The End of Us

by D, Hannah

  Zoe knew that she was probably just overreacting and thinking into it too much but she couldn’t help herself and someone had to at least think of the possible worst case scenario so that they could be prepared for whatever might be thrown at them.

  “You okay Zoe? You have a panicked expression” Simone said to her.

  “I do? Must be thinking too hard on where we could run off to to stay after leaving the Pentland Hills” Zoe lied to her.

  “Don’t panic about it too much. We’ll manage to find somewhere no problem” Simone smiled at her.

  Zoe did feel a little bad about lying to Simone about what she was thinking but she didn’t want everyone else to get the same horrible thoughts that Zoe had in her head. One person with those thoughts was bad enough never mind nine of them thinking it.

  “We’re just about to pull into the car park” John said.

  “Home sweet home” Mark sighed.

  The Pentland Hills isn’t really somewhere that someone would call home but Zoe just went with it for now. It wouldn’t even be their home for very much longer anyway.

  John brought the campervan to a stop and Zoe saw him slump back against the seat and close his eyes. John probably hadn’t felt that relaxed driving the campervan this time and probably regretted being the designated driver. John would be taking a break from driving it seemed to look like.

  “Shall we get those trolleys loaded out now?” Jeff asked.

  “Sure. Might take us a while anyway to lug them up to that restaurant” Michael said.

  “The restaurant isn’t too far. Just up the car park a bit and then a set of stairs. It’s right at the bottom of that fake ski slope” John said.

  “Good. Not too far to carry them then” Jeff said.

  Zoe didn’t want to move right now. She wanted a bit of time to try and relax herself and her ever growing mind of worry but everyone was already up and moving and leaving the campervan.

  Zoe went to where they had hidden their guns and helped Michael take them out and put them into a sports bag.

  “You don’t think Rachael will try and take the bag do you?” Zoe asked Michael.

  “Not if we fill it with our smelly tops she won’t” Michael told Zoe.

  Zoe was about to ask what Michael meant when he took his top off and placed it into the bag with all of the guns. Zoe was also about to ask him what top he was going to wear in place of it before Michael opened a cupboard above their heads in the campervan and taking out a clean top.

  “You answered all my questions there before I could even ask them” Zoe said to him.

  “I’m just that great” Michael joked.

  Zoe have him a little laugh before changing her top as well as Michael kindly turned his back as she did so and put her old top into the bag over the guns. Michael went outside and asked the guys if they wanted to swap their tops over because of how much blood and sweat was on them. They looked at Michael confusingly before following him into the campervan. Michael wasn’t going to tell them what he was up to with the guns with their watchers standing so close to them.

  Zoe had wanted to scream in their faces about them running away and not helping them fight off that herd of skin eaters. Those watchers were just cowards who were only bothered about getting food and supplies from people without them even lifting a finger. Zoe could feel the hate pouring off of her towards them in waves.

  “Come on Zoe. Don’t let them get right under your skin” Jeff said as he came up to her.

  “They are just unbelievable!” Zoe said.

  “I know but they’ll get whats coming to them one day” Jeff said.

  “Yeah, I suppose” Zoe answered.

  Zoe knew that Jeff was just trying to remain positive and was thinking that everyone that had treated them badly wouldn’t get away with it and would get what was coming for them. However, the only one so far who hadn’t gotten away with everything they’d done was Sylvia. Zoe would never have let her get away from her comeuppance.

  “Come on. Lets get these trolleys up to that restaurant” Zoe said to Jeff.

  Zoe and Jeff took one of the trolleys whilst John and Mark took the other one. Zoe had offered to take one of the trolleys as she needed to focus on something that wasn’t her hatred for their watchers and handling the trolley seemed as good an idea as any.

  The trolleys were easy enough to control and roll over the ground going towards where the restaurant sat but they proved to be pretty heavy when they had to lift them up the set of stairs. Zoe felt muscles in her arms work that shed never felt work before. It was a bonus that the set of stairs weren’t that big and it only took them five minutes to get up them with the trolley’s.

  “Phew! Thank God for that!” John said as he and Mark put their trolley down.

  “Definitely had enough of a workout today!” Mark laughed.

  “We deserve a holiday!” John laughed.

  They walked further into the restaurant and placed the trolleys in the middle of the room before going to take a seat around the tables here. The place didn’t have any skin eaters inside from what Zoe could tell but there was telltale signs of skin eater blood stained on the carpet and splatter marks on the walls. Rachael or her band of merry followers must’ve already cleared this place out for them meeting here tonight.

  ‘How thoughtful of them’ Zoe thought spitefully.

  Zoe decided to lie herself down over the chairs and closed her eyes. She wasn’t going to sleep, she just wanted to try and ignore everything that was happening around her. She just couldn’t be bothered with anything else today.

  Before long Zoe heard the door open, voices chatting away to each other and footsteps landing hard on the floor. Zoe sat herself back and and blinked a couple of times before she recognised the face at the front of the group of people who’s walked through the door.

  “Oh wow! Look at how many supplies you managed to get!” Rachael said excitedly.

  “Yep. Managed to get enough for both you and us” Michael said.

  “How lovely! If this keep up then we’ll have an amazing partnership!” Rachael grinned.

  “Yeah I guess we will” Michael smiled back.

  Zoe knew how forceful that smile Michael gave Rachael was. Zoe could practically hear his teeth grinding from where she was standing which wasn’t exactly right next to him or anywhere really close to him.

  “My men tell me that you ran into some trouble with the dead?” Rachael asked them.

  “Yes we did but we took care of them on our own” Zoe said as she looked at the two men who’s followed them angrily.

  The two men actually looked down at their feet in shame. Zoe was surprised that they did. She expected them to be standing grinning at her.

  “Yes well, next time my men will help you out” Rachael told them.

  “No need. We can handle ourselves” Zoe said, looking Rachael squarely in the eyes.

  “Still, they won’t run away next time” Rachael said, looking right back at Zoe.

  “Well that’s great. So how do we go about splitting this? It’s 50/50 isn’t it?” Michael asked.

  Michael was jumping in to try and stop Zoe from doing or saying anything bad to Rachael. They had to play nice so Rachael might have a little trust in them and they could hopefully use that trust to slip away from her.

  “Oh, well, you see we have a little problem there” Rachael said.

  “What problem?” Michael asked, a little more angry this time.

  “Well, we have recently came into a partnership with someone new who will also be taking some shares from what supplies people bring to me” Rachael told them.

  “So they’re not going out looking for their own supplies either!?” Zoe asked angrily.

  “No they won’t be. You see we both ran parts of Edinburgh like this but now they’ve had to move here to escape the dead so we have decided to split my area and split the supplies we get from people so as to avoid any unnecessary conflict” Rachael told them.

&nbs
p; “Unnecessary conflict? You’ll be leaving us with barely any supplies!” Zoe yelled.

  “Well actually from what I see from what you got we won’t be leaving you with any I’m afraid. Those supplies will only cover myself and this other group” Rachael told them.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Zoe yelled again.

  Zoe felt like she was ready to explode. How dare this Rachael think that she can just take all of their supplies that they fought for and risked their lives for to spilt between herself and this other group.

  “So you’re going to leave us with nothing?” Michael growled.

  “I guess we could leave you enough food for your group that would last you all a day” Rachael said.

  “Oh how kind of you” Michael said sarcastically.

  “Who even is this other group we’re giving our supplies to anyway?” Jeff asked.

  “Oh where are my manners. Matt, could you go and bring in Brian for me?” Rachael asked Matt.

  “Wait, did she just say Brian?” Zoe asked Jeff.

  Before Jeff could answer Zoe they all got their answer.

  It was Brian.

  The exact same Brian that they had fought at the bus depot and who had killed Kirsty.

  Brian was back in their lives again.

  Chapter 26

  “Long time no see huh?” Brian grinned at them.

  “You son of a bitch!” Michael yelled and lunged forward, grabbing Brian by his top.

  Jeff and Arthur jumped towards Michael, grabbed him and tried to pull him off Brian. Michael had already gotten in a good few punches to Brians’s face before Jeff and Arthur managed to get him off of him. Brian stood up and faced them, at least this time he had a bloody face.

  “Not the hello I was expecting” Brian half laughed.

  “You are kidding right? What kind of hello did you expect from us?” Mark spat at him.

  “Like old friends meeting each other again” Brian smiled.

  “You really are delusional” Mark growled.

  Zoe could hear Jeff and Arthur whispering to Michael, telling him to calm down and that Brian wasn’t worth it. Zoe wasn’t too bothered if Michael pummelled Brian to a pulp. In fact, Zoe would love to see that happen.

  “So how did this come about then, you both becoming partners?” Mandy sneered.

  “We met when we were both trying to get someone else to work for us and decided that instead of things getting bloody between us we would just become partners instead and so far it’s worked” Rachael grinned over to Brian.

  “We have so many people working for us both now and so many supplies. It really was just genius that we worked together” Brian winked over to Rachael.

  Zoe saw Rachael blush and hide her face from Brian with her hair. Zoe almost gagged on the thought of anyone liking Brian that much. All that meant was that Rachael was just as evil and horrid as Brian which made the escape for Zoe and her group ten times more difficult.

  “God you both make me sick! I refuse to work for either of you!” Michael yelled.

  “Oh sweetie, you don’t have a choice” Rachael smiled sickly.

  As soon as Rachael had said that Zoe caught movement out from the corner of her eye. Zoe turned and spotted someone from Brians group walking over with one of their own.

  Sue.

  “Mum! Let go of her!” Arthur yelled as Jeff held him back.

  “You let her go right now!” Zoe demanded.

  “Hmm no, not right now. We need to keep you all in line and we will take one of your own to make sure you do as you’re told” Brian said menacingly.

  “I swear to god if you hurt her I will kill you all!” Arthur raged.

  “Do as you’re told and no one needs to die” Brian smiled.

  Zoe was fighting back every ounce of herself that told her to attach Brian and Rachael and kill them both. Zoe saw Sue looking at her and Sue gave her a slight shake of her head telling her not to do anything rash or stupid. Zoe took a deep breath in and exhaled before looking directly at Brians and Rachael.

  “Alright. We’ll do as you say. But we want proof that Sue doesn’t get harmed in the slightest way because of she does we will retaliate” Zoe warned them.

  “Deal” Rachael smiled as she held out her hand to shake Zoe’s.

  Zoe shook Rachael’s hand without a slight smile or any emotion on her face. Zoe didn’t want to let anything at all show on her face that she might be intimidated or anything by Rachael and Brian.

  “It’s going to be great working with you again” Brian smiled as he took hold of Zoe’s hand.

  “It’s a shame I can’t say the same about you” Zoe growled.

  “Well, it seems that mine and Arthurs groups have divided up the supplies you brought us. We have left enough for yourselves to last you all for a day before going out hunting down more supplies” Rachael smiled at them.

  “We’ll meet back here in say, three days time where you’ll have more supplies for us?” Brian said to them.

  “Not like we have much of a choice now do we?” Mandy glared at them.

  “Excellent. We will see you then” Rachael smiled.

  Zoe saw Arthur run up to his mum and gave her a hug. Zoe saw Arthur whispering something into Sue’s ear but she couldn’t make out what he had said from where she was standing. After Sue said goodbye to her son she turned and gave them all a small smile before settling her eyes on Zoe. Sue gave Zoe a small nod of her head which Zoe returned with a small smile of her own.

  Zoe was going to come back for Sue and straight after that they were getting as far away as possible from Edinburgh. Zoe had no intention of meeting Rachael and Brian in three days time again to give them more supplies. Zoe didn’t even want to stay another day on these hills.

  “Come on then everyone, lets get out of here” Rachael said to her gang of bikers.

  “We’ll see you soon” Brian grinned at them.

  “Not soon enough” Michael growled through his teeth.

  Zoe had no idea if Brian had heard what Michale had said but he had decided to just keep on walking away from them, following Sue who was now held prisoner.

  “We can’t leave her with them!” Arthur yelled as soon as Brian and Rachael and their groups had disappeared.

  “Sshh, we won’t be leaving her for long” Zoe whispered to him.

  “We don’t even know where they’re taking her!” Sarah said.

  “We’ll find that out. However, I don’t intend on meeting them again in three days. So we have three days to get Sue back and get the hell away from here!” Zoe told them.

  “You think we’ll manage to pull that off?” Simone asked.

  “Yes. For one good reason. We don’t want to be stuck under Rachael and Brian’s rule for any longer than we have to” Zoe told them.

  “That’s as good a point as any” John agreed.

  Arthur had taken a little hike longer than everyone else to come around since he wanted to go after Sue right at that moment to get her back but they had to be a little patient. If they went after them right now then Sue might be killed for it. It was far too risky.

  “We’ll sleep here tonight and go to the others tomorrow and come up with a plan” Zoe told them.

  “You think the others are okay?” Simone asked anxiously.

  Zoe knew how anxious Jeff and Arthur were to get back up the hill to their families but it was far too dark outside for them to climb up through the hills. They would either run into trouble with skin eaters shuffling around in the darkness or they would end up getting lost and not finding their way back for much longer.

  “I’m sure the others will be fine. They wouldn’t harm them if they want us to work for them” Zoe said.

  “If they have even touched a hair on any of their heads they will all be dead” Michael growled.

  “If they have harmed anyone then yes we’ll fight them but for now let’s try and get some sleep” Zoe told them.

  Zoe had opted to take first watch for
everyone and went and sat outside the front doors to what used to be a restaurant. As Zoe went and sat outside she could hear the slight noises of people talking from the steps just to the side of her. She had no idea how many people had been left to watch them this time and she didn’t even want to bother herself with that at that moment.

  Zoe felt a slight chill across her skin as a breeze came by her. She knew that she would be okay with just her t-shirt on but they had to get warmer clothes eventually. Rachael and Brian had taken all of the clothes that they had gathered at that Tesco which was frustrating for them since it was such a bargain find. Rachael and Bria hadn’t found the guns however. Zoe had kept a tight eye on them all opening the bags to see what was inside. When one of the bikers had opened the bags with the guns inside them they had zipped them right back up, the smell of skin eater blood and sweat must’ve been enough to put them off rifling through the bags.

  ‘At least we managed to get a bit of good luck’ Zoe thought.

  Zoe looked up at the sky and saw a few cloud there tonight but nothing too worrying. She could still see a lot of the starts shining. There were a few skin eater moans and groans coming from the distance but Zoe knew they weren’t close enough for her to worry about.

  After Zoe’s few hours were up, Michael came to take over for her. Zoe didn’t even know if she would manage to sleep but she had to try.

  “I’m going to kill him one day you know” Michael said to her as he swapped places with her.

  “I know you will and no one will stop you when you do” Zoe smiled at him.

  Zoe was happy to see that everyone had managed to fall asleep. Arthur looked like he was having a worrying sleep which meant he would’ve been having nightmares about his mum. Zoe hoped that nothing would happen to Sue and that they would manage to get her back.

  *

  Morning had come before Zoe had wanted it to. Arthur had ended up taking over the last few hours from Michael as he had woken up from the worst nightmares about his mum. Arthur had come bounding into the room as soon as the sun had risen, getting them all up so they could get back to the others as soon as possible.