Divided (6 page)

"There's really no way of knowing until you talk to him," he encouraged.

I threw my hands up. "But I can't. Obviously tweedle dumb and tweedle douchebag are gonna be his shadows everywhere he goes."

"A note!" Sonya jumped up from the couch. "Pass him a note like in class."

"What good would that do?" Evelyn asked. I hadn't noticed her come in, but she was beside Sonya on the couch. "He can't respond to it."

But it started making more sense to me. "No, I could ask him to meet me somewhere so we could talk, but how would he get away from the idiots?"

"He could punch them," Sonya volunteered. "With his strength, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard at all."

Evelyn eyebrows drew closer, and her face tightened as she shook her head. "But when they wake up, they'll know what happened, and he'll be in even more trouble."

"What about an injection or something?" I asked. "Like a drug?"

"Sleeping pills," Gabriel volunteered, leaning forward. "Don't you still have some, babe?"

"I think so." Evelyn got up and walked down the hallway.

I continued working the idea. "But I need to get them to him. I don't even know that I'll be able to get close enough with those guys guarding him."

Sonya pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. "Gary's his best friend. He could go visit Dev at the hospital today and take it to him."

I allowed myself a small smile. This could work. "Call him, Sonya."

She flashed me that cheesy, all-teeth smile of hers. "I called him at the hospital." She looked down at her phone. "In fact, he says he's pulling in the driveway right now." She jumped up from the couch and opened the door, staring out for a few minutes.

I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I couldn't help feeling a little encouraged at the formulation of a plan.

"Hey, handsome," Sonya said in greeting as she hugged Gary. "We need you to go to the hospital to visit Dev and take him a message from Evie. In it, we're putting some sleeping pills, so he can drug those idiots and get away for a few hours."

"Yeah, no problem." Gary looked over at me. "So you figured out he said all those things to protect you, right?"

I glared at Sonya. Did she have to tell everyone everything? Gary was my best friend and all, but my little mental breakdown didn't need to be spread around to everyone. "It just caught me off guard is all," I justified.

Evelyn returned with a bottle of pills in her hand. "I take just one, and it knocks me out for eight hours. How big were these guys Devlin was with?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't paying much attention to them, but they were just a little smaller than Dev."

"Hmm. I'm not sure the effects will last as long for them, but you should have at least four hours." Evelyn walked toward the kitchen. "Let me grab the prescription sheet and see what it says."

Gabriel turned toward the hallway. "I'll grab some paper, so we can plan this all out."

As soon as Gabriel was down the hallway, Gary nudged me in the arm, smirking at me. "Four hours is plenty of time, huh Evie? I'd kill for four hours with Sonya."

Sonya blushed as she smacked Gary in the chest. "Shut up, Gary."

Gabriel came back with several sheets of paper and turned his narrowed eyes on Gary.

Gary looked a little nervous, but more confused than anything else. "What?"

"I may be old, son, but I'm not deaf." Gary's eyes became huge as Gabriel handed me the piece of paper. "Write him a note asking him to meet you somewhere. Hormone-boy over here lives next door to him, right?" He gestured to Gary, and I had to hide the laugh that was fighting to get out.

Gary stood up a little straighter. "Well, sir, I don't live next door exactly, but I'm the closest."

"Okay then," Gabriel continued, "why don't you tell him to meet you at Gary's house when he can. You'll have to spend the night there, but I think it's the best shot you've got."

"Sure. The girls can come stay at my house." Gary looked over at Sonya who had her face hidden in her hands.

Gabriel firmly clapped his hand down on Gary's shoulder. "Whoa there horn-dog, I didn't say your girlfriend—my baby girl—would be spending the night under the same roof as you."

Gary's voice became very serious. "Sir, my parents will be there. You, uh, you know you can trust my mom. She's like the kissing Nazi."

Gabriel raised his eyebrow at Gary for a moment before nodding. "You're lucky she's more obsessive about where you put your hands than even I am, or I wouldn't let Sonya near you."

"Uh, hello!" Sonya waved her hands wildly. "Remember me? Your responsible daughter? Don't I count for anything?"

Gabriel glanced at her with a small smile of pity. "No, sweetie, not really." He turned back to Gary. "Just one misplaced hand, just one, and I swear to you young man, I will shoot off the part of your anatomy guiding your brain."

Gary nodded, but he looked really scared. I almost felt bad for him, but then I reminded myself that he was the idiot that opened his big mouth about
four hours
being enough time. He deserved the crap Gabriel gave him.

I sat down on the floor in front of the coffee table and stared at the blank piece of paper. "Should I tell him the whole plan or just—"

Gary took the pen from my hand before I could write anything and gave it back to Gabriel. "With all due respect, sir, I think anything in writing is a bad idea."

Gabriel seemed to consider this for a moment, forcing me to rethink it as well. What would Dev do with the note once he'd finished reading it? What if his shadows wanted to read it? Physical proof was a bad idea.

Gabriel glared at Gary, but said, "As much as I hate to admit it, loverboy's right about this."

"Okay then." I stood up and tried to sound strong and confident about this plan. "Tell him to drug the military guys, and come see me at your house. If you can't tell Dev and give him the pills, get them to his dad."

Evelyn came back from the kitchen with a clear sandwich bag and a pamphlet. "It says the effects last anywhere from five to twelve hours, so tell him to count on five." She handed Gary the baggie.

"Pills, five hours, meet at my house," Gary repeated. "I got this, and I'm sure it's fine with my parents that you both come over for dinner then Evie and Sonya can spend the night in the guest room." He kissed Sonya's forehead and squeezed my shoulders. "I'll swing by here on my way back from the hospital to pick you two up."

"Gary?" I called out as he opened the door, and he stopped, looking up at me. I thought about the possibility that Dev might not be able to slip the pills to the military guys. I might not get to talk to him again. "Tell him no matter what I love him, and I'll wait for him to come back to me."

Gary's shoulders fell sadly, but he nodded. "Evie, he knows that already, but I'll tell him anyhow."

"And thanks, Gary." I yelled as he closed the door.

After throwing some things in a bag, I sat down to write in my journal until Gary came back for us. There were so many ways this plan could fail that it was hard not to obsess over them. There could be more people watching him besides just the two guys with him. They could be watching his house and see him leave to meet me. What would they do to him if they caught him trying to leave? Was talking to him really worth putting him in possible danger? But Gabriel seemed to agree that we needed to know what was going on. Dev was clearly being held against his will. His will was to be with me—or was it?

Fake or not, his words to me in the hospital had shaken my confidence a little. I was still willing to bet he loved me and that everything between us was real, but now there was a tiny little voice in the back of my head asking "what if?" I hated that stupid voice. But I had to admit that it was part of my self-preservation instincts, and in this particular instance, I needed to be at least a little prepared that Dev had changed.

It was the most nerve-wracking afternoon of my life—okay, that's a little dramatic considering the whole chased-by-infected-murderers thing, but it felt that way. Sonya and Gary tried to keep my mind off Dev, but I just couldn't stop obsessively worrying.

Gary said everything had gone smoothly at the hospital. Dev's dad immediately caught on to the plan with the sleeping pills, and managed to distract the guys with Dev long enough to give Gary a minute to tell Dev our plan. Gary also mentioned that Dev's mom had been moved from ICU to a regular room and that they didn't think any permanent damage had been done by the heart attack.

On the way to Gary's house, we stopped at the store. I argued that we didn't have time for shopping, but Gary told me he was under orders from Dev to buy me a belated birthday present. I thought it was silly and told him so, but was curious enough to follow him into the store. Gary pulled us straight to the prepaid phones.

"Gary, I have a cell phone. Dev knows I have a cell phone."

He looked around us and back at me intently. "The government knows you have a cell phone, too."

My eyes widened, and fear crept up in my heart. I looked to Sonya and found her expression matched mine. "My phone is tapped?" I couldn't believe it. Why would they tap my phone? I was nobody. I stood there thinking about it all as Gary picked out a small silver phone and several refill cards. We walked to the register where he paid with cash, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it all. If they had my phone tapped, were they watching my mail and my email?

The eeriness of thinking I was being watched followed me as we walked back to Gary's truck. We were all quiet as we headed back to Gary's house. When we pulled into the parking lot of the pizza place we often ordered from, I looked questioningly at Gary again.

"I'm hungry, aren't you?" He smiled, grabbed the bag with the phone in it and climbed out of the truck.

"What are you doing now, Gary?" Sonya asked impatiently.

Sonya and I scrambled to catch up to him. Inside, he went straight for the counter where I recognized the solid, dirty-blond-haired football player Gary talked to at school sometimes.

"Remington," Gary called out. "Need to call in a favor."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"We need to use your phone." Gary leaned against the counter.

"Hell, that ain't no favor, man." He turned around and grabbed a cordless phone from the wall behind him. "Here ya go."

Gary took the phone to a booth, and we sat there for several minutes as Gary called to activate the prepaid phone. I heard him give the name "Angelica Brady" and the school's address. By then, I'd obviously caught onto the fact that this was an anonymous phone.

When he handed the cordless back to Remington, he said, "The real favor is we were never here."

He shrugged. "No prob, see ya at school."

Gary did a hand slap handshake thing, and we were off again.

Outside, Gary whispered to me, "Dev said he'll explain later."

I nodded, and hoped and prayed that he'd be able to get away.

At dinnertime, Evelyn and Gabriel came over. Gabriel did his best to warn me that Dev might not have an opportunity to slip his shadows the pills, but I'd already worried a ton about that same possibility. This had to work—it was our only shot. He'd be leaving tomorrow. This just had to work.

When dinner was over, we all sat around the table talking about the latest information from Gabriel's blog sites. The spread of the infection was getting much more serious. It seemed to be taking over larger areas and leaving more destruction. I had to wonder why the media seemed to be so much more behind on these outbreaks than the conspiracy theorists online.

By ten o'clock, my nerves were completely shot. We were all sitting in the living room talking and vaguely watching TV. I'd chewed off all of my nails and couldn't sit still any longer. Jumping up, I flexed my hands and walked to the window.

Sonya walked over to me and looped her arm through mine. "Hey, let's go out back and start a fire. I think we could use some air."

Gary came up behind us. "Sure, these old people are driving me crazy with their calmness."

Sonya steered me out through the kitchen and to the back doors. Just outside, a wide porch wrapped around the back of the house and led down to a stone circle with a fire pit in the center. Gary followed us with several blankets and a box of matches. The chill of the evening air somehow helped me calm down, and I was able to sit on the blanket Gary spread out and lean back against one of the low stone benches surrounding the fire pit. Butcher immediately flopped down next to me with a groan and placed his head in my lap. Sonya sat down on the other side of me and threw a soft, fuzzy blanket over our shoulders as Gary started the fire.

He leaned over the pit with a long match. "I was just thinking about the last time we were sitting around a fire like this. Why does it seem like so long ago?"

"Because everyone's gone," I answered. "Only half of the population is left here, if that."

"Dad said it's getting worse." Sonya stared into the fire. "After living through it, it sort of makes you wonder what 'worse' could possibly look like."

Gary stretched out across the stone bench opposite us. "I keep thinking of apocalyptic movies."

Sonya leaned closer to me. "'I am Legend' comes to mind, doesn't it? Or what was that one we watched last summer with Jay? 'Twenty days later?'"

"'Twenty-eight Days later,'" Gary corrected.

I pulled the blanket closer to me and ran my fingers through Butcher's fur. "Yeah, I had nightmares about that one. Ironically, Jay made fun of me and told me nothing like that would ever happen." I laughed sarcastically.

We were all quiet for several minutes, listening to the fire crackle and pop. I tried not to think about the crazed, zombie-like monsters of the movies, but it was impossible not to. I almost wished our monsters were more like them. Jay had retained his intelligence, which made him a lot more frightening than the instinct-driven zombies of the movies.

But this was real-life. We had medicines and technology. "There must be a cure though, right?" I looked from Gary to Sonya, but they didn't make eye contact with me. "I mean, this isn't a movie. They only throw that incurable stuff in there to increase the drama. We have cures for everything. They thought they'd never cure HIV, and they haven't, but it's barely reducing life span now. So I'm sure there has to be a cure, right?"