Yesterday's Gone: Season One

paid his dear ole’ dad back for his childhood of hell.
    Ears burned with cigarettes. Forced to drink shampoo. Three toes bent so bad the doctors considered amputation. A third-degree burn by way of blow dryer. A miserable fucking childhood raped of every molecule of joy. Yeah, it’d be nice to skull fuck some other asshole just as deserving.
    “So, Adam,” Boricio asked. “What do you think happens when they take you out of here, then? What’s in the box?”  
    “World’s been shit miserable so far; maybe outside is some sort of hallelujah to make up for it, you know, if you’re the right kind of person.”
    “What kind of person is that?” Boricio asked.
    “Maybe the world owes some of us a new beginning.”
    The room went silent, as if in the aftermath of an uncomfortable truth. Boricio wanted to laugh at the kid’s delusional pipe dreams because as sure as shit, there was no God in the sky, no angels waiting to take you to heaven, and the world never gave you what it owed you. No, the only thing on the menu was shit and more shit.
    However, perhaps fortune had smiled on Adam, as Boricio reconsidered his plans to kill every fucker in the room.
    No reason he couldn't take out most of the room, leave one soldier behind. Maybe a second set of hands was just what Boricio needed. Maybe Boricio could be a mentor. A special kind of mentor like Boricio had while growing up.
    It felt good to think about Tom again. It had been a long time since he allowed himself to remember the man who taught him to kill and never get caught.  

    * * * *

EDWARD KEENAN

    October 15
    Early evening
    Somewhere in North Carolina

    Ed and Teagan were 60 miles from her home in Cape Hope, North Carolina when she finally decided to break the ice that had frosted their air since the fallen bodies at the gas station.  
    “Why aren’t we going to find your daughter first?”
    “What?”
    “Well, if my dad were looking for me, I don’t think he’d stop to help a stranger and get sidetracked from doing what he set out to do.”
    “It’s complicated,” he said. “Can we talk about something else? Anything. Like your favorite bands or what movies you like, or what you like to do? Do you play any sports?”
    “Had to give up football with the baby and all, ” Teagan said with a laugh, patting her belly. Another moment of silence passed before she finally said what she’d wanted to say in the first place. “You killed those people like it was nothing. I mean, no hesitation whatsoever. How can you do that? What are you? ”
    “What do you mean, what am I ?”
    “You said you were kinda like a cop, but cops have to go by rules, right? Even now. My cousin Jeb was a cop, and I can’t imagine him, or any of his cop buddies, pulling the trigger like that, no questions asked.”
    “I can’t really say what it was that I did, but I worked for our government. And I was one of the good guys . And despite what you see on TV and in the movies, the good guys aren’t necessarily the same as the nice guys.”
    “So, you’re not a nice guy, then?”  
    He kept his eyes on the road. Teagan’s resemblance to his daughter made the conversation every bit the biting through nails it would’ve been if it were Jade’s mouth moving instead, so he tried not to look at her any more than he had to.
    “I’m just a guy who does what needs to be done. You said your cousin Jeb was a cop? What do you mean was? ”
    “He was killed by a drunk driver a year ago. Tell me, why were you arrested?” she asked, so out of the blue he nearly swerved off the road.
    “What?” he asked, playing stupid.
    “The rings on your wrist, someone had you in cuffs, I assume?”
    Ed smiled.
    “You’re observant.”
    “So, are you going to tell me?”  
    “Man, you just cut right to the chase, eh?”
    Teagan was smiling, but just barely.
    “You’re right, I was arrested. But I didn’t do anything I wasn’t told to do.”
    “Then why were you arrested?”
    “Sometimes, the people who make up the rules of the game change them on the fly depending on which asses need kissing, the political gestures that need to be made, and you know, all the usual bureaucratic bullshit. Well, maybe you don’t know. At any rate, when the rules change and your bosses are caught playing by the old rules, well, that means shifting the blame downwind to someone else. A guy like me.”
    “What does that even mean?” she asked.
    Ed had to laugh at the knots of confusion on