Aer

24

'Let's go,' Lily throws her bag up on the table.
Aoife frowns as she looks at the bag in front of her.

'I said one night'.
'Can we not just stay a few more hours?'.
'You can be sure some of that horde is still forming and doing their normal route, we can't get caught out there,' Lily says 'We leave now our chances of getting caught are slim to none'.
'Yeah but we're far away from the road and we won't have to go on it to reach the watchtower,' Aoife says just as the doors open.

Brooke appears in the doorway, she looks at Lily and then the bag.
'Going already?' She asks.
'Yeah,' Lily says 'we have to get moving'.
'That's fine, but we could do with your help here'.
'No,' Lily says.

A young boy runs into the cabin and whispers something to Brooke, who stares at the two girls and frowns, before quickly following the boy out the doors. Lily and Aoife don't hesitate to follow her.

  'Oh my God,' Lily stops herself.
'What the fuck?' Aoife holds her hands to her head.

'So this is where ye ran to?' Aaron smiles.
'Who are you?' Brooke asks 'Coming in here causing a scene, we can gladly talk about this inside'.

'No,' he says 'they're coming with me'.
Brooke looks back at the two girls, unsure of what to make of this situation.

'We're not going back,' Lily says 'You gave us a choice and we left'.

Lily can make out Conor, Cian and Alex in the back. More of the bunker kids stand around them but they don't seem to be bothered by the boys, they're not holding weapons to them, they're not handcuffed, they're free.

Aaron smiles slightly 'Where's the rest?'.
'I don't know,' Lily says.
'We got separated,' Aoife adds 'We haven't seen them since'.
  'Separated?'.

'The horde broke up last night, Freaks are all over the place,' Lily says.
'So I've been told,' Aaron looks back at Alex.

'Please guys can we just do this somewhere else?' Brooke looks around at the gathering crowd.
'We'll go,' Lily says.
'What?' Aoife frowns.
Lily turns back to Aoife 'We can't add more stress to these people, they were good enough to leave us stay, we'll think of something'.
Aoife nods.

   'We go out clear some of the Freaks, then maybe see if we can get some supplies, try to find the others while we're out there,' Daisy ties her shoelaces, she sits on the bed, she frowns when Charlie doesn't answer her, she looks up at him, he's staring at something out of the watchtower window.

'What is it?' She joins him by the window.

  Aaron and some boys stand outside the fence, he has Aoife and Lily on their knees with their hands on their heads, boys hold their spears against them.
'Come out!' Aaron shouts.

Charlie and Daisy come out of the tower but stay on top, they don't know what Freaks are in the woods, but Aaron and them don't have masks on so the Freaks must've cleared off the mountain.

'Your friend Alex informed us of the troubles you've been through,' Aaron holds up a radio.

'That cunt,' Charlie hisses. Daisy feels her heart drop to the bottom of her stomach, the garage must've been a set-up, Charlie was right, he didn't know anything.

'It's fair you all wanted to leave me but I need the people, I need the skill,' Aaron continues 'Conor and Cian came back after the horde, told me nothing, Aoife and Lily have told me nothing...they're practically useless to me. I'm presuming you both will be the same?'.

'Aaron there's no need for this,' Daisy says 'We weren't given a choice to leave, let them go and go back to the bunker, you've people waiting on you'.

He smiles slightly and looks back at the boys, he nods and they drag Aoife, Lily, Conor and Cian over to the gate.

'You have the key leave them in,' he says.

Daisy looks at Charlie, he's deep in thought, trying to quickly think of what to do. He begins walking down the stairs and towards the gate, she doesn't follow him, she knows he knows what's best.

  'Aaron they chose to leave,' Charlie says 'There's no need to do any of this'.
'Do any of what?' He smiles 'I'm simply returning your people. Thanks to Alex I've been able to do that'.

Charlie looks at Alex, who keeps a stern composure, as if he's defending himself without words.
'Tell your boys to stand away from the gate,' Charlie says.

Aaron does as he's told, Charlie opens the gate and leaves the others in, quickly closing it before Aaron and his boys can make any quick movements.

'We're always here, always watching, we know everything,' he says 'I need the resources for my people, now that I know I'm sharing it with multiple camps I will have to sort it out. This is just a warning for all of you...come here Alex'.

Alex steps forward and stands next to Aaron, Aaron smiles at him, in the blink of an eye Aaron slices his knife across Alex's neck, the blood gushes onto the floor as the dying Alex grabs his neck, as if that'd save him. His wide eyes fix on Charlie as he falls to the floor, there's a pool of blood beginning to stain the grass.

'Snakes are always an issue,' Aaron and his boys walk away.

   Charlie looks back at Daisy, she has her hands over her mouth, her eyes are bright red as she stands halfway down the stairs. He looks back at Conor crying into Lily's arms, her eyes are filled with tears she's trying to hold back. He doesn't know what to do, he doesn't know what to say, he feels nothing but anger, not for Aaron but for Alex.

'What else do you think he told him?' Charlie asks Lily, they sit alone in the watch tower, the others are down digging a grave for Alex. Conor and Daisy haven't spoken to anyone since, they're sitting together in silence watching the sun set behind the mountains.

'Probably fucking everything,' she sighs 'Stupid cunt, it's always the ones you don't expect'.
'Expected it from Conor, not from him,' Charlie rubs a hand down his face 'We gotta move'.
'Move?' She frowns 'To where? The hordes after taking over the place, that weird cult is still around, Aaron knows about Brooke's camp'.

   'I don't know Lily, I don't even know what the point of all of this was'.
'He's just tryna scare us,' she says.

'We could've easily taken them,' he sighs.
  'And what? Leave all those people in the bunker waiting? Most of them haven't seen the sun in over a year, nevermind survive up here'.

'I know but still, we just stood there'.
'What's done is done,' Lily says 'We gotta think about what to do now'.

'The camp,' he looks at her 'the camp that shot at us the last time'.
She frowns 'So we go there and get shot at?'.
'The last time we stumbled upon it, we can approach it peacefully this time,' he says.
  'Don't think that'll make a difference'.

'Why do you always have to be so negative? You actually suck the life out of me,' he rolls his eyes.
'I'm just saying,' she shrugs 'they opened fire on us no bother the last time, nothing's going to stop them this time'.
   'I have a plan'.