Aer

13

'Mask on,' Dars turns back to Daisy as they reach the edge of the woods 'You alright?'.
'Of course,' Daisy's lying, she's so nervous she can actually feel herself shaking.

The Freaks begin to stagger past, there seems to be the same number, the same leader, they're going in the same direction.

'I think we should check the town,' Daisy whispers, she's not sure if he can hear her over the cries and grunts 'at least the outskirts'.
'Alright,' Dars nods 'can't be any harm'.

     They slowly make their way through the trees. The stragglers of the horde try their best to keep up, they slowly jog after the stronger ones. But Daisy notices something, they're a lot smaller than the other ones, their frame is smaller and they seem less developed, well from what Daisy can make out, she can't even tell what gender they are.

'Why are those ones much smaller?' Daisy stops.
Dars looks back 'They're kids, you know they would've survived the disease, your head explodes and you die but if you get bit you turn into one of them, get the same symptoms'.
'Have you ever seen that happen?' She asks.
     'Yeah'.
'Sorry,' she says quietly.
Dars continues walking 'My twin sister was bitten last year, she was 17 when the virus hit and bitten when she was 18. We didn't think anything of it until a few hours later she started to get symptoms, you know the fever, muscle pains, hallucinations, all that. We still didn't put two and two together until one of the guards, Kevin, opened her door and she pounced at him. Ripped him apart. I killed her, it felt right that I was the one to put her out of her misery. She was the first to die like that'.

'That must've been hard,' Daisy says 'I didn't know that could happen to us. How long does it take for symptoms to show?''.
'From what I've seen anywhere from a few hours to a day, nothing more,' Dars says 'but the minute they got bitten something changed in them, their eyes glazed over. But I've only seen six kids turn. It's different for everyone'.
'God, six is enough,' she says 'Everything about this thing just keeps getting worse'.
   'I know'.

     The town comes into sight but they're still a bit away. There's some buildings up ahead of them, Daisy turns to Dars 'You ever check these out?'.
'Did once or twice,' he says 'never went passed here. This new camp, where'd you say it was?'.
'I'm not sure honestly, it was a good bit from the bunker though,' Daisy says 'Wouldn't be any harm to keep alert'.
    'I'm always alert'.

Everything's so quiet, it's almost scary quiet, like the calm before the storm. Perhaps this is where the horde comes from, maybe there's more. But Daisy and Dars would hear their cries.

'I'll check the buildings, you stay out here to keep watch,' Daisy says.
'You sure?' Dars says 'We don't know what's in there, it's been awhile since I was around here'.
   'I'll check, can't be anything bad'.

    Dars waits on the road and Daisy goes inside the building. It's damp and dreary, it reminds Daisy of a bookstore but there's other bits and pieces on the shelves too. The first floor is clear of anything, there's not even supplies, Dars must've wiped the place.

She slowly creeps up the stairs, it creaks under her feet, she listens carefully for any cries and whimpers the Freaks could make but there's nothing.

All the doors are opened, she checks each room and everything's clear. Relief travels through her body, she hasn't had any sudden attacks she couldn't handle since this all started, but things have been tough, adjusting to a whole new life has been the hardest.

  Daisy sits on a bed in one of the bedrooms, it's a boy's room with posters of famous football players and jerseys hung up all over the room, this boy must've been big into GAA, he has everything covered in county colours.

Daisy spots a photograph of him with a hurler, he's only young, her best guess would be about 8, there's not a hope he survived unless he had an older sibling or came across a group but no groups had been set up in the early days.

Daisy thinks about what Dars had said, maybe a kid he was with got bit and he turned into a Freak and killed the boy. She pulls down her bandage, she'd bandaged her cut from the other day herself, she'd told Tamara she didn't want to put her out and make her check out a tiny graze, but Daisy was hiding something.

She rubs her fingers along the bite marks, it's been a day and she feels perfect but who's to say her time won't come tonight? She should tell Dars, she knows that, but he's enough to deal with. The minute she has symptoms she'll leave and make sure no one has to grieve for her.
But so far she feels fine.