Author's note: I am soo sorry for being a day late. The internet was down because of a very old modem and the technicians came today to fix it up and give us a new modem. Thank you for your patience. I tried uploading it through my phone but it didn't work. Enjoy =)
Chapter 7
Alyssa
"Chase, tell me about you," I say to him as we continue walking deeper into the ruins after a night spent out in the ruins. Luckily no one attacked us. We talked until I fell asleep. I don't even know if Chase even had a wink of sleep last night. I look up at his face and see dark circles and bags under his eyes. "I'll keep watch tonight," I say. I do feel refreshed even though I slept on a hard ground with debris surrounding us.
"I'm fine I'll keep watch again, you should sleep," He says with a big yawn. I roll my eyes.
"Look at you, you're clearly tired, just let me keep watch today, okay?" I say looking up at him. He lets out a sigh and he nods. "And you still need to tell me about you, you know everything about me." I add as we continue walking to wherever we're going.
"I don't know everything about you." He responds putting an emphasis on everything. He knows my full name, while I only know his first name. Knowing someone's full name is quite is a big deal to me.
"Okay, fine." He says in defeat. I smile glad that he's deciding to answer. "My name is Chase Anthony Hunter. I am Dauntless born, and I am also Divergent, but Jeanine never found out."
"What? Is that why you sympathized with me?" I ask him feeling a little bit angry that he is probably just has pity on me, and that's the reason why he's out here with me in the first place. I hate it when people see me as something they can feel pity for. No, I don't want to be around someone like that.
"No, that's not why." He says trying to get himself out of the pit he dug himself into.
"And how did Jeanine never find out?" I ask him crossing my arms. "If she found out I am Divergent than she should have known you were, too!" I say nearly shouting at him.
"Look, she doesn't know every Divergent in the city," He tells me.
"Oh really? I'm sure she knew you're Divergent," I say with a sarcastic laugh. I'm sure Jeanine Matthews is smart enough to know that one of her body guards hired to guard me is Divergent. She somehow knew that I am Divergent, even though my aptitude test was erased, and my practice for the fear landscape footages was also erased thanks to Tobias. He knew I could act so he told me to act as if I'm scared and that the simulation is actually real. I did just that when the final test came and she was there to see the whole thing. I acted terrified but I also planned out what I would do before the test.
"So I'm guessing you know my fears, then too?" I ask him. We walk past a tall building with broken windows. I look up to see that the roof is gone and there are metal rods sticking out of it.
"No I don't know that much about you," He says as he starts pulling me behind me. I smack his hand and he pulls away confused. "What was that for?" He asks.
"You're pulling me behind you." I say to him. He puts his index finger over his mouth to say that we should be quiet. I furrow my brows confused, I want to see what's going on. I slowly take my gun out and keep it in a good position to fire at anyone who is a threat to us. We run to hide behind one of the buildings.
"I think someone's been following us," He whispers to me. I am standing behind him to see if anyone will sneak up on us.
"Really? I think we should have noticed," I whisper back to him. I hear something to my right and I point my gun in that direction and look to see if anyone is in that dark building. I squint my eyes trying to see if anyone is in there but I see nothing. I turn back around and face forward to find a little boy standing right in front of me. I lower my gun and put it back in between my belt and pants. I look down at the boy. He seems to be about five years old and those innocent eyes looking up at me. I lower myself to his height and smile at him.
"Are you lost?" I ask him in a gentle voice.
"Who are you tal-?" Chase's question was cut off when he turns around to find the little five year old boy that I am talking to.
"He's just a little boy, what harm can he do?" I ask Chase. He kneels next to me. I watch the boy look up at Chase and he seems a bit scared of him. If I was him, I would be too. Chase has full on armor of a soldier while I don't, and Chase is pretty big so what kind of kid wouldn't be afraid of him. "Where's your mom and dad?" I ask him.
"I don't know, I've been trying to look for them." He replies trying to stifle his tears.
"It's okay to cry," I say to him and he just starts letting the tears roll down his cheek, and begins to wail.
"Look at what you've done," Chase says covering his ears. I glare at him as I pick him up to comfort him.
"It's good that he's wailing, his parents can probably hear him now, all we have to do is wait for them to come and get him." I say to him over the wails of the little boy. It's better to show your emotions instead of hiding them. "It's okay, we'll find them." I say to the little boy. He leans back to look at me with his teary eyes.
"Really?" He asks wiping away the tears. I smile.
"Yes, really. Now do you remember where you and your parents like to go?" I ask him. He nods. I put him down and I hold on to his hand as he starts leading us to wherever his parents are.
"I don't know if we can trust this little boy," Chase says to me.
"He's just a little boy," I counter. "And you still haven't told me about your history," I say to Chase. "You know my name and age. I would like to know how old you are." I say to him.
"I'm five!" The little boy says. I laugh and smile at him.
"You're such a big boy already!" I say in response to his cheerful answer.
"Yeah, I'm five, too." Chase says in monotone.
"He says he's five, too, do you think he's five?" I ask the little boy. I watch him look up at Chase and he shakes his head.
"He's too big to be five," the little boy says looking up at me. I smile at him and ruffle his hair with my free hand.
"I think he's too big to be five, too." I reply. The little boy smiles and continues leading us to wherever we're going. I'm not really paying attention to our surroundings as we pass by a bunch of broken down buildings.
"Fine, I'm eighteen," He says finally.
"Oh, so you were the initiate class before me." I say to him. It's crazy that we are just one year apart and I've never seen him at school. Maybe I have but I just don't remember what he looks like.
"Yup, I remember you being one of the top five jumpers," He says to me as the little boy continues to lead us. He's been quiet for a while. Maybe it's just because no one's talking to him right now. I look down at the boy and he has this stoic expression on his face. I walk a bit faster and kneel in front of him to see what's wrong.
"You okay? Are you tired?" I ask the little boy.
"No, I'm hungry, I didn't have breakfast." He says rubbing his belly. I smile and tell Chase to give the boy some bread. Chase and I ate already but the little boy needs the food so we give him some of our bread. Chase takes off the backpack and kneels next to the boy as he fumbles in the bag for some bread. Once the boy sees the bread in Chase's hands his face lights up. I smile and watch him take it and take a bite.
Chase stands up and zips up the backpack. I look around our surrounding and I see a laser pointing at Chase's chest. I freeze up. "Chase," I say quietly.
"What?" He asks looking at me. I point at his chest and he looks down. He pulls out his gun quick and points up to where the possible shooter is. I look up trying to see where the shooter is. I hold out my hand for the little boy to grab but he doesn't. I look down and see that he's no longer there anymore. I look at myself and see there's a red dot on my chest as well. I take out my gun, even though it's not good enough to shoot far distances.
"Run, we just need to get out of range." I say to him. He nods and I start backing away slowly and into the building. I stand behind the wall waiting for them to shoot us. After what seems like minutes the first gunshot goes off. Chase and I both fall down to the floor to avoid the stray bullet. He motions for us to go deeper into the building. I nod and follow him. We are using our elbows and knees to crawl and stay low on the ground. I hear the shots again and I duck but I keep moving trying to avoid the bullets as much as possible.
I watch as Chase keeps moving faster than I can. I try to keep up with him as something warm starts spreading from my shoulder. Great… I think to myself as the pain from moving my arm is starting to become unbearable. I manage to catch up to Chase.
"You alright?" He asks me. I nod in response. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and I wince. "I feel something wet," He says. He removes his hand and sees my blood on it. "You were hit?" He asked surprised.
"I'll be fine, we just need to get out of here," I say to him. He nods and grabs my hand, well the one that wasn't stained with blood, and we continue running as far as we can from the shooters. I can still here the gunshots but we are definitely out of range this time.
"You need to rest, and we need to put pressure on that wound," He says looking at the bleeding gaping wound on my shoulder. I cover it with my hand so that he will stop staring at it.
"It's not your fault, let's get out of here," I say. He nods and we continue walking cautiously trying to find a safe haven. I start feeling a little dizzy as we continue our search for a building that can hide the two of us well.
"You okay," He asks me. I just nod in response. I don't feel okay but I can pretend that I am for now. I do feel like my legs are made of jello and that our surroundings are starting to spin a little. He supports me by lending his arm to me. I'm glad he's here. I can address this wound but I feel like we're outnumbered by the people that are shooting at us. All I know is that there are two people trying to kill us, but there can be more for all we know.
After running for quite some time Chase finds a hiding spot and we stay there breathless, especially me. He starts fumbling through his backpack after he helps me sit down. I haven't stopped bleeding ever since I've been hit. I probably look paler than I usually am by now. Chase removes a white box with a red cross on it. A first aid kit, of course. I think to myself as he starts looking for gauze, and he does. I slowly unzip my jacket with my good arm and he gently helps me slide it off. I wince; every movement hurt seemed to hurt.
"Sorry," He says.
"It's okay; it's not your fault." I say trying to hide the pain in my voice. He puts the gauze on me and applies the pressure onto my shoulder gently. I close my eyes and bite my lip trying to stifle any screams I will be making because of the bullet wound.
"Just bear with me," He says putting a little bit more pressure on the wound. I stay as still as I can while turning my head away. The heat of the pain is spreading from my shoulder and down to my arm.
"How about you? Did you get hit?" I ask through gritted teeth.
"No, I'm alright," He says still putting as much pressure as he can to my wound. I still feel it bleeding out and soaking the gauze. I swallow. I'm not feeling much of the pain anymore.
"So, is the bullet still in there?" I ask him. He doesn't dare to remove the gauze or his hand.
"We'll find out." He says still keeping his hands there. "You're stronger than I thought," He says. He slowly removes his hand and I start feeling the pain come back and hitting me stronger than I thought it would. "Sorry," He says looking at the wound. "I see it," He says. He moves to the first aid kit and takes out a tweezers. He cleans it with an alcohol swipe before he comes over and puts it into the hole.
I bite my lip harder as he slowly puts the tweezers into the wound. The cold metal coming into contact with my skin causes me to shiver. It takes him a few seconds to take out the bullet from the back of my shoulder. "There it's out," He says. I hear him dropping the bullet onto the concrete floor.
"Thanks," I say to him. I tell him that I can stitch myself up but he says that the wound is in the back. The bullet didn't penetrate so there's nothing in front of my shoulder. "Alright, just do it as well as you can," I say to him.
"Don't worry, I have seen a nurse stitch me up many times," He says with a smile. Was that nurse me? I wonder. I feel the needle go into my skin and the thread bringing my skin closer together. After a couple of minutes he breaks the thread with his teeth and he ties it off. I don't want to touch it, just in case the stitches might come loose. He puts gauze over the stitches and wraps some athletic tape around my shoulder to keep it there.
"Thanks," I say again feeling a bit tired.
"No problem, it looks like you'll need some sugar," He says taking out a piece of candy for me. I smile and take the piece of candy. I haven't had candy in a while. I unwrap it and pop it into my mouth. It has a sweet tangy taste that fills my mouth.
"I think we should keep moving, they are probably looking for us," I say with the candy nearly dissolved.
"You should rest though," He argues. I know I should rest but we can't stay here. If people are trying to kill us then we should keep moving.
"Alright, but I'll be carrying you," He says getting up from his seat and walking towards me. He walks to my left and puts my good arm around his neck. He lifts me up with ease, as if I weigh nothing to him.
"Am I really that light?" I ask him. He looks down at me and I feel myself blush. Alyssa, no. He's looked at you a million times this is no different. I think to myself. I smile and he smiles back.
"No actually you're quite heavy," He says in a joking manner. I couldn't help but laugh along with his little joke.
"Aww how sweet?" Chase and I look in the general direction of where the voice is coming from. I squint hard and see the little boy with his hands tied behind his back and two men holding onto him.
"Let him go!" I shout wanting to jump from Chase's arms, but I don't have the energy to do so.
"Why should we? He's the one that lead you to us," The man on the boy's left says with a smirk on his face. My heart sinks. So Chase was right about the little boy. How can I be so blind?! There has to be a reason as to why the little boy did what he did. If some people I love are in danger I probably would have done the same thing.
"Who are you anyways?" Chase asks holding onto me a little tighter than earlier. I can see the smirk forming on the two men lips. They seem too much like one another to be two different people. Those two are most likely twins. They act the same way, they look like one another. I can see that they are dressed in Dauntless colors, too.
"You're Dauntless, why are you trying to kill us?" I ask the two of them. I don't seem so tough right now, being held by someone, but I also don't want to faint in front of them, they're going to take advantage of that.
"Smart girl you got there." The man holding onto the five year old says in a condescending tone. I glare at him.
"They're not Dauntless, they're traitors, I see the blue armband." Chase says to me. I noticed them too but I thought they didn't mean anything, just an accessory. Traitors? What does he mean by traitors?
I hear someone clapping very slowly, "Yes your boyfriend is right," the man on the right says with his inhumane smile that sends shivers down my spine. I sure hope Eric doesn't turn into someone like this even though I fear that he has. They have the same look in their eyes as Eric does. "We are allies with the Erudite, we believe their cause." The man adds to his explanation.
"Her cause to get rid of Divergents." I say in a whisper as a realization for myself.
"Right you are, darling," The other man who is holding the scared little boy. I jump out of Chase's arms and steady myself. I can't stand it anymore. That boy is terrified and probably not only for himself.
"I told you to let him go, didn't I?" I ask through gritted teeth. I can't stand seeing such a young boy being terrorized by two adults. They need to pick on someone their own size.
"Stop! You still need to rest, let me handle this!" I hear Chase shout behind me but I don't listen to him. I can't, I just can't. That poor boy is clearly horrified that this is happening to him.
"Listen to your little boyfriend there," The man on my right says. The rage that I have inside of me builds up and I start running towards the man who spoke out of turn. I see him take out his knives, and I dodge them as I jump over him and use his head as a "stepping stone" to land safely behind him. I take the gun from his back and kick him in the stomach when he turns around. I cock the gun ready to shoot him, but the pain from my right shoulder is killing me. I try to ignore it but it intensifies, so I just shoot the guy in his foot. His screams echoes throughout the building.
"How dare you?!" I hear the other man say. I duck as he tries to swing a punch at me. I swing my leg out and trip him. He lands on his back. I pick up the gun I stole from his "twin". I cock it and look over to the little boy who has managed to run over to Chase. He seems scared of me. I lower my gun. I can't, I can't turn into a monster myself. "That's right, surrender." The man says. I knock him out with the butt of the gun along with the brother who is rolling in pain. This should give us enough time to distance ourselves away from them.
I slowly make my way to Chase and the little boy. Chase is untying him as I make my way over. He turns to me and smiles, I smile back. "You were great," He says getting up from his kneeling position. My smile soon fades when the world around me starts spinning out of control. I feel my body leaning forward and Chase's arms catching me just in time. "But you need to rest," He adds as he lifts me up with ease again.
"Will she be okay?" I hear the little boy ask Chase.
"She'll be fine, she's a tough girl," I hear Chase reply to the little boy.
"Good, because I want her to teach me to fight like that," I can picture the little boy putting his fists up and punching the air. I smile at that image. He's just so cute.
"Hey, what about me?" Chase asks, and judging from his voice he sounds a bit hurt that the little boy didn't want to learn from him.
"You can be her co-teacher," He says in return. I can still tell that he's a little disappointed that the boy didn't want Chase as his main teacher. I smile thinking that this might just be a little better now, or not. Those two will definitely be looking for the little boy and try to kill me again or bring me back if that was the case. Whatever it is we need to protect this little boy even if his parents will be killed because he's traveling with us.
"How you feeling?" Chase asks putting me down as we start making "camp" in one of the many abandoned buildings.
"I feel better, thanks," I say to him as I sit up into a more comfortable position. I look at the little boy and see that he has already fallen asleep. "How is he?" I ask Chase. He looks back at the boy and he turns back to me with his dark brown eyes, looking into mine. I look away feeling my cheeks flush, I sure hope he doesn't notice me blushing whenever he looks into my eyes.
"He's doing well, I sure hope his parents are okay, wherever they are," He lays out a sleeping bag for me.
"You sure are prepared." I say to him.
"It's better to be safe than sorry," He says with a shrug. I smile glad that he is prepared for whatever is going to happen. Without him here I probably be starving and still be out in the desert. I surely would have died. I didn't even have a gun on me. Hand to hand combat can only do so much.
After he helps me into the sleeping bag he sets up his own next to the little boy. He lifts the little boy and slips him into his own sleeping bag and he shares it with the boy. It seems that Chase seems to be the type of person. I surely didn't see that coming. I smile at him and he smiles back. I think I see a hint of red on his cheeks, too. Maybe he does have feelings for me, and so do I. No, I can't think about this. A war is definitely brewing, there's no time for love.
I lie down and close my eyes. The ground is hard but I know I can fall asleep, I'm exhausted and tired. I need to sleep to restore my energy. I lie on my left side, maybe lying down on my back isn't such a good idea, with my bullet wound and all.
"Alyssa, wake up," I hear someone say. I open my eyes and see Chase kneeling next to me. "We need to keep moving," He says. I nod and sit up. The soreness spreads through my body. Sleeping on hard ground isn't the best for side sleeping.
"I think I should be able to walk right now," I say to him as he packs up the sleeping bag.
"Are you sure?" He asks me with a questioning look on his face.
"Of course I'm sure, I'll be fine." I say standing up. I don't feel dizzy but the gauze needs to be changed. The little boy wakes up and rubs his sleepy eyes. His bed head just makes him look even more adorable, if that's even possible. I walk up to the little boy and greet him. "Hey little guy, I see you slept well." I say with a small laugh and smoothing out his messy hair.
"Yeah he slept very well while I was being kicked." He says rubbing his hip. I laughed while the little boy yawned a bit. He still wasn't fully awake yet.
"You'll be fine," I say to Chase. He pouts and continues packing. The little boy gets out of the sleeping bag and let's Chase roll it up.
"Are we going to have breakfast?" The little boy asked in a quiet voice.
"Hmm, I don't know, are we?" I ask looking at Chase as he puts the other sleeping bag back into his big back pack.
"We're almost out of bread, so just a small one." Chase says taking out a piece of bread and splitting them into three parts. We give the biggest one to the little boy of course. After that Chase changes my bandage and I put my jacket on. The mornings and nights out in the ruins are pretty chilly compared to just outside of the fence.
"Do you think those two people will be back?" I ask Chase in a whisper. I don't want to startle the now calm little boy. I don't even want to know the little boy's name for fear of his safety.
"Most likely, we just have to look out for them." He says. I nod. The two of us scan the area while we continue walking to wherever we're going. I still trust Chase and all but I don't know where that trust is coming from, it just came out of nowhere like on that day we were on the train, and now these feelings seemed to have developed. Trust takes a while to establish so why did I trust him instantaneously? I should have doubted him from the beginning. He did work for Jeanine.
"Do you know most of Jeanine's plans?" I ask wondering, I can't help it I just need to know what she's doing. If she's only trying to take out the Divergents, she'll leave the others alone, right? But where would most Divergents hide? Which faction? Being a Divergent means that one doesn't fit into one faction. Would there be more Divergents amongst the Factionless? Abnegation might also be a good place to hide. During the initiation there are no fear landscapes and no serums to resist. So maybe most of the Divergents are among the Abnegation.
"No, I only know that she wants to get rid of the Divergents, I'm not sure if she'll do more than just that." Chase responds to my question. I nod in response. Makes sense. He isn't that high up in the ranks with Jeanine, he was just a guard, a guard for me.
"So I guess you don't know which faction she's going to attack, do you?" I ask him. He shakes his head. I believe him. Where is this trust coming from? Why do I have this instant trust for a boy that I barely know? If I trust him so easily there has to be some particular reason. He seems to trust me easily, but then again he knows almost everything about me, while I don't.
We continue walking and stopping for meals while we can. Of course the little boy sometimes whined about being hungry, it took a lot of explaining to do to make him feel better and to help him understand why we have to save as much food as we can. He slowly understood when Chase explained what a life without food was like. The look on his face was pure horror. It worked so it will help us keep moving as swiftly as possible and as far away as those two men as possible.
We finally reach the edge of the fringe. We tell the little boy to keep close and he clings onto my hand a little tighter. I squeeze back giving him some reassurance. We see some little cardboard houses on the sides of buildings, we even see some children in rags running around and playing. It doesn't seem as bad out here, well not as bad as Chase made it seem. He has his gun ready to shoot at anyone who tries to attack us.
"You never told me where we're going," I tell Chase.
"You'll be safe there, that's all you need to know." He says. I still don't get that feeling of distrust in my stomach. Stop trusting him so easily! Question him more! I scold myself.
"Right, are you sure about that?" I ask him feeling a little guilty that I asked him such a thing. I have asked him questions but not much; this is actually my first time in a while. I guess it just feels a little weird after not asking a question. I hope he doesn't take this the wrong way.
"Yes, I'm sure. They'll keep you safe." He says turning to look at me with his sweet gentle smile. My heart is beating a little faster and I feel my cheeks flush. I look down at the ground and hear a little giggle coming from the boy.
"I think she likes you," I hear the little boy say.
"What are you talking about?" I ask the little boy giving him a small squeeze as if to say that he can't say anything more.
"I'm sure of it, sh-" I cover his mouth this time. I give him a firm glance and he nods.
"So he thinks you like me, do you?" He asks looking out into the distance for the two men. I shrug m shoulders, not really sure how I am going to answer that question.
"Can we talk about it later?" I ask him. He nods and we continue walking, and I still have no idea where we are going. Maybe those two men decided to give up and run back to Jeanine out of fright. They should be frightened, I managed to knock them out by myself.
