Aer II

1

'Hey! Sam! Wait up!' Eilish runs as fast as she can, she pushes Sam 'don't walk off on me again, motherfucker'.
'You just walk slow,' he laughs.
  'Fuck off'.

  Eilish met Sam four years ago. She's seventeen, he's 22. Her camp was burned down by a group when she was only thirteen, killing everyone she knew from the beginning of the apocalypse. He's like an older brother to her, the only family she has. They travelled across Ireland to his brother, Mikey, who had set up a highly secure camp, a town surrounded by large gates and armed guards. No infected got close, no raiders got close. They were protected from everything.

  Eilish never knew anything about Sam, about his life before the virus or before he met her. But for some reason he took her in as his own. She always thought it was guilt, to clear his conscience. But everybody nowadays had a conscience to clear.

'Can't believe how quiet patrol was today,' Eilish says, every day patrols were sent out to clear the surrounding areas of Freaks.
'Hopefully it'll be like that for the rest of the week,' he says 'last few days was clear too'.
  'Thank fuck'.
'You know you really need to cut that language out,' his face breaks into a grin.
  'Oh fuck off'.
'Eilish...'.
   'Sorry, old man'.

'Good,' he chuckles 'can't be letting the kids hear you saying that shit'.
'I learned from the best,' she smiles.
  'I don't say 'fuck' though'.

Eilish narrows her eyes 'what did you just say?'.
'Fuck?' He says innocently.
  'Okay so what I'm hearing is because I'm a woman I can't say fuck'.
He leaves out a long exaggerated laugh 'calling yourself a 'woman' is quite far fetched'.
'You are a cunt,' she laughs.

  He wasn't wrong really. Eilish is a pretty girl, a sweet face but she has a thin build that can easily be mistaken for a boy's and very short blonde hair. From behind you'd easily mistake her for a boy.

Sam's handsome, he has a beard with brown hair and soft green eyes. He's well built, as most of the survivors are in the town. He's covered in scars that he won't tell Eilish about. She gave up asking him years ago.

  The town comes into sight. The huge walls blocked the buildings. They could see the people patrolling the walls on scaffolding. The gates open, allowing the two of them to walk in.

'I'm going to see Aoife,' Sam says 'think Mikey wanted to see you actually'.
'Probably about patrol,' Eilish says 'I really can't be bothered going out again'.

'We've that party tonight so good luck trying to get up in the morning,' he laughs.
'So I'll tell Mikey you're interested in patrol tomorrow too...' she folds her arms.
He punches her playfully in the arm 'I'll see you tonight'.
   'Yeah, yeah, tell Aoife I said 'hi''.
  'Will do'.

   'Hey girl,' Mikey waves at Eilish from the bar.
The pub's where you'd find most people. Nobody gets langers but everybody drinks when they're not on patrol, it was a place they could socialise too, but the socialising is more of an excuse for drinking.
'Hey, Sam said you wanted me,' Eilish says.

Mikey's 21, a year younger than Sam, he's just as handsome but his hair is slightly longer and he isn't as big as Sam.

'Yes,' he smiles, he's a lot warmer than Sam too 'I'm sending you and Ethan on patrol tomorrow morning if that's okay? Some of the hunters spotted Freaks at a nearby grocery shop'.
'I'm tired though,' she pouts.

He laughs 'I'm sorry but Ethan asked if you could come with him, you and him know that route the best'.
'Okay fine,' she smiles 'you know I will be doing it hungover'.
'No better woman,' he pats her on the back.

'Hey,' Aoife smiles as Sam comes into the kitchen.
'How are you?' Sam smiles.
'Good, I missed you though,' she says 'you were gone for ages'.
  'I was gone for an hour'.
  'Yeah....that's long enough, it's freezing out there'.