Aer II

46

'How'd you get on?' Joe meets them at the gates of his farm.
'They've agreed to help us,' Daisy dismounts her horse 'he'll radio us when the cult arrive'.
'I'll radio him each day to get updates so I can send a group to keep an eye-out,' Joe says 'I see you've brought new people'.

'This is James, Eilish and the baby is Ryan,' Daisy introduces them.
'Ye have a cute son,' James smiles.
'Oh, no it's not mine,' Eilish laughs 'I'm a lesbian'.
'Told you,' Nix whispers to Daisy, she ignores him.

'He's mine,' James says 'I'm Daisy's brother'.
'What are the chances of that? Ye from the town?' James asks and the two of them nod 'I'll show ye around. Daisy, Nix we cleared out a cabin for ye, I'll call by in a bit'.

Daisy stands outside of the cabin, it's perfect. It's got a porch with garden furniture. Roof to floor length windows and French doors leading into an open planned kitchen and sitting room. The furniture is nice and new. There's two large bedrooms, one small bedroom and a bathroom. It's like it's been untouched by the apocalypse.

'This is probably one of the nicest places I've had,' Nix smiles 'or seen since this all started'.
'Look at this,' Daisy smiles as she stands in the door way of one of the bedrooms, it's decorated with kids' things, specifically for a boy 'they must've decorated for Arawn'.

'I'm sure he will prefer it to the tree he was stuck to,' Nix says.
'I just hope he's okay,' Daisy sits down on the sofa 'he must be so scared'.
'He was a little bit annoying, but he's a brave kid, he's okay,' Nix sits down beside her 'we'll get him back'.
'Yeah we will,' she smiles.
Nix kisses her, she pushes him down on the sofa and gets on top of him when there's a knock on the door. Daisy looks up and Joe is standing outside.

'Sorry to interrupt, also word of advice these windows are clear maybe pull the curtains next time,' Joe lets himself in 'this place was used for storage, we cleared it out when ye left and got some stuff from one of the sheds'.
'Thank you,' Daisy says as they sit down.

'I sent a patrol out this morning,' Joe says 'and not a sight of the Savvys, and they took the trail the Savvys take every day'.
'The attack must've really knocked them back,' Daisy says 'Tommy hasn't heard or seen anything from them either'.
'I think Josh is beginning to realise he's not as invincible as he thought,' Joe looks down at the floor 'I have been thinking, when we attack the compound I need to know that we won't kill Caoimhe'.

'Eden?' Daisy frowns.
'I don't know what Josh done to her but she's not like that, she's not one of them,' he says 'she was scared and she stayed, just like a lot of them. I get what she does is bad but I don't think she knows what she's doing'.
'She doesn't,' Daisy says 'she looked like she didn't want to do any of that to me, like she felt bad'.

'Do you still hallucinate her?' He asks.
Daisy shakes her head 'I can still remember the feeling but I haven't seen her like that since, there was something they kept saying to me though'.
'What was it?'.
'You can do it,' she says as she remember sitting across from Joseph before the explosion 'I don't think they said it enough to me for it to stick in my mind and trigger me, Caoimhe said it first, the next day Joseph said it, but I was still wired from whatever they gave me'.

'The Savvys must be drugged out of their minds so,' Nix says.
'Actually,' Joe rubs his chin 'I don't know if you've ever noticed but any dead Savvy body I've seen has always had a flask'.
'What do you mean?' Daisy frowns.
'You said they gave you tea, they must be putting something in it and give it to their members to constantly drink. The Savvys are brainwashed because their brains are fried and whenever they have doubts or get tired they drink the tea, like an addiction'.
'They do fight like they're on drugs,' Nix says.

'I get it,' Joe looks at Daisy 'I get now why you said we've to save the Savvys'.
'They can't help what they're doing,' she says.
'Well we're going to have to kill a lot of them to get to Josh,' Nix says 'the ones that take Tommy's town will be killed too'.
'There's nothing we can do about that,' Daisy says 'but the ones that live will get to be free'.

'Well I've to radio Tommy,' Joe says 'I'm glad ye like it here, and just so you know the blinds are blackout as well'.
'Yeah, we get it, thank you,' Nix opens the door for him.

'I'm going to head over to James,' Daisy gets up.
'Oh, well I thought we could try out those blackout blinds,' Nix says.
Daisy smiles and rolls her eyes 'fine'.