The Divide: Origins

by Grace, Mitchel

  “Freeze, or I’ll kill you!” he exclaimed.

  “I’m pregnant. Would you really kill me?” Zoe asked as she stopped and put her hands up.

  “You’re damn right I would! You . . .” the guard managed to say before they saw Rebecca speeding past them.

  “Now I get it. I can’t believe a kid duped me. Get on the ground. You’re going to explain this to Mr. Nolan because I’m sure as hell not taking responsibility for it.”

  Zoe did as he said, and he zip tied her hands together. Then he led her to Matt Nolan’s house.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Matt asked as they stepped inside.

  He was a little frustrated. They had just finished talking strategy, and many others disagreed with his methods. Liam was the main one. He was only sixteen, and his opinion meant absolutely nothing to Matt, but it didn’t stop the kid from offering it. Matt’s plan was to take back Max and scare the people in Raines. They would kill off around a quarter of their population before showing mercy. Liam and a few others thought they should ensure that they never had problems out of Raines again by exterminating every last citizen who wouldn’t join them. The others could see the value of having mercy. Raines had established a trade system, and they might just need another society to partner with to stay alive in the future. Raines could be that if Leland was taken out of power and the people of Norak flexed their muscles a little.

  “This girl helped the woman escape. Go ahead. Tell him what happened,” the guard said.

  “First, you’re going to let Zoe go,” Liam said as he stepped out of the next room.

  “He’s right. Untie her. I’m sure we can work through whatever happened. Go into the kitchen. You’ll find a first aid kit there. Afterward, get to the doctor, Miguel,” Matt said.

  He nodded and did as he was told. Once the guard was gone, Zoe explained what she did. Matt didn’t look very happy, and Liam seemed skeptical about Rebecca’s plan, but everything that Zoe had done was forgiven. Matt figured there was already enough tension without him punishing a teenage girl.

  “Don’t ever harm another one of my guards. I know why you did it, but the next time I won’t have mercy. You two should go now. I’ll make sure Miguel doesn’t hold a grudge against you, Zoe,” Matt said.

  “So that’s it? Rebecca’s probably going to die when she gets to Raines. Shouldn’t we move up the time to leave? We could go now and . . .” Liam managed to say before Matt cut him off.

  “She made her choice. I know from experience that you’re a very opinionated young man, but you’re not going to change my mind about this or any of the other things we talked about today. Go home, and get ready for the fight tomorrow. Spend time with the person you love because I can’t guarantee that you’ll get to see her again after today. We might all die out there.”

  “Is that really what a leader should say?”

  “It is. I could lie, but I don’t see the sense in it. I believe we’ll win, but that doesn’t mean we won’t lose lives. One of them might be yours. Be prepared for any outcome.”

  “Yes, sir,” Liam said and took Zoe’s hand.

  They walked back home in silence. Zoe was thinking about everything she had done that day and what could happen in the future. Liam might die, and Max was already suffering. Had she sent Rebecca to her death, too? Were she and the life growing inside her going to be the only two left when the dust settled?

  “Are you all right?” Liam asked as they walked into the house.

  “I don’t think so. You might die tomorrow. Is there any way I can convince you to stay here?”

  “No, but even if there was, I don’t think this is a democracy anymore. Mr. Nolan didn’t ask if we wanted to fight. He told us we were going to. Maybe it’s best that way. At least we’ll have the numbers to beat them.”

  “That or he’ll get two-thirds of our population killed in one day.”

  “It won’t come to that. We have a tank and plenty of automatic weapons. They even found a few vests. I’m pretty sure I won’t get lucky enough to have one, but you see my point. We’re prepared, and we will win this fight. We have to.”

  “I don’t care about who wins the fight. All I care about is if you get home safe and we get Max back. We didn’t always have these people or this city. I had you two first. That’s all that really matters.”

  “I promise I’m going to come home. I can’t die before I marry you. I’ll also make sure to get Max back, if Rebecca doesn’t beat us to it.”

  “I’m worried about that, too. Did I do the right thing helping her escape? What if she dies? It’ll be my fault.”

  “No, it won’t. She made a choice to try to help Max early. It might work, and it might not. We’ll see. I believe in her, though. I don’t know how, but Rebecca will save him. She’s always been incredible.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “Yeah. I can’t promise you anything, but I just know everything is going to be okay. I don’t know how, but all four of us are going to be together again soon . . . I mean, five,” Liam said as he touched her stomach.

  “I hope you’re right. I love you, Liam.”

  “I love you, too. Now, let’s stop concentrating on what could go wrong and spend the day together. Nolan was right. Anything past tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. If this did happen to be one of my last days on earth, I would want to spend it with you.”

  The two of them spent the day together. If it turned out that it was their last goodbye, then it was a good one. Even as perfect as it had been, as their day turned to night, they started to wonder. How is Rebecca doing? As they were getting ready to go to sleep and fearing just how bad things were going to go for her, Rebecca was beginning what would be a defining moment in her life.

  * * * * *

  Rebecca arrived a mile outside of Raines that evening. She waited until it got dark before she approached the city. It made sense because she knew from experience that not many people could be out at night. It was too cold. Maybe she was just getting used to the weather, but it seemed to her that the temperature was stabilizing somewhat. They used to be in temperatures as bad as thirty below, but lately it felt a lot closer to zero to her. Still, people wouldn’t go outside if they didn’t have to, and the guards would work in shifts when it got that cold. It was doubtful that many of them would be outside at any given time. When it was at its coldest, she would move.

  Rebecca sat in her car and waited until midnight while only using the heat occasionally. When the car died, she knew it was time to move. As she made her way to the east side of Raines under the cover of night, she thought about everything that could go wrong. What if she was caught? They would undoubtedly kill her, but would that really be the worst part? What if they showed her what they had done to Max? Would she have to watch as they killed him? Either way, she was going to know that it was thanks to her inability to rescue him that he had to go on suffering. She couldn’t let that happen, no matter what. Max’s suffering was going to stop tonight, and she would make sure no one ever had a chance to hurt him again. She hadn’t even been married to him for very long, but Max had been the most kind and protective man she had ever met. Her heart was his, and nothing was going to stop them from being together. It didn’t matter what shape she found him in. Rebecca would nurse him back to health and live her life with him. He deserved that happiness. The people back in Norak didn’t know who they had abandoned. If it weren’t for him, none of them would have a place to call their own. For that matter, Raines owed a large debt to Max, too. He was the one who recruited most of the founding members. Everyone who hurt Max was going to pay, one way or another.

  As Rebecca snuck up to Raines, she noticed that they had already started building a portion of their indoor city. They weren’t very far along, but it was both amazing and terrifying to see the process started. If Raines was advancing faster than them, then that couldn’t say anything good for the future of Norak. She quickly focused on what was important, though, and found a good
spot to climb over the wall.

  When she landed on the other side, she looked around to see that no one was there. She was sure that guards would be walking around the city, but the place pretty much looked like a ghost town at the moment. Rebecca had no idea where Max would be, and Raines had changed so much. She barely recognized it. Just when she started to feel overwhelmed, she saw a guard making his rounds on the other side of the town square. He might know where Max was being kept. She pulled her knife and made her way to the square while making sure to stay out of sight. As he was coming up the other side of the street, she hid around the corner and waited. In that moment, she found herself smiling. Rebecca had never been the type to enjoy murder, but these people were responsible for hurting the man she loved. After she got everything she could from him, she was going to enjoy seeing the life drain from his eyes. As the guard walked passed her, she stepped behind him and put the knife to his throat.

  “Drop your gun, or we can see how long it takes you to bleed out,” Rebecca said.

  He did what she said, and then she continued.

  “I’m looking for Max Green. Your people took him from Norak. Tell me where he is, and I’ll just knock you out. If you don’t, I won’t hesitate to kill you and find a guard who will tell me what I need to hear.”

  “As far as I know, he’s still at the doctor’s office. You probably won’t like what you . . .” he managed to say before Rebecca slit his throat.

  She looked down at him and took some pleasure in his suffering. He was probably one of the men who attacked their town. This was his fault, and a quick death was too good for him. Still, it was nice to be able to give him that death.

  After the man died, Rebecca grabbed his gun and headed for the old doctor’s office. There was a light on upstairs. The doc was still in. Lucky for him, she thought sarcastically and walked to the door. It was locked, but Max had taught her a thing or two about picking locks over the last two years. She took out her old lock picking set, and within a couple of minutes, she had the door open. She walked quietly upstairs. What she found at the top was surprising, however. There was only a doctor asleep on the couch by an empty bed where she had to assume Max used to be. Did that mean Max was dead?

  “Do not move!” Rebecca exclaimed as she raised her gun.

  “Hold on. I didn’t want to do it. He made me,” the doctor said.

  “What exactly did he make you do? Is Max still alive?”

  “When Max first got here, Troy had some fun with him. He cut his ear off and gouged one of his eyes out. It was terrible. I was outside the room as he did it. You should know that all I ever heard from that point was Max saying that it was worth it to protect the people he loved. I don’t know what that meant, but he cared deeply for you, Zoe, and Liam. I also heard a lot of praying.

  After Troy was done with him, he gave me some orders. I was supposed to get the body parts together to send back to Norak. There was a catch, though. I had to keep him alive. We’ve collected blood for the last year, so if I cut off one piece of him at a time, it wasn’t impossible to do. I started with something simple. I cut off one of his fingers. I had never done anything like that to someone, and I couldn’t bring myself to do more. I got the bleeding under control and waited until morning. The whole time, I was trying to build up the courage to do what I had to. I just couldn’t, though, so I came up with a different plan. I was going to inject Max with something that would kill him. At that point, I could take the body parts humanely. When Mr. Leland came knocking, I could just tell him that he gave out during the amputations. He would be angry, but things would work out, or so I thought. I gave Max too much time. He wanted to leave the people he loved with some last thoughts from him. I wrote letters to each of you as he told me exactly what to say. After we were done, I got the medicine ready. Just as I slipped the needle into his arm, Leland walked in. He was angry when he figured out what I was trying to do. They took him to a place just outside of town where some of the gatherers stay when they can’t make it back in time. Troy said he was going to see to it that Max got exactly what he deserved there. I’m sorry, Rebecca. I didn’t have a choice. This one was all Troy. He told me he would kill my family if I didn’t help him. I’m still afraid that he might when he comes back.”

  “You’re a coward. You’re blaming all of this on Troy. You could’ve said no. So what if you and your family would’ve died? Is there no humanity left in you?”

  “We don’t live in that kind of world anymore, Rebecca. You’ve got to look out for your own above all else. You know that.”

  “You’re right. We don’t. You’re going to do two things for me. First, you’re going to tell me where to find Troy Leland. He’s going to die tonight. Secondly, you’re going to give me the letters Max wrote.”

  “You can’t get out. . .”

  “I’m not interested in what I can’t do. You need to tell me what I can do right now.”

  “There are some houses about five miles east of the city that have fireplaces and wood stocked. Some of the scavengers use them when they have to stay overnight. You can go there and try to take revenge on him. I’m sure Max is dead by now, though, so you might want to forget about it and lay low here until I can figure out a way to smuggle you out of the city. I honestly don’t know how you’ll get out of here, though. If I did, my family wouldn’t still be here.”

  “There’s still something I don’t get. Why did he take Max out of the city to kill him?”

  “He caught wind of the attack Norak is planning. We’ve had spies watching your city, and it was evident that retaliation was coming soon. He didn’t want there to be any chance of you taking Max back before he could have his fun with him. Plus, I think Troy’s a coward. I would never say that to his face, but he would’ve left before the fighting started, even if he didn’t have Max.”

  “I’m going to need those letters now. I’ll save Max, but just in case you’re right and he’s gone, I want to know what his last words were,” Rebecca said.

  He grabbed them out of a drawer next to the bed and handed them to Rebecca. She was tempted to read them right there, but Max might not have much time. She had to get out of Raines as soon as possible. First, she needed to take care of one important thing, though. This doctor had hurt the man she loved, and even if he tried to give Max relief by delivering a mercy killing for him, this guy was still her enemy. He was one of them, and as soon as she left, he would probably tell a superior what happened in hopes that his loyalty would keep his family safe when Leland got back. Then they would be on her trail, and there would be no chance of saving Max.

  “I’m sorry,” Rebecca said.

  “For what?”

  “Your family’s loss,” she said and lunged at him.

  Her knife buried into his chest, and she twisted it ever so slightly. As the life drained from his eyes, Rebecca felt herself changing. The people of this world had become savage after they lost the ones they loved. She didn’t have that problem at the time of the disaster, but now she knew how they felt. They had created a monster, and she was going to make sure that every last person responsible for hurting Max felt all the pain inside her.

  Chapter 26

  Bury The Sun

  Rebecca walked downstairs and made her way to the door. She glanced outside and found that the street was clear. Then she headed for the east gate. As she got closer, she saw that two men were guarding it. One of them was simply standing in front of the gate, but the other was pacing around the building a little away from it. He probably called himself patrolling, but the truth was that he was just trying to keep warm. Rebecca snuck up behind him and buried her knife into his back. After a few seconds, he died, and she started making a plan for killing the second guard. Getting him would be trickier. She couldn’t sneak up on him, and shooting him would make too much noise. Maybe I can bluff my way through the door. What else do I have to lose, she wondered.

  Rebecca pulled her gun and walked out into the open toward him. T
he guard grabbed his weapon when he saw her, but he didn’t fire. He knew that if he did, she wouldn’t hesitate to squeeze off a shot either. When she got within a few feet of him, he spoke.

  “That’s far enough. If you take one more step, you’ll die,” he said.

  “Do you think I care? I only came here to get the man I love. What I found was that your people had taken him to another location to continue to rip him apart piece by piece. He’s probably dead, you know. I would love nothing more than for you to pull that trigger, so I could see him again. We could die here in the streets together. I would get to see Max, and at least one person who was responsible for what happened to him would be dead. Go ahead. Shoot me.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Maybe. If I am, your people drove me to it.”

  “I’m just a guard. I didn’t even go with them to Norak. I heard about what happened, but that’s all.”

  “Then there might be hope for you yet. Throw your gun down, and let me leave. If you do that, I won’t hurt you.”

  “Yeah, right. If I drop my gun, the first thing you’ll do is kill me.”

  “If I wanted to do that, I would’ve already done it. Like I said, I don’t care what happens to me anymore. What’s it going to be? Are you going to open the gate and see your family again, or do we have to die in these streets?”

  The man threw his gun down and opened the gate. Rebecca walked out and then turned around. While the guard was closing it, she grabbed him and plunged the knife into his stomach.

  “Why?” he asked as she pulled it out, and he hit the ground.

  “Because it doesn’t matter if you were there or not. You knew what Raines was doing, and you’re still here. A sin by omission is still a sin. That wound will only take two or three minutes to kill you. I hit some vital organs. You’ll bleed out quickly. It’s better than you deserve.”

  The man started to howl in pain. Rebecca took her gun back out and pointed it at him to keep him quiet. He stayed as silent as he could until he passed out from the pain. Rebecca knew he wouldn’t ever wake up again, so she started moving in the direction of where the houses supposedly were. It felt like she walked forever in the freezing cold. It was odd, but she wasn’t concerned for herself. Rebecca kept thinking about how Max was. He was probably dead. She knew that, but when she closed her eyes, she could still see the amazing life she had planned for them. That couldn’t be all in her head. It had to be a reality.