Chapter 2
After a week of staying with the Amity, I am ready to leave, but I have nowhere else to go, so I will have to put up with it. I head to the dining hall with Lorin for breakfast and sit down at the nearest table. Lorin takes a piece of bread and starts to eat.
"Man, you people really love this bread," I say.
"Hey, it's good," Lorin replies.
"It tastes weird," I say, picking up a strawberry and biting it.
"More for me," Lorin says, shrugging and picking up another piece.
We are almost done with breakfast when Beatrice rushes through the door. She runs towards the Abnegation table, which is right next to ours and says,
"The Erudite are here."
"What do we do?" says an Abnegation woman.
"We need to blend in with the Amity, all of you with gray clothes on, go change and meet us back here," she replies.
I am already dressed like the Amity, all I need to do is hide my glasses, which I stuff in my back pocket. The meeting bell sounds and the Lorin and I head to the center greenhouse with the Abnegation following. As we walk through the hallways, we see Dauntless soldiers with blue armbands watching us, traitors. Lorin jabs me in the ribs as we walk past a soldier, making me laugh.
"Thank you," I say, after we had passed.
"Your welcome," he says, smiling.
When we get to the meeting hall, we sit on the floor near the front of the room. The Erudite walk among us, watching us. After a few moments of silence, I hear voices coming from the back of the room, then the familiar sound of fist on flesh. I turn around as gun shots ring out, heading in our direction. I duck and feel a rush of air near my head, the bullet missed me by inches.
Tobias has a gun to an Erudite woman's head, while Beatrice tells us to get up and run. We head to the door and once we're outside, we run after Lorin, who is leading us to the fields. It must be so it would be harder to follow us, sometimes I forget he also has an Aptitude for Erudite, even though it wasn't one of his biggest.
I hear the quiet sound of engines, almost inaudible over the sound of our ragged breaths.
"Split up!" I yell.
I grab Lorin's hand, then turn right sharply and run as fast as my legs can carry me. I run until I'm pretty sure the cars are far enough away, then turn right again, toward Amity.
"Where are we going?" Lorin asks me breathlessly.
"To the orchards, the Erudite and Dauntless traitors are probably still in the compound but most of them are chasing the others and they'd never look in the orchards," I answer, gasping for breath.
When I can see the tops of trees through the stalks of corn, I slow to a walk and Lorin follows suit.
"What are we going to do now?" Lorin asks.
"We could go to Erudite, spy on them." I say.
"Yeah," Lorin says, thinking, "it would be very useful to know what they are going to do next."
"I don't know if they trust me anymore, I left during the simulation attack. They could think I'm a traitor, even though I am," I say, "Plus they have records and would know you don't belong there."
"True," Lorin says thoughtfully, "We could go to Candor instead, Johanna told me the loyal Dauntless are staying there."
"That might be a better idea," I say.
We reach the orchard and watch the compound until we see the Erudite cars driving back to the city.
"Come on, it should be safe to leave now," Lorin says.
We walk for hours until we can finally see the city and sneak in through the open fence door.
"Ugh," I sigh, "I'm tired of walking, let's take the train instead."
"Fine," Lorin sighs.
We ride the train until we get to Candor Headquarters, or as everybody else calls it the Merciless Mart. When we walk through the front doors we are immediately surrounded.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"You are under arrest, that's what," says a Candor man, Jack Kang, Candor's leader. We are lead to a room with to chairs in the middle, and benches surrounding them from all directions.
"We are now going to interrogate you both while you are under truth serum," Jack Kang says, "Lorin Parks, you will be going first."
The Dauntless guards pull Lorin away from my side and lead him to the chairs in the middle. They inject him with a blue tinted liquid and sit him down in the chair while Jack sits in the one across from him. I watch as Lorin struggles against the truth serum, and am as surprised as the others when he flat out lies at one of the questions.
When Lorin is done he walks to the back of the room without looking at me. Now it's my turn, I walk to the center of the room and stand silently as Jack Kang injects me with the truth serum. My limbs become heavy as the fluid fills my body, I collapse into the chair and Jack sits across from me.
"What is your name?" Jack asks me.
"Zahlia Marie Gray," I say automatically.
"Who are your parents?"
"Kelsi Gray and Matthew Gray."
"What was your faction of origin?"
"Dauntless."
"What is your current faction?"
"Erudite."
"Are you still loyal to them?"
I falter in my answer, realizing where I am. I have stay aware, I can't let this serum get the best of me.
"No," I say finally.
"What were you doing in the Abnegation sector at the time of the attack?"
"I saw the Dauntless heading in their direction and went to investigate. When I saw that they were killing the Abnegation, I decided to help some get out of the area," I say easily, I have no reason to lie.
"Your story checks out," Jack says, looking disappointed, "One last question, Miss Gray, what is your deepest regret?"
I look at the ground,
What do I regret? I think, Choosing Erudite? No, that's where I was meant to be.
I think about Lorin's regret, shooting an Erudite girl. I think about the Dauntless soldiers coming after us, and say,
"I shot so many people, Dauntless soldiers, they were mindless and didn't know what they were doing and I shot them."
There is noise from the crowd, the Dauntless are giving me dirty looks.
"That will be all," Jack says.
"Thank you for your honesty," the crowd murmurs, making it echo around the room.
I stand up and leave the room without looking at anyone, making sure to avoid the Dauntless stares. Once outside, I walk blindly through hallways and down stairs until I find myself outside. I breathe in the fresh air and start walking, not knowing or caring where I am going.