The Divide Book 2: Unity

Chapter 1: Malaki

Chapter 1: MalakiI stood inside the first level of Fort Cotton military base, watching a plane of refugees take off. I mingled with the crowd, avoiding the glares General Takeo shot in my direction. It wasn’t long before the floor-to-ceiling windows showed only the night sky.

I couldn’t be in too much trouble, or else I’d have been on that plane, too, headed to The Nation of California Islands with the other p*****s who didn’t want to fight.

Okay, they weren’t all p*****s. Two of my exes were flying away: Dawn and Serenity. Both of them had done their share in starting the revolution, working with the underground group we all belonged to called Human Equality Organization. I knew for sure Serenity would get back in the game once she recovered from her imprisonment, as long as Dawn didn’t talk her out of it or something.

I’d seen a few girlfriends come and go since junior high, but Dawn and Serenity got to me the most. Dawn I dated the longest, and Serenity the shortest. I’d been over Dawn for a long time, but thoughts of Serenity shredded my heart. I went on a rescue mission to save her from captivity in a Family Protection Movement Detainment Center just a few weeks ago—even Dawn helped—and we saved my mother, too. Mama Hally had been in that shithole for seven years. It was going to take Mama a while to recover, and she’d probably never really be the same.

General Takeo seemed to be making her way through the crowds toward me, but people kept stopping her to talk. A hand slipped into mine and I smiled. It was my best friend, Akasha.

“Maybe we should get out of here,” she muttered.

I smiled into her wide, dark brown eyes. Akasha liked to shave her head completely bald these days, and I thought she looked like a bad-ass. Her skin was very black, and I loved touching it with my own pale hands. In every aspect, she was the most beautiful girl I had ever known, and the friend I’d had longer than anyone else.

“We should see how Mama Hally is doing.” I gripped Akasha’s hand tighter and we backed up, trying to blend in, which wasn’t easy for a tall girl like me with a blue mohawk and lots of shiny piercings.

“We’re in a lot of trouble, aren’t we?” Akasha asked.

“Maybe not; we’re still here.”

Just minutes before that refugee plane had taken off, I’d broken into the Fort Cotton war room and helped Serenity hack into a Family Protection Movement news satellite. Dawn, Akasha, and I watched as Serenity broadcast a live feed across the nation declaring that the rebellion to end The Divide between forced gay communities and so-called normal towns had begun. For the past two hundred years, anyone in the US who failed some lame test to see if they’re straight—no matter if they were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or anything else not considered “normal”—got labeled Gay and banned to one of several guarded, walled cities across the country. I’d lived my whole life inside a place like that, in Community 17, born to gay parents. Mama Hally was captured doing work for the rebellion when I was only ten, and I’d promised to help carry on her work ever since. In the past few months, I finally got my chance, and my community became a leader in what became a full-blown revolution.

Right after we rescued Serenity, we imploded the walls of every Gay Community in the nation, and everyone who was banned inside either fled the country or was hiding out in places like this Southwestern military base to keep the war going.

If it wasn’t for Serenity, we might still be hiding out in basements doing nothing more daring than sending out viruses and coded messages.

I sighed and Akasha gripped my arm as we walk into a dimly lit hall.

“It’s going to be all right,” she said.

I turned to her and held both her hands in my own. “I’m glad you’re always there for me.”

Akasha smiled her best smile. “I’ve been right here all along.”

“I know. Girlfriends come and go, but I want this to last forever.”

General Takeo strode around the corner, and I jumped back and saluted. Sol Harvey, the president of our community’s rebel group, was another one of the people who had just left on that refugee plane. Even though he wasn’t happy with me either, I wished he were still here to stick up for me. None of Serenity’s plans to make that illegal broadcast would have been carried out if I hadn’t broken into the room that held all the most powerful computers on base.

“Private Cheyenne,” Takeo snapped.

I couldn’t help but break protocol. “General, I’m so sorry. I was only trying to serve the revolution and carry out Serenity’s wish. Have I compromised our security?”

Takeo pressed her mouth into a firm line. I hoped I wasn’t imagining that her eyes glinted as though she was trying not to smile. “We’ll deal with that later. The next round of refugees are on their way. We’re going to need you and Akasha to help with orientation. The new arrivals are all experienced HEO members, medical personnel, soldiers, and intelligence officers. The plane should arrive any minute.”

She turned on her heel and stepped away, and I leaned against a nearby wall, wiping sweat from my face.

“We got away with everything,” I said in disbelief.

“Let’s go,” Akasha said. “Maybe now I’ll get to start the more hardcore medical training.”

I frowned. “I don’t know what they’re going to have me do; soldier work or computers. I’d rather fight, but obviously no one knows computers like me…except Serenity.”

“Serenity’s gone, and you’re the best we’ve got.” Akasha’s voice was uncharacteristically harsh. She turned away, and I shrugged and followed.

A plane landed as we walked back into the giant, brightly lit lobby. Soon, people of all ages with wrinkled clothes and uncombed hair straggled in with their carry-on bags.

I nudged Akasha. “Check her out.”

A girl even taller than me walked in the midst of the new crowd. She had a black ponytail, chiseled features on her light brown face, and a camouflage backpack. This girl didn’t look much older than us, but her narrowed eyes made me think of maturity and experience.

“She’s hot,” I whispered.

As if the girl heard me, she looked my way. I could feel the blush on my cheeks as she walked right to me. I glanced at Akasha out of the corner of my eye.

“You’re Malaki Cheyenne,” the girl said, and held out her hand.

“Uh, yeah, I am.”

“I’ve heard all about you. And you must be Akasha Amaya. We saw your friend Serenity’s broadcast on the way here. Luckily, you didn’t screw everything up for the rest of us. Must be pretty good. I’ve been handling the computers around DC area for the past three years. General Takeo messaged me earlier and said we’d be working together. I’m Destiny Ryu, Private First Class.”

“Nice. I mean, yeah, I haven’t gotten my next orders, yet. I just got back from a rescue mission to save prisoners from a Detainment Center.” I racked my brain for something else to say. “So, do you need help getting to your quarters? Akasha and I are supposed to orient the new arrivals.”

Destiny turned and a short blonde with dreadlocks in the distance waved her over, holding up a sheaf of paper. “Looks like we’re all set. See you around, though.” I glimpsed Destiny’s Mark as she walked over to the blonde. The tattooed black “G” on her forearm—mandatory for all of us banned to live in a Gay Community—was encircled by a chain of cursive letter “B’s.”

“Bisexual,” Akasha pointed out.

I smiled. “I like a challenge.”

* * * *

“I thought you wanted to train with the soldiers,” Akasha said the next morning as we ate breakfast in the mess hall.

I shrugged and stabbed my toast. “The revolution needs good hackers, too. What if all the computer geeks they brought over on the plane are just a bunch of college-educated conformists? I can show them a thing or two about breaking the rules. Besides, I might be able to train with the soldiers, too. And if I don’t, the general’s been specially selecting soldiers for this place for years. Everyone here is sympathetic to the cause; if Takeo finds out they’re not, they get shipped out on a different assignment. If I can help out with computer work, it might be just as important as the people launching bombs.”

Akasha chewed some orange thoughtfully. “That’s exactly the opposite of what you said less than twenty-four hours ago, but I guess you’re less likely to get blown up that way.”

I smirked. “Less than you, Miss Military-Medic-in-Training.”

She chuckled, a warm sound I’ve been familiar with since kindergarten. “Someone’s got to know how to stitch you back up when you go messing around on rescue missions.”

“Hey, I didn’t get a scratch on me! Dawn’s the one who had to slice her own arm open to get a bomb out, and Serenity…” I shuddered as I thought of the poor wreck of her body when we found her, just a pile of scabby bones.

“She’s not perfect, Mal,” Akasha said.

Her remarks surprised me. When I first met Serenity, I was pretty harsh on her. It wasn’t her fault, growing up in normal world, but she didn’t even know what a drag show was, and had never been to a decent rock concert. Akasha was the one who had told me to be nice to her, but then seemed pissed that I ended up dating her.

A thought tickled the back of my mind of why Akasha might have been upset, but I pushed it away. Couldn’t be.

Next thing I knew, Destiny and her blonde-dreadlocked friend were sitting beside us at the table. The rest of the room had suddenly become packed.

“Hey!” Destiny said, setting down her tray of food. “Ajay, this is Malaki and Akasha. I didn’t get to introduce you yesterday.”

Ajay nodded, eyes bleary, and sipped coffee before saying, “We’re cousins; both twenty. She’s into computers and I’m a medic.”

“Cousins!” I exclaimed and then chuckled at myself. “Akasha and I have been best friends since I can remember. I’m eighteen, and she will be soon. She’s going into medical too, Ajay.”

Ajay yawned, but attempted a grin.

“She’s not into mornings,” Destiny said. “I’ve got to admit, Malaki, that stunt you pulled was ballsy. If you hadn’t done it just right, we’d still be on that damn plane.”

“Yeah, and I’d be getting shipped out to California.”

Soon Akasha and Ajay were talking about medical training, and I had happily found a friend who knew even more hacker jargon than Serenity.

“There’s a computer tech meeting at 9 A.M. I’m going to head that way with Destiny,” I told Akasha with an unexplainable twinge of guilt.

Ajay put a hand on Akasha’s shoulder. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to some people.”

I felt better knowing Akasha was making new friends, too. As Destiny and I headed to the war room, I cast longing glances out the windows at a group of soldiers running past. The leaves were red and yellow, and it looked like a nice day out.

“Nice piercings,” Destiny said.

The entire outside world was forgotten. “Thanks. Do you have any?”