Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (2 page)

The Warson Woods group also saw the addition of two members, the eight year old
Luca
, and a former Air Force researcher,
Will
, who also saw the events of October 15 in a dream. He also dreamed of meeting Luca, and knew that he had to protect him.

Luca discovered that he has an ability to heal people, but he ages each time he does, becoming a child in a young man’s body. Soon,
Brother Rei
, began to crack down, first targeting a young girl,
Rebecca
, who he punished by putting her in a box for a week after convincing her suitor, Carl, to betray her, and say that she seduced him.

Then, he targeted Luca, who had begun to bond with Rebecca as he astral projected himself into her head and began to fall for her. When Luca tried to save Rebecca, Brother Rei and his “Brothers” attacked Luca and Desmond — with some help from Boricio, who was just playing the cards he’s dealt. Brother Rei, who was planning a coup of The Sanctuary, believed that Desmond and Luca knew of spies within the ranks and began to torture them.
 

Soon, all hell broke loose at The Sanctuary as Rei’s uprising began since The Prophet was bedridden thanks to his plot to poison the leader. Brother Rei shot John dead. Then his Brothers dragged Mary and Paola to The Hole, where he was holding Desmond, Luca, and Linc, another addition to the Warson Woods group. Rei shocked them all by shooting the child, Paola, and then killing her mother, Mary, along with Mary and Desmond’s unborn child.

Brother Rei left the room to join in the uprising, leaving his goons, now including Boricio, to finish off Desmond and Luca.
 

Luca tried to communicate with Will, who had left before events went bad, to come back to save them. He soon found himself using his growing powers to go into Boricio’s head, where he saw Boricio’s inner child being abused. Luca tried to get through to Boricio to help them by appealing to the child within him. Boricio turned on him, however, stalking Luca back to his own childhood home where Boricio attempted to injure him. Luca then found a way back to the younger Boricio and they soon found themselves watching another reality play out — one where Boricio hadn’t become a serial killer, but had been adopted by Will, of all people, and was living a happy life.
 

Luca then fixed something within Boricio. When Boricio came to in the Hole, he helped Desmond and Luca break free.

However, Luca’s attempts to heal Mary and Paola proved fruitless.

Devastated, Desmond left the Hole to seek vengeance on Brother Rei. Unbeknownst to them, however, the darkness that was in John left John’s body and infiltrated The Prophet, who then left The Sanctuary and called his monsters from the woods surrounding to invade and kill everyone.

Boricio, now operating somewhat under Luca’s influence, helped Luca, Linc, and Rebecca fight off the monsters as war broke out, buildings were set on fire, and several of the church’s members fled in vehicles. Desmond killed Rei, but was then murdered by one of the many monsters. Boricio, Linc, Rebecca, and Luca retreated to the barn, as the monsters swarmed in to attack.

Will, who had tried years ago to save his boyfriend from becoming crippled in an accident, wound up getting him killed when he tried to “find a loophole” to change the future he’d seen. Now, he is a slave to fate and his visions, and abides by them, no matter what, for fear of what might happen if he goes against his visions. Fate, as Will learned, could be cruel when you tried to circumvent its plans. Before all hell broke loose, Will left the Sanctuary, because his visions had told him to.

He returned to find that only Boricio and Luca had survived.

However, this wasn’t what fate had told him should have happened.

So Will corrected reality by shooting Luca.

And now, Season Three…

* * * *

CHAPTER 1 — Other Will Bishop

Other Earth

June 14, 2011

Black Island Research Facility

Black Island, New York

FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE OCTOBER 15 EVENT…

One month had passed since the boy last opened his eyes.

When Will got the call from Boricio, his heart nearly burst from his chest. “Your brother? He’s okay?”

“Yes, Dad, he’s fine.”

“I’ll be right there,” Will said, almost falling as he jumped from his seat and raced down the hall, to the elevator, and slipped inside just as the doors were closing.

Will smiled at the researcher already standing in the elevator — a man whose name Will didn’t know, even though he’d seen him several times. The keycard/badge hanging from the man’s lanyard said, “Eric Rodgers: Aerospace Division.”

Though Will had occasionally consulted for the aerospace division of Black Island, most of his work was now with the psychic warfare and genetic engineering branches. He rarely spoke with anyone outside of his division, except for the all too regular but unavoidable awkward moments in the elevators and dining hall.
 

Will closed his eyes, trying not to pick up any of the man’s thoughts. Too late.

Oh shit, it’s the freaky guy. Is he reading my mind now? Oh shit. Stop thinking. Think about anything other than last night . . . cocaine . . . Shit! Did he hear that? Oh God . . . Come on elevator, come the fuck on!

Will kept his eyes closed to shield his vision from the man’s nervous face.

The elevator stopped on the third floor and the man rushed off, saying, “Good day, sir,” only when he was three steps away.

Will couldn’t think of anything to say before the elevator doors closed and he was on his way to Level Seven. Alone, his mind returned to his son who had somehow miraculously, recovered. The doctors said he might never surface from the coma. The operation to remove the tumor in his brain was enough of a risk to be considered a death sentence.
 

And yet, four weeks later, he had opened his eyes.

Can he really be fine?

Will tried to pick up his son’s thoughts, but couldn’t feel him “online.” At first, Will was nervous, wondering if the child’s thoughts were somehow dead, but given the drugs in his system, he was likely still in a fog. Some drugs had a way of interfering with Will’s abilities.

The elevator stopped. Will squeezed through the still-opening doors, then practically ran to the recovery room. He passed a few nurses, then opened the room’s door to his two adopted sons, separated by more than two decades and different parents.

Luca’s eyes lit as Will stepped through the door, “Dad!”
 

Will’s heart practically melted. “Oh God, you’re awake!” he cried, falling to Luca’s bedside and hugging him through the tangle of wires running to an IV drip, then over to the bank of machines monitoring his vitals. “Thank you, God.”

“Why are you crying?” Luca asked, his voice brittle and full of scratches.

“I’m just so happy,” Will said.

Will stood, then turned to Boricio, pulling him into the bear of a hug. That’s when he sensed it — the secret Boricio had been hiding. The doctors had done something radical to revive Luca, even though they were supposed to wait for him to come out of the coma.

How the hell did they keep this from me?
 

Then Will saw that too.
 

Boricio hadn’t told anyone outside of a small circle, at least not until the last minute, and somehow managed to shield his thoughts enough to prevent leaking the information himself. Boricio could do this better than anyone, especially when Will was busy, which he had been for the majority of the past several weeks.

Will pulled away, and met Boricio’s eyes.
 

Boricio knew he knew. “I’ll explain later,” Boricio whispered.

Will swallowed his knot, furious, wanting
later
to fuck itself so Boricio could explain immediately.
 

“I’m thirsty,” Luca said.

“Hold on, I’ll get you some water.” Will smiled at Luca, rubbing the top of his son’s head before leaving the room. He nodded at Boricio with a silent instruction to follow him out into the hallway.

The door slid closed behind him; Will narrowed his eyes, stealing a glance around them to see who, if anyone, was within earshot. The coast clear, he said, “How could you?”

“He was inches from dead,” Boricio said. “How could I
not?
”

“The serum hasn’t been tested on humans,” Will said. “You had no right to use Luca as an experiment.”

“Oh please,” Boricio said. “He wasn’t an experiment. Haven’t you been reading the research notes? You’ve seen what the serum can do! Apes, mice, monkeys, pigs, and anything else Old McDonald can throw in the lab. It’s worked everywhere they’ve used it. And it worked on Luca.”

Will swallowed again, trying to control his rising anger. He had never wanted to hit anyone in all his life so much as he wanted to smash his fist into Boricio’s arrogant face right at that moment.
 

He exhaled from his nose and drew a deep breath. “What if something went wrong?”

“The doc said he’s in perfect health,” Boricio said, standing straighter. “And you’ve known me long enough to know I’m not wired to sit around and swing a sack of nothing while my baby brother is beating on his final breath.” He shook his head. “Not a chance. Those vials were a gift! You know it’s just a matter of time before we’re using the serum as a chemo-cocktail to cure everything from cancer to carpal tunnel.” He took a step toward Will and bored into his eyes. “Shit, Dad, isn’t that the ditch you said we’re supposed to be digging?”

“Not like this.” Will shook his head. “How can you not see how foolish this is?”

Boricio pointed at the door and the brother on the other side. “How can you not see how
right
this is? You taught me to take risks. You taught me to believe in myself. It’s about damned time you listen to your own advice. If this had been some random test subject, cleared through the proper channels, you’d be the first one popping the cork! So stop looking at the red tape and start walking on the red carpet, Dad. This is
our time
. Three surgeons made a miracle in there today! A miracle that would have never happened if you and your buddies hadn’t found those vials. At some point you’ve gotta start being able to see destiny dancing, Dad, especially when it’s twisting in a tango in front of you!” He shook his head again. “You’ve gotta stop turning your head from what’s supposed to happen.”

Will took a step back and stared through the door’s window at Luca, lying in bed, smiling and waving. It was a smile Will had been afraid he’d never see again. Boricio was right. Will hadn’t allowed himself to believe in miracles for far too long, even though he had always believed in fate.

Maybe this was an even blend of both.
 

* * * *

CHAPTER 2 — Boricio Wolfe Part 1

Kingsland, Alabama

The Sanctuary

March 28

sometime after midnight…

FIVE MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT…

Well, this is some beer-battered bullshit.

The second the old fucker pulled the trigger, Luca’s memories started spinning through Boricio’s brain — how Luca and Will had met, how Will had comforted him after his dog died, plus dozens of others — like a bad acid trip, blended with anger, betrayal, and confusion.

Boricio shook his head, trying to flush the memories so he could deal with the immediacy of the old man with the gun.

“What the fuck?” Boricio said, raising the shotgun he looted from one of the Sanctu-fairy fucksticks, and drawing aim at Will, pointing the barrel right between his eyes.
 

Will acted as if Boricio wasn’t even there, dropping his pistol to the snow and staring down at Luca. “I’m so sorry,” he said, falling to Luca and cradling the man-kid’s head in his hands as blood pooled beneath him, spreading like an angry dark stain in the snow.

“How do you get off swinging a sack of sorry, you Santa Claus looking pile of shit? You’re the motherfucker who shot him!” Boricio stepped forward to hit the old man, but stopped when he nearly lost his balance.

His head was still dizzy from Luca being inside, and odd as a smiling bitch who wasn’t asking for crap, Boricio still felt a lingering need to protect the kid. He wasn’t sure what sorta voodoo bullshit Luca had done in his head, but he’d definitely done something.

Luca had said he’d “fix” Boricio, but what in the fuck all did that even mean? What was there to fix? Ain’t no one ever had any complaints about the way Boricio worked before. At least no one still breathing.

Boricio took a step closer to Will. “He said he
fixed
me. You wanna tell me what in the hell that means? I’m guessing by the way you tore in here like Steve McQueen, you have a pretty good goddamn idea.”

Will looked up at Boricio, eyes watering, as if he were going to break down and cry. “I don’t know. But you’re a killer, aren’t you?”

Boricio showed Will all his teeth. “I’m a heartbeat adjuster. What in the fuck does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”