The Dead Saga (Book 3): Odium III by Claire C. Riley Read Free Book Online Page A

she was smiling insanely. “Nina, did you just say that we were friends?”
    I looked away, a blush rising to my cheeks. She wrapped an arm heavily around the tops of my shoulders, making the damp from my clothes seep against my skin, and I shivered.
    “Whatever.” I smiled, pushing out from under her arm and feeling embarrassed. “It doesn’t count for much, since you’re my only friend, so don’t let it go to your head or anything.”
    “There’s the bitch I know and love,” she laughed.
    We fell back into silence as we passed through the deserted camp, only the sound of our footsteps and the rain coming down to keep us company. That and my now-raging headache. This place was much like every town that you passed through these days. Bodies lined the streets, the stench of the dead hung in the air, and it was hard to imagine what life used to be like pre-apocalypse.
    “Do you think we’ll ever get it all back?” I asked her seriously.
    Nova looked up from her feet, glancing about us. “What? The world?”
    “Yeah.”
    “No, I think that this is it now. Or at least for us. If we ever do make it back from this, it will be long after we’re gone. Like our kids—or our kids’ kids—will get to see the world for what it was again, but not us.”
    “Well that’s depressing,” I said sourly.
    She chuckled, the sound being carried away in the rain. “Yeah, it is, but it’s also realistic. That’s why we have to do what we can now, so that the world can continue on after we’re gone. However we may go.”
    “And how do you see yourself going out?” I asked. “I’m going die stupidly, I just know it. I’ll more than likely trip over my own feet and shoot myself in the face with my own gun.” I chuckled and she laughed back, but in reality it was a very real fear of mine.
    “You know that there’s total accuracy in that statement, don’t you, Nina? I mean, I’ve seen you shoot, and it ain’t for shit.”
    I opened my mouth to say something back, but there seemed little point when she was speaking the truth. Because the thing was, I could barely do anything; I somehow just always manage to scrape by through sheer luck and dogged determination. The little skills that I had learned along the way weren’t nearly enough to keep me alive. Sure, they’d worked so far, but I needed to stop making it through things by the skin of my teeth and actually go into a situation knowing that I was going to come out of it alive. Or at least a little belief of that.
    “Will you show me how to shoot?” I asked Nova.
    “Of course I will. I need a new shooting partner now that I don’t have Michael or Rachael.” Her face fell at those words, the realization sinking in again.
    “So, how are you going out?” I asked quickly, changing the subject.
    “I’m going out in a blaze of glory—a hail of bullets and fire and the dead knocking on my door.” She grinned widely. “I’ll take as many of those fuckers out as I can before that day, though.”
    “Me too,” I agreed.
    “What, before you die from your total lack of coordination?”
    I laughed and punched her in the arm. “Shut up!”
    My words died on my lips as my eyes fell on our truck. I pushed Nova in the side to get her attention and then silently pointed to the truck.
    “There’s someone in it,” I stated rather obviously.
    Nova lifted up her gun and flicked off the safety. “Who are you? And what the fuck are you doing in my truck?” she shouted out loudly.
    “ Our truck,” I sniped, raising my gun also—not that I could hit anyone from this distance, but they didn’t know that. The person inside froze, their face looking at us through the dirty windshield.
    “Well, it’s more mine than yours, Nina,” Nova said, her eyes never leaving the sight of her gun.
    “Well not really,” I said in annoyance. “It’s ours, since you wouldn’t be even doing this on your own, and since it was me that spoke to Zee and James and got them to agree