Fever Dream Red

46

I nearly swore.

All of the others did.

"How did they know?" Doug simply asked, slapping his hand on the car's steering wheel in sheer disbelief.
"What are they gonna do- wait there the whole night? It's not like they can cross the water." Alfie reassured the clearly stressed Doug.

We waited for a while, us in the car and them on the other side, neither of us moving.

"Is this it then?" Chloe wondered. We all snapped our heads round to her. "All night. Is this what it's gonna be?"
"Buckle in." Skye told her. "Enjoy the ride."
"Should we just go?" I wondered out loud. I couldn't be bothered to bore myself waiting for the water to retreat, and I also didn't fancy the idea of going back to The Base.
"We've come this far Finny." Doug warned me, keeping his eyes across the water all the same.
"How'd you think they knew?" Chloe asked us, cocking her head to the side like a confused dog.
"Trackers again, probably." Alfie answered, also staring straight ahead.

The silence returned then, with only the sound of gentle waves lapping with the night sky to be heard. It was calming, and could have probably sent me to sleep if it wasn't for the men straight in front of us seemingly staring into our souls with flashlights.

"This is unsufferable!" Sunny declared, as if everyone else did not feel the exact same way.
"We know." Skye muttered sarcastically. They weren't thrilled about having to return to The Base. After all, they would have to meet the same person who just a day or two ago had shot their foot.

There was probably some bad blood between the both of them.

"Lift your foot up Skye." Chloe ordered, rummaging around in her bag for the bandages. "Now is as good as time as any."
"Ew. Do you have to do it now?" Doug asked, tearing his eyes away from the situation to pbserve the chaos in the back.
"Might as well. It's not as if we are going anywhere, is it?" Chloe muttered,unwrapping the aged bandage from Skye's foot.
"I guess not, but... I don't know. Nobody wants to see that." Doug muttered.
"I think it's interesting." Sunny declared, watching happily on.
"Wierdo."
"I heard that!" Sunny shouted.
"Shut up, you two." Alfie insisted, still not turning his head.
"They aren't weeping angels you know Alfie. They aren't going to move if you stop looking at them." I told him with a sense of joking reassurance.
"You don't know that." He answered back, still not looking straight at me.
"Are they really going to stay there all night?" Sunny asked.

We all shrugged. How were we supposed to know?
"I'm getting out." Doug declared. He could obviously only cope with us for a certain beriod of time. That time had been well and trult used up.
"No. What if they shoot you down?" Alfie worried over Doug, keeping his hand on his arm for a few seconds longer than he needed to.
"They won't. They don't have any guns."
"They could do. We can't really see from here."
"Yeah, well. It's a risk I'm willing to take. If I die then feel free to avenge me." Doug bid his farewell and got out of the car, immediantly holding his hands up in surrender.

I had the overwhelming sense that I had been there before. Only a month or so ago we had guns to the back of our heads with our hands held up. We had come so close to dying that day. I still didn't feel like I appreciated life like I should have done.

He nodded to the men and shouted something. I'm assuming that the others didn't hear him. We didn't and we were only in the car next to him.

One of the men grabs a megaphone, and I almost swear. Now I would have to spend the night not only being stared at by creepy men, but I would also have to listen to them until the water decided to grant mercy.

I would have gladly dove into the water and drowned.

"Yo!" A voice beams into our eardrums. It's Eli.

The night had just somehow gotten even worse. I didn't even think that was possible.

"Kill me now." Skye announced, grabbing their bag and stuffing it over their ears.

"How's it going?" Eli asked, waving his hand to Doug as he did so.

It was a bit pointless. Doug wasn't loud enough to answer.

We could only just hear Eli.

"Sorry about the foot." He apologised significantly insincerely, given he had actually shot someone.

Doug had had enough, and he went to go back into his car.

"Hey! Don't ignore me! Don't leave me all alone."

I was praying Doug to leave him all alone. I wasn't sure how much longer I could listen to him droning on.

Doug shrugged at him, yet I'm sure Eli even saw that.

So, with that, Doug clamboured back into his car.

"Can you still hear him?" Doug asked us.

We all nodded. Right now he was waffling on about how loud the sea was. I thought that was quite ironic.

"Do you think he's high?" Chloe asked, mesmorised by the man who was so clearly out of his mind.
"Maybe." Alfie reasoned, inspecting the tiny shape of Eli we could see sitting crosslegged at the other side.

"You ready Chloe?" I asked her.
"For what?"
"For The Base."
"Why? What happens there?"
"You get put in fancy clothes and stuff. There's a pool and a beach."
Chloe nodded politely. "Sounds nice."
"It is. It just gets...boring after a while."
"Should I be worried?"
"Only if you break the rules."

Chloe winced at this, and I couldn't help feeling an immense amount of sympathy for her. She had been brought into this through no fault of her own. We had dragged Chloe into this mess.

No one had even told her what to expect.