The Survivor Chronicles (Book 2): The Divide Read Online Free Page B

the door open. "He won't leave here now. Not if he thinks he can do something. I shouldn't have made him come."
    "There was no choice, not if we were going to be able to live with ourselves," Mary Ellen told him. Bobby opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again. "He'll be ok. We all will."
    "Will we?"
    She had no answer for him, but he didn't wait for one as he stepped back and closed the door. Mary Ellen's gaze focused on her hands as she thought over his last words. Would they be ok? Even if they survived this, even if they went on to live for another ten, twenty, fifty years, would they be ok? They most certainly wouldn't ever be the same again, but would they even still be human?
    The lump in her throat made it difficult to breathe as she flung the door open and stepped out of the car. Xander had only used the air conditioner sparingly, but even still the heat was like a slap in the face as she inhaled sharply. "Hello!" Xander called as he slid down a pile of bricks toward the remaining structure of the school. "Hello!"
    Holding out her arms to help steady her balance, Mary Ellen picked her way carefully over the debris. She slid down a slight slope and came to an abrupt halt before the remaining structure. Xander grabbed hold of a broken piece of rebar and hefted it in his hands. "Hello!" he shouted as he began to hit the wall with the piece of metal. "Hello!"
    Mary Ellen strained to hear anything as Xander began to walk along the wall, tapping it with the bar and calling out to the people inside. They were almost all the way around the remaining structure when something hit the wall from the other side. Mary Ellen jumped and took a stumbling step back from the wall as another crash reverberated against it.
    "Hello!" Xander called as he tapped the bar against the wall.
    "Hello! We're in here!" A distant voice echoed back at them. "Can you get us out?"
    Mary Ellen glanced over the pile of rubble before turning her attention back to the solid wall before her. Xander rested the rebar on his shoulder as he rocked back on his heels and tilted his head to the side. "Hello!" they shouted from inside again.
    "We're going to take a look around!" Xander called back to them.
    He nodded to Bobby as he resumed climbing his way through the toppled school building. Mary Ellen followed as they worked their way around the remaining structure. "Here!" Bobby called to them.
    Mary Ellen turned back around as Bobby excitedly began to toss bricks and debris out of his way. A broken out hole began to appear in the side of the building as the remaining wooden slats of a window took form. Using the rebar, Xander began to pull and pry some of the debris out of his way. Mary Ellen grabbed clumps of it and tossed it aside to give them more room to work.
    "We can fit through there," Bobby said.
    Xander bent down and peered into the darkened interior. "Is it safe?" Mary Ellen asked.
    "Probably not," Xander muttered as he sat back on his heels and stared at the rubble surrounding them. "I'll go in, you two stay out here in case something happens."
    "I'm not letting you do this on your own," Bobby protested.
    "You have to stay here with Marry Ellen, just in case someone else heard them and decides to come here. We have to keep that car Bobby, and unless they have weapons, you are going to have to defend it."
    "I can do that."
    Xander grabbed hold of Bobby's arm and squeezed. "I mean it Bobby, we can't lose that car. It's all we have right now, and we may not be able to find another one. Just don't do anything stupid."
    "I'll take care of it Xander. We'll be fine."
    "Do you have a light of some kind?" Mary Ellen asked.
    Xander shook his head as he turned back to the darkened recesses of the building. "No, do you?"
    "No. Maybe you shouldn't go in there."
    "I'm just going to take a look around, see if there is anything we can do, or if we'll have to find another way into the building. We might not even be able to do anything for them." Mary