Aer II

37

Daisy jams her knife into the back of a Freak's skull, it leaves out a sudden shriek as it falls to the floor. Nix tosses the other lifeless Freak onto the ground.

  'You think there's gonna be a lot of them around?' He asks as he takes off his mask.
'No,' she says 'these are the first we've seen in awhile, with the compound so close I'm sure they're locked away somewhere'.
'You think Josh has men sent out for us?'.
'I don't know,' she shrugs 'they were stupid enough to leave us alone in the truck'.

The walk along a woods, it's a sparse woods, the trees are spread out from each other, the moonlight shines between them. It's quiet, there's no sign of any kind of life.

'You think we can climb one of the trees to rest?' Nix asks.
'No,' Daisy looks up at the trees 'it's too opened'.
'I'm tired'.
'I've seen you go longer without sleep'.

  Nix stops 'well maybe this time Daisy I've had enough, we haven't stopped since we left our groups, and I keep trusting you every single time and it keeps blowing up in our face. Can we not just stop?'.

  'Nix....' she rubs a hand down her face 'I'm sorry, I've been dragging you around and I've been so caught up in my own head that I forget you're only here because you've no one else, I just...I just need some to live for'.
  He looks away 'I never thought of it like that. I've never thought of why I keep going and it is because I've lost everyone, and I have nothing else to live for'.

'Nix, you have me. I want to put an end to the cult so we can live somewhat normally. I saw the faces of Aoife's people, they weren't part of the cult, but the cult was always going to get them. You heard Rob, they'd send Freaks along their trails for supply runs. None of us are safe until Josh is dead, especially Arawn'.

'I forgot about Arawn,' Nix laughs slightly, Daisy looks into his eyes, it's as if they're completely glazed, they almost look black, she never realised how tired he looks. Perhaps she looks just as bad.

'Let's just try and find somewhere to rest,' she says 'if not we'll find a tree'.

'Hands up,' a man appears from behind one of the trees, more begin to appear around them.
'Oh for fuck sake,' Nix rolls his eyes as he raises his hands.

'Ye the two that got those psycho fucks going crazy all over the radios?' he says as he lowers his gun.
'The cult?' Daisy frowns.
'You mean 'Eden's Edge',' he laughs 'we call them 'Savys''.
'From 'Saviours'?' Nix asks.
The man looks at him 'good thing you're handsome....'.

  'Who are ye?' Daisy asks.
'Here isn't the place, it's too opened and Josh has twice the amount of patrols out looking for ye,' he says 'come back with us'.

Daisy looks at Nix, this time she waits for his go-ahead, he nods at her.

  They follow the group back to an old church. It looks abandoned. There's no fences, no barbed wire, nothing for protection.
'It's not very secure,' Daisy says.
'This is just a safe house,' he says.

  He opens the doors to an empty church, there's no pews, nothing. They follow him up the stairs to where the choir would be, one of the others closes the door behind them.

  There's a few sleeping bags thrown around, a candle lights up a small part of the area.
'My name's Joe by the way,' he says.
'Daisy and Nix,' Daisy says.

'Nice to meet you both, I guess. So the Savys respect our safe houses, at least they let us have that,' the man says as he lights up a cigarette, he looks at Nix watching the smoke rise into the air 'you want one?'.
Nix nods.

'Actually....' He roots in his pocket and takes out another pack 'I got plenty more back home'.
'Thanks,' Nix smiles.

'Anyway, we've got a farm not far from here,' he says 'much more secure than this'.
'So why don't the Savys attack your safe houses?' Daisy asks.

Joe shrugs 'we don't deep it, but a lot of the time none of us are in the safe houses, each supply run we do we go to a different one, there's no routine, no way they could plan an attack. They know the farm's too secure. Plus I think Josh likes having an enemy, like ye'.

'What do you mean?' Nix frowns.
'Anyone else he would've just shot ye on the spot, he has a pile of guys out looking for you,' Joe says 'it's like a game to him, he makes one attack then you make the next and on and on it goes'.

'So what is Eden's Edge?' Daisy asks.

  Joe looks around at the others, who signal him to speak, he sighs and begins 'Started a few months into everything, Josh had a small group to begin with, weekly church goers, no surprise there. He also had his brothers, John and Joseph. I think Josh slowly began to realise he could manipulate the weak and vulnerable to believing whatever he wanted, it first started off as a way to give people hope and then I think the power got to his head. The power of knowing anything he said would be followed. So he set up a small camp where his compound is now, had a sign above the gate reading 'Eden's Edge', because until they find their Chosen One they couldn't enter the garden of Eden. I don't know much else about them, I know Joseph has his camp in the mountains and John's is just at the start of the valley. Both protecting Josh'.

'So he brainwashed a bunch of people?' Nix asks.
'I mean kids lost everything at the start, think back to when it all happened for ye, and some kids just never got over that,' Joe says 'they'd someone promising them the end would come and they felt like their prayers had been answered'.

'What about Joseph and John?' Daisy watches as a few of the group look at Joe awkwardly.
'It's about power to them too,' he says 'but I genuinely think they've all gone insane and actually do believe what they're saying'.

'Yeah, Josh didn't seem the sanest,' Nix says.
Joe laughs 'he never really was, anyway, get some rest, we'll head to the farm early in the morning'.