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**Warning: Graphic violence***
Time freezes and is flying by at the same time. Zeke's voice seems far away when he orders Polly and Alan to go get the soldiers that are in the compound. They take off sprinting immediately. I watch them go, caught somewhere between reality and some world where this isn't happening. Zeke's hands find my shoulders and he tells me to go hide in the field. I snap out of my trance instantly.
"No," I snap and shake out of his hands. "Those are my initiates. I won't leave them."
He stares at me but only for a few short seconds before he nods. "Alright. They should be out by the strawberry fields."
We take off running.
My feet seem to drag behind me and Zeke always seem to be two feet ahead. I have to get to that field. I have to. Zeke sees that I'm lagging and he grabs my hand sloppily. I grip it tightly and he pulls me forward to his side, letting me match his pace.
I almost run into Jenna who is carrying a basket full of strawberries.
"Watch where you're going, Tris!" She snarls at me but then sees the panic on Zeke's face that is probably reflected on my own. The pieces click together for Jenna and she says in almost a bored tone, "The Erudite are here, aren't they?"
Zeke doesn't answer so I say, "I need you to find the rest of the initiates in the field."
She nods and sets down her basket then takes off running.
Zeke and I are alone for a brief moment before Polly finds us with Henry, Athena, Jadon, Ace, and Rex.
I don't think about what happened to the rest of the initiates.
"There is prairie on the edge of the Amity faction," Polly says. "The grass is tall enough to hide you if you lie down and keep still."
Polly takes my hand and leads us to the prairie she was talking about. The grass is wispy and light but towers to about four or five feet. The Erudite will have a hay-day trying to find our group in there. Polly shoves us into the field.
"The others are already in there," She says backing away. "I told them to look out for you."
"Thank you," Zeke says.
She dips her head into a nod and turns around to race back to the compound.
Time is at a standstill for a moment. I catch eyes with Rex who is staring at me, looking for what we should do. I turn to Zeke wondering the same question myself. Zeke doesn't even glance at me even though I'm sure he can feel my eyes on him. Instead, his hands reach out to the grass, part it and he walks through, gesturing us to do the same. I follow his footsteps, turning around once to make sure the initiates are behind me. It's difficult to see Zeke with the thick amount of grass separating us so I rely on sound, hearing his feet hit the solid ground with a thunk or his hands brushing against the grass gently. Zeke suddenly jolts in front of me.
"Zeke?" I say, half panicking. His back is as stiff as a board.
"Something is on my leg," he tells me slowly. The calm in his voice is painfully forced.
My eyes take their time traveling down his body, a little afraid what I might find on him. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see what it is.
"Zeke," I sigh gratefully," It's just Connor."
Zeke looks down and Connor's hand disappears into the grass to hide then his face peeks out at us.
"Connor, you scared the hell out of me," Zeke hisses and I have to cover my mouth to hide a smile.
Connor shrugs the same time Zoe pops out of her hiding place.
"That was kind of the point," Connor says with a smile that seems so out of place in this kind of situation. "I didn't know who you were."
He doesn't have to say who he thought we were.
"An Amity in the fields told us to hide," Zoe whispers, shaking. "She could be dead by now."
"We can't worry about that right now," Athena barks somewhere behind me. "Either she's dead or she's not dead. We won't know. We might be dead too if we don't hide."
My jaw ticks at her words. Zoe was already afraid. I expect Zeke to be slightly irritated by this but he surprises me by nodding at her words. "Athena's right; we have to hide."
He walks for a few feet then flattens himself on the ground. Or I think he flattened himself because he is completely invisible. Not seeing him slightly unnerves me but I manage to swallow it down and push Ace down into the grass and tell him to lie down too. Initiate after initiate I place in the grass. I get so lost in making sure they are far enough away from each other that I don't hear the approaching footsteps, don't hear the commanding voices rising into the air coming closer, don't hear them until it is too late. I'm a deer in the headlights, stuck in fear. I'm on my knees so they can't see me but all too soon, I'll have a bullet in my chest. When I'm accepting that I won't make it out of this field alive, someone darts out of their hiding spot, snatches my hand, and jerks me toward them.
"I called your name about a thousand times," Zeke murmurs as he forces me to lie down next to him.
I snap back in a soft breath, "Not loud enough evidently."
The enemy saw Zeke bring me toward him and they are hollering to the other soldiers that are scouting the field that they saw something move.
The boots slapping the ground come closer with every thud of my heartbeat. Zeke repositions us when they're not paying attention. My hands are next to Zeke's right hand, Zeke is half covering me, and even though I can't see it I know that his left hand is holding his gun. I reach for his free hand without thinking and wrap my fingers tightly around his, long past the point of being uncomfortable with physical contact with someone who isn't Tobias or my kin.
"I thought you saw something, Beck," a solider says, a few feet in front of us.
"I did," Beck barks back. "The grass moved. Carter saw it too."
Through the grass, I see what could be Carter nod.
"Could've been some wind," another solider throws out.
"There isn't any wind today!"
"There aren't any people here either."
There is a pause in conversation.
"Here is what we'll do," I look up, careful not to make my movements too sudden, and see what could only be the head lieutenant of the Erudite faction. "We'll search the field for people. Then, if there isn't any, we'll head back to the Amity and force them to tell us where they are." He turns to look at another soldier who straightens his posture in his attention. "Gerald, are you positive you saw the Dauntless soldiers jump off the train?"
Internally, I am begging, pleading, him to shake his head no but I know that he won't. The small hope is crushed and replaced by terror when he nods.
"Very well then," the lieutenant says. He clears his throat and says,"Zeke?"
I feel Zeke stiffen at the sound of his name coming out of the lieutenant's ugly mouth. My hand squeezes his tighter.
The leader calls Zeke's name a few times before sighing. "Just come on out, Zeke. We have information on your brother." He chuckles. "Actually we have your brother."
Zeke is squeezing his eyes shut and the action breaks my heart. I murmur into his ear that it's not true, not true, not true, but I have no idea if it isn't or if it is. That is their tactic, however, so I have to believe everything they say is false.
The lieutenant keeps feeding lies to Zeke on how Uriah is doing. He says he's not eating anything, not sleeping, because he's so worried about him. When they left, Uriah became sick with the illness and it is slowly eating away at him as they speak. I turn to look at Zeke. He has tears streaming down his face. I want to hold him close and let him know that Uriah is fine, he's alright, but I don't because I'm afraid they'd see me.
Finally, finally, the lieutenant stops. I sneak a peek at his face and it is contorted with anger. I am proud that Zeke put it there by not getting up and following him and his lies.
He huff angrily and pushes a gun onto another solider, whose face I can't see, and says, "You try."
The solider clears his throat and I swear I've heard that sound before. I withhold a gasp when I hear his voice.
"Beatrice?" Caleb calls out, unsure of himself. "Tris?"
My mind has thought after thought reeled in at a terrifying rate. How did Caleb get out of the Dauntless prison? Why is he here? Why is he betraying me once again? Wasn't once enough?
I look at Zeke for answers but his face shows something I'm shocked to see. He's not angry, sad, confused, or even comforting. He looks...satisfied.
The questions I have come to a complete halt when Caleb says, "Tobias and Christina were caught yesterday." He clears his throat. "Their execution is in three days."
A small sound comes from my lips, a whimper, and it sends a jolt of panic down my spine. Did they hear it?
Caleb stops and looks that the lieutenant. He motions for Caleb to keep going. Minutes pass by slowly in complete agony. Caleb tells me lies similar to the one the lieutenant told Zeke and even though I know they aren't true it doesn't make it any easier to hear.
Just when I am about to scream or cry or both, the lieutenant snaps at Caleb. He snatches the gun out of Caleb's hands. In a few quick steps, the toe of his boot is almost touching my fingertips. Every part of my body is telling me to move my hand away from that man but I leave it there knowing if I move it, he would see it. The field is silent for a painful moment before the sound of his gun penetrates the silence with an extremely loud fire. I'm thankful that I didn't jump from the sound and am relieved when I see that none of the others in the grass did either.
But I didn't see everything.
The lieutenant points at the patch of prairie grass that moved and a handful of soldiers make their way over there. No! I want to scream. I wonder who's over there. Is it Delilah? Abby? Gabe? Rex? I don't want it to be anyone.
I hear skin on skin contact then a shriek as they pull the person from the grass.
Jenna.
She's kicking and screaming at the soldiers but they only hold her tighter. As they drag her toward the lieutenant, she brings her mouth down on one of the soldier's hands. She bit hard enough to make the soldier cuss and let go of her hand. Then she yanks her other hand out of the other soldier's grip. She doesn't hesitate to run in the other direction but other soldiers are behind her and catch her quickly. Her screams turn into words and I am shocked to hear that it's MY name she's calling out. Part of me is rooted to this spot and the other part, the bigger part, is telling me to go to her, to sacrifice myself in order to save her.
Zeke must sense what I'm thinking because his arm tightens around me, making it impossible to get up. Jenna keeps screaming and kicking and the longer it goes on the more ornery the lieutenant gets. Finally, he says with annoyance, "Just shoot her."
Before I can fully register what he said, there is a gunshot. There is silence.
The world seems to stop for a moment. Eleven. There were twelve people in our squad just a few moments ago and now there are eleven. One lost. One dead. I don't see her full body due to the grass blocking my vision but I see enough to scar me for the rest of my life. Blood redder than an apple pours out of her chest. As she gasps out her few lasts breaths, the blood pops and jumps in the air only to land on her shirt again. Her limbs trash uncontrollably until she takes another gasp, her final gasp. Her eyes are glassed over within seconds.
The Erudite soldiers are quiet for a moment, some staring in horror at Jenna and others watching and waiting for the lieutenant to make his next move. After what feels like an eternity has passed, Caleb says softly, "You didn't have to do that."
The lieutenant whips around to face Caleb. "What did you say?"
"I said you didn't have to kill her."
The lieutenant's face hardens. "I am your lieutenant, Prior," he spits at Caleb. "I make the decisions."
"Decisions to kill innocent people or to strategize?"
"They are trying to kill us! They are NOT innocent."
"That is a matter of opinion, lieutenant," Caleb says coolly. "I believe a sixteen year old girl who was only protecting herself is innocent."
"That is also a matter of opinion," rebukes the lieutenant.
Caleb calmly says, "Logical of you to realize."
The lieutenant jabs an angry finger at Caleb. He hisses at Caleb so softly, I strain to hear it.
"The only reason you're still alive, transfer, is that Jeanine told me not to touch your sorry Abnegation ass. You better be thanking your heavenly stars for that."
"You need a better vocabulary, Lieutenant Walter," Caleb tells him, a smile twitching the corner of his lips. "Perhaps when we return to Erudite I can tutor you."
Some of the soldiers snicker. Apparently this is an Erudite insult.
Walter huffs then shouts loudly as if to gain his pride and authority back," Search the surrounding area. I want the rest of them found."
My blood runs cold and Zeke's hand tightens around mine. His green eyes are wild and frantic but the rest of him is stone still. He must sense me staring at him because he turns to meet my gaze. In a silent exchange, we agree that if another one of our soldiers is found we will fight.
The Erudite clomp their way further into the prairie. They are so close that I can see marks on their boots and the dirt that their boots pick up flies onto my face and my hair. After twenty something boots have passed, another pair of boots stomps through and stops right next to my fingertips and on instinct I snatch my hand away and pin it underneath me so that she or he can't step on it. The boots don't move however for a couple seconds and then, something drops.
It's a ripped folded up piece of paper.
The boots keep moving after the person dropped the paper. When they are far enough away and I don't see any more soldiers coming, I reach out and snatch the paper quickly between my fingertips. I bring it close to me and open it. A brass key is taped to one side of the paper. The handwriting is messy and sloppy like someone wrote it very quickly but I know this handwriting is Caleb's.
Beatrice, It reads, I know you and your friends don't trust me but it is essential that you do. I know where you can be safe. I taped a key to this and I need you to do exactly what I say. Go to Candor and find Josephine Curie. Give her the key in exchange for a place to stay. Don't leave from where you are hiding until our soldiers leave the area. Stay safe.
Caleb
I hand the letter to Zeke who reads it quickly and mouths, do you trust him?
No, I think. I nod anyway. If I don't trust him, I die. If I do trust him, there's a chance he's telling the truth and leading us to safety. I'd rather take the chance.
He nods and rips the key from the paper and hands it to me. I push it in my coat pocket along with the tattered paper.
I withdraw my hand from Zeke's and get ready to move quickly. We lay quietly as the soldiers pad around in the grass, some call out names others kick or push the grass away from their bodies. Suddenly, one of the soldiers cries out, "There they are!"
The other soldiers whip around and are quick to race toward our doubles. The lieutenant is more hesitant, his eyes narrowing and scrutinizing them until Caleb calls out, "I see Beatrice and Zeke!" The lieutenant clutches his gun a little tighter then runs towards his comrades. Once their footsteps are a faint plop in the distance Zeke and I rise slowly.
"Get up," Zeke says to the grass. "They're gone but they'll be back and we gotta hurry."
Ace and Athena are the first up and then Gabe and Delilah. Zoe, Connor, Henry, Jadon and Rex rise next. I don't even realize I'm waiting for another person until the pain stabs me. There isn't anyone left to wait for. The eleven of us grab our backpacks in silence then sprint in the direction of the Candor faction.
The world flies past me but I can see the train tracks, the Erudite soldiers, and our doubles as clear as day. They are from Amity. They are sacrificing their lives for ours. I guess everyone has a little divergence in them after all.
As I continue to run, I see everything unfold. The Erudite soldiers have opened up fire on the Amity and a couple of them fall into the grass. One of them looks back. Polly. I know her by her blonde hair and her heart shaped face. I know that she volunteered to do this because her brother was out in the field. I know that the next gunshot rings out for her and I'm right because she crumples to the ground. I want to stop and wring the boy's neck that shot her for Connor. But I don't stop. I don't look back.
I run.
Thanks for reading! I like how this chapter turned out and I hope you did too! Please review! Comments are always appreciated. I now have a Facebook group for Trusting in You so you can join that if you don't have twitter. I don't know when the next update will be due to me moving this week and next week...reviews are motivation!
Kellie Jo