Chapter 14
TOBIAS
Three weeks. That's how long it has been since Tris jumped on a train to Erudite to tell her brother we were engaged and never came back. A lot has happened in those three weeks.
Erudite took over the Abnegation sector by force, using the traitor Dauntless to make the Abnegation comply. As far as we know, they're under strict rules; most of them basically forced into house arrest. A few made it safely to Amity somehow; they told us how some Abnegation tried to fight back at first but it only led to death and more destruction. A good amount of traitor Dauntless patrol the Abnegation sector daily to make sure no one tries anything.
We've talked to Amity; the other leaders and I went there just a few days after the Erudite takeover. They agreed to be a safe haven for anyone who wants it, but set strict rules for their compound. No weapons and no fighting. We didn't stay very long.
The Candor have done nothing. They've locked themselves up in their compound. I have no doubt they'll just side with whoever is ahead at the moment, which would be Erudite right now. A team was sent to visit them a while ago. They were put under Truth Serum because the Candor do not trust anybody. The team then retaliated by stealing a good portion of their Truth Serum before they came back.
A few Erudite came to us for refuge right after the takeover. One of them was Will's sister. They've been working on making weapons, but they do not have a lot of the materials they need here. I haven't been paying much attention to them, though.
I spend most of my days in the Control Room. I've tried everything I could think of to get any information from Erudite's computers. I got a few files before they locked everything down. The most important one saying that Beatrice Prior's execution was scheduled for one month after the takeover. Seven days from now.
I've tried to work with Tori and Harrison on a plan to invade Erudite. They agree that it is going to be necessary, but that we need to be more prepared. We have people making as many weapons as possible; guns, knives, anything. Tori and Harrison don't have the same urgency I do to invade within the next seven days.
FLASHBACK
I lean back in my chair, arms crossed over my chest. Tori, Harrison and I have been in the only meeting room in the Dauntless compound for hours.
It has been two days since the Erudite takeover and we still do not know what to do. A month ago none of us could have even imagined we would be strategizing for war.
"We need to hit the Erudite compound hard and fast before they get too organized," I say for what feels like the hundredth time. They know why this is what I think we should do, but they also know it is a logical opinion.
"We know Tris is there, Tobias. But saving one during a time of war is not a priority. We need to know why Erudite is doing this and what their security is like. We need a well thought out plan before we run in there blind," Harrison tells me, his voice exasperated. I don't blame him.
"We also need to think about the fact that Tris conveniently left to 'visit' her brother at Erudite the same day all of this happened. We need to think about the possibility that she could be a traitor," Tori tells us. My fists clench. Out of everyone, Tori should be on Tris' side. She knows Tris is Divergent. She knows Tris would never do that.
"You know that's not true. She's no more of a traitor than any of us," I say as calmly as possible.
If I am going to work out a plan that involves Tris getting back to Dauntless alive I am going to have to think of something that will appease Tori and Harrison as well.
A few hours later I am sitting at a table in the dining hall with some of our friends. Christina keeps staring at me nervously. Uriah is still upset. He hasn't talked to anyone much since Zeke left.
Christina suddenly slides something over to me. I look down at the table and see a simple, black ring in front of me.
"What is this?" I ask her, picking up the simple object in my hands.
"The day you two went to Abnegation . . . late that night she came by our apartment. She had been down in the pit and picked it out. She asked me to keep it until you two needed it. It's your wedding band," Christina says the words slowly, as if she is scared they will set me off. She's right. I grip the ring tightly in my hand before walking out of the dining hall as quickly as possible.
END FLASHBACK
I sit in the Control Room looking over all of the new camera feeds we installed at every entrance of the compound. We put cameras and motion sensors at every entrance that can only be turned off with a code very few people know. We also change it twice a week. We have a group stationed at both entrances to the compound, one near the roof entrance and the other at the glass building above the pit. The groups rotate people every few hours. Alarms will sound throughout the compound if the motion sensors are set off.
The screen suddenly goes black. My eyebrows furrow but before I can try to fix whatever happened there is suddenly a video feed on the screen.
"Go get Tori and Harrison," I bark at the man sitting next to me. He is easily ten years older than me and has been doing this much longer than I have but he quickly gets up and does what I say.
I look at the screen. It shows a bright, white, room. But I do not focus on any of that. I see her, sitting in the corner with her legs pulled up to her chest. She's so small.
My first instinct were Tris is involved has never been to protect her; she can easily protect herself. But I know there is nothing she can do in this situation. I know I was supposed to save her, protect her. I let her down.
Something catches her eye, "Come on, Stiff," I hear someone say. The camera follows her as she walks to the door toward Peter. Peter. The boy I pulled off of her a year ago as he was trying to throw her over the Chasm; the boy who stabbed an initiate in the eye with a butter knife.
As Tris leaves her cell Tori and Harrison walk in. I motion for them to sit next to me, never taking my eyes off of the screen as Tris shouts at who I am assuming is her brother, Caleb. I've never seen him before. He turned her in to Jeanine.
Once Caleb leaves the cameras follow Tris as she is led through the compound with numerous guards around her. I wonder if she has tried to escape on her own before.
Zeke suddenly shows up on the screen, "If . . . if you see him again will you tell him that I love him? And that I'm sorry; I'm sorry I left him alone."
Tris' words cut through me. No, don't give up. My hands clench so tight that they start to shake. Then I realize what this is, where these guards are leading her. This is her execution.
Zeke says something else to her, but I do not hear it. My ears start to ring; my heart starts to race. Whatever Tris thinks about as she walks away from Zeke causes tears to start to stream down her face.
One of my hands unclenches from my lap. I rub it over my face, hoping that I will wake up and be in my fear landscape. I don't.
Tris enters a room with a table obviously meant for her in the center. Jeanine is sitting next to it with a syringe in her hands.
"Killing me doesn't mean you won. It means you failed. You're a failure," if I could I would smile at her harsh words toward Jeanine. Even though that woman is about to kill her, Tris won't let her win.
Zeke is suddenly on the screen, "She was my friend; my best friend's girl. I'm not going to let her be executed in a room without at least one familiar face."
After I hear his words I vow to be more conscious of Uriah. I've checked on him and Tris' other friends a few times, but not often enough. Zeke is risking a lot by being there for Tris. I won't let anything happen to Uriah.
"No," I whisper as I see Jeanine start to move her hand with the syringe in it closer to Tris. It is as if she is moving in slow motion in my mind.
"No!" I shout as I see her push the purple liquid into Tris' blood stream and her body slump, lifeless, against the table.
My hands slam against the desk I am in front of. I don't care what is underneath them, keyboards, papers, none of it matters. She's dead.
I stand and leave the room, ignoring Tori and Harrison's calls for me. I pass a few people on my way to our – my – apartment but none of them stop me. No one would stop me when I am this visibly upset.
I slam the door behind me as I enter. I look around and see Tris lying in the bed in the mornings as I shower. I see her in the corner by the closet deciding what she should wear. I see her naked body beneath mine as we give ourselves to each other in the most intimate way possible. My back slumps against the door as my legs give out from underneath me and I cry for the first time since I left Abnegation.
~.~.~
TRIS
My entire body feels like jelly but at the same time it feels like my arms weigh a hundred pounds and are impossible to lift. My heart races in my chest and I can feel the blood pulsing through my body. My eyes snap open, remembering what just happened. Am I dead?
I look around the room, still not able to move any of my limbs. This must be the morgue. I see tables with tools I do not want to know what are used for and aprons hanging on hooks and a wall of square doors. I should be behind one of those doors but I'm not. I'm alive. My mind wants to go rejoice over the second chance I was just given. Think about how I could get back to Dauntless and my friends and Tobias but I do not have time for that. I have to escape.
I realize that this is my chance. This will be my last chance to escape Erudite because everyone thinks I am already dead. I try to move my arms. They still feel heavy, but at least I am able to lift them.
I carefully slide off of the table I was on and look around the room for some kind of weapon. If I am going to get out of here alive I will need something to protect myself. My limbs start to feel a little more normal as I look around. Movement catches my eye and I notice a traitor Dauntless guard standing outside the door through the small window.
A plan forms in my head as I duck beneath the window; my back to the door so they can't see me and slowly open it. I hear their boots on the tile floor and as soon as they are in the right spot I push the door as hard as possible, knocking them to the floor. Thankfully the door knocked them out. I don't think I would have had the strength to fight them.
I kneel next to them and quickly pull the gun out of the holster attached to their chest. I hear footsteps walking down the hall and immediately regret not closing the door after the guard entered. Just as the person enters the room I aim my gun at the doorway.
"Tris?"
"Zeke?"
He does not answer me. He quickly closes the door behind him before kneeling down next to me.
"You're not dead," he says quietly.
"No. I'm not. But I'm sure I will be soon if I don't find a way out of here."
Zeke is quiet for a moment before he looks around. "We need to make you as unrecognizable as possible," he walks around the room, opening drawers and shuffling through them before he finds what he was looking for. Scissors.
"We cut your hair, put you in this guys jacket and shoes, take back staircases until we get to the lobby and walk out. Sounds simple enough, right?" Zeke tells me. I look down at the clothes I am wearing. Black pants that are two sizes too big and a blue t-shirt. The black jacket will at least make it look like I am a traitor Dauntless, and the short hair will hopefully distract anyone who sees me long enough for us to escape before they recognize me. I hold my hand out for the scissors.
I gather all of my hair behind my head and cut it so it stops a little bit past my shoulders. It falls to the ground just like it would when my mother cut it in Abnegation, circling around my feet.
Zeke quickly gets the guards jacket off of him and hands it to me. It is entirely too big on my small frame but it will have to work. I quickly slip on his shoes.
"You still have his gun?" Zeke asks.
"Yeah, I wont be able to shoot straight, though," I hold my right hand out in front of me showing him how shaky and jittery it is. It is not from nerves though; my body is still coming down from the death serum that failed to do its job. I check again to make sure the gun is still stuffed into the back of my pants.
"Only shoot if you have to, then. Just try and act like you didn't just die, okay?" Zeke actually manages a smile at his own joke. It is nice to see that even though we are about to do something incredibly dangerous he is still himself.
We casually leave the room, trying not to look too nervous or out of place. I follow Zeke as he leads the way, almost as if he has had an escape route planned for a long time. We manage to get to the bottom floor without much of any incident. We passed a few other Dauntless in the halls, but Zeke was his usual loud self and brought all of their attention on him.
"Keep your head down and follow me," Zeke tells me before opening the door to the lobby. There are people everywhere, but they do not seem to know about me. I wonder if anyone knows I'm not lying dead in the morgue anymore. Could it really be this easy?
Just as I start to hope that I may be able to get out of this place alive a hand clamps down on my upper arm.
"You're dead," I vaguely recognize the man. He escorted me to and from simulations with Peter a few times I think.
Zeke pulls his arm off of mine before landing a punch to the mans jaw, "Run!"
We both start running toward the door. Shots ring out around us, and alarms start to blare. Luckily we were not too far away from the door, but traitor Dauntless follow us out and continue to shoot in our direction. I feel a sudden sting in my shoulder that causes me to lose my footing for a second. Zeke grabs my arm to steady me.
Zeke weaves between buildings so we lose the traitor Dauntless that are following us. Eventually the shooting stops and Zeke kicks open the door to an abandoned building, "We'll stay here until it's dark. Then we'll get on a train to Dauntless."
I automatically walk to the corner of the completely bare room just like I would have done if I were in my cell back at Erudite. I carefully take off my stolen jacket to look at my shoulder. Thankfully it just looks like a graze through my t-shirt. I lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes.
"You should sleep, it will be a while before the sun sets."
"No. I don't sleep very well, anymore."
"I'll get you back to him, I promise."
"You were never a traitor, were you?" I ask Zeke, my eyes opening to meet his. I already know the answer, though.
"No. Eric approached me a while ago with his plan he had been working on with Jeanine. I knew if I said no that I knew too much and would eventually wind up dead somewhere, plus I thought I could find out some information and eventually escape. He said they were waiting for something to happen before they left Dauntless. I didn't know you were what they were waiting for."
I nod my head before laying it on my knees. My body is too tired to do anything else, and my mind is too jumbled to think clearly about anything. I just want to go home.
"How long?" I ask. Zeke doesn't need any more clarification on what I am asking.
"Three weeks."
It is hours later before the sun finally sets and Zeke and I can make our way to the train tracks. Thankfully there are no traitor Dauntless waiting for us there. We easily jump on to the train and I feel a true smile form for the first time in what feels like years. It is nice to do something normal, something I am used to.
"We should go in through the net, they probably have the other entrances locked up," I nod my head at Zeke's words, not looking forward to jumping into the net with my injured shoulder.
"Damn. I've never been so excited to jump off of a train," Zeke tells me with a giant smile on his face as we see the Dauntless compound come into view. But the second our feet hit the roof alarms sound below us and four Dauntless emerge from the darkness with guns pointed at us.
"That's new," I whisper under my breath.
A/N: I know this is another cliffhanger, but it's better than if I left you with nothing after Chapter 13, right? Leave me a review and let me know what you think! So close to 100. Might even post a surprise chapter if we hit 100 reviews . . .