Tobias' Point of View
Day of Bureau Reset
When we reach the compound, I think that Caleb must've completed his mission, because it looks deserted. We pass the abandoned security checkpoint, and make our way to the compound. I see Cara waiting for us.
Where's Tris?
As we get closer to Cara I notice that she has a bandage on her head and a bruise covers half of her face. I walk up to her, expecting her to tell me where Tris is, but she refuses to meet my eyes. That worries me. It feels like a heavy weight is sinking into my stomach.
"Where is Tris?" I finally manage to sputter out.
"I-she…" Cara stutters and then trails off.
"What happened to…," Christina asks, but I interrupt.
"Where. Is. She." I growl. Cara stops, takes a breath and finally looks over at me.
"She…She went into the Weapons Lab instead of Caleb. She survived the death serum, but David was waiting at the other end of the vestibule, and he shot her. Twice. She just got out of surgery, and the doctors…," but I don't hear her finish. I sprint toward the entrance, and then to the infirmary. I search around for any sign of her, when I see him.
Caleb is standing in front of a door at the end of the hallway. I walk over toward him, and he sees me and starts to move, looking for an escape from the inevitable. But then I am in front of him, I take the front of his shirt in my fists and slam him against the wall. I can't think of any words strong enough to match what I am feeling, so instead I punch him. In the nose, fitting for an Erudite. Then I hear a door open.
"I already have one patient, I don't want another,"
It's the doctor. He wouldn't have another patient, there would just be another body in the morgue, but I don't want to mess with one of the people who are holding my Tris' life in their hands. I put Caleb down, he has a bloody nose and a busted lip. It wasn't what I wanted to do, nowhere near the amount of harm that I wanted to cause but I don't push the issue. Somehow I think that Tris would be less than pleased
"I need to speak to her family" he adds.
"That would be me," I speak up, giving Caleb a glare, challenging him to speak up. He doesn't.
"Come in here please" the doctor opens the door. I brace myself and walk through.
When I walk into her room, my eyes immediately look for her, but the doctors and nurses around her obscure her from view. It is all I can do keep our composure, to keep from falling apart. I can hear the beeping that I hope is coming from a heart monitor, and I can see tubes that lead to the center of the cluster.
"She was shot once in the abdomen, and in her chest, puncturing her lung. We've repaired that. But between the physical trauma and the death serum, she seems to have fallen into a coma. We're confident that she'll heal, we just don't know when-or if-she'll wake up." The doctor leaves without another word, and the others follow him out revealing the bruised and bloodied body of my Tris.
She is so small, so pale. The rise and fall of her chest is so faint that if you weren't looking for it you might not even see it. The sheets are soaked with her blood, and I see a tube that goes from her arm and connects to a small bag full of red liquid…blood. She has a large bruise on the side if her face. I walk over to her bed and take her small hand in my own shaky one. She will wake up. She was strong enough to fight off the death serum, so I know she is strong enough to fight and wake up.
If
That one word has the power to make the composure that I fought so hard to keep intact earlier to crumble to pieces. I fall to my knees beside her bedtable, and start uncontrollably sobbing into the thin mattress that she lies on. I feel the emotions well up inside of me, the anger at Caleb for letting her go, at her for going in the first place, the fear that she will never wake up, and the fear of what life would be like without her. I remember all too well my last fear landscape, the way I could not help her, but that wasn't real. This is real, my worst fear has come to life. I feel all the emotions combine and form a monster inside me that writhes its way into my core.