I run over to where Cara is lying on the ground. She's still conscious but clutching at her leg. Caleb is rooting around in his pack and he pulls out one of his shirts and a first aid kit.
He shoves the shirt at me before seeing my face. Concern flashes in his eyes before he notices I'm not the one bleeding.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" I can't stop the vehemence from entering my voice. I haven't spoken to him this whole time and now he's shoving his dirty laundry at me.
"Stop the bleeding," he gives me a hurt look, "Get it together Beatrice, if we don't stop the bleeding she's going to die."
"Oh," I wad the shirt and then press it against Cara's leg wound. It looks like she's been hit by two bullets. She cries out, her eyes watering and teeth gritted.
Tobias is next to us then, Caleb and him working to tie a tourniquet over her leg and binding the wound in bandages. The shirt is already soaked through with blood and as I remove my hand Cara's blood is mixed with the dead soldier's.
Cara's eyes are glazed and her breathing has intensified.
"She's going into shock," mutters Caleb.
Tobias looks at me seeing that I'm not in a much better state. "Tris, we need to get her to medical help. The tower is the closest place. Go and find Uriah and Christina. Peter, go with her."
Ok, something to do. I stand up and the world tilts around me. Tobias stands up as well and puts his arm on my back to steady me. "Tris." his voice penetrates the dim that seems to surround me, "You need to do this or Cara will die. Caleb and I will carry her to the tower but we need to know that they will help us. If they don't… Cara will probably bleed out."
I close my eyes tightly for a second, feeling the darkness invade. When I open them I am calm again. Tobias hands me his gun. I hold it as if it's a deadly snake, the metal is warm from his hands.
"Get it together Tris," he says roughly, "You're dauntless and you need to get into that tower to save Cara."
I straighten, he's right. I need to put my own selfish reasons for not holding a gun aside for Cara. There is nothing I can do to stop them from attacking me so maybe I can stop them from attacking my friends. I look up into Tobias's eyes a new determination there, I feel this burning in me, Cara has to live, and I am going to help her. Too many people have died already.
I wrap my arms around Tobias for a brief moment, feeling his heartbeat, his warmth before I release him and stride after Peter out of the clearing.
We move as quietly as we can through the undergrowth muffling our breathing and footsteps. The tower comes into view up ahead of us but we stay well back so as not to give our positions away to any guards. I still feel a slight revulsion at being this close to Peter but I try not to let it affect me.
Movement, up ahead. I see a flash of black and grey. Peter and I immediately duck behind a tree before I hear a tentative whisper, "Tris?" It's Christina.
I step out from behind the tree and almost have to leap out of the way as Christina careens into me and gives me a hug. It wasn't the emotion I was expecting from her but it's nice to know she cares.
"You're ok!" she says breathlessly. Uriah walks up behind her not making a sound, he stops short when he sees my face.
"Not mine." I say again before he opens his mouth. Christina backs up a couple of steps and takes us in. I am filthy from all the blood and my roll around the forest floor, Peter on the other hand looks immaculate.
"What the hell happened?" Alarm registering in her eyes.
"Cara's been shot. We need to get her to a doctor or she'll bleed out."
"Oh my god," she notices the gun in my hands, "The tower?"
"It's the only place for miles around. We have to either beg them for help-
"I don't think they'll listen," says Uriah with a grimace.
"Then we have to take the tower."
We all look at each other and nod, Dauntless soldiers through and through.
The tower stands like a concrete fort, squat in the centre of the wall. At least five stories high and one of the ugliest buildings I've seen. The strange turret I saw from the distance is much bigger up close. A polished metal double barrel is all I can see rising into the air in a salute to the west. At least it's not pointing at us. Surrounding the base of the tower is a razor wire fence with a small gate protected by a single guard. The door to the actual tower seemed to have some electronic mechanism next to it. We can't see anyone else visible in the tower.
Single guard first.
Uriah bursts from cover firing two shots, one hits the guard's bullet proof vest, jolting him with the impact while the other finds its way into his neck. I hear the gargling scream but don't look at him. Uriah pushes open the gate while the rest of us run from cover. We make it to the base of the tower where we should be safe from line-of-sight shooting from the windows. The mechanism is some kind of keypad and Uriah looks ready to shoot it with his gun until Peter pulls something from his pocket.
He swipes a strange black card, a souvenir from the dead guard in the forest.
The door clicks open and Uriah kicks it while we all duck back around the doorframe. A barrage of automatic fire flies through where we had just been. There's a break in the fire and Christina ducks around the corner and fires two shots. A muffled gasp from inside just before another stream of fire hits the doorframe and flies out into the open. It stops again and both Peter and Christina slide around firing shots. There's a cry of pain and then silence.
We stalk through the door into a plain corridor, I ignore the bodies and pool of blood at the end and start climbing the stairs. My eyes slide over everything, taking it in coldly and without emotion. I need to do this for Cara or she will die.
We get to the first landing and Peter and Christina peel off to check the rooms. Uriah and I continue up to the second floor.
I open the first door and peer in cautiously. Just a set of bunk beds with a few personal items and clothing littered around the room. The second is the same, Uriah motions that all of his rooms were empty too. We head back to the stairs and continue up. Christina and Peter are checking the third floor so we go up to the fourth. The first door I kick open shows an empty room with a back wall made entirely of an electronic map… of the City. I can't stop to wonder why a map of the City was in a strange guard-tower though. I don't think, I just move.
The next room is just a kitchen and I turn to go when I hear shouts out in the hall. Uriah comes out of the room opposite, a glance through the door tells me it's just a dining room, and we run back down the hallway to the stairs.
I hear a single shot fired on the floor below.
AN: I apologise for all these cliff-hangers… They kind of just happen, and it feels like the right place to end the chapter.