Divided (#1 Divided Destiny) Read Free

military, and that provided some reassurance. They could take care of themselves. They would be okay.
    The world was going to be chaotic and hysterical. An alien mothership? It was science fiction; it was a movie plot. It wasn’t real life. However, this was real life, and as bizarre as it was, that mothership was gut-wrenchingly real. Leo had always believed that there was intelligent life out there somewhere. It was the height of arrogance to believe otherwise. The universe was infinite, there had always been a high probability this would happen one day.
    Finally, after years of wondering, they had proof. Aliens were real. It was just typical that the first aliens they encountered were hostile.
    Alone in the car, with nothing more than the roar of the engine for company, it was hard to keep his mind from whirring. He didn’t know what was happening with that alien ship, or if there were more of them, though he had to believe there were many. They could not possibly be so lucky as to only get invaded by the one mothership. Cut off from news, it was easy for his imagination to run wild. He pressed harder down on the accelerator. The sooner he got to the base, the sooner he would know what was going on.
    He had a feeling they were going to be in for the fight of their lives.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
    At Area 51, it was all hands on deck. The base alarm had sounded almost as soon as the booming voice had faded away. Doctor Julian Braden leaned on the wall, arms folded, watching the chaos in front of him. Sweat trickled down his back as the central air failed at reducing the humidity from so many bodies crammed into a single space.
    Absently, he pushed up the long sleeves of his charcoal shirt to his elbow, and then ran a hand through his shoulder-length dark hair. This was a pointless meeting, he just knew it; they could have had the same results from a teleconference, and then he could have gotten on with something while he was waiting.
    “Alright, listen up,” a young lance corporal shouted, trying to be heard over the chatter and quiet the room. Given the lance corporal was standing next to General Howard Sampson, and the room was half full of military personnel, silence soon swept across the din.
    The lance corporal tapped on a keyboard, and behind the general a projector hummed to life, displaying an image feed on the screen at the far end of the room of an alien ship hovering over a different city. It was a pirated news feed, and the banner at the bottom informed them it was showing Moscow.
    It was 2 a.m. on that side of the world, and the picture was dark and indistinct. However, the missile tracers and explosions told their own story. The footage showed that Russia had scrambled jets of their own, which had proven to be no more effective than their American counterparts.
    “Five more ships have broken orbit and are hovering above Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Delhi, and Rio. There may well be more in orbit, en route, or certainly out there in the galaxy. We have to work under the assumption that this is only a fraction of their fleet,” General Sampson began soberly.
    Before General Sampson could continue, laughter broke the silence. A young man, one of the new junior researchers, was sniggering at the general’s words. What began as sniggering soon devolved into hysterical laughter. The room watched him laugh. Julian shook his head; they should have expected someone would crack.
    “A freaking alien mothership,” the researcher gasped. “I see it, but I don’t believe it. What’s next, Elvis isn’t really dead? The lizard people are among us?”
    “Someone get this man out of here. Take him to the infirmary and have him sedated,” General Sampson barked.
    Two airman reacted immediately, grabbing the researcher by his arms and pulling him from the room. He didn’t resist, but he didn’t help, either; his shoes were dragging on the carpet, limp in the airman’s hold.
    “What else? Shadow