I wake before Beatrice does and I can't help but try to memorize her face. We're in the run down apartment building I had stayed in my first night here but nothing feels like it's out of place for this brief moment in air feels thick and I have this feeling in the back of my mind that things are about to happen soon and I want every moment I can have with her. My eyes trace the shape of her small nose and her flushed cheeks and the faded gold colour of her hair. I wonder what it would look like in the Amity sun, loose and bright and sun kissed. I wonder if she would freckle after many days in the sun, she's so fair that I feel she might. I breath out slowly wanting nothing more than to draw her small t-shirt clad frame into my arms and hold her for all eternity.
Her eyes flutter when I brush a stray strand of hair from her face and she gives me a sleepy smile. I wish I could live in her eyes forever. Neither of us wants to break this soft content silence we've established and I'm okay with that. I pull her to me, shifting so she's laying more across my chest and smile down at her, kissing her forehead gently as I smooth my hands up her back. "I'm going to Dauntless today with a few rebels to try and get a few more divergents out and then we plan to jump a train to Amity. Come with me." I whisper and her lips turn up on one side in a half smile.
The spell is broken then and I feel the air shift to a more serious nature. "I mean it." I whisper brushing her hair from her eyes to tuck it behind her ear. "Run away with me. We can go to Amity and get married, live in the sunshine and be free from all of this chaos. Go beyond the wall and live free of the disasters of this failed society. "
Beatrice's' face turns serious and she pulls away to sit up, facing away from me with her hands in her hair and elbows resting on her knees. "You know we can't do that Tobias." she whispers and she sounds as broken as I feel. "You know we can't leave. I can't leave. I have my family here, I have the duty I'm meant to perform and you do to. If we run we will be nothing more than the cowards Erudite thinks we are." She stands then and I feel the pain catch in my chest. She stays silent as she dresses in Abnegation gray, pulls her hair up, and tucks away her clothes from the night before into her bag. "I need to go." She whispers.
I stand quickly and cross the room to pull her into my arms. I feel my world tilting off kilter and I can't fight the distressed noise that escapes my throat. "Please." I haven't begged for anything in a long time but in this moment I feel the weakest I've ever felt. "Please stay." My voice cracks and she pulls away, turning to cup my cheek with her small hand and she kisses me. "They're going to fight and people are going to die Beatrice." I'm trying to come up with a reason she should stay but my reasons are purely selfish and I know that I cannot give them to her. I note that my gun is sitting on the table by the door where she now stands and I reach for it tripping the safety on and tucking it in her waistband. "People are going to die and I can't protect you if you're not here."
"I don't need your protection Tobias." Her voice is a whisper that slides across the air and in a blink of an eye she is gone. Finality hangs in the air but I let her leave. I'm not going to chase after her. Not this time. I'm going to protect her, not the way I had intended, but there were already plans in place that were above my head. I feel the anger well up in my chest and I know the path that I have to take is one she will not approve of, but I'm doing it for her sake. This time, this one time in the entirety of the time I've known her, I know she can defend herself, but I know I can do it better. I pull on a shirt and leave the apartment but I don't follow her.
I sneak past the guard that watches the prison and stalk my way down towards Caleb's cell. I know no one will question why I am here, I'm Tobias Eaton, son of Evelyn Johnson and future ruler of the Factionless. I find Caleb's cell easily enough and unlock it. "Get up." I state and Caleb stares at me in confusion. I reach out and haul him up with one hand and the fear in his eyes spurns the fire in my chest. "Tell me what you know. How are they going to attack?" Caleb looked baffled. I slam him back against the wall and he gasps in shock.
"I don't know." he cries out. I slam him back again. "A-A serum." He gasps and I frown.
"That makes zero sense."
"It's a mind controller." This clicks with something I had read from Zeke's notes on the war plans. They're going to control Dauntless with a mind control serum. I have to warn the others. Pulling Caleb along by the front of his shirt shove him out the fire exit. "Move." I state shoving him again. "Go warn Beatrice and your father. They need to know." He stares at me blankly and shove him again. "Go!" He takes off running and I watch until he's out of my line of sight.
I find Amar in the market building, the name I've already forgotten, and request we speak in private. I would like an update so I can form a plan. Once we are free from the masses and standing upon the roof of the building I speak. "We need to get into Dauntless and try to save as many Divergents as we can." Amar doesn't disagree with me but he doesn't agree with me either. "My intel says they're going to use some type of serum to control the Dauntless."
"That complicates things. We need to get into Dauntless and stop this before it starts." Amar goes silent and I can see a plan formulating in his eyes. " Go find Sydni and Mara and tell them to be ready by midnight. We're going to rally and try to stop this." I nod and turn quickly descending the stairs to set out for my task. I know the elevator would be faster but the stairs get my adrenaline running and a plan formed in my head.
The girls are sparring in one of the empty buildings and I can't help but smile, thinking of Beatrice and my time in a space similar. "Ladies. The time is here. We're meeting at midnight, usual place. Spread the word.." They stop when they hear my voice and both nod turning to sprint from the building in seperate directions.
When I exit the stairwell to the roof twelve hours later the group we've collected is more than I had expected. "Can we trust all of these people?" I ask and Amar just nods.
"Alright. We're going to split into 2 groups. Group one will be here, waiting for command to dispatch to Abnegation if we fail to stop this. Group two will be search and rescue. We've got information, a list of possible Divergents in Dauntless. We know that most Divergents are able to break the hold serums and simulations have on them so we need to keep our eyes out." Amar called out. I didn't have to listen to him read off names to know I would be part of the rescue team.
Light Dauntless issue body armor is dispersed between the group and I'm amazed at the sheer amount of resources the Factionless have been able to gather. "You were waiting for this, weren't you? The factionless?" I muse aloud and someone to my left laughed.
"Evelyn Johnson's been talking of rebellion for about 10 years now." Someone else chimed in and a laugh trickled through the group.
The horn of the train signifies it's arrival in Abnegation and I know we'll need to leave soon to be able to catch the train when we need to or we will have to wait another hour and a half for it to come back around through Amity. "We need to move now." Amar calls. A semi automatic rifle is pressed into my hand. "Know how to use that, Stiff?" I nod without comment and follow as we begin to descend the stairs with the rest of the group.
As the train passes people began to climb on and I count at least twenty people before I have to jump on the train myself. The ride feels like it takes forever and I settle myself into a corner, memories flashing of the last time I was in this train and I can't help but smile at the final memory of the night after the party.
I will never forget the breathy moans from Beatrice's mouth as I kissed her neck and ran bare palms up her thighs, the pleading whimpers as I pressed her against the wall of the train car with my entire body and hiked her up onto my hips so her weight was supported by me and the wall, and the breathlessness of her voice when she told me she loved me. We didn't make it very far once we got back to the apartment, just far enough for her to pull my shirt on over her small frame and get settled into bed before the alcohol took us both off to sleep.
My heart rate slows I take a deep breath and lean out of the train car to gauge where we are. It's time to jump. "Let's do this!" I call out before taking a running leap, holding my gun close to my chest.
Once I had righted myself I realised something was amiss. It was louder than I had anticipated for a sneak attack. Then a flash of gunfire made the world light up as we were attacked. I threw several punches, gun forgotten on the ground. We had been betrayed. Someone had tipped off Dauntless that we would be moving tonight. Gunshots and yells echoed through the air and I knew I had to keep fighting, I had to keep pushing. There was no way I was going to die here tonight. As I focused on the man in front of me I felt a deadweight land on the trapezius muscle in my shoulder and all of a sudden I found myself on the ground, unable to move. A syringe was shoved painfully into the back of my neck and then a sharp blow to my head made the world spin.
After the world had righted itself I was pulled to my feet by two strong arms hands gripping my wrists behind my back so I couldn't fight back a gun pointed to my head as I was shoved forward. We descended several flights of stairs before I was thrown into a dark cell.
I'm not sure how long I paced the cell, grabbed the bars and yelled, my voice mingling with the rest but after a while the sound died to silence and it unnerved me. Sounds like feet moving in time echoed above us and then the cells click open. I wait for a moment, watching as others passed, feet moving in the same timing. Curious. They must have injected us with the serum too. I wonder who was faking and who was actually under the influence of the serum. I however, felt nothing. Falling in line with the others I try to not seem out of place.
I notice that there are several people who aren't under the simulation, watching us pass and it takes everything I can to not lash out and try to take one of them out. I follow the zombie like others and try to keep up taking a gun and climbing the stairs. The trains have stopped and when we go to board them I cautiously look around. I notice Amar a few rows over and frown, wondering if my companion is under control of his own mind or of the simulation. A slight nod is the only signal I need. He's going to give the signal. I follow others onto the train and when it begins to move I realise that it's going in reverse. We will hit Abnegation sooner than the hour it takes to loop around and I start to worry.
The sun has started to rise when we pass the factionless sector, but only enough to really catch movement if you were watching carefully. I see the black mass of someone running from the train and hope that whomever it is doesn't get spotted by the higher ups that are more than likely along for this train ride.
Abnegation comes into view and the trains stop again allowing the swarm of Dauntless soldiers to disembark and take up positions around the Abnegation sector and I'm concerned. The others begin to march and I follow trying to keep up the charade as long as I can so I don't get noticed. My plan goes out the window when I see Andrew and Natalie Prior running through an alley. I break away to follow, hoping to protect them.
"Divergent!" A voice shouts and suddenly I'm being chased by two Dauntless soldiers. I run head long into another whom I take down with an elbow to the nose. I fire shots behind me taking out one of soliders following but before I can fire again I'm tackled to the ground. I fight, trying to kick and elbow my way out of the grip but the three men who have ahold of me aren't budging.
"Take him to Dauntless." A woman's voice coos from my right and I look to see Jeanine
Matthews standing next to the Dauntless guards. I struggle again and manage to break away from my captors for a brief moment. I lunge at the blonde woman and wrap my hands around her throat, pressing my thumbs as hard as I can into the hollow at the base of her throat.
"You're killing innocent people." I'm pulled away by my hair this time, a hand across my chin, yanking my jaw back and two more at my shoulders and forearms, grips almost bruising.
"I wouldn't have to kill them if they would give me what I want." Jeanine quips back and I growl as I try to get away again but I'm not quick enough to prevent being shoved into the black car. One soldier sits on my left the other on my right and my arms are wedged so far up my back that I can barely move and I don't.
Once we arrive at Dauntless I'm pulled by my hair from the car and handcuffed. I've never been handcuffed before so I'm not skilled on how to get out of them which puts a damper on my grand escape plan. I'm shoved through a large door and into the computer room. I've been here a couple of times, and I frown when I notice Zeke typing away at the keyboard.
"Zeke. Zeke man what are you doing?" I call out to him hoping to get through to him but I realise then that he's under the serum control and I frown, fighting against my captors again.
"You should know better than that." Jeanine states from my left and I spit at her. She slaps me hard across the face before nodding to a man in Erudite blue. I fight against my bonds and manage to take one's feet out from under him which brings all three of us to the ground but before I can get his gun a needle is shoved into the side of my neck and the entire world fades to black.
⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝Beatrice⇜⇜⇜⇜⇜
I wake with dread filling the pit of my stomach. Leaving Tobias was hard but I know that I had made the right choice. I could not leave my family to fight this on their own. If something happened because of my selfishness I know I would never be able to forgive myself. Gunshots ring out through the night air and I'm startled from my bed.
Running to the window I see hoards of men and women in Dauntless black and my stomach sinks. It has begun. Rushing through my room I try to find what I need. I go back to the window, trying to form an escape plan. I notice that it's not just abnegation people falling but Dauntless as well. I watch in confusion for a moment before I notice that not all of the Dauntless are Dauntless. Some have arm bands of an empty shattered circle on their arms. The Factionless Resistance. I had heard rumors but never imagined them to be real. I take a deep breath and go back to my collecting, preparing to fight.
There are times when I feel like I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time and this is definitely one of those middle of a gun fight between Dauntless and the Divergent Rebellion is definitely one of those places. The gun fire is loud and I'm surprised at how startling it is compared to shooting alone in the privacy of the old shooting range with my friends. I grab the gun from under my bed and tuck it into the waistband of my pants. I know I should change, Abnegation gray will probably get me killed at this point but I don't have the time. I need to find my parents and Tobias.
Tobias. He knew this would happen and begged me to leave with him but I didn't go. I wish I had gone. But I have to protect my family and our friends. I jump the stairs three at a time and make my way out the door. I'm unseen. As a group of Dauntless pass I back away, into an alley before making a run for my parents house. The door is kicked in and I begin to panic. There's no blood, no signs of struggle. They made it out safely, but to where?
I'm cautious as I creep out of the house and back around the corner. If my parents are safe there's no reason for me to stay here. I have to stop this. Gunshots to my left make me bite my bottom lip to keep from screaming out and I realise that now, now I know what real terror is and I should have never teased Christina for her fears. Bullets ricochet over my head and I thank god that I'm so short because I can easily duck for safety behind the concrete stairs I was passing. I lean up to shoot one and I recognize him. He's Nathan, the nice boy who offered us Dauntless cake at lunch time when we were at the meeting a few weeks ago. How did he get involved in this? Then it dawns on me, all of Dauntless are hypnotized that means Zeke and Christina are part of this as well. Tobias!
Tobias had said something about trying to get a few more Divergents out safely before the attacks happened. Was he one of these mindless soldiers? Would I be able to shoot him when the time came that we confronted one another? I don't know. A gunshot sends Nathan stumbling back and I watch blood stained his lips as his partner tries to shoot me again. "Beatrice get down!" Relief floods through me. My mother has found me.
"Mom! Mom we need to stop this!" I feel tears on my cheeks now but my mother nods. "Come on, I know someone who can help us." I nod and shoot the other Dauntless in the knee before we make a run for it.
"Where's dad? How did you know to leave?" I ask as we run. My mom fires two shots around a corner and then pulls me with her into a door that leads to one of the warehouses.
"Natalie?" My father's voice greets us as we make our way through another set of doors and another knot unravels in my chest. My father is alright too. My family is safe.
"Caleb, we need your help." my mother states and I blink at her in surprise. My brother steps around a pallet of wood and gives me a small smile. "We need you to help us shut down the program controlling the simulation." Caleb grows pale but nods anyways.
"I'm coming with you." Dad reaches out and embraces me before taking the gun my mother offers and my head is filled with so many questions that all I can do is nod. We begin to make plans on what exactly we are going to do but all I can think about in that moment is whether or not I'll ever see Tobias again after today. I hate how I left things and all I want to do is kiss him again.
"Beatrice?" My attention is pulled from my thoughts and I sigh softly wondering how we ended up here.
"Right. Well, We've been to the compound a couple of times, and I have an idea of where things will be being ran but I'm not sure how we're going to get there unnoticed." My voice is a bit unsteady but it's bold enough for my mother to nod.
"Aren't all of the Dauntless brainwashed right now?" Caleb asks. I shake my head.
"They will still have someone guarding the main controls. It would be stupid not to." I swallow thickly and turn to my mother and father. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask. Both nod.
"Alright. We'll need to take the train to Dauntless."
"You can't just walk into the front doors of the Dauntless Compound and take over Beatrice." Caleb protests, always the logician.
"I know a back way in." I whisper a grin forming on my face. "But you're not going to like it."
I laugh watching my brother pale at the idea of having to jump on the train as we stand at the fringes of the war of our society and wait for the cars to pass us. I jump in followed by my brother who ends up on his stomach on the train car. My mother and father follow close behind with a few other Abnegation members who had some gun training and had volunteered to come along. Once everyone was boarded there was no chatter or laughter like the last night with the Dauntless.
My heart aches thinking about Tobias but I know I need to focus on the task at hand. I lean out of the train car door and smile. We still have a bit of distance before we enter the city, the factionless sector passing us by now.
Jumping from the train is an easy feat for me once we get to the rooftops of the Dauntless sector but my brother has some trouble getting motivated so I make him go first giving him a shove that sends him running and jumping from the train. He lands in a heap and then my mother and father follow. The grace in which my mother jumps amazes me but my father was a bit clumsy and almost misses the jump. I follow after and laugh at the thrill it gives me to clear the wall.
"Do you do that regularly?" Caleb asks and I just laugh. The world around us is quiet since we were far from the chaos of the Dauntless attacking the Abnegation but the silence is almost deafening. I walk along the roof top and hum, I vaguely remember Christina talking about her first time in Dauntless, how they had to jump into a black hole with a net at the bottom.
"There." my mother points and I turn to look at her in confusion before turning back to see what she was pointing at and smile. There was a building several stories down with a large hole in the roof that leads to blackness and I nod. "We'll jump in here and then find our way to the command center and shut this down.
My mother and father nod but I'm the first to jump. There is no one to meet us at the bottom and I nod as I help my mother and Caleb from the net. My father leans over, hands on his knees panting. "If I remember right, it's this way." I lead the way to the stairs of the pit, being sure to keep my eyes open for any movement. We make it up two flights before we come into contact with a sentient guard. I sneak up behind him, intending to just disarm and disable him. As soon as I pick up his gun from the floor I end up with two guns pointed at me. I pull my gun up to aim at one and my mother comes from around the corner to aim at the other.
One chuckles while the other, a greasy haired youth about Tobias' age laughs loudly. "They're not going to shoot us., they're stiffs."
"You're seriously underestimating my character." I state before shooting the greasy haired teen in the stomach, my mother taking the other out with a swift blow to the head with her gun. "Let's keep moving." I nod and pull the vest off of the smaller man and pull it over my head, tightening the velcro across the chest so it is tight enough to fit some what properly.
We climb two more flights of stairs before we find the control room. It's entrance is vacant and I pull open the door to peer inside. No one is around. I cautiously enter, looking over my shoulder to make sure my family was still with me. My mother nods and I move forward. "If you get noticed find somewhere to hide." I nod at her instruction and look back to see my father and brother nodding as well. Our footsteps are soft and my mother and brother split off away from us.
"I'll go this way, try to find another entrance so we can surround whomever is inside." My father states and I nod, taking the easiest path into the room.
From the entrance I can see the screens surveying all of Chicago. Everywhere I've ever been is displayed in front of my eyes, but most of the screens have the fight in Abnegation screening on them. Each person has a marker signifying their faction above their heads and I wonder how long the Erudite have been watching everyone. I watch on the screens as two of my own faction members were gunned down by Dauntless soldiers as they try to run and I can't help the gasp that escapes my throat. That gasp ruins everything.
Two Erudite in dark blue holding handguns turn on me and I raise my own gun. I'm unsure which direction my mother ran but I regret not listening to her and hiding. I know she thinks I can handle myself but now I just wish she was here, her or my father. I'm not as brave as I pretend to be in the presence of my Dauntless friends. I never went through the fear landscapes but If i did I know that this, this would be one of my biggest fears.
I take out the two guards easily remembering to aim for their shoulders, the easiest targets to hit without creating lasting damage. I just want to disarm them not kill them. I make it through two rounds of guards and into the Dauntless computer room. Zeke is running the program that has all of the other Dauntless hypnotized.
"Zeke, what are you doing?" I scream at him moving to pull him away from the console but he shrugs me off easily and returns to what he's doing. I have to shut down the program another way. I have to kill the power but I don't know where the main power supply is. I look around and noticed the wires. I don't have a way to sever them, and if I do what then? Erudite will just find another way to activate the program. I have to kill the program all together but I'm afraid to leave Zeke, I know he's Tobias' best friend. But if I don't do this we're all dead.
The power supply has to be close so I decide to follow the lines to see if they'll lead me to it. Instead they lead me into another room filled with Dauntless and Erudite and Jeanine. I make a move, not thinking, to go after Jeanine but notice something that makes my heart sink. Tobias.
Tobias is standing with his back to Jeanine, facing me and my heart breaks at the blank look on his face. He's a zombie like the rest of them. A commotion outside the door draws attention towards me and I freeze. I'm thrown forward by a blast from behind me, and my ears ring for a brief moment before there is nothing but silence. Hands pull me up and bullets whiz past my head and I'm suddenly terrified. My mother holds my elbow asking questions I can't hear and others are firing into the mass confusion of Dauntless, Erudite and Rebel.
Caleb rushes past, low to the floor almost cowering away from the gunfire and my mother follows him walking backwards as she shoots two more people. I remember where I am and bring my gun up. I've lost Tobias in the confusion but I hope he's safe. I rush to help my mother moving back to back with her so we can keep an eye out for everyone.
I fire off round after round into shoulders and knees and hands of Erudite and Dauntless, faces whose names I do not know without thinking much. My mind has completely gone into autopilot and the only thing I'm thinking is I have to get my family safely out of this and find Tobias when this is all over. When my mother shudders and falls against my back I'm startled and turn, letting her fall and firing at the person who shot her. Red stains his shirt and he falls and realization crosses my mind as I watch him fall. He's all I see and all I can think about and I hear nothing but I feel the scream leave my throat. I move to take a step towards him when pain laces up my arm.
I've killed him, and now they're going to kill me. A bullet hits the back of the vest I'm wearing and I stumble to my knees. My mother isn't bleeding badly, her side barely nicked and she leans against my brother as she fires at our attackers but the unseen gunman keeps shooting me. I feel the pain in my face, my chest, my entire body is on fire. He lays there, motionless and I climb to my feet and move towards him again. Another shot, this time at my calf, causes me to tumble to the floor but adrenaline draws me back up. I've forgotten everything else, nothing hurts, except the pain in my chest and all I want to do is reach him. I'm bulletproof. I feel the impacts on my body, two between my shoulders, one on my lower back, my shoulder again but my body only gives out once I reach him and I collapse atop him and the sobs start.
I can't hear anything but I can feel the world collapsing around me and I don't know what is going on anymore. All I know is that I've killed him and now they're going to kill me. The arms of death claw at me but I fight them off. I have to see him, kiss him, one more time. I bring my blood stained hands up to his bruised face and kiss him, pouring my entire being into that one, final kiss before the hands pull me off of him and he is gone. I am gone. We are gone and there is nothing.
AN: And here we are ladies and gentlemen and all non binaries in between, the beginning of the end. It took me a while to sort this chapter out and to figure out how to tie in this chapter with the one before and the Final chapter which will be next. We've officially reached almost 63K words which means this fanfiction is officially longer than The Lord of the Flies and The Dew Breaker . Stay tuned for the next and final chapter of A Different Choice.