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

when Captain Edward Keenan brought Brent down to Level Six and he’d gotten his first look at the haunting in Ben and Gina’s eyes. The beautiful life that used to dance inside them was gone, replaced by dark, reptilian pupils; their eyes left as vacuums of humanity no different than those of the doorman, Joe, after he’d been infected.
    “What are they going to do with them?” Brent asked.
    “I’m not sure,” Keenan said as if considering a tiny insect. “Observe them, of course. But beyond that, I don’t know.”  
    “They’re gonna run tests, aren’t they?”
    “I imagine so.”
    Brent knew exactly what a battery of tests would mean. While he contemplated the certain death sentence for his family, he watched as his three year old son huddled close to Gina, eyes on the windows, as if at any moment one of them would crash in and something would storm inside to threaten them. Even though the boy’s eyes were dark and alien, Brent recognized fear when he saw it, no matter the species.  
    The boy’s fingers clung tighter to Gina, but her maternal instinct was apparently dead. She seemed to regard the child as a stranger, something she was reluctantly forced to share space with. Were Gina still Gina , she would have been shielding Ben in her arms, protecting him from any slings or arrows that might come his way. This thing that had been Gina simply allowed the child to be near, but offered no comfort, reassuring touch, or hint of humanity.  
    Brent’s heart shattered yet again.
    “I need to go inside. Please.”
    “I know what you’re thinking, but they’re not your family,” Keenan said with zero emotion, Brent wondered what Keenan had done before the world went to hell. His bedside manner was shit, and Brent had a feeling he was catching him on a good day.
    As if Keenan sensed Brent was looking for more and would get it even if he had to start asking, he said, “I don’t know much, just a tiny bit I heard from one of the science geeks on Level Seven. These aliens in the city are like parasites, you see. They infect people, kill their hosts, then play house in the shells. That’s why what you see in that room is not your family. Your wife and son, as you knew them, are dead. The parasites are like hermit crabs crawling into a new home.”
    Brent turned back and saw his son shivering, clinging to Gina’s leg.
    “No,” Brent said. “You can’t see it. But I can . My son is still in there. I know it because I can fucking see it! And I don’t want your scientists killing him. He’s not dead! Look at him! Look how he’s clinging to his mother. You think an alien, some damned hermit crab, would be doing that were it simply inhabiting a shell? ”
    Keenan stared at Gina and Ben, as if genuinely considering Brent’s question. There was a look in his eye as if he were thinking about someone else, or remembering something. After a long minute, Keenan shook his head, as if casting the memories away, then turned back to Brent, eyes clear and focussed again. “The last vestiges of humanity. Instincts. Nothing more.”
    “Bullshit!” Brent said. He ran a hand through his hair, swallowing a scream and speaking through clenched teeth. “I want to speak to whoever’s in charge!”
    “You know . . .”
    “No!” Brent said, putting a finger up, pointing precariously close to Keenan’s face. “Don’t say it! I’ve done everything that’s been asked of me. You all shot my friend. You took all our belongings, shaved us down, and brought us to this place where we have to do what we’re told, when we’re told, and never question authority. I never said a word. Never resisted. Did as ordered. Figured you all are the government, or what’s left of it, anyway. Believed you’ll make sure everything’s okay. But I can’t sit by while people I don’t know make choices I have no say in about MY family, without even giving me the chance to speak!”
    “I understand your frustration,” Keenan said.
    “The fuck you do!” Brent shot back and turned from Keenan, eyes back on the window, watching as Ben followed Gina to the far end of the room, huddling together in a corner.
    “How can you understand this?” Brent said. “They don’t have your family behind glass.”
    Brent wanted to get in Keenan’s face, yell at him, push him, even if Keenan punched right back. It would be worth it if he could wake whatever humanity might still be inside the man. But he had to weigh his options carefully.