To Be A Warrior

Chapter 19: If I Could Tell Her

"Hey," I say a bit awkwardly. "Having fun?"

"Loads," Nicole replies, although her tone is flat. "Your kid here was just showing me how to make some origami animals."

"We had to use used notes from the other class since I can't use any blank paper. My teachers say it's too valuable," Phineas says with a scoff. "I know they're right, but it looks so messy. Why can't anyone in my class have good handwriting?"

My eyebrows go up slightly. "Not one person in your class has good handwriting? Aren't there like, twenty kids in your class?"

"Twenty-two, but no. I mean, not the ones who throw away their old work."

I hum. "I would suggest you could have my notes, but I rarely make notes, and my handwriting is probably worse than the kids."

"Oh, definitely," Nicole adds, earning a glare from me.

"Yours isn't great either."

"Still better than yours."

I huff, but my disgruntled manner quickly dissolves to nothing when I see Phineas's growing smile. Of course he would find Nicole schooling me funny.

"Where's your other kid?" She asks, and I raise a brow.

"Which one? I have three in total."

"The one that's here in Abel." She rolls her eyes. "I thought you were bringing Adora with you."

"She's with Sam. She doesn't have a raincoat, and I don't want her out in this weather. Just because she's immune to the zombie plague doesn't mean she can't get other sicknesses."

"The regular zombie plague, you mean," Phineas pipes up, and both my and Nicole's eyes go wide with shock. He frowns when we don't say anything. "What? Just because I'm not an adult doesn't mean I'm stupid. Abel's been talking about the V-Types for months."

"I-I know," I stammer, my voice hushed since Phineas's words have caught the attention of some of the other kids. "But we just don't like talking to it around... around you guys."

"Why? Because you don't think we can handle it?" He tsks. "The day I met you I saw my mum die, and I've seen you die." Pain flashes across his face as he says that, but he shakes it off. "We're not stupid."

"I never said you were."

"The V-Types are a sensitive subject," Nicole says. "We don't know too much about them, so we can't say much. We just know that they are unkillable, and the cure doesn't work on them, and neither does the McShell maneuver."

"If the cure doesn't work on them, then how do we know people immune to regular zombies are immune to them?" He asks, and I swallow down the lump in my throat.

I try to, at least. It's hard when I can feel so many other curious eyes on me, and since all of them are from the ages of eleven to fourteen, I know they'll be running off to tell their friends or parents about what they heard today.

"We don't, but we're not going to be doing any testing anytime soon. And you don't have to worry. You're safe in Abel, okay? Nothing is going to happen to you or Adora."

He doesn't say anything, and I sigh through my nose. He's unsure of my words because I told him he would be safe when I took him in, and then he was trapped in Abel with Ian for months until I got him and Milo out. And that was only after he was traumatized by being forced to watch me get bitten and "turn."

I clear my throat. "So, uh, you're teaching Nicole how to make origami animals, yeah? How many have you made, Nic?"

"She hasn't made any," Phineas answers before the brunette can. "She keeps messing up, so I have to finish them."