The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  Pretty soon they came to a turn they had to take around the houses onto another street.

  “I’ll go up first, see what we’re facing on this other street” Jeff said to them.

  “I’ll come up with you, just in case” Zoe said.

  Zoe and Jeff walked up together to look at the situation on this street. It turned out not to be that bad. Easy enough for them to take out the skin eaters standing around there.

  “What do you think? Easy enough for you and me to take?” Jeff asked Zoe.

  “Yeah of course, we can handle them” Zoe said.

  Zoe signalled back to Sophia and Colleen that her and Jeff were going to take out the skin eaters there. They both nodded their heads.

  ‘At least I know I can sign well to tell people what’s happening’ Zoe thought.

  “Lets do this” Zoe said.

  Zoe and Jeff made their way around the corner and snuck up behind the skin eaters standing there. They took them down easy enough, all six of them. Zoe smiled over at Jeff who was already smiling at her.

  “We’re getting good at this team stuff huh?” He asked her.

  “I’m sure the skin eaters are quivering with fear about us” Zoe joked.

  “They’ll go into hiding when they see us”Jeff said.

  “I’ll go grab Sophia and Colleen Zoe said with a laugh.

  Zoe signalled back to Sophia and Colleen that it was okay for them to come over to the street. There were still skin eaters on the street they’d come from so they still had to be quiet.

  This street of houses had no skin eaters on it now that the ones there had been take out by Zoe and Jeff.

  You could see skin eaters in the houses up at the windows though. They obviously didn’t know how to unlock doors or smash windows. They could only break through windows, doors, fences etc when there was a heard of them, all pushing together.

  “I wonder how they got stuck in their homes and became skin eaters?” Sophia asked.

  “I don’t even want to think about that” Colleen answered.

  “Skin eaters must’ve broken in somehow and now they’re stuck and can’t get out” Zoe said.

  “But if skin eaters got in then there must be a way for them to get out” Jeff said to them.

  That made them all think. Can you become a skin eater by just dying without being bitten? Was there another way that this can spread to humans? There was so much that they didn’t know about this epidemic.

  It was hard to ignore the banging from the windows of some of the houses they passed that had skin eaters inside. They could see their hungry stares as they went past.

  “I hope the banging noise from them doesn’t attract more skin eaters” Zoe said.

  “Oh I hope so” Colleen answered.

  They were still walking in single file up this street, Jeff let Colleen go in front to lead them to were they needed to go and fell behind her. Zoe was at the back behind Sophia, keeping an eye out for any movement. They were heading straight up the road now to take them to the main road. There were buildings blocking their way.

  “What do we do when we reach those buildings? There doesn’t seem to be a path leading us through to the road?” Zoe heard Jeff asking Colleen.

  “There’s a path to take us down beside that building which is an assisted living building for the elderly that will take us to the main road” Colleen said.

  “This is all great but what happens when we get to the main road, I can’t imagine the road being completely free from skin eaters” Sophia said.

  “We’ll figure it out when we can see what the situation is with them” Jeff answered.

  They still had a few skin eaters to kill on their way up the hill to the main road. They were very lucky that they didn’t have many to kill yet though. They had managed great so far.

  They made it to the assisted living building and followed Colleen down the side path and ducked behind a van that was sitting there.

  The main road was surround and covered by the skin eaters. There was no way they would manage to get through there on foot.

  “Great. Now what?” Jeff asked.

  “Where about is this other group of people meant to be hiding?” Zoe asked Colleen.

  “They said they were making their way to a bar beside Murrayfield, it’s literally just past the stadium” Colleen said to them.

  “A bar? Guess it’s a good place to hide from the skin eaters, alcohol can help ease the worry” Jeff said.

  “So how do we get to the other side of Murrayfield to this bar without having to battle our way through the skin eaters and not have them notice us?” Zoe asked.

  “What about hot wiring this van and driving through them?” Sophia asked.

  “Too risky with the noise, they would be on us in seconds” Jeff said.

  “And I’m pretty sure they would be able to knock this van over, we would struggle to even drive through them” Zoe said.

  It seemed that they were stuck for options. There didn’t seem like there would be a way to get past the skin eaters to the bar. They didn’t want to give up now though, they had made it this far and Zoe was not going to go back to the depot telling everyone they had to give up.

  “There must be another way to get past” Zoe said.

  “Look! Over there! There’s a path leading us through that row of houses on the other side!” Sophia tole them excitedly.

  Sure enough, there was a path on the other side of the road opposite them. However they had to run across that small road that let to the opening on the main road where all the skin eaters were.

  “How do we get across unnoticed?” Colleen asked.

  “I have an idea, it’s a bit crazy but it may let us get across” Zoe said.

  “What’s the idea?” Jeff asked her.

  “We set this van on fire, they’ll see the flames and smell the burning smell and come over here. We hide behind the wall behind us and start to move to cross the road when they start coming over” Zoe said to them.

  “You know what, that isn’t a bad plan. One problem, we have nothing to set the van on fire with” Jeff said.

  “Um well we do..” Zoe said as she pulled a lighter out of her pocket.

  “Since when did you have a lighter?” Jeff asked her.

  “I picked it up when we were scavenging, thought it might come in handy” Zoe said.

  “Well thank god you did” Colleen said.

  “You all go get hidden behind that wall, I’ll set this van on fire” Zoe said.

  “How can you set it on fire from the outside?” Sophia asked.

  “Easy, I pierce a hole in the petrol tank, set that on fire. It’ll burn slowly at first and then explode so we need to move away from it fast” Zoe said.

  “You’re a genius” Jeff said to Zoe with a grin.

  As the others went to go hide behind the wall Zoe got to work to get this van set on fire. It wasn’t as difficult as it sounded to pierce a hole in the petrol tank, she did have a pretty big, sharp knife to pierce it with. It only took Zoe ten minutes to pierce it.

  After there was a good stream of petrol starting to flow from the van and started to run down the hill a little, Zoe bent down and set fire to the petrol and ran to hide behind the wall with the others.

  There were flames instantly, making it’s way to the van. The skin eaters started to follow the flames, all moving down towards the van.

  “Okay, lets get moving” Zoe whispered to them.

  They all started moving away from the wall and towards the small bit of road that they had to cross. There were a few skin eaters on the road, making their way across to the van.

  “We’ll have to take them out as we need to run now before that van explodes” Zoe said to them.

  Jeff nodded and ran out first, closely followed by the rest of them. They all had a fight on their hands with the bunch of skin eaters that were in their way. There was a few close calls were Sophia nearly got bitten but she regained herself and managed to shake them
off. After they got a path clear to get to the other side of the road they all ran.

  Zoe was the last one to make it across and as she stopped to catch her breath she heard a thud behind her.

  Zoe turned around and saw a skin eater lying at her feet, Jeff standing beside it.

  “What would do without me eh?” Jeff asked her.

  “You’re my hero” Zoe said batting her eyelashes jokingly.

  “Well I would sure love to watch you two keep flirting but we need to keep moving, more of the skin eaters are coming our way” Sophia said to them.

  That was when the van exploded. It was loud enough that it would be heard for miles. They weren’t far enough away to be out with the explosion zone and were soon all watching and being hit by falling skin eater parts.

  “This is disgusting” Sophia said as a part of a skin eater fell past her arm.

  “I think I might throw up” Colleen said as she gagged.

  Zoe saw a flying piece of part of the van coming heading toward her and Jeff. Zoe pushed Jeff to one side as she flung herself to the other side. The van door missed them by a second. Jeff looked at Zoe, surprised.

  “Now I’m your hero” Zoe said to him.

  Jeff let out a laugh as he stood up to help Zoe up.

  “We should get moving, the skin eaters have noticed us over here and are coming over” Sophia said.

  “Yeah and that explosion will have been heard by Brian and his group and they’ll probably come and investigate soon” Colleen said to them.

  “Lets get moving. Colleen you lead the way again” Jeff said.

  “The pubs not far from here now, we can make it” Colleen said.

  ‘I hope these people are here and we haven’t nearly died for nothing’ Zoe thought.

  You could still see the main road from the path they were all running on. The skin eaters were all making their way toward the explosion, not even paying attention to the humans running along just beside them.

  Soo they were at the road that took you down to Murrayfield stadium.

  “My god, look at them all” Jeff said.

  There must’ve been hundreds of skin eaters shuffling along outside Murrayfield. They were beginning to make their way up to were Zoe and the rest were standing to follow the explosion noise and the smoke now coming from there. There were already a bunch of skin eaters that noticed them and were making their way toward them.

  “RUN!” Jeff yelled.

  They all ran taking down the skin eaters in their way. Zoe was using her hockey stick instead of her knife. She wasn’t even trying to kill them, she was just trying to knock them out of the way so they could all get past without being eaten.

  “Shit! Get off! Help!” Zoe heard Colleen yell.

  Zoe turned and saw a skin eater had gotten a hold of Colleen and Colleen had dropped her knife. Colleen was trying to fight off the skin eater by pushing it’s face away and kicking at it but it had a pretty strong hold on her.

  Zoe hit the skin eater in her way to get to Colleen and ran. Zoe grabbed her knife from her back pocket and got the skin eater square in the head and it let go of Colleen and feel to the ground.

  “Thanks” Colleen panted and bent and grabbed her knife and kept on fighting her way through.

  ‘Over here, lets go!” Jeff shouted to Zoe and Colleen.

  Jeff and Sophia had made it across the little road and were standing on a path that took you down a side street.

  Zoe hit the few skin eaters still left near her and Colleen before following Colleen over to where Jeff and Sophia were standing.

  “Lets go before we start being followed by all the skin eaters. I can imagine they’d rather follow food than flames” Zoe said.

  “I know the way to the bar from here, it’s so close to us now!” Colleen told them.

  Colleen took the lead and they followed her running. There was no chance they would be stopping to catch their breaths now until they got to this bar.

  Colleen took them up a hill which had houses on the other side of them. Zoe could see the skin eaters shuffling up the street to get to the flames.

  “We need to move faster!” Zoe yelled.

  “We’re so close, trust me!” Colleen yelled back.

  Zoe could see the kwik-fit garage up ahead of her, this bar had to be around here somewhere.

  Colleen took a sharp left and stopped dead.

  There were skin eaters coming down this path toward them. A whole herd of them.

  “Shit!” Colleen shouted.

  “Where do we need to get to?” Jeff asked her.

  “See that path up there on the right? We need to get up there and the bar is on that street” Colleen said.

  “We run for it. NOW!” Zoe yelled.

  They set off running again, the first skin eater narrowly avoiding grabbing Zoe. They ran up the hill and Zoe seen the bar, sitting on the corner.

  There were skin eaters outside the bar and more coming down off the main road.

  “Colleen you get banging on that door and if they’re in there get them to let us in. We have a minute before we’re surrounded and then dead” Zoe said.

  Colleen went up to the door, killing the skin eaters outside it and started banging on it. Yelling to them to let everyone in.

  Zoe, Jeff and Sophia started fighting off the skin eaters now coming toward them in both directions.

  ‘I hope we get out of this alive’ Zoe said as she started killing the skin eaters closest to them.

  Zoe was swinging her hockey stick into every skin eaters head. She was hitting them hard enough in the head that they went down and stayed down. Sophia was swinging her baseball bat around and managing to kill the skin eaters as well. Jeff had no issues with his weapon, he had the fire axe. One hit to the skin eaters head and they were down, skull split open in two.

  “Come on please let us in Michael! You know me!” Colleen pleaded at the door.

  ‘Well, at least they’re in there’ Zoe thought.

  “Colleen we can’t hold them off much longer!” Jeff shouted to her.

  “Michael, don’t leave us out here to die! Please!?” Colleen pleaded.

  Zoe thought this group in the pub were actually going to leave them out here to die.

  ‘What a sad ending that would be for us!’ Zoe thought.

  “Guys, move. Round the back. They’re going to let us in!” Colleen shouted to them.

  Zoe, Jeff and Sophia killed off the last few closest skin eaters and followed Colleen round the back of the pub.

  “Come on, come on, come on” Jeff said as they waited at the door.

  Zoe watched as the skin eaters started to get closer to them.

  ‘We need to get inside now so that the skin eaters don’t see where we went’ Zoe thought.

  The next second the door opened and a man was standing there with a large meal pole kin his hand.

  “Get inside” He said to them.

  They wasted no time in running inside and the door closed right after them.

  The man and his friend who was also here started blocking the door. The skin eaters were outside banging on the door, wanting to be let in.

  ‘Crap, they know were we are’ Zoe thought.

  The man who let them in put his finger to his lips to tell them to be quiet and ushered for them to follow him through the door which led them to the main bar area. The door they had came through was locked and blocked as soon as they entered the bar.

  Zoe looked around to see what the bar looked like. There were a group of people here right enough, about five of them. Quite a large amount of them to get away from Brian and his group considering they noticed Colleen trying to run away pretty well.They had managed to secure the pub really well. They had managed to board up the windows and doors so good that the skin eaters would never be able to tell they were in here, unless the ones at the back got in then they were screwed.

  “Colleen!” The man who let them inside said as he went over and hugged her.

  “
How did you get away?” The second man asked her.

  “I ran. They followed me though so I kept running until I got to this bus depot not far from here and this group let me in” Colleen said as she pointed to Zoe, Jeff and Sophia.

  “Pretty nice of them” The man said.

  “They are nice. This here is only three of them, there’s seven more back at the depot. This is Zoe, Jeff and Sophia” She said to the man.

  “Nice to meet you. My names Michael and this is Mark” Michael said to them.

  “The rest of our group are Kirsty, Mandy and Lewis” Michael said as he introduced everyone.

  They all nodded their heads at Zoe, Jeff and Sophia. They were all staring at this new group who had entered their bar they had made their own. Probably trying to figure them out and part blaming them for bringing the skin eaters to their door.

  “You actually made it here and made it secure. Well done” Colleen said to Michael.

  “Well, it wasn’t easy but yeah we managed. Soon got tons of skin eaters outside though so scavenging for food has gotten a little difficult. Will be impossible now” Michael said as he looked at Zoe, Jeff and Sophia.

  “Yeah, sorry about that” Jeff said to him.

  “Why have you even came this far into town, into skin eater territory anyway? Sounds like you had a safe place at this bus depot Colleen mentioned” Michael asked them.

  “We need your help and we want to join our two groups together” Zoe said to him.

  “What do you need our help with?” Michael asked.

  “Brian found them Michael. You know as well as I do what that means” Colleen said to him.

  “You want us to get into a fight with this group against Brian? Are you crazy?” Brian said to Colleen.

  “Yes I do. It’s my fault Brian found them Michael” Colleen said.

  “We can’t get into a fight with Brian. There’ll be what, sixteen of us against fifty of them! Not possible! I’m not dying at the end of Brians stupid gun” Michael said.

  “You’re not that far from where Brian is Michael. He can find you if he scopes out this place” Colleen said.

  “He won’t. He’s not interested in a little old pub” Michael said.