"Kill him!" Jeanine demands.
Zero snarls and bounds forward. Eric smashes his fist across her snout, throwing her off course. She skids into the wall before turning and attacking again. This time Eric jumps over her. He stumbles when he lands, falling and crashing against the wall. Before he can even try to get up the hot breath courses over his neck, making the hairs stand on end. "Zero," he whispers. She growls.
Slowly, he twists around to look at her. She stands over him, teeth bared, so easily capable of reaching down and wrapping her jaws around his throat. But she doesn't. Eric reaches up, letting her see his hand. She snarls and then tapers off, lips still curled but just simply watching his hand. "What did they do to you?" he asks, voice daring to quiver. His fingers brushed the soft fur of her neck. He should have listened to her when he met her. He shouldn't have stayed near her. Maybe she wouldn't be here now, then.
She continues to let him pet her. He spreads out his fingers so his palm can rub along her neck and shoulder, up to her ear and back again. Then he rests his head against the wall, exhausted. They had spent two days in a cell, no food or water. They kept taking her away before shoving her back into the dark with him. He would hold her limp form close until she gained consciousness again, and then he whispered stolen lines of books to her. At first, she would respond in kind, and he was assured that despite it all, everything was okay. But then she recovered less quickly. And eventually she stopped speaking verses and words to him. But she never pulled out of his arms. No, she always had to be dragged out from the cell and him shoved down to the floor.
"What are you doing?" Jeanine voice sounds again. "Experiment 01210, please execute your mission."
And then he sees it. In her eyes, the pupils flicker back and forth in size. As if they're fighting. "Hey, bumblefuck," he murmurs, continuing to pet her. "You scared me shitless when you disappeared again. I thought I was imagining you."
"You are failing to execute your primary purpose."
Zero ducks her head with a growl, ears back. "Don't listen to her," Eric prompts. "When I have fears that I may cease to be / before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain -"
"Exterminate him."
"Seriously?" Eric asks with a smile. Her fighting eyes stay fixed upon him. "Am I going to have to spoil Game of Thrones to get you to do something?" There. A tail wag. "C'mon, Sam," he pleads. He's exhausted. Their game of cat and mouse had been going on for an hour at this point. As Amar had stated, there was a reason they called her Zero. "I just want to go home with you."
She shakes her head and lets her tongue loll. Her tail wags and she barks. Eric grins back, sitting up enough to wrap his arms around her neck. "We gotta get out of here, Zero."
And just like that, when he thought he had her and Jeanine was ready to shoot Eric herself, Zero's head snapped to an entirely new direction. Her ears strained forward. And then her tail ducked between her legs, She let out a whine.
"What's up?" Eric asks. She shakes her head and begins to back away. She just stands there, quivering, eyes wide, ears back, tail low. Jeanine receives an urgent message from the fence guards of the city. Eric remains oblivious. Images of bone-spun fairies with crowns of thorn and twigs, of moss kings with wicked antlers and an enormous white wolf with eyes like coal cross her vision as she stares to the north. A voice clear in her head rumbles:
I have returned.
"Is it done yet?"
"Give me a few seconds!" Will snaps back. Zeke doesn't look convinced, and he keeps leaning out the door to make sure their supervisor doesn't come back. Four sits next to Will, scrolling through the cameras as if he's working. His eyes remain fixed on Will's screen, though, which is has a screen displaying long strings of codes. "I have to find the right sequence..." The initiate scrolls down, eyes flicking over the text. Four wonders what these numbers mean to the boy. He may know more about computers than Max, but that doesn't mean he has any idea what's going on. "Not it... Not it... Not it... Close, but no..."
"Will," Zeke whispers fearfully.
"Here, I think! Let me just edit this..."
"He's coming back!" Zeke tells them. Will stiffens but keeps going. "Will, get down!"
Four scoots his chair back. Will hits the enter key and then dives under the desk between Four's legs and the wall. The trainer scoots his chair in until Will's crushed between his legs and the brick. Zeke sits at his station, just as Kilgas walks in. The supervisor munches on a sandwich and sits down without a greeting. It's the graveyard shift for them, and at about three in the morning most social skills cease.
Four smiles and begins scrolling through Will's screen. The initiate peers up, eyebrow raised. There. Whatever room that is, he very distinctly sees the shape of Eric and Zero huddled together. The display has an inverted feel to it, suggesting darkness. He spends an hour going through the cameras, sketching a brief picture on paper of the layout of Erudite headquarters. It takes time, but he believes it's accurate. Then he deletes the footage. Smiling, he nods just enough for Will to see. Will grins back.
Four looks over to Zeke and Kilgas. Both seem zoned out, just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling over the silent Dauntless compound. Trying to get Zeke's attention, Four leans back and stretches. Nothing. He drums his fingers annoyingly on the table, an old habit that Zeke had snapped at him quite a few times for. Nothing.
Pounding on the table might be a bit much. Four leans forward on his elbows and decides to just wait the shift out. He'll tell Kilgas to leave ahead of him. Then they can smuggle Will out without a problem - today's Visiting Day, so he won't need the sleep anyway. And tomorrow morning they'll make their move.
Will crawls out from under the desk with a groan. "I don't know if my legs can go straight," he complains, slowly stretching out his limbs and back. Then he gets to his feet.
"That was good work," Four praises. Will smiles, leaning back on the desk. Dark bags ring around his eyes. "Why don't you go get some sleep? I'll wake you up when your family enters the compound."
"How will you know?"
"I'll just look for the four-eyed bunch that look lost and terrified and without a Dauntless initiate. Easy enough." Will chuckles at that.
Zeke frowns, eyes stuck on a camera. "Something's not right." Both of them follow Zeke's gaze. "Fence guards don't usually return this early, do they?" Sure enough, a line of men are marching through Dauntless entrance and into the halls. Their faces look absolutely terrified. Killian leads them. Max meets them as they march, and they begin an urgent discussion. "What happened?" Max leaves the men. "Oh, shit - he's coming here! Will - hide again!"
Max burst into the room before Will can move. "Four! Sound the preparation alarm! There's been an attack at the fence - it's been breached!"
Four launched himself over to the controls and tapped in a four-numbered code. Immediately red lights started flashing, a buzzing filling the air in crescendos and decrescendos. "Get the initiates fitted with guns and armor! They'll protect the very inner part of the compound where we'll send the children!" Max rushes out of the room, hurrying down to where his own battalion of Dauntless warriors will meet him, ready to lay down their lives in defense of the city.
"Will, get down to the dormitory," Four orders.
"Four. This might be the best time to go," Zeke says. Four and Will look at him. "Everyone will be on high alert, in every faction, with their attentions focused on the gates. But right now it's chaos. We have to get going now."
Four nods. It's true. Amongst the chaos, no one would notice a few absent Dauntless members, and he doubt Erudite will be used to this panic. "Will, let's go." They tear downy he hall at a dead sprint, skidding around corners and dodging out of the way of Dauntless members in full uniform. When they rush into the dormitory, everyone is awake and dressed, standing around and unsure what to do. "Al, Christina, Tris, and Will all form one squad! Peter, Molly, Drew, you form the Squad 2! Squad 2, head to the Pit. You will be protecting the children and injured. Squad 1, stay here. We'll patrolling outside the Pit."
God be praised, no one in "Squad 2" argues. They file out, assured that everything they need will be in the Pit. As soon as they leave, Four turns his eyes onto Squad 1. "You all ready?" Tris nods with seriousness in her face, everyone else grins. They're ready. "Let's go. If I know Zeke, he'll have the truck out front. And if I know John, he'll be there without anyone telling him."
"What happening?" Eric asks. Right now he and Zero have a reprieve. Everyone left immediately after Jeanine. Experimentation ceased, forgotten. So now they lie there in the room, too disoriented and tired to move.
Zero shudders again, refusing to shift from her wolf form. "Wolf," she rumbles, the word coming out foreign and awkward on her tongue.
"Like you?"
She nods. He lifts himself up from the ground. "Let's go, then. We need to get out of here." And even as he stands his legs act like jelly, The world spins and he falls onto the back of Zero. She whines and nuzzles his arm. "Sorry," he murmurs. But he hasn't slept more than an hour in three days, hasn't had any food or water in two, and he can't really blame his body and mind for giving in to the safe, kind, restful blackness. He gives in.
"Errric?" she rumbles. He doesn't respond. Growling, she shoves her shoulders up to lift him in the air enough to slink further under him. She stands, Eric draped across her back like a coat, and glares at the door. She prowls forward to the door. Pawing, she hooks a claw around the oblong handle and pulls it down. The door swings open. Pausing to let her eyes adjust, she crawls into the dark hallway.
"Why is everything so dark?" Christina shouts over the wind as they approach Erudite headquarters. As long as anyone can remember, it's always been the only building lit up into all odd hours of the night, and often straight into dawn.
"Conservation mode," Will shouts back.
Tris stares ahead, wondering what they'll find in there. All stare with her, eyes dark. And then there's John, watching the world go by with a too-happy grin. She has to admit, she doesn't quite know what to make of him. He acts even more reckless than Zeke or Uriah, and apparently, somehow, manages to keep a friendship with Eric. Although she's guessing that it's pretty one-sided.
The truck slows to a halt. Not for the first time, Tris finds herself thankful that Four yanked John out of the driver's seat and took his place. She had no doubt the ride would have been much... bumpier. They park right outside the headquarters. "Alright," Zeke whispers, leaning out the window to address everyone in the back. "We're going to leave a trail of sorts. Will, Four and decided you're the most trustworthy to have the truck ready to go. Come sit in the front and be ready to book it like the devil's on your heels. The rest of you, we're going to stand like a crumb trail into the headquarters. As soon as we find them, we all head out. This way everyone's protected and no one gets lost. Understand?"
Uriah pops his head out the window, too, crushing Zeke into the truck. "It's going to be awesome!"
"Would you get back inside!?" Zeke shoves him out of the way. "Alright, Christina! You stand at the entrance. We need you to shout to Will when you see the rest of us coming so he can start up the truck. "We're going to do this fast, alright? Let's get going!"
Everyone piles out of the truck. They all pull out their flashlights as Four leads the way, swinging his own light around so they can all scan the dark. Everything looks abandoned. What happened at the fence? Christina hold the door open for everyone and then places herself on the threshold to keep it open so she can see both Will and whoever is next in line. "It's downstairs," Four tells them. "Uriah, stay at this door." Uriah nods and halts his advancement. "Down three flights... John, stay at this door? You'll have to shout up to Uriah."
"Sure thing, Captain," he states and salutes.
"Shouldn't there be more guards here?" Tris asks.
"Dauntless guard he headquarters, and right now all of our guards are either in the compound or at the fence. Eliminating the threat is the first priority if possible," Zeke answers. "It's the first left, correct?"
"Yeah. You stay here?" Zeke nods and claps Four on the back before striking up his guard position. Four glances at Tris and the silent Al. "Just another turn."
Clicking. The three halt and swing their guns towards the noise. All three shine their flashlights at it, fear beginning to pump their hearts faster and faster. The threat to the city? No, Four tells his rushing mind. Impossible. There would be pandemonium here, then, and not at the fence. A black shape limps into their light. It whines and paws at its eyes. "That's real bright, Four!"
"Zero?" His heart almost stops in relief. "Where's Eric?"
"He's the lump on my back. Help him out?"
Four hands his flashlight to Tris and steps forward to the wolf. Al and Tris stare, dumbfounded. "How did you get out?" Four asks.
"When the pack came. Everyone left."
"The pack?"
"There's a pack of werewolves north of city - I - I - I can hear their leader's voice." Four stares at her with wide eyes. Were all the stories they were told as children true? Is that the real reason the walls went up, to protect them from fairies and monsters? "They don't really intend on leaving."