The world had been forever changed, and in the midst of it all, Max had no idea what to think. Some would view this as a second chance. The same rules from their old lives obviously weren’t going to apply. They were living in a disaster zone now. At the same time, he had to wonder what good freedom was in the world he was looking at. He could see prisoners and guards alike running out of the prison blocks. They were burning. There was no good or evil in this new world. There was only death and the violent shaking of the Earth that seemed to be torn asunder. What kind of freedom existed for anyone now?
As the Earth’s violent shakes settled for a moment, Max got to his feet and started running toward their cellblock. He had no idea if he could actually save anyone, but he had to try. He didn’t know how humane it would have been to let them burn in that building. Nothing was going to get better, and in this new world, death truly was the only mercy they had left.
Chapter 2
The Value Of A Life
When Max ran into their cellblock, the smoke almost overwhelmed him. He got down low and made his way to their cell. Jerome was inside. He had passed out from the smoke, and for all Max knew, he was dead. As he looked around, he could see that most of the cell doors were still locked. Something had to be done. He couldn’t let everyone die there, but he was running out of time. On the opposite side of the room, the flames were growing higher. He could hear screams and smell burning flesh. If this wasn’t Hell, then he didn’t know what was. There was no time to think about that, though. He dropped to the floor and scanned the room. In the corner, he saw a guard and crawled to him. He felt for a pulse, but there wasn’t one. Then he reached into his pocket and found the keys. Max ran to Jerome’s cell, and after trying to find the right key for what seemed like forever, he finally got the door open. He stepped inside the cell and slapped him a couple of times to make sure he was still alive. Jerome awoke and began coughing violently.
“Can you walk?” Max asked while choking on the smoke.
Jerome nodded.
“Well, get the hell out of here then,” Max said and helped him to his feet.
Max knew he should follow him, but as he stepped toward the exit, the cries of two men stopped him.
“Please, you can’t leave us here. We’ll do anything. Just unlock the door,” one of them said.
Max turned to see two people he had gotten to know well in his time there. Stanley Walker and Vincent Lane were men he would rather forget. They had caused more problems for him than just about anyone. They liked to think they owned that cellblock, and without Jerome, he would have been one of their victims long ago.
“Why should I let you out? You two tried to kill me last year,” Max said.
“If I would have wanted you dead, you would’ve been. We weren’t trying to kill you. We were trying to make an example out of you. That doesn’t matter now, though. This place is coming down. Can you really leave us here to burn?” Vincent asked.
Max sighed and found the key. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t leave them. After he had found the right key, they ran outside. As soon as they were clear of the building, they fell to the ground and coughed. Once Max felt like he could breathe again, he looked up to see the strangest sight of his life. Bright lights could be seen falling from the sky. It looked like thousands of shooting stars were landing all over the earth. Pieces of Ira were crashing down in a fiery blaze. At any moment, they could be killed. That wasn’t the strangest part of everything. It was the middle of summer, and it was freezing outside. As he stared up at the sky, ice started to fall. It seemed impossible. Fire and ice were raining down on them at the same time. What had the human race done to deserve this curse from God?
“What the hell is going on?” Jerome asked as he walked up.
“All your paranoid news people were right. That’s what’s going on,” Max said.
“What’s happening doesn’t matter. We’ve got to get out of here and find somewhere safe. The temperature’s dropping like crazy,” Stanley said.
“I agree, but where can we go?” Vincent asked.
Jerome scanned the area for a moment. There had to be a way off the property. Finally, he found a way to leave the prison that had held them for so long.
“That comet knocked part of the fence down. There should be transport vehicles on the north side of the prison. Didn’t you go to prison for carjacking?” Jerome asked Vincent.
“Yeah, that’s one of the things I’m here for anyway.”
“Good. You’ll hotwire a vehicle, and we’ll get out of here. From there, we’ll find a house with a fireplace to lay low in.”
“Do you actually think anyone is going to harbor a bunch of prisoners?” Max asked.
“Not willingly. The world has obviously changed. We’ll take what’s ours. Now, come on,” Jerome said.
Max didn’t like Jerome’s idea of taking what they needed. What did that mean? Were they actually going to kill innocent people for shelter? Then again, why was he so above it? He had just realized he was guilty of murdering his entire family. What did that say about him?
“Max, are you coming?” Jerome asked.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Now isn’t the time to go into shock. Thanks for saving us back there, but we need you at your best from here on out if we’re going to survive.”
Max nodded and jogged with them to the front of the prison where they found a vehicle. As Vincent was hotwiring it, Max took everything in. It was freezing, he could hear people screaming as they burned to death in the distance, and it was very likely that a huge portion of the world was completely gone. How could things get any worse?
“I got it! Get in,” Vincent said as he jumped behind the wheel.
They piled into the vehicle, and Vincent drove them off the property. It was already slick, and it was all he could do to stay on the road. Still, they found a way to make it to a subdivision about thirty minutes away. It looked nice. This was the type of place Max had lived in with his family.
“What are we supposed to do? Who actually has a fireplace in the year 2034?” Stanley asked.
“You might be surprised,” Jerome said while pointing out a chimney with smoke coming out of it.
“What’s the plan? How are we going to do this?” Max asked.
“You leave that to me,” Stanley said as he pulled out a pistol.
“Where did you get that?”
“I grabbed it off one of the guards before we left. I’ll take care of anyone who has a problem with us staying the night,” he said with a smile.
No one had any objections that they voiced. Max certainly didn’t like the plan, but as he looked at Jerome and Vincent, he didn’t see any doubt in their eyes. It was then that he understood the world they were living in. It was a place where only the strong would survive. It was tailor made for people like them who had already lived in a state of anarchy for most of their lives.
They got out of the vehicle and walked to the front door. Max made sure to hang back. He didn’t want any part of what was about to happen. Stanley didn’t even hesitate. He kicked the door in and stepped inside. The first thing he saw was a family huddled around the fireplace. There was a mother, father, and two little girls. The dad stood with a shotgun in hand to defend his family. It was too late, though. Stanley didn’t hesitate to put a bullet through his skull, and he fell to the floor. His wife reached for the shotgun, but Stanley’s words stalled her.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Do you want to live?” he asked.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked through sobs.
“It’s simple. You have shelter, and right now, we would do anything for that. Vincent, grab their weapon.”
Vincent got the gun, and they went inside. Jerome closed the door and reinforced it with a chair. They couldn’t rule out the possibility of others trying to take the place, and the lock was already busted. A chair and someone keeping watch at all times would have to do.
“Listen up! This is
how things are going to work tonight. You do what we say, and everything will be fine. Here’s the first order of business. You’ll show Stanley and Vincent where the blankets are,” Jerome said to the wife.
She nodded and took them upstairs. Max and Jerome simply sat by the fireplace with the two girls. They looked to be in their early teens, and it was obvious that they were both scared. Max wanted to say something comforting, but what could he do? Their father was dead, thanks to them.
Before he could think about things any longer, they heard a scream from upstairs followed by pleas for mercy. Max jumped to his feet and took a step toward the stairs. Jerome laid his hand on him, however, and shook his head.
“This isn’t who we are, Jerome. You know that. We can’t let this happen,” Max said.
“They have the guns. If you go up there right now, they’ll kill you. We don’t know these people. Just let it be. Write it off as them being in prison for a long time, and realize that woman wouldn’t have survived in this world anyway.”
Max sat back down. He felt like a coward doing it, but Jerome wasn’t wrong. If he tried to intervene, he would probably end up as dead as the man lying on the floor. He looked over at the girls. One of them was hysterical, but the younger of the two showed very little emotion. That was strange but intriguing. What must this girl have seen in her life for this not to affect her?
For the next hour, he heard a woman screaming for mercy upstairs. He didn’t know exactly what was happening to her, but he had a good idea. Stanley was in jail for three counts of rape, and he made no bones about it. He was guilty. Vincent, on the other hand, hadn’t done anything that bad, but he had learned how to survive in prison. In there, you get with the program and follow the strongest person’s lead, or you die. Right now, the strongest man was the one with the gun, and that was Stanley.
After they listened to her suffer for over an hour, a shot rang out. They had killed her. Stanley and Vincent came downstairs with the blankets. No one questioned what happened. They simply lay down for the night beside the fireplace. As Max drifted away, he was thinking of only one thing. Why couldn’t he have protected these people? Was he only meant to destroy? He had killed his family, and by doing nothing there, he had killed these people. Clarity about who he really was would come in the form of a dream.
* * * * *
When Max drifted off, he found himself in a familiar memory. He was coming home to his wife and child. His dream normally cut out at this point and skipped to the part where he was stabbing Kenzi. This time, he got to see himself walk through the front door, though. What he found in the bedroom was enough to make even the best of men snap. His wife had a knife in her hand, and she was standing over their baby. She had stabbed their little girl multiple times, and it was clear that she was dead.
In that moment, it all became clear to him. He remembered when he first met Kenzi. She was gorgeous, but something had always been off. Panic attacks coupled with rage would randomly work their way into her days. Max had thought about getting her professional help on many occasions, but she had always been able to manage her symptoms. He certainly never thought she could hurt him or their baby.
“What have I done?” Kenzi asked as tears started to run down her cheeks. Then she handed the knife over to Max.
He snapped. Instead of laying the knife down and calling the police, he took it and plunged it into Kenzi’s stomach. When she fell to the bed, he didn’t stop. He stabbed her over and over again until blood covered every part of both of them. Then the weirdest thing happened. He smiled. This wasn’t a grieving father or even a murderous madman who committed this act. When Max saw the man who killed his wife, he knew that he was looking into the eyes of madness. There was a reason he couldn’t remember the act until now. He truly wasn’t himself.
After they took him to the police station, it was as if he woke up from a long dream with no memory of anything that had transpired. The police report would end up saying he killed his wife and child. There was no one to say otherwise, and with no memory of the events, Max couldn’t even defend himself. Was he a monster? Maybe, but his biggest crime wasn’t that he killed his wife. It was that he couldn’t protect his daughter from her.
When Max woke up, he heard the sound of a girl crying as she was being dragged upstairs. Jerome was gone, and so was the older of the two girls. Vincent and Stanley were still fast asleep, but the other girl wasn’t. She had been so composed before, but now she looked worried. She knew it wasn’t very likely that she was getting out of there. A part of Max wanted to go upstairs and save the girl that Jerome was about to rape, but as he looked over at Vincent, he saw that his gun was gone. It would be suicide to go up there. He could still protect one person, though.
“Come with me,” Max said to the girl.
“No. Why would I go anywhere with a sick bastard like you?” she asked.
“You’ve got a mouth on you. I get it. This seems like an impossible situation, but I can get you out of this alive. I’m not sick like them. I didn’t go to prison for rape or anything like that. I had a daughter, and I could never hurt any child because of that. I’m not asking you to go upstairs with me because I wouldn’t trust someone in your situation if they asked me to do that. I’m just asking for you to come with me to the kitchen, so we can get some distance from these guys.”
“I said no.”
“Come on. I’m telling you I’ll protect you from them. What’s your name?”
“You don’t get it, do you? You killed my friend’s family, and now that monster is probably raping her before he puts a bullet in her head. I would kill all of you if I could, so I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I don’t blame you. You’re not going to survive this on your own, though. The world is a very different place, and you’ll need to have someone like me who can get through the tough situations. I’m offering to help you. Let’s start with who you are. If you’re not related to these people, then your family could still be alive. I’ll help you find them, if you just tell me how to.”
“First, why were you in prison?”
“I killed my wife.”
“Yeah, I think I’m going to pass on your help. I would be better off killing myself now than trusting you with my life.”
“You should know why I did it before you judge me.”
“There’s no reason to ever kill somebody.”
“She had always been a little unstable. I thought she was just different than most people. Ninety percent of the time, she was the most beautiful and amazing person to be around. There was that ten percent of the time, though. She would go into fits of rage. She had hurt herself a couple of times, but Kenzi never hurt anyone else. I didn’t think she could. I came in from work one day, and she was standing over our little girl with a knife. She had killed the person she was supposed to love the most. I don’t know if it was her fault. Maybe something was truly wrong in her mind, and I shouldn’t have killed her, but I snapped. I took the knife from Kenzi and stabbed her ninety-seven times. For a long time, I didn’t even remember what I had done. I still don’t know if I regret it or not.”
“You expect a sob story to make me trust you?”
“No, but I expect you to see who I am.”
“And who is that?”
“A man who couldn’t protect his daughter, and he had to listen to two other women be hurt tonight. I can’t stand to hear one more person die. I’ll protect you because in this world, it might be the last thing I have left. My daughter is gone, I killed my wife, and I just did nothing while three people were killed. The only hope for redemption I have is in you.”
“Jessica’s not dead yet!”
“She will be, though. I didn’t know Jerome was sick. Apparently he is, though. Will you let me help you?”
“Just come on,” she said, and they walked into the kitchen.
“Now, what’s your name?” Max asked.
“You first.”
“I’m Max Green.”
>
“I’m Zoe Randall.”
“Randall, huh? Where are your parents?”
“About five miles from here. If you’ll really take me to them, I can tell you how to get there.”
Max nodded and looked up at the window. The sunlight was starting to peek through. It wasn’t cold in the house anymore. As a matter of fact, it was starting to get hot. He looked out the window to see that the snow had completely melted. Max opened it. It already felt like it was over a hundred degrees outside. It was only six. How hot was it going to get that day, and how were weather patterns changing this quickly?
“No one’s going to survive this, are they?” Zoe asked.
Before Max could respond, Jerome stepped into the room and said something that could change everything about their morning.
“It’s time for us to cut ties with all the loose ends around here,” Jerome said and pointed his gun at Zoe.
Max stepped between her and the gun. For better or worse, he was going to protect a girl he barely knew, even if it cost him his life.
Chapter 3
Tears and Curses
“What are you doing, Max? It’s time to go. You must have known what was going to happen when we took this place,” Jerome said.
“I can’t let you kill her. The others weren’t even her family. They’re a few miles from here. I’m going to take her home.”
“You’re being ridiculous. The world has changed. It’s time for you to see that. Even if you took this girl home, what would it change? She’s as good as dead. Whether we kill her or the world does, it’s going to happen. We both know that.”
“Or maybe we’re all dead. We don’t know what that comet did to Earth. We barely survived last night, and it’s heating up outside. In a few hours, we could all burn to death or freeze. Everything about this new world is unpredictable. Killing this girl won’t accomplish anything, and if we’re going to die, do you really want this to be the last thing you do?”
The Divide: Origins Page 2