by D, Hannah
“Oh come on! You both go off together, alone. You squeeze each other’s hands and he almost always puts his arm over your shoulders. Oh and you sleep beside each other all the time and you always look at the other when the other isn’t looking. I know young love when I see it” John said to her.
“Don’t be so silly, we’re just good friends!” Zoe said to them.
“Zoe come on, be real. He likes you and you like him. Just tell each other” Simone said to her.
“There’s nothing for us to tell each other, we’re just friends, really” Zoe told them.
“Yeah yeah sure, it’ll all come out eventually” John said.
Zoe wasn’t going to get into anything at all with Jeff. Zoe didn’t want to risk doing that, not if the worst happened and Jeff wasn’t here anymore. If Zoe even thought of admitting her feelings for Jeff, it just opened up a whole world of hurt. Plus, there was still the possibility of Jeff having to leave if the group decided Sophia should go and Zoe wouldn’t leave with him. There was never the chance of them ever being together.
Soon enough they were at the first family owned corner shop.
“Well I think it’s safe to say there are no living in there” John said to them.
“Poor Sheila, I’m sorry she’s became one of them” Simone said.
“You know her?” Zoe asked Simone.
“My favourite corner shop this was. Always came here when I was younger, she used to sneak free sweets into my bag for school” Simone said with a sad smile.
“We can put her out of her misery” Zoe said.
“Okay” Simone said to them.
There wasn’t many skin eaters around, enough for Zoe and John to take. Simone walked up to the woman who must be Sheila. Zoe saw Simone speaking to her but couldn’t hear what she said and next thing you knew Simone was putting an end to Sheila’s misery.
“I don’t think there’s much to salvage in here by the looks of it” Simone said to them.
“You never know what you mind find. Lets still have a look” John said.
They were lucky that there were no skin eaters in here. They found a few tins of food and packets of peanuts. It wasn’t much but it was something. They were about to walk out the shop when Simone spoke up.
“Hold on, there might be something for us to take.”
Simone walked behind the counter and crouched down.
“Aha! She still kept her secret stash here, always the same tradition for Sheila” Simone said.
Simone stood back up with boxes of chocolates.
“There’s boxes of crisps stored down here as well” Simone said.
“How big is that storage down there?” Zoe asked her.
“She had a secret cupboard, if you open it there’s nothing there, you have to lift the bottom of the cupboard up and there you have it, Sheila’s secret stash. She showed me once. She had to really trust you for her to show you it” Simone said to them.
“Smart lady” John said.
They took the food from Sheila’s corner shop back to the campervan. They hit a few more family owned corner shops. Each time they hit a new shop, there were more and more skin eaters but more and more food. They were getting closer to the busiest town from the bus depot and it showed. It was getting far too difficult for the three of them to be able to take on the skin eaters.
“I think we’ve reached our quota for how many shops we can loot” Zoe said to them.
“I think we’ve managed to get enough food to last us at least a week, we should head back” John said to them.
“Yeah I agree with you both, lets go” Simone said.
John turned the campervan around and they set off back towards the bus depot.
“If this is what it is like in towns where there are more skin eaters then I wonder what it’s like in the cities?” John asked.
“I don’t know but it really doesn’t look good” Zoe answered.
“Do you think there are any living left and if there is, is there much living left?” Simone asked.
“I think there’s living left but not that much” Zoe answered again.
“I hope that this all ends some day. I don’t think this is much of a life for anyone to live” John spoke out.
“I don’t know if it’ll ever end” Zoe said.
They didn’t speak anymore on the way back. Simone only spoke to keep John right on how to get back to the bus depot. Zoe was looking out the window, watching the world go by. Zoe enjoyed looking out the windows when she was on the bus going from one job to the other, her mind closed off from her worries and she stopped thinking for that little bit. Zoe liked to watch things, People watching was her favourite. Zoe made up funny stories to go along with the people. Gave them fake lives and pretended what they might be going home to. Made Zoe feel that little better during a crappy day.
Before long John was flashing his full beam twice and the gate was being opened to let them in. John drove up to the depot building and killed the engine. Jeff was there at the door waiting, his eyes on Zoe. Relief flooded them. He was happy Zoe was back.
‘Don’t think too much into this Zoe, just don’t’ Zoe thought to herself.
They all got out the van and Alice, Mike, Sue and Alex were all there to help carry things in.
“Hey Alex, we got you some treats whilst we were out” Zoe told him.
“What kind of treats!?” Alex asked her.
“Well it’s got a gooey caramel centre and is covered in milk chocolate, I think I heard it was one of your favourites..” Zoe said to him.
“Caramel! Galaxy caramel?” Alex asked her excitedly.
“Of course it is! We couldn’t go out food shopping and forget your favourite chocolate now could we?” Zoe told him.
“You’re the best!” Alex told her as he gave her a hug.
This was the one hug Zoe didn’t mind receiving and she didn’t mind hugging Alex back. He was too sweet to ignore hugging him and Zoe couldn’t stand to see Alex upset. It was a nasty sight, it was like watching bambie’s mum die all over again, pure and tear heartbreak.
“I’m glad to see you made it back in one piece” Jeff said from behind Zoe.
“You sound surprised? Do you have such little faith in me?” Zoe jokingly asked him.
“I mean, not even a scratch or a drop of blood on you, safe to say I’m impressed or maybe even a little scared” Jeff told her with a laugh.
“Why scared?” Zoe asked him.
“You’re getting too good at killing these skin eaters, scary good. You’re going to end up making all the decisions round here soon and bossing me around. Can’t be having that” Jeff said laughing.
“Nothing wrong with a female being the boss!” Zoe said to him.
“Well, we shall see soon enough won’t we boss?” Jeff said to her.
“Oh shut up” Zoe laughed at him.
They took all the food they had indoors and stored it with Alice and John, since they were the ones doing all the cooking anyway.
“Well, safe to say you guys done a pretty good job, I’d say enough to last us two weeks before anyone needs to go scouting again” Alice said.
“We are the dream team guys!” John said to Zoe and Simone with a big grin.
“Woohoo dream team! I’m going for a nap, scouting knackered me out” Simone said as she went off to the office which was her own private sleeping area.
Zoe walked into the little room, that must’ve been a small, private meeting room, which she had made her own little resting place. Jeff slept here beside her some nights when he wasn’t on watch or when Zoe wasn’t on watch and Alex was sleeping beside Mike and Sue. Zoe didn’t mind the company, it made her feel more safe. Zoe had never slept beside anyone before, never mind a guy and sex hadn’t even happened. How bizarre for her.
Jeff followed her to the room. He only said a few words to her.
“I’m going o come rest beside you for a while.”
“Sure, no problem” Zoe said with a yawn as s
he lay down.
Jeff lay down beside her and before long they were both fast asleep.
It was a few hours later when Zoe woke. She felt unbelievably warm, like more warm than usual in the heat from outside. As she opened her eyes and became more aware of her surroundings she felt a heavy object across her stomach, curling up and into her chest.
‘What the hell is that!’ Zoe thought to herself.
She was getting ready to fling whatever it was off her when she felt a breath of air hitting her neck and a sleepy sigh.
‘Oh god, it’s Jeff. He’s started to spoon me during his sleep. What the hell do I do? Do I move his arm and pray he doesn’t wake up? Do I try and slide out from under his arm? No they both won’t work. You know what, I’ll just lie here perfectly still. I might end up starving to death if he sleeps for days but you know what, that’s fine, as long as I don’t wake him up and it’s awkward as hell’ Zoe thought.
That is exactly what Zoe done, she lay there for what felt like hours but really it was only fifteen minutes before Jeff woke up.
“Six hundred and twenty nine sheep, oh shit he’s stirring, he’s waking up. Pretend to be asleep! Wait are my eyelashes fluttering. He so knows I’m awake’ Zoe thought.
“ Uh hey, Zoe, I think we might have slept through dinner. You hungry? Want to go see if there’s anything for us to eat?” Jeff asked her.
“Hmm? Oh yeah sure” Zoe said with a fake yawn and rubbed her eyes like she had just been woken up.
‘He knows. He knows I’m faking and that I’ve been up for ages. Bet he thinks that I wanted him to keep spooning like some typical girl when really I did not want that awkward moment between us. That’s it, it’s all ruined. All over an accidental spoon’ Zoe kept thinking to herself.
Jeff wasn’t exactly asleep the whole time. He’d woken up five minutes before he pretended he actually got up. He was enjoying spooning Zoe. He was comfortable spooning her. Jeff wasn’t going to make the first move though. He was leaving that all up to Zoe.
They had a typical moment of that usual romance stuff where they try to avoid each other but they both want each other and it won’t happen until the last minute or something traumatic happens, usual cheesy story. It wouldn’t turn out that way however.
Zoe stood up and stretched, it felt good to stretch after lying statue still for the past fifteen minutes. Jeff was standing at the door, holding it open for her.
“Such a gentleman” Zoe said to him.
“Yeah yeah, don’t get too used to it” Jeff told her.
As they walked toward the little cafeteria where everyone ate they began to smell the food that was made for dinner.
“God that smells delicious” Zoe said, mouth watering.
“Oh I know, I can’t wait to see what it is, they must’ve at least left us some since we weren’t there” Jeff said.
The group had been kind enough to leave them some food. It was lentil soup. Zoe and Jeff devoured it so quick it was like they were savages.
“Oh that was so good. I’m glad we’re staying with chefs” Jeff said.
“You got that right, I’m staying with them forever, even if this epidemic never ends” Zoe said to him.
“Personal chefs, I like that idea” Jeff said.
“I don’t think they’d like being called that you know” Zoe said with a laugh.
“I suppose your right, better keep my mouth shut unless I want to be punched” Jeff told her.
Zoe started to laugh. The past few days had been getting easier since Chris death. Sarah was the only one Zoe was concerned about. In fact, Zoe hadn’t seen Sarah in a while.
“Hey, do you know where Sarah is?” Zoe asked Jeff.
“Probably out by Chris grave, she goes out there when it’s dark. Apparently Chris gave sits right under the moonlight” Jeff told Zoe.
“I’m going to go out and check on her” Zoe told Jeff.
“No bother, I’m going to find Alice and John to congratulate them on amazing soup” Jeff told her.
Zoe stepped outside into the night air. It was still unbearably warm at night but at least it was a little better and manageable at night than it was during the day.
Arthur was on watch as Zoe went outside.
“Hey Zoe, doing okay?” Arthur asked her.
“Yeah good Arthur, I’m just going to go check on Sarah. How’s Sophia? Speaking to you yet?” Zoe asked him.
“Not yet, maybe one day, when I’m probably eighty she’ll speak to me again” Arthur told her.
“Maybe not even then” Zoe said to him.
“Ugh, I know. Wishful thinking that” Arthur said to her with a sigh.
Zoe turned and walked over to where Chris was buried. Zoe hadn’t been over here since the funeral. Zoe hadn’t really known Chris but then again, Zoe wasn’t too good with funerals and death of people she knew, she never went to one when her elderly clients died. Not one single funeral. She couldn’t cope with all the sadness. If Zoe could avoid things, she did.
Zoe turned and was facing Chris grave. Sarah was there but her back was too Zoe. Sarah was moving toward the fence, zombielike, well skin eater type. Her feet were dragging behind her.
‘What the hell is going on?’ Zoe thought.
Zoe sped up walking to a jog and it wasn’t until she got closer that she saw what Sarah was doing.
“No Sarah! Stop! Don’t do it!” Zoe yelled to Sarah.
Sarah didn’t even register that Zoe was shouting to her. Sarah was too focused on walking up to the skin eater that was at the fence, her gaze fixed on it. Sarah wasn’t holding up a weapon to kill the skin eater with, she was holding out her hand. Sarah’s hand was moving toward the skin eater.
“SARAH!!” Zoe yelled, sprinting toward her now.
Zoe managed to rugby tackle Sarah to the ground, right before the skin eater managed to take a chunk out of her hand. Zoe stood up, turned round and plunged her knife through the fence into the skin eaters head.
“Why did you do that! Do you know how long it took me to lure that skin eater here!” Sarah yelled at Zoe as she stood up from the ground.
“Are you crazy!? What the hell are you doing luring skin eaters here!? And why the hell were you willingly going to let yourself be bitten by one!?” Zoe screamed back her.
“Because!” Sarah screamed.
“Because what!?” Zoe screamed back at her.
“Be cause I wanted to be with Chris okay! I can’t do this! I cam’t go on without him!” Sarah yelled before she collapsed back onto the ground in floods of tears.
Zoe couldn’t believe she hadn’t even thought that that was why Sarah wanted the skin eater to bite her. Sarah wanted to die and she couldn’t kill herself as she was too scared too so this was her easy way out.
“Sarah I’m.. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think” Zoe said to her.
“It’s.. It’s o.. It’s okay” Sarah said through her tears.
“No it’s not okay. You’re struggling with Chris death and we all went along with our days thinking you were handling it fine by keeping busy. You’re not fine and we need to be there for you more” Zoe said to her.
“I just want to die, please Zoe, just kill me, just end my pain and let me be with him. Please?” Sarah asked Zoe through her tears.
Zoe looked at Sarah, too stunned to really speak. This wasn’t something Zoe could do. Killing skin eaters was one thing, they weren’t human anymore but actually killing a living, breathing human being, no way. Zoe had found it hard enough to deal with the fact that she had to be the one who killed Chris. She couldn’t kill Sarah.
“I’m sorry Sarah but I can’t, I won’t. Chris wouldn’t want this for you you know that. You want to keep on living for him. One day you’ll be fine and able to smile and laugh again, trust me” Zoe said to her.
“I need to sleep. I need someone to know I me out so that I can sleep” Sarah said.
“Not a problem” Sophia said as she appeared from behind Sarah and hit her over the head
with a rock.
“What the hell Sophia!?” Zoe shouted at he as she bent down to check on Sarah.
“Sarah, Sarah? Can you hear me Sarah?” Zoe said to her.
“She wanted to be knocked out so her wish was my command” Sophia said to Zoe.
“You really are crazy Sophia! What if you’ve killed her?” Zoe asked Sophia.
“Oh don’t be so dramatic sweetie, it’ll just be a little bump, nothing serious. See there’s no blood coming from her head” Sophia said to Zoe.
“You are one sneaky little bitch” Zoe yelled as she lunged for Sophia.
Pretty soon they two of them were both fighting. They hadn’t realised their yells had attracted a bunch of skin eaters.
“Whoa what the fuck is going on here!?” Jeff asked as he came sprinting up.
“This crazy bitch just attached me, look at the cut shes give me on my lip Jeffy!” Sophia said to him.
Jeff looked at Zoe and then down at the ground to where Sarah lay.
“Sophia.. What did you do?” Jeff asked his sister as he turned to looked at her.
“She wanted to be put to sleep Jeffy, I only done what she wanted” Sophia told him, batting her eyelashes.
“Sophia, your pills, have you been taking them?” Jeff asked her.
“Hmm my pills.. you know what, I think I saw them going down a toilet, down, down, down they went” Sophia told Jeff with a laugh.
“Uh pills? Jeff what are you on about?” Zoe asked him.
“Zoe not now, I need to deal with my sister” Jeff said to her.
It was the most curt Jeff had ever been with her.
“Uh guys, there’s a bunch of skin eaters approaching the fence, whoa what’s happened? Is Sarah okay? Sophia? Sophia you’re out the room? What’s happened?” Arthur asked.
“Not now Arthur, I need to deal with my sister. Sarah needs to go see Simone. Grab more people and fight off those damn things before they attract more skin eaters” Jeff said angrily to Arthur and Zoe.
Mike, Sue and Alice came running up to the fence.
“We heard the noises coming from the skin eaters and came to help. What’s happened to Sarah and when did little miss princess sneak out of her room and why does Jeff look so angry?” Sue asked.
“Look you’ll all get your answers soon but right now skin eaters need to be dead and I need to take Sarah to see Simone” Zoe said to them.
