Thank you once again for the amazing support, 70 followers?! It's crazy and I thank you all so much. Also, over six thousand views and 48 reviews, I'm truly speechless!

I may be late with the next update due to having not written much as I've been ill for the past few days, I don't know how long but I'll try and keep it under a week if I can help it.

Hope you enjoy,

with that done, on with the chapter...

"Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person."

Tennessee Williams

The celestial fireball in the sky was dimmer than at any other season in the year, the splendorous honeycomb-yellow melted the bitter frost that hung over Terminus. Many of its occupants elected to sit out in the courtyard, the benches and tables coated by large diamond-shaped apricot canopies that shielded them from the sweetened blaze of the sun that was situated high above them.

Gareth sat across from the boy; observing him nibble at the cooked stag meat was like watching a squirrel with a nut. His eyes darted to every slight movement, his stick frame and unstable nature unnerving Terminus' residents. They would glance at him, glance at Gareth, and either go about eating quietly or mutter amongst themselves.

Gareth had become quite used to the nervous nature, he found it redundant but also understood that they saw him as the Big Bad Leader, hence hushed enquiries what pass around until someone brave enough would approach him. It was pathetic on many levels and time-consuming, but Gareth found he didn't have enough care to say something about it.

He rested his elbows on the table, rubbing the stubbles on his chin as he thought over what he could do with the situation. The boy seemed harmless enough, although it took a good hour to get him to trust Theresa and himself, taking even longer to get him to follow them to Terminus.

Theresa wasn't too fond of him, and that was an understatement in a half. As soon as Gareth had calmed the boy to some degree, she had appeared with her raised gun and assailing nature, sending the boy into a frightened fit. Gareth had fought away the urge to leave her there to carry the stag herself, although he snapped at her for being so hostile.

He was rather thankful to have his rifle at that point, seeing the murderous glare she had sent his way.

All of it was ludicrous over one mentally-challenged teen, though Gareth admitted to see the boy had a way with being too innocent for his own good.

After the difficult time getting him to trust Gareth, he had suddenly followed his every lead, walking close to him, even copying some of his movements like a lost puppy. It had sparked a responsibility in Gareth, one he knew would become a heavy weight on his shoulders.

"Can you tell me your name?" Gareth asked once the boy swallowed the tiniest tear out of the meat in his paled hands, the sticky fat staining them copper. He stared as the boy's fine (or more nonexistent) eyebrows creased, lips quivering as he tried to form his own name.

"Ai...dan...Ai-dan!" He replied zealously, causing Gareth to bow his head as he attempted to hide the smirk on his face. It was gone in a matter of seconds, but the humour he found at how prideful Aidan was of pronouncing his own name was something he couldn't help ripple the surface of his face.

"Well, Aidan. I'm Gareth, and that woman with the black hair who was with me before is called Theresa." He said with an attempt at cheerfulness, but it was wiped from his face as the boy's darkened eyes swirled with mass confusion. He realised what he had done. "Sorry, I guess too many names at once isn't helping."

Aidan made an expression of pure distaste, telling Gareth he was right.

"It's okay, we'll do things at your pace." He consoled, the uplifted smile on Aidan's face faltered Gareth's, hardening as his eyes flashed to the table. He saw it, clear as day.

"Gar-eth?" Aidan asked, frantic worry in his tone. Gareth hastily sat up straight, squirming in his chair as he forced normality onto himself.

"I'm fine, I just...I'm fine." Gareth coughed, emotions running through him so suddenly that he felt disorientated. It seemed that Aidan sensed it, emotions, face dazed but questioning. Gareth saw the compassion in those dark eyes. There wasn't a bad bone in Aidan's body. Gareth sighed with exhaustion. "You just reminded me of someone, it wasn't your fault." He added, Aidan analysing him as his mind turned over what Gareth had said.

Before he could say anything Alex stormed towards them, face flicking to Aidan for all of a second before looming over Gareth. His silhouette casted over the table, making Gareth turn to his younger brother with a passive expression. Alex may have looked solemn, but his eyes screamed sympathy.

"Me, Mom, Theresa and Martin all agreed for you to stay here while we go on a run." He explained, voice low as his eyes shifted away from Gareth's. He chuckled hollowly, shaking his head as anger boiled beneath the seemingly calmed surface. Aidan sensed it however, shrinking in his chair.

"You already trying to replace Mom with Mary?"

"Don't Gareth, not now." Alex warned, but it was wasted on deaf ears.

"Should've seen it coming, after all, she had you wrapped around her finger since Dad brought her home."

"Stop it!" Alex snapped, the screech of Gareth's chair across the concrete floor cringing as he towered over his younger brother. Alex swallowed a lump in his throst, but would not back down as his eyes sharpened. "Stop acting like you don't give a crap about anything!"

Gareth's hands scrunched into fists, shaking violently as his knuckles whitened.

The confrontation between the two was rapidly stopped as Aidan suddenly dropped the stag meat, hands shooting up to cover his ears as his eyes squeezed shut.

"No, no, no, NO!" He caterwauled, Gareth sprinting around the table and rubbing the screaming teen's back, hoping it would calm him down. The confrontation between him and Alex had been averted completely as Gareth's mind was only on getting Aidan to stop his insistent wailing.

"Aidan it's alright. Everything's - everything's okay." Gareth stuttered hopelessly, comforting had never truly been his forte and it had been some time since he last had to solace someone. Still, it was something right as Aidan stopped squeaking, humming softly to himself as Alex watched the whole scene with a grim facade, one that seemed permanently plastered onto his face as he took on more responsibilities while Gareth was dealing with things.

"Theresa told me you picked him up. She called him a stray." Alex said gruffly, not using the same good humour as Theresa had used. Gareth stiffened, eyes never leaving Aidan's face as it slowly softened into his apathetic indifference. The hands were lowered into his lap, head swaying as he continued his ominous humming through Alex and Gareth's conversation.

"He's not a dog, Alex."

"That's not what I meant but it might as well be. What the hell were you thinking bringing him here? The kid might as well wear a sign saying 'I'm an unstable nutjob'!" Alex shrilled, arms flailing as Gareth stood up awkwardly, finding his short burst of adrenaline was ultimately depleted to such an extent that he could barely stand without his legs trembling.

Being a leader was so tiresome, he sometimes wished he could just bestow it onto somebody else for a change. Or maybe, that was what Alex had been doing all along. Gareth looked at him, properly looked at him as if he hadn't ever before. He was helping his older brother, he was trying to prompt him out of the dark void he had fallen into, he was trying to halve Gareth's burdens.

And all the while, Gareth accused him of replacing their mother like the jackass he was.

"I'm sorry for being an ass." Gareth uttered, Alex scoffing quietly.

"There's an understatement if I ever heard one." He mumbled back, but there was a glimmer of sarcasm in his eyes.

"I know I've made this seem like a dictatorship for the last few months, but that's not true. Yourdecisions count, they have always counted and I've always been able to trust you. Look, he's obviously escaped from somewhere close, somewhere bad," Gareth said, arm pointing at Aidan who didn't even acknowledge the attention. "And it could be a problem. So just be careful out there, because I know you'll lock me in one of those damn train cars if I try to go on that run." Gareth huffed a laugh, his brother sharing the humanoid action before returning to his usual grimace.

He studied Aidan carefully, pondering on what his brother saw in the nutjob. Maybe he would never understand. He shook his head with a tired sigh, eyes locking with his brother's patient ones.

"I'll keep that in mind." He replied simply, nodding his head a little before he walked off to meet up with the usual band of spotters as they seemed to be called. Gareth watched him go with pride swelling inside him, though this tangled with guilt as he knew he had made Alex grow up. Just like when they were children.

"Gareth?" Aidan's timid voice pulled Gareth out of his thoughts, his head turning to the innocent boy. The eyes were different, so different: electric blue eyes, the small strips inside the iris seeming to be lighter and more prominent. They were so captivatingly blue, that Gareth forgot how not too long ago they had been an almost pure black, a devilish black even though Aidan held not an evil bone in his body.

Aidan studied Gareth, features blank of any emotion.

"Woman said...s-said...find..."

Aidan suddenly bashed his fists onto the table repeatedly, frustration crawling in his damaged brain. Before Gareth was able to grab his wrists and stop the onslaught, Aidan's hands were crimson, knuckles scraped and raw. Aidan struggled against his grip, shaking his head vigorously and Gareth dread he might break his own neck if he shook anymore violently.

"Find...find...you-"

"Yes I get it, the woman who helped you told you to find me-" Gareth interrupted with disclosed irritation, but as soon as it left his lips realisation dawned on his tired features. Suddenly the adrenaline rush washed over him again, brown eyes widened as he hastily sort more information out of the troubled teen.

"What was her name? Aidan, please, what was her name?" He asked hysterically. Aidan scrunched his nose, trying desperately to do what Gareth asked him, wanting to make him happy. He searched and searched in his mind for the face and for the voice, but it all jumbled up and scattered making it near impossible to conjoin the two characteristics.

"Said...to find...you." He whimpered, Gareth's crestfallen face making him know he hadn't done what he wanted. He tried, he really did try but it was so difficult to do anything. Gareth let Aidan's wrists go, cupping his hands over his face as he felt frustration attack him too. He couldn't take it out on the boy though, he couldn't help being the way he was.

"It's okay, don't strain yourself."

"Mad?"

"No Aidan, I'm not mad." Gareth consoled, the boy's features lightening slightly. He patted Aidan's shoulder before standing up, depression seeping through his body like a fiery poison. "Lets...get you washed up, bet you'd like that right?" Gareth said, a smile forced onto his face as he helped Aidan to his feet, entwining arm-in-arm as the boy shuffled along with his own unique walk.

They'd left the courtyard behind and were beginning to enter one of the warehouses, a metal trough used to collect the rainwater had been pulled inside so ice couldn't contaminate it. Just as Gareth began filling an oval basin like the old-fashioned ones seen in the history documentaries, Aidan spoke up to say something that made Gareth not only weak at the knees, but sent all his common sense out of the window.

In a timid voice, one word fell from Aidan's quivering lips:

"Dolphin"