"Where is everyone?" Amar asks.
We walk through the abandoned security checkpoint without stopping. On the other side, I see Cara. The side of her face is badly bruised, and there's a bandage on her head, but that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is the troubled look on her face.
"What is it?" I say.
Cara shakes her head.
"Where's Tris?" I ask.
"I'm sorry, Tobias."
"Sorry about what?" Christina says roughly. "Tell us what happened!"
"Tris went into the Weapons Lab after Caleb. He didn't make it…David was waiting there for us, as if he knew…she was shot, Tobias. Badly."
Most of the time I can tell when people are lying, and this must be a lie, because Tris has to be alive, somewhere. Her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed and her small body full of power and strength. Even if she was shot, Tris is still alive. She wouldn't leave me here alone.
"Where is she?" Christina asks, sounding more urgent.
Cara's eyes well up with tears.
It's then that I realize: Of course Tris would go into the Weapons Lab after Caleb to ensure the memory serum worked.
Of course she would.
But that's not my only concern, with the memory serum in full effect – we have no Doctors, no Nurses, no one to help us. And we've left the faction-filled world behind us.
My palms feel sweaty as my heart race doubles, triples, as I try to breathe.
"Cara, where is she?" I demand, more forcefully. If Tris is where I think she is, we don't have much time.
"She's still in the Weapons Lab," Cara chokes out, and she's hardly finished her sentence before I'm sprinting, Christina right on my heels.
When we find her, she's cold, limp, and doesn't look like the same Tris I've come to know and love. I don't remember the journey from the entrance to the Weapons Lab, really, just a few smeared images and workers wandering around, looking lost.
She lies on the floor, and for a moment, I think she's just sleeping, and when I touch her, she will wake up and smile at me and press a kiss to my mouth. But when I do touch her she is cold. We're running out of time.
I gather her in my arms like I have so many times before, her breathing shallow and ragged. There's blood everywhere – and I can't tell where it's coming from. Her neck? Her stomach? Her leg? All of the above?
It's as if Christina reads my mind and she quickly begins scanning Tris' body for the bullet. Tris doesn't move, and I have a gut-feeling in my stomach that it's not a good sign. Even if we were quick enough to get help, would she ever wake up?
My stomach churns at the thought, and I have to suppress the urge to throw up.
"Christina, listen," I say. "We have to get her to Erudite, that's the only way she'll survive this. She needs a Doctor."
Christina nods, though her face looks concerned.
"We can have Amar take us back," She hesitates a minute. "Four, what do we do if they won't treat her? Not everyone knows what happened. To them, we're just Dauntless."
Christina speaks the fear that's been tugging at the back of my mind since I heard Tris was shot.
"We're just going to have to hope they do." I say.
When we reach Amar, he looks dumb-founded.
"What happened? What did you guys do?" Amar speaks as though he's in charge of me again, how it was when we were in Dauntless. When I looked up to him, trained to be like him…respected him.
"We didn't have a choice." I say. "We weren't going to let them destroy the factions as if their lives and memories meant nothing."
"So you just go and do the same thing to them they were going to do to your family?" He retorts hotly.
My mouth twitches, and I shift Tris' body in my arms, for how thin she is, she weighs more than what you would expect. Clearly stronger and more muscular now that she's been running with Dauntless.
"Listen, we picked the lesser of two evils." I say, Tris' words ringing in my ear. "It may not have been right, but it was the only choice we had. David was going to destroy everything. Now, if you want to debate about the ethics of our faction system, and how my whole life has been an experiment, you can do it on our way to Erudite."
"Erudite?" Amar looks confused. "Why on Earth would I help you-"
My blood is boiling, and I'm losing patience. Tris doesn't have much time, if any, and we're wasting precious breaths arguing over semantics.
"If you want more blood on your hands, fine, stay here." I interrupt him. "But I'm not going to argue about this while Tris dies in my arms."
That word tastes sour coming out of my mouth. And I notice that for the first time, it seems to have registered to Amar that Tris is in my arms. Not moving. Hardly breathing.
After a few moments of silence, he just responds with a curt, "Fine," and we're heading towards the truck – trying to get back to Erudite as soon as we can.
"Hang in there, Tris." I murmur softly, pushing some hair away from her face.
Christina overhears me and looks back at me, offering a small smile. I can see in her eyes that she's not sure what to feel – hope, loss, fear, anger?
I feel all of the above.