Divided

by Alycia Linwood

  "We should discuss our deal." Parker waved to his men. "Search the guards. No weapons allowed." Then he turned his attention back to me. "All five of you will follow me inside."

  "Are you sure that thing won't collapse?" I nodded toward the bunker, which looked like a large box of metal. If the doors closed behind us, I wasn't sure we'd walk out alive. Hell, what if the damn bunker was impenetrable?

  "Of course not." Parker was amused by my hesitation, but he waved his hand to indicate I should go in front of him. Gathering all the courage I had, I started walking through the grass and toward the bunker. As I entered the bunker, I realized there were more armed men waiting inside, hiding behind various palettes and large wooden boxes that contained God knows what. The only illumination in the whole bunker were two reflectors in the corners, which were throwing creepy shadows on the walls.

  "I would offer you a seat, but we move around a lot, so I don't have any chairs," Parker said, proud of his little hiding place. Just as I'd expected, the massive doors closed behind us when the last of the men came inside.

  "I don't have time for this," I said, letting a bit of fear seep into my voice. My guns were still with me, and I thought it was better to show I was only an afraid little girl, so that no one could think of searching me. "You need to stop with your pointless terrorist attacks."

  "Will you provide us with more elements?" Parker's eyes were full of greed and mad desire. How many elements had he taken? How many people had he killed?

  "Yes," I said, trying to get a good view of all the men so I would know how many we were up against. "But how many would that be?"

  "Oh, I don't know." He cocked his head. "One or two a week."

  "One or two a week?" I said incredulously. "My father didn't promise you that many."

  "I know, but your father wasn't in such a delicate position as you are. We could be getting a lot more of elements if we kept attacking the poor citizens. Do you have any idea how many people visit a mall daily?"

  "I can't find that many people for you. It would be almost the same as letting you attack." I took a step toward him and a dozen of rifles turned my way. Great, at least it was easier to count them that way.

  "Easy," Parker said, and the rifles withdrew.

  "You can't need that many elements. There isn't so many of you." I waited for him to agree or deny. If there were more of them somewhere, we needed to know.

  Parker eyed me suspiciously. "Alright. How many elements are you willing to give?"

  "One element every three weeks." Laughter followed my words, and I had to think quickly. "You'd also get an immunity, which isn't cheap. How many people have you killed, Parker?"

  "Twenty-three," he said casually. I hadn't thought he'd respond, so I felt like throwing up when he did. He had killed twenty-three people? That meant he'd had at least twenty elements pass through his system! The guy had to be addicted to killing and taking new elements. He really was a true monster without conscience. If all magic disease carriers were like him and his men, we'd be screwed. It was almost comical how the government and the media tried to convince people all carriers were the same.

  "You're a dead man without the immunity." I couldn't even begin to comprehend how he could live with himself.

  "And you came here to negotiate with murderers with only two guards to protect your back," Parker breathed into my ear as he started circling around me. "We could kidnap you and ask whatever we wanted from the government."

  "You could." I tried not to flinch, following his every movement from the corner of my eye. Where was the rest of the team? They should have been here already. "But the government doesn't really care that much about me. People hate me for negotiating with you. It will be problematic enough to come up with a good story to explain things if we do come to an agreement."

  "If we make a deal, you can say whatever you want." Parker laughed. "But you're right. No one would negotiate with us except you."

  "My offer remains the same. I'll give you immunity and one element every three weeks." At this point, I couldn't stop my hands from shaking, so I clenched them into fists. Come on, guys! Where are you?

  "Boss!" a man yelled from one of the platforms. "The girl has a bug on her. Someone is trying to trace her signal."

  "Block it!" Parker barked, veins popping out on his neck. Uh oh. Somehow I didn't think I'd like to see him angry. "Where is the damn bug?"

  I pulled a small, round device out of my pocket, handing it to Parker so he wouldn't search through my coat. If he noticed the weapons, I wasn't sure he'd let me live. "My people need to know that I'm alive. Nothing else."

  "No, they don't." He threw the device to the ground and stomped his large boot over it, crushing it to pieces. "If I find any other thing you're hiding, the next thing crunching under my boots will be your spine."

  Shots rang outside and I ran for cover, throwing myself behind one of the boxes before everyone started to pull their triggers. As expected, the guards and the sacrifices freed themselves and started returning fire to Parker's men. I had no idea where their guns had been hidden, but I was glad they had them. The only problem was that there was too little of us and too much of them. I pulled out one of my guns and held it close, peering over the top of the box.

  "Find the bitch and kill her!" I heard Parker yell, and I ducked behind the box, holding my breath. The doors of the bunker gave way and Lily's team ran inside, shooting and yelling. I tried to aim at Parker's men, but it was hard to tell who was who in the dark since everyone was wearing black. It didn't help that someone knocked over one of the reflectors, which ended up pointing straight into my eyes.

  "They are carriers!" someone shouted, causing general confusion among Parker's men. They certainly hadn't expected my cavalry to be formed of people like them. Ok, we had nothing except the disease in common, but they couldn't know that.

  I nearly got hit by a bullet when I tried to spot Adrian in the mess. Was he looking for me? Someone grabbed me from behind, a rough hand covering my mouth. "I've got her!" I kicked and thrashed, trying to aim at the guy, but he hit me in the hand so hard that my gun went flying across the floor. I wanted to call to my fire, but I wasn't sure I wouldn't burn myself in the process.

  Parker emerged from behind another box, a gun in his hand. Despite all the shooting, his hair was perfect. I almost laughed at that, but I needed to get away from the guy before Parker had a clear aim at me. Stepping hard on the guy's foot, I elbowed him in the ribs. He grunted and loosened his grip enough for me to hide behind his back. Parker was either too angry to notice or he simply didn't care, so he shot the guy various times. The guy fell on top of me, and I shoved him off of me, trying to crawl away.

  But Parker was too fast, or I was too slow. I couldn't think clearly because my heartbeat was resonating in my head, and I was unable to call my elements. It seemed that my fear was blocking me from using them. I expected a painful warmth of a bullet hitting my skin, but Parker grabbed me by the arm instead. He tugged on my bracelet, a hungry look in his eyes. "Fuck your stupid deal, bitch. You have something that I want more."

  He was sitting on top of me, so I couldn't move as he yanked the bracelet off my wrist, his gun pressed against my temple. Bewilderment flashed through his eyes, followed by so much rage that I thought his one look could kill me. "What are you?" He shook me, pressing the gun deeper into my skin.

  "What do you think?" I choked out. I was sure he was going to pull the trigger, and I closed my eyes, a strange calm coming over me. Once again, I tried to reach my elements, but they didn't want to get out. Typical. I had always known elements would be the end of me, but I hadn't expected my own elements to fail me. Parker fired.

  Chapter 23

  I could hear the shot loud and clear, but it bounced off the ground. Someone had slammed into Parker, and he lost his aim. Able to move again, I gingerly stood up, watching Adrian ram his fist into Parker's jaw. A bullet whizzed past Adrian's head and I turned around to see who was shooting. I co
uldn't risk Adrian getting hit. Realizing I still had the gun strapped to my thigh, I pulled it out of the holster and aimed at the guy. My first shot went wide, but the next one hit the guy in the shoulder, his gun clattering to the ground.

  "Willing to die for the girl you probably infected. How poetic." I heard Parker say and turned to see him pointing the gun at Adrian's head. Blood trickled from Parker's nose and he wiped it off with his sleeve. "Who'd say I'd have to kill another carrier? You do look familiar, but it doesn't matter if I have seen you before."

  Adrian was lying on the floor at Parker's feet, glaring at him, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Before I knew what I was doing, I pressed the trigger. Parker jerked back in surprise, staring first at me and then at his chest. He must have forgotten me during his fight with Adrian, or he thought a stray bullet had gotten me. I fired again and again, hitting him in the shoulder, but he remained on his feet. Did he have a bulletproof vest under his shirt?

  I aimed higher, pulling the trigger until he crumpled to the ground and my gun was empty.

  "Ria, he's dead. Stop." Adrian's fingers encircled my hand that held the gun. I was still pressing the trigger. Finally, I let Adrian take the gun from me and looked at the pool of blood forming under Parker's body, his wide eyes empty and staring into nothingness. Great, another nightmare material. But I couldn't look away. Only then did I realize Parker's gun had ice all over it. My ears were still buzzing from all the gunfire, so I had to look around to see that the shooting had stopped.

  Bodies lay everywhere, some faces familiar, some not. Adrian pulled me close, caressing my hair. I leaned on his shoulder and closed my eyes. "Why does everyone always assume I got the disease from you?"

  "They know your parents don't have it, and I'm the easiest explanation."

  "My elements didn't work." I looked up into Adrian's eyes, trying to decipher what he thought of my lame, psychological, element-blocking issues.

  "When I saw him on top of you, I wanted to tear him apart." Adrian shook his head. "My second thought was to freeze him on the spot, but I couldn't risk hurting you too. Later I couldn't concentrate well enough because I didn't know if you were safe and if I was going to survive. So I think you did just fine. Sorry it took us so long to come."

  "Yeah, what was that about?" We started walking toward the door, Adrian's arm around my shoulders.

  "We lost the signal because the RC had some sort of a blocking device, so we had to look for the house or anything similar by following the road. And we had to be careful not to run into an ambush."

  "Thank God you came." I couldn't even imagine what would have happened if the team had gotten lost or stuck in the mud.

  "I would have found you anywhere," Adrian said. It was nice to feel the fresh air again and not have to look at the bodies. Lily rushed toward us, her dark brown eyes swirling with worry.

  "Are you alright?" she asked, looking at us up and down as if she was trying to find holes.

  "Yeah." I was alright physically, but psychologically... not so much.

  "Good." She rubbed her face, strange sadness filling her eyes.

  "How many?" I asked, guessing that she was upset that members of her team had died. Parker's men were all dead. That much I was sure of. No one could have come out of that bunker alive because there was only one exit. Besides, we wouldn't have any use of those men if we questioned them. They were all killers, so it wasn't like they would have said anything to us.

  "Seven." Lily wiped away a tear that slid down her cheek. "Airel and Brad are among them."

  "How many did we take out?" Adrian asked, rubbing soothing circles down my back.

  "Fifteen. I hope that's all of them. We don't need more terrorist attacks." She exhaled, her breath forming a white cloud in the cold, night air.

  "I doubt it there are more," Adrian said. "Carriers rarely gather together, especially those that kill people. These men were an exception."

  "Were they all male?" I asked, wondering what could make carriers to stick together. They couldn't share elements, so I wasn't sure what arrangement they'd had among themselves. Surely someone would fight over who got an element and who didn't.

  "No, there were a few females." Lily spotted someone behind our backs and waved. "I have to go. You guys should head home. The rest of us has to clean up the mess."

  "Do we have a story ready for the press?" I couldn't exactly say I'd had all the terrorists killed. Surely enough, no one would judge me, except other magic disease carriers who'd think I hated carriers as much as my father did. But people would ask themselves how I'd arranged for the deaths to happen, so it was better to keep quiet.

  "We won't say anything for now. It's too soon," Lily said. "Let people forget about the attack." She strode past us, and Adrian and I found a jeep to take us to our new temporary apartment.

  "You could have died!" Paula repeated for a hundredth time. I'd told her what happened with the RC, leaving out a few details, but she was still shocked.

  "I'm not dead, and that's the only thing that matters." I threw myself on the bed, burying my head in the pillow. Our new apartment was almost exactly the same as the old one, except it was in another part of the city and the arrangement of rooms was different. "Where's Michael?" I hadn't seen him when we came, and it was pretty late already.

  "He stayed with Amaya in one of Lily's hideouts. Lily decided Amaya wasn't trustworthy, so she wouldn't let her go. Michael finally figured he'd rather be in confinement with her than here with us."

  "Oh." I rolled over and looked at her. "Did Cassandra work with you?"

  "She was only watching, but she did make a few comments which might be useful." Paula shrugged. "I guess she needs to warm up to us first."

  "She will." I had no doubts about that.

  "We tested one of those element collectors," Paula suddenly said, an excited undertone in her voice. "They work great on pure elements and people barely feel it."

  "Did you try it on magic disease carriers?" I propped myself up on my elbows.

  "Yeah, and it doesn't work on them at all. They don't feel it and their elements aren't collected because they aren't pure. I suppose you can't have a pure element if you have the disease, not even if you take one from someone else."

  "Did the carriers try to suck in the elemental energy from the collectors?" If that was possible, it could change the world.

  "Yeah," Paula said hesitantly, staring at her shoes. "But it didn't work. That energy just isn't the same as a whole element. We can't turn weak elements to full elements with that either. Drinking pure elemental water helps for a couple of hours, but we don't know what side effects that could have. We certainly don't want carriers to crave elements even more or drink themselves to death."

  "Oh God." I groaned. "I drank some of elemental water in Rosentown. It just has to be that! Remember how I couldn't stop drinking and I thought it tasted like an element?"

  "Yeah." Paula nodded. "But I'm not sure how that water got in the faucet."

  "Maybe they were testing it."

  "That's a possibility," she said. "The water might have helped you for a while, but it's not safe to drink it for longer periods."

  "How about genetic manipulation? Any breakouts on that field?" I was disappointed that collectors couldn't help carriers to stop craving elements and that the strange shimmering I'd seen around the water and buildings in Rosentown was only the effect of elemental energy.

  "Not yet, although we might have the first baby with a chosen element soon." Paula cheered up almost instantly, her blue-green eyes shining.

  "Wait, there was actually someone crazy enough to let the scientists do tests on their unborn child?" Who in their right mind would risk their child's life?

  "Yeah, but I think the woman is very brave. We picked out the element we wanted the baby to have and injected the fetus with..."

  "Ok, stop!" I put my pillow over my head. "I don't need a visual of that."

  "I thought you'd like to know." Paula tri
ed to stifle a laugh. "Anyway, we need to start doing serious tests if we want the whole genetic manipulation thing to work. We can't test our theories on animals because they don't have elements."

  "Right. Do you think that whatever you injected can be used on adults?" That would be the best solution for everyone because we wouldn't have to wait years for the children to grow up. "Wait, will you have to wait sixteen or so years to be able to tell if the child's element is pure?"

  "It has to be injected before the element forms inside the baby's body, so it wouldn't work on adults. And no, we don't need to wait that long because we have carriers who can feel an element even if isn't fully developed. You know we are able to use our elements when we reach adolescence, but that doesn't mean the elements are not inside of us from birth."

  "Ok, I guess that's fine too." I threw away the pillow and sat up, dark spots filling my vision for a moment. "But what are we going to do with magic disease?"

  "We'll figure that out soon. I promise. Maybe we'll be able to manipulate genes so the baby can inherit a healthy element from one parent and not the disease from the other one, but we need more time for that." Paula took hold of my hands, squeezing lightly. "You should rest now."

  Adrian emerged from the bathroom, his hair still damp from the shower. Paula gave us both a smile and left, closing the door firmly behind her. I scooted over on the bed so Adrian could lie down next to me.

  "Do you still remember how to use your element?" He teased as I nestled in the crook of his arm.

  "Sure." My fire came out easily this time and I warmed up the room.

  "We have one problem less." He sighed, his fingers tracing a pattern down my back.

  "Yeah, terrorist threat neutralized." And we'd both nearly died in that mission. "Now we need to do something about Alan."

  "We could frame him as you suggested. He had access to my car, so we could somehow make it look like he dragged Azzurro to open the Pandora's Box and killed him later." Adrian stared at the ceiling.