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

sounding far more certain than Ed’s hunch.
    “I was thinking the same thing.”
    Ed raised his gun and shot each of the four infected in the head, taking them down by order of proximity. Once on the ground and writhing, Ed emptied his gun, finishing them off in the same order he shot them before.
    “Let’s go.” Ed opened the driver’s side and climbed inside, though he didn’t have to say anything to Will, who was already sitting in the passenger seat, waiting.
    Ed gunned the engine, floored the pedal, and said, “It’s almost worse that they didn’t put up a fight.”
    Will said, “That’s because it’s easier to see the people inside them.”

    * * * *

CHAPTER 5 — Boricio Bishop

    Black Island Research Facility
    September 2011
    ONE MONTH BEFORE THE EVENT…

    Boricio sat cross-legged on a mattress, alone in the glass quarantine cell, one of 12 cells in the room where he had seen Will oversee so many tests before. However, it was usually animals in the cells. Now, there was he and three doctors, awaiting tests, and a large old ape named Brian. And then, of course, there was Rose.
    The Guardsman threw Boricio inside the cell, leaving him alone and afraid, sitting on the floor with a front row center view of Rose — the fresh monstrosity in the cell across from him — mutated, grotesque, and mercifully asleep, lying momentarily still as death on a mattress.
    Will’s question, as he’d yanked Boricio from Rose’s room, played on repeat over and over in Boricio’s head, the sole lyrics of a guilty song:
    What have you done?
    The longer he waited, the longer he had to stew in the pain of that question.
    What have I done?
    Why?
    She said she remembered me. Maybe her memory would’ve come back.
    The pain would’ve gone away. I could’ve waited.
    I should have stopped it.
    Boricio had no idea how long it was from when the Guardsman had first thrown him into the cell to when he finally heard the pressured release of the door lock and his adopted father stepped inside his cell.
    “Hey Boricio,” Will said. He was missing the Hazmat suit worn by every other Guardsman. “So?” he stood over Boricio’s mattress, arms in an X across his chest.
    Boricio said nothing.
    Will finally said, “Seriously Son, what were you thinking?” It sounded like he was using everything inside him to keep his voice low and emotions steady.
    “You know exactly what I was thinking,” Boricio said, “So don’t show up to the barbecue and act surprised to see meat on the grill.”
    Will didn’t respond so Boricio added, “What happened to Rose?”
    Will shook his head and said, “Sorry, Boricio,” but followed his apology with silence.
    Boricio said, “What does sorry mean?”
    Will drew a breath, then said, “Rose has mutated. We’ve never seen anything like this. We’ve got our best people analyzing the serum that Dr. Williams concocted along with her blood and tissue samples. Dr. Williams will be facing punishment for his actions. And I’m sorry to say, you will too.”
    “Fine,” Boricio said, “I look great in orange.”
    “I need you to take this seriously,” Will said. “You could be court-martialed … or worse. ”
    Boricio felt a flutter of fear, and he must’ve showed it on his face because Will stepped into his confidence. “It’s possible I could prevent it,” he said. “I don’t know for certain. But even if you’re not court-martialed, they’ll want to excommunicate you from the island. Probably forever.”
    They sat in silence for several minutes, probably since Boricio had warned Will not to ask him the same question he already knew the answer to. Finally, likely because he couldn’t help it, Will asked, “Why did you do it, Boricio?”
    Boricio didn’t answer, just stayed quiet until Will finally lost his temper. “I’ve never been angrier with you in my entire life!” he screamed. “I don’t know what in the hell is the matter with you, Son, that you would ever think it would be okay to jeopardize our jobs, futures, and friendships, not to mention the very fabric of our family, just so you could sneak in here and play scientist. Your behavior was selfish, Boricio. Sure, you can claim it was all for love, or that it was you and Rose against the world. But that’s bullshit, Boricio. You put your needs above everyone else, including Rose’s, and you’ve done it for the last time.”
    Will kept on going, throwing words at Boricio like they were kicks to a beaten