by D, Hannah
“What the fuck was that!?” Mark shouted.
“The bastard hit us” John yelled.
Zoe knew that the speed they were going and being hit by that van only meant that eventually the campervan would tumble and go rolling down the road and who knows if they’d survive that and if they did they’d be too bumped and bruised to fight anybody.
“I think we need to just pull over. Face them head on” Zoe said.
“She has a point. This thing won’t make it much further if I keep on pushing it past it’s speed limit” John yelled back to them.
“Okay, we pull over” Michael said.
Zoe felt the campervan begin to slow down as John careened it off to the side of the road. Zoe saw the van that had been following the speed past a little before it managed to slow down and circle back around to come back to them.
The van stopped just a little bit in front of them, the headlights still bright in all of their eyes. Nobody moved from the campervan or from the van.
“What do we do?” Alice asked.
“They can make the first move to get out before we do anything” Jeff said.
“And if they don’t get out?” Alice asked.
“We drive away and try and get away before they can follow us again” Jeff said.
Zoe felt her breathing quicken and began to sweat. She was so nervous about what could happen next. Her hands went all clammy and the gun felt like it would just slide right out of her hands. Zoe tried to look out of the front window at the van to see what was happening but the glare from the headlights was just too blinding for her.
“Alex, you get down on the floor and don’t move until I tell you to okay?” Jeff said to Alex.
“Okay” Alex replied as he sat down on the floor at the seats.
They waited what must have been a further five minutes and just as Zoe was about to ask if they should just drive away Alice spoke out.
“I see something.. I think the van door has just opened” Alice wondered.
“I see it too. I wish they would turn off the damn headlights so that I could see properly though!” John said annoyed.
“Someone’s leaving the van but I can’t see what the person looks like” Alice said.
“Everyone get your guns at the ready” Michael said.
Zoe rubbed her palms on her trousers to try and dry them from the sweat and held her gun close to her, getting ready to shoot if necessary.
“What the..” John trailed off.
Zoe looked up as John had trailed off and saw that the headlights from the van had just been turned off and there was a figure of a woman standing in front of the campervan.
The woman was looking in the window at them all and Zoe saw her smile and give out a wave. It wasn’t a friendly smile and wave though.
‘Does anybody recognise her?” Michael asked.
Everyone shook their heads no as they all stared at the woman.
“We have the upper hand. Lets just mow her down and drive the hell out of here” Mark said.
Zoe was about to agree even although she didn’t really want to kill another living human being but began to hear other engines coming from behind the campervan. Zoe went and looked out of the side window of the campervan and realised how fucked they were.
“Guys, I don’t think we’re getting out of this as easy as we thought” Zoe said.
“How do you mean?” Jeff asked.
Zoe moved away from the window and let everyone else look out to see what she had just seen.
There were a bunch of motorbikes that had pulled up at the sides of them and were probably behind them as well. Zoe had no idea if the motorbikes had been following behind the van as slyly as they could the whole time or not or if them stopping driving had just placed them right in the middle of being stuck.
“What the fuck do we do now?” Mark asked.
“I guess we try and work something out with them” Zoe said.
“God give me a fucking break!” Michael yelled.
“I think she wants us to get out of the campervan” Alice said.
Zoe went back and looked out the front window of the campervan to find the woman making gestures telling them to get out of the campervan.
“You, John and Alex stay inside and lock the doors. We’ll go out and see what this woman and her group want with us” Zoe said.
“You sure about this Zoe?” Jeff asked her.
“It’s our only option. Let’s get this over with” Zoe said.
Michael took a deep breath before opening the door and steeping out. His gun raised and finger ready on the trigger to shoot in case someone tried to attack him. When Zoe had stepped out of the campervan she found everyone staring at them, not moving toward them and attempting to attack them.
They made their way to the front of the campervan and Zoe saw the woman standing there with her hands up and still smiling at them all. Zoe didn’t know why she was still smiling, it seemed a little creepy.
“Is there really any need for this?” The woman said to them.
“There’s every need” Michael growled at her.
“Not had a good run with bumping into other humans, I hear you. We haven’t had too much luck either” The woman said.
“Then why were you following us?” Zoe asked.
“We’re looking for a certain someone and we saw this campervan parked at that costco and you guys all escaping and thought she might be amongst you lot” The woman said.
“Who is it you’re looking for?” Zoe asked her.
“A woman named Sylvia. That bitch owes me for trying to kill me and not managing to do so. We knew that setting the skin eaters on her and her sweet costco would drag her out” The woman said angrily.
“Sylvia’s dead. I killed her” Zoe said as she stared at the woman.
“No way! You killed her! You deserve a medal!” The woman shouted.
“She deserved it. So now that you know she’s not with us let us go on our way” Zoe said.
“Yeah sure sure no problem. My names Rachael” Rachael said as she held out her hand.
Nobody stepped forward to shake it and Rachael pulled it back as she looked at them all, trying to judge them and see what they were like.
“So where are you all heading off to?” Rachael asked them.
“We’re not going to share that with a stranger” Michael told her.
“Oh so hostile. Well you see it’s just that we run this part of town for the moment and we take whatever passes through here and take it as our own” Rachael told them.
“You’re not taking whats ours. Not today!” Jeff growled.
“Well there’s a lot more of us than there are of you and there’s only so much ammo in those guns and it won’t kill all of us” Rachael said.
Zoe hated to think it but this Rachael did have a point.
“We’ll make you a deal though since that girl killed Sylvia” Rachael said to them.
“And whats this deal?” Zoe asked.
“For the time that you stay anywhere near here you bring us half of your supplies and we won’t feel the need to hurt you lot” Rachael said.
“How do you know were we’re even going to be staying?” Zoe asked her.
“Well some of my guys followed that other car so we’ll know when they come back and tell us but we’ll keep a few on you to keep eyes on you” Rachael said.
Zoe knew that they didn’t really have any other option right now but to agree with her and bring them half of the supplies that Zoe and everyone collected. Zoe looked at Jeff who nodded his head to say that they would agree to Rachaels deal, for now.
“Alright Rachael, I suppose you have a deal” Zoe said as she lowered her gun and stuck out her hand for Rachael to shake.
“Oh how excellent! I love forming new partnerships!” Rachael said happily.
“Yeah don’t we all” Zoe said as she rolled her eyes and shook Rachaels hand.
Chapter 23
They started to make their way
back to meet Mike and the rest at the Pentland Hills with their new escorts of bikers. Zoe had only agreed to this so called “partnership” with Rachael just so that she and her group would get out of there alive. Zoe had no intentions of actually splitting half of her and her groups supplies with these random people. As Zoe had said to herself after Sylvia, she wasn’t going to let people walk all over her again.
“How do we get out of it?” Lewis was asking as Zoe clicked back into the conversation.
“We try and sneak away from them when we’re at the top of Pentland Hills I suppose?” Sarah asked.
“We don’t even know if Pentland Hills is clear from skin eaters or not” Simone said.
“I heard from Mike, he said it’s clear where he’s parked the car in the car park. Shouldn’t be too many skin eaters climbing those hills I’d think” Alice said.
“Okay, we get to the top. Who says one of the people watching us won’t be up at the top with us?” Jeff asked.
“There would only be a few if they came to the top of the hill with us, easy enough for us to handle” Michael said.
“We need to lie low for a few days at least, we can’t let them suspect anything” Zoe said.
“Sounds good enough to me. Have you radioed to Mike to say we have company?” Jeff asked Alice.
“Yeah done that. He says he’s just glad we’re alive. I’ll radio him back and tell him what the plan is for now” Alice smiled.
Alice went back to radioing Mike as everyone else sat back and descended into silence. How could it be that they were stuck in yet another horrible situation with other humans.
‘I wish my biggest problem was still the skin eaters. In fact I could really do with letting my anger out and killing a few of them right now’ Zoe thought to herself.
Alex had came out of hiding and was asking Jeff who the new bad people were. Jeff had just explained to him that these new bad people wanted to take their things but that they were all going to get away from them.
“That’s good. That should teach those bad people a lesson” Alex said.
“I hope it will bud” Jeff sighed.
They all knew that sneaking away from these people wasn’t going to teach anyone a lesson and they would do the same to other humans but Zoe just wanted to get everyone away. If she could jet off to another country right now she would but unfortunately that wasn’t possible anymore.
‘Looks like I’ll never get out of this country now’ Zoe thought sadly.
“How many of them do we have that’s came with us anyway?” Michael asked.
“I counted around six” Mark said.
“How many do you think are sat watching Mike and everyone?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t think as many. I’d probably say around two. Mike never noticed anyone else following them so it can’t have been that big a group” Alice said.
“That’s good. I’ll feel less intimidated then” Michael said.
Zoe had hoped that Rachael would send less than six people with them so they maybe could’ve shaken them off to drive away somewhere else but Rachael was a smart enough woman to know that idea would be in their thoughts. Rachael wasn’t about to let her new recruits go that easily. Zoe didn’t know how many people Rachael actually had working for her.
“That’s us about turning into the car park now. I can see the car with everyone else in it” John announced.
Zoe jumped up to look out of the front window and saw the car sitting in the car park. John had driven up to park beside Mike and turned off the engine. Zoe heard the motorbikes that had been following them turn off their engines as well.
“Right, lets get out of here and up those hills” Michael said.
“I think we should wait until morning to climb up, we’ll be able to se more then” Zoe said.
“Good point and it’ll seem less suspicious to our new guards if we wait until morning. Shows that we’re not in a rush” Jeff said.
“Hmm yeah I suppose. We’ll get out anyway and go talk to everyone else, let them know that we wait to climb until morning” Michael said.
They all nodded their heads as Michael opened up the campervan door. Zoe already seen Mike, Sue, Arthur, Sophia and Mandy standing there. Sophia went straight up to Alex and gave him a hug, relief evident in her face that her brothers were okay.
“Oh thank goodness nothing bad happened to you all” Sue said as she hugged Zoe.
“We’re all fine Sue, nothing to worry about” Zoe smiled.
Mandy had walked over to Michael and hugged him as she made her way around everyone. They had all only been separated fro around an hour but it felt much longer than that somehow. Zoe didn’t want to be apart from this group for any longer. Zoe didn’t do well with feeling worried.
“The plan is to start climbing up the hills tomorrow morning when it’s lighter and we can see better” Jeff told everyone.
“Seems like a very smart idea. I wouldn’t want to be caught by a skin eater in the dark” Sue said.
“We’ll all sleep in the campervan just in case skin eaters appear in the night” Zoe said.
“Good idea, then we’re all together” Sophia said as she clutched Alex.
“Exactly” Jeff said.
“It’ll be a tight squeeze but I think we’ll all manage okay” Simone said.
“Perfect. Lets get inside and get some sleep” Sue said.
Zoe was watching the bikers as they were all speaking and she saw them looking at her and her group suspiciously already. Maybe they should’ve just slept in different vehicles, now they had a suspicious group wanting to follow their every move. Zoe bowed her head and cursed herself for being so stupid before walking back into the campervan.
“They’ll be watching us more closely now for a bit after that huh?” Jeff whispered into Zoe’s ear when he was back in the campervan.
“More than likely. We made I too obvious’ Zoe said sadly.
“Just means a few more days being careful before we make a run for it. We’ll manage that fine” Jeff said.
Zoe knew that Jeff was trying to be positive enough for the both of them but Zoe struggled to feel even a tiny bit positive now. They just kept escaping from one bad group of humans to the next. It seemed to be never ending.
“Let’s just try and get a good sleep tonight” Zoe said.
“I hate climbing these hills. You ever done it before?” Jeff asked her.
“No. Never” Zoe told him.
“Oh well you’re in for a shock! Kills my legs every time!” Jeff exclaimed.
“I bet I show you up” Zoe joked.
“No chance! I’ll be the one carrying you!” Jeff laughed.
“Don’t be so sure of yourself, I aim to surprise you” Zoe winked.
“Well, I look forward to being surprised” Jeff said as he kissed her on the lips.
It was amazing how much stress seemed to leave Zoe whenever she kissed or cuddled into Jeff. She just forgot about the rest of the world and their problems when she was embraced with him. Zoe wished that she could stay like that forever. Blissfully unaware.
“Okay Romeo, time to go to sleep” Zoe said as she reluctantly pulled herself away from Jeff.
“Fine I suppose so” Jeff huffed.
Zoe lay down on her side and Jeff cuddled up behind her, pulling her as close to him as he could. Zoe felt her eyelids drift close and she was out like a light.
Thankfully Zoe didn’t have any dreams this time and when she woke up she found that she was the first person awake. Jeff had rolled over onto his back so only one of his arms was underneath her. Zoe sat up, rubbed her eyes and stretched. Zoe could see the sun beginning to rise through the front window as she stood up. It was nice to see and she almost forgot about all of their issues with Rachael until she heard feet walking on the ground outside the campervan.
Zoe stood up and walked around the people who were sleeping near her and stepped outside the campervan, closing the door as quietly as she could behind her.
> Zoe spotted two of their watchers sitting beside their bikes, chatting and nibbling away at whatever food they had in their hands. When they spotted her they stopped eating and looked at her. Zoe gave them a smile and a small wave and walked over to the car. Zoe wasn’t going to show them that she was afraid of them or bothered that they were watching them. It was only temporary.
Zoe went to the car and opened up the boot and found the bags of supplied they had stored in there. There were only the five bags in there, enough for Mike and the rest who were in the car to carry, they only had the one bag each.
Zoe looked through the bags and found clothes, weapons and some food. Zoe took out a breakfast bar, unwrapped it and began to eat it as she closed the boot and leaned on the car. Zoe looked directly at the men beside the bikes as she did. She wasn’t going to starve herself for them, plus Zoe couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually ate anything and she felt her stomach growl in appreciation at being fed.
“Nice day huh?” One of the bikers said as he came to stand next to her.
“I’m hoping for some rain soon” Zoe said.
“Not a sunny weather person?” He asked her.
“I like the sun but the heats getting a bit too much now and who knows how much longer the food will last in this weather” Zoe said as she looked at him.
“Packaged food will last longer” He told her.
“And how much of that do you all have?” Zoe made a point of asking him.
“We have enough for now. We’re in the process of getting more” He said to her.
“From Rachaels partnerships?” Zoe asked him.
“I can’t disclose that much information to you” He said pointedly at her.
Zoe was about to continue being snippy and smart with him when she saw the campervan door open and Jeff stepped out. He looked around until he spotted Zoe and his eyes narrowed as he spotted who her companion was and he walked over to them.
“You alright Zoe?” Jeff asked as he looked at the man.
‘Yeah I’m one. Just having a bit of conversation to start my day” Zoe smiled.
The man grunted and walked off to join his friends beside their bikes. Zoe watched as they turned to look at her after the man had spoken to them. He probably told them about Zoe’s question which probably done Zoe and her group more harm than good. Zoe was just glad that she;d managed to rile him up, a good start to her day she supposed.