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

both terrible after 20, so you’re definitely in the right time frame.” Will’s answer mostly confused Luca, so he asked Will about the funny feelings he was getting. Will laughed and said, “Girls will melt your brain and make blood run to your lips, cheeks, and everywhere else. You can’t and won’t ever be able to do anything about it. Might as well stop trying now.” That left Luca more confused than ever.  
    That was a month ago; after they’d found the house and farm but before Will started acting weird. Luca thought Will was weird most times now, even though no one else really seemed to notice. Will hadn’t acted weird today, though. Will had been all business. Like the old Will who found him in California and flew him to Missouri.  
    He’d come up the stairs a step behind John, just after Luca healed Scott. There was no mistaking the looks Will traded with Desmond. Neither knew what to think about John coming back, but one thing was certain – neither liked it. Luca overheard Desmond saying, “This scene seem a bit too well written for you?” Will barely nodded, but his eyes were burning.
    Luca moved his rook to the top of the board.  
    John had been insistent; they had to leave immediately. They weren’t safe. The bleakers who breached the gate were only the beginning, he said. More were coming, too many to count. It was easy to believe. The outside looked like burned food. The black bodies of the dead bleakers were in gross piles everywhere. Bullets usually ripped them to pieces because their bodies were so soft.. All their arms and legs and insides on the ground looked like a nightmare exploded.
    John told them about a place in Alabama where he had been living for the last few months; a place where they would be welcome and safe, with plenty of food, supplies, and good people – some of who had come to help them today. They would be well taken care of, he promised.
    Luca listened to everything John said, just like everybody else. He couldn't tell what Desmond and Mary were thinking even though he tried to read their faces. Paola didn’t like it at all, he was sure of that. This was her new home, and she wouldn’t want to leave. It didn’t take Luca long to decide he didn’t like it at all. Listening to John talk about Alabama only made him suddenly miss Jimmy all over again. And worse, it got him thinking about Dog Vader.
    Just like the nightmare piles outside.  
    Luca’s rook disappeared; Black Pieces had infiltrated the back row and put Luca’s queen in jeopardy.
    Paola told Luca that after John left she heard Will whispering to Desmond and her mom. Will said he’d been dreaming of the place John was talking about; said John showing up was odd, no doubt, but the place John was talking about seemed like the same place they were supposed to go. It’d been the place he’d been thinking about night and day for nearly a month but didn’t know how to get to. Luca protected his queen with his remaining knight, then waited for Black Pieces to tell him their next move.
      Paola sounded scared when she told Luca what she overheard. Luca said not to worry, it was a good thing John had come back. They were going to be saved. Paola believed him, even if he didn’t even know whether or not he should believe in John himself. John made him think about Dog Vader an awful lot, and several of the voices agreed that John shouldn’t be trusted, which was funny since the Black Pieces rarely agreed on anything.
      Thinking about Paola made the funny feeling come back. Though, if Luca really thought about it, it had never gone away. Ever since healing Scott, and him getting old fast again just like he had back at the Drury Inn, the feeling had never left. But now it was stronger than ever. It used to feel like part of his body was waking up from sleep. Now it kind of hurt. Luca felt a need to touch himself, which is why he kept his hands at the edges of the chessboard.
    Luca thought of Paola, and for the millionth time wondered what she would have thought of him if they met under different circumstances. He imagined her standing a few feet in front of him, so pretty, with her dark hair and big eyes and lips. Her lips were usually ready to smile and loved to tell the jokes that made him laugh. Her lips were also fierce with her mother, but in a way that Luca liked. Paola said the sorts of things that Luca felt, but would have never been able to say to his own mom.
      He hadn’t though much