Yesterday's Gone: Season One

that. He had no idea what they’d do with the girl once she came to. Obviously, he’d see if she had any friends or family. If not, he’d probably invite her to stay until things got sorted. Whether Bob would go for that was another story.
     
    He stared as she slept. Her eyes were rolling beneath their lids, deep in dreams. The room grew colder as the sun started to set. He pulled a blanket over her and laid on the floor to rest his eyes.
     

     
    **
     

     
    “Where am I?” the girl groaned.
     
    Charlie’s eyes snapped open and he sat up. The room was pitch black. He’d slept too long. Why the hell hadn’t Bob woken him?  
     
    Must be passed out drunk again.
     
    Charlie fumbled in the dark until his hands found the portable lamp and clicked it on. She was crouched on the bed, ready to pounce but blinded by the light. Charlie pulled the lamp back and lit his face.  
     
    “It’s okay; you were hurt.”
     
    Her eyes darted to the closed door then back at Charlie, weighing her next move. He stepped between her and the door, praying she wouldn’t run, wake Bob, and end up with a bullet or two making house inside her head.
     
    “Please, hear me out,” Charlie whispered, “My drunken stepdad thought you were a thief and hit you with the crowbar before seeing you were a girl. I’m so sorry.”
     
    “A girl can’t be a thief?” she said, eyes blazing, almost challenging him.
     
    “No, I mean, yeah, they can be, but…”
     
    “It’s okay,” she said, relaxing a bit and sitting on the bed. “Did you do this?” she asked, running a hand over her bandaged right shoulder.
     
    “Yeah, though I’m not sure I helped much.”
     
    She pulled the bandage aside without flinching, then looked at Charlie. “Where am I? How long was I out?”
     
    “My house; on Charleston Street. We didn’t want to leave you alone. And I’m not sure what time it is, but it’s been at least five or six hours.”
     
    She closed her eyes and looked like she was going to add an encore to her original fade to black. But she took a deep breath and steadied herself, then opened her eyes again.
     
    “What’s wrong?” he asked, “You okay?”
     
    “I dunno,” she said. “I have these horrible headaches that make me black out every now and then. Doctors don’t know why. They think it’s probably migraines.”
     
    “I thought you were in a coma,” Charlie said.
     
    “Where’s the dude that hit me?”
     
    “I’m guessing he’s passed out, drunk.”
     
    “Okay,” she said, standing, flinching a bit as she did. “I need to get out of here before he comes to.”
     
    “Why?” Charlie asked, “He’s not gonna hurt you again. I told him to back off.”  
     
    She stared at him, “Was that before or after he knocked me out?”
     
    “After,” Charlie said, looking down, “But you’re safe now.”
     
    “No, I’m not. And neither are you.”
     
    “What?” Charlie asked.
     
    “You’re not safe here. None of us are. We need to get the hell out of here before they come.”
     
    “Who?”
     
    “The ones that took everyone away,” she said.
     
    “What do you mean?”  
     
    “We weren’t supposed to survive,” she said, “They’re gonna come back for us. Just like they came for my neighbor.”
     
    “Wait, you saw them? Who took the people away?”
     
    “Not when it happened, no. But I saw them today. They attacked my neighbor right in front of me.”
     
    Her eyes were wet, as if she might cry, but she continued.
     
    “My neighbor Tom was outside loading his car with supplies. We were gonna drive until we found other survivors. I was in his living room, filling the last of the duffel bags with supplies when I heard him scream. I looked out the window and that’s when I saw them. These… things . They were like people, but like… undone or something. One of them was missing eyes, and the other was missing a mouth. And they just started attacking him, and … one was eating him while the one without a mouth was shoving Tom’s guts all over the front of his face where his mouth should’ve been.”
     
    She paused, “Did you hear that?”
     
    Charlie looked around, “What?”
     
    She leaped on him, falling on top of him. At first he thought she was attacking him, but she was after the lantern. She clicked it off, threw the room into darkness, and slapped a cool hand over his warm mouth.
     
    “Shhh. Can you here that?”
     
    He did — a clicking sound, faint, but