Chapter 5 – On Foot

"Dude." Josh said again, for the millionth time.

"No" Aaron said back, instinctively.

"C'mon man."

"No."

"Just one time."

"No."

"But I saved your life!"

"Josh, you can save my life a thousand times, I am NOT giving you a piggyback."

"C'mon man, my legs are tired. You're the one who's the gym guy, I'm the stay at home and make funny content guy."

"I go to the gym and still find time to put out videos, what's your excuse?"

"... Cat videos." Josh replied, quietly.

"Just keep walking man, we have no supplies since our backpacks went down with the car, just keep gong."

Suddenly, Aaron's phone began to ring. He raised an eyebrow, thinking it surely wouldn't work from water damage. He quickly took it out and checked the called Id. Will Evans. He answered right away, putting the phone up to his cheek. "Will?" Aaron asked, eagerly.

There was a series of loud noises coming from the phone, and it was Tyde who answered. "Uhh no, its me. They're here!" His voice blared out of the speaker, sounding scared and a little excited.

Aaron stopped in his tracks, his face falling. "No... They're attacking where you are?"

Josh heard this and turned immediately. "Oh no, I am not coming all the way to Wales for this to be a wild goose chase!"

"No," Tyde's voice replied. "Not exactly. They're in Cardiff, and we can see the smoke from here. I'm not sure I can pop the flares without drawing attention to us."

Aaron gave a small sigh of relief, but continued his questions. "So how do we find you?"

"Well where are you now?" Tyde asked. "I'll pass you over to Will, he might know where you are. There was the sound of shuffling, as Will came to the phone.

"Alright, are there any signs near you, any roads or towns nearby?

Aaron found a sign, and gave a deep sigh. "We just went through Merthe... Mertheyair T-Tidefill." He said, trying his best to read the sign.

"What the hell is that?" Will asked, confused.

"Mer... Mertheyea Teedfill. Merteyair..."

Josh quickly snatched the phone from him. "Merthyr Tydfil." He said, quickly.

"Ahhh," Replied Will "Yea, just keep following the motorway south, we're in a place called Pontypridd."

"That's a stupid name for a place, Wales is stupid." Josh said, mockingly.

"Great, good one Josh. See you when you get there." Will said, hanging up.

Aaron took back his phone, slipping it into his pocket. "Can't believe that still works after it was in the water..." He muttered, as they continued to head south alongside the deserted motorway.

Josh rolled his eyes, taking out his phone, which was totally dead. He gave a deep sigh. "I wonder how my parent and Alex are doing..." He said, his tone dropping.

Aaron was uneasy about replying. "I'm sure they got out fine man, they're probably somewhere safe, more worried about you than you are about them."

Josh gave a noise of acknowledgement, and they both kept walking.

They'd been walking for a while when Aarons phone rang again. He took it from his pocket and held it to his face. "Hello?" He asked, not even checking the caller Id.

"Are you guys going to be here?" came Will Donaldson's smooth voice down the receiver. There was no sound of violence or battles in the background.

Aaron put him on speaker, turning to Josh. "Its Fluke."

Josh turned and spoke loudly towards Aarons phone, which he was holding out in front of him. "Hey man, where are you?"

"I made it out of London finally. You wouldn't believe how many ground forces there are here. The army has been fighting back... But they can't really stop space lasers." Will said, trying to lighten the mood.

"So where exactly are you?" Aaron asked.

"I've made it out to Croydon, there aren't as many here. I'm just doing some looting, so I thought I'd check up on your guys. Are you going to get to Dover or not?"

Aaron nodded, not sure why, as Will couldn't see him. "Yea, we're on our way to meet up with Evans and Tyde north of Cardiff.

"Bloody hell, when I said stay away from London, I didn't mean go as far as Wales!" Will said, slightly confused. "So you aren't coming?"

"No no we are!" Josh replied, frustrated. "But we are meeting with Evans first because he apparently has a plane!"

"A plane?!" Will asked, incredulously. "Why the hell wasn't I invited?"

"He's going to fly us out of here, maybe we can pick you up!" Aaron replied.

"Hmmm." Replied Will, a little annoyed. "What if you guys fly off without me?"

"We wont!" Said Josh, reassuringly. "Don't be so needy man, you'll be fine."

"Needy?!" Replied Will. "Of course I'm being needy, its the end of the bloody world here, and it sounds like you guys are going to ditch me!"

"Calm down man, we aren't ditching you!" Josh said, frustrated again. "We'll come and get you, we promise."

Fluke made a noise that was a mix approval and disappointment. "Fine, Hopefully you guys can meet me in Dover."

"One thing, how did you get away when you first called us?"

Will didn't reply for a second. "Well, they blew up the car we were going towards. Wossy may have been inside at the time. So I used the smoke for cover and ran into the subway. The trains had all stopped, so I made my way through the underground for ages, and lots of stuff happened. I made my way out after about a day and I've just been headed to Dover since then."

"Jesus man, that must have been fun, trekking through the underground?" Asked Aaron, sarcastically.

"Oh you have no idea, so much shit happened. I'll tell you about it later when I see you" He replied. "Please, just get to Dover, I don't wanna be left alone here. I don't think I can drive a boat..."

"We'll be there." Said Aaron.

"Alright... See you soon." Replied Will, hanging up the phone.

Aaron sighed, putting his phone in his pocket. "I'm sure we'll go and pick him up, right?"

Josh didn't say anything, not sure if they really would. They kept walking, when there was a large exploding sound, and a torrent of black smoke billowed out from the ground about a mile away from them, towards where Evans and Tyde were meant to be. Josh and Aaron looked at each other, before suddenly sprinting towards the smoke. As Aaron inspected the cloud of smoke more, he noticed a streak of green smoke in the midst of it all. Evans had said they'd be headed towards the green smoke, and Aaron was hoping that wasn't the flares that Tyde had found. Hopefully they weren't dead...

Hopefully.