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

laughed as Imaginary Boricio suddenly appeared on his left, sitting beside him at the table, propping his elbows on the table and cradling his face in his hands as he turned to Charlie batting his eyelashes dramatically. “Yes, Chuck E. Cheese Dick, what am I like, please tell?”
    “He’s a stone cold killer,” Charlie said without the slightest pause. “Imagine Dirty Harry, but younger. And faster. Now imagine someone who made Dirty Harry look like a Cub Scout. That someone would still need a Kill Bill’s worth of bad ass to come close to the Boricio I know.”
    Imaginary Boricio blinked, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes, “Aw, Chuck, you shouldn’t have. You’re the biggest pecan in my super-sized sweetie pie.”
    But the real Boricio just stared for a minute before saying, “You say he’s a killer. What sort of killer? You mean he kills bad people and aliens?”
    “I don’t know what he was like before October 15, but I’m gonna guess he didn’t give a fuck then, either. He kills anyone who gets in his way — good, bad, and indifferent. But, weird as it might be, he saved me and my friends, even took us in. He never did anything to us, so I guess he’s not all bad.”
    “I’m a regular Mr. Rogers,” Imaginary Boricio said. “So won’t you be my fucking neighbor.”
    “Why do you ask?” Charlie asked the real Boricio.
    “Because I’ve been having these dreams about him. Almost every time I fall asleep.”
    Imaginary Boricio laughed, then said in an effeminate lisp, “Oh, do go on.”
    “What sort of dreams?”
    “That he’s with my brother, and they’re together at some big house out in the middle of nowhere. There’s a woman and a little girl with them as well.”
    “You have a brother?” Charlie asked, then, “What’s the house look like?”
    Boricio explained that he had an eight-year-old adopted brother, though in the dream, he’s not a kid. The descriptions of the 100-year-old boy were weird, and definitely like the stuff out of dreams, but then he described the compound exactly like Charlie remembered it, down to the crooked pile of bricks by the back door.
    “That’s it,” Charlie said. “You definitely have the right place. How in the hell did you dream about it?” Charlie asked.
    “I dunno, but … it all feels threaded together,” Boricio said. “And the thing is — I thought my brother, Luca, was gone. If he’s really still here, then maybe I can still somehow fix all of this.”
    “What do you mean fix it all?”
    “I dunno,” Boricio said, looking off in the distance as if excavating memory. “Cure the infected. Maybe send you back to your world. I’m not sure what’s possible, but I can think of more reasons to find him than not.”
    “What does Luca have to do with what happened in October? With us being here?”
    Boricio looked at Charlie for a long moment and then, ignoring his question, asked, “Can your girlfriend lead us to the other Boricio?”
    “I don’t know if she knows the way there, but she might have a general idea. I could for sure.”
    “I can’t bring you. You’re infected and I can’t risk the infection spreading before we get you cured, not when we’re so close.”
    “So, Callie’s not infected?”
    “No. She’s cleared to leave her cell.”
    Charlie felt an immediate flush of relief knowing she was safe, but a deep and sudden ache knowing she would be leaving the cell beside his.
    “Can I go back to my cell tonight?” Charlie said. “I’d like to spend time next to her before you let her go.”
    “Yeah,” Boricio said. “But tomorrow morning, I’m heading out. But you have nothing to worry about, Charlie. I promise to keep an eye on her.”
    Imaginary Boricio piped in, “Yeah, I bet you will, you sly fuck.” He turned to Charlie. “I bet the only eye he’ll have on Callie is the one spitting cock juice all over her face!”
    The real Boricio stood. “Thank you, Charlie. I’m gonna check on Ryan. If nothing’s changed, then I’ll have someone return you to your cell. You’re not gonna do anything stupid while I’m gone, are you? Please tell me I can trust you? I’d rather not threaten Callie’s safety. I don’t care for drama.”
    “Nothing stupid,” Charlie said. “You guys are the good guys, right?”
    “Yeah, something like that,” Boricio said, turning toward the exit.
    “One more thing?” Charlie said.
    “Yes?” Boricio said, turning back to him.
    “Can you give Callie and I