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

and children were lying — either unconscious or dead — on the floor surrounding them.
    “What’s happening?” Charlie repeated in a whisper as Adam flipped the lid to smother the flame.
    “I dunno,” Adam said, keeping his voice low. “I woke up about a half hour ago. We were driving then, but the truck stopped a few minutes after I woke up. Then I heard someone scream and what I’m pretty sure there were assault rifles firing.”
    Adam fell silent and the darkness seemed to wrap around them like a huddle of angry arms.
    “Then what?” Charlie asked, surprised he’d slept through gunfire.
    “Nothing. It’s been 20 minutes or so. I heard something out there, but I’m not sure who, or what, it was.”
    “Think it might be those things?”
    “I dunno. What else would they be shooting at?”
    Someone moved in the dark.
    “Hello?” a voice called. It sounded like a child, though Charlie couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl.
    “Shh,” Adam whispered as he flicked on his lighter, then held it to his face to display his friendly smile. “It’s okay, we’re only stopped for a minute.”
    Adam held out the lighter to see who they were speaking to. It was a boy, nine years old or so. His eyes went suddenly wide as Adam made the error of moving the lighter back and forth across the cargo hold, showing the boy all the bodies around them.
    The boy screamed.
    “Shh!” Adam said, flicking the lighter shut and casting the truck into darkness again.
    The boy screamed louder and Charlie heard him scramble back and hit the side of the truck’s inner wall.
    “Put the lighter on,” Charlie whispered. “You scared the kid!”
    Adam fumbled in the darkness and the lighter hit the ground. “Shit,” he said. “I dropped it.”
    The boy continued to scream as Charlie rushed to his side, fumbling in the dark and cursing himself for his clumsiness, hoping he didn’t wake anyone else, or worse — alert whatever enemy might be lying in wait outside the truck. He had to calm the kid down before he drew attention to them.
    “Shh,” Charlie said, inching toward the boy. “Everything is okay.”
    He stumbled in the dark, then fell face first onto one of the sleeping people. “Sorry,” he said, carefully reaching around the woman beneath him as he tried to stand. The woman squirmed beneath him and cried out, as if she’d just woken to Charlie’s jabs.
    “Sorry,” he repeated, pushing himself up and toward the crying boy, who had stopped screaming, but seemed on the verge of hyperventilating.
    “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Charlie said. “Did you find the lighter, Adam?”
    “Not yet!”
    Idiot!
    Charlie’s hands found the wall, then he slid down and pressed his back against it as he listened for the kid, still inching toward him. Finally beside him, Charlie put a hand awkwardly on his shoulder. Charlie felt the kid flinch.
    “It’s okay, we’re gonna be okay. The people are just sleeping.”
    “Where are we?” the boy said.
    Charlie was about to answer when he heard a shriek outside. One of the creatures.
    Shit.
    “What was that?!” the kid screamed far too loudly, grabbing Charlie’s arm, and curling his fingers into Charlie’s flesh.
    The monster, or monsters, slammed on the outside walls of the truck, creating an echo chamber that rang through Charlie’s ears as they continued their shrieking. Must have been two of them, one on either side, judging by the sounds.
    The kid cried out, “Please, I don’t wanna die!”
    “Find that fucking lighter!” Charlie growled at Adam as more people in the truck began to wake up, some murmuring to themselves and some asking what happened. A few started to cry louder to match the increasing volume of the creatures trying to get inside the truck.
    “I’m lookin! I’m lookin!” Adam whined. Then finally, “I found it!”
    Adam tried to get the lighter to light, but his fingers had apparently stopped working.
    “Just bring it here!” Charlie snapped.
    Adam stumbled forward in the dark, making his way toward them as the truck started to shake. The pounding continued to echo inside the truck like thunder rolling through a tunnel. The boy screamed so loud that Charlie couldn’t hear what the people were saying. All hell was about to break loose if Adam didn’t get that fucking lighter to him.
    “Sorry, sorry,” Adam said, stumbling his way over to Charlie until he practically fell into his lap.
    The inside of the truck was a chaotic mix of