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

Prophet,” which meant he probably had all sorts of guilt — real or imagined — running through his narrow mind.
    What are you hiding, old man?
    “Were any of you bit?” Brent asked.
    “No,” Ed said. “I don’t think so. Lisa got cut, but I’m not sure if it spreads by touch.”
    “Shit,” Brent said, adjusting his position to look in the mirror on the Prophet’s side of the van.
    “I can’t see anything.”
    The van lacked rear windows, and he couldn’t hear anything, so Ed could only guess at what was happening outside. He figured he’d hear something soon enough if Lisa tested positive.
    Instead, they heard a knock on one of the van’s back doors.
    A man said, “Come out — slowly! ”
    Brent opened the door from inside. They stepped out and into a large gray bay separated from the tunnel they’d been driving in, likely hundreds of feet beneath the mountain.
    Three Guardsmen in black stood with their rifles; no sign of Lisa. Ed wondered if she’d been infected or if she were simply being debriefed. She was the only surviving member of her squad, so no doubt someone wanted to talk to her ASAP.
    “One at a time,” said a young man with a buzz cut, pale skin, and a face marred by severe acne. “Step toward us and remove your shirts.”
    The Prophet looked at Ed nervously, as if asking, is this customary?
    No, Ed would have said, usually you get naked . Ed nodded as he peeled off his shirt. Brent followed immediately. The Prophet took seven days to remove his button down white shirt.
    They were instructed, one at a time, to step forward to a second Guardsman, a thin Hispanic kid with a light wand, who couldn’t have been more than 16. The test, as Ed understood it, picked up on a specific light frequency emitted only by aliens and the infected.
    Ed was tested first. He passed and was then ordered to wait beside a door at the end of the room. Brent followed, breathing a bottomless sounding sigh of relief when he was told to join Ed. The Prophet went next, sweating profusely as he approached the kid.
    The light immediately glowed bright blue and started to beep. The kid was so startled he nearly fell on his ass. The two other Guardsmen raised their rifles at The Prophet, who shook his head and started to stutter, “There’s g … got to be a m … m … mistake.”
    The kid ran the light over the Prophet a second time, the light shaking in his hand. The light beeped again. “He’s infected!”
    “Infected?” The Prophet said. “No, I’m not. I swear!”
    “Come with us,” the Guardsmen said, approaching the Prophet with their guns aimed at him.
    His eyes widened and for a moment, Ed thought the old man was going to try and run. But a second later his shoulders slumped in resignation.
    “Please,” he said, turning to Ed and Brent. “Tell them I’m with you. I’m not infected.”
    “I’m sorry,” Ed said. “Just go with them. They’ll take care of you.”
    “What are you going to do?” the old man asked.
    “We’re just going to quarantine you, sir. It’s a precautionary thing while we do some secondary tests. You may be just fine, at which time we’ll release you to be with your friends.” The Guardsmen were far more polite than Ed had seen at Black Island, especially with how they treated their infected.
    Ed knew it was a lie. The light test was never wrong. They were just placating him to get him to quietly follow — a necessary lie, and a kind one they didn’t need to offer. They could’ve just shot him right there on the spot.
    The Guardsmen led The Prophet through the closer set of doors, leaving Ed and Brent alone with the kid, who was staring at his boots.
    “So, what now?” Ed said.
    “We’ll wait for them to come back, then you’ll be brought into Black Mountain for a full medical. And then someone will likely want to talk to you.”
    The far door opened and Lisa appeared with a tall blond-haired man who reminded Ed of an eighties-era Dolph Lundgren, and looked about as pleasant as when he played Ivan Drago in Rocky IV . Judging from the way she followed behind like an eager to please puppy, and the Master Sergeant’s stripes on the side of his uniform, Dolph was clearly her superior. Ed wondered if those stripes were earned before or after October 15. Was he a real soldier or no different than the kid with the blue light?
    Ed thought it funny how quickly people fell into line and deferred to someone with higher rank, even after the world