Chapter 9
"Welcome new members of Erudite," says Jeanine, "today you will choose your jobs. I will be calling you by your rank in initiation. First up, Cara, Erudite-born."
My friend Cara walks up to Jeanine, thinks for a while, then says, "Scientific Researcher"
"Chris, Candor-born," says Jeanine.
A tall boy with short brown hair walks forward and chooses, "Doctor."
"Zahlia, Dauntless-born," says Jeanine.
I walk forward, and without hesitation, say, "Engineer."
I walk to back to my seat and watch as the ceremony continues. I watch as Isabelle, now my best friend, chooses to be an architect. After the ceremony we get to choose our new homes. Since we are no longer initiates, we get to move to the stone houses next to headquarters. Cara, Isabelle, and I pick an apartment on the top floor and start to move in. It's nearly dark out when we finally have all our stuff moved in. We set up our beds, change into our pajamas, and go to sleep.
In the morning we put all our things away, then head down to the store to buy food. We're half way there when I say, "I have to go to the bathroom, I'll meet you at the store."
I walk out of the bathroom and see a black mob passing by. My heart stops, it's the Dauntless.
My curiosity gets the best of me, I slip out the front door and follow them from a distance. I've been following them for a while when I see where they're heading. The Abnegation sector. I gasp, what are they going to do?
My question is answered when I hear the shots. I sneak closer and what I see confirms my idea, the Dauntless are killing the Abnegation. I catch up to the back of the mob and steal one of the mindless soldier's gun, then sneak around the back of the houses making sure that I'm not seen. I peek around one of the houses and see a large group of Abnegation running from the sector. I start to follow them, running from behind houses. They get farther into the city and head into a run down building. After making sure were not being followed, I head into the building myself.
I look around, but I don't see any of them, they must of gone downstairs. I creep down the stairs and walk into the basement. When I look around, I see pairs of frightened eyes looking up at me.
"It's ok, I'm here to help," I say.
The eyes relax and someone steps forward, Marcus Eaton, leader of the Abnegation.
"We need to get out of the city," he says.
"We can't yet, we need to wait for my wife and daughter," another man steps forward.
"Fine, we will wait for a little, but we must leave soon," says Marcus.
"I'll take lookout, I'm the only one armed," I say.
I head upstairs and look out the window, it's all clear, for now. I've been looking out for a while when I see a Dauntless girl running towards the door. I run downstairs,
"Someone's coming!" I say.
I position myself by the door, gun ready. Then, we hear the knocking. Twice, then three times, then six times.
"That's the code! It must be Natalie and Beatrice." says the man who spoke before.
I start to get up, but another Erudite beats me to it. I remember him from initiation, he's Caleb Prior. After a few moments, Caleb and the Dauntless girl I saw before come down the steps.
"How did you find this place?" Caleb says, "Did Mom find you?"
The Dauntless girl, Beatrice I guess, nods, tears welling in her eyes. I know her mother must be dead. And by the look on their faces, everybody else does too.
"My shoulder," says Beatrice.
They set to work getting the bullet out of her shoulder while I go back upstairs and continue to watch for danger. After a while, I see other figures coming towards the building. One of them looks familiar, and as they come closer I recognize one of them.
Lorin.
I run out the door, and fly into his arms.
"Zahlia! What are you doing here?!" he says.
I pull myself out of his arms, and say, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help the Abnegation," he says.
"Same here," I say.
"I should've known," he says, smiling.
I smile back,
"Come on, there are some Abnegation in here," I say.
I lead Lorin and the other Amity into the building and down the stairs.
"Who are you?" asks Beatrice.
"I'm Zahlia Grey," I say.
"And I'm Lorin Parks, and we're here to help you," Lorin says.
She turns to the Abnegation, "I need some help to get into Dauntless headquarters and stop the simulation," she says.
"We could go," I say, looking at Lorin, "we know the Dauntless compound."
"I have to take the other Abnegation to the Amity compound." Lorin says.
"Then I can go," I say.
"Ok," says Beatrice.
After we had gotten more people to help, Marcus, Beatrice's father, and Caleb, Lorin and I said goodbye, and leave the building.
We head to the train tracks and quickly jump on, then ride the train until we get to the initiate's entrance that Lorin and I found when exploring the Dauntless compound. We jump off the ledge and fall into the net. Beatrice leads us through the Pit, then motions us to stop and slips off through the shadows.
I hear a shout of pain and look around for the source, I see a tall, brown haired boy holding his nose while Beatrice points a gun to his head. She's saying something to him but I can't tell what. Then, all of a sudden, she points the gun at his arm and fires. He screams and she says something else. Finally, he seems to answer her question and she lowers the gun. We walk over and her father takes off jacket and wraps it around the boy's arm, then says,
"Was it really necessary to shoot him?"
When she doesn't answer, Marcus says, "Sometimes pain is for the greater good."
I see her glare at him, then look away. I wonder why she hates him so much.
"Let's go," she says. "Get up Peter."
"You want him to walk?" demands Caleb. "Are you insane?"
"Did I shoot him in the leg?" she says. "No. He walks. Where do we go, Peter?"
Caleb helps Peter to his feet as he says,
"The glass building, eighth floor."
He leads us up the stairs to the glass building above the Pit. Beatrice waits to watch the guards, motions us to wait here, then slowly climbs the metal stairs and disappears.
We hear gunshots from up above, then hear Beatrice shout,
"All clear!"
We come up to the glass room which now has some panels missing and glass shards on the floor. She hands a gun to Caleb.
"You guys stay with him," she says to Caleb, Marcus, and I, motioning to Peter.
Beatrice and her father head to the elevators and disappear behind the doors.
…
With a ding, the elevator open and two people step out of it, it's not Beatrice and her father though. Beatrice is there, but instead of her father there is a boy who looks about two years older than me. He looks at Marcus and I see a look of fear fleet across his face, but it is gone in a second.
"Tobias," says Marcus.
Tobias ignores him.
"Come on," say Beatrice.
Her and Tobias start to lead the way out of Dauntless when Lorin comes again. I rush to meet him.
"Hey," I say.
"Hey, I came to lead you guys to Amity," he says.
"Great," I say. "Let's get out of this place."
Now Lorin and I are in the lead as we walk to the tracks and jump on. We jump into the first car and the others jump into the second. We sit in silence for a while until I say,
"I can't believe they destroyed Abnegation. How could they do something like this?"
"I heard someone say that the Abnegation were trying to release information to the city, and Jeanine didn't want them to," Lorin says.
"So she killed off an entire faction?" I say, mortified.
"I guess you can do anything when you have no soul," he says.
I laugh, for the first time in years, it feels like. We see the fence up ahead, and jump off the train, then walk towards the fence, which stands ajar for the first time. We walk through the opening and leave the city in chaos.
