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

agendas."
    "What do you mean?" Gabriel asked tersely.
    "It seems the bacteria isn't black and white in terms of infection strength. Some of us are completely resistant—like me and Kim, Ted, and Donald. But some were much farther away from ground zero—so far from it that their resistance is less powerful. They are a little, uh, freer with their actions and abilities. They're a little less… ethical about the force they use."
    Gary leaned forward, making it feel like he was more a part of the conversation, "Are we talking our team vs. the Panthers kinda difference or you mean the Kn—"
    Dev gave Gary an incredibly sharp look. "The Knights and then some."
    "Damn, man." I didn't understand their comments, but it was clear Gary had. His eyes were wide, and he shook his head in disapproval. "It's not enough to fight the planet, but you gotta fight amongst each other too?"
    "Not all of them. But there are enough to make it—" Dev looked back at me and paused for a moment. He seemed to be weighing his words carefully which was a surefire signal that he was downplaying it all. "Just tricky. It's nothing we can't handle."
    I closed my eyes. He was in a lot of danger and so were Kim, Ted, and Donald, and so was Harm. I could feel myself shake a little and took in a deep breath to try to calm myself. Dev would just cover up the truth even more if he thought I couldn't handle hearing it.
    "Hey." He cupped my cheek in his hand and pulled my face toward him. "We're fine. Harm has a plan. It'll be okay."
    "What's Harm's plan? How can we help?" Gabriel looked tired as he spoke, and for the first time, he looked old—not fragile, but more weary than I could ever remember seeing him.
    "It'll—" Dev looked back to me. "He—uh—he thinks we should—"
    I pulled away from his arms. "Don't you try to hide things from me, Devlin. It doesn't do me any good not to know what's coming. All it does is delay the inevitable."
    "Evie." He sighed loudly, shaking his head and leaning forward. "There's no point to worrying when there's nothing that can be done."
    "You think you can stop me from worrying? You think—you think because I didn't know all the details, I haven't spent every second of every day worrying about you? You think you can prevent that? Hiding information doesn't help any of us."
    "Okay." He grabbed my hand. "I'm sorry." He let out a frustrated sigh. "I just don't—" He leaned back on the couch. "I'll never stop trying to protect you." His eyes practically reached out and grabbed at me with intensity. I was about to start really yelling, but he held up both hands defensively. "But I heard you. I'll tell you everything. Okay?" He covered his face with his hand and murmured, "I’ll tell you everything."
    I ran my fingers through his soft black hair. He took my hands in his and rested his forehead against them before pulling me back into his arms.
    "They'll turn on us—the others in our group—I don't know when, but they will. These two guys with me and the six tailing me, we call 'em 'G.I. Joes.' They follow blindly and don't really seem to know anything except that we're dangerous and need to be watched when around uninfected humans. They don't watch us around each other. It's like they don't care about the power struggle between the Infecteds or how the weaker ones have died off. And they really don't notice the extra deaths and unnecessary force being used when we go in to take control of an area. Harm keeps warning them, but he's been labeled an over-reactor by the higher-ups in the military.
    "But there are some good guys," he continued. "There are some who see what they've forced us to become, and they want to help us. But they're like Harm—they haven't been given any real power. I think—I know we have to get out of there. We have to—escape somehow. I don't know how, but we just—have to. I don't want to—" He paused and looked me in the eye before lowering his gaze to my small hand in his. "This sounds bad, but I