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

they had to have a decent reason. It was certainly possible that the rest of the organization was professional, and that Lisa and her crew were merely the most recent recruits. It wasn’t as if either Black Island or Black Mountain had a trained army ready to go when October 15 went down: they were forced to make do with the groups they could gather together. In many ways, Ed was surprised Black Island had found so many capable people to fill the role of Guardsmen. There were, after all, only six island natives left over from The Event. Yet, Black Island managed to put together a decent group of Guardsmen. He wondered if Black Mountain had been similarly fortunate.
    Maybe, Ed figured, Black Mountain was made up of more people from this alternate Earth. If Black Mountain had managed to shelter more of its natives from the October 15 disaster, then perhaps their institutional memory was stronger. And if that were all true, they were likely more organized and stronger than Black Island operations.
    Ed opened his eyes, just a slit thin enough to see through. The tunnel was dimly lit, enough so he could see Lisa driving the van, her eyes as straight as the tunnel. The Prophet sat beside her, his eyes on the same nothing ahead of them.
    Ed was surprised they’d made it through the storm with only Rojas as a casualty, though it seemed like Brent was almost trying to die, lying on the ground about to take a nap while the tornado was seconds from scooping him up and twisting his breathing to a finish. Ed was too far away to help. Brent would’ve died if Lisa hadn’t yanked him to safety under the overpass.
    Lisa was tough, sure, but she didn’t seem homegrown Guardsmen. Ed wondered what she’d done before being brought over. While she wasn’t Guardsmen material, she definitely wasn’t civilian. No way. She was too comfortable with both guns and orders. Maybe she was military, with a few tours in Afghanistan or Iraq. She seemed like someone used to dealing with assholes, and could handle herself just fine, even though Ed didn’t like her attitude.
    Brent spotted the open slit in Ed’s eyes and started to say something to him, but Ed shook his head just enough for Brent to see, then closed his eyes and continued playing Rip Van Winkle.
    The van had eaten quite a bit of road before it came to a sharp, and seemingly unexpected, stop.
    “What the hell?” Lisa said.
    Ed opened his eyes, waiting to see what would happen next.
    Lisa was staring ahead, though Ed couldn’t see what she was looking at. Moments later there was a voice was outside their window.
    “Pull over into the bay, and stay in the van,” a man instructed sharply.
    “Yes sir,” Lisa said, turning the van to the right and merging slowly into another area branching off from the main tunnel. Ed couldn’t tell if Lisa had been expecting these instructions, but judging from her initial “what the hell,” he figured the routine had been changed since her last homecoming.
    They were probably getting checked for signs of infection, like at the Island where it was standard operating procedure any time the Guardsmen returned from the field.
    Lisa stopped the van and killed the engine.
    “How many?” a man Ed couldn’t see asked from outside.
    “Five, including four civilians.”
    Four? So Billy was a recent addition to the group. Perhaps the kid hadn’t been lying when he said he’d been living with a man who was killed and he’d been left on his own.
    “You step out first, and tell your people to stay put,” the man’s voice said outside the van.
    Lisa turned and met Ed’s eyes.
    “I heard,” he said.
    “What’s happening?” The Prophet asked.
    She hopped from the van and said, “Nothing to worry about. I’ll be right back.”
    Lisa disappeared and left them to wait.
    Ed sat up.
    “What do you think is going on?” The Prophet repeated.
    Ed said, “They’re probably gonna scan us all, one by one, to make sure we’re not infected.”
    “Infected? With what?” the old man looked scared.
    “The alien shit that’s goin’ around,” Ed said.
    Is this guy really not putting one and one together?
    “Alien stuff? You mean the demons?”
    “Aliens, demons — whatever. They need to make sure none of us are infected and gonna turn into one of those damned things.”
    The Prophet said nothing, but for the second time since he’d met the man, Ed got a weird feeling. Something in his eyes — something buried. The man called himself “The