Aer

28

The group travel along the road, unaware of what to expect. The town comes into sight. The road is lined with crosses, skeletons are nailed to them. There's a strong smell of rotting flesh.

'Maybe we should get off the road,' Charlie says.
'No, it's fine,' Evan says.
'Fine?' Charlie frowns 'Are you not seeing the crosses?'.
  'There's no sign of the horde, the cult can't be here'.
'Look I had a...friend end up like this,' he says 'I don't fancy being up there'.

'I think he's right,' Zoe says 'The chemist is just down the street, we can try another way around'.
Evan looks at her 'It's faster this way'.
  'Evan, stop being so stubborn...'.

'Look let's just-' Lily's interrupted by the sudden screaming of children, she looks in front of her as kids come charging at them with spears.

Zoe feels someone grab her arm and pull her out of the street, it's Charlie. They run through the trees, up a hill, overlooking the town.

'Thank you,' she smiles, out of breath.
'You feeling okay?' He asks.
'I'm fine, where's Evan?'.
'I don't know,' Charlie rests his hands on his knees 'they just came out of nowhere'.

'Wait Charlie, look,' she looks down on the town 'it's our guys'.

Charlie scans the line of them, looking for Lily, but luckily there's no sign of her. The only one he recognises is Evan, standing at the front of the line.

'Fuck Zoe,' Charlie shakes his head 'get down'.
The two of them lay down, out of sight.

'Who was your friend?' Zoe asks, he can see the tears filling in her eyes as she watches Evan carefully.

'Her name was Gemma, the cult got her before we could and she ended up on one of the crosses, after that I never cared about anyone that died on supply runs with us, after her they all just became numbers,' he says, he looks at her 'I think you should look away'.

'I can't go down there,' she says 'I can't risk my baby's life but I'm looking, I have to see how my baby's father dies, I have to be strong'.

There's a rustle in the bushes behind them, Charlie turns to Lily, relief comes over her face. But she can sense the sadness, she carefully crawls up beside them, Charlie smiles slightly at her, relieved she's okay, as she looks out at the town, spotting Evan and his group.

The cult makes the boys kneel, one by one they slit their necks, the blood trickles down the street. They carry crosses over and they nail each one to the cross before setting it on fire.

Lily looks over at Zoe, tears stream down her face but she doesn't say a word. None of them say anything, they just stay in silence.

'Oh my God,' Daisy runs towards Charlie and hugs him tightly 'when I heard...'.
'I'm okay,' he kisses her.

They'd gotten in contact with the camp over the radio, Zoe was barely able to walk, her body became more and more limp and eventually all three of them were stuck on the side of the road.

The camp sent out a small group on horses to come and get them. They lifted Zoe onto a cart and left with her.

'Fucking brutal,' Lily takes a horse from one of the other girls.
'So awful,' Daisy says 'Just like that they're gone'.
'Let's just get back,' Charlie mounts one of the horses.

              Gemma looked at herself in the mirror, another day, another supply run. It wasn't as if they ever found anything anyway. Maybe going into the town they'd find food or something to keep them hopeful. There was a knock on her door, it was Charlie.

'Hey,' she smiled 'you ready?'.
'Yeah, you?' He followed her into the room.
'All good,' she stood in front of him as he sat on the bed 'Is Lily coming here?'.
'Yeah, she's meeting us here, I haven't seen her all morning,' he said.

'She's probably with Aoife,' Gemma whispered, chuckling when she saw Charlie's disapproving look.
'Stop gossiping'.
'Oh well,' she cupped his face and kissed him 'you know I don't do anything else'.
'You're good at it anyway,' he smiled.

'Why thank you, my favourite subject is you and Aaron'.
'You know that's not true, he's forcing me to go along with that to keep people from gossiping about his shit leadership skills,' Charlie rolled his eyes.
'I do think he's gay though,' Gemma said 'like I think he likes the idea of people thinking he's with you, I mean who'd leave a girl like Daisy too'.

'Well I don't go near that girl with all the rumours,' he said 'I feel sorry for her'.
Gemma scoffed 'You feeling sorry for someone?'.

'Whatever,' Charlie pulled her into him, kissing her.
There's a knock on the door, Lily came in 'ye ready?'.
'Of course,' Gemma grabbed her bag 'another day, no dollars'.

The walk to town was long, they talked about the miscellaneous stuff they always spoke about, they gossiped, bitched, everything. Gemma loved going for supply runs with them, there was never any bother.

  She missed Alex though, she'd been on a few runs with him too but she took his spot on the supply runs with Charlie and Lily after he got sick. They were like a little family, they did everything together and knew everything about each other.

'Okay, so what's the plan boss-lady?' Gemma smiled at Lily as they came to the outskirts of the town.
'We can check the houses along here, split up,' Lily said 'Shouldn't be any Freaks'.
'Here's hoping,' Gemma said.

Lily took the first two houses, Charlie took the next three and Gemma took the last one on the row. She watched as the two of them slowly entered the houses. She loved the two of them, everytime she looked at them she admired them more and more. Lily was like her sister and Charlie was the best thing that ever happened to her, she was so in love with him, she saw a side to him nobody else could see.

She was so lost in thought she didn't hear the kids come up behind her. They hit her over the head and the next thing she knew she was being tied to a cross along the road. She was too weak to kick and scream, to fight back. It was as if her body had accepted her fate.

The kids were all dressed the same, they were praying as one of them approached her with a lit torch. Everything felt so unreal to her, as if she was dreaming.

The kid put the torch up against the wooden cross and within seconds the flames were travelling up along the wood. Gemma just prayed Lily and Charlie wouldn't find her, she'd hate if they were stuck with that memory.
They were everything to her.