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

you don’t trust me.”
    Rebecca waited for Mother’s hand to redden her sister’s face again and prayed it wouldn't.
    “Of course I don’t trust you,” Mother said. “Nothing separates a child from God like the evils of their own will. And I know exactly where your will would like to lie. Any sort of sinning could have happened tonight. You could have done drugs, or worse, you could have gotten knocked up.”  
    “Like you did?”  
    The back of Mother’s hand found the side of Alexis’s face again, but harder, the slap a thunderclap within the Camino’s interior. Rebecca could tell that her sister wanted to scream, but muffled her cry. With her left hand steady on the wheel, Mother let her hand fly once more to underline her point, more violent and practiced than the prior strike.
    Rebecca turned her watering eyes away from her sister, and stared at the road ahead, wondering when the evils of her own will might separate her from God, and Mother.

    * * * *

DESMOND ARMSTRONG: PART 1

    March 25
    Kingsland, Alabama
    In the woods near The Sanctuary
    11:11 a.m.

    “We’re all trying to survive and make the most of this.  
    Breathe in, breathe out, be merry.”
    Desmond hated Jimmy’s words falling from John’s mouth. It was an unnerving he couldn’t pinpoint. And he HATED being unnerved.  
    Those words had been playing on infinite repeat in Desmond’s head as they crunched through the carpet of drying leaves in search of Rebecca and Carl. The pair had marched through the forest and over the hill looking for the two missing children, but there was still no sign.  
    Desmond kept the gun in his waistband. He didn’t trust his trigger finger, or the man up ahead making it itchy. Desmond couldn't explain why he thought Jimmy’s words in John’s mouth sounded so wrong, and felt so ominous. They just did, like some sort of weird impression more than a mimic. People picked up idioms and expressions all the time.   And Jimmy and John had been neighbors for years, not to mention all that time they’d spent side-by-side at the Drury, back in the beginning of the end of the world. So, it would be natural for John to adopt Jimmy’s telltale expression, right? Maybe it was even intentional – John using Jimmy’s phrase to show Desmond he was relaxed. Maybe he was trying to put him at ease as they searched for the missing children, alone in the woods crawling with unknowns and, possibly, “Demons.”
    Or maybe he was just trying to repair old wounds.
    Or maybe, not.
    Desmond wished it felt right, but it didn’t. And he couldn't ignore it. He had thrived in life via his sharp instincts. It was difficult, if not downright impossible to shake the vibe that something was off .
      “Are Rebecca and Carl an item?” Desmond asked, trying to ease the tension, even if it was only in his head. “I mean, I know they’re both a bit young, especially Rebecca, but do you happen to know if the two of them are sweet on one another?”
      John turned back to Desmond and frowned. It wasn’t an accusing frown, so much as surprise by the audacity of the suggestion. “No, of course not. That sort of behavior is forbidden at The Sanctuary. The Prophet would be terribly upset if something like that were to happen.”
      “But they’re kids,” Desmond said, “Kids are going to do what kids are going to do. Thousands of years of evolution aren’t going to change that innate drive just because The Prophet wants to keep everyone tucked in their beds with God in their hearts. It has nothing to do with the end of the world, that’s just the way people are wired. And kids, well, you remember puberty, right? Kids don’t care what grown-ups say. They’re gonna try and get away with whatever they can. Least that’s the way it was for me, my friends, and everyone I knew.”
    John shook his head and set his jaw. “It is our duty as The Chosen adults to hold kids in our charge to a higher standard. The old way went to Hell because the adults who knew better didn’t.” He raised his hand in the air. “Maybe everyone is burning in the Lake of Fire because they didn’t hold themselves and their children to a standard as high as ours. Is it so inconceivable that this happened because of our soft morality and bottomless capacity for sin?”
    Desmond wasn’t sure what he should say, but figured nothing was best. He was creeped beyond belief and in mild shock that John bought into all the Bible thumping. He bought the