Chapter 1
I wake with a start. Around me is a small plain room with four white walls and a glass ceiling. There's a bed at one side of the room and an iron door across from me. I lie on the floor.
Where am I? I think to myself. I don't remember much, and my head feels cloudy and painful and my body aches all over. Judging by the dim light coming through the roof, it must be evening, or morning, I can't tell; I don't have a watch on me. Again. I prop myself up on one elbow, my other hand pressed against my forehead, and slowly drag myself up to a sitting position. What happened? My thoughts slowly gather together in my mind and I remember something about my brother and a weapons lab, in some place that's not my home. My home; Chicago. Chicago?
Something in the top right corner of this room - wherever it is, and I am – catches my attention. A small red flashing light, coming from a small grey cylinder with a black screen. A camera. Which, of course, is pointed at me. I stare at it, letting the memories come back to me, scattered. Weapons lab, lab, erudite, captured, captured? That doesn't seem fitting right now. I should be… somewhere. Somewhere else. I sigh, confused, and turn away from the camera. I decide to stare at my hands instead. They have blood on them. Stained with the dry, deadly, crimson coloured liquid. Deadly… dead. Me. Blood, mine, maybe…
The pieces come together and slowly I remember. The weapons lab, in the bureau, I went in there instead of my brother. I thought I would live, but I didn't. I think I went into there to release the memory serum, and I did, but someone was there. And then I was on the ground, with my blood spilling out on the tiles before me. Blood. 'Blood is a strange colour' I remember thinking. I look back down at my dirty hands and just as I whisper 'why am I not dead?' to myself, the door bangs open and a woman stands in the doorway.
This woman has a small head and creased skin. Her brown hair is slightly grey at the roots and is pulled into a bun at the back of her head, and her eyes are green and glassy. She wears black jeans and a red t-shirt under her long white jacket, which makes me think of the people at erudite headquarters, with their glasses and blue clothing and the girls' silver hair clips, and the eye that symbolled their faction and feels like it is always watching me. She comes into the room and closes the door behind her. The sunlight is more like an orange glow now and I see a faint shadow on the opposite wall of a tree; a tree? A tall tree. She sits down on the bed and looks me up and down. "Tris, yes?" she says, and all I can make out in reply is, "what?" because that's the only thing I can think right now, and see, and hear, because I'm upset and tired but not sleepy and just confused and I'm sure that this is all too much to take right now. So I just sit there and stare at her whilst let a tear fall down my cheek.
"Hmm." She says and places her clipboard on her lap. She's still looking at me, her head tilted sideways a little. "Maybe we should take you to the bathrooms, and for a little walk around outside. That should do you some good. I don't suppose you know anything about what's going on, but there'll be plenty of time for explanations tomorrow. Come on then." She stands, and offers me her hand, which I stare at as well. I take it after a few seconds whilst attempting to heave myself to my feet. "I'm Naomi." She says. "We're not in the Bureau anymore, or Chicago, we're in a different place. We're still in the USA, in the same country, but in a different state, it's called Oregon."
"Oh" I say. I don't think I properly caught any of that. She releases my hand and gently wipes a tear from my face. Though her facial expression seems very serious and her mouth is still pressed into its hard line, her eyes are thoughtful. They remind me of crystals, and of my mother. My beautiful mother, in her abnegation grey and hidden dauntless tattoos, her grey eyes… my selfless mother. She was there when I died, and I asked her about my friends, and Tobias and… Tobias. "TOBIAS!" I yell weakly at her "where is he? What have you done with him? What-
"Shh! Tobias is not to be mentioned. Now, let's go!" she says and retakes my hand, half pulling me out of the room into a similar looking hallway.