The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  “I look forward to it” Jeff said with a wink.

  “Now I have to go into this back corridor and wait on Sylvia being brought to me. I’d rather you stayed away from it and don’t witness what I do to her. I don’t want anybody there. Just me and Sylvia. Okay?” Zoe asked Jeff.

  “I hate the thought of leaving you alone with that woman” Jeff snarled.

  “She’ll be tied up and then she’ll be dead. I’ll be fine. Trust me” Zoe said to him.

  “Okay. But you shout for help if you need it. I won’t be too far away” Jeff said to her.

  “Oh macho man, I’ll be fine” Zoe laughed.

  Jeff laughed with her, a forced laugh but a laugh none the same, and walked hand in hand with Zoe until Zoe had to release her hand free from his to go and make her way to the back corridor.

  “I’ll bring her to you” Jeff said.

  “Thanks” Zoe said as she turned her back and walked up to the back corridor.

  When Zoe entered the back corridor she felt a wariness tingle down her spine. It had only been yesterday that she’d managed to break out of here and now she was going back in. However, it was on different terms this time. She was going to get her revenge back on Sylvia for everything that Sylvia had done to those other people and what she had put Zoe through. Zoe could still hear the screams from the woman that Sylvia had trapped to teach Zoe a lesson. Zoe bent over and felt her stomach convulse and want to throw up and felt the sweat building on her forehead. She stayed bent over like that for a few minuted before shaking her head and standing back up.

  ‘Sylvia won’t have any kind of hold on me after this’ Zoe firmly told herself.

  Zoe walked back up the corridor to the room where Sylvia had made her sit and watch that woman’s untimely and cruel death. She switched on the lights to the room and walked over to the big glass window.

  Skin eater Ben was still lying attached to the table, it’s teeth chomping the air and jaw moving around in a circle.

  “I’m sorry that this happened to you and you weren’t saved” Zoe said to him through the glass.

  It was almost as if he had heard her as he turned his head to look through the glass at Zoe, his teeth chomping at her and his arms pulling against the restraints to try and reach out to her.

  “Sylvia will get what she deserves” Zoe told him.

  Skin eater Ben continued to chomp at Zoe. Zoe had no idea why she was talking to Ben as if he were still alive instead of being a skin eater and chomping at her, wanting to eat her for breakfast. Zoe vowed she would put him out of his misery and kill him completely before killing Sylvia.

  Before too long she heard Sylvia cursing and swearing as she was brought into the back corridor.

  “Let me go! I swear you’ll pay for this!” Sylvia was yelling.

  “Yeah yeah I’m sure you will” Zoe heard Mark say.

  “I will. You won’t get away with whatever you’re going to do to me!” Sylvia yelled again.

  “Oh will you just give it a rest!” Jeff shouted.

  Zoe heard a loud smack and then silence. Either Mark or Jeff had knocked her out it seemed. They must’ve had enough of listening to her voice.

  “Bring her into this room” Zoe told them as she went out into the corridor.

  Zoe walked over to the door where the “experiment” was being held and opened the door for them before walking in. Skin eater Ben started straining even more against his restraints and moaning at them as they all walked in. Ben’s noises must’ve stirred the other skin eaters locked behind the door into action as Zoe could hear them all through there as well.

  “Tie her up against that radiator there for me please” Zoe told Mark and Jeff.

  Mark and Jeff bent down to tie Sylvia up as Zoe walked to over to Ben. Zoe took out her knife and placed it over his forehead.

  “You can be at peace now” Zoe told him as she plunged the knife into his skull.

  Skin eater Ben went still as he finally died. Zoe looked at him and felt glad that he was now at peace and wouldn’t be stuck in the skin eater body forever.

  “Can you two wrap him up in a sheet or something and bury him out the back? He deserves that much at least” Zoe said to Mark and Jeff.

  “You got it” Mark said as he and Jeff finished tying Sylvia up.

  “You sure you’ll be okay with Sylvia lone in here?” Jeff asked Zoe again.

  “I’m sure. I won’t be too long” Zoe told him.

  Zoe waited until Mark and Jeff had untied Ben and wrapped him in the sheet and had taken him out the room to go bury him before Zoe went to go rouse Sylvia awake.

  Zoe had tried kicking her feet to get her to wake up and shook her shoulders but Sylvia only let out a few moans and wouldn’t open her eyes.

  “I know something that will wake you right up” Zoe told her.

  Zoe walked over to the sink that was in the room and filled up a glass that was sitting there with freezing cold water. Zoe then walked back over to Sylvia and poured the cold water directly over Sylvia’s head making Sylvia jump awake and splutter and gasp as the cold water ran down her face.

  “What the hell!” Sylvia shouted.

  “Knew that’d wake you up” Zoe smiled down at her.

  “Oh look at me, I’m Zoe and I think I’m so tough pouring cold water over someone’s head. I am oh so tough” Sylvia mocked her.

  “Oh give it a rest Sylvia. Why don’t you come to terms with the fact that you’re royally screwed now” Zoe said to her.

  “I still think it’s you that’s screwed Zoe. You don’t have the guts to kill me.”

  “Oh yeah? And whys that?”

  “You’re too much of a goody goody and a little girl. You won’t kill another human being.”

  “I’ve done it before to people who deserved it. I can do it again easy enough because you deserve to die Sylvia.”

  “You won’t do it. You won’t be able to stomach it.”

  “I’ll kill you Sylvia and I’ll watch as you die.”

  “And what will your little group think of that? They won’t be too fond of having a psychopath like that in their group.”

  “Actually Sylvia, everyone voted that they’d want you dead so I think I’ll still be liked and not as hated as what you are.”

  “Oh you all voted? How very childish.”

  “We vote on things to be fair and equal unlike you who uses people.”

  “I used people for the good of finding a cure!”

  “You keep with your delusional thoughts since they’re the only thing you have now, everyone else has abandoned you to die alone.”

  “There’ll be more like me you know. You’re not free from all the humans out there. You’ll die soon enough.”

  “I know I’ll die eventually but at least I’ll die with a clear conscious unlike you.”

  “You won’t you’ll kill people for a cause or just for fun one day, you’ll see.”

  “I won’t. Goodbye Sylvia.”

  Zoe walked over to the door where all the skin eaters were held and began to open it.

  “You can’t kill me like this!” Sylvia yelled, her eyes widening.

  “Oh yes I can, I’m going to teach you a lesson just like you done with that poor woman. Enjoy Sylvia.” Zoe smiled as she unlocked the door.

  Zoe ran back to the main door and slammed it closed behind her as the skin eaters made their way out of the locked room they were being kept in. Zoe could hear Sylvia struggling against being tied up as Zoe went to the other room to watch as Sylvia died.

  Zoe walked into the room and closed and locked the door behind her so no one could come in. She didn’t want anyone to see her enjoying a thing someone else die. Zoe didn’t want to enjoy it, she was still a human with feelings and wanting to protect people, however Sylvia deserved this.

  Zoe went and stood at the window looking into the experiment room and saw the skin eaters closing in on Sylvia. Sylvia was trying to kick them away from her and a few she did manage to make tumb
le over but there were too many for Sylvia to fight off with just her feet, Jeff and Mark had tied both of her hands to the radiator.

  “GET AWAY FROM ME!” Sylvia yelled.

  Zoe watched on with a gleeful smile as Sylvia struggled. It began to look like Sylvia was about to break both of her wrists with all of the twisting and pulling she was doing. Zoe would love if that happened even more. The more pain Sylvia was in before she died, the more Zoe would enjoy it.

  “You psychopathic creature! You will suffer for doing this to me! People will avenge me!” Sylvia yelled as she looked at Zoe through the window.

  ‘How dramatic do you need to be’ Zoe thought as she rolled her eyes.

  Zoe gave Sylvia a little wave through the window as she watched Sylvia scowl at her as two skin eaters started to encircle her, their arms outstretched.

  “ARGH NO!” Sylvia yelled.

  The two skin eaters that had been moving towards Sylvia had grabbed her and had bent down towards her, their mouths open and their black gums and teeth going towards her. Zoe watched as one of the skin eaters tore into her neck and the other one started to tear into her stomach. The skin eaters made it look so simple to gnaw through human flesh, it looked as easy as someone eating a soft chocolate bar.

  The rest of the skin eaters that had tumbled over crawled their way over to Sylvia’s legs and started to gnaw into Sylvia from there, the skin stretching as the skin eaters took a mouthful of flesh and muscle, blood trickling down their chins.

  Sylvia had stopped screaming a few minutes ago but Zoe still stood and watched as the skin eaters tore into her. The skin eaters weren’t leaving much left of Sylvia, there was no chance she would come back as a skin eater.

  ‘Even if she did, I wouldn’t put her out of her misery’ Zoe thought.

  “Zoe? You okay in there?” Zoe heard Jeff shout.

  “I’m fine” Zoe shouted back to him.

  “Is it over? Is she dead?” Jeff asked through the door.

  Zoe waited another minute, watching the skin eaters tear into the last few bits of Sylvia before walking over to the door and unlocking it for Jeff. Zoe turned her back and walked back over towards the window and felt Jeff following not far behind her. Jeff came and stood beside Zoe at the window and looked out at what remained of Sylvia.

  “They didn’t half tear into her” Jeff commented.

  “She got what she deserved. She done this to someone else and made me watch” Zoe told him.

  “She was an evil woman” Jeff said.

  “You got that right” Zoe agreed.

  Zoe and Jeff stood and watched until the skin eaters were completely done and moved away from where Sylvia had once been. There really wasn’t much left of Sylvia. Just some meat, hair and bones. Zoe felt completely satisfied.

  “Let’s go and get ourselves out of here now” Zoe said as she turned to face Jeff.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Jeff asked her warily.

  “I feel the best I’ve felt in the past few days” Zoe smiled.

  Zoe took hold of Jeff’s hand and led him away from the room and the window view of the skin eaters trying to break through the glass to come and try and eat them.

  Zoe wasn’t bothered about locking them back up or killing those skin eaters off, everyone was leaving here anyway. There was no point in doing anything here anymore.

  Zoe walked Jeff out of the room and back corridor and back down to join everyone else for them to get ready and leave the costco for good.

  Chapter 22

  There was a lot of bustling from everyone preparing to leave. The used to be prisoners had already spoken with Alice and John and they had decided that they wanted to go their own way after leaving the costco and that they weren’t going with Zoe and the others.

  Zoe could understand why they wanted to go their own way, they didn’t want any reminders of the torture they’d had to endure here which meant not seeing Zoe and the rest of their group, their faces were enough to remind them of this place of horrors.

  “We’re nearly ready to go and get the hell out of here” Michel said as Zoe and Jeff approached.

  “Did you free Tom and the rest of them?” Zoe asked.

  “Ah.. Knew we’d forgotten to do something. I’ll go do that right now. Are you sure you can trust them long enough until we’re out of here?” Michael asked Zoe warily.

  “Yes and once we’re out they will go their own way” Zoe said.

  Michael nodded his head and went off to set Sylvia’s people free. Zoe felt her hand being tugged by Jeff and turned around to find him wanting to lead her over to their things to get the rest of it packed. Everyone was piling their belongings up at the main door so it was a sort of snatch and grab action when getting out of here. The less time wasted, the more chance they had at running away from all the skin eaters gathered down there.

  “Alex was asking a lot about you when you were trapped. Wee guy was awful worried about you” Jeff told Zoe as they were packing.

  “That’s adorable I guess. He had nothing to worry about though. I cam out absolutely fine” Zoe said.

  “Did you? You don’t seem absolutely fine..” Jeff commented.

  “I’ll admit I’m a bit haunted and scarred by what went on in there and it’ll take me a while to get over it but I’ve began to feel better” Zoe told Jeff.

  “Because you got your revenge on Sylvia and she’s dead?” Jeff asked.

  “Yes to put it that bluntly” Zoe said.

  “Okay but you will talk to me about everything? Try get it off of your shoulders?” Jeff asked her.

  Zoe let out a sigh and stood up and faced Jeff. She knew that he was just trying to be there for her but the last thing Zoe wanted to do right now was talk about how she felt. Zoe placed her arms around Jeff’s shoulder and leaned in close to him and kissed him slowly. When they parted both she and Jeff were a little breathless and had hazy looks in their eyes.

  “I promise I’ll talk to you when I’m ready about everything” Zoe whispered to Jeff as she placed her forehead on his.

  “Good” Jeff said to her as he leaned in to kiss her again.

  “Nuh uh uh we need to get packed. No time for anymore kissing!” Zoe laughed.

  “Right, I suppose so” Jeff sighed as he forced himself to move away from Zoe.

  Zoe missed the feel of Jeff against her as soon as he moved away. She always hated it and wished that they could just have at least half an hour together but until they were absolutely safe from any kind of harm it just wouldn’t happen.

  “What do you mean she’s dead!?” Zoe head Eve shout.

  Zoe turned around and found that Michael had untied Sylvia’s group and Eve was not happy that Sylvia had been killed. The rest didn’t actually seem that bothered, they actually just looked lost. Tom especially looked lost as he was trying to calm Eve down.

  “That bitch had to die to pay for everything she’d done!” Michael roared.

  “You’re all monsters!” Eve shouted again.

  Zoe could see that Tom was trying to calm Eve down but Eve just kept shrugging off Tom’s hand on her shoulder and pushing against him, occasionally telling him to shut up.

  Zoe decided that she would go and tell Eve that she was responsible for killing Sylvia and that it was her idea. Zoe was no coward.

  “I killed her. It was exactly in the same way she she killed that woman” Zoe told Eve.

  “Bet you’re proud of yourself now huh? But guess what? You’re no better than Sylvia now” Eve growled at Zoe.

  “Maybe not but she deserved it for everything she done” Zoe told her.

  “Hypocrite. At least it’s nice to see your true colours showing now” Eve growled again.

  “Again, Sylvia got what she deserved. It was nice knowing you Eve” Zoe said as she turned away from Eve and walked away.

  Zoe could hear Eve mumbling and swearing at Zoe as she walked away from her but Zoe tuned it out and kept walking away from her. Zoe wasn’t going to bite at what Eve
was throwing at her and give her the argument and fight that she wanted. Zoe had a new sense of purpose and wasn’t going to let anyone else get a hold of her. That ended when Sylvia died.

  “We ready to go?” Zoe asked Jeff who was looking at her warily again.

  “Yeah, we’re ready” Jeff said as he bent to pick up the bags.

  Zoe helped him by grabbing one of the bags and they walked over to place them at the door. Zoe could feel majority of her group watching her, like she was a ticking time bomb ready to explode. Zoe didn’t feel like she was going to explode at any given moment but she didn’t rule it out for happening. Anything was possible.

  “I think everyone is pretty much ready now” Mark said as Zoe and Jeff put down their bags.

  “Perfect. Lets get these fireworks set off and get the hell out of here” Zoe said.

  “Who’s setting them off?” Mark asked.

  “Me, Sophia and Sarah are setting them off. The three of us will be enough” Zoe told him.

  “We’ll be waiting down here for you girls to tell us it’s time to go” Jeff said.

  “It’s time” Zoe said.

  Zoe walked off and found Sophia and Sarah and together they made their way up onto the roof. They all remained quiet as they made their way up, not one of them speaking to the other. They all had a job to do and knew how much was at sake doing it. They all wanted to be away from here.

  Zoe heard the tell tale signs of the moaning from the skin eaters as soon as she went through the roof door and went straight over to the edge of the roof to look and see how many skin eaters were below now.

  The sun was just beginning to set and Zoe could still clearly see how many skin eaters were floating around below them. There seemed to be more of them than what Zoe had seen the night before but as Zoe looked over to the patch of land they were setting the fireworks off to, it was thankfully still completely clear from skin eaters.

  Zoe moved away from the edge of the roof and went over to drag over a box of fireworks closer to the edge of the roof and started to take them out. Sophia and Sarah started following her lead and together they placed the fireworks against the ledge and tilted up enough and in sight of that patch of land.

  “We’re ready when you are” Sarah said to Zoe.