too concerned,” John said, a hint of accusation in his voice which annoyed Mary, but seemed to bounce off Will. “You still operating on this hunch of yours?”
    “For now, that’s all I’ve got,” Will said. “And as for my concern, well, no, I’m not, really. Don’t get me wrong.” he gestured outside. “There’s a nightmare waiting, but it’s not meandering around the parking lot of a Drury Inn, least not yet.”
    John stared at Will, as if he weren’t sure whether he was dealing with idiocy or dementia. “What on Earth are you talking about?”
    “Those things outside? They’re more scared of you than you are of them.”
    “Bullshit,” John said.
    Mary wondered how long Will would stay polite to John’s growing bitchiness.
    Will shrugged again. “You see it from whatever angle you like. But those ‘bleakers,’ as you call them, are just children. They’ll grow up and get mean like most of us do, but right now, we need to let them be and get out of here precisely one second after it makes sense to do so. It’s not like they’re storming in here or organizing an effort to attack, right?”
    “We’re in danger every minute we’re here, and it seems like common sense went the same place as the rest of the planet’s pulse.” John turned on a heel and headed back to his station by the front. Dog Vader barked from the other side of the bar.  
    “See,” Will said with a wink to Mary, “even Dog Vader agrees.”
    “Your dog’s name is Dog Vader?” Mary asked.  
    “Luca’s dog, Luca’s name for him.”
    “Ah,” she said, “So where were we? I think you were trying to bore me with talk about DNA and gene mutation, right before you told me that none of it mattered.”
    Will laughed. “Right. Well, it doesn’t, really. But rapid aging exists in science, and I wanted to illustrate what science already knew, so I could paint an accurate picture of what it doesn’t. I don’t believe Luca’s age has a thing to do with his DNA and I don’t think he’s suffered a mutation. I think it’s all up here.” Will tapped the side of his temple.  
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’ve heard the urban legend that if you die in your sleep, you’ll die in real life, right?”
    “Yeah, I’ve heard that. But it’s not true. Right? ”
    “No, not true at all. But the legend makes sense since the mind is the mother of everything. If you believe something strongly enough, you can sometimes will it to happen. Like sometimes you won’t want to get sick before a big event or something, and sure enough, a day or two before it’s set to occur, you’ve got the sniffles. You willed yourself to sickness, even though it wasn’t intentional, and the last thing you wanted to do. You created the conditions to make it happen though, activated parts of your body, shut others down, and a bunch of stuff we don’t even know we’re doing. Now this doesn’t mean you can get money to rain from the sky like those quacks from The Secret would swear, but the brain is amazingly complex and powerful. And as advanced as