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

hated herself further with every fresh step she took from the trunk. She stopped for a moment, turned and looked back at the growing darkness.
    Go back. Save her!
    What kind of mother leaves her child to die?
    She’s safer in the trunk. I’ll go back to get her.
    The darkness began to shake the car as its tendrils reached down and ripped the lid from the trunk and tossed it into its vortex where it spun with the darkness and then shot out into the woods off the side of the highway.
    Teagan screamed as it reached in to claim Becca.
    Teagan woke to the sound of her daughter sobbing.

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

    Even with Becca crying, she was relieved to be away from the dream, and safe in her bedroom. A soft blue light beside Becca’s crib illuminated her weeping infant. Teagan was at the crib in seconds.
    “You need to be changed,” she said, lifting Becca to her lips, giving her a kiss, then setting her back in the crib. “I’ll be right back Baby B. Just one sec.”
    Teagan fumbled in the dim light, and gathered the diapers, cream, and wipes. As she changed Becca, named after her older sister, Teagan couldn’t help but feel the stain of guilt left to linger after her dream’s decision. What should have passed moments after waking was soaking deeper into something inside her.
    Teagan started to cry. “You okay?” Ed asked from bed.
    “Yes,” Teagan said, nodding even though he probably couldn’t see her in the dark, wiping her eyes and feeling like a fool. She had been so hyper-emotional since delivering Becca in February, and hated feeling so raw all the time, always at the edge of every emotion. Having such limited control over her emotions made Teagan feel even younger than sleeping with a 44-year-old man did.
    She finished wrapping Becca in warm clothes and swaddling her in a blanket like a baby burrito, then returned to bed and started to nurse. The frail infant’s lips sucking away, fingers curled and eyes closed, made Teagan feel even guiltier for leaving her baby in the trunk, regardless of whether it was a dream.
    She tried to tell herself that she’d never do that in real life.
    I would die to protect her.
    “What’s wrong?” Ed said, wiping his eyes and sitting up beside her, then wrapping a long arm around her and drawing her and Becca closer.
    “Just a nightmare,” Teagan said, laughing at how silly she felt. “It’s nothing, really.”
    “Do you want to talk about it?”
    Teagan suspected Ed didn’t really want to discuss her dream, though. While he was far more communicative than the Ed from her world — the one who had saved her life — this “other Ed” was still rough around the edges with talking about stuff like feelings, dreams, and other things that weren’t black-and-white and made of logic.
    She turned to face Ed in the dim light of their bedroom, thinking how much safer she felt with him beside her. Their friendship had only recently blossomed into something more — almost in spite of them each denying the feelings they had both developed over the course of a few months. Teagan wasn’t sure if she could call the feelings inside her love ; they weren’t as pure or true as what she felt for Becca — that feeling that she would do anything and kill anyone to protect her child. But still, the feelings were stronger than anything she’d ever felt before, even if they were born from sorrow and a bounty of mental baggage.
    “Nah, it’s just a silly nightmare,” Teagan said, nudging herself closer to Ed.
    “Well, you’re safe now,” he said, kissing her forehead. Ed leaned over and kissed Becca’s nearly bald head.
    He’s so sweet to Becca.
    He would never leave her in a trunk!
    The new thought pushed Teagan into a fresh batch of tears, which then pulled further concern from Ed.
    “You sure you’re okay?” His brows were now furrowed enough for Teagan to see in the dark.
    She was about to answer when sirens outside started to wail, scratching the silence into an agitated scream, as the one screech quickly turned to chaos.
    Ed’s phone rang and Becca started to scream.
    “What’s that?!” Teagan shouted over the loud siren. She had never heard a siren on the island before.
    Ed didn’t answer. He had the phone in his hand and his lips at the receiver, and his expression had already gone from concerned to something she’d never seen on his face before, or the other Ed’s for that matter. His eyes were dilated