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

whenever we get the hell outta here.”
    A horrible chorus of shrieks rolled through the parking lot to punctuate the thought.
    After a long pause, Lisa said, “Fine,” then walked to the far side of the roof and looked over the edge, in case something had changed in the two minutes since Ed last looked.
    Ed wondered if his training was what kept him from fully trusting Lisa, or whether Lisa was simply that kind of a bitch. He looked out at the sea of aliens and shook his head. The odds of them seeing the next sunrise with an enemy who wore night during the day and invisibility at night was slim to none.
    The clouds grew dark overhead and night wasn’t far off.
    “We need flares,” Lisa said, as if realizing his thought and opening her mouth to the first lick of sense all day. “Maybe if we light a few flares, we can get some help. Black Mountain must be looking for us by now.”
    No one said anything, so she finished the thought. “I have some downstairs in my pack.”
    “I’ll help,” Ed said, with no room for no in his voice.
    Lisa nodded, then turned and headed toward the hatch. Ed stood a foot behind Rojas, while he, Brent, and Billy all circled the hatch, aiming their weapons at its closed mouth.
    Lisa swung the lid open and half of them gasped. She looked up at Ed, the relief on her face delivered along with a half of a smile. Ed couldn’t help but smile back. Lisa climbed inside the hatch and Ed followed.
    Smile or no, Lisa couldn’t be trusted. As they descended the ladder, then crept through the stockroom, Ed divided his attention between the eerie silence and the woman walking one yard in front of him.
    Ed wasn’t too concerned about Lisa trying anything down here to harm him. For one, she’d attract the aliens, which was probably why she didn’t mind turning her back on him, either. And second, they needed one another — for now. But once they’d dealt with the problem at hand, things were gonna get tricky, and there was a strong chance that blood would be shed.
    Lisa walked along the back of the stockroom, and through a long narrow hallway which opened to the left into a deli, and beyond that was the store and the aliens. Lisa held a finger to her lips and Ed nodded to show that he’d seen them. So far, they’d been undetected.
    Lisa was three feet from her field pack when something moved in the deli. Ed twisted his body to aim at a shadow which raced by, banging against something, before vanishing into the darkness.
    Lisa turned, startled. “What was that?” she whispered.
    Ed shook his head.
    Then he heard the familiar clicking sound coming from the deli which they’d just passed. And would have to pass again to get back to the ladder.
    “Follow me,” he said. He held his gun in front of him, as he inched toward the opening to the deli. Behind him, Lisa held her shotgun, ready.
    He peered into the deli, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Beyond the deli, he spotted two aliens wandering the aisles of the store, oblivious to him, and seemingly walking without purpose.
    What the hell are they doing in here, browsing?
    Lisa screamed behind him. Ed spun around and watched as Lisa was knocked to the ground by an alien behind her. The gun slipped from her hand and slid on the floor and Ed took aim at the creature, but it was too tangled with Lisa to get a decent shot.
    Lisa kicked up at something that looked like it might have been a stomach, and the alien fell back. Lisa scrambled to get up and run toward Ed. The alien reached out and grabbed at her. It wasn’t able to catch her, but its claws lacerated her arm in one violent sweep and sent her bouncing off the wall.
    A jet of blood shot from Lisa’s arm and she screamed. Then Ed could swear the creature sniffed the air before it charged back at her.
    Ed ran toward the creature, pushing Lisa to the ground as he passed her and thrust himself between her and the alien. Ed opened fire. His first and second shot both landed somewhere in the middle of the alien’s face, but the creature didn’t slow and was on him before he could squeeze off a third shot.
    Ed’s momentum met a brick wall as the creature hit him full force and sent him back hard into the ground. Ed’s head smacked the concrete with a loud, sickening thwack, which felt like thunder cracking his skull. The alien was on top of him, mouth gnashing, dark, putrid saliva dripping from its jagged rows of teeth and onto Ed’s face.
    Ed’s hand, trapped between himself and