Aer

7

'You're not going to leave me are you?' Daisy moves away from him 'Charlie and I are safe Alex, come with us'.
'I can't,' he says.
'Yes you can, you owe Aaron nothing'.
'Yeah, that's true,' he says 'but I need to know why he did this to you, there's something not right with him, I can be your eyes and ears down there'.

He places his bag on the ground and rummages through it 'Ah, here'.

He hands Daisy a radio, smiling widely 'I'll be up fixing the car every day, I'll contact you to meet me here, Aaron's giving me permission to come here to 'grieve''.
Daisy takes the radio 'Is it not connected to the bunker ones?'.
'Nope, different channel'.
'Very smart,' she smiles.

'Look Daisy I've to go, but know Aaron won't get away with what he's done to you and Charlie, I'll get to the bottom of this'.
'I know you will'.

He kisses her gently and puts back on his mask, Daisy has to turn her back to avoid watching him leave. She stares down at the wooden slabs, Aaron had killed her and Charlie. Daisy thought of everyone else down in that bunker, Conor and his 'twin', Jason, and Seán, who'd been there that day, Daisy can't imagine that'd be a secret he could keep. But God only knows what's going on. She can't wrap her head around it.

    After sitting around thinking about everything she eventually gets around to getting fuel. She brings two cartons back to her bike and ties them on, she could probably fit one more. As she takes the carton off the shelf she hears a high-pitched scream, a scream she hasn't heard in a long time, as if someone is ripping their vocal chords. It's a scream of a leader, the leader of a horde.

    She makes her way to the front window and peers out. Appearing over the bump in the road are Freaks, and a lot of them. Daisy puts on her gas mask and watches, they won't come into the shop but she can't afford to move or make a single sound.

   Their horrible moans and grunts begin to fill the air, their cries of pain, of being stuck in almost lifeless bodies. A woman, a mother, an aunt, a sister, leads the pack. The majority of her hair has fallen out, the parts that are left are thin and greasy.

Freaks lose their hair, their skin becomes grey, their nose shrivels up, their lips disappear and their eyes begin to bulge. She watches as these skinny figures stagger past the shop. But there's hundreds, it seems like they're never going to stop.

   The sun has disappeared and the moon has appeared, the last of the Freaks are done passing the garage, their cries are in the distance.

She quietly picks up the last carton of fuel and makes her way out of the garage, she peers over her shoulder, the hordes now running down the road, something must've caught their attention. They move crazily, their limbs going in all directions as they climb over each other, outrunning one another.

Daisy makes her way towards her bike. She's still feeling a bit on edge, but the horde is out of sight. She ties the fuel to the back of the bike.

A scream fills the air and before Daisy can react a Freak pounces on her. Daisy grabs the woman's hands, avoiding the woman scratching her. She looks into the woman's sad eyes, they're filled with pus and are extremely bloodshot.

She cries as she can't hurt Daisy, she seems to give up, losing her strength. This gives Daisy the opportunity to kick her off, she grabs her hatchet from her belt and slams it into the woman's face, killing her instantly. Daisy falls back, breathing heavily, that was someone's mother, sister, aunt....that was once a human being.