A/N: Hey guys! This started out as a class project... Also I'm a procrastinator and I didn't do it until the night before it was due...so it's a bit rushed :) Enjoy & Review!
Starting on page 483,"You have nothing to be sorry for,"He replies taking my hand. His fingers are still shaking.
"We need to get to the train. It runs in about 3 minutes."At that, everyone picks up the pace. I just hope Jeanine hasn't caught on yet and shut down the trains.
We reach the trains, just before they come screeching around the corner,"Tris!"Caleb shouts over the roar,"This train is going to take us back into the Abnegation Sector. We'll be dead before we even get there."
I shake my head. "This takes us out, towards the Amity headquarters instead."I smirk darkly,"Hope you're not afraid to jump on a moving train." Four takes off running next to the train first, throwing himself gracefully in, like he's done a million times, before reaching out for my hand. I take it, with my good arm, and Caleb hot on my heels. When Marcus grabs a hold of the handle on the side of the hurtling car, Tobias makes no motion to help his father. He just sits on the other side of the car and lets his head back, not looking at him.
I can't help but seeing the belt swinging over his head and wrapping around my wrist. Unfortunately, the Abnegation in me, and Caleb too, forces me forward to drag him into the car beside me. Peter had taken off his shirt and wrapped it around his wound on his arm, to create a sling/tourniquet thing. He raced the train, running along side until there were only a few feet of ground left to run onto, finally he hurled himself sideways into the train.
He smiles triumphantly, before hanging his legs out the side of the car. Caleb sits as far away from the edge as possible, almost looking afraid. He mostly just looks sorrowful and sad. Marcus sits as far away from Four as he can get. A look of shame is plastered on his face. His eyes don't share the same emotion though, his eyes are angry and cold. Cold, dark, black coal pits of anger. I'm still not entirely certain that I don't want to shoot him. He definitely deserves it. Four just looks tired. His eyes look swollen and purple, almost adding ten years to his face.
I go to sit next to him. Feeling the shift of the air, he opens his eyes. Even his, normally, blue eyes look drained and dull,"Peter's going to get himself shot."He states simply, putting his arm around my shoulders. He deserves it too...I think to myself.
Marcus eyes me carefully, just as Caleb eyes Four. It's the same look of skepticism, scrutiny. In this moment that we have to rest, it's what we have to do. We have to decide whether we trust each other enough to keep going with them. I don't trust Peter, but I trust him more than Marcus. As long as Peter's hurt, we have the advantage. When we get to Amity, we can send him off to the infirmary and never see him again. Marcus on the other hand...well I don't know what he'll do. I don't know him well enough to predict his next move, but I do know that something about him is off.
As the buildings of the city fade into the background, the smell of fertilizer and apples overwhelm the air. I stand up, and pull Four with me. Caleb is now asleep in the corner, I go over and nudge him with my shoe."Caleb. Caleb, wake up. It's time to jump."He looks slightly confused while he blinks the sleep out of his eyes. I offer him my hand and haul him up, toward the edge of the train. Peter glances up at us, waits for a few seconds, and takes that as his cue to jump.
"Keep your arms tucked into your chest, and your chin down. It doesn't hurt as bad."I tell Caleb before stepping toward the edge. I hadn't actually jumped off onto anything but a roof before, somehow this was scarier. It was easy in theory, I mean I'd jumped off a 300 story building before, I've I fling myself out of the train, with my good shoulder down, hoping to save myself some pain. It doesn't work, as I roll, I hit a rock. I cry out in pain, and try to get back the breath that was knock out of me when I landed.
I hear Tobias, Caleb, and Marcus land a few seconds after each other, each with a distinct thud. Peter makes his way towards us, as the rest of them dust themselves off. I lay on the ground for a few more seconds, feeling sick from the pain in my shoulder. I take a few more deep breaths before I finally stand up and dust myself off.
Our small group makes out way down the dark gravel road. Apple and grapefruit trees line the road on either side, with the moon casting frightening shadows across it. Finally, we reach a large building, the top looking like a loft from the top of a barn. The five of us look around at each other for a few seconds, each of us not wanting to have to be the one to do it. Caleb reaches out and opens the large doors with ease. We walk in unnoticed, blending into the crowd. Well, okay, not blending. All of the Amity faction members wore soothing colors like green or blue. None of them bandaged and bleeding, or carrying a gun.
A map on a wall indicates the dorms are down a flight of stairs, two right hand turns and down another flight of stairs."The dorms are there."Peter points to the map.
"That's not where we're headed."I say scanning the map,"There."I point to the head office.
"The head office? Why should they let us stay here? We're a bunch of Dauntless. Oh, and a Erudite and a Abnegation. They'll totally let us stay. The only thing they hate more than the Erudite know-it-alls are us Dauntless hoodlums."He says sarcastically, as he adjusts his sling.
"You forget, they're the faction of Peace. They'll be happy to help us, especially if it resolves conflict."I turn on my heel and lead the way to the head office, like I know where I'm going.
When we get there the woman in the front office was already expecting us. Her smile hid the hint of fear in her eyes, as she looked us over and led us to the Faction Master's office,"Well, you see. Ya'll don't exactly blend in here, so I got just about a million calls about your little group heading up here. A few people said ya'll were looking for Mrs. Katherine."She chattered as she lead us down the hallways. She stops in front of a door that looks just like the rest, and opens it."Well, peace be with you!"Her warm smile disappeared around the corner, as did the clack of her shoes.
Her smile was replaced by a woman's with perfect straight white teeth. Her white-blonde hair hangs down her back to her shoulder blades,"I'm Katherine, Faction Master of Amity."Her voice was even warmer than her smile, making me feel slightly at ease. After a minute of her just smiling at us she finally speaks,"I assume this has to do with the...dispute in the city? Hmm?"I nod.
"Yes. It's bad, we need help. Our friend here is hurt."I motion to Peter, his face is a bit too pale for him to be fine.
"Oh, of course."She presses a button on her telephone,"Sharon, please escort our guest to the infirmary."Clacking of heels immediately follows in the hallway,"Now what else do you need? I'm glad to help."Her warm smile spread across her face again.
"A place to sleep would be nice."Caleb chimes in from the back. She nods.
"We have extra dorms open on our initiate wing. What are your names again?"
"I'm Tris, he's Four, that's Mr. Eaton, that's Caleb, and the one that went to the infirmary is Peter."
"Okay. Well, I do believe we can give you a temporary place to stay."She stresses the word. "But, if you come up on the wanted list, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I can't have those Dauntless hoodlums ravaging my sector looking for you."I clear my throat awkwardly,"I don't mean to offend anyone. Also, while you're here, try to lend in, it'll make it easier for you."He smile literally gleams in the light.
"Well, I'll have Sharon show you to the dorms. Come back here in the morning, and we'll have a chat."She smiles at us again before we leave.
The dorms are pretty basic, just like the Dauntless dorms. White walls and rows upon rows of empty bunks. Initiation for them is over now, so of course they'd be empty. Sharon shuts the light off on the way out the door, and we all settle in our bunks.
I wake with a start, sweaty from the haunting dreams. I take a deep, shaky breath, and look around. I see Caleb's sleeping figure, and Marcus's restless one. Tobias isn't in his bunk across the room. I know where he is, I saw it on the way in and thought about it myself, just in case I needed somewhere to escape.
I open the door out, and onto the roof like structure, and sure enough there is Four in the corner, just looking out at the farms,"Hey."I mutter, leaning over the edge of the building next to him. He mumbled something unintelligible back. I finally realize that he wasn't looking out at the farms, but out past the fence.
After a few minutes of silence, I ask, "Have you ever been out there? Past the fences?"
"Once. There was a time that they needed extra guards outside the fence. But I've never been off the platform."
"Platform?"
"There's a concrete platform all around the city. We weren't allowed to step off of it. I was a new transfer, so I didn't. I was obedient."We both get quiet again.
I break the silence again."What do you think it's like?"
"There's a forest just beyond the platform."That doesn't answer my question.
"Well, we're can't be the only city. We're not just it. I mean there has to be other cities, right? In the ancient world their were millions of cities and hundreds of countries, and billions of people. We can't be it."
"I'm not sure."He pauses,"I imagine the other cities, free."He sighs.
"What do you mean free?"I ask him, puzzled.
"Free as in no factions. Free as in you can believe in anything you want. Heck, you could believe in everything if you want."
"You're Divergent, aren't you?"He nods.
"Yeah."He nods some more,"Maybe the people in the old world were so crazy after all. I mean how can you be brave without being selfless. To be brave you have to have inner peace. To have inner peace you have to honest with yourself. Not to mention having inner peace means that you have to have the wisdom and knowledge to figure out your worst fears, and bring yourself past them. It's not so crazy, Tris. Aren't you tired of factions?"He looks over at me.
I look up at the night sky, just taking it in. Never in my life have I seen so many stars,"I'm tired of these age old battles. You're right, they're all the same."We're silent again,"If we could just get out, past the fence. We could be free. No more factions. No more running from being Divergent. No more Eric."He's silent.
"It's logical you know. We could make it. No one would think to look for us way far out there. They'd think we go shot and died or something."He turns to go back inside,"We could wait for them to come for us. Then run from them, hoping to make it out. It's worth a shot. It won't be long before they look for us here."He says it like it's so simple. We go back inside and wait for the sun to come up, and our meeting with Katherine.
As we make our way through the main corridor, for our meeting with Katherine, the big doors bang open. The Amity that are traveling to work all freeze in fear. My Dauntless leaders stand in the doorway, with guns...big guns,"Oh, Tris! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"Eric taunts. He points the gun toward the ceiling and starts firing. The peaceful Amity turn to chaos, screaming and running away from the deafening sounds.
I turn to Caleb and Marcus,"Go to the infirmary with Peter. They want us, not you! Go!"I shove them in the general direction of the infirmary. With no plan for us, I grab Tobias's hand and drag him along behind me. We mesh into the screaming chaotic crowd, until we reach a door, where the Amity people are pouring out. We move slow through the crowd, not to draw attention to ourselves. They spread out around the field, in front of the fence.
I see the fence, not even a hundred yards away,"Come on! We can make it out of the fence before they get out here. We'll be gone before they can catch us!"Four catches on, and we start running for the fence. I hear someone running after us, picking up speed. I glance back, catching Caleb running as fast as he can behind us, trying to catch us. He finally catches up, running alongside us, until we reach the fence. The lock it still on the fence, securing it shut. Four is putting everything he has into hacking the system.
Screaming starts behind us again. I turn around, to see Eric start aiming his gun into the crowd, firing. Finally, after shooting about 4 people, he sees us, and shoots in our direction,"Hurry Four! Hurry!"My hands shake as Eric gets closer and closer, still limping on the foot that I shot just yesterday.
Caleb stands in front of me, protecting me from the spray of bullets. I hear the gate click open, and Tobias struggle to push it open. I look Eric in his cold, dark, dead eyes when he shoots my brother. I cry out,"Caleb!"I fall to the ground with him, crying over my brother. All that I had left. Eric is almost 20 yards away now.
Tobias grabs me around my arms and drags me to the other side of the fence, locking it behind him.
He drags me alongside him. We run so fast that my legs should burn, but they don't. They're just numb. Numb like the rest of me. We reach the edge of the platform before the gate opens behind us. I take one last look at Eric before we step off the platform into the unknown of the forest. Into the unknown abyss of the outside world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~20 Years Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eric's POV
I was still paying for that day, twenty years ago. Jeanine made sure of it. She made sure I wouldn't come back until I found them. So, I've been searching the country like a crazy man for years. A few weeks after Tris shot me, I lost my leg below my knee. I was used to the thing that the ancient people called a 'prosthetic limb'.
Tracking them hasn't been easy. Every time I think I'm one step ahead, and I almost catch them, they're gone. I've been hot on their tail for about a year now. I usually just find their three day old campsite. But that's better than a cold trail, right?
To be honest, I've only ever seen them once in the last twenty years, and that was about ten years ago now. I probably wouldn't recognize them if they crossed my path today. I haven't been home either. Not once in 20 years. Jeanine made it very clear, she made sure I knew that I'd be cleaning up trash the rest of my life if I didn't come back with Tris and Four.
Four...that guy's always been more trouble than he was worth anyway. He was always showing off how special he was.
I know what you're thinking. Why don't you just give up? Well, you see, if I gave up, it'd be a sign that I was weak. Plus, I've spent 20 years looking for them, I'm not about to throw all that away now. I think about giving up and moving south, to somewhere warm and tropical. In the ancient world, it was a place called Mexico.