Yesterday's Gone: Season One

men looking for him,” Jade said “Let’s just do what they say.”
    “What if they’re not the good guys?” Teagan asked, scared.
    Jade crawled to Teagan, put her hands on her shoulders, then looked her in the eyes. “Look, I know you had that dream and stuff, but these men are only here to take my dad in. They’re not looking for your baby.”
    “How do you know that?” Teagan asked, unable to cease her quivering mouth or the tears stinging her cheeks.
    “Because that’s what makes the most sense,” Jade said. “And in my world, the things that make the most sense, are usually the answer. Not wild conspiracy theories and secret agents. We’ve got a fugitive in here. They’ve come to get him. And given the hell outside, I’d rather go with them, answer a few questions, and maybe be safe, than end up getting eaten by monsters.”
    “What do you mean fugitive?” Ken asked. “Your dad’s a fugitive?”
    “Not now, Ken.” Jade said annoyed, then turned back to Teagan. “There’s no one coming to get your baby. It doesn’t make any sense and my dad should never have let you believe that.”
    “But we don’t know,” Teagan said, feeling whiney, but not caring. This was her baby they were talking about. They’d get no do-overs if they made the wrong choice.
    “Even if they have come for your baby, or all of us for that matter, there’s nothing we can do. We have two guns, and I’m a shit shot. If they want to get to us, they will, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. So we’ve got to run with logic over fear.”
    Teagan cried out and Jade hugged her.
    “They’re not coming for you, I swear.”
    “On the count of ten,” the loudspeaker voice called before initiating countdown.
    “We’re coming!” Jade yelled, annoyed, putting her gun on the ground. Ken did the same.
    “Wait,” Teagan said, “Maybe we should keep a gun in case we run into more of those things in the hallway.”
    “Good point,” Ken said, picking up a pistol and slipping it into the waistband at the small of his back.
    Jade knelt, kissed Ed on the cheek, then whispered something Teagan couldn’t hear. Teagan looked back at the man who may, or may not have, saved her life twice. For all that had happened, she didn’t want to see him come to any harm. She felt a connection to him, however tenuous, that she wasn’t ready to see severed.
    They stepped into the hallway. Jade shined a flashlight as they entered the stairwell and started their descent. At the ground floor, Ken paused before opening the door to the lobby, pulled the gun from his waistband, and put it in the corner of the stairwell. “Don’t wanna get shot,” he said.
    They pushed through the door with their arms raised and were met by two men in white space-age looking Hazmat suits, complete with enclosed helmets and breathing tanks. With them was a third man, in a black outfit, like a SWAT team would wear. He wore something on his face that looked like a gas mask and had his rifle aimed right at them.
    “How many more are with you?” he said, voice muffled by the mask.
    “Just my dad,” Jade said, “You guys shot him with darts and he’s passed out upstairs.”
    One of the two Hazmat-suited men shined a light on the three of them, then trained it on Ken’s injury. “What happened to you?”
    “I was bit,” Ken said, “By one of those alien-looking things.”
    “We’ve got an infected,” one of the Hazmat men said into a microphone. Suddenly, two more SWAT team men ran in with rifles aimed at Ken, Jade, and Teagan.  
    One of them yelled, “Outside, now!”
    Teagan felt hands on her, pushing as they were rushed out into the parking lot, three guns at the back of their heads.  
    “Please don’t shoot us,” she cried.
    “Shut up,” one of the SWAT men said, “Keep moving.”
    Outside, they were met by two other SWAT men in masks along with a woman in a Hazmat suit.
    “What’s going on?” Jade asked.
    “No questions,” one of the SWAT men said. He walked up to Ken, “How long ago were you bit?”
    “About 10 minutes ago,” Ken said. “Why?”
    “Were any of the rest of you bitten?” the woman in the Hazmat suit asked, waving some sort of light wand over them.
    “No,” Jade said, “just Ken. What’s going on? What are those things?”
    “How about the man upstairs? Was he bit?” one of the SWAT men asked.
    “I don’t think so, was he Ken?” Jade asked.
    “No, just me,” Ken said. “What’s going on?