Aer

23

'What do we do?' Daisy asks.
'We have to find them,' Alex says.
'What do you mean 'we' you haven't even had the energy to get out of bed?' Charlie frowns.

Alex sighs, he doesn't like to answer Charlie back, it just encourages him and the conversation normally never goes anywhere.

'There's still Freaks everywhere, maybe they're too afraid to get caught in them or lead them back here,' Daisy says.
'We're going to have to start taking down the ones along the fence, the other Freaks will begin gathering here with them,' Charlie says 'I don't mind going out by myself'.

'No, I'd rather go with you,' she looks out the window 'Be safer with two of us'.
'No, I'm going,' Alex is already out of the bed.

'How about we all just go?' Charlie looks at the two of them 'Ye can stop fighting over me'.

Alex scoffs, he rolls his eyes and puts on his gas mask. Daisy knows Alex was never a fan of Charlie, in all honesty she was never a fan of him either but she knows once Alex gives him a chance his opinion will change.

They make their way out of the gate. Daisy makes sure her mask is on tight enough as Charlie takes the lead. The first Freak is by herself, she twitches and spits, her skin is wrinkled and rotting, the sparse strands of hair on her head are long and wet, ready to fall out. Charlie creeps up behind her and grabs her head, pulling it back and jamming his knife into her exposed neck.

'The more that die here the more it'll smell, we've to burn the bodies,' Charlie says 'Come back here later to collect the bodies'.

Daisy takes out the next Freak, it was a woman again but smaller than the first one. Daisy doesn't like taking Freaks out this way, it's so much more intimate, she tries not to make eye contact with them in order to stop herself from realising they were once human.

'Fuck,' she sighs as its body hits the floor.

'There's a few gathered there,' Charlie says 'I think it's best to wait for them to disperse and we take one out at a time'.

   The four Freaks stumble around each other for what feels like forever. Daisy, Charlie and Alex wait patiently for them to go in opposite directions but they continue to move in circles.

'Can you not distract them? Get them to move apart,' Alex says.
Charlie looks at him 'I mean I can try to encourage them from here because I'm not going near them'.
'What?' Alex frowns.

'Come on guys, you can do it, move,' Charlie smiles 'Yep, didn't work'.
Daisy smiles to herself so she doesn't encourage Charlie or offend Alex.

  Eventually, the Freaks disperse, each one of them takes a Freak. They clear the rest of them in no time, but they can still hear distant cries and screams, the forest is full of them now but at least the watchtower surroundings are clear.

'Good job guys,' Daisy smiles as she puts away her knife.

Charlie lifts his hand to high-five Alex, who stares at him blankly 'touch my hand Alex'.
Alex sighs and high-fives Charlie, the two of them along with Lily always did supply runs together, they always had this kind of relationship, however now that Charlie's with Daisy it does change Alex's tolerance for Charlie.

'What do we do now?' Alex asks 'just wait for the others? Conor's out there somewhere and I don't want to just wait around when he could be in trouble'.

'That car....' Daisy turns to Alex 'Where is it?'.
'Just north of the bunker,' he says 'why?'.
'With the horde separated we can't be on foot and we need something to fit us all,' she says.

'We can go to the garage, I need a few bits from there to continue fixing it and we can head there,' Alex says.
'The garage?' Charlie frowns 'Why not show us the car first then we can sort something?'.

'Save us doing the journey twice, there's a hut by the car where I store everything we can take shelter there for the night,' he says.
'It sounds good to me,' Daisy says.

Charlie doesn't answer, he looks away for a moment, as if he's deep in thought, Daisy watches as he looks around him, scanning the area, she grabs his arm 'What's wrong?'.
'Nothing,' he looks at Alex 'we go to the garage and then the car'.

They take down whatever Freaks are in their way but they don't kill any that aren't near them. It's faster and easier to stay on the path and focus on the garage.
The old building comes into sight, it feels like a lifetime ago since Daisy last saw it. It makes her sad to think back to that time, even though it was only a matter of days so much has happened in that short time to make her feel different about life.

'We're gonna stay here,' Charlie says at the edge of the forest 'Alex go in by yourself'.
'Charlie,' Daisy frowns 'there could be Freaks or anything in there, we can't leave him go alone'.
'No Daisy,' he says 'we stay here'.
'It's fine,' Alex says 'I'll only be a matter of minutes, it'll be quicker with just me in there'.
'Okay, Charlie and I will stay here'.

She watches as Alex crosses the road, he reaches the door of the garage when suddenly it swings open. A boy hits him across the head, knocking Alex to the floor. Daisy jumps up but Charlie immediately pins her to the floor 'Don't Daisy'. She struggles to break free from his grip and when she eventually does Alex is nowhere to be seen, the garage is empty.

'You knew about this,' she turns to Charlie.
'Daisy....'.
'Who were they!?'.
'Daisy, I don't know,' he says 'I swear to God I don't know who they were'.
'Don't lie to me'.
'Daisy listen,' he grabs her and cups her face 'Listen to me, I don't know who they were or what just happened okay? I don't know what they did with him I was trying to hide us'.
'No,' she spits 'that's why you didn't want us going there'.
'Daisy you have to believe me'.
She storms off into the trees, returning to the watch tower.

'Daisy!' Charlie swings open the watch tower door 'I am sorry'.
Daisy sits on her bed and watches as he sits down next to her 'Promise me you don't know who that was'.
'I was too busy trying to keep you down I didn't get to see their faces but I swear I didn't know any of that was going to happen and I promise you I wouldn't have put you at risk like that,' he says 'I refused to go to the garage because it seemed out of the way, we could've just went to the car. I didn't know we were going to get attacked'.

Daisy rubs a hand down her face 'Okay, okay, I'm sorry I thought you'd something to do with it'.
He puts a hand on her knee 'It's understandable'.
'I'm just so stressed,' she sighs 'I feel like everything we do just gets us in more and more trouble'.

'We will be okay,' he says.
'I wish it was just me and you,' she says 'everything was so much easier'.
   'It's just us now'.

Daisy kisses him softly, until he begins kissing her back. He pushes her down on the bed. Daisy looks into his eyes, she trusts him, he wouldn't do something like that. Her mind is elsewhere as he moves in and it seems as if his is too. He lays down next to her. Neither of them speak to each other.