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

done differently. But they didn’t pay Ed for his opinions. He was paid to manage scientists and make sure they didn’t blow up the world or worse. Yet, when they actually tinkered with something as dangerous as the vials, Ed was told to sit down and shut up while the real scientists did their thing.
    And we all know how that went.
    “Let’s just stick to what we’re gonna do next,” he said to Will, who seemed at least a little more present than in recent memory, maybe awakened by the danger. “By the way, what did Williams mean when he said he’d known what you did?”
    Will looked confused. “I believe he thinks I have the vials.”
    “ Are there any left?” Ed asked.
    “No, you know that. All we have left is what was in the serum that our guys are trying to use to find a cure.”
    “I had to ask,” Ed said. “He seemed so certain.”
    “The crazy ones usually are.”
    “How do you think he was infected?” Ed asked. “It had to have happened recently, right? We’ve never seen it lay dormant for longer than 48 hours.”
    “It had to be recent, yes” Will agreed. “Was he working with the infected patients that he helped escape?”
    “Yes,” Ed said. “Almost daily.”
    “Perhaps they played his sympathies, and he left himself open to their influence. They must’ve done it telepathically. We all know that I was changed by mere proximity. Luca more so having been injected with the serum.”
    “We’ve never seen them do anything like that,” Ed said. “We’ve never seen an infected with that kind of cognitive function, have we?”
    “Once,” Bishop said, but then trailed off when Ed’s radio rang again.
    It was Sullivan saying that Teagan wanted to talk to him.
    “Ed, I’m scared. What’s happening?”
    “Everything will be okay,” he said. “Sullivan is going to move you to Level Eight. Go with him; do whatever he says. OK? Is Jade with you?”
    “Yes,” she said, weeping.
    Ed couldn’t afford the distraction, or the tears that came with it. “I don’t have time to talk now, Baby. Sullivan will take care of you. OK? I have to go. Now.”
    A pause, then Teagan said, “Bye.”
    Ed hung up without saying another word. The tune of her fear had already compromised his ability to think clearly. He had to figure out a way to get from the monastery to the Facility without running into any of the infected.
    Ed looked down at the Guardsman who were no longer Guardsman, six total. He couldn’t make out any of their identities, since their mutation was nearly complete and their faces had shifted to monstrosities.
    Ed turned to Will with a sudden idea. “If Williams is infected, why hasn’t he mutated like these things? His temporal lobe is functioning just fine, unlike the other infected. Could the species be finding a new way to integrate with us? More of an invisible parasite, controlling functions without showing symptoms elsewhere or going full blown mutation?”
    “I wouldn’t rule it out at the moment, and that does make the most sense. But we’d need to get a look inside his brain to know for certain.”
    “Well, first we need to take care of these down here and then get back to the Facility.”
    “Okay,” Bishop said.
    Ed loaded a fresh clip into his Glock, then aimed at the mutant in the center of the line of them and fired, hitting it square in the forehead. It dropped to the ground, screeching as it fell. Ed was’t sure if the screech was pain or a warning because the moment it started, the others followed, all opening their mouths and releasing unholy wails, piercing to his ears even from 30 yards away.
    Ed fired down into the group and hit another, drowning its fallen comrade’s cry with a wail of its own. The other four scattered into the shadows as the first one finished dying from Ed’s near perfect headshot.
    “Come on,” Ed ordered. “Follow me.”
    They made their way down to the monastery entrance, then across the courtyard and into the woods.
    “The truck is just this way,” Ed said, surprised that Will was keeping decent pace.
    They made it halfway to the truck when suddenly, movement erupted around them, dark on dark moving fast.
    And then they were surrounded by the four infected Guardsman.
    Ed stepped in front of Will, shielding him from the closest of the infected. For some reason, however, the infected weren’t moving any closer — as if they were frozen in place awaiting instructions.
    “They won’t fight back,” Will suddenly said,