Divided

by Kimberly Montague

  Dev ran his hand through his hair. "Press release puts the death toll at 56,000. They'll stay under quarantine for another two months with cell phone signals, internet connections, all forms of outside communication completely blocked. But after that, the media will find out the real number. It was the worst I've seen it, but that's because of the vaccine. Actual death toll is over 350,000."

  "No," Gabriel gasped.

  Evelyn put her hand to her mouth, and Gary's mom reached out to take Gary's dad's hand.

  I shook my head, unable to comprehend the deaths of so many people. We'd lost over 1500 in Bishop, but that was just nothing in comparison. "But you said the vaccine made it worse? I don't understand."

  "It's unreliable. It was supposed to build up resistance by giving time-released doses of the infection." His eyes tightened, and his voice became terse instead of the sadness it had held before. "They released it to high school students in Albuquerque during blood drives. Kids got sick like I did, but worse. Some died right away, stronger kids survived only to become fully infected and without resistance. They—had to—well, they didn't make it."

  "They had to kill them?" Gary's anger matched everyone in the room.

  "Yes. And still, they kept injecting. They monitored the emergency rooms, but Infecteds popped up everywhere. They couldn't control it, and this new strain they created spreads faster. It wiped out most of the population in forty-eight hours. But thirty-three did survive and are now being trained to join the team, so they think it was partially successful."

  "Successful?" Gabriel looked disgusted. "The death of hundreds of thousands for just thirty-three is successful?"

  Dev put his hand up. "You know I don't agree. It's sick and unfair, and I—I uh—they made us—" He shook his head and laughed, but it was full of pain and anger. "I had to help capture them and bring 'em in."

  I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. "You had no choice," I whispered.

  He nodded, but his voice sounded tortured as he held me tight. "There are these two that—baby, they just remind me of us. I can't believe I—I should have let them go."

  I pulled back and put my hands on his cheeks. "You didn't do this, the military did. It's not your fault."

  "That's what Harm tells me."

  I forced myself to smile. "Well we share the same genes—that includes intelligence of genius proportions."

  He kissed my lips softly.

  "I just can't believe they got away with it," Gabriel said to Gary's dad. "How do you inject high school kids and get away with that?"

  "Inner city schools." Dev explained. "Parents who don't care or just don't have the time to read the blood drive release they signed. Oddly enough, from studying the effects of that vaccine, they're closer to a viable vaccine, but again, it still takes too long to make. We think—Harm and I—we think the infection will keep spreading only there won't be anybody else resistant to it because the tree—I forget its name—only grows in a couple climates."

  Gary's dad shifted uncomfortably next to us. "We've heard about it getting as far East as Nevada. Is it—"

  Dev shook his head. "Texas."

  No one even gasped in surprise anymore, but I could feel my eyes widen. That meant it was halfway across the US.

  Dev pulled our intertwined fingers to his face so he could scrub his eyes with the back of his hand. "Harm was headed out with the team to neutralize the targets and stabilize the area in Northern Texas. It won't be long before it's all across the US. Predictions show that it should be across North America within the next ten months, and go global in a little over a year. They can't stop it."

  I couldn't believe it. I knew—I mean we'd suspected that it would spread, but it was just too hard to process.

  "What's the estimated death toll?" Gabriel asked, his voice devoid of any emotion.

  Dev turned his eyes back to mine. They were so defeated. "112 million in the US, 10 million in Canada, worldwide—" He swallowed hard, making his Adam's Apple move noticeably. "Worldwide—two billion."

  Gary's dad stood up abruptly and walked around the room.

  "I—I—" Evelyn turned to Gabriel. "That can't be."

  I realized I had tears in my eyes, but I managed to keep them from spilling onto my cheeks. Two billion people.

  Dev hugged me to him and leaned his forehead against my shoulder. "I wish I could say I'm lying. We've seen it all firsthand. In Albuquerque, our task force was nearly wiped out entirely. We're the only ones strong enough to really get in there and fight the Infecteds. It's almost like they're immune to bullets. We go in when they're hiding out or have somehow evaded the Guard and the Army—when conventional weaponry doesn't work. But there are too many of them, and now, even with the new recruits there are only forty of us. We're stronger in hand-to-hand combat, but not when they outnumber us three to one. I—I've lost some good people."

  Gary's dad was now pacing behind the couch as he shouted out thoughts. "Are you in charge of your group?"

  "Harm is. He's our Staff Sergeant, but I'm second-in-command and where he can't go—as an Uninfected—I'm in command."

  I suddenly realized what that meant for Harm. "But he can get infected, he could—"

  "I watch out for him, baby. He saved my ass—really saved my ass. I won't let anything happen to him. And they don't send the Uninfecteds into the really bad zones."

  It didn't help me relax any. "What about Kim? And Donald and Ted?"

  "They're fine, too. We kind of have a pact to watch out for each other, but there's—well there are others in the group with different agendas."

  "What do you mean?" Gabriel asked tersely.

  "It seems the bacteria isn't black and white in terms of infection strength. Some of us are completely resistant—like me and Kim, Ted, and Donald. But some were much farther away from ground zero—so far from it that their resistance is less powerful. They are a little, uh, freer with their actions and abilities. They're a little less… ethical about the force they use."

  Gary leaned forward, making it feel like he was more a part of the conversation, "Are we talking our team vs. the Panthers kinda difference or you mean the Kn—"

  Dev gave Gary an incredibly sharp look. "The Knights and then some."

  "Damn, man." I didn't understand their comments, but it was clear Gary had. His eyes were wide, and he shook his head in disapproval. "It's not enough to fight the planet, but you gotta fight amongst each other too?"

  "Not all of them. But there are enough to make it—" Dev looked back at me and paused for a moment. He seemed to be weighing his words carefully which was a surefire signal that he was downplaying it all. "Just tricky. It's nothing we can't handle."

  I closed my eyes. He was in a lot of danger and so were Kim, Ted, and Donald, and so was Harm. I could feel myself shake a little and took in a deep breath to try to calm myself. Dev would just cover up the truth even more if he thought I couldn't handle hearing it.

  "Hey." He cupped my cheek in his hand and pulled my face toward him. "We're fine. Harm has a plan. It'll be okay."

  "What's Harm's plan? How can we help?" Gabriel looked tired as he spoke, and for the first time, he looked old—not fragile, but more weary than I could ever remember seeing him.

  "It'll—" Dev looked back to me. "He—uh—he thinks we should—"

  I pulled away from his arms. "Don't you try to hide things from me, Devlin. It doesn't do me any good not to know what's coming. All it does is delay the inevitable."

  "Evie." He sighed loudly, shaking his head and leaning forward. "There's no point to worrying when there's nothing that can be done."

  "You think you can stop me from worrying? You think—you think because I didn't know all the details, I haven't spent every second of every day worrying about you? You think you can prevent that? Hiding information doesn't help any of us."

  "Okay." He grabbed my hand. "I'm sorry." He let out a frustrated sigh. "I just don't—" He leaned back on the couch. "I'll never stop
trying to protect you." His eyes practically reached out and grabbed at me with intensity. I was about to start really yelling, but he held up both hands defensively. "But I heard you. I'll tell you everything. Okay?" He covered his face with his hand and murmured, "I’ll tell you everything."

  I ran my fingers through his soft black hair. He took my hands in his and rested his forehead against them before pulling me back into his arms.

  "They'll turn on us—the others in our group—I don't know when, but they will. These two guys with me and the six tailing me, we call 'em 'G.I. Joes.' They follow blindly and don't really seem to know anything except that we're dangerous and need to be watched when around uninfected humans. They don't watch us around each other. It's like they don't care about the power struggle between the Infecteds or how the weaker ones have died off. And they really don't notice the extra deaths and unnecessary force being used when we go in to take control of an area. Harm keeps warning them, but he's been labeled an over-reactor by the higher-ups in the military.

  "But there are some good guys," he continued. "There are some who see what they've forced us to become, and they want to help us. But they're like Harm—they haven't been given any real power. I think—I know we have to get out of there. We have to—escape somehow. I don't know how, but we just—have to. I don't want to—" He paused and looked me in the eye before lowering his gaze to my small hand in his. "This sounds bad, but I don't want to die for my country. I mean—"

  "You're a prisoner, Dev." I squeezed his hand, and he nodded slowly at me.

  "What if we went to the media about this?" Sonya asked, but Dev was already shaking his head.

  "They have forms we've signed." He made air quotes around the word "signed." "They show our consent as well as our parents'. I asked my dad; they never signed anything."

  It was apparently Evelyn's turn to get up angrily and walk around the room. "Of course he didn't. What parent in their right mind would allow their child to be forced into the military? You're still underage for crying out loud. But wouldn't the media recognize that? They'd look into it, and they'd see."

  Gabriel smiled sadly at Evelyn. "I've always loved you for your optimism. The government won't let it get that far. They can easily control the information being released. They have the media in their back pocket." Then he turned to look back at Dev. "Okay, so escape it is. What do we do? Where do we go?"

  "I can't ask you to do that, sir."

  Gabriel sat up straighter. "I assume my daughter will go with you?"

  Dev was shaking his head, but I clamped my hand over his mouth and stared him down. "Yes, I will."

  "I can only deduce then that her sister will follow, and I can't accept not being with my girls. So again I ask, what do we do? Where do we go?"

  Dev pulled my hand from his mouth and kissed it. "Uh—I don't really know. Harm has a plan, but he won't share it with me until it's necessary. He said the less I know the better." He looked back to me. "I've sent you letters—I don't know how many. It feels like I've written hundreds, but I haven't gotten any answers."

  I shook my head, my eyebrows knit together in frustration and confusion. I'd never once received a letter from him.

  "I figured you weren't getting them. Harm has too, you know. I've seen him writing them myself." He looked back at Gabriel. "So mail isn't an option, and we aren't given any phone privileges."

  "Just what is the reason they give you for that?" Gabriel was getting angrier by the minute. He was a calm man, but when someone he loved was being mistreated—well, you just didn't want to be around to see him get angry.

  "National security," Dev said tiredly. "We might leak information about our location or about how bad the infection is or how quickly it's spreading. By the way, all your phones are tapped. We don't think they've gone any further than phone and email at this point, but we have sympathizers inside giving us a heads up here and there."

  "Damn it!" Gabriel said loudly, making me jump. "I should have seen that coming. It might be my involvement on the conspiracy message boards that led to them blocking her mail."

  Dev shook his head. "I think they would have kept me from her regardless, Gabriel. They knew I was willing to do almost anything to get back to her until a few months ago. Harm thought it best that I tone it down a bit in front of them. I stopped asking when I could talk to Evie or see her. It's why I tried to make it look like I broke up with her today. It was all Harm's idea." He put both arms around me. "I'm sorry I had to say those things to you, baby. It killed me to see the look in your eyes."

  "It's okay. It makes sense. But how are we supposed to plan anything or hear Harm's plan if we can't communicate?"

  He shifted me and pulled the scrap of paper out of his pocket, staring at it for a moment. "I can call you now." He turned to Gabriel. "I gave Gary the cash to buy Evie a prepaid cell phone. He activated it from a business phone that has nothing to do with her—"

  "Mel's Pizza," Gary explained.

  "And gave them a name and address that won't get traced back to her," Dev continued. "Now, I can call her and discuss plans." He looked back at me. "I have to do it when we're out on a mission. Everyone's got a cell phone these days, even Infecteds, it seems. I can get my hands on several when we're fighting and call you. I just have to wait for the opportunity, and I'll never know when it might be. So keep it close to you, keep it charged, and keep it full of minutes. And don't let anyone outside of this room see it or know about it."

  I nodded and committed his instructions to memory.

  "So we need to prepare to be on the move?" Gary's mom finally spoke up. Gary's dad put his arm around her.

  "No." Gary shook his head. "You guys and Miranda should stay here where you'll be safer."

  "But that's the point, isn't it?" his mom asked. "We're not safe anywhere, are we Devlin?"

  "No, ma'am. It's likely to take out a third of the population without even blinking. Not that we can outrun it or anything, but I think we might be able to hide from it."

  Gabriel stood up. "Well, we don't know what Harm's plan is yet. We'll have to wait until we hear that, then we can start some plans of our own."

  Gary's dad nodded. "Agreed."

  I stood up along with Gary and Sonya as Gabriel walked toward Dev. Dev stood up, but took my hand in his.

  "You need to take care of yourself, son. I need you to come back to our girl here." Then Gabriel turned to me "Should I tell him what you were doing to yourself in his absence?"

  I widened my eyes at that threat and shook my head.

  Dev looked down at me. "What do you mean, 'doing to herself?'"

  I knew Dev wouldn't give up until he got the information, so I decided it would be best if I was the one to tell him. "I'll tell him." I answered Gabriel's raised eyebrow, "Really." I couldn't keep the sadness or embarrassment out of my voice.

  "Okay, well, you've got about four hours before you have to be back. If you think of anything else, let Evie know." He extended his hand to Dev "Really now, take care of yourself."

  "I will, sir."

  With that, I grabbed his hand and pulled him back outside.

  He put his hands on my hips and pushed me toward Chopper. "I have a special place I wanna take you to."

  Chopper saw us and moved in my direction. I still wasn't incredibly comfortable around him, but with Dev with me, I knew I'd be perfectly safe. The intelligence in Chopper's big brown eyes made me think I needed to treat him more like Butcher. "Hi Chopper. How have you been? Gone for any good runs lately?" I patted his neck, and he moved his head against my shoulder.

  The pride in Dev's voice made me so happy. "I've imagined this so many times." He wrapped his arms around me and patted Chopper lovingly. "I knew she'd love you, you big pain."

  "Don't call him a pain," I scolded. "He's very well-behaved."

  "Don't tell me you love my horse more than you love me, now."

  I laughed at that as Butcher nudged me in the leg and looked up at me. If I didn't know be
tter, I'd say he was getting jealous just like Dev, but Butcher knew he was my number one boy. "Butchie, this is Chopper." I patted Chopper again. "Chopper, this is my boy, Butcher. I hope you two will be good friends."

  Dev squatted down in front of Butcher, patting him on the head. "Here's the deal, Butchie. I have a question for you. I really need you to find a way to answer it because I won't go against your wishes."

  I loved that he talked to Butcher like an adult. He leaned forward more and whispered something in Butchie's ear. My boy just looked at him for a minute and tilted his head. Dev stared intently at him for a few minutes. I think he annoyed Butcher because he let out a loud bark. It wasn't really a vicious bark, it was his you're-annoying-me bark. Dev's mouth fell open slightly, and he looked sad, but then Butcher shoved his head under Dev's hand, begging for attention.

  Dev relaxed and even smiled. "I'm so glad you feel that way."

  He rubbed Butcher's ears for a few moments then turned back to me. "Introductions have been made and Butch has given me permission, so now we can go. I don't want to waste a single second with you."

  The Tree House

  I looked nervously at the saddle. Chopper was huge, how was I supposed to climb up on him?

  Dev chuckled. "You're so cute. He won't hurt you. I promise."

  "Oh, I know that." I patted Chopper a few more times. "But it's just—it's a long way to fall."

  He kissed my cheek. "Now see, why are you worrying about falling when you'll be in my arms the whole time?"

  I could actually feel the heat rise to my cheeks. Blushing? Seriously? What was I twelve?

  "Put your right foot in the stirrup here and swing your left leg over his back." He put his hands on my waist, making me even more aware of how close we were—or I should say, making my body more aware of how close it was to his. With his help, I managed to get on top of the horse without embarrassing myself.

  Dev, of course, put his foot in the stirrup and swiftly and expertly threw his leg over the other side like it was nothing. Being wrapped in his arms was profound. I'd forgotten how safe I felt, but it was more than that now. His muscles were even more defined, even larger, and his strength practically oozed from his pores. The way he easily held me, his upper arms brushing the sides of my breasts, sent tingles up and down my spine.