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

the alien’s slippery body, still held the pistol. He twisted the gun into the thing’s guts and fired three more times until the alien’s hot guts bled onto him and it began to go into its death spasms.
    Ed pushed the alien off of him and sat up, his head throbbing and woozy.
    There was movement in the store, not far away, accompanied by shrieking. They had to get back to the ladder. Now.
    He looked up at Lisa, who was aiming at the deli with her shotgun. “Do you have the flares?”
    She nodded, holding the bag in the air and stealing a glance at her gushing wound.
    Ed said, “Come on, we’ll get that cleaned upstairs.” He grabbed Lisa by the wrist, then led her toward the ladder. Beneath the hatch, Ed stepped to the side and motioned for Lisa to climb first.
    Behind them, a cluster of the aliens poured through the deli and into the stockroom, shrieking and knocking into boxes as they came.
    “Go!” Ed yelled.
    Lisa scrambled up the ladder, the field pack on her back and shotgun wedged like a sword. The first two aliens dropped to all four and ran toward them like some kind of demon hell hounds.
    Ed fired, but only had one bullet left, which missed its mark.
    “Fuck!” he screamed as the aliens raced toward them. They were 40 feet away and closing.
    “Go! Go!” Ed screamed as Lisa was only about 10 feet up the ladder. They had to get out of range of the aliens’ long limbs.
    It sounded like an army behind them. She scrambled faster. Ed raced up the ladder closely behind her as the shrieks and clicks multiplied beneath them. He was about six feet from the ground, and didn’t dare to look down. He raced up blindly, praying a large claw wouldn’t swipe at his feet and bring him down to his death.
    Something clanged on the ladder just beneath his feet and Ed had to look down. He saw an alien reaching up, swiping at him, missing him by just inches.
    Lisa sped up and crawled through the top of the hatch. Just as Ed was within reach of the hatch something sharp stung his left calf. He looked down to see a thin razor-thin wire with a curved hook on its end fall from his leg. He looked down to see the alien beneath him to which the wire was attached. It had shot the wire from its palms, as if it had extended part of its body out to attack him. The alien raised both of its palms up, taking aim at Ed again as it let out a clicking sound that sounded a hell of a lot like laughter.
    Ed screamed, looked back up at the hatch as Lisa looked down at him.
    As their eyes met, an image flashed through his mind of her slamming the hatch shut just as the alien’s razor wire flesh lassoed him and yanked him down.
    Don’t you fucking dare!
    Lisa leaned down and Ed wondered what the hell she was doing as he was just inches from the hatch.
    No!
    Lisa reached down with both hands and yanked him up the rest of the way, surprising him with her strength.
    Ed rolled off of her, and got to his feet, offering her a hand up.
    She took it, and their eyes met. And for the first time, her eyes softened a bit. “Thank you,” she said, “for saving my ass down there.”
    “Thank you,” Ed said, “for saving mine just now. One of them shot some kinda hook and wire out of its palm and cut my leg.”
    Ed pulled up his pants and examined the injury. It was minor, just a scratch, but stung like hell. He looked up at the others and said, “I don’t know if they can all do that, but don’t think you’re safe just because you’re outta reach.”
    Rojas asked, “Did you get the flares.”
    “Sure did,” she said, pointing to the field pack on her back.
    Ed said, “So what are we hoping for with these flares?”
    “That one of the helicopters on patrol might see it, or maybe one of the vans. If they spot the flare, Base will send out units to investigate. That part’s is certain. It’s just a matter of them seeing the flares.”
    Ed said, “How many people are at Black Mountain?”
    Lisa looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Enough.”
    Ed wondered if they had as many as Black Island.
    “And we’ve got a lot of Guardsmen.”
    “What are they guarding?” Brent asked.
    The question seemed to surprise her. She broke eye contact and looked away, nervously Ed thought, then said, “The world.”
    “Hey guys,” Billy called from the edge of the roof. “Take a look at this.”
    They all ran over to Billy and looked down into the empty parking lot. “Where did they all go?” Ed asked.
    Billy shrugged. “I dunno.”