The End of Us

by D, Hannah

Zoe couldn’t help but laugh as she was also killing the skin eaters. Zoe would give it to Arthur, even in the midst of possibly being eaten, he could make you laugh. It was hard for Zoe to remember that sullen, arrogant, rude man she met just yesterday. Zoe was making her way into the lunch hall with Chris and Jeff on her heels. Zoe had no idea how many they had already killed or how many were still in this room, however it was a lot.

  ‘Kill or be killed. Keep aiming for the head. Keep going. You can do this.’

  This was Zoe’s mantra, it went around and around in her head to help her keep going.

  Zoe heard a yelp and heard the sound of a knife falling to the floor. As soon as Zoe had killed the skin eater in front of her she spun around to locate who might be in trouble.

  It was Chris.

  Chris was struggling with a skin eater. He had managed to lose his knife and Zoe spotted his other knife was in the chest of a skin eater lying on the floor. Chris had his hands on the skin eaters head, pushing it’s head away from him to stop it from biting him. Zoe could swear she actually saw the sweat breaking out on his forehead. Zoe ran toward him, putting a knife in a skin eaters head on her way to help Chris. The skin eater used to be a teenage girl and she was wearing a luminous pink tutu skirt so yeah must’ve been a rave here last night.

  There was a skin eater coming up behind Chris, ready to take a good chomp out of him but Zoe got to the skin eater before it could get to Chris. After she had killed that one she plunged her knife into the skin eater that was trying to eat Chris head except she missed and caught it’s shoulder.

  The skin eater stopped trying to get to Chris and turned it’s attention toward her.

  “Shit” Zoe said.

  The skin eater started making it’s way toward her, teeth chomping and grinding together in a circular motion, making it’s strained breathing noise.

  “Okay, totally fine, come at me” Zoe said to the skin eater.

  Zoe rolled her shoulders, gripped her knife and prepared herself to kill this skin eater. What Zoe didn’t prepare herself for was the skin eater behind her.

  Zoe heard it before she seen it and spun around. It was so close to Zoe that Zoe began to smell the dead flesh. Zoe plunged her knife into the skin eater and turned back around. As she was turning back around she heard a thud hitting the ground. When she was facing where the skin eater should’ve been nearly tearing her throat out there stood Chris.

  “You saved me so I saved you, we’re in this together” Chris said to her.

  “Yeah, thanks” Zoe said.

  “Okay, I think we got them all, everyone alright?”Jeff asked them.

  “Woohoo yeah I’m alright! That was brilliant!” Arthur said as he jumped down next to Zoe, Chris and Jeff.

  Zoe and Chris just nodded. They were both a little out of breath. Arthur had too much energy, or adrenaline may be the better word.

  “Okay, Arthur and Chris, you two grab the food and take it down to the gym hall. Me and Zoe will go along to the nurses office and grab the medicine. There were only three skin eaters in there so easy enough for me and Zoe to handle” Jeff said with a wink to Zoe.

  ‘Is he being serious? Why can’t he take Arthur since he was bouncing about full of energy and Zoe was trying to catch her breath!’ Zoe thought.

  “Man why can’t I go? I’m ready for more action!” Arthur protested.

  “Because you have more strength to carry boxes of food, so go on, help Chris. Me and Zoe have got it from here” Jeff told him.

  “Aww fine! But next time I’m going on a double mission to kill these skin eating bastards!”.

  And with that, Chris and Arthur headed off to get the food and Zoe and Jeff made their way to the nurses office.

  “Sorry I had to grab you to come do this but Sue wanted me to keep her son safe and that kid has far too much energy he may get himself killed so I had to sort of send him back and take you with me. Chris needs to get back too, I seen how scared he was when he thought he was going to die before you saved him” Jeff said to Zoe as they walked to the nurses office.

  “It’s no problem. I signed up for the whole thing anyway” Zoe replied.

  Jeff just replied with a smile.

  The nurses office wasn’t actually too far from the lunch hall, it only took them five minutes and a few corners to turn before they were there. Zoe knew what room was the nurses office without Jeff having to point it out. Wasn’t hard to miss with the school lockers pushed down in front of the door and a skin eaters face peering out of the window at them.

  “The doors actually locked. The key we used to get in here is actually a master key for the majority of doors in here. We just pushed the lockers in front of the door, just in case” Jeff told Zoe.

  “Good. Lets get these lockers moved, that door opened and those skin eaters killed so we can get the medicine” Zoe replied.

  “I like your thinking” Jeff said as he bent to grab a corner of the lockers.

  Zoe bent to grab the other corner and together they lifted the lockers away from the door. Zoe felt muscles working were she never even knew she had muscles.

  “Whew! Are you ready for me to open this door?” Jeff asked.

  “Go for it” Zoe replied, thankful she remembered to grab her knives from the skin eaters before leaving the lunch hall.

  “On three again, One..Two..Three!” And again Jeff unlocked the doors and a skin eater came shuffling out.

  Jeff again was on the skin eater that came out the door in seconds. Zoe took down the next skin eater to leave the room. As Zoe turned around expecting to see Jeff killing the third and final skin eater she was met with a different view.

  Jeff was standing completely immobile, staring at the skin eater unable to form words.

  “Jeff.. Jeff what are you doing!? Kill it!” Zoe yelled to Jeff.

  “I can’t. I know him. He’s my best friend” Jeff replied.

  Zoe knew what she had to do and she wasn’t going to let Jeff be killed.

  Zoe jumped over the skin eater she had killed, grabbed her knife and put it straight into the skin eaters head, just inches from Jeff’s face. Jeff, unfortunately was splattered with blood. You really wouldn’t believe this unless you had seen it like Zoe had. Jeff still hadn’t moved. He barely even blinked when he had been splattered with his friends, who now used to be a skin eater, blood.

  “Jeff? Are you okay?” Zoe asked him.

  There was no answer from Jeff. Not even a head tilt to let Zoe know he had heard her ask him something. Not even anything to let Zoe know he had heard her speak.

  “I’m sorry I had to do that right in front of you but he was too close to killing you. I had no choice” Zoe told him.

  Still nothing from Jeff.

  Zoe kept quiet. She waited a couple of minutes to see if Jeff would even move, never mind speak but that never happened so Zoe went into the nurses office herself. Zoe checked the cupboards for a bag and found a shopping bag. You know the kind, the proper ones you bought in supermarkets to stop you using those flimsy plastic bag ones that split with a carton of milk in it. How irritating.

  Zoe got to work emptying the cupboards of medicine. Some of the names of medicines she recognised from working with the elderly in their homes and of course she knew what bandages and plasters were. However there were some medicines that Zoe didn’t recognise and hoped that someone did in their little group.

  As soon as Zoe had emptied the cupboards in the nurses office she made her way back into the hall.

  Jeff had moved but not far. He was kneeling beside the skin eater that used to be his friend.

  Zoe didn’t say anything. She just moved off into the background and turned her back. This was a private moment for Jeff to mourn his friend. As much as Zoe would have loved to have walked away and given Jeff complete privacy she wasn’t going to do it. Even though Jeff had said the building was cleared from skin eaters apart from these rooms, you could never be too sure so Zoe kept watch, just in case.

  Before t
oo long Zoe felt a hand touch her shoulder. Zoe jumped and turned around with her knife in her hand, ready to kill a skin eater.

  Jeff grabbed her arm.

  “Woah, sorry. Should’ve said I was approaching you” Jeff said to her.

  “No, sorry, it’s fine, I guess I’m a little jumpy” Zoe told him.

  Jeff had red eyes, a little puffy. Zoe knew he had been crying but she didn’t dare comment on it. Zoe didn’t even ask Jeff about his friend. Some people wanted to talk about things straight after they happened and others spoke about it in their own time, if they ever did at all. It was all up to that person and Zoe wasn’t the pushy type.

  “Shall we head back? I managed to grab all the medicine and bandages and things from in there” Zoe said to Jeff.

  “Yeah lets go back. And thanks for you know, saving my life” Jeff said to her.

  “It was no problem. It just means that you owe me one” Zoe replied with a smile.

  Jeff smiled back at her. “At least I got him to smile’ Zoe thought.

  They both walked back in silence. It was a comfortable silence and neither one of them felt uncomfortable.

  “You know, I need a little me time, would you mind taking this bag that has the medical supplies in it back to the gym hall and I’ll be along soon?” Zoe asked Jeff.

  “Yeah, of course, I’ll see you soon” Jeff answered her and made his way back to the gym hall.

  Zoe wandered down the corridor, gazing at the photographs and awards on walls and in glass cabinets. They hadn’t even bothered to remove these yet when they closed down the school. They must’ve thought they would have plenty of time to take them down and give them to whoever they wanted. No one had ever predicted that this epidemic would ever happen. Who knew that zombie movies would ever even become real? Who knew that The Walking Dead would actually become real? This all had to be fake right? Except it wasn’t. This was very much real.

  Zoe made her way into an empty classroom. It must’ve used to be a primary six classroom. They must’ve been preparing to have their first holy communion as there were booklets about it lying on what must’ve been the teachers desk.

  How bizarre that Zoe would choose this classroom to walk into when the end of the world was happening outside and God had left them all here on earth to deal with it.

  Zoe was baptised but she wasn’t very catholic. That was a whole other story.

  Zoe went over to look out of one of the classroom windows. The sun was beating down again today. Another roasting hot day. It wouldn’t be a day like it was yesterday or even last week though. Nobody would be out sunbathing, sitting in beer gardens or even spending time with their families today, well unless they wanted to be killed.

  There seemed to be more skin eaters standing outside at the fence. Their fingers curling around the barbed wire. Their faces pressed against the fence, chomping their mouths, wanting to be fed.

  ‘Do they know we’re in here?’ Zoe wondered.

  They had been quiet, even when they were fighting the skin eaters in the lunch hall and the nurses office they hadn’t been that loud. Even Arthurs joyous shouts shouldn’t have attracted this much attention.

  “Maybe they can smell us..” Zoe murmured aloud to herself.

  Could they even smell? Were they dead or some weird experiment gone wrong that just spread? No one knew. This epidemic, outbreak, whatever you wanted to call it was brand new to everyone. You learned as you went along and who knew if you were uncovering even a little bit of what was going on.

  Zoe began to wander around the classroom, nosing into what used to be the children’s cubby holes and in the cupboards and in the teachers desk drawers. She didn’t find anything useful, maybe apart from a couple of books in the teachers desk that Zoe would maybe like to read.

  This school looked more like it had been abandoned than closed down. If you were closing a school down you would clear the school properly but if it were abandoned then you would flee more than likely.

  Zoe began thinking about this as she made her way back to the gym hall were the others were. Arthur did say the school had only been closed down a few weeks ago. Did someone in this school know what was going on and they all just fled? Sent the children home and then the adults ran?

  Zoe couldn’t grasp what had went on here but it was weird.

  Zoe made her way into the gym hall. Everyone was going through the food and medicine that Zoe, Jeff, Arthur and Chris had brought back.

  “Hey Zoe, clear your head a little?” Jeff asked her.

  “Yeah, all clear thanks” Zoe replied.

  Zoe went to sit on the floor beside her backpack. Her head wasn’t actually cleared. Zoe was still confused as to how this whole thing actually started and why now?

  “Hey, thanks for not saying anything about what happened up at the nurses office” Jeff said to Zoe.

  “Why would I?” Zoe asked.

  “Oh you know, tough masculine guy nearly dies from a skin eater that used to be his best friend” Jeff said to Zoe with a forced chuckle.

  “Men don’t always have to be masculine you know.”

  “I know, but still, thanks.”

  “Are you okay though?” Zoe asked Jeff.

  “No but I will be soon” Jeff answered.

  Zoe and Jeff just stared at each other. A silent acceptance going through them that they both understood each other and that trust was beginning to form between them.

  “Oh hunny, thank you for keeping my little love bug safe! You are my new favourite here!”

  Oh that just had to be Sophia that came bounding up speaking about her ‘little love bug’ Arthur. Zoe, forcing down the vomit rising in her throat turned to face Sophia with a very much forced smile.

  “You’re welcome Sophia but Arthur didn’t need any help from me or anyone else. He’s great and can handle his own” Zoe told her.

  Sophia just smiled at Zoe then flicked her hair and bounced back to Arthur.

  “I think that’s as good as you’re going to get from her” Jeff told Zoe.

  Before Zoe could reply Alex came bounding up and threw himself into Jeff’s arms.

  “Hey buddy, you okay?” Jeff asked his brother Alex.

  Alex nodded his head and buried his head into Jeff’s shoulders.

  “I’m just going to take him somewhere quiet and read him one of his stories. I’ll catch up with you later” Jeff said to Zoe.

  “Yeah no problem, catch you after” Zoe said to Jeff’s retreating back.

  Zoe lay down on the floor, closed her eyes and was relishing the cool feeling the floor was on her back. Zoe could feel the gym hall heating up from the sun outside. Did the skin eaters even feel hot or cold? Probably not, they didn’t seem to feel anything.

  “Oh how I would love to be outside in that sun right now.”

  Zoe opened her eyes to find Sarah coming to sit next to her.

  “Yeah, it would feel good to relax in the sun I guess” Zoe answered Sarah.

  The two woman just sat in silence for a few minutes. Zoe wasn’t really sure why Sarah had came over here. Maybe she wanted a few minutes silence and Zoe was the one who could give her that.

  “I wanted to say thank you for having Chris’s back up there. He told me what happened. You helped him and you barely know him so I want you to know we appreciate it” Sarah said to Zoe.

  “Well you know that he saved my life too so there’s really no need to thank me” Zoe replied.

  “Well we’re the thanking type and we want you to know that we both will always have your back.”

  “Thank you, right back at you both” Zoe answered with a smile.

  Sarah then squeezed Zoe shoulder and got up and went back over to Chris.

  ‘Seems like todays the day everyone wants to thank me’ Zoe thought. Zoe was beginning to feel like she might be accepted into this group and might feel like she finally belonged somewhere. Zoe knew it was a long way to go still to feel wholly comfortable in this group of people, considering the
y were still strangers to her but she was making progress. If you’d said to Zoe two days ago she’d be in with a new group of people, learning to trust them and fighting for her life, Zoe would have laughed in your face.

  Zoe felt like she actually wanted to go outside and feel the sun on her face. No skin eaters had actually managed to get over the fence and into the school grounds so there was no harm in going outside surely? Zoe walked over to ask Jeff. She wasn’t asking for permission exactly, she just wanted to tell them where she was heading.

  “Hey Jeff, sorry to interrupt you reading to Alex but I just wanted to tell you I’m going outside for a little bit. I’m not going to go near the fence, just outside so I can feel the sun on my face” Zoe said to Jeff.

  “Yeah, sure no problem. Just take a weapon just in case, and here’s a key to unlock the door.”

  “I will, thanks.”

  Zoe walked over to the gym hall doors, knives already in her back pockets. Zoe was now getting used to always having the knives on her wherever she went. It was like second nature to her now. As Zoe walked down to the door her, Mike, Sue and Arthur had came through yesterday she began thinking of whether or not they could stay in this school. It was a great setup, yeah of course, no skin eaters had managed to break down the fence surrounding the school yet. However, that key word yet was ringing in her head. If more of the skin eaters came to the fence and they all started to push and push against it, it would eventually cave in and they would all come stumbling onto the school grounds and up to the school. Zoe already knew that they could get their way through a locked door, which meant that breaking through windows would be easy for them. Oh and the skin eaters could climb stairs. Maybe she should start thinking of other places they could go. There had to be somewhere.

  Zoe got to the door and unlocked it and stepped outside.

  There was no cool breeze and the wind that was there was hot but there was barely a wind. Zoe didn’t actually know what time of day it was but she was guessing it was around midday considering the position of the sun in the sky. Zoe knew how to tell the time using the sun, well she sort of did. She learned to do that when she didn’t have a mobile phone for a while a few years ago, when she was really broke.