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

not a single breath was in the house.
    Mary and Paola’s scents, physical and psychic, were strongest, at least until Ryan smelled Charlie’s.
    Except Charlie’s trail wasn’t a scent; it was more like a broadcast.
    Charlie had what he’d come for, but decided he wanted more.
    Another sudden flicker — no, a flash — inside Ryan’s mind sent him back to his knees. It was something horrible, something crowding his mind. Something from outside. They were coming. The dark horde sensed them and was coming.
    “We have to go,” Ryan said, trying to stand. “We have to follow them and get to Black Island immediately.”
    Ryan tried to stand while Lisa stood openmouthed and unsure.
    “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    Ryan nodded. “Yes, but we’ve gotta go.”
    Lisa didn’t question him, just looked at him while trying not to stare, grazing her eyes up and along his mutated body, while Ryan tried to set his eyes anywhere but on his potential meal.
    Lisa swallowed, then said, “Okay,” and headed for the front door.
    Ryan scrambled to his feet, screamed, “No!” then ran toward Lisa as she was halfway through the threshold. He reached out, his claw grabbing the edge of her shirt and pulling her back toward him. The fabric tore with a loud RIP! as Ryan fell hard to his bottom and Lisa fell on top of him.
    She screamed, then quickly crawled away backward and scurried to her feet.
    Once standing, Lisa screamed, “What the fuck!” while kicking at Ryan and taking a step to the side, away from the door.
    “I’m not trying to hurt you,” Ryan said, calmly waving his claw in front of his face to shield himself from Lisa’s feet. He stood, then said, “I swear,” though the drool dripping from his hungry maw probably made him hard to believe. He added, “I’m trying to help you.”
    Lisa took another several steps back, then turned toward the door, closed it, and spun back toward Ryan. “Want to tell me what the fuck is up then?”
    Ryan thought it was funny, how he wanted to save Lisa’s life, and take it from her at the same time. He wondered which of his two sides would be most likely to win, and how much longer it would be before he found out for certain. But whatever gallows humor he found in his condition ended immediately when he followed the thoughts to their next logical destination — what happens when I find my family? Can I protect them? Or will I endanger them?
    “What the hell’s happening?” Lisa repeated, her voice shaking behind.
    Ryan walked to the door and said, “I’ll show you. But you have to stay behind me, okay?” Lisa nodded, and he opened the door, slowly stepping through the threshold with Lisa a half-step behind.
    On the other side of the door, Lisa gasped.
    There were at least 15 mutants and aliens standing between the gate and the house, with four on either side of the van.
    “Will we be okay?” she whispered, raising her gun.
    “Don’t shoot,” he said. “Let’s just walk real slow.”
    Lisa wrapped her arm around his waist, as if he could protect her, and like he wasn’t thinking the same thing they were.
    “Yes,” he said. “But we have to get to the van. Once we get to the van, we’ll be safe. I promise.”
    “Should we run?” she asked.
    “No,” Ryan shook his head and took a tentative step forward. They were about six feet away from the van. Two mutants stood to the right. Two to the left. They’d have to get close to them in order to get in the van. That’s when shit would get tricky. He turned to Lisa and said, “Don’t make any quick moves unless they attack. Just keep doing what we’re doing, we’re almost there.”
    He and Lisa crept toward the van, as the two aliens on either side swayed on their feet, waiting for the one that was sort of like them and the one who was nothing like them at all to make a move. Ryan wasn’t sure if they would strike or not. Even they seemed confused as to what to do. Ryan’s alienness had taken a simple decision, whether to kill the girl, and made it difficult. They were hive mind and did not fuck with the hive thought.
    And Ryan was thinking: Do not hurt her. She is with me.
    They were almost to the front of the van, with maybe four steps to go on either side doors, when the stabbing pain returned to cripple Ryan. He hunched over, hands clutching his aching skull, crushed by the weight of the hive suddenly inside his mind.
    Ryan screamed, trying to drive the clicking and beeping hive thoughts from his