The Divide: Origins (21 page)

“I
didn’t think of it from that angle. We’ll just have to make sure he never finds
out what happened to Timothy.”

“Agreed.
I can’t believe you would actually kill a kid for Zoe or rip someone apart for
me, though.”

“Why?
Over the last few months, you’ve become my favorite person in the world. I
would do anything for you. Zoe’s like family, too. I like most of the people
from this town, but I don’t consider them my friends or family. That’s isolated
to the people in our house. I would do anything for all of you.”

“Sometimes
I think I might love you.”

“Only
sometimes, huh?”

“Okay,
all the time. I can’t believe I got lucky enough to find you.”

“I
was the lucky one. I thought I was going to have to kill you when we first met.
I’m sure glad that . . .” Max managed to say before he saw Liam lying on the
ground.

Rebecca
saw him around the same time, and she ran to him. He was awake, but Liam looked
like something was wrong. He was weak and bruised all over. He also seemed
drained and not in a normal way. Something bad had happened.

“Are
you all right?” Rebecca asked.

“I
. . . I don’t know. Something happened, but I don’t know what it was,” he said
while trying to shake the cobwebs from his mind.

“What
do you mean?”

“I
took a pretty bad beating before I could kill him, and when it was over, I fell
down and started throwing up. Then everything went black. All I remember is it
feeling like every muscle in my body was contracting at one time before I
passed out.”

“You
probably had a seizure. That’s not very uncommon when you take a lot of blows
to the head. We’ll get you checked out by the doctor after we get home, but
we’ve got to go right now,” Max said as the wind grew violent.

“Can
you stand?” Rebecca asked.

“I
think so,” Liam said and slowly stood. As he did, he nearly tripped, but Max
grabbed him.

“Lean
on me, and we’ll get you back home,” Max said.

“I’m
sorry for this.”

“You
have nothing to be sorry about. We should be thanking you. That kid didn’t deserve
to live. You did us a favor, and I know Zoe will understand why you did it in
time,” he said as they started to move.

“We
have another problem we need to talk about,” Rebecca said.

“What
is it?” Max asked.

“He
needs medical attention, but the doctor is under Troy’s control. If we take him
there, he’ll put two and two together sooner or later. Timothy’s missing, and
Liam looks like hell. He’ll realize what happened, and then we’ll all suffer
the consequences.”

“You’re
right. I just won’t go to the doctor,” Liam said.

“You
have to do something. You might have had a seizure, and we don’t know how many
broken bones you have. If your ribs are in bad shape, then you could even be in
danger of puncturing a lung.”

“I
know, but I’m not going to jeopardize our lives here. I’ll be fine. Just get me
home to Zoe, and we’ll figure everything out from there.”

Max
and Rebecca were hesitant to do so, but what choice did they have? Taking him
to the doctor would lead to exile, which was no more than suicide. A storm was
coming, and it had nothing to do with the weather. Troy would find out what was
going on sooner or later, and then nothing would be certain. Max just had to
find a way to protect everyone when that happened.

Chapter 21

A New Home

By
the time they got home, the weather was growing violent. The cool air blowing
in did nothing to stop the straight-line winds that were pounding their
neighborhood. It was the worst storm they had seen in weeks, but if there was
one thing they had learned, it was that worrying would do nothing to stop the
wind. They would simply have to ride the storm out.

After
dinner, Zoe went back to her room, and Liam followed her. They had a lot to
talk about, and she didn’t want him spending the night alone after he just had
a seizure. It might not even be safe to let him sleep. She was scared of losing
him. The responsible thing would be to go to the doctor’s house, but that would
lead Troy back to them. He had come to their door earlier and asked if they had
seen Timothy. Max, of course, said no and didn’t invite him in. Doing so would
have given him a chance to get a look at Liam’s face. Then he would know
something bad happened.

“Are
you sure you’re going to be okay?” Zoe asked him.

“I’m
fine. I took care of things like I should have. This is nothing,” Liam said,
referencing his face.

“I’m
serious. You got really hurt, and I didn’t ask you to get revenge.”

“You
didn’t have to. He deserved to die. He might have hurt you again, if I hadn’t
killed him.”

“You
could’ve died. Do you have any idea what that would’ve done to me? I can’t lose
you after everything that’s happened.”

“I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’ll always protect you, though,” he said
and kissed her.

As
he did, she wrapped her arms around Liam and rolled over on him. Things were
growing passionate very quickly, and he had to stop it.

“Wait
a minute. We’ve got to stop,” he said.

“What
is it? Oh, I’m on your ribs, aren’t I?” she asked while getting off him.

“It’s
not that. A lot happened today. You were hurt. Don’t you need more time before
we do something like this? I don’t want to . . .”

“I
knew it. You think of me differently now.”

“I
don’t. You’re still the person I love, but have you even been able to process
what happened?”

“Nothing
happened. He almost raped me, but I got away. I can’t change what happened
today, and it’s definitely going to make me more cautious around men, but I’m
fine.”

“I’m
a man. I would never hurt you, but I’m just saying that maybe you should take
some time to get over everything before we’re intimate.”

“Intimate.
Wow. You’ve never used
that
word. You
make it sound so stuffy. Fine. If you don’t want me, then we’ll just sleep.”

“Of
course I want you. Don’t be this way. You know I’m right.”

“No,
I don’t. Think about it for a second. Someone hurt me and almost did something
awful to me today. That’s going to make me lose some trust in people, and I
won’t lie. It’s traumatizing, but you’re not just any man. I don’t feel any
less trust for you than I did before. You’re the only part of my life that
feels normal right now, and I’m scared that if I let you go to sleep you’re
going to die. You killed someone for me today. That makes you worthy of all my
trust. I never worry about you hurting me. You’re the person I always want to
be with, and that includes tonight. We can just lie here and talk if you want,
but I do need to know that you don’t think of me differently because this
hasn’t affected how I feel about you in any way. If anything, I feel closer to
you.”

“Why?”

“Because
you risked your life for me. It was stupid, and I don’t want you trying to be
my hero anymore, but it’s nice to know you’ll play the role when you have to. I
think you would do anything for me. I knew we were close, but now I know how
close. You became my favorite person today. In a way, this is the worst day of
my life. Judging by your face, it’s probably your worst one, too. It’s a great
one at the same time, though. I just realized that the boy I love is the man I
need, too.”

“I
love you, and I don’t feel any differently than before. Nothing could change
how I look at you. If you don’t want to wait, we don’t have to. I’ve got to
warn you, though, my ribs are shot, I have a terrible headache, and I can’t
feel my lips. I don’t know how much I’m actually going to be able to put into
tonight.”

“That’s
fine. We’ll just talk.”

“What
I really want to do is sleep. It’s been a rough day.”

“I
know what you mean. I can’t let you sleep just yet, though. I’m scared you’re
not going to wake up.”

“I’m
not going anywhere while I have you,” he said before lightning hit a nearby
tree.

Liam
jumped. He had never liked storms. It wasn’t very manly, but Zoe thought it was
cute.

“You
can fight someone to the death for me, but you’re scared of a little storm.
What is wrong with you?” she asked and smiled.

“I
think we know what my limits to our love are now.”

“And
what are those?”

“If
your survival depended on me going out in this, I think you might die,” he
joked.

“Oh,
really? Your stock was pretty high a second ago. It’s taking a nosedive now,
though.”

“It’s
a good thing I’m just joking then. I would do anything for you,” he said as
thunder made him jump again.

“How
about this? You can protect me from people like Timothy, and in return, I’ll
make sure you never have to sleep through a storm alone. Deal?”

“That’s
the best deal I’ve ever made,” Liam said and kissed her.

Meanwhile,
in the bedroom upstairs, Max and Rebecca were having a very different
conversation. They had to figure out what to do about Liam.

“I
think we should leave,” Rebecca said.

“What?
Why would we do that?”

“Because
he has a job. If he shows his face outside, Troy’s going to know he had something
to do with Timothy’s disappearance, but if he doesn’t, everyone will find that
just as suspicious. We can’t win in this situation. Sooner or later, they’re
going to find out he killed him, and then what’s going to happen?”

“We’ll
explain everything to the people, and . . .”

“Max,
you know it won’t be that simple. They’ll string him up. Do you remember what
happened to that guy who was caught stealing? They executed him. If they’ll do
that for theft, then what will they do to someone who kills?”

“Maybe
you’re right. It’s just that we have a life here. Can we really give that up
without a fight? Where would we even go?”

“I
don’t know. I’m just afraid that they’ll try to kill Liam. If they do that, I
know you’ll get in the middle of it, and you’ll probably die, too. It’s not like
Zoe and I are going to keep our heads during it either. We might all end up
dead because of this. If you have a plan, I’m open to it, but I don’t see what
we can do other than leave.”

“Just
let me think about it for a while. I’ll figure something out. I have to.”

“I
wish you could, but we both know there aren’t any options. What we need to be
planning is an exit strategy.”

“You’re
right, but I hate leaving a secure town for the unknown.”

“What
if it’s not unknown?”

“I
don’t know what you mean.”

“You
helped build this community as much as Troy did. You know how to bring people
together. With a little work, we could do this somewhere else. You know that.”

“Maybe
you’re right. Building an indoor city would be a pipedream without Troy,
though.”

“I
think it was a pipedream all along, so nothing will change in that area.”

“It
can be done. Troy and I have talked about it on countless occasions, and he’s
not delusional. I know a little about how it would work, but without blueprints
. . . that’s it!”

“What’s
it?”

“The
blueprints. I can steal them. We’ll go north and find a safe area. From there,
we’ll start creating a community. After a while, we might just have enough
people to build a city of our own.”

“Do
you really think we can do that?”

“I
do. We just need to find a town with a few people who will listen to us. We
won’t control people by force. It’ll all be about choice. We can do things
differently than the men in this place. We can even hold elections. What do you
think?”

“I
hate starting over, but I know I’ll love a community designed by you more than
this.”

“It
won’t be designed by just me. We’ll all make it what it should be. I’ve just
got to find a way to get those blueprints.”

“I
know the perfect way. Troy is always out during the day, and his wife works
with the kids at the nursery. That will leave the house fairly open after nine
tomorrow. He keeps one guard in front of his house all the time, but we both
know one person isn’t going to be a problem for you. We’ll be waiting here, and
when you’re done, we’ll take a vehicle and make a break for it.”

“I
can’t believe you’re willing to do this with me.”

“It’s
not just for you. I’m doing this for Liam, too. He’ll die if we don’t leave.”

“I
know, but it shows how much you care about us that you would be willing to give
up a nearly perfect place and completely start over.”

“Maybe
I’m delusional here, but I think of you three as family. You’re as close to a
husband as I’ve ever had, and Zoe and Liam are like my children now. I care
about all of you more than any place. You’re family.”

“That’s
exactly how I feel. I love all of you. If Zoe and Liam are like our children,
then we might have some problems, though.”

“Why
do you say that?”

“I
think our son is having sex with our daughter . . . I mean, can we really allow
that?”

“Shut
up. That’s not even funny,” she said and smiled.

“It
is a little. We’re not the best family on paper, but I’ve grown to love all of
you. I wouldn’t trade you guys for anyone else.”

Rebecca
gave him a kiss goodnight, and they drifted off to sleep. A lot had to be done
the next day, but for once, Max slept like a baby. They were leaving, but that
wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because they were going toward something that
would be so much bigger than they ever could have dreamed of.

* * * * *

The
following morning, Max got up and walked casually to the gun locker across the
street. He checked his weapon out and then went to the supply house.

“I’m
going to need everything on this list, Rick,” Max said to the guy behind the
counter.

“That’s
two week’s worth of food. We don’t normally give out that much at one time.”

“I
realize that, but I just don’t want to make the trip every week. I recruited
you to this town. You know I’m here for the long haul, so why don’t you just
give me the supplies now, so we don’t have to do this dance again next week?”

“All
right. I trust you, Max. Wait one second.”

After
a while, Rick returned with the supplies, and Max took them home to everyone.
He told them to load the car with their belongings and all the food he had
gotten. Max still had one more place to go. He had to get the blueprints from
Troy’s house.

He
walked over and saw a familiar guard standing at the door. The heat was
unbearable, and the man stood there for most of the day. He would take
five-minute breaks every hour and go inside, but it still seemed ridiculous.
Max didn’t have any idea how the man stood the heat as long as he did. Everyone
else had jobs to do, but they never involved being outside for more than a
couple of hours in a given day. The guard was looking noticeably tired. Max
knew he could use that to his advantage.

“Zack,
are you all right?” Max asked as he stepped onto the porch.

“No
one’s supposed to step foot here when Mr. Leland’s not around. You need
to . . .
” he said before a dizzy feeling overtook him.

“You
need a rest, man. You know you can trust me. Let’s go inside so you can get
some water. I think you’re going to keel over if you don’t.”

He
nodded, and Max led him inside. While he was getting some water, Max stepped
behind him and hit him with the butt of his gun. Zack hit the floor. He was out
like a light, but he wouldn’t be that way for long. Max had to act fast. He
walked into the back room where Troy kept his plans. He took the blueprints and
some personal notes of Troy’s. He stopped for a brief moment by the fridge to
put a few rations into his pockets. Then he walked out the door.

What
Max found outside wasn’t good,
however.
Troy was
walking toward the house, and two men were accompanying him. They were carrying
a body, and Max could guess whose it was. They had found Timothy.

“You’ve
got some explaining to do,” Troy said while glaring at Max.

“What
are you talking about?”