The Dead Saga (Book 3): Odium III Read Online Free

actually—no movements either near or far—and that was good. I was hoping that we could travel back to the truck and get moving again. Because we couldn’t just leave it there full of all our gear. It had everything we needed to survive, and while I knew that Nova could handle herself and would no doubt be able to create some new style of weapon from some old rusty car parts if she had to, I would much prefer to have our nasty ration packs and weapons that we had brought along on the trip.
    I yawned, a face-stretching, jaw-clicking yawn. My eyes watered and I stretched out my shoulders, pulling my arms across my body one at a time until I heard a satisfying click in each shoulder. I glanced back up at Mr. Skinny Legs. He was still sat there, watching me, and he continued to creep me the hell out.
    “Nova,” I whispered and nudged her shoulder.
    Her snoring lightened but she didn’t wake up, so I nudged her again.
    “Nova!” I whispered a little louder, startling her awake. To my surprise, she jumped out of her seat and fell into the footwell of the car in two seconds flat. Her weapon was in hand as she stared up at me.
    “What is it?” she whispered, peering up slowly out of the window to her right.
    I held my hands up and tried to restrain my chuckle. “Whoa. Easy, tiger.”
    She looked back at me and scowled. “Everything’s good?”
    I shrugged. “I’d hardly class this as ‘good,’ but we survived the night, yes.”
    “Then what?” she hissed, still clearly confused as to why I had just woken her.
    “I’m getting up. I’m hungry. I just didn’t want you waking and being worried where I was.” I shrugged again.
    She climbed back up into her seat and lay down again. “Nina, you should never be allowed to wake people up. Ever.”
    I leaned over the back of her seat and stared down at her, but she already had her eyes closed again. “It’s not my fault that you’re wound up so tight. You’re like a freaking cobra!” I whisper-shouted, though I had no idea why I was whispering, since she wasn’t actually asleep anymore.
    “You startled me,” she said drolly, her eyes still firmly shut. “You should never startle a ninja.”
    “You are not a ninja,” I snorted.
    “I could be,” she murmured already drifting back to sleep.
    “Whatever,” I replied tartly. “I’m going to look around. There’s a huge spider back here and it’s creeping me the hell out.”
    Before I could move, Nova was back on her feet and climbing out of the car. We were two cars high, and we precariously began to climb back down.
    “Ninjas don’t like spiders, then, I’m guessing,” I said with a chuckle as I followed her down.
    She met me at the base of the car, because apparently ninjas can climb quicker than me, and I grinned at her over the roof of the beat-up Ford that separated us. She ignored my amused stare, instead going through a quick inventory checklist of the items situated on and around her body. I’d do the same but I’d feel kinda stupid doing it. She was way more armed than me with several knives tucked into various sheaths from waist to ankle, and a shotgun strapped to her back. Satisfied that she had everything, she looked over and gave me a quick nod, and we headed back to where we’d had our campfire the previous night.
    The telltale circle of rocks and burnt-out fire pit are still there, but any other sign that we were there was removed last night. Nova set about starting another fire for us, and I emptied the buckets that I’d cleaned out and left to fill with rainwater overnight.
    Twenty minutes and we were sitting in front of a small fire with fresh water and some of the meat from last night. It was still delicious, and filled the empty hole in my stomach once again.
    “So, the plan for today?” Nova asked, gnawing on a bone.
    I threw my current bone into the fire and swallowed down my water. “We head back to the truck and hope the deaders have gone. They don’t normally stick