by D, Hannah
“Maybe they’re trapped inside the cars as well. We should still keep extra careful” Alice said.
“Let’s get going” John said as he moved forwards.
Zoe decided to walk in the middle of her group for once this time instead of at the back. She actually wanted to avoid having to kill another skin eater for a while in case she smelled the horrible smell of their blood again or it landed on her again and she had to throw up. She was sick of being sick. Simone kept on looking at her and Zoe had to keep shaking her head, telling her that no she didn’t want to be checked over. The less Zoe knew about what was making her feel so ill then the better for her mind.
When they were walking in between all of the cars they all made sure to keep in the middle, away from the underneath of the cars in case a skin eater was hiding beneath them, ready to grab out and take a chunk out of an ankle.
It was here, on the dual carriageway that Zoe seen the most children skin eaters that she had ever seen since this epidemic had started. There were more children than adult skin eaters shuffling along on this road. They barely looked like they had ever been human before as their skin had been torn off and was dead.
“Horrible seeing that isn’t it” Arthur said.
“I’ll never get used to it” Zoe said gloomily.
Zoe did refuse to take pat in killing the child skin eaters. She saw Alex being able to take the child ones out a lot better than the adults and he was the only one who didn’t seem to feel any pain or sadness as he done it. He stuck a knife through their skulls and just carried on, leaving the child skin eater to lie on the road as if it were nothing.
‘I’ll really need to speak to Jeff about this’ Zoe had thought to herself.
“We should have a look in some of the cars to see if there’s anything we can take” Michael said.
“We’re going to need warmer clothes that’s for sure” Alice said.
As the wandered amongst the cars Zoe did spot a few skin eater faces peer out at her as they walked past. They still had a seatbelt over them and they were clawing at the window trying to get out at them. All of the cars windows had been smashed and doors were left wide open. Zoe had spotted a skin eater hanging out the car, being strangled by the seatbelt keeping it locked there. This was the only skin eater that Zoe killed and she used her knife to do it this time. She knew she couldn’t leave it struggling there.
There were very few cars that they could manage to get into to look and see if there was anything they could take. They didn’t want to risk smashing open any windows in case it drew herds of skin eaters towards them. Very few of the cars actually had the keys still sitting in them and there was no time to try and search every skin eaters pockets for the right keys for the right car. Even trying to tell what key was for what car that they had found on the road would take far too long.
Zoe looked up at the sky and saw the dark clouds starting to come over. There were much more today than there had been yesterday.
‘This can’t be good’ Zoe thought.
In the distance she could see smoke rising from places on the sides of the dual carriageway. From what Zoe could tell they weren’t too close to them for them to be worried about it.
“I think I’ve found some clothes for us over here” Jeff announced.
Zoe walked over to the car that Jeff was hunched over in the boot and saw that it was full of suitcases and boxes.
“There has to be clothes in there. Lets take the cases and boxes out and have a look through them” Zoe said.
They were in luck. The cases and boxes were full of clothes for both men and woman. Whoever the person was who had been driving this car had obviously not been wanting to go back to wherever they had lived.
Zoe took out a woolly jumper, two long sleeved tops, two pairs of jeans and a pair of boots. She could fit the clothes into her bag but she just replaced her old trainers with the boots. The trainers were nearly worn out anyway.
“Thank god for some good luck” Alice smiled.
“We were due it at some point” Zoe smiled back.
As Zoe had been smiling back at Alice she saw water start to run down Alice’s forehead. At first Zoe thought it was sweat but then she felt a drop of water hit her on top of her head. Zoe looked up at the sky and saw the dark cloud that had come over their heads as they had been rifling through the clothes they had found. It looked like the rain had finally come to them.
“Great. We need to find shelter. Soon” Zoe said, a hint of urgency in her voice.
“We need to get to the end of this carriageway. See that roundabout up there? That’s the end. Lets get to it” Michael said.
They nodded their heads in agreement and started off towards the end of the road. The rain wasn’t heavy, just droplets falling from the sky. However, they all knew what Scottish weather was like and a few droplets of rain could turn into a massive downpour in seconds.
“I’ve been wishing for rain for weeks and it couldn’t come at a worse time” Alice said.
“You and me both” Zoe said.
They charged on down the carriageway, taking out the skin eaters in their path. They were moving a lot faster and not being as quiet as they had been before and Zoe spotted the skin eaters on the opposite side of the road that they were on start to take notice of them and try to make their way towards them. Zoe and her group were lucky that there were road blockers in between the two roads, just high enough that the skin eaters couldn’t life their legs to climb. However, they were falling over them and managing to get back up on their feet, the only bonus there was that they moved slowly.
As they got three quarters of the way down the carriageway Zoe looked over to her left and saw a small road that went in between the carriageway and a row of houses. That road was crowded with skin eaters and they all couldn’t move because they were just banging against each other. Zoe stopped moving along with her group as she stared at them all. The skin eaters moans were deafening to her ears and it was almost like she could hear them as if they were right next to her. Fear started to crawl up her spine again.
Zoe shook her head and saw that her group were quite a bit in front of her and as she went to go running after them she saw the fall and heard the thud of a body as it hit the ground in front of her. Zoe looked at her feet and saw the crumpled mess of a skin eater lying in front of her. Soon there was another thud beside the skin eater that Zoe had been looking at as it’s friend came to join it, squished to a pulp on the ground.
Zoe looked up above her, certain that skin eaters were now falling from the sky but realised how silly she’d bend as she saw a bridge above her head. There had obviously been skin eaters scattered on the bridge and after seeing her group run under and ahead of it they had wanted to try and chase them. It was lucky enough that they were landing in a way that killed them instantly.
Zoe waited for another skin eater to fall from the bridge before taking her chances and running out from underneath it and towards her group. She had luckily not been landed on by a skin eater but she could still hear the thuds of their bodies as they hit the ground. Zoe turned to look and saw just how crowded that bridge was with skin eaters. It was like the skin eaters had shuffled off of the carriageway and onto secluded area’s thinking they’d find more food there.
‘This feels really bizarre’ Zoe thought.
“Alex where are you going!” Jeff said angrily.
Zoe had managed to catch up with her group and caught Jeff trying to grab Alex as he ran off.
Zoe had no idea where Alex was going and she watched as Jeff ran after him but it was too late for Jeff to do anything. To stop the deafening noise that ran out over the quietness of the road they’d been running on.
Alex had spotted a car he’d always loved since he could remember. He’d spotted a Lamborghini. A bright red Lamborghini.
Alex had went running over to the car and tried to open the doors but as he had done that the car alarm had went off.
The noise rang out over the quiet and the b
lare of the car alarm and the flashing of the lights gave out a large enough signal for the skin eaters around them.
Zoe turned around and watched as she saw skin eaters come from behind them and out from the sides of the road where they had been hiding. There were hundreds of them starting to come from behind them now.
“You stupid little boy! You’ve given us away! We’re dead now!” Mark said angrily to Alex.
“Enough Mark. We can get out of this” Michael said, a slight tremor in his voice.
Zoe turned back around to face the skin eaters coming for them the motorway. They couldn’t run back as there were hundreds of skin eaters coming from behind them. They couldn’t run to the right as there was nowhere for them to go. They couldn’t run ahead as skin eaters were coming towards them.
Zoe looked to her left and saw a gap there. It led to a petrol station and a restaurant. There were skin eaters coming from that direction but not too many for them to fight off.
“Over there. To the left!” Zoe announced.
“Everyone lets head to the restaurant!” Michael yelled.
Zoe saw Jeff grab Alex by his arm and pull him toward where they were all running to. Zoe could tell he was furious with Alex but this was not the time for a telling off.
They had just made it to the gap in the road before the skin eaters that had come off of the motorway had nearly reached them. Zoe felt the swift touch of fingers on her shoulder as she ran past them to get to the restaurant.
The skin eaters that had come from the direction they were going were now trying to encircle them and trap them. Zoe swung her hockey stick around, connecting it with multiple skin eaters heads. The smell of the blood did register in her nose but she kept her sickness at bay, her body knowing she had to keep on fighting.
It seemed like after every skin eater they killed another two appeared in it’s place. The skin eaters from behind them were now enclosing in on them and Zoe felt completely stuck. The opening for the restaurant was now getting enclosed with skin eaters. Zoe twisted her body to try and look for a way they could get out of this mess.
As Zoe turned she spotted Sarah struggling against the skin eaters. She had five of them on her and she couldn’t fight them off.
Zoe started to try and get to her but got blocked by two skin eaters stretching their arms out. One grabbing her wrist making her drop her hockey stick, moving it’s mouth closer to her to take a bite. Zoe pulled her knife from her back pocket and plunged it into the skin eaters head before doing the same to the other one.
Zoe bent down to pick up her hockey stick and as she rose to her feet again she heard a blood curdling scream. Zoe knew before she even looked what it was.
Sarah hadn’t managed to shake off the skin eaters that had surrounded her and when Zoe looked towards her she saw a skin eater take a bite out of her neck, stretching the skin and muscle before that snapped off.
Zoe watched as Sarah fell to the ground and a group of skin eaters swarmed around her. Sarah’s screams eventually stopped and Zoe had to watch and see the skin eaters tearing into Sarah’s body and taking out her organs and chunks of flesh. Zoe felt tears rolling down her face and anger take over her as she took out the skin eaters coming for her.
“Die you bastards!” Michael yelled.
Everyone had just witnessed Sarah being killed and Zoe felt the anger from her group as they started to brutally kill every skin eater that come towards them. Zoe tried to look for something that would get the out of this mess. They needed to get into that restaurant before they were all killed by the skin eaters.
As Zoe killed a skin eater that was in front of her she saw their possible way out. The petrol station lay just opposite them and Zoe had nearly forgotten about the gun stashed in the waistband of her jeans.
Zoe reached around for her gun and pulled it out and pointed it towards the petrol station. Jeff must’ve realised what she was doing as he came beside her and started to take out the skin eaters that were coming toward her.
Zoe clutched the gun with both of her hands and took a deep breath and took a shot.
It didn’t hit her intended target and the bullet bounced on the ground. The noise from the gun drew skin eaters heads towards her and Jeff, making more of them come towards her.
‘It’s now or never’ Zoe thought.
Zoe moved the gun to point more towards the right, again took another deep breath, pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet flew through the air before hitting Zoe’s intended target.
The petrol station erupted into flames and started to blow up, the smell of petrol invading Zoe’s nose and as the blast rang out it sent both her and Jeff flying backwards into the grass behind them. Skin eater blood seemed to rain down on them as well as they steadied themselves and stood back up. Zoe spotted skin eater body parts hitting the ground and some of them had been caught up in the flames and were shuffling around, almost like they were confused as to what had just happened.
“Get into the restaurant now!” Zoe heard a muffled voice yell.
Zoe’s ears rang from the blast of the petrol station and she felt Jeff pull her towards the restaurant before the skin eaters that hadn’t been distracted from the petrol station blast started to come towards them.
Zoe ran with Jeff towards the restaurant. They were lucky that they were already on the hill at the restaurant so that it wasn’t too far for them to get to it.
Zoe already seen Arthur and Mark taking out the skin eaters that were hanging around the door to the restaurant as Alice ran up to open the doors.
“They’re fucking locked” Alice yelled.
Zoe looked to the right of the building and saw an open window. Zoe just hoped that there weren’t any skin eaters inside.
“Follow me!” Zoe yelled to her group.
Zoe led them to the window and started to usher her group in. She wanted to be the last one into the restaurant so that she would know everyone was safe. Zoe heard some commotion coming from inside the restaurant but no one in her group had come running back up to the window to say that the place was overrun inside as well with skin eaters.
Jeff went in before Zoe and as Zoe looked to see the skin eaters coming towards her she glanced one who used to be her friend.
Sarah was amongst the skin eaters and was dragging her body with the one hand that was attached to her, her legs pretty much torn apart and her intestines dragging underneath her.
Zoe couldn’t leave her friend like this is so just before she climbed through the window into the restaurant she aimed her gun at Sarah and ended her skin eater life before it had even begun.
Zoe landed with a thump onto the ground below her and John and Lewis quickly scrambled to close the window and barricade it with a table.
“You think that’ll hold them out?” Zoe asked them.
“All we can do is hope that it does” John said.
Zoe stood up onto her feet and looked to see her group had already taken care of the skin eaters that were in here and barricaded all the doors and windows.
Zoe could hear the skin eaters outside banging on the doors and windows but so far they hadn’t managed to break through. Zoe hoped that they wouldn’t as her group didn’t have the energy to take out the skin eaters and would probably die trying.
“You little bastard! This is all your fault!” Michael roared as he went to charge towards Alex.
Mark and Mandy grabbed Michael as Jeff went to stand in front of his little brother.
“Leave him alone. He didn’t mean to!” Sophia said.
“It’s his fault Sarah’s dead!” Michael roared.
“I said leave him alone!” Sophia yelled back.
“You just had to go to the car didn’t you! You couldn’t just leave it the fuck alone!” Michael yelled as he glared at Alex.
“I’m sorry!” Alex said as he started to cry.
“That’s enough Michael!” Jeff warned.
The room was filled with so much tension and Zoe knew that all of th
eir raised voices were just going to attract more skin eaters and then they would manage to break into the restaurant. Zoe also knew that blame wasn’t going to help their situation right now and that they all needed to work together to be able to survive through this.
“Guys, we need to keep it down” Zoe warned them.
“That little bastard needs to know exactly what he’s done!” Michael spat.
“Hurting Alex isn’t going to do us any good right now. We need to think about getting out of here” Zoe said, her head starting to feel a little dizzy.
“Sarah shouldn’t have died out there! And now she’ll be one of them!” Michael yelled again.
“She’s not one of them. I made sure of it. She’ll be at peace now and she’ll be with Chris again. She’ll be happy” Zoe said.
This seemed to stop Michael struggling for a minute to get at Alex as he thought about what Zoe said. It was true that Sarah would be with Chris now and more happier than what she had been when she was here, living on earth. However, Michael’s calm ended and the rage erupted through him again.
“I bet she wasn’t happy when she was in agony being torn apart by skin eaters! Let me get my hand on the little prick!” Michael roared.
“Over my dead body you’ll get your hands on my brother” Jeff almost growled.
Zoe saw Jeff reach for his own gun in the back of his jeans. Zoe knew that Jeff would kill Michael if he laid a hand on his brother and that was something their group would never manage to get over.
“You will be dead since you’re siding with him” Michael spat.
“He’s my brother you asshole!” Jeff yelled.
“It’s a shame you can’t choose your family eh?” Michael sneered.
“You ignorant bastard” Jeff growled this time.
Zoe couldn’t take their fighting anymore and more people in her group were starting to get involved. They were split in two with Michael, Mark, Mandy and Lewis on one side and the rest standing with Jeff. Zoe didn’t want to see their group being split like this so she took it upon herself to go in between them.
“Guys, stop this now! We’re not safe here and we’re wasting time trying to get out of here! Fighting like this isn’t going to solve anything!” Zoe yelled over them.
