Aer II

28

'Nix you're not thinking about this,' Daisy says.
'I'm not thinking about this! You're not thinking about this! You only want to stay for one reason'.

'Nix...' Daisy waits for him to face her 'the cult are ahead of us, they wouldn't have been able to get anywhere near this place, we should wait awhile'.

'And what about James?' He shrugs 'did you forget about your brother?'.
'Well he wasn't exactly happy to see me,' she says 'Arawn is safe here, we all are'.

'Yeah and you get to be with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.
'It's not about that'.
'He left you while you were pregnant, he stayed here thinking you were carrying his child, thinking he'd a child somewhere out there,' he says 'he wouldn't have come to find you'.

Daisy looks away, the two of them have been fighting in Nix's room for what feels like forever. Daisy knows he's right, but she also knows she's right too. The cult was ahead of them when they came across Zoe and the others, they would've avoided the Ifreann and Arawn is safe here. She's not sure how she feels for Charlie anymore, but she knows her main priority is Arawn right now.

  'Nix, the past few days with you and Arawn have been the best I've had in awhile. You two are my family now,' she says 'I just want us to be safe'.
'You're just saying that,' he says.
'I promise you I'm not,' she grabs his arms but he moves away.

'Give it a week,' Daisy says.
Nix rolls his eyes 'Fine, I don't care'.
'Thank you,' she looks up at him 'they might even give us a vehicle'.
'I wouldn't count on it'.
'Let's just go talk to Rob'.

  Daisy and Nix make their way through the hotel to the top floor. The hotel smells of damp, it's falling in on itself but it's surrounded by huge walls and plenty of land to see what's coming.

  Arawn decided he wanted to go to school, one of the rooms is used as a classroom for the younger kids. Nix didn't want him to go but Daisy thought it'd be good for him to socialise with kids his own age. She's not sure how they'd feel about having a cult kid in the same room as them but he's beginning to look more normal, adapting to the way others look and think.

'So what do you even want to say to him?' Nix asks as they walk down the hallway.
'We're gonna stay another week, help out and do whatever we can,' Daisy says.
'Maybe but I'm tired of doing things for other people,' he says 'because it never works out well for us in the end'.
  'This is different'.

'Hello,' Rob greets them at his door 'thanks for calling up'.
'It's the least we could do,' Daisy smiles as she walks into his room.

  It's a massive room, there's space for a long table with maps thrown all over it, whiteboards take up the back wall, it's like a penthouse from a movie. Daisy notices his bedside locker has a Jesus statue, with the Bible behind it and other religious items. He doesn't strike Daisy as the religious type.

'We just wanted to say that we'll stay for a week, but we're willing to help out on whatever needs to be done,' Daisy can hear Nix quietly sighing as she speaks.

'We don't do much really,' he says 'if we find out about Ifreann movement we take them out but apart from that we lay low, we've enough supplies to last us another while. The Ifreann can't find us because we keep a low profile'.
'So ye just sit around?' Nix asks.
Rob smiles 'come look at this'.

  He brings them out into his balcony, the view is breathtaking. Daisy can barely make out the Ifreann's land over the hill but they're still close to them, the Ifreann don't seem like the smartest bunch, they'd probably never think their enemy is right at their doorstep.

'My fighters are well trained, with the view I can see everything, if I see an attack or I see a patrol coming out I radio my fighters and they're ready to go within seconds,' Rob says.
'What about Freaks?' Nix asks.
'Same thing'.
'So as I said before ye just sit around and wait for something to happen?'.
'The more patrols we take out, the smaller their numbers get so we can attack,' Rob says.
'That's smart,' Daisy says, she notices Nix roll his eyes beside Rob 'we just need to rest before we move on'.

'Where did you say you were taking that boy again?'.
'Another camp, east of here,' Daisy says.
'Why are the cult kids interested in him?' He asks.

'He's one of theirs, we took him,' Nix shrugs, he says something before Daisy gives away too much information.
'Okay, well look make yourselves at home,' Rob smiles.

'Rob's a good leader,' Charlie says, it's later in the evening, he sits with Daisy at the table in her room 'I know he's not as pushy as the others but he's tactical'.
'You've changed,' Daisy says.
'How come?'.

'More serious, you hated doing things for others, I didn't think you were alive but I did think if you survived you'd be by yourself,' Daisy says.
'People change,' he says, with no emotion 'the boy, how's he getting on?'.
'Good, he likes it here,' she says 'he's been through a lot'.
  'He wants to stay here?'.
Daisy frowns 'I haven't really asked him'.

'We want him to stay here,' he says, his eyes have glazed, it's as if something has switched in his mind.
'What?' Daisy sits back 'what do you mean?'.
  'He's one of us'.

  Daisy jumps up from her seat and dashes to the door. Charlie grabs her leg and throws her away from the door.

'You fucking lying cunt!' She jumps back to her feet, but Charlie's already left the room and shut the door. She pulls the door but it's locked.
'Fuck!' She bashes her body against the door but it's not budging.

  Nix walks along the hallway, two men approach him, he keeps his head down so he doesn't have to engage in conversation but the two of them stop in front of him.

'Hey, sorry to disturb you,' one of the men say 'but we know you were part of James' group and the Ifreann when everything started and we were wondering if you'd do some training with us'.
'Like fighting or?' He frowns.
'Yeah,' the other guy says 'we've a training room in the reception part of the hotel, it's open whenever we aren't on duty'.
'I don't know, I've got to go see Daisy,' he lies, he just doesn't want to be around anyone, never-mind people he doesn't know.

'Oh, okay, we're just new and you've been through so much,' the first man says, he's a scrawny thing, he's ugly too which doesn't help.
'Alright, I could give like ten minutes,' Nix sighs and tries to stop himself from rolling his eyes.
  'Thank you, ten minutes is fine'.

   Nix follows them down to a large open room, there's no equipment, it's just an empty room. He looks around, there's a large door at the end of the room, it must lead to somewhere outside.

'This is a weird training room,' Nix says, he spots something by the doors, another bible, like in Rob's room. It's placed on a small table with a candle lighting beside it.

  Nix turns to the two men behind him. They've guns raised to his head. Nix slowly raises his hands.
'You fell right into our trap,' the ugly boy says 'you took Arawn from us, and now we have him back, but our saviours are hungry, and we have to keep them happy too'.
The other boy walks towards the large door. He opens it to a sea of freaks caged outside. Nix grabs the ugly boy's wrist, taking his pistol and shooting him in the head, he shoots the other boy before he can draw his gun.

  Nix runs to the lobby door as the Freaks begin pouring in, it's locked from the outside. Nix turns to the Freaks, there's no way out.