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

“No. There’s no way they breached the bottom levels. No way. You’re lying.”
    Charlie practically laughed, “Don’t believe me, I don’t care. Go check for yourself.”
    Boricio stared at Charlie then looked at Nerdy Die Hard as he was clearly trying to decide whether or not to go back and check.
    Sullivan grabbed the man’s shoulder, “We can go back when we’re done. You’re not going back alone.”
    “Don’t listen to him,” a man’s voice called out from the darkness behind them.
    “What the fuck?” Boricio said, suddenly falling a step back and into a defensive position as a half-creature half-man suddenly surfaced into view, walking side-by-side with some tough-looking chick Boricio had never seen, dressed like one of the black-clad Guardsmen.
    Boricio saw the recognition all around him — the guns that weren’t being aimed, and the general lack of worry despite the slippery Frankenfucker-looking mutant that looked like someone had sewn half an alien to half a man, almost right down the middle. This was the first mutant Boricio had seen that still had human qualities, save for Charlie, if what they’d said about him was true.
    Nerdy Die Hard looked plenty worried, but Pirate Boricio shot him a look that said shit was cool.
    “I take it you know Girl and Monster here?” Boricio asked, looking at the creature again, with its twisted torso of terror; two claws jutting from a set of charred-looking limbs, slick and dangling from its side.
    Pirate Boricio nodded, his eyes narrowed like he was trying to get the colors the same on the side of the Rubik’s Cube.
    Boricio looked at Charlie. He knew nervous when he saw it, and sure as shit that was exactly what Charlie was, shifting on his feet and taking a light step back as he pulled the group’s attention away from Girl and Monster.
    “Did you escape Black Mountain?” Charlie said to the Frankenfucker.
    Frankenfucker didn’t answer Charlie, turning to the group instead, and aiming his eyes at Pirate Boricio. “He’s lying,” Frankenfucker said. “There was no accident at the Facility, and no alien attack. He is the monster.” Then, probably because he saw the same whatthefuck on all the faces as the one being worn by Pirate Boricio, added, “The Darkness is inside him.”
    Boricio tensed. Sure Charlie might have been infected, but he wasn’t some evil monster, or Darkness , or whatever the fuck Frankenfucker wanted to call it. Boricio wasn’t about to stand by and let anyone say shit about Charles in Charge, not when he’d been as loyal as he had. Sure, he probably wanted to catch up with Callie so he could get to the center of her Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, but Boricio was sure Charlie’s return had something to do with his allegiance to Boricio, too.
    “What fucking Darkness? ” Boricio said, taking a step toward Frankenfucker, as though he didn’t have dangerous black claws that could tear Boricio’s flesh like meat from a lobster’s shell. “You’re the one who looks like Alien Raped Predator!”
    Mary was suddenly in front of Boricio, her mouth hanging open, standing a short half-step in front of her little lamb, whose mouth was hanging even lower than her mother’s.
    “Ryan,” Mary said, stepping forward and reaching her hand out toward Frankenfucker’s face, which still looked mostly normal, except for the giant black goiter bubbling on his neck, and an ashen pallor like a shadow spilled on his face.
    “You know him?” Boricio asked, even though it was as obvious as day.
    Miss Mary didn’t need to answer. Her little lamb said, “Daddy?”
    Holy fucking shit!
    They were one John Williams score away from a goddamn melodrama.
    Pirate Boricio looked as confused as the rest of The Brady Bunch, but he stepped to the front of the crowd, then turned and said, “Everyone stay calm. Everything is okay. He turned to Girl and Monster. “What’s going on, Lisa?”
    Charlie used the happy reunion and Pirate Boricio’s confusion to drift closer to Callie, pulling her hand into his. She seemed more uncertain than Boricio would’ve expected, but finally softened, then rested her head against Charlie’s body.
    Frankenfucker said, “I’ll take it Lisa,” then turned to Mary and his daughter. “Yes, it’s me.” Boricio thought the half-alien might’ve been crying, but with the shadows all over his face, it was impossible to tell. “I’ve been searching for you since October.” He looked down. “I’m sorry it