CHAPTER TEN
Blair's eyes flew open as she felt someone shift beside her. She stiffened not recognising her surroundings, slowly she rolled over and relaxed realising it was Eric beside her with his arm draped lazily across her waist. Then the events of last night came flooding back. They had danced for a little while before heading up to the roof and looking at the stars not talking too much, Eric didn't want to say much. And then they came back to his apartment.
"Morning," Eric murmured with his eyes still closed.
"Morning," Blair smiled softly; she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.
Eric just smiled without opening his eyes.
"Ok, its morning now," Blair started cautiously, "what are you so worried about?"
Eric sighed finally opening his eyes to look at her. "Jeannine plans to kill the Abnegation."
"Oh," Blair let her voice drop; this would lead to whole lot of repercussions.
"What are you thinking?"
"There is a high population of divergent in Abnegation and the Factionless as well. Mass murder like this and the Government will definitely step in."
Blair was silent for a minute thinking, and Eric just watched her carefully studying all of her facial expressions.
"The only thing I can think of is to go back to mine and Dean's original plan, which was to just get enough numbers to over throw the Government on the outside."
"Could you do without numbers, a small group maybe? Draw less attention to yourselves?" Eric asked.
"Yeah it's possible," Blair nodded.
"Well, let's do that, you and me," Eric stated.
"You want to leave the city? You don't have to; I can talk to Dean again and see if he'll agree to do it with me."
"Do what you have to, but I would rather it were me who went with you to stop this," Eric said before rolling out of bed.
"We'd have to sneak out of the city, no one would be able to know we are leaving," Blair added.
"Well you got in unnoticed, so it can't be that hard," Eric said. "How did you get in here?"
"Hitched a ride on one of the Amity food trucks," Blair answered. "You guys actually have terrible security."
"Great to know Dauntless train so hard for nothing then," Eric muttered sarcastically.
Eric passed Blair a pair of his shorts and one of his t-shirts. They were huge on her; she rolled the shorts up until they were around mid-thigh and tied the shirt up at her waist so that it wasn't like a dress on her. It wasn't the most attractive look, but it was better than walking back to the dorm in her dress from last night looking like the walk of shame.
"Look I'll find Dean and have a chat to him about it, worst case scenario you and me will have to do this alone, best case Dean will work with us on it." Blair said sitting back down on the edge of the bed. "He's just tired; the months we were out there with the Rebels really took its toll on him. Every time we thought we were getting ahead they'd knock us back down and take a few of us out with them. It was really demoralising. And after dad died I think he stopped caring about our plan and it became all about survival. Especially keeping me alive, he feels like he has to be dad and keep me safe. I don't know how thrilled he will be to go back out there when we've been safe in here so far."
"We can beat them," Eric said firmly. "Then he won't have to worry about staying alive, besides I'll keep an eye on you and make sure you're safe."
"Thanks but I can take care of myself! I'm not a princess that needs saving. You can be the gallant prince all you like, but get this saving me bullshit out of your head," Blair teased.
Eric flashed her a shit eating grin and planted a kiss on her forehead.
Blair darted through the halls following Eric's directions to her brother's apartment. She couldn't believe she had never been there before. She got lost a few times before she found it. She knocked on the door at the same time as pushing the door open; Dean was never any good at locking his doors.
"Oi, Dean you awake?" Blair called walking in.
"Don't come in Blair," Dean called out panicked. "Geez the point of knocking is to wait for an answer."
"This is important," she said barging into his room anyway. Dean was standing beside his bed while hurriedly pulling on boxers, while Jess was covering herself with his sheet. "Oh, sorry I forgot you guys left together last night."
"What are you doing here?" Jess asked confused and annoyed.
"Oh, right yeah well Dean is actually my –"
"Uncle," Dean cut her off, "I'm Blair's uncle, I transferred from Amity a few years ago and my brother – Blair's father – stayed in Amity," Dean lied smoothly.
"I just didn't want anyone to know," Blair continued. "People already think Eric is playing favourites it'd be worse if people knew I had family here at Dauntless."
"Oh, right" Jess muttered, "well uhm could you turn around or something so I can get dressed?"
"Uh, yeah sure I'll wait out here," Blair turned and walked out to the small living room. She heard Dean apologise to Jess several times before joining her in the living room.
"This better be important," he hissed at her annoyed.
"Uh yeah, it is!" Blair snapped back. "We aren't safe here anymore, we need to do something."
"Is everything ok here?" Jess asked coming out of the bedroom.
"Everything is fine," Dean smiled at her and Blair nodded flashing a phony smile.
"Sorry about the interruption, but can I borrow my uncle?" Blair asked.
"Yeah how about we meet up for lunch?" Dean asked leading Jess to the door.
"Yes, that's sounds great," Jess practically swooned.
Dean kissed her before shutting the door behind her.
"Eugh could you be any more gross? She's way too young for you," Blair groaned.
"Age is just a number sis," Dean smiled.
Blair shuddered, "ok I'm going to try forget that mental image."
"Why are you here ruining my morning?" Dean asked flatly.
"Ruined? Well it's about to get worse," Blair feigned hurt. "Jeannine is planning to murder the Abnegation. Which obviously will grab the attention of the Government, they aren't going to let this happen without stepping in."
"They'll just use the memory serum and reset us all, they won't shut down the experiment."
"Yeah ok well I don't want to lose my memories either," Blair replied getting a little worked up.
"It won't be that bad, means we won't have to remember every horrible little thing that has happened in our lives. You won't have to remember finding mum strung up in the rafters."
"I don't want to forget that Dean, I don't want to forget anything! That all made me who I am. Our past makes us who we are, we shouldn't lose that," Blair argued.
"I'm sorry Blair, but I don't think we should do anything," Dean shrugged not meeting her eyes.
"Fine," Blair sighed. She wasn't shocked that Dean wanted to do nothing, she brought it on herself. He had become comfortable being safe in her, if she hadn't insisted on coming here then he would still be focused on their survival which would only mean taking down the Government. She only had herself to blame, so she would do it herself.
She hugged Dean tightly, "I'm sorry I ruined your morning."
"Hey," Dean called out to her as she reached the door. "Don't do anything stupid B, I love you. You're my pain in the ass little sister I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"Don't be such a bitch," she grinned.
Dean snorted, "Jerk," he muttered.
"Judging by how you're attacking that punching bag I'm going to guess it didn't go well?" Eric asked finding Blair in the training room.
"Nope," Blair breathed between punches. "He doesn't care if they reset all our memories; he just wants to forget everything. And I get that, I understand why. I must be psychotic for not wanting the same."
"So it'll be just you and me then. Less man power but we can still do it," Eric said confidently.
"We'll have to go soon," Blair nodded turning to face him.
"We'll go tonight," Eric replied.
Blair nodded thinking a million miles an hour, "Ok, I need to get something. Meet back at your apartment in an hour?"
She was jogging out of the room before he could even answer; she wound through all the halls as quickly as she could. It was lunch so she knew Dean would be at lunch with Jess. She found her way to his apartment easily this time and sauntered into the room. Looking around quickly she confirmed he wasn't here anymore. She rummaged through all the drawers and cupboards but couldn't find what she was looking for. She leaned against the kitchen bench frustrated, but then it clicked in her head and she felt like an idiot. She sprinted from the apartment and up to the roof just in time to see a train approaching, she sprinted alongside it swinging herself into the carriage easily. She felt a person follow her in.
"You know initiates aren't supposed to leave the compound unaccompanied," Eric said moving into the carriage more.
"Good thing you're here then," She smiled back.
"You going to tell me what you're in such a rush about?"
"You'll see, can't reveal all my secrets too soon," Blair responded.
10 minutes or so later and Blair started to recognise the buildings around her and stood preparing to jump off. Eric joined her and they jumped together landing smoothing on the concrete foot path, Eric slid in behind Blair and followed her as she jogged down the road before taking a left turn and then a right. She then turned into a building and took the stairs to at a time to the fifth level.
"What are we doing here?" Eric asked his confusion growing.
"Dean and I stayed here while we were waiting for the choosing ceremony so I could 'transfer' into Dauntless," Blair explained.
"And why did you choose Dauntless?"
"We both already had tattoos, seemed like the best faction that we could fit into."
Blair located the room she was looking for and walked to a filing cabinet, she fiddled with drawers before finally forcing it open and sighed with relief when she saw what she had been looking for was there. She pulled out the map and tossed it to Eric.
"What's this?"
"It's my dad's map, he marked all the 'safe houses' and 'store houses' on it, the stores houses are supposedly stocked with weapons and ammunition. If they haven't been raided already it'll give us an edge, and the 'safe houses' have non-perishable food and medical supplies, again it's all theoretical until we know they haven't been raided."
"And this?" Eric asked gesturing to a blacked out mass on the map.
"That is where we are," Blair answered. "That's Chicago – or the city as you call it."
Blair jumped up on one of the desks in the middle of the room and slid one of the ceiling tiles out of its place and gently placed it on the desk at her feet, she stood on tip toes and reached up into the ceiling and pulled down a large duffle bag.
"Here," she said handing it to Eric before replacing the ceiling tile.
"What's all this?" Eric asked unzipping the bag.
"Rifles, hand pistols, magazines, scopes and throwing knives," Blair answered. "It's all Dean and I had left from our time out there before we joined Dauntless, it's not much but it's better than nothing."
"So no gun control laws out there?"
"We were the law."
"So we're doing this?" Eric asked, "we are really doing this."
"Last chance to back out is now Dauntless," Blair said as they sat crouched behind a truck a hundred meters from the gate out of the city.
"I'm not backing out," he said firmly.
"What then?" Blair asked. "Wait are you nervous?"
"No," Eric snapped. "Do I need to remind you I've never left the city before?"
"Calm down rookie just follow my lead," Blair grinned.
She rolled under the truck dragging the duffle bag with her and waited for Eric to follow.
"Grab a hold of the underside and hold yourself up off the ground, when I say to just let go but do not roll off to the side until you are clear of the truck ok."
Eric just grunted in response.
"Hey," Blair looked at him. "We can do this," she smiled gently trying to calm his nerves.
The truck rumbled above them as the Amity driver returned and climbed into the cab of the truck and started the engine. Blair and Eric got good hand and foot holds and hoisted themselves up off the ground. This was why she trained so hard, never knew when you would need the strength and endurance. They passed through the gates and drove 200 meters and then they were in the tree line.
"Now," Blair called out as she let go and let her body hit the ground and squeezed her eyes shut to prevent dirt and mud flying into them.
The snow was mostly melted now but the ground was left wet and sludgy from the moisture, less than ideal conditions to remain untraceable.
"Where to now?" Eric asked jumping to his feet but staying in a crouching position.
"There's a store house a few km's from here, it'll be at least 2 days travelling. We'll just have to keep the pace up."
"Let's go then."
Ok, I'm finally back into a rhythm with this after getting stuck for a little while. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter because finally this story is going somewhere :) Please review and tell me what you think