Ordinary (Exceptional Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

welcoming place to stay when they arrived. She owed it to Po, and Kemp, and the others from her settlement. She owed it to Stosh, Sabine, and Max. She had ripped everyone from their homes, and now she felt responsible. If they got south only to find it desolate and abandoned, she wouldn't have anymore answers for them, and she sure wasn't ready to crawl back to Heath with her tail between her legs.
     
     

     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
    [ ally ]
     
    Ally woke the following morning with an ache behind her eyes. She knew it was morning because the back door of the transport was propped open, and rays of sunshine poked into the space. It took her a few seconds to adjust to sitting straight up, but soon she was lowering herself out of the transport.
    This time the transport was parked in a large concrete lot of some sort. The iron skeleton of an old building sat to one side, and there were bent and broken light posts scattered around the space.
    She spotted Max, Sabine, and Lilla immediately. They were bending down over a small pile of wood and brush, trying to get a fire going. Ally approached them slowly, standing behind them to watch.
    Sabine noticed her first, standing up quickly. "You're awake!"
    In the light, Ally noticed a long, thin gash across Sabine's forehead. She hadn't seen it last night.
    "It's nothing." Sabine brought her hand to her head. "How are you feeling?"
    Max was bent low to the ground now, blowing on a few sparks of fire to get a larger one going.
    "Fine," Ally answer. "Like I said to Max, it was all in my head."
    Lilla prodded the fire once it looked like it wasn't going to blow out. "Stosh and Luke are out hunting. I guess we passed a large wooded area a mile back, and they thought maybe they could catch some game."
    Max stood and brushed his hands on his linen pants. "It seemed best if I stay behind."
    Ally regarded him for a moment. She knew Max was alluding to the fact that he and Luke were their best protection. Max didn't have any abilities to aid them in a fight, but he had strength on his side. It was natural that if he was with the group, Luke could be gone, and vice versa.
    "How long did we drive last night?" Ally asked.
    Max looked around the empty lot. "We went four hours before stopping for a break, which you slept right through. After that, we made it another six."
    Ally couldn't help the small smile that played at her lips. "We're making good time, right? I mean, we really could be nearing the southern city by tomorrow."
    Max nodded his head, but there was no hope or excitement in his expression. "As long as we don't hit anymore roadblocks."
    It was mid-morning before Luke and Stosh returned. They had caught six rabbits and gathered some berries.
    Luke approached Ally first. “Are you okay?”
    She just nodded and waved him off, already tired of people asking her that.
    "This fresh food tastes amazing after all those dried berries and meats," Lilla said between bites of her rabbit leg.
    Ally was sure everyone else agreed but they were all too busy devouring their own food to speak up. They ate in near silence, packing away some of the meat and berries for lunch. Luke disappeared into the transport and returned with a map, placing it on a flat piece of ground.
    "We passed a sign coming into town," he said. "I think we are about here."
    His finger fell over an unreadable town name. Most of the letters had been rubbed off, but Ally could see the a large name written across the area in big letters.
    "What does that say?" she asked.
    Luke looked over the letters. "A-R-K-A-N-S-A-S."
    Sabine tried to sound it out. "Arc-an-sass?"
    Luke shrugged. "No idea, but I think these larger names are the states."
    "States?" Ally asked.
    Max leaned over the map now. "The country used to be divided into states," he said. "Fifty, I think."
    "What was the purpose of that?" Stosh said with a wrinkled nose. "Did they each have their own walls?"
    "No," Max said. "I think they just had a small amount of separation from the