Yesterday's Gone: Season One

Drury Inn side of the equation. And Will had already told him that they’d not seen another soul along the way.
    They’d had plenty of unexplained drama in Missouri, but nothing compared to what the pair of travelers brought, with supernatural connections and rapid aging, not to mention a dash of dream sharing, which apparently sent them across the map to help the Warson Woods gang in their hour of need.
    It almost seemed like a… plan .
    But if it was a plan, someone had to be the planner.  
    Desmond snapped one of the hotel’s complimentary pencils, then flicked it to the edge of the desk and ran his hands through his hair.  
      He’d give anything for access to his hard drive and a working network. After all his team’s research on Quantum Entanglement, he couldn’t help but feel something was obvious, some connection, something that could help him, help all of them see the other side of a solution.
    Desmond swept the trio of sheets into the trashcan, then turned his notebook to a fresh page. He drew a giant circle, then sketched smaller circles around it to mimic the hive like clusters forming outside.
    A hive!
    That was it — the bleakers are a hive.  
    If they were a hive, they had a queen.  
    And if they had a queen, she had to be somewhere close, or drawing closer.  
    The bleakers were exploding in numbers. It made sense that something was pulling them in, like ore to magnet.  
    Desmond groaned, then stood and stretched. He reached down, tore the sheet from his notebook, then crumpled it into a ball and tossed it in the wastebasket.  
    He left the cubicle, crossed the hotel lobby and pool area, and went into the small gym at the far side of the inn. He hopped on an exercise bike, one of the kind that didn’t need electricity to provide resistance.
    Ideas arrived faster in motion.
    Desmond rode for three minutes, then dialed the resistance to 4, the highest setting before riding turned to racing, then moved his legs for a few more minutes, skating along the edge of several ideas, but unable to grab a single one, and knowing they were all wrong before he even tried.  
    He was glossing over something obvious, something that would illuminate truth and steer them clear of danger. Something he already knew had to be useful, something in his memory banks, already discovered then filed away like any of life’s impressions that are irrelevant at the time imprint.
    Desmond dialed the bike to 6 and and pedaled faster.
    Sweat painted his face as the fingers of his mind finally wrapped around the frayed edges of an answer. He hadn’t pushed himself this hard on a bike in months. That old familiar “runner’s high” was kicking into gear. While endorphins stimulated pleasure receptors in the brain, they also had a secondary effect on Desmond, stimulating his creative process. He’d had many of his best business ideas during, or shortly after, a good run or bike ride.
    If he could just push himself a little bit harder, a little bit faster, he would find the answers he needed now...
    or die trying.

    * * * *

DOG VADER

    earlier that morning...

    Dog Vader paced in a circle.  
    Where are Luca and Will?
    This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. It wasn’t how it was in his dreams.
    It is here. This is bad.
    Mary should have been able to understand him, but she couldn’t. He was just a dog to her. But he had to let her know that the soft man was an impostor; the dark one, the thing that made everything black.
    “John, it’s time to go.”
    Growl....Growl....Growl....
    The impostor looked at him with eyes full of hate, then turned to Mary.  
    A sea of rot hung like a thick fog in the room, putrescence dripped from the impostor. She should have smelled him. But humans didn’t smell things like dogs did.  
    He had to get Luca to sleep. That was the only time they could talk, or at least it was the only time Dog Vader could say what needed saying and be sure Luca would understand. They had managed alright outside of sleep, at least the first two days, but that was before they found Will.  
    Of course they were supposed to meet Will, just not so early. And not like they had.
    Jimmy and Desmond joined Mary and the impostor, but Will and Luca were still nowhere. Luca was probably with Paola. Vader wondered if Will was off smoking somewhere.  
    Jimmy headed toward the stairs, leaving the impostor and Desmond alone.
    Growl....BarkBarkBarkBark...Growl...
    Dog Vader’s barks bounced across the