by D, Hannah
“Zoe? You doing okay in there?” Jeff’s voice came from behind the door.
“Yeah, I’m nearly done” Zoe said.
“I picked out some clothes for you to wear. I’ll leave them outside the door for you” Jeff told her.
“Thanks” Zoe said back.
As Zoe turned off the shower she had a sense of déjà vu. Again she was taken back to the day in Mike and Sue’s house and how Arthur had left her towels and clothes outside the door then too. It all still felt surreal to Zoe.
Zoe reluctantly turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a clean towel from the rack against the wall and started to dry herself. The towel felt so soft against her skin and Zoe was in no rush to get rid of it. She tied her wet hair up in the towel and quickly grabbed the clean clothes Jeff had left from outside the bathroom door. Jeff already knew that kind of clothes Zoe would want to wear and was thankful to him for that.
Zoe slid on the clean underwear and then the jeans and t-shirt. She didn’t know if there would be any spare shoes left so picked up her ratty old shoes before leaving the bathroom and going back downstairs.
“The showers sitting there waiting for you” Zoe smiled at Jeff.
“Perfect! Time for me to finally get clean” Jeff said as he jumped up from the couch.
Zoe sat back down amongst their group and listened to Alice and John talk about the old days and how they came to be chefs. Everyone soon started to tell their own stories but Zoe preferred to just sit and listen. She didn’t want to talk about herself as she felt there wasn’t much to tell.
It didn’t take long before Jeff was back down beside them, sitting right back beside Zoe. They relaxed right into one another again and at least this time Zoe was clean so she felt comfortable.
Zoe had no idea how long they had been sitting there but as she felt herself yawn she knew she needed to go to sleep before the start of another long day.
“Who’s sleeping where?” Zoe asked.
“Well, we decided on you and Jeff getting one of the bedrooms to yourselves. New couple and all that” Alice winked.
“We can share it” Zoe suggested.
“Nope. You two go have some alone time. We’ll manage to fit everyone elsewhere” Mark said.
“Well, only if you all insist so much” Jeff laughed.
Zoe felt her face go red as Jeff took her by the hand and led her upstairs.
“Maybe keep it quieter this time” Sophia grunted.
“No promises” Jeff joked.
Zoe didn’t think she could be anymore embarrassed but if her face went anymore redder she would look like her head would be about to explode or something.
Jeff led her into one of the bedrooms, the one that must’ve been the guest bedroom as it was all laid out neatly but with nothing in the cupboards.
Zoe spotted a gap in between the boards that were blocking the window and walked towards it. This bedroom was pointing out to the front of the house and Zoe could see all of the skin eaters shuffling around below. There were more down there than Zoe had originally thought. They still hadn’t noticed that there were live humans inside the house however as they didn’t show any interest in it.
Zoe managed to be able to look further down the street and saw that it was a dead end down there. It really was a small housing estate and if they definitely didn’t leave tomorrow then chances are they would end up being trapped in here.
That could’ve been what the couple must’ve thought before they took their own lives. Thy must not have wanted the thought of being trapped in the house with skin eaters coming at them, trapping them in the house before attacking and eating them. Zoe felt herself shudder.
“See anything much out there?” Jeff asked her.
“Just skin eaters and the fact that this street is a dead end. We’ll need to leave tomorrow no matter what” Zoe told him.
“We will but for now come over here and relax with me” Jeff said.
Zoe went to move forward before something caught her eye from the small gap in the boards.
Zoe went back to looking through the small gap to try and see what it was that caught her eye. It was like something that had glinted in the sunlight excerpt the only problem was was that it was dark outside.
“What is it?” Jeff asked her.
“I thought I saw something” Zoe told him.
“What was it you thought you saw?” Jeff asked her.
Zoe looked as hard as she could through the boards again but couldn’t see a thing except for the kin eaters below.
“Must’ve been my imagination. Never mind” Zoe said to him.
“Well come over here and join me” Jeff said as he patted the spot next to him on the bed.
Zoe smiled as she walked over to join Jeff and lay down on the bed, loving the feeling of the mattress beneath her. It felt like lying on a cloud considering she had been sleeping on the ground and blow beds for ages.
“I forgot what a bed felt like” Zoe sighed happily.
“Feels like heaven” Jeff grinned.
Zoe rolled over so that she could face Jeff. The room was in darkness so she couldn’t really make out his face but she could see the brightness of his eyes.
“How are you really doing?” Jeff asked her as stroked her arm.
“It’s been a struggle with losing Mike and Sue but we have to pull through” Zoe said.
“And you feel better after that stomach bug?” Jeff asked her.
“Right now, I feel the best I have in days” Zoe smiled.
“I’m glad” Jeff said.
Jeff leaned in to kiss Zoe and Zoe tilted her face up to meet him in the kiss. As he did she felt all of her stress and grief ooze out of her and felt herself relax into them.
That night they spent it embraced in each other and barely even registered the noises coming from the skin eaters outside as they enjoyed another night of being together.
*
Zoe woke up to the sounds of the skin eaters coming from outside. She disentangled herself from Jeff and stretched herself out. She felt so happy and relaxed this morning after spending another night with Jeff, this time in a proper bed.
Zoe turned to admire Jeff and felt so happy that she had managed to find him and that he was hers during this skin eater madness. Zoe also felt happy that no one had come to rudely awaken them this morning.
Zoe stood up and got herself dressed before going back over to the gap in the boards at the window. There were still the same amount of skin eaters below as there had been last night. Zoe began looking to see what it was she thought she might’ve saw the night before again. However now that the sun was shining she was getting different glares coming from a few different things so gave up trying to see what it could’ve been.
“Are you always this early a riser?” Jeff grumbled sleepily.
“I’m afraid so and I’m afraid that we have to get a move on” Zoe said sadly.
“Okay. I’ll just get dressed” Jeff yawned.
“I’ll meet you downstairs” Zoe said as she kissed him before leaving the room.
When Zoe got downstairs she saw that her group were getting themselves ready to go again.
“Ah you’re up. Perfect” Sarah said.
“Yeah and Jeff’s just getting dressed and hen he’ll be right down” Zoe told them.
“Here’s breakfast” Alice said, handing Zoe a breakfast bar.
“Thanks” Zoe smiled.
Jeff wasn’t long before he joined them downstairs. And then they all left back out the back door again.
Michael grabbed Zoe’s arm as he handed her a lighter from his back pocket.
“Do you want to do it or will I?” Michael asked her.
“I’ll do it” Zoe said, taking the lighter from Michael’s hand.
“I’ll get everyone over the fence first before you set the fire” Michael told her.
“That’s a good idea” Zoe said.
Michael got everyone over the face before he looked back at
her and gave her a nod of his head telling her that it was okay for her to set the bodies alight.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you” Zoe said.
Zoe bent down to the bodies and placed the lighter against the sheet that the old man was wrapped inside. It didn’t take long for the bodies to burst into flames and by that point Zoe went over to the fence, had one last look at the bodies on fire and the house before jumping over to the other side and joining the rest of her group.
“Where to now?” Michael asked.
“Somewhere safe and maybe somewhere that we can call home” Zoe said.
Chapter 30
“Just along this dual-carriageway and then we’ll have the motorway to walk along going to Glasgow” Mandy said.
“So we’re heading towards Glasgow? Another big city? That’s not even close to a good idea!” Simone said incredulously.
“We don’t have to go into Glasgow. There are other smaller towns along the way” Mandy said.
“So then we’ll be boxed in and caged in a small town? I still don’t like that idea” Sarah said.
“Well I don’t have many options. I don’t want to be sleeping outside for the rest of my life. It’s getting cold and I can start to see rain clouds” Mandy said frustratingly.
“We can’t go into a big city again” Simone said.
“Fine! Someone else can try and come up with an idea then!” Mandy said as she stormed away from Simone and Sarah.
Everyone had been arguing for over a week now about where it was they wanted to go to. They had found a small, quiet, secluded wooded area where they were hidden from the skin eaters and had camped out there. They were rationing their food that they had taken with them from the house they’d stayed in for a night. Zoe had barely touched any of her food, just the sight of it made her want to throw up. Jeff had noticed this and brought it up with Zoe, worry etched all over his face but Zoe just passed it off to him that she was nervous about where they might end up so she didn’t really have an appetite.
Zoe was worried about her health and her stomach started to feel hard. She didn’t want it to be another stomach bug as no one would be able to carry her for very long. Everyone was exhausted and worn out. Even though this was the most peaceful time they’d had from any trouble they still weren’t getting enough rest. The looming skin eaters around them made sleep impossible when all they heard every night was the moans and shuffling coming from them.
“Look, how about we just walk over the dual carriageway and decide then at the end f the road where we want to go?” Lewis suggested.
“And if we can’t agree then?” Sarah asked.
“Then we’ll just have to find somewhere else to camp for the night until we can agree” Lewis said.
“Or we go our separate ways” Mandy huffed.
“Yeah well that is another option we might need to take” Sarah agreed.
They decided they would leave in the morning since darkness was already coming earlier. Zoe felt the cold breeze on her arms now and agreed with Mandy about getting somewhere where they’d have a roof over their heads before it started raining. It was still warm during the day but not as hot as it was before. They were nearly into September now which meant that the cold, dreary winter was on it’s way.
“What do you think about where we should go?” Sophia came to ask Zoe.
“Right now I’m only bothered about getting a roof over our heads” Zoe said.
“Me and Arthur were thinking about trying to get a boat and leaving here, Scotland, altogether” Sophia said.
“Can any of you drive a boat?” Zoe asked her.
“No.. but it’s the best plan I think we might have” Sophia said.
“And where would you go?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t know.. The whole world is full of these skin eaters but maybe there’s somewhere were there aren’t as many, where it’s a bit safer” Sophia wondered.
“Yeah, maybe there is” Zoe agreed.
Zoe didn’t want to dash Sophia’s hopes about finding somewhere where there would barely be any skin eaters. The world was now crawling with them and the leftover humans would e largely outnumbered. Plus, Zoe had no idea if skin eaters could swim in water or if they just sunk. It was obvious they wouldn’t drown since they were already dead. They probably just walked around on the sea floor.
“Do you think people will go their separate ways?” Sophia asked worryingly.
“I have no idea but if that’s what they want to do then we can’t stop them” Zoe told her.
“I hope they don’t. We’re better sticking together” Sophia said.
“I agree” Zoe smiled.
That night they all tried to settle and try and get some sleep but it never came. No one spoke, they all just drifted into their own thoughts about what might come. Zoe had opted to take watch and as she listened to the skin eaters moans she thought of where she might like to end up, however there was no clear picture in her head. She couldn’t think about what her future might hold for her anymore. She was stuck in limbo with the skin eaters.
*
Morning came and they packed up their bags and set out towards the dual carriageway. They done their best to avoid as many groups of skin eaters that they could but some were just right in their paths that they had to take care of.
In the time that they had been sitting in that wooded area Jeff had decided to teach Alex how to fight off the skin eaters. Jeff knew that he wouldn’t always be readily available to protect Alex and now that they were out in the wide open Alex needed to know how to protect himself.
Alex had been over the moon about it and when he killed his first skin eater he was so joyful about it.
“It’s just like in my video games!” Alex had said gleefully at the time.
Zoe was worried about how much enthusiasm he had for killing the skin eaters. He was still a kid and even though it was skin eaters he was killing and not other humans Zoe still felt a fear crawl up her spine. Nobody should enjoy killing that much.
Zoe watched as Alex, Jeff and Mark went up to take care of the three skin eaters standing in their way. Zoe watched as Alex stormed up to one of the skin eaters, kicked it in it’s legs and when it fell to the floor she watched as Alex plunged a knife straight through it’s skull, a big grin spread wide across his face.
“Did you see that kill Jeff! I think it’s my best one yet!’ Alex said gleefully.
“Yeah bud it was good but remember to keep quiet or we’ll get ambushed by more of them” Jeff warned.
“Bring them all over here! I can take them!” Alex said grinning.
“No bud. Come on, we need to keep moving” Jeff said as he ushered Alex along.
Zoe had spoke to Jeff about her worries over Alex being so excited about killing them but Jeff had just shrugged it off and said he was still young and it was like his video games were coming to life. Jeff had also said that Alex’s excitement would wear off but Zoe doubted that. Alex seemed to go from a sweet, shy kid to an angry teenager in the space of a week. It was scary.
It didn’t take them very long until they got to the dual carriageway. There was a roundabout sitting in front of them and cars littered around it. Zoe could see skin eaters moving in between them. There was still only a small amount of skin eaters there so enough to take them down and not be overrun by them but they didn’t know what was behind the roundabout.
“Let’s go over to the roundabout so that we can try and see whats on the other side” Zoe suggested.
“Already on it” Michael said as he marched towards the skin eaters.
Zoe didn’t want to sit this one out and wanted to do her part so she followed Micheal and was joined by Alice and Lewis.
Zoe walked up to a skin eater that was stuck in between two cars. As she got near it she had to swallow back the sick that had started to come up her throat.
The skin eater had gotten it’s legs stuck on a bit of metal that was stuck out between the two cars and all the flesh f
rom the skin eaters legs had come off as a result of it trying to break itself free. Zoe could see the muscle and bones from it’s legs and as she got closer to the skin eater she saw the bones move as muscle started to tear off as it tried to come towards her.
Zoe couldn’t take it anymore so she raised her hockey stick and swung it down onto the skin eaters head and as she did, the blackened blood came sprouting out it’s head and landed on her top. She had been standing to close to it as she’d walked it over the head.
Zoe started to smell the blood which smelled like a decaying animal with the added bonus of smelling like bad fish on top of it. Zoe felt her stomach heave and she ran off to the side of the cars and felt the bile in her stomach empty. She hadn’t eaten so there was nothing to bring up.
“You okay?” Lewis came up to ask her.
“Yeah I’m fine. The skin eaters blood landed on me and the smell was just too disgusting not to throw up over” Zoe told him.
“I have a spare t-shirt in my bag you can have” Lewis said as he dug out the t-shirt.
“Thank you. I’ll just throw this one away” Zoe said.
“You must have a great sense of smell though because I can’t smell anything” Lewis said.
“Seriously? You can’t?” Zoe asked him.
“Nope. But throw it away anyway. I don’t want to throw up as well” Lewis said.
Zoe crouched behind the car and changed her top, careful not to let the skin eater blood rub off on her head as she lifted the top off. Soon she was in a clean top and felt her stomach settle back down again. She refused to look at the skin eater she had killed though as she walked over to the roundabout.
“You sure you’re okay?” Jeff asked, worried again.
“I’m fine” Zoe smiled.
When they got to the middle of the roundabout they looked over towards the dual carriageway. Zoe was shocked at how little skin eaters there were wandering around in between the cars. There were loads of cars littering the road but so few skin eaters were amongst them.
