Free The Divide: Origins by Mitchel Grace Page B

changing.
There seemed to be all these new roles just because of my age, and I didn’t
really care about any of it. I guess I was the weird one who didn’t get the
memo that being a girl should make me act like an idiot anytime a guy came
around. I focused mainly on my schoolwork when me and Jessica weren’t hanging
out.”
    “So
you were the smart girl?”
    “Kind
of. I focused on what was important. Everything else could wait.”
    “That’s
the way I was. Who was Jessica, by the way?”
    “My
best friend. She died a couple of days ago. Max’s prison friends killed her and
her whole family,” Zoe said and looked down.
    It hadn’t
really registered until then, but everyone she loved was dead. She had seen their
bodies, and she knew they were gone, but it hit her like a ton of bricks in
that moment.
    “Are
you all right?”
    “Yeah.
I kind of wish I had focused on more than schoolwork now, though. Maybe I
could’ve spent a little more time with my mom and dad or even had a boyfriend at
some point. Those opportunities are gone.”
    “I
know how you feel. I’m thirty-three, and I put off being social until it was
too late. Now I’ll never have a family.”
    “That’s
not true. We’re going to survive this. If it comes down to it, there’s always
Max. I would say he’s unattached, too, with the dead wife and all.”
    “You
are not serious.”
    “What?
Would that be so bad?”
    “He
killed his last wife. Why would I want to be number two?”
    “He
only did that because of what she did to his little girl. Don’t kill me, and
I’m pretty sure you would be fine.”
    Zoe
realized what she said after that. She had just implied that she was on equal
ground with Max’s little girl. It was stupid and delusional. Still, she knew
why she did it. For some reason, Max cared about her well-being .
After she found her parents dead, she had to hold onto something normal, and
Max was that. Sure, he was a convict who was messed up in his own way, but he
cared about her. The only other man who would kill for her was her dad. She
missed him, and without meaning to, she had cast Max in his role.
    “Shit.
I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It was stupid to say that. Max isn’t my
father. My dad’s dead. There’s no getting around that. I don’t know what’s
wrong with me,” Zoe said.
    “Nothing
at all. He’s not your dad, but he does care about you. I’m not your mom either,
and we don’t know what Walter is to anyone. This is what Max told me, though.
It’s going to take a family to survive this. There are no lone wolves anymore.
If you want to consider him family, I think he already feels that way about
you, so it’s fine.”
    “That
might be true, but how could I replace the people I’ve lost so fast?”
    “You’re
not replacing anybody. You’re just moving on as best you can. We’ll keep each
other alive until we find a way to make a life worth living. I promise.”
    “Thanks.
I’m glad we let you come with us. Who knows if we would even be alive without you?”
    Before
Rebecca could respond, Max and Walter came back. They threw their things in the
back and got in.
    “The
generator was destroyed in the crash, but we were able to find most of our
stuff. Is everyone ready?” Max asked.
    They
all agreed that it was time to go, and Max started driving toward West
Virginia. Rebecca gave him directions to her family’s place in Grand Falls. It
took them all day to get there. Normally, they could have gotten there a little
faster, but some of the roads were blocked. Several car crashes had occurred at
the time that Ira plowed into the earth, and it resulted in absolute chaos on
the roads. Finally, they arrived, though.
    “Is
this it?” Max asked while looking at a house that seemed like it had seen
better days.
    Everything in the town looked like it had
gone through hell. Most of the houses were caved in, but a few still stood. Max
had to question what happened there. It had been a disaster back