Aer II

44

  'You think this is gonna work?' Nix asks later that night.
'Have to try, James is there and I know he'll be on my side,' she says.
Nix sighs 'yeah, I suppose'.
  'What's wrong now?'.
'I just wish we could go somewhere far away from all of this,' he says.
'Nix the cult is everywhere, the only thing keeping them together is Josh'.
  'I think I've only one fight left in me'.
'That's all we need,' she says.
'No,' he says.

Daisy looks at him 'what?'.
'I don't know what's wrong with me,' he shrugs 'I'm just tired'.
  'So am I but what can we do?'.
'I just want to have a normal life, well as normal as this world can be,' he says, he looks down at his hands 'I've been worried'.
  'Why?'.
'I've been worried about you dying,' he looks away 'because I thought you were dead, and I didn't want to lose anyone else, especially not you. I think I'm in love with you'.
'You think?' She smiles.
  'No, I know I am'.
'I think I'm in love with you too,' she smiles as she kisses him, he lays her down onto the bed. They take off each other's clothes. As Nix kisses her neck and moves further down her body she realises there's no where else she'd rather be, with no one else. He turns her around and pushes her stomach down onto the bed. He gets behind her. Daisy's happy, she's really happy.

  'Radio us when ye get to the town, if ye need some back up, I'll send my men,' Joe hands Daisy a radio the next morning.
'Thank you, we'll see you soon,' she smiles.

  Daisy mounts her horse as Nix does the same. The guard opens the gate and the two of them leave.

  Daisy feels hopeful, for some odd reason. She feels as if everything's slowly coming together. As if everything they've been through has been worth it.
She just hopes the cult hasn't taken over the town, it'd be a lot easier to just ride in and not have to worry about guards.

'Hey, look at that,' Nix points in between the trees. They pull the horses to a halt. Daisy fixes her eyes further into the woods.
She can just make out two Freaks trying to jump at a piece of meat hanging from the branch of a tree. One keeps crashes into the tree and the other falls in a heap every time it tries to jump. They're getting weaker day by day.

'You think that's how the cult lures them in?' Daisy asks.
'I mean who else would hang meat from a tree?' He shrugs.
'Should probably keep moving, we don't know how the cult patrols work out here'.

They keep moving, riding down small trails, trying to listen out for the cult. It's night time by the time they reach the large walls of the town. They stop at the tree line, scanning for any sign of the cult but it's quiet. It looks as if their own men are lining the wall, keeping watch. John's death hopefully set Josh's plans back.

They approach the gates, the men along the wall stop, Daisy can see one of them lift binoculars up to her face, she beckons down at the people below her. And then the gates open.

They got there before the cult.