DREAD (BOOK 1 OF THE DREAD TRILOGY)

Chapter 7

"Brodie, what happened?!" I ask him angrily. I grab the collar of his shirt and his face turns pink with fear and even embarrassment. I just realized that when he was suppose to be helping with the mission to kill the zombies he had walked into Fidelis' room while she was turning. He wasn't suppose to be there.

"I don't know, I wasn't there... I uh bailed" he said ashamed with himself. I feel myself get incredibly angry.

"YOU BAILED" I yell at him. "YOU'RE A COWARD" I scream, He looks at me frightened. Tobias puts a hand on my shoulder and I start to calm down. "I'm sorry" I mutter half-heartedly as I let go of his t-shirt. I look away from him, for all I know this could be entirely his fault.

"N-No, I'm sorry... I got scared." He says. "We had all left and then I saw them, I turned my back on everyone when no one was looking. I saw the zombies and I turned into a coward" He admits, the look of shame appears on his face once again. He is a ten year old kid, I can't be too hard on him. He sighs. "It's ridiculous because there were only five of them"

"No, I understand" I say. I look at Luke's pale face and I let out a sigh.

"This is my fault, I suggested that they send out the boys" Fidelis says sadly. "You saved Brodie once and here I am putting your brother in danger, for what? So I won't lose control, that's ridiculous" She says. When I don't say anything she continues. Felix is standing in the room and he looks at Fidelis with great interest. "I'm going to tell everyone what I am" She says. "And I'll get locked in that damn room until I have this down pat"

"What are you?" Felix asks but I feel as though he already knows the answer. Fidelis begins to explain what happened, she explains how I killed the Dread and she became one because she was the closest human. "That makes total sense" Felix says with a smile. I roll my eyes because he seems to show no interest in my brother who could possibly die. It makes me furious that my brothers life doesn't seem to matter to him.

"Okay well that's great that you explained all that but my brother is dying and you aren't doing anything about it Felix" I snap at him. I must have scared him because Felix's smile disappears from his face and he scurries towards my brother.

"Your brother has AB(-) blood which is the rarest blood type" Felix says sadly. "I can't do anything for him without the same blood and the only other person in the centre who has the blood type can't give him blood"

"And who is that?"

"You" Felix says, he looks at the ground with a frown on his face. I feel a rush of anger run through me. He looks up at me and steps back. "Alexandra we don't know what your blood will do to him"

"You said that the virus only appears in my brain" I say with a frustrated tone. Felix looks generally scared of me when I say this to him. I step closer to him and he steps back into the wall. I feel two hands on my waist pulling me back.

"Be careful there Ali, you looked like you wanted to hit him" Tobias says into my ear. Maybe because I do want to hit him. I'm so angry that he doesn't care at all about Luke's life. He lets go of my waist and steps away from me. Felix steps forward and straightens up his shirt nervously.

"You're right the virus is in your brain but I haven't checked your blood to see if it runs through your veins" Felix explains. He keeps his distance from me with a nervous look on his face. He straightens up his glasses.

"How long will that take?"

"A week"

"And how long will he survive without the blood in his body?" I ask.

"Two Three days" Felix replies. "If he doesn't get the blood that he needs within a few hours than he could end up with brain damage because of the lack of blood going through it and then his heart will fail soon after that"