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

took me so long.”
    Mary choked, then sobbed and said, “It’s okay,” through a harsh curtain of tears as her baby girl shuddered beside her. Neither of them had gone close enough to hug him, however.
    Something inside Boricio felt like it was cracking.
    Ryan turned to the Brady Bunch. “I was being held in Black Mountain, like Charlie. I saw some sort of Darkness — the same Darkness that’s controlling all the creatures,” he looked down, “including me, sorta.”
    Ryan shook his head, then turned back to stare the Bunch in the eyes. “I saw The Darkness go inside Charlie, and then he just started killing people on his way out of The Mountain. It’s the same Darkness that had been inside the Prophet and John before that.”
    “Wait a second, how do you know them?” Mary asked.
    “I’ve seen what It sees. It wants to kill you all, starting with Luca. And then It wants the vial.”
    Before Nerdy Die Hard, and the rest of Team Boricio could turn their guns on Charlie, the boy with the monster inside him suddenly wrestled Callie’s gun from her hand, pushed her three feet from him, then trained his gun on the back of her head. “No one come near me,” he said, his voice somehow … different. “I don’t want to hurt her, but I will if you continue to force my hand.”
    Scary Charlie half-smiled at Callie. Boricio almost winced when he did.
    Charlie turned to The Bunch, his voice growing soft, then said, “You’re not gonna actually believe this fucking freak are you? Look at him, he’s obviously sick!” Charlie swallowed, then turned to Callie. “You believe me, right, Callie? You know I love you. You’re the only reason my heart keeps beating.”
    That shit sounded as phony as the flavors at Applebee’s. Callie must’ve thought so too. She looked Charlie in the eyes, held his gaze for a second, but then stumbled back a step, then two. Scary Charlie suddenly growled, then lurched forward and reached out a hand, smacking Callie so hard across the face that she flew back and fell onto the road.
    She screamed and Charlie roared — a horrible, screeching bellow of rage.
    Maybe a tantrum; definitely a summons.
    The area all around them erupted with swarms of monstrosities, all charging toward them in an elegant explosion of perfect chaos.
    “Well, fuck a duck, son,” Boricio said, “looks like you just screwed the pooch.” He raised his gun to clear Scary Charlie’s head from his body, but Scary Charlie was faster, ducking beneath Boricio’s aim and flying toward him, taking him down at the waist.
    Boricio growled like a wolf as the gun flew from his hand and skidded across the dirt road.
    Boricio punched, clawed, kicked, and tumbled in battle with Scary Charlie as the end of everything erupted all around them.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 11 — Ryan Olson Part 2

    Black Island, New York
    April 2012
    SIX MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT…

    The crazy version of Boricio was exactly that — a crazed ball of raging insanity as he wrestled the Darkness-infected Charlie to the ground.
    The Darkness should have easily finished Crazy Boricio off, but the crazy bastard managed to get It to retreat into the shadows instead, where it crouched and cried with a horrible series of terrible screams, calling for alien reinforcements with an urgency that Ryan could clearly feel in his head and body.
    KILL HIM!! the Darkness screamed.
    Charlie was only off of Crazy Boricio for a few seconds before an especially large mutant took his place. The mutant that should have shredded Crazy Boricio to nothing ended up as a pile of nothing itself after a minute spent at the hands of the man’s rage and blade.
    Ryan turned to Mary and Paola. So much to say and no time to say it. “Stay safe so we can get through this. I promise I’ll explain everything.” He pointed toward the relative safety of the trucks.
    “No,” Mary shook her head. “We’re fighting too.” She lifted her pistol for Ryan to see, then Paola did the same.
    “We’re trained,” Paola said. “And I fixed my jammed gun all by myself!”
    Ryan could tell by their eyes. NO wasn’t an option, and he hadn’t earned the right to insist. He wasn’t sure how many of the mutants were already surrounding them, or how many more were approaching, and while he tried to see the answer in his mind, the truth was as blurry as the island’s gnarled shadows.
    “Okay,” Ryan said, as though permission mattered. His girls were already firing into the dark, bullets