Yesterday's Gone: Seasons 1-6 Complete Saga

by Sean Platt

  The creature’s body was the softest Boricio’d yet seen, and his heel went straight through its flesh, like it was made of nothing but rotten fruit. An eruption of black goo bubbled out.

  Another creature shrieked, so close it was like a lion roaring in his ear. Boricio pivoted, expecting to see the creature barreling toward him, but it flew by on its way toward Paola, whose gun had jammed and was now cowering behind Boricio, near the front of one of the trucks.

  Boricio screamed, suddenly furious. Wasn’t no creature on this planet gonna hurt Mary’s Little Lamb. Fuck that shit — they’d have to go through him first.

  Boricio roared, causing the mutant to turn and look at him, though its body was still moving toward Paola. Boricio grabbed his blade from his waistband and unsheathed it, brought it up and through the mutant’s face, tearing its head into two as he wrestled it down to the ground.

  Paola jumped back as the mutant died just inches from her, and she met Boricio’s eyes.

  Boricio smiled at her and winked as he wiped the gore off his blade, sheathed it, then found his gun on the ground. “Get in the truck,” he said, because he sure as shit didn’t have time to fix her gun. “Stay down.”

  She got into the truck and Boricio was about to load a fresh clip into it when another mutant rushed him, a fast, black blur that sent him to the ground, gasping for air.

  Fuck!

  Boricio scrambled to his feet, searching for the mutant, grabbing his blade again, but didn’t see the beast until it knocked him to the ground again and landed on top of him, pinning his arms beneath its tree-sized legs. It stared down into Boricio’s eyes with its cold, black eyes full of nothing, and Boricio felt a chill that momentarily paralyzed him.

  The mutant raised its bladed hand high and shrieked something akin to a battle cry. The scream reached into some part of Boricio and hurt his insides.

  Boricio stared up, still paralyzed — not by fear, but by something he couldn’t quite comprehend. It was something that he’d never have time to figure out before the blade ended his life.

  The mutant’s death blow was cut short by two shots, however, sending it to the ground, shrieking.

  Boricio looked up to see Mary standing over him, offering him a hand up.

  “Thanks,” he said, smiling as she hoisted him up.

  It looked like she wanted to say something, but instead she spun around and started emptying her gun into another charging creature instead.

  Boricio grabbed his gun again and loaded a clip as Mary kept him covered. Callie ran toward them, and crouched as she reloaded her pistol.

  “Stay here and protect the kids in the truck, can you?” Boricio asked.

  Callie looked inside, saw Old Man Luca and Paola, and nodded.

  Mary yelled, “I think someone needs to go get Luca.” He followed her gaze to Luca, cowering behind Nerdy Die Hard, who was holding his own while protecting the man-kid, tearing through creatures with an M-16, probably faster than anyone else. However, he was so focused on pulling the trigger at the approaching horde that he was leaving Luca in danger from a growing mass coming from the other side.

  Boricio said, “I’m on it,” then ran to Luca and dragged him back toward the relative safety of the truck where Paola was hiding. As he got Luca settled inside the truck and told Paola to keep an eye on him and scream if she needed anything, the creatures began to recede. Boricio looked up, slowly shaking his head and trying to understand.

  This isn’t right.

  He looked around at the crowd of creatures, and sure as shit, every one of them fuckers was falling back into the shadows. The aliens had never seemed smart enough to retreat simply because they were being decimated, at least they’d never shown those sorts of smarts before. Predator’s guess was back — this time saying the creatures were getting called like puppies to the mama bitch.

  Boricio looked down at Luca, who looked like he wanted to say something, though he seemed too tired, or maybe too old or too RipvanWhateverTheFUCKed to do anything other than lay splayed across the back seat like a half-dead body.

  Boricio moved his eyes from Luca to the Brady Bunch and, crap on a cracker, saw Charlie strolling toward them, his eyes straight ahead and a stride that said he owned half the goddamned island, along with Park Place, Boardwalk, and all four of the fucking railroads.

  “Be right back, kids,” Boricio said to Luca and Paola and shut the door of the truck and jogged over to the group to see what the hell was going on.

  Charlie stopped walking, his eyes on Boricio and waiting.

  Pirate Boricio asked, “How the hell did you get out?”

  Charlie’s face suddenly feigned distress. “There was a disaster at the Facility. The aliens got in and went on a full rampage. I barely managed to escape the elevator shaft. Everyone is dead.”

  Charlie was an emotional kid, but there wasn’t a drop of feeling in his story. He said that shit like he was ordering off a menu, without seeing nothing he liked.

  “Wait,” Nerdy Die Hard said, “Everyone is dead? Everyone?”

  He reached for his two-way radio and tried to reach someone.

  The radio only offered silence and static, however.

  “How?” Nerdy Die Hard asked, staring at Charlie. “How?!”

  “I dunno,” Charlie said, backing up, hands out defensively. “They tried to kill me, too.”

  “You motherfucker!” Nerdy Die Hard said, enraged, aiming his M-16 at Charlie’s face.

  “Whoa, wait a second,” Boricio said, stepping between them. “He said he didn’t do it!”

  Nerdy Die Hard put the gun down, collapsing to the ground in tears. “Oh God, Teagan. Becca.”

  Boricio swallowed, looking back at Charlie, trying to suss out what he didn’t like about his story.

  Nerdy Die Hard stood up, glaring at Charlie, “No. There’s no way they breached the bottom levels. No way. You’re lying.”

  Charlie practically laughed, “Don’t believe me, I don’t care. Go check for yourself.”

  Boricio stared at Charlie then looked at Nerdy Die Hard as he was clearly trying to decide whether or not to go back and check.

  Sullivan grabbed the man’s shoulder, “We can go back when we’re done. You’re not going back alone.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” a man’s voice called out from the darkness behind them.

  “What the fuck?” Boricio said, suddenly falling a step back and into a defensive position as a half-creature half-man suddenly surfaced into view, walking side by side with some tough-looking chick Boricio had never seen, dressed like one of the black-clad Guardsmen.

  Boricio saw the recognition all around him — the guns that weren’t being aimed, and the general lack of worry despite the slippery Frankenfucker-looking mutant that looked like someone had sewn half an alien to half a man, almost right down the middle. This was the first mutant Boricio had seen that still had human qualities, save for Charlie, if what they’d said about him was true.

  Nerdy Die Hard looked plenty worried, but Pirate Boricio shot him a look that said shit was cool.

  “I take it you know Girl and Monster here?” Boricio asked, looking at the creature again, with its twisted torso of terror; two claws jutting from a set of charred-looking limbs, slick and dangling from its side.

  Pirate Boricio nodded, his eyes narrowed like he was trying to get the colors the same on the side of the Rubik’s Cube.

  Boricio looked at Charlie. He knew nervous when he saw it, and sure as shit that was exactly what Charlie was, shifting on his feet and taking a light step back as he pulled the group’s attention away from Girl and Monster.

  “Did you escape Black Mountain?” Charlie said to the Frankenfucker.

  Frankenfucker didn’t answer Charlie, turning to the group instead, and aiming his eyes at Pirate Boricio. “He’s lying,” Frankenfucker said. “There was no accident at the Facility, and no alien attack. He is the monster.” Then, probably because he saw the same whatthefuck on all the faces as t
he one being worn by Pirate Boricio, added, “The Darkness is inside him.”

  Boricio tensed. Sure, Charlie might have been infected, but he wasn’t some evil monster, or Darkness, or whatever the fuck Frankenfucker wanted to call it. Boricio wasn’t about to stand by and let anyone say shit about Charles in Charge, not when he’d been as loyal as he had. Sure, he probably wanted to catch up with Callie so he could get to the center of her Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, but Boricio was sure Charlie’s return had something to do with his allegiance to Boricio, too.

  “What fucking Darkness?” Boricio said, taking a step toward Frankenfucker, as though he didn’t have dangerous black claws that could tear Boricio’s flesh like meat from a lobster’s shell. “You’re the one who looks like Alien raped Predator!”

  Mary was suddenly in front of Boricio, her mouth hanging open, standing a short half step in front of her little lamb, whose mouth was hanging even lower than her mother’s.

  “Ryan,” Mary said, stepping forward and reaching her hand out toward Frankenfucker’s face, which still looked mostly normal, except for the giant, black goiter bubbling on his neck, and an ashen pallor like a shadow spilled on his face.

  “You know him?” Boricio asked, even though it was as obvious as day.

  Miss Mary didn’t need to answer. Her little lamb said, “Daddy?”

  Holy fucking shit!

  They were one John Williams score away from a goddamned melodrama.

  Pirate Boricio looked as confused as the rest of The Brady Bunch, but he stepped to the front of the crowd, then turned and said, “Everyone stay calm. Everything is okay. He turned to Girl and Monster. “What’s going on, Lisa?”

  Charlie used the happy reunion and Pirate Boricio’s confusion to drift closer to Callie, pulling her hand into his. She seemed more uncertain than Boricio would’ve expected, but finally softened, then rested her head against Charlie’s body.

  Frankenfucker said, “I’ll take it, Lisa,” then turned to Mary and his daughter. “Yes, it’s me.” Boricio thought the half alien might’ve been crying, but with the shadows all over his face, it was impossible to tell. “I’ve been searching for you since October.” He looked down. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”

  Mary choked, then sobbed and said, “It’s okay,” through a harsh curtain of tears as her baby girl shuddered beside her. Neither of them had gone close enough to hug him, however.

  Something inside Boricio felt like it was cracking.

  Ryan turned to the Brady Bunch. “I was being held in Black Mountain, like Charlie. I saw some sort of Darkness — the same Darkness that’s controlling all the creatures,” he looked down, “including me, sorta.”

  Ryan shook his head, then turned back to stare the Bunch in the eyes. “I saw the Darkness go inside Charlie, and then he just started killing people on his way out of the Mountain. It’s the same Darkness that had been inside The Prophet and John before that.”

  “Wait a second, how do you know them?” Mary asked.

  “I’ve seen what It sees. It wants to kill you all, starting with Luca. And then It wants the vial.”

  Before Nerdy Die Hard and the rest of Team Boricio could turn their guns on Charlie, the boy with the monster inside him suddenly wrestled Callie’s gun from her hand, pushed her three feet from him, then trained his gun on the back of her head. “No one come near me,” he said, his voice somehow . . . different. “I don’t want to hurt her, but I will if you continue to force my hand.”

  Scary Charlie half smiled at Callie. Boricio almost winced when he did.

  Charlie turned to the Bunch, his voice growing soft, then said, “You’re not gonna actually believe this fucking freak are you? Look at him, he’s obviously sick!” Charlie swallowed, then turned to Callie. “You believe me, right, Callie? You know I love you. You’re the only reason my heart keeps beating.”

  That shit sounded as phony as the flavors at Applebee’s. Callie must’ve thought so, too. She looked Charlie in the eyes, held his gaze for a second, but then stumbled back a step, then two. Scary Charlie suddenly growled, then lurched forward and reached out a hand, smacking Callie so hard across the face that she flew back and fell onto the road.

  She screamed, and Charlie roared — a horrible, screeching bellow of rage.

  Maybe a tantrum; definitely a summons.

  The area all around them erupted with swarms of monstrosities, all charging toward them in an elegant explosion of perfect chaos.

  “Well, fuck a duck, son,” Boricio said, “looks like you just screwed the pooch.” He raised his gun to clear Scary Charlie’s head from his body, but Scary Charlie was faster, ducking beneath Boricio’s aim and flying toward him, taking him down at the waist.

  Boricio growled like a wolf as the gun flew from his hand and skidded across the dirt road.

  Boricio punched, clawed, kicked, and tumbled in battle with Scary Charlie as the end of everything erupted all around them.

  Sixty-Three

  Ryan Olson

  Black Island, New York

  April 2012

  SIX MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT …

  The crazy version of Boricio was exactly that — a crazed ball of raging insanity as he wrestled the Darkness-infected Charlie to the ground.

  The Darkness should have easily finished Crazy Boricio off, but the crazy bastard managed to get It to retreat into the shadows instead, where It crouched and cried with a horrible series of terrible screams, calling for alien reinforcements with an urgency that Ryan could clearly feel in his head and body.

  KILL HIM!! the Darkness screamed.

  Charlie was only off of Crazy Boricio for a few seconds before an especially large mutant took his place. The mutant that should have shredded Crazy Boricio to nothing ended up as a pile of nothing itself after a minute spent at the hands of the man’s rage and blade.

  Ryan turned to Mary and Paola. So much to say and no time to say it. “Stay safe so we can get through this. I promise I’ll explain everything.” He pointed toward the relative safety of the trucks.

  “No,” Mary shook her head. “We’re fighting, too.” She lifted her pistol for Ryan to see, then Paola did the same.

  “We’re trained,” Paola said. “And I fixed my jammed gun all by myself!”

  Ryan could tell by their eyes. NO wasn’t an option, and he hadn’t earned the right to insist. He wasn’t sure how many of the mutants were already surrounding them, or how many more were approaching, and while he tried to see the answer in his mind, the truth was as blurry as the island’s gnarled shadows.

  “Okay,” Ryan said, as though permission mattered. His girls were already firing into the dark, bullets slamming into their targets with a horrible squishing.

  Ryan roared, then charged forward toward a cluster coming at them, shredding aliens with a crazed blend of alien intensity, human cunning, and a father’s need to protect his wife and child.

  Ryan continued to drop creature upon creature, as the dark hordes continued to close in around them. Both Boricios were out of bullets and fighting beside one another, Bald Boricio using a machete and Crazy Boricio using a knife. Ed still had plenty of rounds, and was taking aliens down one carefully placed burst of gunfire at a time. Mary and Paola stood back to back, firing only at the creatures actually coming toward them, though they were hitting their marks and dropping every one, with Ryan shocked by the accuracy of their aim. Sullivan rotated in small circles, firing into the sound of the gnashing aliens.

  The girl who was threatened by Charlie showed no fear on her face, though it was twisted with rage as she stared into the shadows, probably searching for Charlie, likely wanting to see him dead as much as Ryan wanted to see his family safe. She finally growled, then ran into the shadows of the forest.

  Ryan was surrounded by a trio of aliens, quickly closing in around him. He raised his claw and hand as the largest of the three creatures brought him hard to the ground. Ryan gnashed and raged and screamed and bucked his body hard against the ground, t
hrashing about as he tried to throw the mounting aliens from his slippery body.

  Ryan’s world was quickly fading to dark as another pair of aliens joined the trio.

  He was as good as dead.

  Ryan squeezed his eyes and twisted his head, swaying his body as he tried to grab a final glimpse of his girls.

  The first of the five aliens fell, quickly followed by a second.

  Crazy Boricio screamed, “Come and get me, you slippery soul-eating fucks!”

  The alien swiped at Crazy Boricio, its claw connecting with Boricio’s arm and spraying a jet of crimson, which rained across the sky and splattered Ryan’s still mostly human face.

  Bald Boricio joined him, screaming just as loud, though nowhere near as crazy, while waving some sort of giant stick.

  Ryan slipped from the bottom of the huddle and saw Mary with an alien charging toward her. She raised her gun, but the alien slapped the pistol from her hand. Paola raised her gun and pulled the trigger but the gun only mocked her with an empty clicking.

  Ryan charged forward, closing the distance in less than two seconds, thrusting his claw deep into the alien’s torso, then twisted the blade inside the creature’s body, pulling the alien’s still-beating ebony heart from its body, then throwing it into the darkness with a wailing bellow.

  Mary screamed, terrified, then swallowed her fear and ran toward Ryan. “Thank you,” she cried out, hugging him.

  He looked around. Aliens were everywhere, circling them at a bit of a distance instead of attacking, as if they seemed to be moving with less urgency. The hive buzzed with discord in his mind, and there was nothing Ryan could do to filter through the countless lines of chaos.

  The aliens seemed suddenly confused, and Ryan could feel something interfering with their commands from the Darkness. He looked around, but couldn’t discern the source.

  Charlie was gone, and his minions had stopped attacking, but at the same time, they weren’t leaving. The aliens numbered in the hundreds, surrounding them on all sides.

  Ryan looked around at Mary’s companions. They were still alive, but not for much longer. Ryan had heard enough empty clicking, and had seen enough discarded guns, to know they were out of bullets. Everyone was covered in blood, and the bright crimson with only shadows of black said most of the blood was human. They gathered between the trucks with two old men in the back seat of one of the trucks. Ryan recognized one of the men from Charlie’s vision as Luca — their last true hope.