Dead Days: Season 3 (Books 13-18) Read Online Free Page A

done. What Anna would’ve done.”
    She lifted the gun. Started to squeeze the trigger.
    Just before she could pull, a little squirrel poked its head from around the side of the bush.
    Chloë immediately lowered her gun, smiling. The squirrel was so little and it had a red face. Chloë thought her teacher told her that red squirrels were all dead, but her teacher was stupid anyway so she was probably lying.
    She crouched down opposite the little thing. It was so skinny she could see its bones.
    “Hello, Mister,” she said, smiling. She reached her hand towards it. It was so tame, like the birds Nan used to have in her garden. “Are you hungry?”
    The squirrel jolted away back behind the bush.
    Chloë carried on smiling. She stumbled around the bush after the squirrel. Maybe it could be her friend. Maybe it was her mum or Elizabeth coming back to her in animal form, like Gurdit used to believe in and people laughed at him for it.
    “Come on,” she whispered. “I won’t hurt you.”
    When she got around the other side of the bush, it took a few moments for Chloë to really understand what she was seeing.
    There was a woman lying on the ground. She had blonde hair, although there was red in it like dried tomato ketchup. She was wearing a white shirt, but her skin underneath was whiter.
    It was then that the smell hit Chloë. The smell that made her heart beat even faster because it meant that the monsters were around.
    But there was something wrong with this lady. Something wrong with her, as her glass-like eyes looked up at the sky.
    She was missing a leg.
    Chloë gasped and stumbled back. The little squirrel was nibbling away at the bloody stump of purple and red worms where the lady’s leg used to be. It took a bite, getting its head even redder, then looked up at Chloë, nibbling at the meat.
    Suddenly she felt very sick. She didn’t want to be friends with this squirrel anymore. Mum wouldn’t eat another person. Elizabeth wouldn’t either.
    She turned away, the wind whistling through the trees, and started back to the road.
    That’s when she saw them.
    There were ten of them, maybe more. She could tell from the way they were walking that they weren’t people. They were all slumped over, and some of them had hands dangling on, others of them limped and had bits of their legs missing.
    Chloë’s heart pounded even more. She struggled to swallow the lump in her throat, as the snow fell down even heavier.
    She stayed still. Frozen still, like she was frozen by the snow.
    She gripped the necklace in one hand and the gun in the other.
    “Be brave, Chloë. Mummy’s with you.”

Chapter Four: Riley
    In the two-or-so months since the start of the Dead Days, Riley had never expected to be the one to be told he was “saving the world.”
    He sat down on this white leather chair in the corner of the bunker. It was so clean in here, so pristine, it was surreal. Like anything could be happening‌—‌anything was happening‌—‌outside, and yet he was stuck in here a million miles from it all.
    He smelled deodorant, a sweet smell, and it took him a moment to realise it was coming from himself. He’d actually taken a warm shower. Sure, there had been water at Heathwaite’s, but he’d felt consistently grubby there. And after covering his hands with creature gunk and brains just earlier, he’d needed a good scrub.
    At the other side of the bunker, over by the kitchen area, Alan was limping around, whistling away as he buttered himself some toast. The toast was ready toasted, out of a packet. A silver packet, of course.
    “So what is it?” Riley asked. The words came from a part within him, a part that had been suppressing itself since he’d got here‌—‌since Alan claimed he’d discovered the formula to “save the world.”
    But Riley wasn’t buying it. Not until he saw it. Not until he saw it, properly, for himself.
    Alan chuckled. Some pieces of toast fell down his chin, tumbled to the floor while