Alternate (Phan)

14*Eye eye, captain

Phil

'Wait, we're heading in the wrong direction.' Dan suddenly started to panic. I took his hand, facing him towards me.

'Only by a couple of minutes, I wanted to take you somewhere before we left.' I shuffled closer to him, feeling his body tense up before relaxing.

'Is that safe? We're still in Manchester, after all...' I put my finger to his lip, pulling him around a corner.

It was late October, so it was only beginning to get light. The early glow of the sun echoing colours of purple onto Dan's skin. I stared above him, looking into the brownness of his eyes, before grabbing his arm and pulling him to the large metal structure.

'Phi-' he began, before shutting himself up as he glanced towards the giant wheel. He chuckled, looking down and shaking his head, 'How on earth are we supposed to get on that?'

I wiggled my eyebrows before turning to a mechanism and manoeuvring various handles on the stand. There was a wheezing crank as the structure began to rotate around its central point. I held out a hand to Dan, who shook his head before grasping onto me.

'I'll kill you if you get us killed...wait-' I chuckled, pulling Dan onto the open door of one of the carriages. The frame was slightly rusted with the lingering smell of sweetness in the atmosphere. The paintwork was barely existing, yet in this moment the surroundings matched nothing of my emotions.

'Why did you take me here?' Dan asked, turning his head towards me as he unstrapped sleeping Ev, placing him carefully on the bench. I wrapped my arm around Dan's waist and pulled him towards me, both our bodies facing outwards towards the view of the beaming sunrise.

'To show you that even when the paintwork is crumbling, dead bodies scatter the city, the structure is creaking and the buildings are rubble, the sun still sets and the sun still rises. A day is a day, it's what you do in that day that matters.' we stood in silence, exchanging no words as our bodies tied themselves together. The purple colours had died down, replacing the sky with magnificent blues. Actually, they weren't magnificent and I'd seen them plenty of times, but sometimes they can be appreciated better when you're standing with the soulmate you met a couple of days ago. I chuckled, I'm an idiot.

I suddenly felt a movement in my body as Dan manoeuvred me towards him, pulling us together with his palms on my shoulders. Our lips collided, my body in shock at the sudden change. I relaxed myself, slipping my hands around his waist and pulling his stomach towards me. We stayed like that for a while, not counting how long.

I stepped forwards again, bringing myself closer to Dan, but he wasn't prepared and slipped backwards, pulling both of our bodies down onto the cold floor.

'Shit!' Dan cried, before staring up at me and laughing as we remained on the floor. I lifted my head before lowering my lips back down onto his. I heard the carriage knock against the bottom of the wheel, noticing we'd reached the bottom again. I stood up, offering Dan a hand, to which he took to be lifted up off of the floor. He swiftly cradled Ev in his hands before hopping of off the carriage with me, scurrying down the steps. I turned the wheel off, the black silhouette looming over us as we walked away into the last of the rubbles of Manchester.

'Goodbye, Manchester.' I whispered, stepping out onto the main road.