Aer

34

Aaron and his group sit across from Lily and the others. It's not as awkward as the first time but there's still the lingering hatred there, maybe because more of Lily's group are there and not just the bunker kids.

Lily told them about the bunker and everything that had happened, they took it well, especially Zoe, they understood they were desperate and they were good people anyway. The majority of kids were willing to help. And tomorrow they will meet the horde.

'Explosives are in place, we've our weapons ready, flares, everything we need,' Angel says 'It's up to ye to decide who comes with us'.

'Like that we've all medical supplies ready for after,' Aoife says 'but we'll need extra hands, Zoe and I can't do it all by ourselves'.

'I've asked some of the people what they'd rather do and I'll send groups to ye tomorrow,' Lily turns to Aaron 'I presume you've done the same'.

'Yes, the people I've brought today are the ones that will stay to help in the sickbay,' he says 'The others will guide the horde to meet yours and then on to the mass grave'.

'Daisy and I will take over once the horde enters the mass grave, we've flare guns that will distract them and give a chance for everyone to run into cover, any stranglers kill them,' Lily says.
'I will wait here to send help if needs be,' Aaron says.

'We can't predict what will happen tomorrow but I'm grateful for every one of you,' Lily smiles slightly.

The meeting was short, the plan's in place and there's no going back. There's no point in trying to change things now, confusing people and causing more stress than needs be.

  Daisy stands in her tent, staring down at the radio, there's still nothing.
'Hello,' she turns to Aaron 'Sorry am I disturbing you?'.
'No,' Daisy says 'have a seat'.

They sit across from each other at the table, Aaron looks around, there's nothing to see, Daisy and Charlie always had the tent empty, they'd nothing to put in there.

'He's supposed to be back tomorrow?' Aaron asks.
Daisy nods.
'Look,' Aaron sighs 'I'm sorry for what I did to Alex'.

'Are you? What did he look like as he realised you betrayed him? Did you even look into his eyes? You took him from all of us'.

'And I regret it every day,' he says 'If it makes you feel better he done all of it for you, he thought that if he told us everything I would've left ye alone and everything would be okay, he was scared for you, everything he did was for you'.

Daisy's eyes begin to water 'and you killed him'.

She excuses herself from the table and leaves the tent. Tears stream down her face as she walks through the camp, she keeps her head down and makes her way through the gates.

'Daisy!?' she can hear someone shout from behind her.
She doesn't respond.

Eventually, they catch up with her and grab her arm, turning her around, it's Jack, one of the runners.

'What's the matter?' Daisy asks.
'You can't be going out here by yourself,' he says.
'I'm fine, I'm just going to walk to the top of the hill that's all,' she says.
'I'm coming with you'.
'No'.

'Wait...' Jack looks around, his eyes fix behind Daisy. Daisy turns to a woman in all white, she looks scared and startled, she beckons for them to follow.

'Could be a trap,' Jack says.
'Only one way to find out'.

They follow the woman to an old hut, she begins crying 'They burn them all'.
Daisy frowns 'What?'.
'These are our homes and they burn them,' she cries.
'Wait, wait, wait,' Jack looks her up and down 'she's a cult kid'.
Daisy steps back 'Who burns them down?'.

'They burnt a boy,' she continues crying 'an innocent boy'.
'Where?'.
'On the way to the caravan park,' she falls to her knees 'I have no home'.

Daisy feels her heart drop, Jack looks at her, it's as if he's allowing her to take control of the situation.

'Who?' Daisy kneels down to her 'Who's doing this?'.

'Men in black, soldiers,' she says 'our Prophet built these huts to shelter us from the storms and dark nights as we guide our Cleansed Ones to find new meat to feast'.

Daisy stands up, she feels an unbelievable amount of rage build up in her body, she picks up a rock and watches as the girl sobs in front of her.

She bashes the rock against the girl's head, she begins screaming in pain as Daisy continues to bash her skull in.

The moving and crying stops, Daisy throws away the rock and looks at Jack. Jack breaks eye contact with her and walks away.
She steps back and wipes her tears away.

   The morning has come, Aaron waits patiently at the radio, waiting to hear his boys had reached the horde. He can hear Lily's group getting ready outside the tent. A part of him wishes he was in the safety of his bunker, away from all of the chaos. He knew he can be a coward most of the time, but he can't help it, he's scared.

   'Aaron,' Seán's voice comes through the radio 'they're coming into sight now'.

Aaron wishes Alex had lived long enough to fix the vehicle, not that any of them knew how to drive it but it would've been easier than trying to outrun the Freaks 'where's the cult?'.

'Back at the town, we've a group back there, none of them have left, it's just the Freaks,' he says.

'I'll tell Lily to send her group, get in contact with Jack, they'll meet you halfway and take over. Best of luck,' Aaron puts down the radio.

  Seán watches the horde gets closer, their wails and screams become louder.

'I hope this works,' one of the girls say behind him.
'It's too late to back out now,' Seán says as he throws firecrackers in front of the horde, they begin to pick up the pace, and soon enough the group find themselves running for their lives.