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

remember Boricio, but Boricio couldn’t believe it.
    Boricio had quipped, “Ain’t nobody ever forgotten me yet. Even if they wanted to.”
    Though he’d been confident when he said that to Will, the fear was starting to take seed.
    What if she did forget me?
    Boricio wasn’t sure what to expect, but his stomach was in knots as the moment drew closer. He looked down at the ring box on the sink — the one the cops pulled from the water — and hoped Will hadn’t noticed it.
    He didn’t want Will to talk him out of what he was planning. He knew what Will would say — wait and do it right. Wait until she’s out of the hospital and all this is behind you. But Boricio didn’t want to wait any longer.
    He’d waited too long already.
    It was that hesitation that had kept him lonely for so long. Perhaps if he’d asked Rose sooner, they’d never have gotten into the accident. Perhaps they’d already have a child.
    “Are you ready to see Rose?” Will asked.
    Boricio nodded, but stayed silent as he palmed the ring box and put it in his pants pocket.
    “Well, then let’s get going,” Will said, turning to leave the bathroom.
    Boricio said, “I’ll be right out,” then stared at his reflection for another minute, feeling the anger rise again, his right hand shaking as he again resisted the urge to punch the mirror.
    It shouldn’t be like this.
    When his right fist finally stopped shaking, Boricio left the bathroom, grabbed a sweater, and followed Will from his room.
    The walk down the hall was silent as most of his time had been with Will since the accident. Boricio wasn’t in the mood for Will’s misguided efforts to cheer him up.
    Boricio wanted to go somewhere to let off some steam, but didn’t know where, or what to do when he got there. Will didn’t have any ideas either. He kept telling Boricio that he had to just let it all out, and had to give himself permission to grieve the loss of their child because if he kept everything inside, it would all turn to venom. But Will was full of bullshit. What did he know of Boricio’s pain? He didn’t have to live in the icy shadows of his past, and had never lost a child.
    Boricio didn’t want to be angry with Will for not understanding, since it wasn’t his fault, but the dark thoughts crawled through his mind like cockroaches anyway.
    Will turned to look at Boricio. “You ready?”
    What kind of a goddamn question is that?
    Boricio tried not to snarl as he stepped past his adopted father and into Rose’s room. Will stayed outside.
    Boricio gasped, devastated, swallowing his shock as he looked at Rose. She barely looked like the same person.
    Her face was puffy and pale, save for the bruised parts. Her hair was clean and brushed, but hanging from her face without any life. And when she looked up at him, there wasn’t the slightest spark of recognition.
    “Hi,” she said, and then turned her attention back to the TV which was showing CNN Headline News. As if he were some kind of stranger.
    No, this can’t be happening.
    She thinks I’m an orderly or something!
    Will was right. And Boricio hated him for it.
    “Hi, Rose,” he said.
    She slowly moved her eyes from the TV back to Boricio, giving him the thinnest of smiles but saying nothing. That nothing killed everything inside Boricio, then turned it inside out and black and rancid.
    That nothing made him want to give in to the swirling darkness within him.
    “Rose?” Boricio tried again, giving the light one more chance before he let the darkness come to claim him.
    * * * *

CHAPTER 10 — Charlie Wilkens Part 3

    Charlie woke to find himself in another shroud of darkness, lying on another mattress. He thought his body should have been aching, but it wasn’t.
    He was tired, though. And his brain was foggy. Memories fell in snippets, glimpses of impossible playing out in his head — how he had somehow leapt impossibly far, knocking a Guardsman to the floor before thrusting his hand through another’s glass helmet.
    Impossible.
    Unless I’m infected.
    Where’s Callie?
    Charlie sat, trying to pull shapes from the darkness. When he sat, a bright light whitened the cell, blinding him with its sudden intensity.
    “Remain still,” a man’s voice said through speakers above the door. “Do you understand?”
    Charlie said yes, nodding as an uneasy feeling swirled through his gut.
    “I’m going to explain something to you, so you need to pay real close attention.” The voice paused, then