Title: Surviving Bristol

Summary: Six months after a virus decimates the world population a handful of survivors are left trying to live in a terrifying new world. In Bristol a group of teens band together to fight off starvation and the threat of other survivors; but the life they've built for themselves is threatened by ghosts from their past.

Disclaimer: I'm British and pay for a TV license, but unfortunately that doesn't mean I own Skins or anything associated with the show.

Rating: M (Mature themes, language, violence, the usual Skins stuff)

A/N: SoI said I wasn't going to start any new fics, or at least post any, until I'd finished some of my other stuff, but I've had this idea stuck in my head for a while and I'm clearly not happy unless I'm working on four fics at once. This is loosely inspired by Terry Nation's Survivors and the BBC series of the same name.

It's amazing how much the world can change practically overnight. Six months ago, in the middle of Times Square in New York, a businessman dropped down dead with the flu. Except it wasn't flu. Well, not the flu we were used to anyway. It was a virus. Something new. Something deadly. It's still just known as the virus, there wasn't time to name it before. And now there's no one left to think of a name. Just a handful of survivors trying to keep going. To make the most of the broken world they were left with.

Six months ago the world as we knew it ended.

"Oh my god. Are you hurt? Hello? Can you hear me?" A middle aged man with salt and pepper hair dropped to his knees in the middle of the abandoned highway. Cracks had started to form in the concrete and the man found he was kneeling in weeds. Behind him his two companions sat in a battered old Land Rover, waiting impatiently. They hadn't had any intentions of stopping, but the blonde teenage girl that lay in the road in front of him was blocking their path and he'd insisted they check on her.

Dead bodies were not a new sight to any of them, but the girl was clearly breathing and he couldn't just let his friends drive on. In his old life, which seemed so long ago now, he had been a nurse and that part of him wouldn't let him ignore an injured girl lying in the road. Her hair covered most of her face and there was a pool of sticky red blood around her head and matted through her dirty blonde locks. "Sweetheart? Sweetheart, Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear." The man froze as something clicked beside his ear and a cold metal barrel was pushed against his temple, it didn't take a genius to know it was a gun. "Easy." A female voice commanded behind him as he tried to stand. The barrel was shoved between his shoulder blades, pushing him back down to his knees. The blonde girl lying in the road sat up and grinned at the girl holding a shotgun to the man's head. With the fake blood in her hair and the dirt on her clothes she looked like some ridiculously happy zombie.
"Whizzer Effy! It worked!" She bounced on the balls of her feet, looking particularly pleased with herself.

"You did great Pandapops!" A male voice called from over the Land Rover. The man in the road risked a glance behind him and found a young lad and another blonde girl surrounding it. They all looked barely older than teenagers and yet three of them were carrying guns. Sadly in the months since the world had gone to shit it was not an uncommon sight. His friends had been right, he should have known better than to stop and try to help. That wasn't how the world worked anymore, they were back to survival of the fittest; and the fittest tended to have the biggest guns.

Effy, the brunette with the shotgun trained on the man in the road indicated for him to walk over to his friends by the car. He slowly rose to his feet, keeping his hands in the air as he did as he was told. His steps were slow and deliberate, the last thing he needed was for some trigger happy kid to blow his head off. Effy and the blonde, Panda, stood guard with a curly haired boy without a gun. He had more of a baby face than the others in his group and he was clearly anxious as he wrestled with the cuffs of his sleeves and his head snapped between the men by the side of the road and the remaining two teenagers who were pillaging the Land Rover. He and the blonde with the blood in her hair looked more nervous than the other three. They all had stone cold expressions on their faces; especially the girl who had shoved her gun in to his back, but the other two looked an easy target. It was clear to see why they had banded with the other teenagers.

The Good Samaritan nervously glanced at the shotgun in Effy's hands. Of their three guards she was the only real threat, and that was only because of the gun. She was almost as tall as him but she was very slight, if he could the gun from her and turn it on her friends it could save what little supplies they had in the Land Rover; and possibly even their lives. There was no guarantee the kids weren't just going to shoot them anyway. He inched closer to her, his gaze flitting to the gun. It was a full size shot gun, if he got close quick enough he'd be in front of the barrel and she wouldn't have the room to aim at him. He'd barely taken a step towards her when she pulled a revolver out of the back of her belt. "I wouldn't."

"Easy, we don't want any trouble." The oldest of the three men put his hand on the shoulder of the man Effy was aiming at. He was a grey haired man with a thick bushy beard and quite a stocky build, but rather than make him look intimidating it just gave him the look of Santa Claus. "Just take what you want and go."
"We will." Effy didn't appear to be one to waste words and the other two teens were as silent as the grave as they nervously watched the exchange. The curly haired boy seemed terrified by the sight of the guns.

Over by the Land Rover the older boy had his rifle slung over his shoulder as he rummaged through the boot, tossing bags over to the blonde girl. She had shoved her own hand gun in to the holster at her side and there was another holster strapped to her leg where a rather menacing hunting knife sat just above her boots. These kids hadn't just been opportunists; they had been waiting to ambush someone. Anyone. It didn't matter that the Land Rover was full of supplies; they would have stopped any car just to see what it had. Times were getting tough for everyone, with the main cities over run with gangs of survivors all fighting for what little provisions the concrete jungles still held, it was getting harder to find food and with winter on the way people were getting desperate.

There was no more national welfare, no national health service, no government, no law; there was just survival. For those who had been immune to the virus the real struggle had come not when they'd had to bury their dead or band together with strangers to find food and shelter, but when the temperature had begun to drop and the leaves on the trees had started to turn. Winter without the comfort of central heating and indoor plumbing would probably kill off a lot more of the already vastly diminished population of the UK.

"Please, we were just trying to help!" The man who had been in the middle of the road protested as he watched them take every last thing out of the back of their car. They had left the city to avoid the gangs of thieves who would cut your throat over a bottle of water, every last thing they owned had been in that car, and now lay scattered on the road as the teenage vultures picked at it.
"Yeah? Well we're just helping ourselves." The sandy haired boy with the rifle shot back, a cocky smirk on his lips. "Law of the land now my friend. Help yourself, no other fucker will."

"Cook." The blonde girl with the holster on her hip glared at the young man as he provoked the three men from the car. "Leave the camping equipment, a box of the matches, the fuel in the car and enough food and water for three days." Her expression remained hard and unmoving even as the elderly man thanked her for her humanitarianism; it had also reassured them they wouldn't be getting shot at the side of the road. Dead men didn't need matches and fuel.
"Naoms-" The young man started to protest but it was clear who was in charge as she cut him off.
"You heard me Cook." Naomi snapped, leaving no more room for argument. "We're not fucking savages; Not yet anyway."

Cook reluctantly did as he was told and tossed a few bottles of water back in to the boot, along with an assortment of tins and packets of food and all the sleeping bags and camping equipment the men had been lucky enough to get their hands on. It wasn't like they needed tents or sleeping bags and they'd still manage to get away with plenty to keep the seven of them going. "Alright! Freddie!" He shouted in to a crackling radio that looked like it had seen better days, it was held together by duct tape after an incident a few weeks earlier when he'd dropped it from a tree. A few moments later an engine revved in the distance and a white Transit van pulled up alongside them. It had been parked down the bottom of the hill, hidden from sight by the dip in the road. As young as they were these kids seemed to know what they were doing.

JJ, the curly haired boy, and the two girls loaded their bounty into the back while Cook and Naomi covered the men. Once the van was loaded Effy and Pandora got in the front with the driver, another teenager with a mop of dark hair and a lopsided smile that was directed at the girls. The other three jumped in the back with Cook getting in last. He sat with his legs dangling out of the open back door, his rifle held on the men until they were just dots in the distance. He pulled the back door shut and clamped the handle down to secure it in place. "Alright Fredster, gun it!" He slammed his hand on the back door, the sound reverberating through the metal and telling Freddie it was time to put his foot down. The last thing they needed was for anyone to follow them back.

After twenty minutes they slipped off the motorway and Freddie only began to slow down once they were on a country road far away from the Land Rover and its three very pissed off occupants. They had set themselves strict rules about going out to forage off other survivors; they would never risk it within twenty miles of the place they now called home.

The teens seldom stole from other survivors, and Naomi had actually been repulsed by Cook's suggestion of it, after all hadn't they all suffered so much already? But after six months the stores they were raiding in the villages had started to run empty and the cities were roaming with armed gangs who had no problem with stealing; or killing. They'd had no choice but to start to steal from other people. They'd struck lucky with the Land Rover, and the bounty would go a long way to feeding the seven of them for a few more weeks. There were even some medical supplies with decent painkillers and antibiotics, which apart from being particularly handy if someone got sick were excellent bargaining tools when it came to trading with other groups.

They didn't always need to steal. They'd met other people on their travels to find a decent place to call home and there were some trading posts set up along the motorways, where people could trade and barter with the added protection of armed guards watching over. The trading posts had been slow to establish at first, with no one keen to assemble with their prized possessions around so many armed men, but most of the guards were enterprising ex-soldiers. They offered the protection for a small fee and oversaw the trading, ensuring thieves and cutthroats were dealt with effectively.

The kids were a rag tag family of miscreants that had all come together under dubious circumstances, but they had finally found something they were good at; surviving. At first they'd banded together out of necessity, though they all knew each other from college, they hadn't exactly been friends, it had just made sense to stick together, strength in numbers and all that; but six months on they were more like family and the strange group worked.

Naomi had somehow unofficially been appointed the position of head of the family, level headed and quick witted she had been the one to propose getting out of Bristol and looking for a place they could actually live in, not just survive from day to day. She was also one of the few people who could keep Cook in line. He had a heart of gold and would lay his life on the line for the people he thought of as family, and actually had on more than one occasion over the months, but he was a loose cannon and often needed his best friend's calming influence. He had shown an aptitude for hunting and gathering and provided them with fresh meat at least twice a week. Freddie had known Cook since primary school and the pair were thick as thieves, he also helped Naomi keep him under control. He could drive pretty much anything despite never having obtained his driving license and despite being a bit of a stoner he was a hard worker and always pulled his weight in the group.

The stoic Effy was a dangerous beauty and a ruthless trader, she'd be able to sell her own mother if the woman hadn't died in the initial outbreak; like most of their parents. The old and the already sick had never stood a chance, and the grey haired old man at the Land Rover had been a rarity, few survivors were over forty and a lot of the city gangs were just groups of scared kids the same as them.

Panda had been with Effy when Cook and Naomi had found them wandering the streets of Bristol, the bubbly girl didn't have a lot to contribute to the group in the way of hunting or foraging but her ever optimistic attitude kept their spirits up and some days that was more useful than a hot meal. Also her aunt had had a massive house that they had called home for a while and a greenhouse full of weed that had also got them through some of the darker days.

Then there was JJ. He had been friends with Cook and Freddie since high school and was mildly autistic; he had a tendency to get locked on and the world ending hadn't exactly been great for his obsessive tendencies, though since his medication ran out he seemed to have mellowed out a little more. Cook and Freddie were able to keep him on track most days and as an ex scout he was quite useful at telling them what plants and berries were edible and poisonous; and he could make a fire out of anything.

Once they were sure they hadn't been followed Naomi gave Freddie the signal to start heading towards home. Home for them was a farmhouse on the outskirts of Bristol. It had been Naomi's idea to look for a farm; somewhere they could plant crops and raise livestock. They could grow their own food in the summer and harvest it for the harsh winters. It was somewhere they could make a go at their lives rather than surviving from day to day as they had in the city.

They had been living there for a few months and after burying the family that had died there they had managed to get the place up and running. JJ and Panda had shown an aptitude for farming and raising livestock and the others had done what they could to help. Winter was quickly approaching though and they couldn't solely rely on what little the farm provided them with. It would be different come the next winter, if they lasted that long anyway, they would have a full year to forage and harvest. They just had to last the first winter and life would get easier. They were in a better position than most with a wood burning stove for hot meals and a log fire in most of the rooms in the farmhouse. They wouldn't freeze at least; but they'd have to step up their efforts if they didn't want to starve.

The dirt road leading to the farm was long and bumpy and the van's suspension could barely take it. Naomi's stomach was lurching as she finally climbed out of the back of the van and stretched her long legs. A smile crept on to her lips as she caught sight of the smoke rising up from the range cooker in the kitchen. They could all do with a hot meal and a cold beer after the afternoon they'd had. They'd left the farm early that morning and had lain in wait for a passing car long in to the afternoon.

She kicked off her boots at the backdoor and padded in to the kitchen, the slate flooring tiles were cold against her feet as she covered the room in a few strides. The young woman standing by the cooker was oblivious to her presence. She had her back to Naomi as she fussed over a large pan of stew. Her red hair was tied up with one of those headscarves that twisted in to place and loose strands poked out from underneath it. Despite the red hair she looked the epitome of a fifties housewife standing by the stove in her apron. The last member of their little family had been a stranger to all of them, they'd found her on the road one day when they'd been foraging a little further afield a few months back. She'd come from London, where she'd left behind the bodies of everyone she'd known and set off to make a new start somewhere away from the violence of the capital. She wasn't exactly a natural farm hand, or a hunter, but she was an excellent cook and she had settled in to their group like she had always belonged.

She jumped as Naomi's arms slipped around her waist. "Hey." She murmured in the red head's ear as she held her tightly. She hated leaving her alone when they went out, constantly worrying that something would happen to her. She was the youngest of the group by a few months and also the smallest, at barely five foot one she was tiny and the blonde couldn't help but she her as fragile; despite the exact opposite being true. The girl was a fighter and had a mouth that could take anyone on.

"You're back then?" The smaller girl replied rather curtly. She didn't like to be left alone at the farmhouse, not knowing whether the rest of them would come back or not, and often sulked about it.
"Have I ever once left you?" Naomi quizzed as the smaller girl turned around and hugged her back. Her arms wrapped tightly around her neck, her frazzled mind finally accepting the blonde was home safe. They both knew the answer to that. The redhead owed her life to Naomi and it had made the girls close. Naomi almost thought of the other girl as a sister.

"Am I interrupting something?" Effy stood at the kitchen door, a smirk playing on her lips.
"I was just about to take Katie on the kitchen table." Naomi joked as she took a step back and perched against the bench beside the cooker. Katie's cheeks flushed as red as her hair as she rolled her eyes. She knew Naomi was gay but it had never really been an issue for her. She'd told her once, as they'd sat in front of the log fire in the living room drinking cheap wine and eating stale biscuits, that her sister had been gay. It had been one of the few times she had mentioned her family and even then she hadn't said much more about it. Naomi knew better than to push. Though she was an only child she had lost her mother, who had been her only family, she knew how painful and utterly useless it was to dwell on the past.

"In your dreams Campbell." Katie snapped playfully as she put a lid on whatever was boiling in the pot, probably another rabbit stew.
"Every night Fitch, sometimes twice." Naomi winked at the smaller girl as she stole an apple from the fruit bowl and went back out to help the boys unload the van. Katie shook her head at her but smiled as she watched her go. Her attention soon switched to Effy as she held her hands behind her back and told her to pick one.
"Eff…" Katie rolled her eyes, in no mood for the other girl's games, but she relented as Effy pouted at her and called her a spoil sport. "Fine, left hand."

After a moment of fidgeting Effy held out her empty left hand. Katie grumbled at her and went to walk away but was stopped in her tracks by Effy holding out her other hand to her. In it sat a bar of Galaxy chocolate, Katie's favourite. Katie's eyes lit up as she took the chocolate bar and stared at it like Effy had just handed her a winning lottery ticket. She threw her arms around her in thanks. "You're the best babe."
"So I'm told." Effy mused as she hugged the smaller girl back. "I thought it would make a good peace offering…we're going out again tomorrow."

The smaller girl's face fell. She knew as well as the rest of them that they needed to stock up on supplies for the coming winter, but it didn't make it any easier to be left behind, wondering if any of them were going to come back maimed or mangled. She pulled away from Effy and climbed up on to the bench to reach a biscuit tin at the very top of one of the cupboards, she stashed the chocolate bar inside of it.
"Katie don't be like that-"
"We'll share it after dinner, yeah?" She forced a smile on to her lips as she clambered back down. "Don't want to spoil your appetite."
"I got it for you." Effy objected. She hadn't intended for Katie to share the chocolate with her.
"And I want to share it…go clean up, dinner won't be long."

Effy left the other girl to it, knowing when to push something and when to back down. She went back outside and found Naomi and Cook sitting in the back of the empty van, their legs dangling over the side. JJ and Panda were inside going through the supplies, identifying what was needed and what could fetch a good price at trade. Effy would go and cast her own critical eye over it before the final decision on what to sell would be made, but for now she was happy to join the other two in the yard.

It was still early September and the late afternoon sun was high enough in the sky to keep the chill out of the air. Cook held out a pack of cigarettes to her with a triumphant grin. As the only three that smoked they were free to share any tobacco between them and it had been weeks since they had found actual cigarettes, they'd been living on roll ups which had tasted of damp wood. If the winter didn't kill them off then the crappy tobacco they had resorted to smoking probably would.

Effy took the offered pack and helped herself to a cigarette, leaning down to Naomi to get a light from her already lit one. The matches they had were sparse and they couldn't risk wasting any of them. Effy took a long drag, holding the smoke in her lungs for a few moments before finally exhaling, the nicotine rush was a welcome relief and she finally allowed herself to relax. They'd all made it back in one piece and had a respectful haul to show for it. Tomorrow morning they would get up and do it all again, once again risking life and limb for possibly nothing in return, but the nights were their own.

Once the chores were all done they would settle down for one of Katie's delicious home cooked meals, crack open a bottle of wine or two and maybe even indulge in a spliff courtesy of Panda's aunt. They had taken a lot of the crop with them and had converted one of the greenhouses to home them. Life on the farm wasn't all that bad really. It was better than living out of a battered old Land Rover and cooking cans of beans on a camping stove.

"We should go by one of the trading posts tomorrow." Naomi broke the easy silence that had fallen over them as they all satisfied their nicotine cravings. "Leave JJ and Panda to work the farm and Freddie can drive the three of us-"
"Why don't we bring Katie? She could use a break from this place." Effy tried to sound casual about the suggestion, but the blonde was instantly on edge.
"No, we stick to the usual plan-"
"Maybe Katie should get a say for a change." For all Naomi had been adopted as leader of their group it wasn't without the occasional challenge, usually from Cook or Effy. "She's been cooped up here for weeks, what's the harm in taking her to a trade-"
"It's not happening Effy! End of discussion!" Naomi snapped at her, more out of fear than fury.

When they had first found Katie she had been with a group of unsavoury characters who had picked her up along the motorway. A pretty girl all alone in a broken world had been too much of a temptation for the creeps who had taken her and Naomi had almost suffered the same fate if Katie hadn't shot the bastard who had jumped her. For all she had saved Katie's life getting her away from those men, it had been Katie who had saved her from something far worse than death. She wasn't about to put her in any more danger. It was safer for her on the farm.

"It's not really a discussion is it?" Effy glared at her. The others had no idea what Katie had gone through. All they knew was that Naomi had been separated from Cook and Freddie whilst hunting and when she had made her way back to the van she had a quiet grubby girl with her. Katie had been a mess, with no clean water to bathe in and roughing it in a campsite with her captors, her red hair had been stuck to her head, matted with dirt and grease. Her clothes had been little more than rags and her usually full face had been sallow and hauntingly pale. It had taken a few weeks but the girl had finally recovered and a few hot meals and a change of clothes had gone a long way to helping her.

That had been when Naomi decided they needed to get out of the city and away from other people. Katie had thrived since coming to the farm and had become the seventh member of their family, but Effy was right she was growing more and more restless with every passing day. She wasn't stupid enough to go off on her own, but it wouldn't be long before she started demanding to go with the group.

"Fine." Naomi finally relented, Effy's silence doing far more to convince her than any argument ever could. "I'll talk to her about it. If she wants to go then she can, but we take extra guns and she doesn't leave our side, got it?"
"Got it." Effy stubbed out the butt of her cigarette and flicked it away, a smug grin on her lips. "I'll tell her."
"No, I'll ask her." Naomi got to her feet and copied Effy, tossing her finished cigarette to the ground. She didn't want Katie bullied in to something if she wasn't ready for it, even if Effy's intentions were good, Katie could still have her off days when the prospect of strangers terrified her. Effy narrowed her eyes at her but dismissed her with a shrug. Naomi wasn't stupid, she knew Effy thought there was something going on between her and Katie; it helped that she had actually accused her to her face not so long ago.

She didn't get what Katie had been through, couldn't understand why Naomi needed to protect her so fiercely. She had mistaken Naomi's concern for something else and the blonde hadn't been able to shake her from the idea, she had promised Katie she would never tell the others what had happened to her. Instead she had questioned Effy's interest in the other girl and the entire thing had blown up in their faces resulting in a screaming match and neither girl speaking to the other for a week. Katie had eventually ended it by locking them both in the kitchen pantry and refusing to let them out until they were speaking again; oblivious that they had been arguing over her.

Leaving Effy and Cook outside Naomi made her way back in to the farmhouse and found Katie setting the table. "Hey Katie, we're going to the trading post tomorrow-"
"Ok. I'll make you some lunches." She didn't look up from setting the silverware on the table and her voice held a distinctly frosty edge to it. "Effy thinks you should come. Get away from this place for a bit." That caught her attention; she finally looked up at the blonde, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Really?" As excited as she was at the prospect of a trip out there was still a hint of apprehension in her eyes. The world outside the farm was still a scary place.
"Only if you're up for it. You don't have to do anything you're not ready for-"
"Naomi, I'm not a china doll! I'm not going to break if I leave the farm. I'm ready. I want to go…And I'll be with you and Effy, so I know I'll be safe." She handed the tableware over to Naomi with a genuine smile. "Can you finish the table; I'm going to tell Eff!"

Naomi watched her go with a small smile of her own, for all it was nice to see her happy she still couldn't shake the feeling that taking Katie would be a mistake. As safe as the trading posts were pretty girls still attracted the attention of less than savoury characters. There had been a few times when Cook had been approached and given an offer for her or Effy. The last time they'd been out some dirty old pervert had offered him a goat for Naomi. He'd been close to accepting when she'd smacked him around the head and informed the old man exactly where the hunting knife strapped to her leg would end up if he so much as looked at her wrong. They'd almost been thrown out of the trading post for it. The soldiers didn't put up with any crap there and they were good at their jobs, any trouble makers were banned, regardless of who started what.

Pushing her niggling doubt aside Naomi decided there was no taking the offer back, and it probably would do Katie good to get off the farm for a bit; she would just have to make sure Cook and Effy understood to stick to the smaller girl like glue. Katie was family and the last thing any of them needed was to lose any one else.