I looked up at the crimson sky. The air was unbearably humid, yet the landscape was dry. Trees bore no leaves and the dry ground was cracked and dusty. A piercing cry cut through the air. I took a sharp breath and looked up. Crows. Just as I had remembered. This one hadn't gone away. They were swarming the sky. They beady eyes were trained on me and they flew directly at me. I crouched down and searched the overgrown yellow grass. My fingers brushed across familiar metal. A gun. I picked it up and held it by the grip, resting my finger on the trigger. I squinted and took aim, picking off the birds one by one before they had a chance to come close to me. As I shot the seventh bird, the scene shifted around me.
One… I counted in my head.
I was standing in the pit. It was surprisingly empty. Confused, I walked forward, smacking into a cool hard surface. I recoiled, taking a step backwards, but was stopped by another invisible force. Not this again, I thought. I reached my hands out to the side. I knew it. They were closed off by a wall of glass. I looked down expectantly. As I had guessed, water came trickling in from an unknown source. Before long, the water level had reached my ankles. I slammed the palm of my hand onto the glass. It left a lingering sting, but the glass was unharmed. I started panting. It has to work, I told myself. Try again. Make it work. By the time I had slowed my breathing, the water was at my waist. I formed a fist and hit it hard against the wall. A tiny crack had webbed across, slowly creeping further. The water had reached my neck, and I tilted my head up to keep my head above the water. I rested each hand on either side of the glass wall and kicked at the cracked glass. After several attempts, I had made a hole, and the water level receded. I kicked at it again. There was a huge gash in the wall, and the force pulled me forward. I held my hands in front of me so I didn't slam into the glass in front of me, but as I braced myself for impact, it never came. I was thrown forward with the water. Desperately, I grabbed a rock nearby and whipped my head around. I was surrounded by an ocean.
Two…
I gripped the rock with white knuckles and groaned. I shut my eyes tight to keep the roaring water out. Breathe… breathe… How did I get out of this one last time? I focused my panicked mind and thought. Last time, I had fought my way out of this, but I didn't see how that was possible this time. I struggled, holding onto my lifeline. There are two ways to conquer your fear… Tobias' voice rang though my head like an echo in a hall. You can face it, or you can succumb to it. I was going to have to succumb to it. I exhaled, letting all the air escape from my lungs, and let go. My body twisted and turned with the current. I breathed in and choked. Water filled my lungs and my body jerked violently. I coughed and snorted uselessly, and my vision went dark.
Three…
I opened my eyes as if I had just blinked. I was at my parent's house. The familiar scent of laundry soap was there, as it always was, but something wasn't right. It was silent. Eerily silent, even for a quiet faction like Abnegation. I remember this one. I walked up to the cupboard where the mirror was hidden from us for all but one day in three months. I slid it open and slipped in my hand, feeling around the shelves. With a sigh of relief, I whipped out a knife just before the first crash came from downstairs. I inhaled sharply and turned. There he was, standing in front of me, basking in all his dreadful glory. Without thinking, I lifted a leg, retracted my arm and spun, letting the knife slip from my grasp, and finding its place buried within the man's chest. Two more emerged from behind and grabbed my arm. Screaming in rage, I brought my elbow back into the face of the one on my left. He crumpled onto the floor, unconscious. The second lunged out at me, but I caught is neck, pulled back, unbalancing him, and flung him across the room, where he slammed into the wall. He didn't attempt to get up. Smirking, I shook out my arms and walked out the door.
Four…
The scene changed around me as I reached the garden. It was as if I was caught in a time lapse. One minute, everything was normal on the streets of Abnegation. Then I lurched forward unconsciously and stumbled onto my knees, as if a force had struck me from behind. I looked up and gasped. The sky was blood red, and the sound of terrified shrieks and deafening gunshots filled the air. Just like that day, I thought. The day when Dauntless attacked Abnegation. A Dauntless soldier marched out of the house next to mine, holding an old woman by the hair. He dropped her onto the pavement, aimed his gun at her forehead, and fired. I screamed. War. I'm afraid of war. The soldier looked up, his face muscles slack and emotionless, courtesy of Erudite. He jogged off, undoubtedly to kill another victim. Without thinking, I hurled myself onto his shoulders and threw my weight back. He fell with me without making a sound of protest. Why would he? He's practically a robot. He trained his eyes on me and shrugged me off like it was nothing. He got up and walked off in the direction he was before. I followed him, not making any sense in this. What I saw made me shake with fear. Hundreds of Dauntless were lined up neatly in rows, marching in perfect sync. The man from earlier took his spot at the end of a line and marched with the rest. I clasped my hand to my mouth. I didn't know how to escape from this fear. I didn't know what to do. So many people were going to die. I fell to my knees and buried my face into my chest, hands tightly pressed against my ears. Breathe Tris, breathe. I forced my panicked gasping into a slow rhythm. I opened my eyes. I wasn't there anymore.
Five… I counted. A horrible, unfamiliar five…
"Tobias?" I gasped. "What's happening? Why…?" I started, before shrieking. There he stood, right in front of me, in the simulation room, staring blankly at me, his head cocked to the side, like he was deep in thought, when he tumbled backwards, clutching desperately at a wound in his stomach. He fell to his feet, panting small breathless pants. He looked at me, smiling a sweet, gruesome, bloodied smile, before the life left his eyes. I stared wide eyed, at the scene in front of me. My feet were planted to the ground, as if held my cement. My face crumpled and I screamed. I screamed. My voice broke, and my burning throat was raw. I screamed. And suddenly, I was pulled back into reality. I sat in the simulation chair, gripping at the sides and buried within Tobias' arms. I wrapped my arms around him and sobbed
"Six." I whispered. "Thank God that was six, and not something else…"
"Shh. It's not something else. That will never be a something else. You know I'd never leave you like that."
"You mean like how I left you?" I asked though sobs. Tobias paused, thinking of an answer, before hugging me again.
"Let's go back Tris."
