Yesterdays Gone: SEASON TWO (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (Yesterday's Gone)

I wake up, I can’t remember much.”
    “No,” Will thought, realizing it was much easier lying to Luca in his mind. “I’ve no idea what’s going to happen next.”  
    No point in telling Luca what he can’t stop from happening, or it will only make the goodbyes that much harder.

    * * * *

CHARLIE WILKENS: PART 1

    Dunn, Georgia
    March 25
    pre-dawn

    Charlie’s feet were rooted to the floor, his eyes fixed on the reanimated corpse that used to be Vic, but was now a human-monster hybrid.
    Vic’s right arm was wet and ebony from the elbow down, just like the monsters’ skin. His arm was misshapen into a twisted mockery of a limb, fingers fused together to form an oversized blade-like appendage. His face was corrupted by an army of black veins marching across his skin like spiderwebs, covering every inch and deepening every crevice. Something pushed at both cheekbones from beneath his skin, forming half circles of withered, darkened pits beneath beady, black reptilian eyes.  
    Vic opened his mouth and screeched an inhuman cry. The scream sounded as if Vic were trying to dislodge something, or many things, from a prison in his throat. Then he ran toward them, swinging his blade-hand at Charlie. Charlie rolled to the ground, as Adam jumped back, and dashed toward the gate.
    Where the fuck are you going, Adam?!
    Vic turned around and looked up at Adam, as though he might give chase, then turned back to Charlie, just as he rose to his feet. Something resembling a smile spread over Vic’s rotting face, revealing jagged, blackened teeth.
    Vic screamed again, that sickly scream that ripped straight through Charlie’s brain, and leaned into another attack, this time with his normal hand. His punch landed on Charlie’s left ear sending a thunderbolt of pain between his eyes.
    “Fuck!” Charlie screamed as he put his hand to his ear. He had no time to consider the pain as Vic charged again, this time landing a strike in Charlie’s ribs. Pain splintered through his side while radiating from his left ear.
    Charlie doubled over and vomited onto the snow.
    Vic stopped, staring at Charlie polluting the virgin white. Charlie wiped vomit from his mouth with the back of his hand, then looked up to consider his next move. Vic stood fixed between Charlie and the car, with its cache of weapons. Charlie chewed on his meager options for bypassing Vic and retrieving the guns, all the while wondering where the fuck Adam had run off to.
    Charlie took a step back. Vic remained rooted, staring intently at Charlie with his beady black reptilian eyes, but did nothing.
    What the fuck is he doing?
    Charlie backed up again, this time with four long strides, but never breaking eye contact with the freak of nature. Vic still refused to budge.
    He’s fucking with me ; he’s waiting to see what I’ll do . Maybe he wants me to run so he can chase me down for more of a thrill.
    Charlie took two more steps back, placing him steps from the front door. If he could run without slipping in the snow, then maybe . . .   Once inside, he could get to the shotgun behind the front door.
    Vic continued to stare like a coiled viper. If there were an expression on Vic’s face, Charlie couldn’t discern it. Vic looked like someone who wasn’t home inside his head. If Vic was impaired, even momentarily, Charlie had to seize the chance and run — now.
    Charlie spun around, planted his left foot, and exploded off of it into a dead sprint, not looking back.
    Immediately, he heard Vic’s steps falling quickly behind him, fast, and gaining ground.
    Fuck!
    Charlie reached the front door, turned the knob in his hand, and . . .  
    Fuck! Adam locked it on the way out!
    Footsteps punctuated the promise of death behind him. Charlie spun around just as Vic reached him, blade-hand on the down-swing toward his face.
    Charlie inhaled his last breath and prepared to greet death.
    A final flinch, then . . .
    BANG!
    The gunshot cracked like thunder in the pre-dawn darkness, hitting Vic in the back and knocking him forward off balance, causing his blade-hand to miss Charlie’s face by inches and decapitate the doorknob instead. Vic fell on top of Charlie, catapulting them both into the door, then onto the ground.
    Charlie screamed, pushing and kicking at Vic, who was down but not out, arms reaching wildly to grasp Charlie.
    He kicked Vic in the face as more footsteps came toward them. Adam appeared with a rifle, the one they kept near the front gate. He fired