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As always, these lovely characters do not belong to me. They belong to the amazing Veronica Roth.
Enjoy chapter 3
Uriah pulls me behind a tree and tells me to stay here while he sneaks up to see who's driving the truck. I watch him as he walks, crouched over like an old man with a bad back. I loose sight of him through the long grass and turn around to face the other way.
I try to swallow my anger. I hate having the stay behind and I hate that Uriah was right. Maybe I have been selfish with my life in the past, maybe I should go back to Patton and let her finish me, if I'm not prepared to stay by the side of the people I love. But maybe I am? Maybe I can put my safety first this time. Maybe I can forget that Patton will be setting a group of solders out to search for me and stay and fight against them with the people I love besides me instead of leaving them behind. Maybe I can be better.
It's not long after Uriah leaves that I hear footsteps coming towards the tree. I hold my breath as I lean around the side of the tree to see what's going on. As I do, my head collides into Uriah chest and I feel his whole body pressed against mine.
"What's going on?" My voice comes out muffled and then I feel Uriah's hand cover my mouth as he brings his lips towards my ear.
"Erudite soldiers" He says in a panic.
My whole body goes numb. No. They cannot catch us, no. We are too close to Bureau to be taken back now. I cannot go back to be tortured for however long I'm useful for and then let Patton kill me. I can't let it happen, and that when I knew. I knew I would not leave the people I loved behind again.
I can feel Uriah's heavy breathing on my neck, as he try's to slow it down. I place one of my hands over his heart and with one finger mimic the rhythm of his heartbeat. I'm not sure why or how I decided it would be a good idea but within moments his heartbeat had slowed and his breathing was back to normal.
We hear the truck go past us, it stops for a moment and we hear the door open.
"I'm telling you, I saw something" We both hear the high-pitched voice of a young women.
"Yeah and I'm telling you that you didn't, now get back in the truck I want to be back before dark." This time it's a man who spoke.
I glance up at Uriah, who has his head pressed up against the tree with his eyes shut. I've never seen this fearful side of him before, not even in the hallways of Erudite when we passed each other being taken to separate rooms to have new simulations tested on us. We only saw each other when one was under a stimulation, a fun little game for Patton liked to play with us. I remember about a year ago, when Uriah broke my ribs.
Suddenly we hear a door slam shut on the truck and it begins moving towards back in the direction it came from.
We both let out a sigh of relief as we continue to keep still for a few more moments.
After awhile Uriah steps back and peaks out to one side of the tree and see if the truck was still in our sights.
"All clear" He begins. "If I wasn't mistaken, I think you enjoyed being that close to me Tris" he says with all signs of fear gone from his face, instead replaced with humour. A huge smile spreading across his face.
"Yeah, like I had an option, you pretty much threw yourself on me when you came around the tree" I say back teasing. I've never understood our relationship, we have been each other's comfort over the past two years. I feel completely relaxed with him, he knows every dark moment I've been through while in the walls of Erudite and I know his. We can switch from serious so complete fools in a moment but I don't know how this will display in front of our friends and families, if we ever reach them... I think to myself.
"We need to go," I say as I step around the tree and begin walking straight ahead. Wincing every time I have to put weight on my right leg.
"We are going to have to get there soon, we can't take anymore chances with running into another truck of solders." Uriah says behind me.
"I know, I was secretly hoping it would be people from Bureau and we wouldn't have to walk the rest of the way." The words flow out of my mouth freely. For some reason I find it easy to show this type of weakness in front of Uriah, well... all types of weakness really.
"You and me both, I honestly am beginning to feel sick from looking at your leg Tris." He says with a laugh. But I know he is worried about the amount of blood I've lost and honestly so am I. My head feels dazed and I could fall over and not get back up any moment but I can't let the pain win. I continue on.
After awhile I begin to fall behind Uriah, he turns and takes one look at me.
"I'm fine" I try to sound convincingly but its not working.
"Come on," He says gently as he walks towards me and puts his arm around my waist again, and lets all my weight fall onto him.
"We don't have far to go I think" I say as I try to hide my relief. My leg had began to drag behind me and my entry upper body was hunched over my walking stick, which went from supporting my injured leg to supporting my entire body weight.
"I hope so, I don't think you'll last the night out here" Uriah says honestly as he lets his eyes dart to me for only a moment.
"I know, so we better move fast" I try to sound stronger but my body is exhausted and I have began to wince with every step we take.
"Oh and Uriah, Thank you" I try to sound as casual as possible so he doesn't make such a big deal out of it.
"Did I honestly just hear Tris Prior say Thank you? WOW I must be in shock." Uriah says with a loud laugh and then smiles down at me. "Anytime, I'm sure you'd try and support my weight if I was the one who got shot."
I smiled back at him, I enjoy the way he brushes all the important things off like they are nothing.
"I'd most likely fail," I say back to him. "Considering you weigh so much more then I do" I laugh to myself and then feel him to let me go for a moment before catching me again. I lift my walking stick up and hit him with it. We both laugh at each other, for a moment forgetting we are on the run and I'm losing more blood with every step we take.
- LineBreak -
The sun has begun to set behind the trees just as I begin to see the top of a building straight ahead of us.
"Look" I say and point to the buildings head. "Straight in front, the top of a building"
"I see it" Uriah says back to me.
A bolt of excitement and relief run through my body but it's followed with fear. What's going to happen when they see us? We aren't meant to be alive. Uriah begins to walk fast, almost pulling me along behind him. I clench my teeth together to stop any sign of weakness and begin to move my legs fast, ignoring any pain that comes. As we get closer I notice the amount of guards around the fence begins to grow.
"Lets hope they don't shoot us out of shock" I say dumbly to Uriah, but in all honesty I just needed to break the silence.
"Ha. Ha. Funny" He says.
Clearly this is the only moment Uriah can't come up with a stupid comment about a serious situation.
I swallow hard and look forward again, trying to see if I can recognise anyone. The gate begins to open and a tall dark man walks out holding a gun.
"Stand where you are" His voice is strong, naturally loud. "Place your hands behind your head and wait there." He orders. Just has he begins to walk towards I begin to feel the true affect of all the blood I've lost, my vision begins to darken.
"Get down on your knees" The man orders again.
Good, I can do that I think to myself. Maybe it will stop me from fainting. I hold my breath and clench my mouth shut as I drop to my knees but its no use, a low scream of pain gets out as I feel the intense sharpness of the wound ripping again from the impact.
"You good?" Uriah asks me.
"Yeah, fine" I say without looking at him.
My body is shaking and my vision is still dark around the edges, I don't have long until my body is taken over by the pain and weakness I've been ignoring for hours.
"Please state your name and your purpose of coming here," We are asked by the man.
Uriah looks over at me and I shrug my shoulders and he begins to speak.
"My name is Tris Prior and this is Uriah Pedrad." His voice sounding strong and steady.
I hear yelling behind him. I look up and see the crowd begin to open up.
I look over to Uriah whose attention has been court by the same thing and turn my attention back to it as well. A man races out of the crowd first and stops in his track when he lays his eyes on us.
"Zeke" Uriah whispers to himself.
My mouth hangs open as more people begin to break through and fall still besides Zeke.
I can make out every face that is standing a few feet away from us. The last people to fall still beside them are my parents and Evelyn. Tobias mother, why is she out here?
Before I can take in anymore I feel the life being sucked out of my body and my vision go black. As if someone turned of the lights. I try to grab a hold of Uriah but its too late, my body goes limp, my arms fall down to the side of my body and I feel myself fall face first into the ground.
"Tris!" Uriah yells. "Oh Jesus, She's lost a lot of blood! You need to get her inside" I hear Uriah's frantic voice beside me as footsteps run towards us before I completely go under.