The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  “Ready to go?” Jack asked them as they got to the door.

  “Ready” Jeff said.

  Zoe saw Jack looking at the CCTV camera that was sitting at the main door and saw him nodding his head to it. The shutters started to rise not long after that. Zoe was eager to find the room where the screens were. As the shutters reached the top Zoe saw just how many skin eaters were shuffling around outside and it was much more than they’d seen when they first got here.

  Jack nodded to Ben who unlocked the doors before flying them open and charging out. Zoe, Jeff and Simone soon followed after them, Simone closing the doors behind her as they ran out. Zoe had no idea if someone would lock it after them or not but pushed that to the back of her mind as she ran up and swung her hockey stick at the skin eater coming towards her.

  From what Zoe could make out there were tons of them surround the car park and making their way towards Zoe and everyone, drawn by the noise of the fighting. Zoe and Simone were standing back to back fighting off both sides of them. It was like a coordinated dance between them, each time one moved around the other did as well and it seemed to be working for them.

  Jeff was up fighting beside Jack and Ben, they were just throwing themselves at the skin eaters, you could hear them grunting and shouting as they fought them. Jeff was doing most of the work compared to Jack and Ben. Jack looked like he had a little skill in fighting the skin eaters but Ben looked brand new, Jack and Jeff had to keep a a few skin eaters off of his back a few times.

  “How’s it looking at your side?” Simone shouted to Zoe.

  “Still got loads coming. You?” Zoe grunted as she shoved her knife through the eyeball and into the head of a skin eater.

  “Same!” Simone shouted.

  Zoe was lost in a sea of skin eaters all wanting to take a chomp out of her. They really should’ve had more people come out to fight off these skin eaters, it was proving too hard for them to handle on their own. Zoe wondered if they were watching them on CCTV, maybe thinking of sending out more people. Zoe doubted that.

  “Ah shit! Someone help me!” Ben yelled.

  Zoe turned and spotted Ben lose his spear in the shoulder of a skin eater and was unable to pull it back out to use it to defend himself. Jeff and Jack were stuck fighting off their own circles of skin eaters, unable to get to him to help him.

  “Simone, cover me” Zoe shouted to her.

  “Got you” Simone told her.

  Zoe made her way up to Ben, careful to keep her eyes on the sides of her as well as to the front, looking out for any skin eaters coming towards her. Zoe knew how to handle herself swarmed by skin eaters and could take them out easily enough.

  Zoe had made it up to Ben and took out the skin eater that was reaching for Ben to take a chomp out of him. Zoe put her knife directly into the top of it’s skull, making it slump to the ground. Zoe used her hockey stick to smack the other skin eaters there in the head, a few took more than just the one hit on the head to make them officially dead and there ended up being a lot of squelching noises and brain lying on the ground.

  After Zoe had killed the last skin eater she went and pulled on Ben’s spear that was still stuck in the skin eater and eventually managed to wiggle it free and handed it back to Ben.

  “Thanks” Ben breathed out.

  “No worries, now lets finish them off” Zoe told him.

  Ben nodded and stood beside Zoe, who was soon joined by Simone as they fought the rest of the skin eaters off. It wasn’t an easy job but soon they had all managed to pull it off.

  Jeff and Jack made their way over to them, puffing out of breath as they did.

  “Everyone alright?” Jeff asked.

  “Yeah, we’re good” Zoe told him.

  “Good job everyone. Now we have to gather all the bodies of the skin eaters, put them into a pile and burn them” Jack told them.

  “Burn them? We should use them as a shield against other skin eaters coming here. When they smell their own kind they stay away usually” Simone said.

  “Sorry, bosses orders. We burn them” Jack finalised.

  There was no arguing with the boss here then. Zoe would try and speak with Sylvia and see if she would see it their way by using the dead skin eaters to defend them to keep the walking ones away. Zoe didn’t fancy fighting off another herd of them.

  Even though some of the skin eaters were maybe missing limbs or half, if not all of their insides they were still heavy to drag and lift. Zoe and Simone were sweating as they piled up the bodies into a pile and the heat from the sun wasn’t helping. Zoe felt her mouth getting dry and felt herself getting thirsty almost wanting to drink her own sweat.

  “Wish that this heatwave would do one” Simone grunted.

  “Me too. I’m praying for rain to come soon” Zoe said as they lifted another skin eater body.

  They added the body to their ever growing pile, they were making a small hill out of these skin eaters. It wasn’t a pretty sight. The skin eaters skin looked blackened, like they had already been burned and they could smell the rotten flesh even worse now that all the skin eaters were gathered onto the one pile. Zoe had to swallow down the sick that had started to rise up her throat.

  “Why do you think they look like they’ve been burned already with their blackened skin?” Zoe asked Simone.

  “Sun exposure added to the fact that they’re dead probably explains that” Simone told her.

  “Yeah I suppose that’s it. Smells nasty” Zoe said.

  “Not on the top of my list of favourite smells I’ll tell you that” Simone said.

  They both started to laugh at that in the midst of doing their pretty gruesome job. If they didn’t laugh then they would probably cry.

  “NO, NO, NO!”

  “Who was that?” Zoe asked alert.

  Zoe and Simone picked up their weapons and looked around them, waiting to see if more skin eaters were coming toward them.

  Zoe walked around their hill of now dead skin eaters and found Jack taking off a skin eaters head with his chainsaw. Apparently they had missed one.

  As Zoe and Simone had gotten closer they saw Ben sitting on the ground and clutching his arm. Jeff was there speaking to Ben about what to do, Jack on the other hand was raising his chainsaw, ready to bring it down onto Bens arm.

  “Don’t you dare!” Ben yelled to Jack,

  “You know what we need to do to stop the spread!” Jack yelled to him.

  “It’s too late to do anything! It’ll have spread by now!” Ben yelled to him.

  That didn’t stop Jack however as he started to bring the chainsaw down onto Ben’s arm. Ben tried to move out the way but was far too late. Jack had taken off his arm from his shoulder down.

  Zoe’s eyes widened as she heard Ben screaming in agony before passing out and saw the blood pouring from the hole from where his arm should’ve been.

  “What the hell have you done!!” Jeff yelled as he stood up to go after Jack.

  “I’ve saved his life” Jack said matter of factly.

  “Saved him!? You’ve took his fucking arm off you idiot! He’s going to bleed out if he hasn’t done already!” Jeff yelled as he grabbed Jack and threw a punch at his face.

  “You son of a bitch!” Jack yelled as he and Jeff started to fight.

  Zoe was stuck on the spot. She hazily spotted Simone going over to Ben, shouting at him, seeing if he could hear her and tried to stop the bleeding from the gap in his arm with her cardigan she’d had tied around her waist, now it was pressed up to the gap, covered in blood.

  “ZOE!” Simone yelled.

  Zoe clicked back into focus and looked at Simone.

  “Yeah?” Zoe said, still stuck on the spot.

  “Give me your belt, I need to try and stop the bleeding” Simone said.

  Zoe fumbled with her belt but eventually got it off and haded it over to Simone who tied it around his shoulder as tightly as she could to try and stop the bleeding.

  “We need to get him inside and se
e if that doctor, Tom, might be able to do something to save him” Simone said.

  “Is he even still alive?” Zoe asked.

  “Yes, he’s still breathing but his pulse is slowing down. We need to get him inside now!” Simone said.

  Jeff and Jack were still fighting each other. Zoe and Simone were trying to shout at them, tell them to stop and help them with Ben but they were to lost in their fight with each other to hear them. Zoe and Simone started to lift Ben up when they heard Sylvia’s voice booming out from behind them.

  “Boys enough!” Sylvia yelled.

  Jack stopped immediately and let go of Jeff and stood up, looking from Sylvia to where Ben was positioned in Zoe and Simone’s hands as they were about to lift them.

  “I did what I thought would save his life” Jack told her as he bowed his head.

  “Fat chance you saved him by taking his fucking arm off” Jeff spat as he stood to his feet.

  “I understand Jack. Now you pick up Ben’s now detached arm and the rest of you bring Ben’s body inside” Sylvia said.

  “Ben’s body? He’s still breathing, we might still be able to save him!” Simone told Sylvia.

  “Ah very well then, let’s see if Tom can do something” Sylvia smiled.

  The way that Sylvia was so calm and collected about the whole situation made a shiver go up Zoe’s spine. Sylvia looked like she was about to skip for joy at nearly losing one of her own. Zoe, Simone and Jeff picked up Ben to bring him inside.

  “Why do you need the arm? Tom won’t be able to reconnect it you know? It’s not like he lost a finger or a toe” Simone said o Sylvia.

  “Ah yes, poor Ben will have to live without an arm if he survives this but we can use the arm to examine the nature of the bite and the spread of infection more. It’ll be very useful now that it’s such a fresh bite” Sylvia said.

  “Would be more useful to Ben if he still had it attached to him” Jeff murmured under his breath.

  Zoe couldn’t agree more as the events at what had just happened had just managed to come back to her. She was replaying it in her head in slow motion from when Ben screamed when he’d been bitten to when he was unconscious from blood loss to losing his arm.

  As soon as they got inside the shutters went down and Jack locked the door behind them.

  “Bring him up to the back” Sylvia told Zoe, Simone and Jeff.

  “We did want to get back inside there I suppose” Zoe whispered.

  “Would’ve preferred if it was in different circumstances” Jeff whispered back.

  “Yeah, true” Zoe agreed.

  “What the hell happened!?” Sophia asked them as they passed their group carrying Ben.

  “Ben got bitten and then Jack thought it’d be a great idea to chainsaw his arm off” Jeff growled.

  Jack shot Jeff a glare but kept his mouth shut.

  “Is he.. Is he dead?” Sophia asked.

  “Not yet but we’re taking him to see Tom to see if he can be saved” Simone told them.

  “Alex, no, don’t look!” Lewis shouted.

  It was too late, Alex was standing at the front of the group staring at Zoe, Jeff and Simone carrying Ben. Zoe saw Alex eyes move and stop on Jack, carrying Ben’s arm.

  “Jeff, why has he not got an arm?” Alex asked as he made to follow them.

  “I’ll explain later Alex, you stay with everyone else please whilst we go get this man some help okay?” Jeff said to him.

  “Okay” Alex agreed.

  Zoe, Jeff and Simone managed to carry Ben fine between the three of them. Zoe kept looking down at him to make sure he wasn’t going to come back as a skin eater and try to eat them. Zoe could still see his chest rising and falling to show that he was still breathing but she could also hear the wheeziness an struggle it was for Ben to keep on breathing. He was running out of time.

  “My god Ben! What happened?” Claire said as they got to the back door.

  “Ben was bitten. Chopped his arm off to try and save him. Might’ve worked” Jack told her.

  “Oh good, quick thinking Jack. I hope it has worked!” Claire exhaled.

  Zoe heard Jeff growl and glare at Claire and Jack. Simone even looked like she was about to say something to them but managed to keep her mouth shut. Zoe thought about how strange they were to think that chopping off a mans arm was a good thing? He was dying in their arms from blood loss to having his arm chainsawed off, how could that be normal and good?

  “Tom? Tom we have an emergency” Sylvia said as they went into the experiment room.

  There was no current experiment taking place and the table was clear fro them to place Ben onto it.

  “What kind of emergen..” Tim trailed off as he looked at Ben on the table.

  “He was bitten so Jack here acted quickly and took the arm off to stop the spread of infection. Can you save him?” Sylvia asked.

  “I can try but he may have already lost too much blood. Go fetch Eve will you Sylvia. Jack you stay here and help me with him” Tom said.

  “Tom, I’m a nurse. I can help as well” Simone said.

  “No no, it’s okay, me and Jack can handle it from here until Eve gets here” Tom smiled.

  “Are you sure? I want to help” Simone said.

  “We’re fine. Thank you” Tom said.

  Jack placed Ben’s arm on top of a shelf as he went over to Tom to hear his instructions on how to help him.

  “Thank you all for your help. We’ve got it from here. Off you go, we’ll keep you updated on Ben” Sylvia smiled at them.

  Jeff went to object but Zoe squeezed his arm to stop him.

  “Thanks Sylvia, we’d appreciate any updates when you have a chance” Zoe said.

  Zoe, Jeff and Simone left the room. Zoe could feel Jeff shaking with anger and could also feel the tension radiating off of Simone. Zoe tried to peek into the rooms as they walked past them to see if she could find where the CCTV room was but had no such luck. The doors that were closed had no windows on them for Zoe to be able to look through.

  “I can’t believe that he turned down a nurses help!” Simone said as they exited through the back doors.

  “Makes you wonder if they’re really going to try and save Ben or use him for their experiment” Jeff said.

  “You think they would just let him die?” Zoe asked.

  “Well Tom asked for Eve who is a scientist and won’t be able to help as much as what Simone could so yeah I think they will” Jeff said.

  “We should go back in there” Simone said.

  “You know what, I agree” Zoe said as she turned back for the doors.

  They made their way back to the doors but found that they were locked. Jeff banged on the door and yelled for them to open it and didn’t stop until Claire appeared.

  “We want back in to see Ben” Jeff demanded.

  “I’m sorry but Tom needs all the quiet and space he needs to try and save him” Claire told them.

  “Save him! I doubt that! Now let us in or I will break this door down” Jeff growled.

  “I’m sorry I can’t do that. We’ll let you know what happens” Claire said as she walked away.

  “Get back here and open this damn door!” Jeff yelled as he started banging on it again.

  Jeff, Zoe and Simone used all their force to try and break the door down by kicking it, running up to it and banging against it with their shoulders but they were having no such luck.

  “God damn it!” Jeff shouted.

  “Jeff lets just go. They’ll let us know when he’s dead” Simone said sadly.

  Jeff knew that he wasn’t going to get in and gave the doors one last kick before following Simone. Zoe looked through the glass of the doors to see if she could see anything but again, no such luck. There was no one in the corridor apart from Claire who was standing just outside the experiment room door. Zoe then followed Jeff and Simone back to the others.

  As soon as they got back to their group they were bombarded with questions.

  “W
hat happened out there?”

  “Why did Ben have to have his whole arm chopped off?”

  “What are they doing to him?”

  “Are they going to manage to save his life?”

  Jeff told them to be quiet and explained to them what had happened and what was going on with Ben and how they had to leave and then got locked out from entering the back corridor.

  The tension within the group heightened.

  “Bunch of murderers!” Mike growled.

  “How can they let someone they’ve known for god knows how long just die out for en experiment when they could save his life?” Mandy asked.

  “Lets go break down that door!” Michael announced.

  “We already tried that, it won’t budge” Jeff growled.

  “Pieces of shit” Mark said.

  “Lets just hold out here and see what they tell us about Ben” Simone said.

  Everyone murmured an agreement even though they weren’t happy about it. They were just waiting for the inevitable and to be told that Ben ‘didn’t make it’ and that they ‘ had done all that they could’ even though it would probably be a complete lie.

  Jeff went over to Alex who was asking a million questions a minute to explain to Alex what had happened and what might end up happening to Ben. Jeff wasn’t going to lie to Alex about this, he didn’t want to. Zoe left him to it and went to sit beside Alice and John.

  “What will we do if we find out that they let Ben die?” Alice asked.

  “Then we fight! Isn’t that right Zoe?” John asked.

  “Yeah I’d say that sounds about right. We can take them easily enough and free the prisoners in the back” Zoe said.

  “Should’ve fought them in the first place I think” Mandy said as she came to sit beside them.

  “I know, we should’ve done that. First impressions of them being crazy were right” Zoe said.

  “Well we’ve learned our lesson, can’t be too trusting with the living in this world anymore” Alice said.

  “Damn straight!” John agreed.

  “We’ll manage fine as our own little group” Mandy said.

  “And we’ll find somewhere a lot safer to set up next” Zoe said.