Aer

21

'I always thought she was pretty but no, like I never saw her in that way,' Charlie says as he and Alex walk along the path 'not until this all happened'.
Alex sighs 'When did it happen?'.

'Do you want me to record it next time?' Charlie turns to Alex, he sees the hurt on his face and sighs 'Sorry, listen, I wouldn't do that to you, when you walked away you hurt her Alex, you should've thought about it before leaving her. She has so much love to give, and is such a kind person, everyone's just left her, she's more than this beautiful girl people see'.

'You both fucked the same guy'.
'No I didn't, why'd you ruin the moment?'.
'Sorry, I just, it just came out,' Alex says.
'Look....wait a minute, listen....'.

Alex can feel himself subconsciously stop breathing as he listens carefully, he can hear soft crying, almost whimpering.

He follows Charlie to the sound, they round a tree to find Lauren sitting with her back against it, her intestines covering the floor around her, as if someone had been playing with them.

'Lauren,' Alex bends down beside her 'who was this?'.
'Freaks,' she says in a whisper 'they're everywhere'.
'In the trees?' Charlie asks.
'Yeah'.
'Okay look Lauren we're going to bring you back,' Alex turns to Charlie, who's looking at him as if he's stupid.
'No,' she says 'I'm not going anywhere, go back and warn the others'.

Charlie's already walking away, but Alex can feel his stomach turn and his heart drops at the thought of leaving her but he knows there's nothing he can do 'Thank you Lauren, I'm sorry it ended this way'.
She manages a small smile 'It was a good ending, thank you Alex'.

'I can't believe we just left her,' Alex catches up to Charlie.
'It's life, we've got to focus on the others'.
'I don't hear any Freaks though, we could've brought her back'.

'Alex,' Charlie stops, he puts up his hand 'just shut up, her guts were literally on the floor like what do you want us to do? Drag her back by the intestines? Like she's not going anywhere, whether there's Freaks or not around she's not moving because if she does she's gonna be dead quicker'.

A loud scream rings through the air, this time it's not human, it's a Freak's. The two of them run as fast as they can back to the watch tower.

Conor and Cian keep close together, Conor doesn't know how he's ended up in this situation, he's still half asleep.

'Can we just pretend we've looked everywhere?' Conor asks 'I'm tired'.
'Me too but give it five more minutes'.

'How right were we about Gemma?' Conor smiles.
'I know right, and Charlie and Daisy'.
'Are we...psychic?'.
'We should start our own business,' Cian laughs.
'Fuck!'.
'What?'.
'I heard something,' Conor looks around.

Cian can hear it too, it sounds like running. He scans the area but can't see anything until a shadow catches his eye. He looks down the forest at at least a dozen or so Freaks running around in circles, agitated by something.

'Conor...' he says quietly, Conor watches the Freaks too, neither of them says anything. It's as if they're in shock.

Suddenly a Freak cocks its head towards them and screams, they all charge at the two boys, who are now running frantically for their lives.

'What the fuck was that?' Aoife swings around as she hears a Freak's scream.
'It must be from the road,' Lily says.

They turn to a group of kids with spears raised, a girl steps forward 'Follow us, quickly, or get eaten alive by the Freaks'.
Aoife and Lily don't hesitate to follow them, they don't look like the kids that were at the church earlier today. And they look equally as frightened as Aoife and Lily.

'Where's everyone?' Charlie and Alex get back to the watchtower.
'No one's come back,' Daisy says as she opens the gate 'I heard the screaming, did ye find Lauren?'.
'Yeah,' Charlie says quietly.

Alex breaks out in a fit of coughs, he's bent over hacking his lungs up, he throws off his gas mask.
'Keep that on you idiot,' Charlie picks up the mask 'There's Freaks all over the place'.
'I can't...'.

'Come on,' Daisy brings Alex up to the watch tower, he's still coughing but not as much. Charlie shuts the door and closes the windows, he takes off his mask and takes a deep breath 'They came off the road'.

'They never come off the road,' she says 'Something must've disturbed them'.
'Lauren said they were everywhere,' he says.
'Poor girl'.

Alex lays down on the bed and holds his head.
'You okay Alex?' Daisy asks.
'Running just took a lot out of me'.
'Just rest'.
'Daisy these gates won't hold,' Charlie says 'If the Freaks find a way up here we're fucked'.
'Let's just wait for the others,' she says 'they'll be back'.

He looks out the window, in the trees he can see movement, he keeps a close eye on it to see if it's any of the others but as the moonlight shines on it, it's a Freak, but it seems to be alone, confused and scared.

'Daisy, come here,' he points down at the Freak.
'We'll be okay,' she says 'We'll just stay quiet'.
'He can't go anywhere anyway,' he looks back at Alex, who's fast asleep.
Daisy rubs her eyes and shakes her head 'What are we gonna do?'.

More Freaks have gathered along the fences but they're not paying any attention to them, they just seem to stagger along. Charlie's just hoping the others decide to stay away for the time being.

'Let's just sit down for a second,' the two of them sit down on the floor, directly under the window 'We don't have to alert any unwanted attention'.
'Charlie we're meant to be safe here'.
'I know,' he sighs 'we are but let's just be extra careful. Just distract yourself. You know before all of this I actually wanted to study astrophysics'.

She doesn't listen to him, her mind seems to be in a completely different place, Charlie can see the beads of sweat falling down her forehead, but he continues anyway hoping she'd eventually listen 'I was really into science, I'm actually really smart, I know you mightn't think it but I am and I'm not being sarcastic, I was top of my class'.

She smiles slightly 'You sound very sarcastic right now'.
'That's just my tone'.
'That's interesting,' she says.
'Now that sounded sarcastic'.
'No,' she chuckles 'science is cool, I was bad at it, I wasn't very smart'.

'You're smart when it comes to people though,' he says 'You've got a way with words'.
'Do you think?'.
'Definitely,' he says 'everyone loves you'.
She smiles widely 'Thank you, you know I can't say the same for you know?'.
'You know there's a high possibility those Freaks will get in and we'll be eaten alive,' he says.
Daisy frowns 'That's really putting my mind to rest, thank you'.
'No, let me finish,' he says 'I think it's kinda obvious we're like a thing but I'd rather die with you as my girlfriend'.

'Are you weirdly asking me to be your girlfriend?'.
'Yeah, basically'.
'Okay,' she kisses him 'we'll work on your flirting skills'.
'I don't need to work on them'.
'Yeah, you do'.
'Don't make me take asking you out back'.
She laughs 'I'll drop it, I'll drop it'.