Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (8 page)

Though his voice was different, the scream belonged to the same soul he’d been connected to, deeper than anyone since Sam — Luca.

* * * *

CHAPTER 8 — Edward Keenan Part 2

Ed blinked a half dozen times, but he still didn’t believe his eyes, even though the acrid scent of the monsters’ sweat, or whatever it was, should have made it easier.
 

Ed stared over the edge of the roof, shaking his head at the sea of aliens below. With his nerves frayed and attention divided, Ed was half tuned to the hatch that might pop open at any moment, while the other half was focused on the certain death below.
 

The aliens didn’t necessarily look like they were making a formation to attack, but they did look like they were waiting for something. They were milling about the entrance, with some of them heading into the store, but they weren’t charging inside like they Rojas said they had been earlier. They seemed almost orderly, as though waiting their turns.

The gun felt right in Ed’s hand. He wrapped his fingers around the handle tighter, finger kissing the trigger, itchy to squeeze it and knowing the math was impossible. Bullets to aliens were at least ten to one.

Ed turned from the aliens, then glanced at the hatch before his eyes landed on Lisa. “There’s no way I’m letting you cuff me again. You realize that, right?”

Lisa said nothing.
 

Ed continued, “We’re gonna get through this, and when we do, you’ll know you couldn't have done it without me, and I’ll know I couldn’t have done it without you. That will be enough. We’ll say our thank yous, and then our goodbyes. Once this is over, so are we. Hasta la bye-bye, and no coming back.”

Lisa added empty silence to her pile of verbal nothing, while Ed said the same thing with different words. “You never saw us, and we never saw you. You got it?”
 

Lisa finally nodded, then said, “Let’s just wait until this shit is over. Then we’ll talk.”
 

“No talking,” Ed said. “I’m taking off when this shit is over, and you’re going to let me and Brent head into the sunset with a smile on your face. I want your word, Lisa, or I’m going to find it awfully hard to pay attention to what’s happening all around me when shit starts flying from the fan.” He raised his eyebrows. “And believe me, I’m exactly the man you want ahead, around and behind you, from right this minute until whenever we get the hell outta here.”

A horrible chorus of shrieks rolled through the parking lot to punctuate the thought.
 

After a long pause, Lisa said, “Fine,” then walked to the far side of the roof and looked over the edge, in case something had changed in the two minutes since Ed last looked.
 

Ed wondered if his training was what kept him from fully trusting Lisa, or whether Lisa was simply that kind of a bitch. He looked out at the sea of aliens and shook his head. The odds of them seeing the next sunrise with an enemy who wore night during the day and invisibility at night was slim to none.

The clouds grew dark overhead and night wasn’t far off.

“We need flares,” Lisa said, as if realizing his thought and opening her mouth to the first lick of sense all day. “Maybe if we light a few flares, we can get some help. Black Mountain must be looking for us by now.”
 

No one said anything, so she finished the thought. “I have some downstairs in my pack.”
 

“I’ll help,” Ed said, with no room for no in his voice.
 

Lisa nodded, then turned and headed toward the hatch. Ed stood a foot behind Rojas, while he, Brent, and Billy all circled the hatch, aiming their weapons at its closed mouth.
 

Lisa swung the lid open and half of them gasped. She looked up at Ed, the relief on her face delivered along with a half of a smile. Ed couldn’t help but smile back. Lisa climbed inside the hatch and Ed followed.
 

Smile or no, Lisa couldn't be trusted. As they descended the ladder, then crept through the stockroom, Ed divided his attention between the eerie silence and the woman walking one yard in front of him.

Ed wasn’t too concerned about Lisa trying anything down here to harm him. For one, she’d attract the aliens, which was probably why she didn’t mind turning her back on him, either. And second, they needed one another — for now. But once they’d dealt with the problem at hand, things were gonna get tricky, and there was a strong chance that blood would be shed.

Lisa walked along the back of the stockroom, and through a long narrow hallway which opened to the left into a deli, and beyond that was the store and the aliens. Lisa held a finger to her lips and Ed nodded to show that he’d seen them. So far, they’d been undetected.

Lisa was three feet from her field pack when something moved in the deli. Ed twisted his body to aim at a shadow which raced by, banging against something, before vanishing into the darkness.

Lisa turned, startled. “What was that?” she whispered.

Ed shook his head.

Then he heard the familiar clicking sound coming from the deli which they’d just passed. And would have to pass again to get back to the ladder.

“Follow me,” he said. He held his gun in front of him, as he inched toward the opening to the deli. Behind him, Lisa held her shotgun, ready.

He peered into the deli, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Beyond the deli, he spotted two aliens wandering the aisles of the store, oblivious to him, and seemingly walking without purpose.

What the hell are they doing in here, browsing?
 

Lisa screamed behind him. Ed spun around and watched as Lisa was knocked to the ground by an alien behind her. The gun slipped from her hand and slid on the floor and Ed took aim at the creature, but it was too tangled with Lisa to get a decent shot.
 

Lisa kicked up at something that looked like it might have been a stomach, and the alien fell back. Lisa scrambled to get up and run toward Ed. The alien reached out and grabbed at her. It wasn’t able to catch her, but its claws lacerated her arm in one violent sweep and sent her bouncing off the wall.

A jet of blood shot from Lisa’s arm and she screamed. Then Ed could swear the creature sniffed the air before it charged back at her.

Ed ran toward the creature, pushing Lisa to the ground as he passed her and thrust himself between her and the alien. Ed opened fire. His first and second shot both landed somewhere in the middle of the alien’s face, but the creature didn’t slow and was on him before he could squeeze off a third shot.
 

Ed’s momentum met a brick wall as the creature hit him full forced and sent him back hard into the ground. Ed’s head smacked the concrete with a loud, sickening thwack, which felt like thunder cracking his skull. The alien was on top of him, mouth gnashing, dark, putrid saliva dripping from its jagged rows of teeth and onto Ed’s face.

Ed’s hand, trapped between himself and the alien’s slippery body, still held the pistol. He twisted the gun into the thing’s guts and fired three more times until the alien’s hot guts bled onto him and it began to go into its death spasms.

Ed pushed the alien off of him and sat up, his head throbbing and woozy.

There was movement in the store, not far away, accompanied by shrieking. They had to get back to the ladder. Now.

He looked up at Lisa, who was aiming at the deli with her shotgun. “Do you have the flares?”
 

She nodded, holding the bag in the air and stealing a glance at her gushing wound.
 

Ed said, “Come on, we’ll get that cleaned upstairs.” He grabbed Lisa by the wrist, then led her toward the ladder. Beneath the hatch, Ed stepped to the side and motioned for Lisa to climb first.
 

Behind them, a cluster of the aliens poured through the deli and into the stockroom, shrieking and knocking into boxes as they came.
 

“Go!” Ed yelled.

Lisa scrambled up the ladder, the field pack on her back and shotgun wedged like a sword. The first two aliens dropped to all four and ran toward them like some kind of demon hell hounds.
 

Ed fired, but only had one bullet left, which missed its mark.

“Fuck!” he screamed as the aliens raced toward them. They were 40 feet away and closing.

“Go! Go!” Ed screamed as Lisa was only about 10 feet up the ladder. They had to get out of range of the aliens’ long limbs.

It sounded like an army behind them. She scrambled faster. Ed raced up the ladder closely behind her as the shrieks and clicks multiplied beneath them. He was about six feet from the ground, and didn’t dare to look down. He raced up blindly, praying a large claw wouldn’t swipe at his feet and bring him down to his death.

Something clanged on the ladder just beneath his feet and Ed had to look down. He saw an alien reaching up, swiping at him, missing him by just inches.
 

Lisa sped up and crawled through the top of the hatch. Just as Ed was within reach of the hatch something sharp stung his left calf. He looked down to see a thin razor-thin wire with a curved hook on its end fall from his leg. He looked down to see the alien beneath him to which the wire was attached. It had shot the wire from its palms, as if it had extended part of its body out to attack him. The alien raised both of its palms up, taking aim at Ed again as it let out a clicking sound that sounded a hell of a lot like laughter.

Ed screamed, looked back up at the hatch as Lisa looked down at him.
 

As their eyes met, an image flashed through his mind of her slamming the hatch shut just as the alien’s razor wire flesh lassoed him and yanked him down.

Don’t you fucking dare!

Lisa leaned down and Ed wondered what the hell she was doing as he was just inches from the hatch.
 

No!

Lisa reached down with both hands and yanked him up the rest of the way, surprising him with her strength.
 

Ed rolled off of her, and got to his feet, offering her a hand up.

She took it, and their eyes met. And for the first time, her eyes softened a bit. “Thank you,” she said, “for saving my ass down there.”

“Thank you,” Ed said, “for saving mine just now. One of them shot some kinda hook and wire out of its palm and cut my leg.”

Ed pulled up his pants and examined the injury. It was minor, just a scratch, but stung like hell. He looked up at the others and said, “I don’t know if they can all do that, but don’t think you’re safe just because you’re outta reach.”

Rojas asked, “Did you get the flares.”
 

“Sure did,” she said, pointing to the field pack on her back.

Ed
 
said, “So what are we hoping for with these flares?”
 

“That one of the helicopters on patrol might see it, or maybe one of the vans. If they spot the flare, Base will send out units to investigate. That part’s is certain. It’s just a matter of them seeing the flares.”

Ed said, “How many people are at Black Mountain?”
 

Lisa looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Enough.”

Ed wondered if they had as many as Black Island.

“And we’ve got a lot of Guardsmen.”

“What are they guarding?” Brent asked.

The question seemed to surprise her. She broke eye contact and looked away, nervously Ed thought, then said, “The world.”
 

“Hey guys,” Billy called from the edge of the roof. “Take a look at this.”

They all ran over to Billy and looked down into the empty parking lot. “Where did they all go?” Ed asked.

Billy shrugged. “I dunno.” He pointed to the far side of the lot, bordering the gas station on the other side. “There’s some over there, but not nearly as many as there were before.”
 

“Are they all inside the store?” Ed asked.
 

“Some,” Billy said. “But then a few minutes ago, they started walking toward the gas station and then out into the woods.” Billy pointed out into the darkness.

Ed swallowed. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good.
 

Ed looked down at the headlight beams pulling into the parking lot — not a van or a jeep, or something that Black Mountain Guardsmen might be driving. It was a station wagon, maybe 30 years old.
 

Everyone on the roof was staring as the wagon came to a full stop and the driver’s side door swung open. An old heavyset man stepped onto the asphalt and cast his eyes across the lot, looking around as if expecting to find someone.
 

He raised his head and spotted them on the roof. “You okay?” he called, waving.
 

Lisa cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Get help!”
 

“What?”

“Get help!” Lisa repeated. “Get to Black Mountain and tell them to come here.” She pointed toward the highway. “It’s right there, just up Highway 14!”
 

The man opened his mouth, probably for a question, but a scream fell out instead. The first alien charged toward him as another six came running at him from behind.