DREAD (BOOK 1 OF THE DREAD TRILOGY)

Chapter 11

How am I supposed to tell Fidelis that she needs to leave her brother behind and come with me to a place full of Dreads? What will her answer be? Obviously no. Everything she does is to protect her brother and she wouldn't leave him behind if her life depended on it but what if his life depended on it? No she probably still wouldn't leave him behind. I'm still not over the fact that I basically broke Tobias' heart. He didn't deserve that but it was something that I needed to do. In the old days, back before the world went to shit, maybe there would have been a chance for him and myself. Thinking like this is toxic because things will never go back to the way they were in the old days. 

I am with Fidelis training the teenage girls survival skills. Every time I go speak to her something inside me stops the words from coming out. I want to just say it and get the conversation over and done with, even though i know she will say no she will still be coming. Yes, i'll force her.

 "Somethings off" she says to me as she is observing how the girls light fires from scratch. 

"Yeah, we suck at teaching" I state with a small chuckle. Fidelis looks away from the group and at me. Her dark hair falls over her face and she pushes it back, seeming annoyed at how inconvenient her hair is. 

"No, something is off with you. You have barely said a word to me" Fidelis states. She's right, I haven't spoken to her the whole class. I spoke to the girls we are teaching and given them instruction but I have failed to say a single word to the person I really need to talk to. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No you didn't" I say annoyed. "I kind of wish that it was you that did something wrong"

"ok... what did you do?" she asks. She runs her hand through her hair in a nervous way. Every time we have a conversation like this it either makes or breaks our friendship and I would really hate it if she went back to hating me.

"I just... I uh... I have something to tell you and I don't think that you are going to like it" I stutter on my words. This is different to me telling Tobias that he can't come. This is me telling my best friend that she has to leave her brother behind so I can control a group of dreads so I can help find a cure and potentially save the world. I don't think that it is going to go down well.

"Good because I needed to talk to you as well"

"What about?" I ask. She turns to look at the group of girls once again and she sighs.

"About getting the hell away from the shopping centre, It's too dangerous for the people living here. We attract too much danger" Fidelis says. This reminds me of the time when she tried to kick me out of The Twelve where she said that I was dangerous. I shake this thought out of my head, realizing that Fidelis isn't that person anymore. "and yes that means leaving my brother behind"Well shit, I think that this conversation is going to go better than I thought it was. I start to laugh and she looks at me as if I have insulted her. "May I ask what is so funny about my idea"

"Nothing is funny about it, it's brilliant" I say with a chuckle. She furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "I was so nervous to talk to you about that. I am leaving with Luke to go to a place full of dreads so that I can lead them and I was going to ask you to come with me. I'm laughing because I was so worried about how you would react when you were thinking the same thing as me"

The truth is... I wasn't just going to ask her, I was going to command her to come with me. This works out better because this way she won't hate me.

"There is a place full of Dreads?" Fidelis asks with great interest. "How many are there?"

"One thousand and one"

"Shit! That is a lot" She says in shock. I honestly thought there would be more, honestly I don't know how far this dread virus stretches. Are there some in Australia or Japan or any other country too? I don't know what I am dealing with. Maybe there isn't even an apocalypse in those countries and they are just leaving us here to rot because of all the stupid mistakes that we have made.