Aer

1

'You scared?'.
    'No'.
      'You should be'.
Charlie hits Johnny across the head, messing his hair 'I'm just joking, you'll get used to it'.
'Do you think so?' Johnny asks, clearly sweating.
'No' Charlie smirks.

    'Oh come on Charlie, give him a break,' Lily smiles at Johnny 'You'll be fine, we'll open the van doors and everything will be okay'.

Charlie shakes his head behind Lily's back.

'Alright,' Lily opens the van doors, they jump out of the van and run as fast as their legs can go. Johnny finds himself falling behind the more athletic two but he manages to stay close enough to feel safe.

   They run to the safety of an empty store.
'You okay?' Charlie checks up on Lily.
She nods, she turns to Johnny 'Are you okay?'.
He nods slowly, the running took a lot of energy out of him.

'I always feel like we're running from nothing,' Charlie says, he brushes his hands down his green coat 'Stupid'.
'It's not stupid,' Lily says 'It's what we've to do, don't think about it, just gotta run'.
'Well that's the point,' he says 'Now let's get going'.

'I need more time to rest,' Johnny says.
'I don't care,' Charlie snaps at him 'We don't have time'.

     They run along the hard ground, keeping their minds on the running, not letting their minds venture. But Johnny can't help it, it's too much for him.

He stops. The others don't.

He takes off his gas mask and breathes in, feeling his brain inflate, bursting through his skull.

His eyes begin to water, he's not sure if he's crying because he's going to die or because the air is filling every pore and opening with the Mist.

He sees Lily look back, horrified, but it's too late, the pressure becomes too much and his soul leaves his body.

'No!' Lily screams as Johnny's head explodes into a red cloud.
'Don't stop!' Charlie pushes her forward 'Just keep going'.

Lily nods and follows behind Charlie, they don't stop until they reach their bunker, Charlie opens the hidden hatch in the ground and allows Lily to enter first, something he normally never does.

Lily climbs down the ladder and hits the wet concrete floor. Charlie is seconds behind her.

   'Well,' Charlie sighs 'What do we tell them?'.
'I don't know,' she says, she listen to her footsteps echo through the tunnel.

   'Well it's clearly Aaron's fault, he should've never let Johnny come along, he wasn't strong enough'.
    'None of us are'.

'Oh, whatever,' he throws his hands up 'You need to stop being so deep all the time, it's annoying as fuck Lily'.
'A kid just died!' she says 'The third kid this week'.
'So?' He says 'We're still here aren't we?'.
'For how long?'.
Charlie opens the contamination doors 'Well I don't know about you but I don't plan on having my head explode any time soon'.

They stand in the middle of the contamination room, Lily presses the button to start the process. The alarm begins ringing, her ears are so used to it that she doesn't even think about how loud it is.

Then the process starts, droplets cover their coats and fogs up their gas masks. Lily sighs, this is easily the tenth time she's done this in three days. And yet again they come back empty-handed.
The process ends and the bunker opens, they take off their gear and change into their normal clothes.

'I'll see you around,' Charlie leaves Lily and heads to do his own thing, he doesn't like anyone's company only his own, Lily understands that. It's hard living with so many kids in a bunker with no natural light, no natural air, nothing.