DREAD (BOOK 1 OF THE DREAD TRILOGY)

Chapter 2

"Are you sure it's safe in here Ali?" Luke asks as we walk through the shopping center. I look around at the silent shops that lined the walls and listened for any sounds. I heard footsteps but there is no way a zombie could make that sound, the person was moving too fast. Luke pulled a hand gun from his back pocket that I hadn't noticed. I looked at him in horror. "It was in dads safe" Luke explains. Dad died a few months ago from a work related injury, he was a builder. One day he got unlucky when building something up high, He fell from the equipment being faulty. We got loads of money from the building company because of it but we refused to spend it as money couldn't buy our happiness while we were mourning his death.

"What made you think that you need a weapon?" mum asks. This makes me roll my eyes, I make sure that she doesn't see it though. How can she be worrying about the gun when there is a perfectly good reason for him to have one? I guess it has barely been two hours since we found out, I can understand why it hasn't fully processed through her brain that we may have our brains eaten at any moment. 

"The fact that I don't want to be eaten by a zombie" Luke says with a sarcastic smile. I take the gun from his hand. "Hey! Dad said that guns are for boys!" Luke complained. I glare at him. Sexist little prick. "And you're a girl!" He yells. No shit Sherlock. 

"Shut up!" I whisper yell. He does when he hears the sound of footsteps getting closer. I bring the gun up and point it in the direction where the footsteps are coming from. I see a figure of a man but it's dark and I can't see his face or if he is a Zombie. I saw those zombies on the TV and they were moving extremely slowly. These footsteps are fast and steady.

"Put down the gun" says a familiar voice. I could remember that distinctive voice anywhere. I put down the gun and a smile forms on my face as Rick comes into view. "Hi Alexandra, you're clearly smart for coming here" He says with a chuckle. His grey hair is messed up and there are serious bags under his eyes, he looks like he has been awake all night.

"When there is a zombie apocalypse happening, what else do you do?" I ask. Rick was my employer, he was always nice to me and paid me more than I should have been paid at my age. He is like an uncle to me and my mother relies on him to keep me safe seeing as my father hasn't been around. My brother stares at him suspiciously as he listens to the conversation. My mother helps my grandpa sit down on the closet seat.

"I was here when it started around four this morning, I called over a few of my mates, a few I called were a bit too late, I saw one turn into a flesh eater before my very eyes. Anyway I told them they better come here with some things that they wanted and they did... we were thinking that we will let people in only if they sign a contract" Rick says. A contract? bloody hell, people want to live, they'd sign anything in order to do so. 

"And what does this contract say?" 

"It gets them to agree to respect the shopping center and not steal any food or clothes. We are planning a token system so if people need things we will open up a store and have few guards around so there is no stealing without handing in tokens.... That is of course if this zombie thing hasn't cleared within the next few days" Rick explains. He has a type of excitement in his eyes when he says this. Something inside of me suggests that Rick doesn't want this zombie thing to end. The way I know him, I have a feeling that he loves feeling like a savior and a leader. 

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this" I say thoughtfully, Luke butts in before Rick can get a word in.

"So we are going to wait days to let people in?" Luke asks bewildered. "No that can't happen, people are turning into monsters as we speak and we are here in our haven. Listen if you want people to run this place you need to let people in or there won't be anyone left in a few days" Luke says. He once again shows how smart he is. I am jealous of this and I have always been jealous of this. I have always been the physical type of girl, being able to climb ropes in Physical Education at school and being the first picked to climb onto the roof at school when a ball got thrown up there. My brother was good at that too but not to the same extent, he could think rationally about what he was doing before he did it but I just go ahead and do something without thinking about my own circumstances or the outcome.