Okay, I'm starting down this road - new material. This feels really different - no Veronica Roth material to tie it to. I know where I want to go with it, but might take me a little while to get in the groove.
The first thing that happens when Leo leads us all out of the room is a gunshot. Before I can even figure out which direction it came from, Leo has a shot off. A blue-shirted man falls backward to the floor, and a second man turns and runs away. As we walk cautiously down the hall, I see that the dead Erudite has a bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead.
"Good shot," Christina says, her calm tone at odds with the shaken look on her face. Leo presses his lips together, his expression unreadable as he moves swiftly ahead of us, gun held straight out in front of him. He steps over the body without looking down, poking the gun around the corner and peering carefully after.
"It's clear," he says. We follow him into the stairwell; no one speaks as we make our way down.
Tris is moving slowly and deliberately, one hand slipping along the rail. Christina is having some trouble, too, pressing her palm to the wound in her thigh. I match their pace, keeping close behind them. Leo is quickly a flight ahead of us.
"Leo," I say it quietly, but in the eerie silence of the stairwell, it sounds as though I'm shouting at him. "Maybe you should go ahead and we'll meet you in the lobby."
Leo shakes his head and waits for us to catch up. "We don't know what's waiting for us down there," he says. "Besides – we can't let them divide us. We have to stay together." I wonder which "they" he means? His former Erudite allies? Or is he talking about Evelyn? Maybe he's just afraid Tori and Harrison are going to kill him by accident. Or on purpose.
It's Christina who gives voice to these thoughts. Leave it to a Candor.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Christina says stopping on the landing. "What are 'we' doing? What do you mean by 'they'?" She has her arms crossed, and it's clear she won't go any further without an answer.
"This is a much bigger plot than you think it is," Tris answers her quietly. We all look at her in surprise. "It wasn't just now, and it wasn't just Jeanine. There have been leaders in every faction working together for a generation to keep anyone from finding out the truth. They've been killing and starving the Divergent for years."
"What are you talking about?" I ask her.
"It's true," Leo says, watching Tris with interest.
"But you've been unconscious for three days and a prisoner - how could you possibly know that?" I feel anger rising in me, and I make a conscious effort to get myself under control.
"It's not...it's not that I don't trust you or believe you..." I stutter hurriedly.
I look at Tris, worried that I'm already failing to live up to my promises, but she's not looking at me at all.
"I don't know how I know that," she says, brow furrowed. "I don't remember."
"Here's what I think," Leo says. "It's time to get to the bottom of this. We need to get a group of Divergent together, and whoever else wants to know what we were meant to do and go outside the fence. But we have to try to get control of what's inside the fence first for that to happen, or at least find some allies. That's what we need to go do now downstairs, ok?"
He looks at Christina, who is thinking it over. No one says anything for a few minutes, which seem to stretch on uncomfortably long.
"I want to know why we're here," Tris says softly. "Even if it turns out we're just some kind of science experiment. I need to know why…all of those people died."
We're all looking at Tris, but she's staring into space, a dazed look on her face. I grip her good shoulder, trying to get her attention. She shakes her head a little and focuses her gaze on me. She smiles wanly.
"So. Let's go do it," she says simply. I nod slowly.
Christina shrugs. "Okay."
Even at a slower pace, we're at the door to the lobby before I think any of us is ready to be.