The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  Zoe started to see everyone’s head disappearing down a hill and realised when she got there that they had a steep hill to go down. Mike and Arthur were racing ahead down the hill, laughing and smiling at each other, obviously they were trying to race each other. When they reached the bottom of the hill they took out the few skin eaters down there easily enough between the two of them.

  Once everyone had made it down the hill, or rolled down in Sarahs case as she’d tripped over her feet and fell and rolled a little down the hill, Mike spoke up.

  “If we climb this last steep hill we’ll be at a very high advantage point and there’s a lot more flat ground at the top of the hill for us to make camp” Mike said.

  “I suppose one more steep climb won’t kill us will it?” Mark asked as he looked at Sophia panting as she sat on the ground, clutching her bottle of water.

  “Well, it might end up killing me” Sophia grunted between pants.

  “Ah come on Sophia, you’ll manage fine!” Arthur smiled at her.

  “If I do this one more steep climb can you promise me no more hill climbing for a very long time?” Sophia asked him angrily.

  “Of course” Arthur smiled.

  When Sophia grunted out her okay to climb the steep hill Arthur turned to Jeff and winked. That obviously meant that Sophia would be climbing a steep hill again a lot sooner than she would want to. Arthur could break the news to her and take her wrath, Zoe was having no part in that.

  “Lets just take five more minutes to catch our breaths before climbing again” John said.

  “Very good idea” Sophia smiled at John.

  Zoe didn’t bother sitting down on the ground as she knew her legs wouldn’t let her stand back up and then Jeff would have to carry her up that last steep hill and Zoe didn’t think Jeff had it in him to even carry himself never mind someone else. Not even Alex would be getting a lift by the looks of things as Jeff sprayed some water over his face to try and cool his bright red face down.

  Zoe walked around on the path that was in between the two hill they were standing beside. Zoe kept her hockey stick close to her and ready in case a skin eater just appeared out of nowhere trying to chomp at her.

  As Zoe walked she could feel the crunch of the grass underneath her feet. A sign that the grass was drying out and in dire need of water. Zoe looked up at the clear blue sky and knew the grass wouldn’t be getting some water anytime soon.

  Zoe got to the corner of the hill they’d just came down and walked slowly around it as she had heard a slight rustling coming from there. Zoe made sure to walk lightly on her feet and avoided anything that might set off even the slightest of noise. A kick of a stone could send a red alert to the skin eaters and loads could come barrelling around that corner and as much as Zoe wanted to fight the skin eaters to calm her anger down, she wasn’t stupid enough to take on more than she could possibly chew.

  Zoe flattened herself against the hill and slowly moved her head around to peek around the corner to see what might have been there.

  Zoe let out a breath as she realised that it wasn’t a skin eater making the noise but a piece of fabric flapping in the barely there wind. Zoe straightened herself up and went over to see what the fabric was. It turned out to be someone’s old t-shirt that they’d propped up using a stick. There was no food or water or anything else lying there, no signs that someone else was floating around here.

  ‘Maybe they ran off somewhere or ran from the skin eaters’ Zoe thought.

  Zoe didn’t bother taking the t-shirt down from the stick. Zoe liked to think that maybe whoever left it there might come back for it one day, still as a human.

  Zoe made her way back to the group and found everyone starting to get ready to make the climb up the steep hill. Arthur was over helping Sophia stand back up. Zoe could see Sophia’s legs shaking from the workout she had given them from all the climbing they had done.

  “That was exactly why I didn’t even bother sitting down” Zoe said to Jeff as she tilted her head to Sophia.

  “Nah she’s a proper drama queen. She’ll be walking fine in a minute, maybe with constant complaining though” Jeff rolled his eyes.

  “You might hear some complaining from me as well going by how steep this hill looks” Zoe said.

  “I think we’ll all be complaining except Mike, Sue and Arthur” Jeff laughed.

  “Sue’s in her element” Zoe laughed.

  “She’s putting us all to shame” Jeff laughed.

  Zoe continued to laugh as she started climbing but soon all laughter was gone and replaced with her legs being back to feeling on fire. Zoe was soon using her hands to help her pull her legs up it was getting that difficult. This moment in time was when Zoe wished she’d taken up hiking then she might be doing it at ease like Mike, Sue and Arthur were. They were already at the middle of the hill and no one else was even that close. They were all pretty much in a huddle nearer the bottom of the hill.

  “I wish I had their strength and stamina right now” Simone grunted.

  “I just wish I could magic myself to the top and save my body from the pain of too much climbing” Alice said.

  “God I hate Arthur so much right now. He’ll be gloating that I’m struggling, saying that I’d wish i’d went climbing with him sooner than now” Sophia grunted.

  “Bloody wish that I’d done more climbing. God I’m knackered” Michael panted.

  “Come on, keep climbing. Once we’re up that’s us for a while” Zoe encouraged them.

  “A long while” Sophia said with finality.

  “Exactly, now keep climbing!” Zoe shouted at them.

  Zoe was met with a few protests but eventually everyone kept moving. Alex ended up going back on Jeff’s back, his poor little legs were shaking like a leaf and he looked utterly exhausted. If there was ever a way to put a kid to sleep it would be to make them climb the Pentland Hills. Alex would be out like a light as soon as they got up this hill.

  Once Zoe got to the middle of the hill she turned herself around to sit for a few seconds. She knew shed regret it like she would’ve done if she’d sat down at the bottom of the hill but right now she didn’t care, her arms needed a minutes rest.

  “You okay Zoe?” Jeff shouted to her.

  “Yeah I’m fine. I’ll catch up in a second, just need to give my arms a small rest” Zoe turned and told him.

  Jeff nodded his head and went back to climbing up the hill, Alex in tow. Zoe looked down and saw that their watchers had just gotten off the other hill and were watching Zoe and her group climb up. Zoe hoped that they would just refuse to climb after them but she knew not to get herself too hopeful. Of course they were going to climb up after them.

  Zoe spotted a group of skin eaters making their way towards the men. The men all had their backs turned to them, looking in the other direction. Zoe felt her heart quicken and her hands gripped the grass as she waited to see if the skin eaters would take out their watchers and Zoe and everyone could run as far away from that Rachael as they could.

  Zoe felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips as one of the skin eaters went to grab one of the men t-shirt but at the last moment his friend noticed the group of skin eaters and they fought them off.

  “For fucks sake” Zoe said under her breath, rolling her eyes.

  They had come so close there to getting away sooner than they thought with the skin eaters doing the work for them but they had no such luck.

  Zoe turned back around and started climbing after the others. They hand’t gotten too far away from her except for Mike, Sue and Arthur who were still battling on ahead, probably barely working up a sweat. Zoe grunted and moved herself off to follow. Zoe was sure the wet patches on the grass she felt on her hands were either from sweat or saliva dripping from someone’s mouth.

  ‘I wish I could have a shower after this’ Zoe thought.

  That was the only downside to them having to come up here on the Pentland Hills. There weren’t any showers. If Zoe was being honest
with herself, she didn’t even know if there was still running water over here or not so even if they did find somewhere with showers, they might not even let out any water.

  It had taken them god knows how long to reach the top of the hill, Zoe coming up last again and Mike, Sue and Arthur looked so relaxed as they’d been up here much longer than the rest of them. Zoe spotted Arthur rubbing Sophia’s calves as she complained about how painful they were before Zoe let her weight go and she lay down on her back, staring at the sky and trying to get her breath back.

  The only person talking was Sophia and that was just to complain about her pain and for Arthur to shut up and stop being a smart ass. The only sounds that were coming off of everybody else was their panting breaths. Nobody had any energy to say anything.

  “I managed to scope the place out before you all got up here. Few skin eaters were floating around which me and Sue took care of but for now, we’re safe and fine” Mike told them.

  “That’s.. Great” Michael panted out.

  “Oh come on, it wasn’t that tough!” Sue joked.

  “If..I never..climb..a hill..again..I’ll..be fine..with that!” Mark panted.

  “Oh don’t be such babies! The more you do it, the easier it’ll become!” Arthur beamed.

  “You shut up!” Jeff said as he threw a piece of grass at him.

  “Oh, how painful!” Arthur joked as he rubbed his arm.

  Jeff didn’t even bother trying to keep going and let Arthur have that one. Nobody could be bothered to even open their eyes. Zoe was enjoying feeling the sun beating down on her face as she kept her eyes closed and tried to slow down her breathing and the beating of her heart.

  “I’ll go and make you all something to eat” Sue announced.

  “Thanks!” Alice and John said together.

  There was no way Alice and John were even going to try and attempt to make something for everyone to eat. It looked like it had taken their last amount of strength to try and sit themselves up, never mind trying to cook a meal.

  As Zoe heard everyone rustling around her she reluctantly opened her eyes and forced herself to sit up. Her backpack was still sitting beside her from where she’d thrown it off to lie down and she found her bottle of water sitting in the small side pocket. This time Zoe was a little more greedy with how many gulps of water she was going to take. Zoe ended up with only a small drop of water left in the bottle which she decided to throw over her face to cool her down. When Zoe felt her forehead and cheeks she felt burning hot to the touch.

  ‘Great, looks like I’ve got sunburn’ Zoe thought sulkily.

  When Zoe managed to look at the rest of her group she noticed that she wasn’t the only one who’d gotten sunburnt, everyone was bright read in their faces and arms. Even pro hikers Mike, Sue and Arthur were sunburnt.

  ‘At least that makes them seem a little like the rest of us’ Zoe thought proudly.

  Zoe stood up to try and stretch our her stiff body but mostly to try and stretch out her very sore legs and looked out over to the view. What Mike said was true was that they’d be higher up. They were all now closer to the forth road bridges than they were the city centre of Edinburgh. Zoe had actually been thinking of trying to get everyone as far from Edinburgh as possible. All it had done was cause them problems and never given them much luck with skin eaters or humans.

  “Good view isn’t it?” Mandy said from beside her.

  “I suppose that climb has came with some perks” Zoe said.

  “I’ve been wondering what the rest of Scotland is like further West” Mandy said.

  “I have a feeling it’ll probably be the same as here. We’re better sticking to small towns than cities” Zoe told her.

  “I suppose. You don’t think they’ve set up like a safe zone or anything?” Mandy asked hopefully.

  “Maybe? I guess we might find one but at the same time there might not be. It’s best not to get your hopes up too much” Zoe said to her.

  “You’re right. Wishful thinking was all” Mandy said as she walked over to help Sue.

  Zoe didn’t want to have had to burst Mandy’s hopeful bubble like that but she had to. If the army had set up a safe zone then Zoe and Simone would’ve found it when they managed to search the internet on the phone back at the bus depot before the internet died. Plus, the army would’ve been trying to clear out some of Edinburgh and so far Zoe had seen no proof of that.

  Zoe turned her back to the view and saw Jeff sitting on the ground, off of his legs out in front of him and he tried to stretch out his muscles. Zoe went over and sat next to him.

  “Think this will do us for now?” Zoe asked him.

  “I think it’s as good a spot as any” Jeff said.

  “I was thinking that maybe we should try and get as far from Edinburgh as possible” Zoe said to him.

  “Don’t really think there’s much options left for us in Edinburgh anyway” Jeff agreed.

  “What if the others don’t want to go with us?” Zoe asked him.

  “Then maybe we’ll go our own way, depending on if both Sophia and Alex want to come as well” Jeff said.

  “We have a good group going here though” Zoe said.

  “Sometimes people go their separate ways but it’s not like that’s definitely going to happen so don’t think about it too much” Jeff said as he squeezed her arm.

  “You’re right. I need to stop overthinking sometimes” Zoe smiled at him.

  Sue came around with some sandwiches that she’d managed to make them all and it was Zoe’s favourite kind of sandwiches as well. Egg Mayonnaise.

  “You’re my favourite person in the world right now” Zoe said with her mouth full of sandwich.

  “Oh how sweet” Sue smiled at her.

  As everyone was happily chewing on their sandwiches Zoe heard the grunts coming from their watchers as their heads started to appear over the hill. The whole group watched as they pulled themselves up and tried to catch their breaths before looking at them all.

  “Don’t mind us” One of the men said.

  “Hard not to when you’re being followed like you’re a prisoner” Sue said angrily.

  “Rachael wants you watched to see if you can be trusted in the long run is all” The same man told them.

  “Yeah yeah but don’t think you’re getting any of this food or getting comfy anywhere near us. You can sit as far away as you can” Sue told them.

  “Will do” The man said.

  Zoe was proud of how well Sue had handled the men. Mike was looking at his wife gobsmacked but with so much respect and love for her as well. It nearly brought a little tear to Zoe’s eyes before she got distracted by her sandwich again and went back to falling in love with it.If Zoe had to live off of egg mayo sandwiches for the rest of her life here in this skin eater epidemic then she happily would. She would never get sick of them.

  They hadn’t bothered to bring any camping gear with them as they wouldn’t have managed to carry it with all of their backpacks that they had. It just wouldn’t have been possible. They had managed to use two of the backpacks they carried to fill with small blankets to cover themselves with. They were luck for now to have the hot, summer air to keep them warm.

  The sun was already beginning to set, their whole day had been used for climbing up the Pentland Hills. Zoe had never actually been camping in her life so this was a first for her but she knew she wouldn’t mind it. It would be nice to sleep under the stars she supposed.

  Zoe and Jeff automatically went next to each other to sleep. Alex had wanted to go and sleep next to Sophia and Arthur tonight. Alex was enjoying the attention Arthur was giving him and telling Alex storied about all the hills he, his mum and Ada had climbed throughout the years.

  “It’s something you’d love to do” Arthur had said to Alex.

  “I think I’d still prefer playing my xbox” Alex told him.

  Zoe settled down next to Jeff and lay her head down on his chest as they watched the day turn into night. Th
e nights were beginning to get dark earlier which meant that summer was coming to an end soon and they wouldn’t survive up here on the hills with only small blankets to protect them from the cold. They had to move elsewhere and fast.

  “You think we’ll manage to find a safe place?” Zoe asked Jeff.

  “I hope so. It kind of feels like we’ve been on the run” Jeff said.

  “Well we sort of have been. First running from Brian, then Sylvia and now we need to try and run from this Rachael” Zoe said.

  “Well one day we’ll get there and be away from any other humans and kin eaters” Jeff said.

  “I really hope so” Zoe yawned.

  It wasn’t long before Zoe felt her eyes get heavy and she had drifted off to sleep. Not really prepared for what the next day would bring her.

  Chapter 24

  The sun was beginning to rise making Zoe’s eye flutter open. Zoe let out a yawn and pushed herself to sit up and stretched her arms. She felt well rested bizarrely after sleeping on the ground the whole night. Zoe turned and saw Jeff still sleeping soundly, letting out light snores. Zoe didn’t want to wake him, he needed too sleep as much as what she had.

  Zoe looked around her and saw that almost everyone was still asleep. Lewis and Mark were on watch and the only ones awake. Zoe did feel a little terrible that she didn’t take part in the who’s keeping watch conversation but she hadn’t really meant to fall asleep as fast as she did. Zoe walked over to where Lewis and Mark were sitting.

  “I can keep watch until everyone’s awake if you guys want? Give you both a little bit of a rest?” Zoe asked them.

  “You sure? We only have about two hours left” Lewis asked her.

  “Yeah I’m sure. I’m wide awake now” Zoe told them.

  “Thanks Zoe. Theres only one of our guards watching us right now as well. Just keep an eye out for them too” Mark said to her.

  “Of course” Zoe smiled.

  Zoe looked over to where their watchers were and it was true what Mark said, there was only one awake watching them. It did feel a little less intimidating than having all of them staring at her group, meant they sort of trusted that they all wouldn’t overpower them and run. Zoe didn’t know if she should feel happy about that or just call them plain stupid.