Yesterday's Gone: Season One

said,” Desmond was firm, but his kind eyes met John’s and his right hand was resting on the grieving man’s shoulder. “But we need to go now if we want to play our odds.”  
     
    “I want to be alone,” John said. “I’ll drive the van.”
     
    Desmond shook his head and lowered his arm. “You can’t do that.”  
     
    John clenched his teeth. “Why?”
     
    “Because you’re distraught, and rightfully so, but that van has 100% of our supplies and weapons. Without our gear, we go from bad to worse, fast. Our cargo gives us a better chance of facing whatever’s out there. I’m really sorry for what you’re going through right now. I can’t even imagine, but you’ve gotta man up. That’s all there is to it.”
     
    Desmond leaned in and spoke to John in a near whisper. Mary took the cue and led Paola and Jimmy back toward the Suburban. As the kids situated themselves, she watched the exchange between the men, trying to decipher what was being said, via body language alone.
     
    After a few minutes, Desmond put an arm on John’s shoulder again, said something, and John met the man’s eyes, then nodded. John turned toward the car, and Mary hurried inside, trying to avoid getting caught spying.
     
    John settled into the driver’s side and slapped his hand hard against the door. “Well then, let’s go.”
     

     
    They drove in relative silence, everyone lost in their own charred dark tumble of thoughts. Paola was likely thinking about her father, wondering if he maybe somehow survived. She’d asked Mary a few times, and each time Mary said they’d have to wait to find out, but he was probably fine. But right now, they had to travel with the others if they wanted to find safety and answers.
     
    Whether Mary believed Ryan was alive, was another story. It wasn’t impossible, especially if whatever had happened was only local. He lived a good 80 miles away, so it wasn’t as though they could run across the street to check on him. She knew how Paola felt. Despite her many issues with Ryan, she’d rather see him than anyone else in the world.
     
    Mary had no idea what Jimmy was thinking, though he was probably taking a much needed respite from the usual adolescent fantasies that most often painted his brain. John’s thoughts were evident by the curl in his lip and the furrow on his brow.  
     
    Mary wished she could see Desmond’s face. You could tell a lot about a person by watching them drive. So it didn’t surprise her that Desmond wanted to drive alone. He was smart and charming, quite a guy really, but not the person she’d expect to lead a ragtag group of survivors to safety at the end of the world. Yet, he seemed well prepared, more than a guy like that should’ve been really. His level of prep went beyond hobby, bordering on compulsion. Maybe he wasn’t really who he said he was, not that he’d ever said much of anything in the first place.  
     
    Desmond had tried to tell her how he made his money, on several occasions actually, but his many explanations made almost no sense, at least not to her. He spent all his time online, including a few hours each day on social media websites. She knew many people who spent countless hours on the Internet, but none of them were doing as well as Desmond. They certainly weren’t buying shiny new models of precision German engineering every month from their efforts.
     
    And what about the guns — who needed an entire trunk of them? Maybe that’s what happened when you got bored with regular toys and had more money than God, but it still seemed off. Yet, as weird as it was, she trusted Desmond. And she and Paola certainly owed their lives to his fortunate proximity.  
     
    Mary tore from her thoughts when Jimmy started wondering out loud about the end of the world. “You think it was aliens?”
     
    “No,” John said. He sounded far stronger than he had just 20 minutes before. “There are no ships in the sky or anything like that. It was probably some sort of poison. You watch too many movies.”
     
    “Poison doesn’t make sense,” Jimmy shook his head. “Where did the bodies go? I mean, yeah there were lots in that river, but that can’t be all of them . That’s probably not even half a town’s worth. And poison doesn’t make stuff disappear. Look around, man. Everything’s just ... gone. Cars, too. Have you noticed how we keep seeing fewer and fewer? Where are they all going? I think they’re being moved, just like