Chapter 12

BANG. BANG. BANG.

I turn around and see its only 03:00 in the morning. If this is some kind of joke, I swear I'll kill that person! I walk over to my door, not bothering to pull a shirt on.

"What the fuck-" I stop, seeing Lauren and Max standing by my door. Lauren looking like she woke up herself, her eyes still red a

"I know it's early Four." Says Max. "But I need you to get dressed and meet me at the infirmary right now." he doesn't give me any other explanation, turns and takes off.

I turn to Lauren. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but it can't be good." She says looking past me in my room. "One of your initiates have been attacked. I don't know who though." She gives me a worried look, obviously her thoughts heading in the same direction as mine. Tris.

I run over to my drawers, grab a shirt, not bothering to change out my sleeping short and head over to Lauren. We run towards to infirmary, my hart racing a million miles an hour.

"Do we have any idea who did this?" I ask, but I'm pretty sure I can guess who it was.

"No. All I know is that someone was stabbed with a knife." She says as we run. "Max knocked on my door a couple of minutes telling me to get dressed and follow him to you."

I start running faster. Please don't be Tris. Please don't be Tris. I beg in my head to whoever is listening.

We round the corner in the corridor by the infirmary, hearing screams. Agonising screams.

It's a male voice, and I breathe easier. Immediately feeling guilty. It shouldn't matter who it is. This is still a very bad situation. We slow down to a stop, seeing blood on the floor. Lauren and I just look at each other before we enter. The first people I see are Max and Eric, standing in the corner discussing something. I look over to where Lydia is standing, not Mandy and beyond her I see Edward lying on the table, his arms tied to the bed to try and stop his thrashing. I freeze. Lauren standing next to me with her hand over her mouth. "Oh my God." She whispers.

There's a butter knife sticking out of Edwards's right eye. "Get it out! Get it out now!" Edward shouts.

"Edward. I need you to listen to me." Nurse Lydia commands, her hands covered in blood. "You are going to feel a slight pinch in your arm, but once that is done you'll fall asleep and won't feel anything." I see her reach for the syringe and sticks it in Edwards arm making him calm down instantly. Lydia and someone I'm not quite sure of starts working over Edward. Trying to act fast.

"What happened?!" I demand from Max, walking over to them.

"We don't know. No one saw who did this. All we know is that someone stabbed Edward while he was sleeping with a butter knife. The lights were off and we don't have cameras in that part of the building." That's it. That all that Max can tell me? I want to punch someone.

"This is all your fault, you son of a bitch." I say grabbing Eric by the shirt. "If you hadn't pushed them so far, if you hadn't put this new damned rule of the faction chooses you in, this kind of shit would never have happened." I say breathing in his face. "You're creating monsters."

"Let go of him Four." Max says, pulling me by my shoulder.

"Get off!" Eric hisses. But doesn't say anything else.

"It's done. You have to wait here for the nurses to finish up and hear what the outcome is going to be. Once you know, I'll need you to report back to me." I look at them both, boiling with anger.

"There's a good boy. Do as you're told and you'll get a treat once you're done." Eric says, smirking at me. I start after him, but Max holds me back. "Eric that's enough. Four, you and Lauren go wait outside. I'll make sure the rest of the initiates have the day off today, seeing as none of them have slept and you'll be busy here."

I pull my arm free, look over my shoulder at where Edward is lying and dart out the room. Lauren following me. Every year there's at least one situation like this, someone getting hurt by the lower ranked initiates or someone being a smart arse and jumping into the chasm, thinking they'll be the brave who survive. But I never expected this to happen to my initiates.

"Fuck!" I shout, punching the wall.

"Hey. Knock that off!" Lauren grabs me and turns me around. "I told you before, I don't ever want to bandage you up ever again." She says pushing me down to the floor.

I look at my hand, starting to ache, little bits of blood oozing from cuts. "Sorry." I say. What else is there to say?

"Do you have any idea who could have done this?" Lauren asks, tears starting to stream down her face. "I mean. Who. Who in their right mind would ever go to such an extend?" She asks me, stuttering.

I look over to her, shaking my head. "I have no doubt that it was Peter and Drew. But that won't help me. We can't prove any of it. They are going to get away with it."

"I wish you had punched him, you know." She looks over to me. "Eric I mean. You were right. This is all because of him."

"Yeah. Me too."

After that we both go quiet. Leaning our heads against the wall, dosing off. My dreams are swimming with blood.

"Four. Wake up." Lauren is standing over me, holding a cup of coffee for us both. I look up at her, then around me, forgetting for the moment where we are.

"What time is it?" I ask her, reaching for the coffee.

"It's just past 07:00 now. They are almost done." She says sitting next to me again.

I stretch my neck, after getting stiff from leaning it back the whole time. 5 Minutes later Lydia steps out from the infirmary, looking exhausted.

"Well. He'll make it. But as for his eye, there was no way for us to save it. We even got in some of the Erudite specialist to help us but there was just too much damage to the optic nerves. We had to remove it." She says in a whisper. "He'll need to rest for some time now, after losing so much blood, but for now he wants to talk to you Four."

"He's awake?" I ask standing.

"Yes. But make it quick. His girlfriend is in there with him, she has refused to step out the room even for a minute. I would appreciate it you could ask her to leave when you do. She's been through enough already."

"Sure." I say walking past her back into the infirmary.

As I enter the infirmary, I notice everything has been cleaned again. Everything smells of disinfectant making me want to gag. It's sweet, almost but not completely covering the stench of blood.

I look over to where Edward is lying, still tied down with a bandage around his eye, blood starting to seep through. He looks like he has fallen asleep, peaceful almost compared to earlier. I take one last step towards him, not wanting to wake him when his eye flies open.

"Edward." This whole thing feels like it's my fault.

"It was Peter you know that right?" His voice sounds feint, raw almost from all the yelling.

"Did you see him do it?" I ask hopeful for the first time all morning. If he saw him we might be able to kick Peter out.

"No. but I know it was him. I know it!" he says, his voice starting to shake, his hands balling up in fists.

"I know he could have been the only one to do this." I tell him. "I know he is the only one who would do anything to stay on top. But if there is no proof, no way for us to actually show Max that he is the one that did this to you, I can't do anything about it."

"Then I quit." he says.

"What?!" Myra jumps up, grabbing Edwards hand "You can't quit, where will you go?" she shrieks, tears running down her cheeks.

"I understand the Dauntless is a faction that don't tolerate cowards. Or that they want the strongest of the strongest. That we chose you now it's time for you to choose us or whatever." he continues. Looking over at Myra, squeezing her hand. "We believe in ordinary acts of bravery. In the courage of one man standing up for another." he breathes our faction moto, closing his eye. "That is why I joined this faction. Bravery. Standing up for people. Honour." and opens his eye again. "I don't belong here anymore. I can't stay in a place that condones the exact opposite of what they say they stand for. That is being a coward."

I agree with him. God knows I do. That is one of the things I admired as a kid, whenever I heard there mantra. "Ordinary acts of bravery." What am I supposed to tell him? That if he stays I promise this will never happen to him again, or to anyone else for that matter. Because I can't promise that. It probably will and there is nothing I'll be able to do about it.

"You sure about this?"

"Yes." he says. And I can hear it in his voice. The anger, the determination.

"Okay." there's nothing else I can do for him then. I shake his hand, looking over to Myra tears still running down her face. "Good luck Edward. When you leave, go south. There's a big factionless community out there. They'll be able to help you."

All he does is nod. "I have one request though." He asks looking at me again. "Look after Myra for me please. I know the second round is mostly mental, but I need someone to keep an extra eye out for her."

"What? No. I quit too." She says looking from me to Edward. ''I'm not staying here without you, I love you!''

"Myra. No. Where I'm going, it won't be safe, I don't even know what I'll be walking into."

"SO? We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into when we came here. I came here for you and I'll follow you anywhere else. I won't be safe here either and you know that." She yells.

"Myra, I -"

"No. I quit and that's final."

"Very well. If that's what you want, I can't do anything to stop you. Just know it's going to be hard out there." I tell her. She's right though, she isn't safe here.

She lift her chin, whipping away the tears from her face. "I know."

I look at them both. This is probably one of the bravest things I have seen inside the Dauntless society.

...

"Well. That is unexpected." Max says after I told him about Edward and Myra." But if that's what they want, hey who are we to stop them? "he shakes his head.

"You're kidding me right?" I look over to Max, not believing his reaction. "I understand there's nothing we can do about Peter. Know. But you could at lease see the problem Max. Things are getting out of hand here." I motion my hand around the compound to emphasise my point. "Eric is giving them free range to basically beat up these kids to the point of death. His methods are brutal even evil at points. "I say breathing hard through my nose. "Things need to change or be taken some control of these situations." How can he not see that?

"You had your chance to make changes here Four. I have asked you time and again to join as a leader here. To have your part in what gets done and changed but you have made it blatantly clear that you didn't want any such responsibility." he says, putting his finger in my face. "You can't come in here, blaming Eric for the things you don't agree with when you have given up your only chance at making any real changes." He carries on, leaning over his desk, looking over the paper work of who would have been cut.

"Now, the good thing is there are none of your initiates that have to be cut, as those two out there quit. So I expect you to get back on track tomorrow with round two of training." He doesn't even look at me when he says this.

"Yes sir" I basically snarl at him, walking to the door.

"And keep your eye out for anything peculiar when you start the simulations tomorrow. Anything out of the ordinary."

"What do you mean out of the ordinary?" I ask, a cold shiver running down my spine?

"You'll know when you see it. Janine is running some tests and she's looking for a specific kind of candidate to be able to accomplish it."

"Since when have we started working with Janine and her smart arses?" I ask knowing this is the wrong way to approach him regarding Janine. He could give me the answers I have been looking for.

"Since she has promised to get us into a more important position."

"What's th-"

"That's all I am able to tell you Four." he says, still not looking at me. "I need to get stuff done."

That's it. That's all he'll tell me. But I know what they are looking for.

They're looking for Divergence.

What the hell am I going to do if we find one? They'll kill the Divergence, just like they did to Tory's brother, just like they did Amar.

After wandering around in the compound, I decide to head over to the pit. The water there always calms me down. Just as I enter I notice Zeke and a small group of people entering, all looking windblown and buzzed.

"Dude, your girl is officially not a Stiff in the eyes of the Dauntless anymore." He says clapping me on my shoulder.

"Who, Tris?" I ask, not quite following him.

"Yeah, she just did the zip line with us. She didn't even hesitate." I continues.

"That girls has a death wish." I say shaking my head. At least she was out of trouble today, so I don't linger too much on her for once.

"Sorry to hear about Edman man." he says, sobering up a bit.

"Edward." I correct him. "Yeah. Me too." and order my first drink for the night.