DREAD (BOOK 1 OF THE DREAD TRILOGY)

Chapter 12 - Fidelis

The pain is unimaginable, It's like the left and right side of my brain are having a battle. This isn't supposed to be happening... I'm not supposed to turn, not if I don't need to. I feel sick to my stomach at the thought of turning and potentially killing everyone in the centre. Alexandra told me specifically that I can't turn unless I really need to, I don't need to at this moment. The thought of Alexandra makes me feel sick, somethings wrong. I just know it, u can feel it in the pit of my stomach. She must be weak, injured or worse, dead if her control is faulting.

I need to find her. She must be with Luke, I remember him saying that he was going to get new clothes for when we leave. If somethings wrong with Alex then I need to hurry.

I find my legs sprinting towards the shopping area. Luke is at the register, his face is pale and his body is quite obviously trembling. Even from this distance I can notice the sweat beads on his face. It's not only me, Luke feels it too.

I run towards him and pull his arm. He throws his tokens on the bench as I drag him behind me. Once we are out of the shop, Luke stops me.

"Fidelis" Luke breathes. He is out of breath but it's not because of the running. I can tell from his deep breathing that he is trying to control himself.

"We need to find Ali, right now" I say urgently. I feel another sharp pain in my head and I scream in pain. "Somethings wrong with her, I can feel her weakness. She is injured." I explain to him. Luke nods slowly.

"But she only went to her room. I don't understand how she can be injured" Luke struggles to explain. Luke is finding it harder to control himself then I am. He hasn't had to get use to the feeling of his human brain fighting with his dread brain.

"Someone must be with her"

"Why would someone want to hurt her?" I shake my head at him like he just said the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"Your sister is very valuable. Either someone wants to kill her and take the leader title as their own or they want to do testing on her. So seriously we need to go right now" I state even though I can tell that he is exhausted. 'and when you get there, don't hold it in. If Alexandra is fine she will tell you to stop"

"Okay but if I try and kill someone, someone human... I want you to kill me:" It scares me when people talk like this. Since the start of the apocalypse, I have had a few people talk to me like this. One of those people being my own brother. As I was rescuing those people and coming here to the shopping centre he said to me; and those exact words never leave my mind "if I get bit, shoot me straight away, Right in the head' he said to me. And hearing that from an eight year old (which is how old he was at the time) was scary. He already knew what it meant to be one of the mindless infected, the virus eats away at your brain until you are quite literally a shell.

"Okay" I reply. He nods and we run down the halls towards leaders lane, There is no longer any light coming through the windows as night begins to fall. We can't have any lights on at night, it draws to much attention to us and the solar panel system doesn't work properly at night. Luke stops in front of the door. There are voices on the other side, voices that would have been faint to a normal human ear. Luke and I can hear the voices perfectly. It's Veronica and Alexandra. "Just listen for a bit, don't go straight in. we need to know the situation" I say so quietly that if anyone were to pass they wouldn't have heard. Luke nods in reply.

"Your uncle was the leader of the dreads before you killed him" Veronica says, "Your uncle stole the leader role away from your father, he took the serum before your father even had the chance" Her voice sounds, rough and evil. I'm not use to hearing her talk like this. I look a Luke who is shocked; he falls to his knees and continues to listen with his hand pressed against his mouth.