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

the stairs and out of the dungeon.
    Boricio was already thinking about Luca before the old man left, but the second he heard the door close above, Boricio closed his eyes and tried to pull his brother to his mind.
    Luca.
    Nothing.
    Luca!
    Nothing.
    I need you Luca, please. If you can hear me, we all need you. Now.
    Nothing.
    Boricio remembered Luca’s horrible dreams after he began getting his abilities, back when Will was battering his little brother with test after test. Luca would wake in the middle of the night, sometimes alert, and often screaming about “The Terrible Scary.”
    I’m in the Terrible Scary right now, Luca. I need you to help me.
    Boricio was starting to feel a state or two past stupid for trying to speak to his brother when he was a thousand miles away.
    But Boricio had seen the kid manage the impossible before.
    Luca!
    Suddenly, Luca answered.
    “Boricio?” His voice didn’t sound like it was in his head. Luca sounded like he was three feet away.
    Yes, it’s me. I need your help.
    “Where are you?” Luca asked.
    I’m in Alabama.
    “Alabama! Why are you in Alabama?”
    Long story, but I promise I’ll tell it to you. Right now, I need your help.
    “What can I do?”
    I need you to come get me. Come to where I am. Can you do that?
    “I don’t know,” Luca said. “Alabama is far away.”
    Not as far as Las Orillas.
    “But I know Las Orillas. I used to live there.”
    Just think about me. It will work.
    Boricio didn’t know if it really would, but was likely dead if it didn’t. And God only knew how many more might die if The Prophet opened up the vial and unleashed a mutant plague on the world.
    There was a long silence, and Boricio thought his brother may have disappeared. Just as he was about to call for Luca again, Luca spoke.
    “Okay,” he said. This time he sounded even closer.
    Boricio opened his eyes and saw Luca standing in front of him, wearing his blue flannel pajamas.
    Despite the danger, Boricio couldn’t help but smile. “I missed you,” he said, tears in his eyes.
    His brother looked angry. “Is that why you called me?” After a second, Luca added, “I’m using sarcasm.”
    “I’m sorry,” Boricio shook his head. “I should’ve called before now, and I’m sorry I didn’t.”
    “You did call, the other day,” Luca said. “Then you hung up on Dad.”
    “I’m sorry,” Boricio said to the floor. “Really I am, Luca. But can we talk about it later? I need you to help me right now.”
    “What do you want me to do?”
    Boricio nodded toward the keys on the wall. “I need you to get those keys and unlock these shackles.” He nudged his nose toward his left wrist, then to his right.
    Luca pulled the keys from the hook and unlocked his shackles.
    Boricio’s arms fell free. He gently grabbed his brother by the shoulders, lightly spun him around, then looked him in the eyes and said, “I need you to go home, Luca. Okay?”
    Luca shook his head. “Not without you.”
    “You have to,” Boricio said. “I promise I’ll come home after this is over, but I have to take care of some stuff first, and I need you to leave before I do. Right now, Luca, for your own good. Okay?”
    Luca stared at Boricio, his nostrils flaring and mouth pursed into a tiny O.
    He shook his head. “You have to come home now. Dad misses you. So do I.”
    Boricio felt like time was moving at triple speed.
    Luca shook his head no.
    “Please, buddy. Do this for me. Just trust me. I promise — on you and Will and Rose and everything I’ve ever loved or will ever love again. I’m on my way home right now, and you can even tell Will I said so. I just have to take care of one thing and then I’ll leave, okay?”
    Luca slowly nodded, but didn’t say goodbye. He was simply there and then he wasn’t.
    Boricio ran from the basement, then outside into the night, frantically searching for the old man and finding him nowhere. The lights in the church were on. Inside, he could see that church was in session, and realized with a sudden horrible certainty, that the preacher was probably giving a sermon, with the vial as the star.
    He ran toward the church, and could hear the old man on the other side of the door. “Then let us open the doors to Heaven and welcome Him back into our world, Amen!”
    The chorus of pews sang in reply: “Amen!”
    Boricio charged through the doors as the old man opened the vial. He screamed, “No!” as Boricio charged him.
    The vial’s liquid boiled