Yesterdays Gone: SEASON TWO (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (Yesterday's Gone)

them?”
    “You want to talk it out over canned spaghetti?” Ed asked.
    “I’d like to know what’s going on before we shoot them; maybe it’s a misunderstanding.”
    Ed stared at Brent hard, “We are not really having this conversation, are we? I don’t need to convince you of the threat these people pose, do I?”
    Brent looked chagrined, “No.”
    “Good. Follow my lead, and don’t shoot until I do.”
    Ed ducked into their room, grabbed a couple of grenades from his weapons bag and attached them to his vest. Then they slowly approached the stairwell. He doubted he’d need explosives with these people, but you could never afford to underestimate an unknown enemy. He would have waited in the hall to ambush them, but the door leading into the stairwell had a window, stripping the element of surprise.
    Ed eased the door open and they stepped into the stairwell, which was lit by daylight from the skylight on the roof. The stairwell was empty, which meant the people were probably still circling the lower floors. Brent didn’t say a word, watching Ed and waiting for cues.
    A door opened in the stairwell, two floors down.  
    “We know you’re in here, you little fucker!” a man shouted, voice fat with anger.
    Ed put a hand up, telling to Brent to stay put as a single set of footsteps echoed up the stairwell. They stopped one landing beneath, then opened the door and went through.
    “Let’s go,” Ed mouthed, and they descended the stairs quickly. When they reached the sixth floor, Ed peered through the door’s window and saw the man stepping into the first room across the hall.  
    “Open the door, softly ,” he told Brent.
    Brent did as instructed and stepped into the hall, his shotgun lowered at an angle. As Ed reached the door, the hinge behind him squeaked. The man spun around, but was too late. Ed fired, sending a round of buckshot into the man’s chest. He fell to the ground, killed in an instant.
    Ed slipped another shell into the gun and turned back to Brent, “Good chance the rest of them gonna be coming up those stairs. Stay behind me; watch my back.”
    “OK,” Brent said as Ed went down the stairs. One of the men came into the stairwell, looked up, and rushed a shot. A miss. Ed returned fired, a hit, shearing the man’s head off in one shot. Ed kept moving, not missing a step, flying down the remainder of the stairs, over the corpse, and into the hallway beyond, searching. Nobody. They were likely still downstairs. He ducked back into the stairwell, looked down, saw movement on the bottom floor, and took aim.
    Whoever was down there, moved back quickly out of the way.
    “We don’t want any trouble,” a woman’s voice said. “We just want the kid.”
    “Why?” Ed asked. “What’s he to you?”
    “None of your business.”  
    “Wrong answer.”
    The woman didn’t return a verbal shot, but Ed was pretty sure she was still there.
    “What do you want with the kid?!” Ed shouted down the stairwell.
    “He’s got something that don’t belong to him,” the woman shouted back.
    “What is it?!”
    “Just give us the damned kid, and we’ll be on our way!” the woman said.
    “Well, there’s two less of you now, so I say you leave right now before you join your friends!”
    The woman screamed in frustration, though Ed wasn’t sure she’d said a word.
    “Ed?” Brent said from behind, at the top of the landing. His voice sounded off.
    Ed turned and saw why. One of the men had a pistol to Brent’s head and bloodshot eyes aimed at Ed. “Put your gun down,” he said with something between a grin and a scared grimace.
    Ed raised his shotgun, and stepped forward. “No, you put your gun down and I’ll let you live.”
    The man pressed his pistol into Brent’s temple and Brent cringed. “I’ll shoot him,” the man said.
    “And I’ll shoot you,” Ed said, voice calm as he took another step forward. There were about 10 steps between he and the man. “You’ve got, what, a .38 Special. I’ve got a Remington with double ought buckshot. Do you really think you’ll get me before I get you?”
    Ed took two more steps. The man’s eyes were darting between Ed and Brent.
    “Last chance,” Ed said. “I know you don’t want to do this. Step away and I’ll let you and your friend leave alive.”
    Something in the man’s eyes changed, and Ed knew he’d seen the light. He said, “Okay,” and pulled the pistol away from Brent’s head and put it on the ground.
    Brent