This is it! Just a little short after this which I'll post later this weekend. Thank you so much, everyone, for reading and leaving such incredible comments. I appreciate every single one of them. I'm so happy you decided to take a chance and read my word-written head movie here. Good to know you all like this version of Eric too. Thank you!
xXx
Everything went up in flames and I feel like I was holding the match. After Jeanine's death it was like someone took a box of puzzle pieces and scattered them into the wind, leaving the rest of us to find them all and put them back together again.
Evelyn listened to nothing I told her and dove headfirst into battle with Dauntless. I'd gotten back to her headquarters and they'd already left. They blind-sided my old faction, nearly all of their members already stunned by coming out of the sim having to immediately turn around and defend themselves to a bunch of raging, armed Factionless. It was a mess. I warned her, but she didn't care. Even more people died that day than needed to and even months later we're still reeling from it.
No one trusts anyone. Can't say I blame them.
Dauntless is a fractured mess. Half the leadership was in Jeanine's pocket. The other half were just as stunned as the rest. Between the Factionless seeking their revenge and the faction members themselves lashing out at their leaders, that herd's been mightily thinned. Eric didn't even have to do much. He just stayed out of the way. Kept a low profile. Once we saw how everything was dissolving, he kept out of it. Not like he could have stepped in with a 180 degree change in his mindset to re-establish Dauntless. No one would have believed him and they would have probably tried to kill him. Especially the Factionless.
Amity and Candor have washed their hands of any blood, keeping themselves firmly out of any conflict, but both their eyes have turned firmly on Abnegation. Help has been offered, but blame has been placed. Abnegation leadership was supposed to be placating, satisfying to all. Instead it harbored a coup right under their noses and they were none the wiser for it. Lines in the sand have been drawn, however inadvertently, and trust is blown. Months after the initial incident and what remains of the factions are still trying to bring a delegation together to try and figure out what's to be done with the remains of our world.
Of course no one trusts Erudite. The masterminds behind all of this. Even more complicit than Dauntless. They were the ones controlling the Army, after all, that's to some in Dauntless leadership. Eric, of course, included in that. Their building was stormed by pissed off Dauntless and Factionless alike and the people who didn't get killed in the melee are being held prisoner in Dauntless cells awaiting questioning. Like Eric, no one will accept them, even after they're thoroughly vetted.
These are not rational times and we are not dealing with rational people.
That's why I'm having so much trouble with this mess I've made. Did I really make everything better by removing Jeanine from power? Or are the inmates now officially running the asylum? I don't know. What's funny is no one's asking about Divergents. No one cares. There are so many bigger problems, more immediate and gun-toting problems, to deal with than someone who thinks differently. Who was on the receiving end of Jeanine's witch hunt.
I shook the bag and let the cats loose. I'm just waiting for them to calm down. The thing is, maybe they never will.
I toss my pack by a tree on the edge of our world, a place where the fence is crumbling and no one's thought to fix it. It's a place where no one goes. Far outside of Amity's reach for their farms or Dauntless's runs for physicality. Not even the Factionless journey out here. Maybe there's just so much fear surrounding what's on the other side of this fence that no one's willing to come close to a breach.
Works for us either way.
I don't say a thing as I wait outside the derelict house. I'm sure it was nice once in a world gone by. It's certainly big enough. But nature's been taking it back for years as tree limbs poke out of broken windows and ivy climbs up the far side of the house.
His steps ring clearly out to me and I cross my arms over my chest, feigning impatience as I wait for him to come out, knowing that he knows I'm here and is dragging his time along. His footsteps stop and chirping birds fill the late summer quiet, a breeze rustling through the magnificent green leaves.
We do this often, this battle of wills, and this time it's my patience that wears thin.
"Ugh, will you come out already? Let's get this show on the road."
Not seconds later the door swings open and Eric walks down the stairs, still in Dauntless regs. It's what he's comfortable in, he's told me before. Can't say I blame him. It's what I'm wearing too. And for what we're about to do they're the clothes that make the most sense.
"Always impatient," he says, a light smile playing on his lips as he shakes his head and walks over to me.
He knows it's not true, but he teases me anyway and my heart swells with the rib. Out here, with no one watching, it's like we can finally be free to just be us. No one's getting in our way, no one's judging, no one's second-guessing anything.
He bends over and takes my face in his hands and presses his lips to mine, a firm yet gentle kiss that reminds me we're in this together, this clusterfuck of a mess. And we're going to figure it out together. I'm reminded of what he told Jeanine just before I killed her, about how I made him think, how I just helped give him another argument to consider. Of course he considered it. He wouldn't be here otherwise. But old habits die hard and it's a battle to remind him about what we're working toward and why what we had wasn't working. Brainwashing is a bitch to undo.
He breaks the kiss and I smile. "You're just trying to delay the inevitable."
We both look toward the broken section of fence and I hear him scoff.
"So you're saying I'm afraid."
"No more than I am," I respond.
It's a fair enough answer, because I am afraid and while that bravado still comes out in him, he's afraid too. All our lives we've been told nothing's out there. Nothing good. But we've been lied to all our lives, so we're going looking to see what we can find. If anything.
Evelyn knows. She was the one who recommended it. I've been restless since I killed Jeanine and Eric's lost to our world. He has too much blood on his hands. Despite his actions toward the end, despite him working with us, the past is cemented and immovable. They will never forgive him for what he's done. And his reputation carries across our entire world. He's ruthless, cunning, manipulative. Can't be trusted. Blood hungry. A traitor to Dauntless, a traitor to Jeanine, a traitor to everyone, regardless of what the true story is. But he's not ready to give up and I love him for his perseverance even in the face of adversity.
Frankly he could have told everyone to fuck themselves and left. But he didn't. He's here with me and we're doing this.
Bennie and Four are staying behind with Evelyn for now, doing their best to help establish order to our disheveled world. If we find something they'll be the first people we send for.
Until then I pick my pack back up and shoulder it. The thing's massive. I remember seeing rucks like this in archive footage, what the armies used to carry all those years ago. It's what we carry now, bags big enough for us to fit in and at least half our weight. Walking's going to be rough, but they're necessary if we're going to survive anything.
Eric places his hand on my shoulder and even in the late summer heat I feel his warmth running into me. He's here. I'm here. We're doing this.
"Ready?" he asks, a small frown on his face, his look serious.
We're walking into the unknown. We have everything we think we might need hanging on our backs for what we'll face out there. I look out past the broken fence, into the vast nothing beyond our walls, before looking up at him, my face equally as serious.
"Yeah, I am."
He gives me a little nod and I nod back. We turn to look at the hole in the fence and walk toward it as one. We don't hold hands. We don't give each other encouraging words. We don't need it. Instead we walk side-by-side, our sleeves brushing, our boots crunching over debris underneath us. And we walk into the unknown together.