Chapter 3
I see Lorin walking toward me and stop to meet him.
"Hey, what's going on?" I ask when I see his face.
"We need to leave, I'm going crazy here," he says.
"I know," I sigh, "When?"
"As soon as possible," he says, and he walks away.
I sigh and turn away, the truth is, I'm going crazy too. The Candor stares, the Dauntless stares, it's bad enough being Erudite, but I admitted to killing their own. I walk toward Candor headquarters and here Jack Kang's voice coming over the intercom.
"I will be meeting with Jeanine Matthews tonight to see if I can negotiate with her. I will tell you the details of this meeting in the morning."
Leave it to the Candor to be honest, I think as I walk to my bunk on the main floor.
They are still cleaning up the damage from the attack by the Erudite yesterday, they came in and shot people with needles, then searched through the people, looking for Divergent. Luckily, Lorin and I were talking outside, and we were able to hide when we saw the Erudite coming. Now the people who were shot have circles of blue dye wherever they were shot, and people still don't know what it does.
I reach my bunk and grab the book the Candor woman who runs the library gave me. It's old and ripping at the seams, since it's from before the war and the faction systems, but I like it since it isn't about anything that's real. It's about children being forced to fight to the death in an arena, The Hunger Games it's called.
I head upstairs to the small library run by the Candor woman and meet Cara and Izzy poring over some inventions of ours.
"Hey," I say, walking over to the table.
"Hey Z!" Iz says in her cheerful voice.
"What are we working on this time?" I ask.
"The stunner, it worked fine before but now it just lights up," Cara says, frustrated.
"Hmm," I say, thinking.
We work until the dinner bell sounds, then head downstairs to eat. When we get to the dining hall, we see that the line goes all around the room.
"I'll see you guys later," I say, and start walking toward Lorin.
"Hey," I say when I reach him.
"Hey," he says, sounding tired.
"I was thinking that we would stay to hear what Jeanine's demands are, then leave," I say.
"Sounds good, but where are we going?" he asks.
"I overheard the Dauntless having a meeting, they're going to Dauntless, I think we should go too. We are part of them too," I say.
"Ok, anywhere but here," he says.
"Ya, this place is draining you of your Amity," I say smiling.
"Whatever," he says, smiling back at me.
"Go get me some food, would you? That lines' too long and I don't want to stand," I say.
"Get your own food," he says.
"That wasn't very Amity of you," I say in mock surprise.
"Ok fine, how about we both get in line?" he says.
"Fine," I say, faking a sigh.
…
I stand by the doors, sweeping up some leftover glass shards and the next thing I know the Dauntless are running past me, toward the doors. They're leaving, and it's time for us to leave too. I turn and run to Lorin, who is helping clean up some other debris from the attack.
"They're leaving now," I say, pulling him with me to the doors.
"Let's go then," he says.
I follow him out the doors and we sprint to catch up the the Dauntless, who are a several yards ahead of us. I look back at Candor Headquarters and see Cara and Iz standing by the doors, watching us leave. I turn back and run over to them.
"Where are you going?" Cara asks me.
"Dauntless," I say quickly, "listen, it's not safe here, Jack's made a deal with Jeanine. Go to Amity, they've set up a safe house for everybody there."
With that, I turn back to the Dauntless and run to catch up again, leaving Candor Headquarters and my friends behind.
They pass out paintball guns when we get to Dauntless and everybody starts to shoot the cameras I noticed when exploring the compound as a kid. I head to the Dauntless kitchen and shoot the camera in the corner, then, after looking around to make sure I'm alone, I walk over to the fridge and take a piece of Dauntless cake. I walk back out into the Pit and see Lorin standing against the wall.
"Hey," I say walking over, "why aren't you shooting stuff?"
"Because I don't like to shoot stuff," he says.
"Oh come on, shooting stuff is fun" I say.
"Is that cake?" he asks, pointing to the piece of cake in my hand.
"Maybe," I say, smiling, "well, I'm going to go shoot stuff, sure you don't want to come?"
"I'll think about it," he says, smiling back at me.
"Well hurry up," I say.
I turn away from him and start walking away, then turn back and shoot him in the chest.
"Hey!" he says as I run in the opposite direction.
I hear his footsteps following me as I run and shoot behind me. That's how it started, everybody joined up into teams, and we had a giant paintball war. After it all, my blue clothes are covered with multi-colored dots. I walk to my old home to get fresh clothes and find my mother in the living room.
"Hi mom," I say, standing in the doorway.
"Zahlia," she says, walking toward me and pulling my into her embrace.
"I'm sorry I left you," I say, fighting off tears.
She pulls back to look at me.
"Oh honey, I don't care about that," she says, "All that matters is you're here now."
"And I'll always be here," I say, letting the tears fall down my face.
