Undead with Benefits Read Online Free

something else out to do with you too. For instance? Face eating.”
    â€œJesus, Amanda,” Jake groaned, rolling his eyes. “She’s kidding.”
    I swallowed hard. It occurred to me then that maybe my decision to roll with the fugitive zombies wasn’t my wisest. I’d badly wanted to bail on the NCD after my boss, Alastaire, revealed himself to be a zombie-enslaving psychopath, and most of my squad got killed. Going on the run seemed like a decent plan when I was desperate and shell-shocked. I guess I hadn’t considered the high probability of getting eaten. Of course, I’d had other reasons for bailing on the NCD, primarily my totally inappropriate psychic crush on the undead guy who, for reasons that I now realized were totally naive, I didn’t think would let anything bad happen to me. Depressed, alone, not being around people my own age for about a year, and living in other people’s heads—yeah, Cass, sure, you’re a good judge of character.
    I rolled up the road atlas and clutched it.
    â€œI need some time to figure out the best way in,” I explained. The more I talked, the more unsteady I felt; my knees wobbled like string cheese, and a colony of floaters soared across my vision. “And I think I need some rest.”
    â€œYou’ve been sleeping for days,” Amanda countered.
    â€œRest outside of a trunk,” I insisted.
    â€œSo picky.” Amanda snorted.
    I ignored her and appealed directly to Jake. “I’m not one hundred percent. And I’m starving. Do you guys have any food?”
    He glanced sheepishly at the car. I noticed a large cardboard box in the backseat. While I watched, something small and furry tried to scramble over the edge but couldn’t navigate the flap and fell backward.
    â€œUh, probably not the kind you’d want to eat,” he answered.
    â€œSo we have to feed her now?” Amanda muttered.
    A pickup truck rumbled down the road, the driver slowing to gawk at us as he passed. I waved my hand up and down my filthy ensemble.
    â€œI need new clothes too,” I said. “Also, we probably shouldn’t just be out in the open like this. We’re fugitives, right?”
    â€œWe?” Amanda sneered.
    â€œYou think the NCD won’t be looking for me after I bailed on them?” I asked, cocking my head at her. “Plus, after that mess at the farmhouse, they’ll be looking even harder for you guys. We’re not safe until we get into Iowa, and I need to pull myself together before we even think about sneaking in there.”
    Jake and Amanda exchanged a look. I noticed Amanda’s cavalier attitude briefly slip. I didn’t know for sure the NCD would be looking for me, especially with most of my squad dead and Alastaire hopefully bled out in a field somewhere. Without me to track them, though, Jake and Amanda were likely as safe as they’d been since turning undead. Still, it seemed like a good lie.
    â€œShe makes some good points,” Jake said.
    Amanda sighed. “All right, but we’re rolling down the windows.”
    Jake grinned at me. “Welcome to the Maroon Marauder! That’s what we’re calling the car.”
    â€œNo we’re not,” Amanda said over her shoulder, already ducking into the passenger side.
    Jake moved the cardboard box of furry things into the trunk and we got on the road. In the backseat, I tried to ignore all the plaintive squeaking coming from the trunk. I suppressed a shudder. That could’ve been me back there.
    Â 
    I was probably being a little too ambitious when I decided that, out of the two bags’ worth of gas-station food Jake bought for me, I was going to eat the microwave burrito first. The cravings of the recently comatose are inexplicable, I guess. After that last bite of chewy tortilla shell and gooey, processed meat, I immediately felt sorry for myself.
    Then I felt carsick.
    Amanda didn’t want