The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  “It’s fine Jeff. You’ll figure out a way to save me. I’ll owe you one after that” Zoe told him.

  “I will. I’ll get you out” Jeff said to her, not taking his eyes off of her.

  “Aww young love, ain’t it sweet Tom” Sylvia laughed.

  “You are going to regret this” Jeff told Sylvia as he looked directly at her.

  “Oh I look forward to it” Sylvia laughed.

  Tom pushed Zoe out the door. She had managed one last look back at Jeff and have him a small smile before she was pushed out of the door. Her arms were beginning to hurt from where Tom was grabbing them.

  “Let’s get those hands tied shall we so that you don’t try and escape. You’re a sneaky bunch so you are” Sylvia said to her.

  Sylvia grabbed Zoe’s hands to bring them in front of her body and tied them together with a piece of rope that she had tucked into her back pocket.

  ‘How handy” Zoe said to her sarcastically.

  “Oh having this rope can come in very handy” Sylvia said with an evil smile.

  Sylvia made sure that the rope was tied very tight around her wrists so that Zoe could barely move her wrists at all and felt the blood drain from her hands. Zoe started thinking that she would probably lose her hands.

  “Put her into the room Tom” Sylvia said to Tom.

  Tom grabbed Zoe by the shoulders and shoved her towards the door. As Tom unlocked the door and let the light flood into the room Zoe could see just how many people were in there again. They all looked up at her and blinked in the light. Their eyes widened and a few of them tried to please through their duct taped mouths to be set free. Others looked at Zoe in pity, that she was now a prisoner like them.

  “Keep flexing your fingers to keep the blood flowing through them and you’ll be fine” Tom said to Zoe as he pushed her into the room.

  Zoe landed in a heap on the floor and felt pain rush up her arm from her elbow which shed landed on in her fall into the room. Tom closed the door behind him and Zoe was engulfed into darkness. She didn’t have any duct tape over her mouth and her hands were tied in front of her instead of behind her back. This gave Zoe an idea.

  “Hi everyone. Look, my hands are tied in front of me. I do have little movement of my fingers so I won’t be able to untie your tied up hands but I can take off the duct tape around your mouths” Zoe said to them.

  She heard mummers that sounded excited and all for the idea.

  “Okay if you come as close to my voice as possible and I can take the duct tape off” Zoe told them.

  Zoe heard them all shuffling around to get as close to her as they could. Zoe started to feel around on faces to find the duct tape on their mouths. It was really difficult to do in the pitch black but Zoe was managing to succeed with people mumbling thanks to her as the duct tape came off.

  “Oh thank you, I feel like I can breathe again” Someone said to her.

  “No problem, how long have you been here?” Zoe asked the person.

  “I don’t know. Too long anyway” The person said.

  “We were going to try and help you all before we ended up getting caught and I was taken hostage” Zoe told them.

  “Theres never a way out of here” a woman’s voice rang out.

  “We will get out. My group, they’re going to figure out a way. Trust me. We’ll all be free” Zoe told them.

  “I hope that we will be. I don’t want to die in here!” A woman cried out.

  “You will not die in here. I won’t allow it” Zoe told them firmly.

  “You seemed awful chummy with them when we first saw you” A man beside her said to her.

  “After we saw that they had you trapped in here we decided to help you. We wanted to set you all free but we had to pretend that we accepted these experiments they were doing and using you all as bait. We needed them to trust us” Zoe told them.

  “Didn’t work though huh?” Someone called out.

  “No it didn’t. They turned on one of their own and we just found him. It is too horrible to tell you what they had done to him but that was when we got caught. Sylvia had a knife up to my throat so that explains why I’m here” Zoe told them.

  “God I hate that woman. She’s just pure evil” Someone said.

  “I can’t wait to get my hands around that old crows neck. Been under her power for too long!” Someone else shouted.

  “Under her power? How do you mean?” Zoe asked them.

  “We all worked her before the dead came. She was the boss, top manager. She was cruel then and is even more cruel now” Someone told Zoe.

  “I can’t believe this! She is using her own people! People that she knew!” Zoe exclaimed.

  “Evil bitch that she is yeah” The man beside Zoe said.

  “Don’t worry, when we get out of here you will all get your revenge on her. I can promise you that” Zoe told them.

  “Will your group manage to free us?” A woman asked.

  “They will. They’re smart and will figure out a way” Zoe said.

  “Good. We are putting our trust in you” The same woman said to her.

  “And I will not let you down” Zoe finalised.

  Zoe had a new found hatred bubble up from inside her for Sylvia and she made a vow to herself that when she was free, she would see Sylvia die.

  Chapter 19

  The room was in complete darkness at all times. It was hard to tell what time it was or what day it was. Zoe had no idea how long she had been in this room. Zoe had done what Tom told her to do and kept moving her fingers, clenching and unclenching them into a fist to keep the blood flowing. After shed fell asleep and woke up she could barely feel her fingers and often panicked that they’d just fallen off. It really wasn’t the nicest feeling.

  The others in the room kept asking Zoe questions about what Sylvia was up to and when they were going to be freed. Zoe tried her best to answer but in reality she didn’t know the answer to half of the questions. Zoe had no idea when they would be freed.

  They were barely allowed to eat as well. Once a day someone would come into the room, majority if the time it was Claire, to feed them like they were babies. They never risked taking off the roped tying their wrists. They did ask how they managed to take the tape off of their mouths which Zoe told them was her. Zoe was surprised that they never came and took the tape off again, probably because they knew that Zoe would just take them off again.

  Zoe had just been fed her meal which was muesli, not her favourite. She had tried not to gag it back up and spit it out onto Claires face, no matter how much she wanted to do that.

  “See you all tomorrow” Claire said sickeningly sweetly to them.

  “Ugh, I am sick of that shit they feed us!” Someone shouted.

  “At least they’re feeding us” Zoe replied.

  “Yeah, just enough to keep us a little juicy for those skin eaters.”

  “There won’t be another person going to the skin eaters. I’ve told you this” Zoe said to them.

  “You don’t know that for sure though.”

  “I do. They need to keep me alive and happy so as not to upset my group for them to fight with them so what I say goes really” Zoe said.

  “They can take us, not you!”

  “They can’t take any of you if I object to it” Zoe finalised.

  Zoe didn’t actually know if that was true or now. She was trying to keep them all as hopeful as she could because if they all gave up then she might as well.

  “It must be at least two days I’ve been in here” Zoe said aloud to the room.

  “Who knows, we’ve been trapped here for over a month now thanks to you telling us what date it was. We never know how much time passes in here. If I’m honest, it feels like a lifetime already we’ve been trapped” The woman beside Zoe told her.

  “These few days feel like a lifetime already” Zoe agreed with her.

  Zoe had grown to like the people she was trapped with in this room. Zoe hadn’t bothered learning thei
r names though. She was too frightened to get closer to any of them and feeling loss and guilt if they did get used in the experiment. She would already feel that anyway if she was being honest with herself.

  “I wish we’d have fought harder against Sylvia when this all kicked off” The woman beside Zoe said to her.

  “How did she manage to lock and trap you all in here?” Zoe asked her.

  “She told us it was a safe room, that none of those things out there would be able to break in, said she and the others would guard the door to make sure we were safe. More time passed and eventually they barged into this room, told us to get on our knees with our hands up and then tied us up. She didn’t tell us why but she looked so cold and distant.”

  “So when did she start taking people out?” Zoe asked her.

  “Not long after we were all tied up. Jack came into the room and untied Simon’s feet and pulled him up and walked him out. That was the last time we seen Simon and the three others after that.”

  “That’s just plain horrible” Zoe gasped.

  “It’s the way they operate now. We’re nothing more that tools in an experiment to them now. Feel sorry for all the animals that got used for experiments. I also think I’m a vegetarian now.”

  “You know what, I think I might be a vegetarian now as well” Zoe told her.

  Zoe wasn’t lying when she said that. Seeing Ben’s missing limbs and knowing they were being used to feed the skin eaters made her stomach turn. Food and meat especially was the last thing on her mind.

  Time started to drag on and Zoe was just doing her final hand exercises to keep the blood flowing when the door opened. Zoe scrunched her eyes before blinking a few times so she was able to see against the light. She wished she had kept her eyes scrunched up when she saw who was standing there.

  Sylvia.

  Zoe growled and gritted her teeth. Oh how she wanted to just lurch right at Sylvia and wipe that stupid smirk she had on her face. She was looking directly at Zoe.

  “Jack?” Sylvia shouted.

  Jack appeared beside Sylvia like he was a well trained dog, following his masters rules whenever she wanted something from him. Zoe was half expecting Sylvia to throw a stick for Jack to go and fetch and then give him a belly rub for being such a good boy. Zoe had to bite her cheeks to stop her laughing at that image in her head.

  Sylvia whispered into Jacks ear before sending him into the room. Jack walked right by Zoe and bent down to cut off someone’s rope at their feet. Zoe’s heart jumped into her throat.

  “NO! You can’t take me! I won’t be used in your sick little experiment!” The man yelled.

  “Ah, so I see your new friend here shared some information with you” Sylvia smiled, looking at Zoe.

  “Yes she did! I refuse to be used as meat!”

  “Well, it’s all for a good cause. We are ever closer to finding a cure” Sylvia smiled, not taking her eyes off of Zoe.

  “Get your fucking hands off of me you psycho” The man yelled as Jack went to haul him to his feet.

  “Move!” Jack yelled to him.

  The man was refusing to cooperate. He had went limp in Jack’s arms making it more difficult for Jack to try and drag him out of the room. The man wasn’t the lightest guy and he definitely wasn’t light enough for Jack to just pick him up and throw him over his shoulders.

  “You worthless, heavy as fuck piece of shit” Jack grunted out through his teeth.

  Zoe was staring back at Sylvia, well glaring is more like it for the look that Zoe was giving her. Zoe was refusing to back down and even let Sylvia win a staring contest.

  “You know what Jack, leave him. Tie him back up. I’ve changed my mind about who I want” Sylvia said, a massive grin coming onto her face.

  “Who?” Jack asked.

  “Zoe” Sylvia smiled.

  “Zoe? Are you sure?” Jack asked shocked.

  “I’m sure. Bring her to me will you” Sylvia smiled once again before turning and walking away.

  Zoe wasn’t afraid of Sylvia, in fact she welcomed the idea of being chosen and wanted for this experiment, it gave Zoe a chance to escape.

  Jack put the man back onto the ground, tied his feet and walked over to Zoe. He untied the rope at her feet and hauled her up to stand. Zoe did feel a little shaky standing, probably because she’d been stuck sitting on her ass or lying on her side for so long.

  Jack grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the room.

  “Don’t let them break you” The woman Zoe had been talking to called out.

  Zoe looked back over her shoulder and saw them all staring at her. Their eyes wide and scared. Zoe didn’t know if they were scared for her or scared that she would die and no one would come to rescue them.

  “They won’t get the chance to” Zoe told them before the door closed again.

  “You know, you really shouldn’t give them so much hope. You’re all going to die in here” Jack told Zoe as they walked.

  “Ha! That’s what you think but you’re not always right. Sylvia is not always right” Zoe told him.

  Jack just gave Zoe a grunt in response, not even bothering to try and argue with her. Jack must know deep down that Zoe was right. That they wouldn’t all die in here.

  Jack didn’t take Zoe into the experiment room, instead he took her into the room next door.

  When they got into the room Zoe spotted Sylvia sitting a chair, looking through a window that was in the middle of the room. Zoe couldn’t see exactly what it was that Sylvia was looking at. Eventually she turned to give Zoe her full attention.

  “Ah Zoe, Come over and take a seat beside me won’t you?” Sylvia asked her.

  Zoe was about to deny her but she felt Jack pushing her towards the empty seat beside Sylvia. Zoe tried to dig her heels into the ground to stop her being moved but it was no use. The ground was laminate and she just slid on it.

  Jack deposited her on the chair beside Sylvia and went to stand back by the door. Zoe scowled at him before turning her head to look through the window that Sylvia was already staring through. Zoe saw Tom and Eve in the room, standing over the table that Ben was on, their backs bent over and tools in their hands. Zoe didn’t need to guess that they were working on their experiment.

  “Why am I here?” Zoe asked Sylvia.

  “I wanted to show you an experiment in progress” Sylvia told her.

  “I really don’t need or want to see that shit” Zoe said.

  “Well you’re here now so you might as well stay and watch” Sylvia told her.

  Zoe really didn’t want to watch. She was terrified that she would see someone from her own group or one of the trapped prisoners being used as bait and as a meal.

  Tom went to stand at the opposite side beside Eve and Zoe saw poor Ben still lying on the table. Half of his face had now been removed and Zoe could see his muscles and teeth. He look like two face from batman!

  “I do not want to see this!” Zoe growled.

  “Oh come on. It’s giving you a little insight into how we work our experiment and how close we are to a cure” Sylvia said sweetly to her.

  “It’s sacrificing humans, people you used to work with, for an already failed experiment” Zoe growled at Sylvia.

  Sylvia turned around and glared at Zoe. Sylvia was grinding her teeth so much and so hard that Zoe could hear them and began to cringe from the sound they were making.

  “Jack. Go get a human sacrifice as Zoe likes to call them for Tom and Eve” Sylvia said to Jack.

  “No problem boss” Jack smiled as he walked out the door.

  “Don’t you fucking dare hurt any of those people!” Zoe shouted at Sylvia.

  “Oops, too late, Jack is already away getting someone and oh does he hate having plans change” Sylvia smiled at Zoe.

  “Fucking change them or me and my group will tear you all apart. Trust me” Zoe told her.

  “You can’t ouch me right now and neither can your group when we have you hostage so really sweet
heart we can do whatever we want” Sylvia said to her.

  “We will make you regret this. All of this you bitch” Zoe told her.

  “Yes well, we’ll just have to see about that” Sylvia told her.

  Zoe heard someone shouting from the corridor. It was a woman. Zoe could hear her begging Jack to spare her life, to let her go and not do this to her. Zoe didn’t hear a word from Jack as he dragged her to the room.

  Zoe saw the door open through the glass she was looking through. Zoe saw the woman Jack had chosen to be used. It was the woman Zoe had been talking to in the room. The woman that shouted to Zoe to not let them break her. Zoe knew that Jack had chosen her because she shouted out, knew that it would get a rise out of Zoe.

  “Let her go Sylvia!” Zoe shouted at her.

  Sylvia turned and looked at Zoe and gave her a big evil grin. She really was an evil mastermind/villain that you would root against in a movie.

  “Don’t use her or anyone else in this sick game you’re playing. Use me instead” Zoe said to her.

  Sylvia let out a big laugh and bent over clutching her stomach from the amount of laughing she was doing. Eventually she sat back up and faced Zoe.

  “We won’t use you, you being hostage is keeping your group at bay, making them behave themselves” Sylvia told her.

  “Let her go Sylvia” Zoe said to her again.

  “No. You’re here to watch a show! And a show we will give you. We were actually going to use someone for the experiment but due to your cheek we’ll just use her for fun” Sylvia told her.

  “My cheek!? You’re taking someones life just to make me behave? You really are sick in the head” Zoe spat at Sylvia.

  “No I am a really calm and nice person if people just done as they were told. Now keep your mouth shut or I will throw in someone else and make it two lives take” Sylvia told her.

  Zoe opened her mouth and then closed it, glaring at Sylvia. Zoe was stuck and didn’t know what to do. She wanted to save the woman in there but she also couldn’t risk Sylvia using another person and then making it tow lives that were taken.

  “You’ll never be forgiven for this” Zoe told Sylvia.

  “I don’t want forgiveness. I want thanked after I save the human race” Sylvia said.