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

Rose.
    The two men turned to see her entire body shaking violently as if having a seizure of some kind.
    “What’s happening, Doc?!” Boricio screamed.
    “I don’t know,” Williams cried, rushing toward the computer which was monitoring her vitals. Lines were racing up and down in zig-zags when Boricio glanced over, before turning back to Rose and trying to calm her while holding her down so she didn’t launch off the bed.
    She continued to shake until she fell suddenly still, and her eyes closed as if she might never open them again.
    “Someone get the fuck in here and help!” Boricio screamed, slamming his palm on the red ALERT button on the side of her bed. “We need help in here, NOW!”
    A trio of doctors rushed inside Rose’s room and pushed Boricio aside, where he stood helplessly, watching as the doctors tried to revive her.
    As he stared, frozen in fear, he found himself praying to God to please, please save his soulmate.
    Boricio couldn’t watch, so he turned away, and didn’t turn back until he heard the blood bleaching scream that erupted from her.
    Boricio ran back to her bedside, thrusting himself between the doctors surrounding her, trying to keep them from hurting her any more than they already were. Rose was sitting straight up, her eyes wide open and ebony, as an inky blackness spread across her face and then down her entire body. She opened her mouth, but nothing poured forth for a long half-minute until her silence suddenly screamed into a howl; an unholy, unhuman shriek.
    Something started to slither beneath her flesh all at once like a million snakes moving beneath her skin.
    Boricio screamed, trying to move toward her, though he had no idea what he’d do once he’d reach her. If he could just reach her, however, he thought somehow he could help. But the three doctors began to drag him back, trying to get him out of the room. Boricio knocked one to the floor, then ran back to Rose’s bed, just in time to see her beautiful hair turn as black as her slippery skin, then fall from her scalp in clumps on the sheet as she thrashed in the bed. Dr. Williams shoved Boricio aside and shoved her down, screaming for security.
    Boricio started to move toward the bed, but a hand slapped him from behind, and spun him around. It was Will, his eyes wide and terrified.
    “My Lord, Boricio, what have you done?!”

    * * * *

CHAPTER 2 — Ed Keenan

    Black Mountain, Georgia
    March 2012
    FIVE MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT…

    The van had left the morning light, trading it for the dark tunnel leading into Black Mountain.
    Ed couldn’t see what was happening, lying in the back of the van and pretending to be asleep, and was too banged up to care too much at the moment, anyway. Though Lisa had removed the handcuffs from both he and Brent, Ed had no illusions of freedom — and wouldn’t until he finally had the chance to speak to someone in charge.
    Ed was confident that given the state of the world, he’d be able to work something out with whoever it was who sat behind the biggest desk at Black Mountain. He was a commodity the higher-ups wouldn’t easily dismiss, so long as he showed them he was open to a deal. Which, of course, he was.
    Ed wasn’t interested in sides — Black Island or Black Mountain. Nor did he care whatever the hell they happened to be at odds over. His only concern was ensuring the safety of his daughter, Jade, along with Teagan and her child, assuming that she had safely delivered her child.
    Black Island had taken his people hostage in order to get him to work for them. If Black Mountain could make the same offer of safety for Jade and Teagan, he’d switch sides in a second. Ed learned long ago that allegiance to flags was meaningless because the players behind the flags were an ever-changing merry-go-round, each with their own agendas which had more to do with self-preservation than ideals.
    But any thoughts of switching sides was a bit premature.
    Ed still didn’t know what in the hell he was dealing with. So far, his impressions of Black Mountain were based solely on Lisa and her crew which included a child and a team which had been blasted to memory out in the field. It was easy enough for Ed’s confidence in the Black Mountain operation to crumble under the weight of what he’d witnessed, but he didn’t have all the information, and knew underestimating an organization based on a first impression could be a mistake.
    If Black Island was concerned about Black Mountain,