Read Online Divided by Kimberly Montague - Free Book Online Page A

successful?"
    Dev put his hand up. "You know I don't agree. It's sick and unfair, and I—I uh—they made us—" He shook his head and laughed, but it was full of pain and anger. "I had to help capture them and bring 'em in."
    I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. "You had no choice," I whispered.
    He nodded, but his voice sounded tortured as he held me tight. "There are these two that—baby, they just remind me of us. I can't believe I—I should have let them go."
    I pulled back and put my hands on his cheeks. "You didn't do this, the military did. It's not your fault."
    "That's what Harm tells me."
    I forced myself to smile. "Well we share the same genes—that includes intelligence of genius proportions."
    He kissed my lips softly.
    "I just can't believe they got away with it," Gabriel said to Gary's dad. "How do you inject high school kids and get away with that?"
    "Inner city schools." Dev explained. "Parents who don't care or just don't have the time to read the blood drive release they signed. Oddly enough, from studying the effects of that vaccine, they're closer to a viable vaccine, but again, it still takes too long to make. We think—Harm and I—we think the infection will keep spreading only there won't be anybody else resistant to it because the tree—I forget its name—only grows in a couple climates."
    Gary's dad shifted uncomfortably next to us. "We've heard about it getting as far East as Nevada. Is it—"
    Dev shook his head. "Texas."
    No one even gasped in surprise anymore, but I could feel my eyes widen. That meant it was halfway across the US.
    Dev pulled our intertwined fingers to his face so he could scrub his eyes with the back of his hand. "Harm was headed out with the team to neutralize the targets and stabilize the area in Northern Texas. It won't be long before it's all across the US. Predictions show that it should be across North America within the next ten months, and go global in a little over a year. They can't stop it."
    I couldn't believe it. I knew—I mean we'd suspected that it would spread, but it was just too hard to process.
    "What's the estimated death toll?" Gabriel asked, his voice devoid of any emotion.
    Dev turned his eyes back to mine. They were so defeated. "112 million in the US, 10 million in Canada, worldwide—" He swallowed hard, making his Adam's Apple move noticeably. "Worldwide—two billion."
    Gary's dad stood up abruptly and walked around the room.
    "I—I—" Evelyn turned to Gabriel. "That can't be."
    I realized I had tears in my eyes, but I managed to keep them from spilling onto my cheeks. Two billion people.
    Dev hugged me to him and leaned his forehead against my shoulder. "I wish I could say I'm lying. We've seen it all firsthand. In Albuquerque, our task force was nearly wiped out entirely. We're the only ones strong enough to really get in there and fight the Infecteds. It's almost like they're immune to bullets. We go in when they're hiding out or have somehow evaded the Guard and the Army—when conventional weaponry doesn't work. But there are too many of them, and now, even with the new recruits there are only forty of us. We're stronger in hand-to-hand combat, but not when they outnumber us three to one. I—I've lost some good people."
    Gary's dad was now pacing behind the couch as he shouted out thoughts. "Are you in charge of your group?"
    "Harm is. He's our Staff Sergeant, but I'm second-in-command and where he can't go—as an Uninfected—I'm in command."
    I suddenly realized what that meant for Harm. "But he can get infected, he could—"
    "I watch out for him, baby. He saved my ass—really saved my ass. I won't let anything happen to him. And they don't send the Uninfecteds into the really bad zones."
    It didn't help me relax any. "What about Kim? And Donald and Ted?"
    "They're fine, too. We kind of have a pact to watch out for each other, but there's—well there are others in the group with different