The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  ‘This group of people are going to be great for us’ Zoe thought.

  “Everyone! Follow me!” Colleen shouted.

  Everyone fought off the skin eaters nearest to them and followed Zoe back down the little hill that they had ran up on their way to the pub but instead of turning right to take them back the way they came, they turned left. This would take them into a street of houses. The street Zoe had seen on their way up here that had quite a lot of skin eaters on it.

  They were fighting skin eaters from all sides of them as they ran towards the street of houses. They all didn’t even need to speak to each other, they knew what they were doing.

  As they rounded the corner to take them down the street of houses Zoe saw that they still had a pretty big fight on their hands. There was still a herd of them all shuffling along this street.

  ‘Looks like they were the skin eaters who couldn’t be bothered to follow the smoke and flames’ Zoe thought.

  “I don’t know if we’re going to make it through the whole of this herd!” Michael shouted.

  “Colleen, is there another way to go around this herd” Jeff shouted.

  “Find a fence to a back garden, our only way around is to go through the gardens!” Colleen shouted back.

  Zoe scanned the houses and found one with a back fence already opened.

  “Follow me! I found somewhere to go to to get into the gardens!” Zoe shouted to them.

  Zoe fought her way through the skin eaters that were in the way of the open fence she had spotted. She could hear the rest of the group from behind her right on her heels.

  Zoe burst through the fence and spotted two skin eaters standing there. She swung her hockey stick in the air taking them both done, one swing after the other. Zoe was getting used to using all her power and managing to kill a skin eater with just one blow to the head each swing. It was impressive for her, however Zoe would let herself be proud once they got back to the bus depot.

  Zoe turned around to see Lewis as the last one through then fence. Locking it after himself.

  “We have no time to waste standing here, they’ll knock that fence down easy. How do we go about jumping garden to garden?” Jeff asked.

  “We climb the fences, it’s the only way” Colleen said.

  “Lets go” Michael said.

  The fence they were first climbing wasn’t actually too high. You could jump up and grab it with your hands and pull yourself up. The bonus was that the drop at the other side wasn’t high either.

  The fence was long enough for them all to climb the fence at the same time. Zoe was glad as she felt panicked at the thought of leaving people behind or being the one left behind if the skin eaters managed to break down the fence.

  They all climbed easy enough and dropped down the other side into the next garden. There were no skin eaters in this garden but you could see them at the glass doors, looking out at them. Zoe could see the front door was broken from the back garden and these skin eaters had chunks missing from them.

  ‘The skin eaters broke in and got them’ Zoe thought sadly.

  The fence from this garden to the next was smaller so not all of them could climb at the same time. Zoe, Jeff and Michael stayed behind to go last over. They heard the fence from the other side of them breaking and soon heard the hands hitting the fence opposite them and the moans coming from the skin eaters.

  “We need to start climbing these fences faster” Michael commented.

  “You got that right, lets go!” Jeff said to them.

  Zoe, Jeff and Michael climbed the fence and dropped down. The skin eater that was in this garden was already taken care of when they dropped to the ground.

  “We need to get moving faster. The skin eaters have broken into the first garden already” Michael said.

  “It’s a longer fence again for us all to climb. I can hear more than just a few skin eaters through it though. We’ll need to look over before we just climb and jump into that garden” Mark said.

  “Go look over then. Quickly!” Michael said to him.

  Mark got Mandy to go on his shoulders to look over.

  “There’s only six in this garden. Easy” Mandy said.

  “Lets climb” Michael said.

  Again up they went and over the fence taking out the six skin eaters that were in the garden. Zoe looked to see a wall was facing them. It was the same height as the fences they’d just climbed. Zoe breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Thank god for that’ Zoe thought.

  “There’s enough space for three to go over this wall at a time” Colleen said.

  “We’ll go last again, get moving” Michael said as he motioned for himself, Jeff and Zoe to go last.

  Zoe could hear the skin eaters getting closer.

  “They must be in the second garden now” Zoe said.

  “Yeah, they don’t waste any time getting to their grub do they?” Michael said.

  “That we’re beginning to notice more everyday” Jeff said.

  Soon it was Michael, Jeff and Zoe’s turn to climb over the wall. Once they were over they saw that everyone was standing motionless staring at something.

  Zoe made her way in between Sophia and Kirsty and saw what they were staring at. It was horrifying. Zoe was lost for words.

  Right in front of them was a bunch of kids, they looked to be around six or seven years old. They were in the house, all banging on the door. As far as Zoe could see, there were no adult skin eaters in the house with them.”No way the adults just up and left these kids, right?” Sophia asked.

  “I hope not” Lewis commented.

  Zoe could see that there wasn’t a car in the drive and Zoe knew that the adults who were looking after these kids had definitely went and left them to defend themselves when they couldn’t and now they were skin eaters. Zoe felt sick to her stomach.

  “What do we do with them?” Sophia asked.

  “What do you mean what do we do with them?” Lewis asked her.

  “We can’t just leave them like this!” Sophia said.

  “I’m not killing a kid, human or not!” Lewis said appalled.

  “You all go on over that wall, it’s the last one before it takes us just across from that co-op we came across on our way here. I just need someone to help me put these kids out of their misery” Colleen said, she looked close to tears.

  “I’ll help you, everyone else get going. We’ll catch up” Zoe said.

  “Zoe? Are you sure you want to do this?” Jeff asked her.

  “Yes, I am. Now go” Zoe said.

  Zoe knew that Jeff and Sophia wouldn’t be able to do this, they would just picture Alex face on every one of these kids bodies. It would be far too much for them to handle.

  Zoe didn’t know the rest of the other guys background stories but Zoe guessed that kids was just a no go and they probably had younger siblings or maybe even had kids of their own and would also put their faces on these kids bodies.

  “I’ll open the door and we just get this over with” Colleen said.

  Zoe nodded her head as Colleen walked over to the door and opened it.

  It was the most horrible thing Zoe had ever had to do. Zoe used her knife to kill the skin eater kids. She felt it was a better way to end their life they never would’ve wanted than being smacked in the head with a hockey stick.

  After Colleen and Zoe had killed all eight of the skin eater kids, they wiped the tears from their eyes and climbed over the wall to join the rest of them who had already taken out the skin eaters that were on this side of the wall.

  “Colleen you okay to keep leading us the rest of the way?” Michael asked her.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Lets go. The skin eaters that were in the car park on our way here will be easier to take down now that there are more of us” Colleen said as she made her way back to the front.

  “You okay?” Jeff whispered to Zoe.

  “I’m fine. Lets go” Zoe said.

  They made it over to the car park and saw
that there were more or less the same amount of skin eaters there that there had been yesterday, only a few more had joined them.

  “Easy enough’ Mark whispered.

  They made their way through the skin eater in the car park with ease. Zoe found it hard to believe that twenty four hours ago this was too dangerous for them to cross, now it was easy for them. Soon they were back behind the wall the were first crouched behind.

  “I’m glad we could go the quicker way this time” Sophia said.

  “Much easier than yesterdays journey at least” Colleen said.

  “Is this bus depot far from here?” Michael asked.

  “Nah, not far now and we’re past the hardest part, should be easy sailing from here” Colleen said.

  They turned and made their way back to the bus depot. Their journey back now was easy enough. They bumped into very few skin eaters on their way back.

  “Colleen, lets stop here for a second, grab some water from this store. I think we could all do with a quick drink” Zoe said.

  “Good point” Colleen said.

  “I’ll come help you grab some water” Jeff said to Zoe.

  Zoe knew there would be no skin eaters in here as this was one of the stores she, Sarah and John and ransacked. When they were here they made sure to hide all the water they’d found (which was much more than they could carry) so they could come back for it later.

  Zoe climbed up on the counter ad reached toward the ceiling and moved part of it away to reveal the water they’d hidden.

  “Good hiding spot” Jeff told her.

  “Thanks. Me, Sarah and John thought so too” Zoe said as she smiled at him.

  “Pass them to me” Jeff said.

  Zoe passed the water to Jeff and when she counted out enough water bottles for all of them she put the ceiling back into place and got down to help Jeff take the water out to everyone.

  Everyone guzzled their water. It was a miracle they’d lasted so long without water so far in this heat. Zoe had never loved drinking water so much in her life.

  “That’s much better” Michael said.

  “Better than guzzling down vodka like we’ve been doing for a few days now. Might be headache free for a night!” Mandy said.

  They sat down on the ground for a bit, having a well deserved rest, basking in the sun or shade for a bit.

  “It isn’t half quiet up here” Michael commented.

  “Yeah, mustn’t have been that much a popular area, not many skin eaters around here at all” Jeff said.

  “Lucky find” Michael said.

  “The girl who owns this bus depot we’re taking you to was nice enough to let us in to stay with her, no questions asked even though we were complete strangers to her” Zoe told him.

  “Wow, trusting girl” Mark commented.

  “She’s a nurse, that kind of explains her kindness” Jeff said.

  “Ah right, that makes a lot more sense” Mark said.

  “We should get going” Jeff said.

  They all stood up and started moving again. It wasn’t far now for them to get back.

  ‘Hopefully Brian and his group haven’t attacked the bus depot whilst we were gone for the night’ Zoe thought.

  Zoe soon spotted the bus depot up ahead.

  “We’ll need to go back in through the back. They’ll still be watching the place and probably still watching the front of the building Colleen said.

  “I was about to say exactly the same thing” Jeff said.

  They made their way back to the back of the fence. There were a few skin eaters lying motionless at the side of the fence. There was some skin eater activity whilst they were away but not too much. Zoe also spotted Simone on watch at the door.

  ‘At least Brian and his group haven’t attacked us yet’ Zoe thought.

  they climbed back over the fence one at a time again like they did when they left. One at a time was better than all at once, less noticeable.

  They were quiet as mice and made their way back to the back door. Zoe was glad no one had locked it. They made their way into the bus depot building.

  “Hello?” Jeff spoke out.

  “Jeff? Is that you?” Alice asked.

  “Yeah it’s us. We’re back with some some extra with us” Jeff said.

  Alice cam bounding round the corner with a big smile on her face and came up and hugged Jeff, Zoe, Sophia and Colleen.

  “Oh it’s so good to see you guys. We were thinking the worst when you didn’t come back last night” Alice said.

  “Just ran into some trouble with the skin eaters on our way but we’re fine. Could you get everyone to meet in the office? We have some introductions to make” Jeff asked her.

  Alice nodded her head and ran off to go get everyone. Jeff motioned for everyone else to follow him into the main office. This office had kind of became their own little meeting room or gathering area.

  “Nice space you have here” Michael said.

  “We’ll show you the rest if you decide to stay with us” Jeff said to him.

  Soon everyone was coming into the room and telling them how glad they were that they had gotten back alive and just how worried they had been. Alex had came running into the room and launched himself into Jeff’s arms before doing the same to Sophia.

  ‘Looks like Alex has gotten over his sister nearly getting him killed. Kids are really forgiving’ Zoe thought.

  They introduced everyone to each other. It seemed to take forever. They were all pleasant to each other at least. Zoe just hoped that Michael and everyone from the new group would join up with them to help them fight against Brian. After some nice talk Zoe thought she had better ask Michael what he made of this place and if they would be staying or not. Zoe had guessed that Michael was the leader of this group as he had made most of the decisions for them.

  “So what are you thinking? Staying or leaving?” Zoe asked Michael.

  “I’m still unsure if we’ll stay and fight with you guys but we are swaying more towards it. Would you mind if we took the night to talk and think about and then get back to you?” Michael asked them.

  “Of course. Take as much time as you want” Zoe said.

  “It may be best if you don’t leave the building, if there are guys from Brians group out there watching this place then we don’t them seeing you” Jeff said.

  “No problem. We’ll stay inside until we decide what we want to do” Michael told him.

  “Come, I’ll show you to some empty rooms you can bunk up in and where the shower is” Simone said.

  “There are rooms here? Plural? Oh I forgot what it was like to have my own room” Kirsty said.

  Michael and his group followed Simone upstairs. Zoe, Jeff, Colleen and Sophia filled the rest of their group in on what happened on their journey to the pub and back.

  “That sounds like a very close call or close calls should I say that you lot had” Mike said.

  “Yeah, it was very close. I’m glad we made it out alive and that this new group has decided to come back with us, even if it’s just for the night, it was progress for us at least” Jeff said.

  “Well pat yourselves on the back for it” Sue said.

  “I made some food not that long ago and saved you all some plates. You want it the now?” Alice asked them.

  “Oh god yes!” Sophia said as Zoe, Jeff and Colleen agreed with her.

  Zoe hadn’t realised just how hungry she actually was until Alice had mentioned food. Her stomach started growling and her mouth salivating when she smelled the food that Alice had made.

  “Smells so good lice, Thanks!” Zoe said to her.

  Alice smiled at them as she left and they all tucked into the food. Sausage casserole. They didn’t even bother heating it up. They just ate it cold they were that hungry. They all finished within ten minutes, smacking their lips.

  “I could go another bowl, I was so hungry!” Colleen said.

  “Me too!” Sophia agreed.

  Zoe and Jeff laughed and pick
ed up the bowls to go and wash them.

  “Much better than the peanuts we had for dinner last night in the pub” Jeff said to Zoe as they washed the dishes.

  “Anything’s better than peanuts from a pub” Zoe laughed.

  “True” Jeff said.

  When they finished doing the dishes they walked back into the office where Simone was back sitting down with Mike, Sue and John. Alice was on watch.

  “We have some news for you regarding the people Brian left to watch us” Simone said to Zoe and Jeff.

  “What is it?” Zoe asked.

  “We spotted about three of them watching us. They’ve been watching the front. There have been no more than the three of them so so far so good, it doesn’t look like they’re ready to attack us yet” John said.

  “I think maybe the explosion we started might’ve kept them busy down there. I think Brian would’ve wanted to investigate that. We’re lucky we didn’t bump into him down near the pub” Colleen said.

  “I hope the explosion keeps him busy for a while so that we can work out a good enough plan to fight him and his group” Sue said.

  “We’ll think of something, don’t worry Sue and if Michael and his group decide to stay ad fight with us then w have more of a chance against them” Zoe said.

  “Think they’ll stay?” Mike asked.

  “I can’t tell, even to just guess but I hope so, they’re very good fighters. They could hold their own against the skin eaters really well” Zoe said.

  “Good, here’s hoping” Simone said.

  Mike and Sue had told Zoe, Jeff, Sophia and Colleen that they didn’t have to do any watches the rest of that day and that night.

  “You’ve had more of a hectic night than we have, you all deserve rest more than us” Alice had said to them.

  Zoe could’ve hugged Alice when she said that to them. She was exhausted.

  “I’m going to go for a shower and then head to my makeshift room for a sleep. Thanks Alice” Zoe said to her.

  Jeff went to go spend time with Alex whilst Sophia went to spend time with Arthur. He hadn’t stopped himself from grabbing and kissing her when they got back into the building. The smile he had on his face was ready to jump off his face it was that big. Colleen went up to where Michael and everyone else was, she was closer to them than Zoe and the rest of them.