The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  “Everything okay?” He asked her.

  “Yeah, just a bit sore from all the shouting I was doing back there in the fight.”

  Zoe thought it would be best if she didn’t tell Jeff about the man grabbing her by the throat and nearly killing her. There was nothing Jeff could do now, the man was dead and they were now heading away from the depot. Zoe thought it best to not make Jeff get angry over something he could no longer set right.

  “Shit” John said.

  “What’s going on?” Jeff asked.

  “The roads blocked. Skin eaters floating around out there as well” John said.

  “A lot of skin eaters?” Jeff asked.

  “Nah, not too many as far as I can see” John said.

  Jeff helped Zoe stand up and they went to look out the front of the campervan to see what was causing the block.

  Cars. Loads of them. All abandoned.

  “Everyone trying to flee” John said.

  “They didn’t get far though” Alice said.

  Some of the cars had doors that were opened proving that people were trying to get out and run. Others were all shut which either meant that people managed to close the doors when they were running away or they were trapped inside and Zoe highly doubted that they would be trapped inside still human. They would more than likely now be skin eaters.

  There were a few skin eaters roaming around, they hadn’t noticed the campervan come up. There weren’t too many for them to kill.

  “What’s going on?” Arthurs Boise came through the walkie-talkie.

  “Cars and a few skin eaters are blocking the road” John replied.

  “Can we move the cars?” Arthur asked.

  “Yeah, should be easy enough, put the handbrake down ad push them to the side. Skin eaters aren’t too many to overpower us either. We can kill them easy” John said.

  “Cool, me and Mandy are going to come help clear the road whoever you guys are ready” Arthur said.

  “No bother. We’ll decide who’s going here then let you know when we’re ready” john said as he put down the walkie-talkie.

  In the end it was decided that Jeff, Alice, Sarah and Mark would go clear the road along with Arthur and Mandy. Zoe was actually quite glad that she wasn’t going out considering how sore har hand and throat was, she needed a break.

  “Zoe, I really am sorry” Michael said to her.

  “I’ve already aid that it’s fine. Honestly you’ve done me a favour by keeping me in here to rest whilst they’re all out clearing the road” Zoe told him.

  “I’ll make it up to you” Michael said.

  “Really, you don’t have to” Zoe told him.

  “I do and I will somehow. I promise” Michale told her.

  “Okay” Zoe said to him.

  Zoe didn’t see the point on continuing to argue with Michael about letting him make it up to her. He was going to do it no matter what. Zoe knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her. She knew that he was just so angry over Brian getting away with something else, with killing someone else and that they hadn’t been able to stop him before he could possibly do it to someone else.

  Zoe leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep and she wished that she hadn’t.

  Zoe was leaning her head on Jeff’s stomach and had raised her head to look at him when she dead, black eyes looking back at her. Jeff’s face half chewed off from a skin eater that had gotten him. Zoe screamed and went to move back but couldn’t before Jeff got a hold of her arm and bent his head down to take a bit out of her.

  “Jeff No!” Zoe screamed as his teeth grazed her arm.

  Zoe jumped and opened her eyes. She was back in the campervan, looking over to where Michael was, the campervan now moving.

  “Hey, you’re okay” Jeff told her.

  Zoe turned to look at him and found his human eyes staring at her concerned and his whole face in place.

  “Sorry, bad dream” She told him.

  “Well you’re okay, we’re on the move again. Heading for costco” Jeff told her as she settled her head back down against his stomach.

  “That’s good” Zoe told him.

  “You can go back to sleep now. Everything’s okay” Jeff told her as he played with her hair.

  As if that was going to happen after the dream that Zoe had just had.

  Zoe closed her eyes but didn’t fall back asleep. Instead she let herself daydream about what it would be like at costco and how it would be to live there and eat the costco cake.

  Zoe felt herself drooling at the idea of the cake and settled into Jeff towait out the rest of the drive to costco.

  Chapter 15

  The drive seemed to last forever Zoe thought. She couldn’t remember exactly how far the costco actually was from the bus depot but it shouldn’t have been far from where they had to clear the road. It was lucky that there had been no more cars or skin eaters blocking the road. Zoe also thought that it was lucky that Brian and his group hadn’t followed them, however you could never be too sure about that. Zoe saw John and Alice keep looking in the rear view mirror of the campervan, looking to see if they were being followed.

  “It’s this turn off here” Alice told John.

  John took the turn off and drove them down the winding road that took them to the roundabout.

  “It’s the second exit you take” Alice said.

  “Ah! I know where I am now, this costco is right beside Ikea” John said.

  “Yep that’s right” Alice replied.

  “I could really go for those Swedish meatballs from Ikea right now” John said drooling.

  “Maybe we could sneak in and steal a batch that must be sitting frozen in there somewhere..”

  “Oh that’s an idea!”

  John and Alice’s conversation about the Swedish meatballs made everyone’s stomach start to rumble and made everyone start to drool. Zoe never realised just how much she took food for granted now that it wasn’t always readily available for her to just go and buy and eat. If John and Alice managed to steal those meatballs from Ikea then Zoe would hug them an probably cry.

  “There’s no chance we’d be able to get into that Sainsbury’s, look at all those skin eaters floating around outside it” John said.

  Everyone turned to look out the side window of the campervan and saw the skin eaters all floating around outside of the Sainsbury’s. It was a bigger herd than the one that Brian had brought with him to fight Zoe and the rest of the group.

  “Nope, no chance we’re getting in there all right!”Alice said.

  “God, I hope the costco isn’t this bad or we’re screwed” John said.

  Everyone waited anxiously to see what costco would look like as John went around the roundabout and took the turn off for costco. Nobody breathed.

  The campervan went down the small slip road and Zoe looked out the windscreen and saw that yes there were quite a few skin eaters floating around there but there weren’t too many for them all to take care of.

  “We can handle them” Zoe said.

  “Yeah, easy enough” Jeff agreed.

  “Why is there so little skin eaters here and loads more at that Sainsbury’s?” Sarah asked.

  “Must be because the costco is a little more hidden away from the main road. Also maybe because more people were shopping at that Sainsbury’s when the outbreak started” John offered.

  “Yeah, that could be true..” Sarah said.

  Zoe saw a lot of cars sitting in the costco car park and spotted one car with a skin eater trapped inside, the seatbelt stopping it from moving. Zoe also seen a child skin eater struggling in the back as well. The windows of the car had been smashed which had explained how they had both became skin eaters, especially with the seat belts on, they mustn’t have had enough time to unbuckle them and set themselves free.

  Zoe turned away from the car, unable to look at the child skin eater anymore. How could the world be so cruel as to let a child turn into a skin eater? Zoe would never
be used to seeing them.

  “I’ll park over there, right in the back where there’s no skin eaters. Gives us a chance to sneak up on them” John said.

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll tell Arthur for the others to follow our lead” Alice said.

  Alice told Arthur through the walkie-talkie what the plan was for them to attack the skin eaters surrounding costco.

  “That’s all great but we don’t know what the situation is like inside. More could come pouring out when they hear the noise of us fighting the skin eaters outside” Arthur pointed out.

  “If more come pouring out and it’s too many for us to handle then we’ll come back to the campervan and car and get out of here and find somewhere else to hold up” Alice said.

  “Sounds good. Lets go take care of them!” Arthur replied.

  John had parked the campervan and Zoe saw Mike driving the car up beside them.

  “I’ll stay here so if we need to make a quick getaway then I’m ready and waiting” Lewis said.

  “You sure?” Micheal asked him.

  “Yeah. My mind not sitting right after losing Kirsty to be able to fight good anyway” Lewis told them.

  “We understand. You can stay here, keep an eye out or us” Michael said.

  Lewis nodded his head in a sort of silent gratitude to Michael. Michael had done the right thing in letting Lewis stay here with the campervan. The last thing they needed was to have to look out for someone whilst they were fighting against the skin eaters. Alex would also be staying in the campervan with Lewis. Alex did have a little protest as to why he couldn’t go out and help Jeff and everyone fight, he seemed to be getting a little more brave. Jeff explained how dangerous it was and how they needed someone to help Lewis get the campervan ready in case they had to make a quick getaway. Alec had seemed please to have that little bit of responsibility.

  “He’s growing up too quick for me” Jeff told Zoe as they were gearing up.

  “He’s still a kid, he just wants to help” Zoe told him.

  “This isn’t the kind of thing he should want to help in. Normal kids want to help clean the dishes or put their toys away. Not go out and kill things that used to be human” Jeff said angrily.

  “Unfortunately Jeff, that’s just the world we live in now where killing is the norm. To survive” Zoe told him.

  “It shouldn’t be” Jeff said as he walked over to the door.

  Zoe did agree with him but she had to be realistic as well. As she and everyone else already knew, this was never going to be over. This was it for them. Constantly fighting for their survival in this world.

  John and Alice had squeezed themselves through the gap into the back with everyone whilst Lewis squeezed himself into the front drivers seat. Prepared to drive if needed.

  “Right, we ready?” Michael asked them.

  “Read as we’ll ever be” Jeff replied.

  “Alright, on three. One..Two..Three!” Michael said as he pushed open the door.

  Zoe was the last one out so she made sure to close the door to the campervan behind her, avoiding any kind of catastrophe that that could cause if the skin eaters got in.

  Zoe saw Sue sitting at the drivers seat in the car as she turned around to face the fighting. Looks like they had the same idea to leave someone behind to be ready to drive off. Or maybe someone suggested it to them over the walkie-talkie. Zoe had no idea. She had been zoning in and out of conversations.

  Zoe ran into the fight, taking out a skin eater with her hockey stick she took from the bus depot. They had opted not to use their guns, guns were too loud and would probably attract those skin eaters that were outside that Sainsbury’s.

  Everyone was managing themselves well in the fight. Zoe saw Michael wiping out skin eater after skin eater. Taking all his anger out on them over losing the battle with Brian.

  ‘Better than taking it out on anyone else’ Zoe had thought, feeling the pain stab in her wrist.

  Zoe was struggling a bit with holding the hockey stick and swinging it with a lot of force to successfully take out a skin eater. It made Zoe want to cry out in pain every time she hit a skin eater. Michael must’ve gave her a sprain or bruised a bone or something Zoe thought too herself. However, Zoe kept on fighting. She wasn’t going to let a bit of a sore wrist slow her down from getting inside this Costco to safety.

  There was steady stream of skin eaters for them to fight, there hadn’t been too many for them to handle so far and they were almost to the main door of the costco.

  As Zoe took out one more skin eater she turned and saw that they had all been taken out and were lying motionless on the ground.

  “Is that them all?” Zoe asked confused.

  Zoe had thought for sure that there would be much more, at least more drawn to the noise of them fighting.

  “It seems like it.. Shall we go look inside the costco? Must be more in there or maybe the doors are closed and that’s why no more came shuffling out to meet us” Mike queried.

  “Yeah, lets go check that out” Zoe said.

  They all made their way towards the main doors at costco. There were no shutters down at the main door so they all peered in through the doors.

  “I can’t see any movement inside” Mark said.

  “Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing” Jeff said.

  “The doors haven’t been broken into which is weird since the shutters aren’t down. You’d think the doors would’ve been broken into considering the skin eaters shuffling around outside..” Mark observed.

  “Do we try and go inside?” Jeff asked.

  “Yeah, try before more skin eaters turn up” Mark said.

  “Let’s try and get in without breaking the doors, if that’s possible” Jeff said.

  Mark tried opening the doors but found they were locked.

  “If someone could hand me something slim to try and unlock the doors from the side. Something like what you would use to steal a car” Mark said.

  Zoe knew exactly what Mark was talking about all too well. She had stolen some cars before. Zoe looked around the ground near the main entrance but so far only spotted stones and planks of wood that were too thick to squeeze in between the doors to unlock them. Zoe moved over to where the trolleys were all stood.

  ‘There’s got to be something skinny enough to squeeze through’ Zoe thought.

  Zoe looked through all of the trolleys and a glint of shine caught her eye. Zoe moved the trolleys that were blocking what she had glimpsed away.

  There, lying on the floor was a broken part of a trolley. The thin wiring already bent like a hook. This was definitely thin enough to squeeze through the gap in the doors.

  “Mark, here, will this do?” Zoe asked as she handed Mark the metal trolley wiring.

  “Yeah, that looks perfect!” Mark exclaimed.

  Zoe watched Mark fidget around with the wiring in the door. Zoe knew he was struggling with it and noticed that Mark wasn’t very skilled in breaking into things.

  “Here Mark, mind if I try at it?” Zoe asked him.

  “Sure, feel free!” Mark said.

  Zoe took the metal trolley wire from Mark, leaned over so that her eyes were level with the lock and put the metal wire in. Zoe could feel everyone looking at her trying to do this. Talk about pressure!

  Zoe felt the hook of the wire grasp onto the lock. And began to pull on it and twist when she felt it coming loose.

  “Almost got it” Zoe grunted.

  After a few more pulls and twists Zoe felt the lock shift and heard the click of the door to say it was open.

  “There we go” Zoe said as she stood up smiling.

  Zoe turned around to find everyone staring at her, some gobsmacked, some grinning at her.

  “What?” Zoe asked them.

  “How did you learn to do that?” Mark asked her.

  “Something I learned in my past, long story that I’ll save for another time” Zoe told them.

  “I look forward to hearing that story�
� Mark grinned at her.

  Zoe grinned back and turned to look at Jeff who was smiling at her but was also looking at her curiously. Zoe didn’t know what to make of that.

  “Who wants to go in first?” Mark asked.

  “How about we make a loud noise just inside these doors to see if many skin eaters come shuffling out from their hiding places?” Michael suggested.

  “I like it. I’ll go and bang my hockey stick against that metal pole just inside and see if any come out” Zoe said.

  Everyone nodded their head and Zoe made her way inside. The pole wasn’t too far away from the main doors and it gave Zoe plenty of time to run back outside if a herd of skin eaters came for her.

  Zoe walked up to the pole, banged her stick against it and let the noise ring out in the warehouse. Zoe kept her eyes peeled for any sign of movement but so far had seen none.

  “I think I should go further in and try again” Zoe whisper shouted back to everyone.

  “Well if you’re going further in then I’m coming in as well” Jeff said to her.

  Zoe waited for Jeff to get to her before walking further into the costco. The lights were still on which made it easier for them to see if anything was going to make it’s way toward them.

  “Bang that stick on that metal cage there on the left” Jeff told her.

  Zoe walked over, raised her hockey stick and banged it against the metal cage. This time the noise seemed to vibrate off of every wall in the place.

  “That’s got to be loud enough to bring out anything hiding in the shadows” Zoe said.

  Zoe and Jeff stood poised, weapons out, eyes peeled for signs of movement, ready to take any skin eater on. However, none came out again.

  “This is strange.. They were drawn to small noises at that bus depot.. Maybe there’s none in here” Zoe said.

  “The door was locked Zoe, if there are no skin eaters then there must be people in here” Jeff said.

  “Come on, lets head back to the others and decide together on what we should do” Zoe said.

  Zoe and Jeff were heading back to the doors when they saw the shutter beginning to close on them. Zoe could hear everyone shouting at her and Jeff to run, to get themselves out. They both started to run but they wound up being too late. The shutters were down and firmly in place.