Aer

14

Daisy makes her way out onto the street. Dars is nowhere to be seen. A part of her doesn't want to call out for him, just in case trouble is just around the corner. But she calls his name anyway, praying he'll appear from somewhere but there's nothing only the breeze, that's blowing her hair softly.

Daisy waits and waits, but he's nowhere, she calls and calls, but he isn't anywhere to be seen or heard. Surely she would've heard Freaks attack him, maybe he left her, thought it'd be funny to mess with her, maybe he went on further, maybe his plan was to leave her out here all along. No, she can't think like that.
She eyes the town...he has to be there.

      The walk's a lot longer without someone to talk to and Daisy is constantly looking over her shoulder, worried that someone might be following her. She gets to the edge of the town and decides to take a more stealthier approach, she climbs through the window of one of the shops.

'An outsider,' she hears a voice and ducks behind the counter, it's a boys voice, he seems to be far enough away from her not to be a threat 'he was just standing in the middle of the road, Danny knocked him out and brought him to the Church'.
'Dars...' Daisy says to herself.

'Danny needs to be more careful,' it's a girl's voice 'David won't be happy with him attacking someone without checking out the place, Danny had, what, James and Tom with him?'.
'Yeah I know Caoimhe but he's a tough lad,' the boy says to the girl, Caoimhe.
'I get that Jim but he has to be careful,' Caoimhe says.

Their voices seem to disappear. They must've passed the shop. Daisy sneaks through the shop, listening to every sound carefully. She gets out on the street, scans the area but there's no one. She crosses the street and sneaks into a clothes shop that has a crack in its wall leading to a music shop.

Dars is being kept in the Church. She saw the church in the binoculars, it's close. Luckily for Daisy it's on the edge of the town too. She goes from building to building, she doesn't hear or see anyone else. They must be spread throughout the town and the Church must be just one location they've controlled.

   The large church comes into sight. It's gardens are overgrown, the pavement leading to the doors is overgrown and some of the windows are smashed. There's no kids patrolling outside, a shriek fills the air, it's distant but Daisy thought the town would be cleared of Freaks, even though it'd be hard to keep something so big clear without any protection and the patrols aren't exactly the best either. There's another shout, there must be a good lot of them.

   Daisy climbs over the wall of the church and lands on an overgrown grave, she blesses herself and quickly gets off it. She makes her way towards the church where she can hear a boy's voice.

'Move the bucket,' he orders 'get this over and done with fast, I want to see him beg me for air'.

   Daisy quickly scans the church. One of the windows is completely smashed she can easily climb inside. She lifts herself onto the window, her hands getting cut on the broken glass. She lands perfectly on the ground and catches sight of three boys poking Dars with spears, then she spots the noose around his neck, within seconds a tall ugly boy kicks the bucket from under Dars.

'No!' Daisy charges at them.
'Get help!' a small boy shouts at the tall one, who dashes for the doors, leaving them open.

The small boy raises a pistol to Daisy and pulls the trigger, she doesn't even duck, she just charges for them, he miraculously misses her. He jumps out of the way and Daisy knocks a skinny boy onto the floor, she manages to get under him as the small boy takes another shot.

He shoots his friend, luckily the bullet gets stuck in the skinny boy and he dies right on top of Daisy. She grabs a hatchet from his belt and charges at the small boy. She's too close for him to shoot, she can hear screams, the Freaks are close. She knocks the small boy to the ground and hacks at his neck, it takes him awhile to die but eventually, his eyes roll back and his face is covered in his own blood.

    Daisy hurries to her feet and cuts Dars down, he falls to his hands and knees, gasping for air. Daisy doesn't have time to look at him as two Freaks appear at the door, alerted by the noise, they scream and run for Daisy and Dars.

Daisy looks down at the small boy's dead body and holds onto her hatchet tightly as she begins to slam it down onto his arm until it's amputated. She picks it up and tosses it at the Freaks, they shriek in excitement at the fresh meat and immediately begin fighting over it. Daisy grabs Dars and leads him out of the Church.

    Her adrenaline is still running as she helps him towards a cafe. She brings him inside and puts a table in front of the door, the windows have already been boarded up.

'Daisy,' he gets his breath back 'thank you'.
'It's okay,' she checks his neck, it's been marked and his breathing is still abnormal 'How are you feeling?'.
'I'm fine,' he says, he brings himself to his feet and looks around, his eyes are glazed and frightened 'might be a stairs in the back, some beds for us to rest in'.

'I'll check,' she says 'You rest here'.
'No,' he smiles 'remember the last time you went investigating by yourself?'.
Daisy smiles and rolls her eyes 'alright come on'.

    She opens the door to the back room and there's a spiral staircase leading to two separate bedrooms and a bathroom.
'We can stay here for the night, it's an alright distance from the church and these kids don't seem organised,' Dars says 'You reckon these are the kids your friends ran into?'.
'Definitely,' she says 'they had a gun'.

Dars sits down on the bed in one of the bedrooms, Daisy sits across from him 'I won't head to bed until later'.
'You thinking about those boys?' He asks.
   'Yeah'.
'We're so used to killing Freaks it's hard to kill other kids,' he says 'but it had to be done'.

'I didn't even hesitate,' she says 'I killed those two boys without even thinking, I didn't stop hitting that boy's neck until his whole body went still, I used the other one as a shield. I killed them and I didn't even think about what I was doing, I just did it'.

Dars gets off the bed and kneels in front of Daisy, he takes her hands 'They were going to hang me'.
'Maybe they thought you were a threat'.
'No' he says quietly 'it was just for fun'.
'How'd you know that?' Her eyes begin to tear 'I could've killed them for no reason'.
'No they weren't good people' he says.
'What did they do?'.

He gets up and takes a deep breath, lifting his shirt and revealing a bite 'They held me down and left a Freak attack me, the minute she bit me they pulled her away'.

'Oh Dars...' she gets up and pulls up her sleeve 'I was bit when I brought Alex in, I've been too frightened to tell anyone, I thought I'd just leave when I showed symptoms'.
'So we're going to become Freaks?'.
'Together'.