by D, Hannah
“You seem to have pissed them off a bit” Jeff said.
“Just asking him some questions about Rachael and their partnerships. He wasn’t kind enough to tell me anything though, he remained tight lipped on it” Zoe told Jeff.
“She’s got them told then” Jeff said.
“Yeah, I suppose so “ Zoe said as she turned and kissed Jeff on the lips.
Zoe went back to looking through the bags in the car, properly this time. She only quickly went through them to try and rile up their watchers before and barely seen inside them properly. Zoe supposed they would have enough to last them at least a week going by just those five bags in the car which would hopefully give them enough time to get away from their watchers.
“We have so much more in the campervan” Jeff said.
“Good. We should start getting everybody up and moving to start going up those hills. Better sooner rather than later this gets done” Zoe said.
“Not a fan of climbing?” Jeff laughed.
“Not particularly” Zoe laughed with him.
Zoe and Jeff went back inside the campervan and started to wake everyone up. A few people nearly hit them in the face thinking they could snooze Zoe and Jeff but there were no bloody noses today from them. Zoe just wanted to get to the top of those hills to see what the skin eater herds were like up there and if they would run into any but also so she could start thinking of where they could run to.
“I’m so not a morning person” Arthur yawned.
“Better get used to being one around here” Jeff told him.
“Yeah yeah” Arthur said.
Alex was proving to be the hardest to try and wake up and was already showing signs of being a typical grump teenager even though he was years away from that.
“If you get up I’ll give you some chocolate” Jeff bribed Alex.
“You swear?” Alex asked him.
“I swear on my life” Jeff said as he put his hand over his heart.
“Better not have crossed your fingers on your other hand” Alex grumbled as he started getting up.
Jeff mocked that he was offended by being over dramatic and Alex gave him a light slap on his arm. They were being brothers this time and Jeff wasn’t acting like his guardian. It was nice to see.
“I think we’re all almost ready. Are we just going to leave the campervan and car here?” Michael asked.
“Well there’s nowhere else we can leave it. Not any hiding spots around here and we can’t exactly drive them up those hills” Mike said.
“Good point” Michael replied.
Zoe didn’t want to leave the campervan and car. It was hard enough to find a vehicle they could drive now and they were voluntarily giving up their vehicles. Zoe could see the confusion on some of her groups faces about leaving the campervan and car out in the open but Zoe would have to explain to them later. Their watchers were too close to them to explain that if they tried to move them elsewhere then the watchers might get suspicious and alert Rachael. Zoe and everyone else had to make it look like they were going to stay on the Pentland Hills for much longer than a week.
“Lets get climbing then!” Sue said excitedly.
Zoe had forgotten that Sue, Mike and Arthur were all experienced hikers which was why they were jumping from foot to foot with excitement.
“I wish I had more of my hiking stuff with me for this” Sue said.
“We’ll get more one day mum and you know whats even better about getting new hiking stuff now?” Arthur asked Sue grinning.
“What’s that?” Sue asked confused.
“We can just take it for free! Not like there’s anyone around to stop us just taking it!” Arthur said, still excited.
“Well, I suppose it’s not stealing if half or more of the world are dead already” Sue shrugged.
Zoe hadn’t seen Sue act so nonchalant about the skin eaters recently. Sue just wasn’t bothered as much anymore and if the world being taken over by skin eaters meant that she could get free hiking gear without feeling bad about it then all the better for her.
They had only made it to the bottom of the hill before they spotted their first group of skin eaters. The skin eaters were all huddled in a small group, maybe only seven of them. The clothes they had on were climbers clothes so it was obvious they were climbing the Pentland Hills when they skin eater outbreak started.
“I’ve got it” Zoe said,
Zoe didn’t really expect anyone to follow her and come and help her. She knew there were seven skin eaters but Zoe felt so much anger inside of her about them basically being trapped again that she felt she could’ve taken them on herself easy.
“I think it should only take the two of us” Alice said as she jogged up beside Zoe.
“Yeah, should be easy enough” Zoe agreed.
Zoe had half expected Jeff to have been the one who followed her to go and take out the skin eaters. It could’ve been that Jeff sensed Zoe’s anger and felt she could handle them on her own. It was a better way to take out her anger than taking it out on a fellow human.
The skin eaters heard Zoe and Alice approaching them and turned towards them. Zoe looked into the cold, black pupil, dead eyes of the skin eaters closest to her, it’s arms outstretched towards her. Zoe felt nothing as she stuck her makeshift violent hockey stick right into it’s head. Black blood came spilling out from the head and some of it landed on Zoe’s arms. She didn’t even notice.
Alice was managing fine on her own and taking down the skin eaters she was handling with just one blow to the head with her knife. Zoe was going all out on the skin eaters. Even though one hit from Zoe’s violent hockey stick was enough to send the skin eater to the ground, Zoe still stood over it, splitting it’s head open until parts of brain were being thrown everywhere.
“Zoe, I think it’s definitely dead” Alice said to her as she slowly approached Zoe.
“Yeah, can never be too sure” Zoe replied with one final hit to the skin eaters head.
Alice and Zoe walked back to the group to continue their walk up the hill. Everyone was looking warily at Zoe as if she might crack and go on a hunting spree for more skin eaters to kill and pound into.
“I’m fine. Lets’ get moving” Zoe urged them.
Zoe picked her backpack back up that she’d left sitting at Jeff’s feet before following everyone else up the hill. Mike, Sue and Arthur leading the way. Sue had managed to find a very long stick to use for hiking up the hill. Sue was being very professional about this hill climb.
“You sure you’re okay?” Jeff whispered to Zoe.
“I’m fine. Just a lot of anger that needs to come out” Zoe whispered back.
“Better the anger is used on the skin eaters then” Jeff said to her.
“You’re right there” Zoe replied, giving Jeff a small smile.
Zoe knew that Jeff was worried about her and he was probably even more worried now that Zoe was going off on killing sprees with skin eaters. Zoe did feel her eyes wandering to the sides of the hills, looking for more skin eaters that she could kill.
Zoe did end up spotting two skin eaters down the hill a bit on her left hand side. She was about to say to everyone she would take care of it but Mark beat her to it and ran off to take care of those skin eaters. Mark was back within two minutes after killing them.
“Easy enough” Mark had grinned.
“I’m tired. My feet are killing me!” Alex moaned as he sat down on the grass.
“Come on bud, you’re nearly there!” Jeff tried to encourage Alex.
“No! I don’t want to walk anymore!” Alex moaned again, tears in his eyes.
“Fine. What if I carry you the rest of the way to the top of this hill?” Jeff asked him.
“Yes!” Alex jumped up happily.
Zoe knew that Jeff was just trying to stop Alec having a full blown tantrum in the middle of a hill with god knows where the skin eaters could be. They didn’t actually know if there were skin eaters waiting at the top of the hill for him.
It was up to Mike, Sue and Arthur to scope that out when they got there. They were a bit far in front of everybody else, pretty much almost at the top.
Zoe did wish she had went onto Jeff’s back to be carried the rest of the way. Her legs were starting to burn and she was almost out of breath. Zoe wasn’t exactly unfit with all the long hours of work she had to do that involved being on her feet all day but that was different. This actually involved straining activity and climbing and she felt it on her legs big time.
“I wish I’d beaten you to it Alex and gotten carried” Zoe laughed.
“If you’re not fast you’re last” Alex laughed out.
“Don’t even think about trying to get me to carry both of you” Jeff joked.
“Come on, surely you’d manage it?” Zoe joked back.
“Not going to happen!” Jeff laughed.
Zoe looked up to see that Mike, Sue and Arthur had already made it to the top of the hill and were crouching down and peeking over the top to see if there were any skin eaters. Mike looked back and saw him saying something to Michael who stopped just beside them and looked over and also stayed where he was.
‘Must be a lot more skin eaters up there’ Zoe thought.
Once everyone had made it to just before the top of the hill to get to the top, Zoe being the last one to get there Mike told them how many were up there.
“There’s a good few, probably around ten or something from what I could see” Mike whispered.
“I’ll go up and take care of them” Zoe whispered.
“Me and Mandy will go to” Lewis whispered as Mandy got her knife out.
Jeff turned around to face Zoe and mouthed if she was sure to go and do it and Zoe smiled at him and gave him a nod. Jeff smiled back to her before telling Alex to jump off his back now that they were at the top.
“On three we go over” Zoe whispered to Lewis and Mandy.
They both nodded their head as agreement, crouched and ready to pounce over.
“One.. Two.. Three!” Zoe whispered as the three of them got up slowly and made their way over the top of the hill.
The skin eaters hadn’t even noticed them yet as they had been too quiet for the skin eaters to hear them approaching. Mandy managed to take out a skin eater quietly by stabbing it in the back of the head with her knife and laying it down gently to the ground. Lewis done the same with another skin eaters closest to him. Zoe however wasn’t as quiet.
Zoe swung her violent made hockey stick up in the hair and cracked the skull of the skin eater in front of her giving out a loud grunt as she did. The skin eater thumped to the ground and Zoe hit it’s head two more times, the cracking of the skull echoing around them.
Zoe saw Lewis and Mandy staring at her almost accusingly at giving them away and the skin eaters now noticing them and coming toward them. Zoe just shrugged at them both.
‘I’d rather it just gone done sooner rather than later’ Zoe thought.
There had to have been more than ten skin eaters up here as Zoe, Lewis and Mandy were flying through killing the skin eaters and more and more bodies kept on piling up beside them. It wasn’t too hard for the three of them to do though. The good thing about skin eaters was that they moved slowly and didn’t even bother fighting back. What the skin eaters looked like was someone very hungover, reaching for food and not wanting to move from where they were sitting. The only difference being was that the skin eaters were dead not hungover and their munch food of choice was human meat.
“I think that’s all of them” Mandy said as she killed the last skin eater.
“Great. Lets get everyone up here” Lewis said.
Zoe didn’t follow Lewis and Mandy back to tell the others they could come up and it was safe. Zoe started to move the skin eaters to the edge of the hill and rolled them down. She wasn’t doing it for the thrill or anything, she just thought it looked ugly with the place covered in skin eaters bodies.
“I’ll give you a hand” Jeff said from beside her.
“Thanks” Zoe said.
It didn’t take the two of them very long to push the skin eaters bodies down the hill. The skin eaters were easy enough just to push, the hill took care of the rest by letting them roll down. Zoe did spot some more skin eaters down the bottom of the hill but they didn’t give off that they knew there were humans pushing those skin eaters down. The skin eaters couldn’t be less bothered.
“What a view it is from up here” Sue said.
Zoe stood up and looked out at the view before her. You could see so much from up here. You could see the whole of Edinburgh, the Lothian’s and fife. The sunny weather made it even more better to look out on.
“Wow! I can see the bridges!” Alex pointed over to the forth road bridges excitedly.
“You sure can!” Jeff smiled at him.
“Will we go over them at some point?” Alex asked Jeff.
“Maybe. I’m not too sure where we’re heading next” Jeff told him.
Alex didn’t reply to Jeff’s answer. Alex was a smart kid and he knew that they were all stuck for where to go now and what to do. Alex was a growing up so fast in the past month since Zoe had met him. It was a scary thought.
“You can just see the herds of the skin eaters in the city centre from here” Mike said pointing over to where Edinburgh castle stood.
Zoe looked over to the castle and she could see the dots of skin eaters surrounding the city centre. There were thousands there and it wouldn’t be possible for anyone to survive in the city centre. Zoe thought she could hear the skin eaters collective moans coming all the way from the city centre but she knew she was just making herself want to hear it really as the skin eaters came along with their collective moans.
“Do you think anyone’s still living in the middle of all of that?” Simone asked.
“If they are then they’ll be holed up tight and never able to leave and end up starving to death. Wouldn’t be able to walk amongst all of they skin eaters” Michael said.
“I suppose so” Simone answered.
Zoe looked around to the other side of the hill they were standing on and looked down to find some skin eaters wandering aimlessly down there, still not noticing there were humans up here.
‘I can take care of them later’ Zoe thought.
“Come on. Lets move further along to the middle of these hills. We can still get a little higher up before settling” Mike said.
“Sure, I suppose” Michael agreed.
Zoe took the bottle of water that was offered to her by Jeff and thanked him for it. She only took two small gulps of water, not wanting to use it all before they could escape from Rachael and her merry band of watchful employees.
Zoe’s mind clicked on as she went to look back down the hill they’d just climbed and spotted the men who were watching them this morning climbing up after them. For just those fifteen/twenty minutes she had forgotten they were being followed.
‘I should’ve pushed a live skin eater towards them climbing up that hill’ Zoe thought angrily.
“Come one. Let’s get moving. We’ll get away from them soon enough” Jeff said as he lightly pulled Zoe’s arm to pull her away from staring at their watchers climbing up.
“I can’t wait for that day to happen” Zoe said angrily.
“We’re all looking forward to that day” Jeff said.
Zoe let Jeff pull her around the rest of the way so she was now following the rest of her group. Zoe felt childish by stomping her feet a little as she walked but she couldn’t help it. She felt so frustrated by their situation of being technically trapped again.
‘God give me peace’ Zoe thought angrily.
Mike, Sue and Arthur were still happy enough to go in front and Zoe even saw Sue take down a few skin eaters herself with ease. There weren’t that many in their paths now and Zoe didn’t have a chance to kill anymore skin eaters since she was right at the back of the group.
Zoe did enjoy looking out at the view as she walked and looking at the whole
of Edinburgh. There were a few patches of fire and smoke where people had either been too stupid and lit a fire and attracted skin eaters and gotten killed or they were setting a distraction or they just burned the definitely dead bodies of the skin eaters.
“They don’t half walk fast over these hills” Sophia panted as Zoe and Jeff caught up to her.
“He’s your boyfriend, you must’ve known how serious a hiker he was” Jeff said.
“I never thought I’d actually have to go climb hills with him one day” Sophia panted again.
“Well now he can’t nag you to go do it since you’re doing it now” Jeff laughed.
“Oh good point!” Sophia said excitedly.
Jeff and Zoe laughed along with Sophia. Zoe started to feel some of her anger slip out of her. Zoe glanced over her shoulder and saw their watchers reaching the top of the hill and also taking time to look at the view. Zoe saw one of them point over to another direction and the rest of their heads followed to where he was pointing. Zoe didn’t have a clue what they were looking at but it wasn’t long before they continued to follow Zoe and her group again.
There was a slight wind with them being so high up now but it wasn’t a cold wind in the slightest. Zoe had actually been hoping for a cold wind to cool her down from all of this walking and hill climbing but not all of her wishes and prayers came true.
“Are we there yet?” Zoe heard Alex whine to Jeff.
“I’m not sure bud but we shouldn’t be too far away now” Jeff told him.
“I just want to sit and sleep now” Alex grumped.
“We will soon” Jeff told him.
Alex was now managing fine to walk on his own without Jeff having to carry him. They didn’t have anymore steep hills to climb, just smaller hills which were easier for him to climb. Alex had actually started running up and down them before he’d ended up tiring himself out and now he was back to complaining how tired he was.
‘If he wasn’t a kid and Jeff’s youngest brother I’d have exploded at him already’ Zoe had thought.
