The Divide: Origins (5 page)

“Of
course not, but this was different.”

“It
really wasn’t. She had something wrong with her that made her not herself for a
moment. It was an accident. From what you described, she regretted it when she
was herself again. Then you lost your mind for a while. Most would have, if
they walked in on a scene like that. You killed her, but it wasn’t intentional.
It was like being a careless driver who got someone killed. When you look back,
you wish you had done something to prevent the accident, but none of it was
ever intentional. If you love your wife and she loved you, then I would hold
onto that. Life doesn’t always end well. That doesn’t mean the ride to the end
wasn’t extraordinary.”

“How
did a fourteen year old get so smart?”

“I’m
not fourteen yet, and I’m not smart at all. I can just see the obvious. You
can’t because you’re a little too close to it. Anyway, how old are you?”

“Thirty-seven.”

“Oh,
so you’re really old then,” Zoe joked.

“Hey,
I could’ve lied to you.”

“You
should have. Now you’re going to be getting old jokes from me for the rest of
your life,” she teased before the sound of lightning hitting a house close by
made her jump.

“It’s
going to be okay,” Max said and laid his hand on her shoulder.

The
weather only got worse, and before it was over, the sound of wind was
deafening. At one point, it sounded like the loudest train possible was just
outside the house. Zoe didn’t hesitate to get close to Max. It was strange, but
this young girl was all he had now. She was his friend, dependent, and partner
all rolled into one. If either of them were going to survive this, he knew they
would have to work together. Jerome wasn’t going to be any help. Even if he
didn’t want to acknowledge it, Jerome would have to die before it was all over.
The weirdest part of all of this, though, was how tightly Zoe was holding onto
him through the storm. It was on that day when Max realized what he was really
going to be to this girl. Zoe’s parents were dead, and she needed someone to
look after her. Even if he didn’t want the job, he was going to be the closest
thing to a father she would ever have.

After
several hours, the storm finally passed, and they were able to get out of the
bathtub. By that time, it was already starting to cool off. Soon they would
probably be burning wood all over again. That wasn’t what Zoe cared about,
though. When she looked out the window, she saw something shocking.

“Do
you guys believe in God?” she asked.

“I
don’t know anymore,”
Max
said.

“Hell
no! What God would allow this to happen?” Jerome asked.

“Maybe
you should reconsider,” Zoe said and pointed out the window.

When
Max and Jerome looked outside, they saw exactly what she was talking about.
None of them should have been alive. Every house on the block had been
destroyed by what was likely a tornado. Theirs was the only one that was left
standing.

“Maybe
there is a God, after all,” Max said to himself and smiled.

They
had survived day two, but the night held a few challenges for them. Could Max
kill the man who was supposed to be his best friend?

Chapter 5

When To Take A Life

As
night fell, it got cold again. They managed to build a fire, but they were
starting to run low on wood. If this kept up, they would be burning tables
before it was over. Still, there was enough to keep them warm for the night. As
Max and Zoe drifted off, Jerome plotted. Zoe had an undesirable affect on his
friend. Max wasn’t thinking clearly. Much like real world rules didn’t apply in
prison, this was a different kind of world where the soft would be punished. That
girl was going to get them killed before it was over, and it was time to take
care of her. There was a problem with that, though. He didn’t know where Max
had hidden their guns. He hadn’t been able to look for them because he had been
either taking cover by the air conditioner or fireplace. Now was the time to
figure something out. Max would understand after it was over.

Jerome
got up and walked to the kitchen where he found a knife. It was plenty big
enough for the job he had in mind. He walked back into the living room and
leaned down by Zoe. Then he put his hand over her mouth.

“Make
one sound, and I’ll kill you,” he said as she woke up.

Zoe
could feel the knife pressing into her back, so she didn’t dare make a sound.
She simply did as he commanded. He led her upstairs. It would be easier to kill
her out of Max’s sight. What he didn’t know was that while they were walking
upstairs, Max had woken up. He turned to see that Zoe was gone. He knew he had
to act fast, so he pulled his pistol and bolted for the stairs. When he reached
the top, what he saw made him cringe. Jerome had a knife against Zoe’s throat.

“If
you don’t let her go, I’ll have to kill you,” he said.

“Think
about it for a minute, Max. This girl is holding us back. Are you really
willing to kill me over deadweight?” Jerome asked.

“More
willing than you might think,” Max said as he raised his gun.

The
knife was so close to cutting into Zoe. With one flick of the wrist, she could
end up lying in a pool of her own blood. Max needed to be careful, but this had
to end soon.

“So
four years in a cell means nothing to you, huh? Who saved your sorry ass time
and time again? No one else would look out for you, but I was there. Now you’re
just going to throw that away for some girl we don’t even know. Face it! The
world has changed. Innocence is a liability. People like us rule this world
now. You can get with the program or get dragged down,” Jerome said.

“Good
luck with that train of thought. I’m the one holding the gun.”

“You
won’t pull the trigger. This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to get rid of
her, and you’re going to give me your gun. If you don’t, you’ll be next.”

“Max,
just shoot him,” Zoe said.

“Shut
up, you little . . .” Jerome managed to say before Max fired.

They
fell to the floor. There was so much blood. Max couldn’t tell what had
happened. Had he hit his mark, and most importantly, had Zoe been hurt in the
process? He ran to them and pulled Zoe away from Jerome. She appeared to just
be shaken. When he looked down at Jerome, however, he felt the weight of what
he had done. His cellmate over the last four years was lying in a pool of his
own blood. He was dead.

“Thank
you. I thought for sure he was going to kill me,” Zoe said.

As
Max looked down at her, he realized that what he did was wrong in no way. This
man might have been his friend at one time, but he was also toxic. He had saved
an innocent girl’s life, and no sin could be too much to bear if that was the
result.

“Come
on. Let’s get you washed up,” Max said.

“How?
We don’t have power to anything but an air conditioner.”

“I’m
going to hook it up to the breaker. The only reason I didn’t do that before was
because I was trying to limit the use of it so maybe we could stay here longer.
It’s clear that we’ve got to get out of here, though. In a couple of hours when
the pipes unfreeze, we’ll be able to turn the water on. It won’t be warm, but
we can shower. After two days, I’m looking forward to it. Until then, we’ll
just have to get you clean with some towels.”

“And
after that?”

“I
don’t know. I think we need to move. I’ve just got to figure out where we can
go. It isn’t like anywhere’s going to be safe, is it?”

“I don’t know, but let’s get those
towels. I don’t think I can take having this guy’s blood on me for another
second.”

Max
found her some towels, and then Zoe went into the next room to clean herself up
and change into some clothes that she had gotten at home. It wasn’t ideal. Her
skin was stained in spots with Jerome’s blood, but it would have to do until
morning. Once she was back in the living room and beside the warm fireplace,
Max asked her a question.

“How
would you feel about Texas?”

“What
about it?”

“We
could go there.”

“Okay,
but what makes you think it’s any better there?”

“It
probably isn’t, but Jerome had a brother who lived there. He was older, and
when his parents moved up north, he was already in college. They used to write
each other all the time. He even called him a few times. The main thing they
discussed over the last few months was this disaster. I thought they were
crazy, but it turns out they and the media were right for once. His brother was
one of these people we used to think of as paranoid. Every time something
happened, he stocked up on food and ammunition. He even wrote Jerome telling
him how if something did happen that he needed to find a way to get to Texas.
He’s supposed to have enough food to last a couple of years, plenty of guns,
and a generator with enough gas to power the place for a while. It turns out
that he was a genius. He’s probably the only man in the world living it up
right now.”

“Let
me get this straight. You want me to stay with the brother of a man who tried
to kill me. I’m not even mentioning the fact that you
did
kill his brother. How is that conversation going to end?”

“We’ll
lie. We can say that Jerome told us all about his setup in Texas. Then we’ll
feed him a story about how Jerome died a hero’s death. Maybe he’ll let us stay
if he thinks we were friends with his brother.”

“Do
you even know where this guy lives in Texas?”

“At
some house about an hour outside of Houston. I know it’s not much to go on, but
we’re running out of wood, and the gas won’t last much longer. We’ve got to go
somewhere, and that sounds like a good bet to me.”

“All
right. I’ll follow your lead on this one. That’s a long drive, though. How are
we going to survive that long in these conditions?”

“We
can gather everything possible here. We’ll bring all the canned goods and the
bottled water from the fridge. As for the heat, I know the truck air
conditioner won’t keep up, but we’ll find a way to manage. At night, we won’t
have a choice other than to find shelter if things keep going like they are. I
can’t drive in a blizzard. We can look for more houses like this one as the day
gets late, and we’ll simply make it our own for the night.”

“And
what if someone’s already staying in it?”

“We’ll
do what we have to.”

“No,
we won’t. Your friends killed everyone who lived here. We can’t be those
people.”

“First
of all, stop calling them my friends. I hated Stanley and Vincent, and Jerome
was simply someone I got stuck with. It’s true that I thought he was a friend
at one time, but that was before I knew how sick he was.”

“All
right, so they weren’t your friends, but you still haven’t told me how we’re
going to take the houses without killing anyone.”

“We’ll
ask nicely if we can stay,” Max said sarcastically.

“I’m
being serious.”

“We
really will ask first. If they turn us away and we’re freezing to death,
though, you need to be willing to do whatever it takes to survive. I don’t like
saying this to a kid, but you’ve got to grow up fast. Nothing about the rest of
our lives is going to be pretty if we want to grow old. We’ll have to do things
we regret, but I promise nothing we do will ever be out of anything other than
necessity.”

“I
can accept that. Don’t worry about saying anything to a
kid
, though. I think I grew up two days ago. Maybe everyone did.”

“I’m
sorry. I suppose you
have
had to grow
up fast. Once we get to Texas, hopefully life will start to get back to normal.
For now, you need to get some rest. I’ll wake you as soon as it starts to warm
up.”

Zoe
rested as best she could, and in the morning, they showered. Max found some new
clothes in one of the bedrooms. They would be a lot better than continuing to
walk around in a prison jump suit. Finally, they were able to pack all their
supplies and the generator into the vehicle. As they were leaving, a problem
occurred, however. Just as Max was about to get in on the driver’s side, he
heard someone step behind him.

“Don’t
move, or I’ll kill you,” a woman said.

“Do
you even have a gun?” Max asked.

“You
bet I do. I’ve been watching you load this truck with plenty of food and water.
I even saw a generator. All that’s mine now. Do we understand each other?”

Max
simply turned around.

“Hey,
I told you not to move,” she said.

He
paid her no mind, however. What he saw was in no way threatening. A dark haired
woman with curly hair stood there with a kitchen knife. Max pulled his pistol and
put it against her head.

“Do
you want to threaten me one more time?” Max asked.

“I’m
sorry. I haven’t eaten since all this started. I don’t even know how I’m still
alive. Some others and I found shelter at the office where I worked. We burned
what we could to stay warm, but eventually, some looters came and killed
everyone but me. I think they thought we would have supplies, but we didn’t
have anything other than a few drinks. I escaped out the back while they were
slaughtered. Now I’m here, and I’ll do anything for a bite to eat and something
to drink. Can you please help me?” she asked and dropped her knife.

Max
didn’t want to help her. It was going to be hard enough just to keep him and
Zoe alive. This woman would only complicate things. Still, could he shoot her
when all she needed was someone to show pity on her?

“What’s
your name?” Zoe asked as she walked around the vehicle.

“I’m
Rebecca Stiles.”

“We’re
going on a road trip across the country to try to find a man who might be able
to help us survive this. What do you bring to the table?”

“I
don’t know . . . I . . .”

“Relax.
Max doesn’t want to kill you, and I don’t want to see you die either. You can’t
be too careful now, though. You
were
just threatening him. I couldn’t blame him if he shot you, but still, there’s
got to be a reason to take you with us. Maybe you could do something that helps
us survive.”

“I’ll
do anything. I just need people to be with. I’ve lost a lot, and it would . .
.”

“You’ll
drive,” Max said and lowered his gun.

“What?”

“Zoe
gave me the generator, so that’s what makes her valuable. I can kill anyone who
threatens us, and you’ll get us to our location. We’re heading toward Houston.
Do you think you can get us there?”

“I
know I can.”

“Good.
There’s some canned goods and water in the back. Get what you need now, and
then we’re hitting the road.”

“Thank
you,” Rebecca said and started to walk away, but Max stopped her and frisked
her.

“Sorry
about that. We don’t really know you yet, and I don’t want a stab in the back
while I’m asleep,” Max said.

“It’s
fine. I’ll be ready to go soon.”

After
she walked away, Max looked at Zoe questionably. He didn’t know if he made the
right decision. If he had been on his own, he probably would have shot Rebecca,
but Zoe was with him. If he had killed that woman with no thought, he might have
lost Zoe. She would have viewed him just like the monsters that killed her
friend.

“It’s
all right, Max. I think you made the right decision. She looks harmless. She
wasn’t even carrying a gun. If it turns out that she’s not who we think she is,
we’ll dump her somewhere, but until then, let’s assume she’s not playing an
angle,” Zoe said.

“I
hope you’re right. Giving charity is kind of hard in these times. We have
enough supplies for us. Who knows if we have enough for her, too?”

“We’ll
find a way to manage. Let’s just hurry her along so we can get on the road.
It’s hot as hell out here, and I’m ready to get under the air conditioner.”

“You
know you’re only thirteen, right? You shouldn’t be cursing. I didn’t think much
of it before because of everything you had just gone through, but it might be
time to cut it out.”

“You
know you’re not my dad, right?”