A/N: THANK YOU! I have received an amazing response to the first chapter. You guys rock. Time to start reading the book. Enjoy;)


CHAPTER TWO

FOUR'S POV

"Time to start the new book," Uriah announces after lunch.

We have decided to not read the book until after lunch. Have the mornings free to do whatever we want. I plan on spending as much time as possible in the training room.

"Here's the book Will," I hand the book to Will and he quickly opens the book and starts to read.

CHAPTER ONE

I wake with his name in my mouth.

Will.

Before I open my eyes, I watch him crumple to the pavement again. Dead.

My doing.

"Tris I think you need to get over what you did?" Lynn says.

"Why should she?" Christina snaps.

"What would you have done Christina?" Lynn asks.

"Like she said, she could have shot him in the arm or something," Christina says.

"Did you listen to what happened in the last few chapters of the other book?" Zeke asks. "Unless it was a head shot, they keep coming at you. Even if she had shot him in the arm he would have kept coming at her. You should be blaming Cara, it's his sister who created this mess."

I didn't realise that Zeke would be taking so much notice of what was happening in the books. I think I may have underestimated him. Will is staying extremely quiet over the whole matter. I'd be interested to know what he thinks of it all.

Tobias crouches in front of me, his hand on my left shoulder. The train car bumps over the rails, and Marcus, Peter, and Caleb stand by the doorway. I take a deep breath and hold it in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure that is building in my chest.

"I can't believe you are stuck with Peter," Uriah comments. "I'm glad they didn't lock him in this place with us."

An hour ago, nothing that happened felt real to me. Now it does.

I breathe out, and the pressure is still there.

"Tris, come on," Tobias says, his eyes searching mine. "We have to jump."

It is too dark to see where we are, but if we are getting off, we are probably close to the fence. Tobias helps me to my feet and guides me toward the doorway.

"I bet you would be wishing the train would stop. Like it did in initiation," Shauna says.

The others jump off one by one: Peter first, then Marcus, then Caleb. I take Tobias's hand. The wind picks up as we stand at the edge of the car opening, like a hand pushing me back, toward safety.

But we launch ourselves into darkness and land hard on the ground. The impact hurts the bullet wound in my shoulder. I bite my lip to keep from crying out, and search for my brother.

"Okay?" I say when I see him sitting in the grass a few feet away, rubbing his knee.

He nods. I hear him sniff like he's fending off tears, and I have to turn away.

We landed in the grass near the fence, several yards away from the worn path that the Amity trucks travel to deliver food to the city, and the gate that lets them out—the gate that is currently shut, locking us in. The fence towers over us, too high and flexible to climb over, too sturdy to knock down.

"There are supposed to be Dauntless guards here," says Marcus. "Where are they?"

"They were probably under the simulation," Tobias says, "and are now ..." He pauses. "Who knows where, doing who knows what."

"Did Marcus expect that they would just go back to work after what happened?" Zeke asks. "He really is an idiot."

"I wonder how long until we find out what happened to us," Marlene says.

"Sometimes not knowing is better Mar," Uriah tells her.

"Maybe," Marlene replies.

We stopped the simulation—the weight of the hard drive in my back pocket reminds me—but we didn't pause to see the aftermath. What happened to our friends, our peers, our leaders, our factions? There is no way to know.

"At least Tris is thinking about us?" Uriah smiles.

"What good is that," Lynn says. "It's not like she is in such a great state of mind right now."

"This is just strange," Tris whispers. I look at her confused. "They are all commenting about things we haven't done yet, like it has."

"Yeah. But I guess it's their way of coping with what could happen," I say.

Tobias approaches a small metal box on the right side of the gate and opens it, revealing a keypad.

"Let's hope the Erudite didn't think to change this combination," he says as he types in a series of numbers. He stops at the eighth one, and the gate clicks open.

"How did you know that?" says Caleb. His voice sounds thick with emotion, so thick I am surprised it does not choke him on the way out.

"I worked in the Dauntless control room, monitoring the security system. We only change the codes twice a year," Tobias says.

"How lucky," says Caleb. He gives Tobias a wary look.

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Tobias says. "I only worked there because I wanted to make sure I could get out."

"We will have to remember to change that," Max says.

"You want to change Four's job?" Uriah questions.

"The codes," Eric says as he shakes his head at Uriah.

I shiver. The way he talks about getting out—it's like he thinks we're trapped. I never thought about it that way before, and now that seems foolish.

"Why are we locked in?" Tori asks.

"It has always been that way," Max says. "It isn't something we've ever worried about."

"Maybe you should be," Tori says.

We walk in a small pack, Peter cradling his bloody arm to his chest—the arm that I shot—and Marcus with his hand on Peter's shoulder, keeping him stable. Caleb wipes his cheeks every few seconds, and I know he's crying but I don't know how to comfort him, or why I am not crying myself.

Instead I take the lead, Tobias silent at my side, and though he does not touch me, he steadies me.

"Marcus is good at playing the part," Zeke says. "He acts all caring toward a psychopath like Peter but puts his on kid through hell."

"There's a page break," Will tells us.

Pinpricks of light are the first sign that we are nearing Amity headquarters. Then squares of light that turn into glowing windows. A cluster of wooden and glass buildings.

Zeke starts laughing.

"What's so funny?" Uriah asks.

"Four is staying in Amity," Zeke says. He is laughing so much he has fallen off the couch. Which just makes everyone laugh at him and takes the attention away from me. I wonder how I am going to cope with Amity?

Before we can reach them, we have to walk through an orchard. My feet sink into the ground, and above me, the branches grow into one another, forming a kind of tunnel. Dark fruit hangs among the leaves, ready to drop. The sharp, sweet smell of rotting apples mixes with the scent of wet earth in my nose.

"Why would there be rotting apples?" Eric says. "Shouldn't they be collecting the fruit before that happens? I'm sure the other factions would want to know that Amity are leaving food to rot."

"Maybe you should go and help them pick the fruit," Tori says. By her tone you know she would love nothing better than for him to go to Amity and leave Dauntless for good.

When we get close, Marcus leaves Peter's side and walks in front. "I know where to go," he says.

"Of course, he does," Eric sneers.

He leads us past the first building to the second one on the left. All the buildings except the greenhouses are made of the same dark wood, unpainted, rough. I hear laughter through an open window. The contrast between the laughter and the stone stillness within me is jarring.

Marcus opens one of the doors. I would be shocked by the lack of security if we were not at Amity headquarters. They often straddle the line between trust and stupidity.

"It can take them months to let us know when a camera goes down in their compound," Zeke says.

"Does Dauntless look after all the cameras in the city?" Will asks.

"Outside we do. Each faction has their own team for inside their compounds. We are in charge of fixing any that may be broken or need replacing," Zeke replies.

"You would think Erudite would want to be in control of fixing cameras," Tris says.

"That job is beneath them," Zeke says rolling his eyes. "Or so they think."

"Too busy trying to take control of the other factions you mean," Tori snaps.

In this building the only sound is of our squeaking shoes. I don't hear Caleb crying anymore, but then, he was quiet about it before.

Marcus stops before an open room, where Johanna Reyes, representative of Amity, sits, staring out the window. I recognize her because it is hard to forget Johanna's face, whether you've seen her once or a thousand times. A scar stretches in a thick line from just above her right eyebrow to her lip, rendering her blind in one eye and giving her a lisp when she talks. I have only heard her speak once, but I remember. She would have been a beautiful woman if not for that scar.

"Does anyone know what happened to her?" Shauna asks.

Everyone shakes their heads in a no.

"Oh, thank God," she says when she sees Marcus. She walks toward him with her arms open. Instead of embracing him, she just touches his shoulders, like she remembers the Abnegation's distaste for casual physical contact.

"The other members of your party got here a few hours ago, but they weren't sure if you had made it," she says. She is referring to the group of Abnegation who were with my father and Marcus in the safe house. I didn't even think to worry about them.

She looks over Marcus's shoulder, first at Tobias and Caleb, then at me, then at Peter.

"Oh my," she says, her eyes lingering on the blood soaking Peter's shirt. "I'll send for a doctor. I can grant you all permission to stay the night, but tomorrow, our community must decide together. And"—she eyes Tobias and me—"they will likely not be enthusiastic about a Dauntless presence in our compound. I of course ask you to turn over any weapons you might have."

"They are such hypocrites," Eric says. "They keep asking for extra security around the fence but don't want any Dauntless in the compound. They use firearms in Amity all the time."

"They do?" Will asks.

"Yeah they do. We usually send Lauren out to teach the farmers in case they need to put an animal down."

"Why not Four?" Zeke asks.

"They asked for a woman. Thought their members would feel less intimidated or some crap like that," Max scoffs.

"Could you imagine Four having to deal with Amity?" Zeke laughs.

"It couldn't be as bad as it is when they have had to deal with Eric," Max says with a laugh.

I wonder, suddenly, how she knows that I am Dauntless. I am still wearing a gray shirt. My father's shirt.

At that moment, his smell, which is an even mixture of soap and sweat, wafts upward, and it fills my nose, fills my entire head with him. I clench my hands so hard into fists that my fingernails cut into my skin. Not here. Not here.

Tobias hands over his gun, but when I reach behind me to take out my own concealed weapon, he grabs my hand, guiding it away from my back. Then he laces his fingers with mine to cover up what he just did.

"Good move," Lynn says with a grin.

I know it's smart to keep one of our guns. But it would have been a relief to hand it over.

"My name is Johanna Reyes," she says, extending her hand to me, and then Tobias. A Dauntless greeting. I am impressed by her awareness of the customs of other factions. I always forget how considerate the Amity are until I see it for myself.

"This is T—" Marcus starts, but Tobias interrupts him.

"My name is Four," he says. "This is Tris, Caleb, and Peter."

A few days ago, "Tobias" was a name only I knew, among the Dauntless; it was the piece of himself that he gave me. Outside Dauntless headquarters, I remember why he hid that name from the world. It binds him to Marcus.

"Welcome to the Amity compound." Johanna's eyes fix on my face, and she smiles crookedly. "Let us take care of you."

"She's smiling crookedly because she ate too much of that damn bread with dinner," Eric says.

"There's a page break," Will says.

We do let them. An Amity nurse gives me a salve—developed by Erudite to speed healing—to put on my shoulder, and then escorts Peter to the hospital ward to mend his arm. Johanna takes us to the cafeteria, where we find some of the Abnegation who were in the safe house with Caleb and my father. Susan is there, and some of our old neighbors, and rows of wooden tables as long as the room itself. They greet us—especially Marcus—with held-in tears and suppressed smiles.

"Wouldn't it be healthier to let the emotion out?" Marlene asks. "It must be so frustrating to have to hold back how you are feeling all the time."

"You have no idea," Tris replies.

I cling to Tobias's arm. I sag under the weight of the members of my parents' faction, their lives, their tears.

One of the Abnegation puts a cup of steaming liquid under my nose and says, "Drink this. It will help you sleep as it helped some of the others sleep. No dreams."

"Where do they get this stuff from?" Zeke asks. "Although I like my dreams, so I probably wouldn't want it. But they have peace serum."

"Well what else have they got to do all day," Eric sneers. He doesn't seem to like the Amity very much. "How do you think they can all stand being there? They drug them to be happy all day and then they drug them at night so they don't have a nightmare about how horrible their lives are because they know they couldn't possibly be this happy all the time. It's just one drug fucked life. You think Jeanine wanting to keep you under simulation is bad, well Amity is like that all the time if you think about it."

"But the members choose to be there Eric," I say. "They aren't being held against their will to murder people."

The liquid is pink-red, like strawberries. I grab the cup and drink it fast. For a few seconds the heat from the liquid makes me feel like I am full of something again. And as I drain the last drops from the cup, I feel myself relaxing. Someone leads me down the hallway, to a room with a bed in it. That is all.

"Tris, you were awfully quick to drink that stuff," Christina says.

"I'm sure if you were there, on that day, you would be asking for two cups Christina," Tris replies with a fake smile. I think she has had enough of Christina judging her.

"That's the end of the chapter. Do you want a quick break or do you want me to keep reading?" Will asks.

"Bathroom break," Lynn says.

"If Will is doing all the reading," Uriah says. "Does that mean we can drink in here?"

"What do you want Uriah?" Eric asks.

"I want Tris to make her hot chocolate," Uriah says and then gives Tris a big grin.

"Does anyone else want hot chocolate?" Tris asks.

Everyone who is still in the room has raised their hands.

"I'll help," Uriah volunteers and runs off to the kitchen with Tris.