DREAD (BOOK 1 OF THE DREAD TRILOGY)

Chapter 3

The zombie hunting virus. Something that the world wasn't expecting, something that scientists really screwed up on. Like they didn't screw up the first time with the zombie virus. America has a bloody ego on them, they don't like it when another country challenges their abilities. Australia was coming very close to finding a cure to cancer, it was a massive breakthrough for the whole world. America was threatened of course. They didn't purposely create the Zombie virus; No they just wanted to beat Australia at finding the cure for cancer. They tried to do it as quickly as possible, but that was their problem. Scientists were almost sure it would work. They injected a cancer patient with this 'cure' they were almost sure about. One thing is for certain with science... if you are almost sure, don't do it.

I sit there in the leaders' meeting room watching TV as they announce that the Zombie hunting virus was a failure. "We have been told not to say this but I must seeing as we are all dead anyway" says the news woman on the TV. She has probably been protected since the zombie apocalypse started. "Our scientists have once again made a massive mistake... they have created a dreadful thing" she says. And just like that 'dread' became the zombie hunter's new name. "There have been about one thousand people injected with this dreadful virus. These people will kill any living thing they come face to face with, other than their own kind and you can't get rid of them!" she exclaims with wild eyes. She seems like she is on the edge of going mentally insane. "Because once you kill one you become one" Rick turns the TV off and studies our faces. He seems to be forming a plan, then his eyes dart to one of the twelve. The man that invented the Zombie scanning device at the doors.

"Can you stop these things from getting in?" Rick asks. The man shakes his head nervously, he is probably in his late 60's, and he had darker skin and light grey hair. He was fairly small but that was probably because he slouched so much. His name is Felix and I think he is absolutely brilliant. He was a doctor before the apocalypse and he does some medical work here. There isn't many medical supplies, we only had what was in the chemist and the medical center.

"No, I would need to study their DNA" Felix says slowly as if he is scared of being yelled at. Rick lets out a sigh. I'm surprised that Rick wasn't hyperventilating right now, or worse passed out. Recently he has been able to stay calm in situations like these. When he was my boss he would worry about everything there is to worry about. There is no time for that these days, we just need to deal with it and move on.

"I think that we will be fine" One of the other leaders says. I shake my head and let out a chuckle. He can't seriously think that we are entirely safe from all of the zombie hunters can he?

"I think that is ridiculous!" I exclaim. This gets everyone's attention. "No one ever thought that the zombie apocalypse would happen and it did so who's to say that they will never come here? We live in the very country the virus was created in" I say. They all look at me as if I'm an alien. I've never spoken up in a leader meeting, I'm the youngest so I wouldn't speak because I was scared that they wouldn't take my opinion into account.

"She's right" Fidelis says. I smile at her, she is a good friend of mine. She is almost a year older than me but that doesn't stop her from speaking at meetings. "We need to be able to stop them from coming in. We need to protect the people living here" She says. I nod in agreement. Fidelis was never afraid of speaking at meetings, if she had an opinion she would have no trouble getting it across.

"Okay, well we need to find a way to get DNA of one of these Zombie Hunters" Felix says. This was probably the most obvious thing for him to say. For someone so brilliant you'd think that he wouldn't state the obvious but he seems to do this a lot.

"Well to do that, they are going to have to come here" Fidelis mutters. "And that's what we don't want, so I'm volunteering to go and get some of their DNA, let's call them Dreads seeing as that woman thinks they are so dreadful" she finishes. Fidelis practically started the dread thing and now everyone I know of calls them a dread. It just seemed to stick.