Chapter 30
The sound of an entire faction marching in formation towards a very pointed destination called out to the city, breaking the silence of midnight. As it turned out, the surveillance teams along with the leaders who stayed back when Eric, Max, Four and Zeke had gone out on their mission had kept a close eye on where the rebels had taken their people. As luck would have it, they hadn't found the locations of the Dauntless' newly installed security cameras in order to disable them. For that, Maggie was grateful. She was part of the team on their way toward the entrance of an underground cavern where the explosion had gone off. Where her friends and her lover had been hurt – possibly killed – and taken away from her. Up ahead of her, she could see Brad and Jason marching. They would be some of the first to go inside.
She had been ordered to stay by the entrance. As medic, it was essential for her to be out of harm's way unless necessary considering the likelihood there would be a lot of injuries. Beside her was Dieter. She had kept an eye on him in her periphery, knowing that he had never trained for something like this. He wasn't one of them, yet he was ready and willing to do his part to help them all out. And she was glad for it.
She marched along with a rifle in her arms, as well as a hand gun strapped to her hip. Her medical supplies in a pack on her back. She tried to focus on the mission ahead. To remember her training and to block out the dread she felt. There was no way of knowing if Eric and the others were alright – not until they were found.
From her vantage point, she could also see Tris looking fierce. It always struck Maggie how strong Tris really was. To the outside world, she appeared quiet and timid but inside she was as strong as they come. Will and Christina were marching with her. She wondered how Will was feeling, knowing now that Zeke, his best friend's brother was in grave danger – if he was alive at all. Her gut twisted. Why was she torturing herself over this? She needed to remained positive and if she couldn't do that, she should at least stay focused on the task at hand.
To be honest, they all looked like they were trying to hide how rattled they felt. At least she wasn't the only one.
The soldiers of Dauntless didn't get a chance to make it to their positions before all hell broke loose. People emerged from the shadows, from the hills. From behind buildings along the street. They stood with weapons aimed directly at the Dauntless soldiers. It looked like the factionless were ready for them.
Without hesitating, the Dauntless soldiers raised their guns, not willing to surrender. Knowing what that would mean. Silence was broken as they began to fire.
Maggie, gun in one hand grabbed Dieter with the other one and dragged him out of harm's way toward some cover to the side. She couldn't be sure if an enemy was waiting behind it but she knew if they stayed where they were, Dieter wouldn't stand a chance of survival. She kept her gun ready as they rounded some building rubble on the ground and came face to face with two factionless rebels with their guns trained on Maggie and Dieter.
Without pausing, Maggie fired at the first soldier, hitting him in the chest. He went down immediately. The other had taken cover and was firing at them. Maggie started firing back. All around her, she could hear the deafening sound of gunfire. The street had become a battle ground. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to hit the factionless man from where she was, she turned to the first factionless rebel she had hit. She bent down and retrieved his gun and handed it to Dieter.
"Do you know how to use this?"
His eyes widened momentarily before he nodded.
"Yes. Sort of."
"Good. I need to find a better vantage point and I'm going to need some cover fire."
Dieter looked nervous but he nodded again. "Ok." He lifted the gun toward the enemy and fired once. Maggie slinked away, trying not to get noticed. She could hear the factionless man fire back toward Dieter before Dieter opened fire on him again. Maggie crept closer to him. She was mindful of the territory she was in and kept watch for enemies on all sides. Thankfully, after a few tense minutes, she rounded on the factionless firing on Dieter and before she could think too deeply on the waste of human life, she shot at him. He grunted as he fell to the ground and lay limp.
"You ok?" she called over to Dieter.
"Yeah."
She walked back toward him, listening to the sounds around her. There was still gunfire but it wasn't as heavy and constant as before.
"Alright, let's see where we're needed." She told him as they began to make their way closer to the street that was continuing to quieten. They could see several bodies lying on the ground up ahead. They started toward the closest one. The first two people were factionless.
"They're gone." Dieter stated.
Grimly, Maggie kept going toward another casualty. This one was in Dauntless clothing. Her hair was long and dark blonde, pulled back into a ponytail. Maggie swallowed as her heartbeat began to speed up. She bent down to turn the lifeless body onto her back. When she saw the woman's face, Maggie felt relief at not recognising the woman, but that feeling quickly turned to disgust at herself. It shouldn't matter if she knew this woman or not. This was a Dauntless soldier and it was heartbreaking that any of them should get hurt at all.
So, Maggie and Dieter got to work helping those who they could while listening out for the action going on around them.
Eric didn't want to open his eyes. He was trying to will himself back into the oblivion of sleep. Anything to get this massive headache to dissipate. He couldn't remember hurting this bad, physically at least, since the time he was taken captive by the factionless with Maggie and Four. That thought did it, he snapped his eyes open, and groggily looked around. Max and Four were looking around while whispering frantically. Zeke looked worse for wear. He struggled to get his thoughts unjumbled, vaguely remembering an explosion. His head was stinging, both in the front and the back. When he reached up, he could feel caked-on dry blood on his forehead.
Eric tentatively stood up, causing his head to start pounding worse than ever. He had black spots in his vision and felt nauseated. There was a pain in his side that he could try to ignore for as long as he had to but he didn't think it would be for long. His movements drew Max's attention and he turned worried eyes in Eric's direction. Eric looked the two men over. Max seemed perfectly fine, but he noticed that Four had bruising over his face and down his shoulder. His shirt was torn, exposing his collarbone and the bruising went down beneath it somewhere.
Gritting his teeth, Eric began walking toward them. He felt every step like he had shards of glass stabbing into him from every direction. Judging how he was feeling; Eric was sure he must have a few cracked ribs and a fractured skull at the very least. Truly, he couldn't remember being in so much pain but he tried not to let it show on the outside. They all needed to focus on how to get out of there. At least all of Dauntless would know where they were and they'd be coming by now. Eric was sick of sharing the city with these assholes. Their time was numbered – he was going to make sure of that.
"So, what've we got?" Eric asked them. It took a whole lot more strength than it should to not wince in pain. Even using his voice hurt. He decided to focus on his surroundings to distract him from the pain. Taking notice, he realised they appeared to be in Dauntless. It was dark, cool and cavern-like. He was sure that they must be underground. Eric could see jagged edges of stone and dirt walls, almost black in the dim lighting. Although, it was a little less cared for than the caverns of dauntless.
"Where are we exactly?" he asked.
"Still in the same area we were searching them in. They rigged up a tripwire on the entrance. Once it went off, they brought us down here." Max supplied. Eric was surprised to see him so together when Eric felt like things were falling apart. But then, he thought, Max was far enough away that the explosion wouldn't have hurt him.
Once again, Eric looked over to Zeke. He appeared awake, but was clearly dazed. He also was covered in cuts, bruises and blood.
"How long was I unconscious?"
"Maybe ten minutes. Not long."
"I hope they haven't disabled these cameras."
"Yeah. So do I."
They didn't have to wait much longer before they herd the welcoming sounds of gunfire. The men looked around to each other and got themselves ready to get out of this place.
They could hear a fight going on outside. Shots firing, fists connecting and the ground itself was trembling and shaking.
"Do we have any of our weapons?" Eric asked
"No. There's nothing left." Max replied. He walked over to Zeke who looked barely conscious and tried helping him to stand. Before he could get the chance, the locked door burst open and in came the burly factionless men. They all had guns in their hands and they were pointed to Eric, Max, Four and Zeke.
"Easy there. We don't want anybody to get hurt." Max's calm voice came out. Eric knew it all too well. It was what made Max an effective leader.
"Shut up." Said the man in front. He was leering at them but Eric could detect the fear in his eyes. In Eric's mind, that fear would make him even more dangerous. From the other side of the door, the men could hear footsteps coming toward them, accompanied by a sinister whistling. Intuitively, Eric knew who it was before seeing the man rounding the corner with his usual confident leer.
"Well, well, well." Edgar smirked as he recognised Eric. "Looks like we hit the jackpot."
Will, Christina, Tris and Tori were marching through a dark corridor.
"This place is like a maze." Tori said as they came to a fork in their path. In truth, it was not the first they'd encountered since entering the Factionless' new hideout. They had been searching through these tunnels for some time now, shooting at any hostile factionless they encountered along the way. Every now and then, they would come across some of their own dauntless soldiers, who Tori would send off in another direction to clear out more of the passages underground.
"I wonder how much more of it there can be." Will said.
"And how we could have lived in this city our entire lives without knowing it existed." Tori added.
Up ahead, they could hear the shuffling of feet. They all raised their weapons, ready for whatever would face them from around the corner.
Edgar and his men lead Max, Eric, Four and Zeke around the corner, where they stood face to face with Tori, Tris, Christina and Will. Their eyes widened as they all quickly reached for their own weapons. Tori and Tris quickly put pressure on them, stepping forward, their guns cocked and ready.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tori spoke authoritatively. Edgar smirked at her warning and waved his gun around, shifting its aim between Tori and Eric. "If any of them get hurt, you die today." She warned.
"I don't think you're in the position to make threats, do you?" His grip on Max's wrist tightened and he shoved him further forward. Eric watched Edgar from where he stood, off to the side. He could see the strain on Max's face from the pressure Edgar was putting on him.
As if in slow motion, Eric could see Edgar's finger begin to squeeze the trigger. Without thinking he ripped himself free from his captor and shoved Max out of Edgar's grip, knocking him out of harms way while Eric continued barging towards Edgar. It all happened so suddenly that at first, he didn't register the deafening boom of Edgar's gun. At first, he didn't feel anything. Until he did. The intense pain in his abdomen. He brought his hand to his stomach and when he pulled it away, it was covered in blood. His blood. His knees buckled. Distantly, he could hear Tori shouting something. He could see Four breaking free from his constraints and begin to overpower the factionless who had been holding him. There was a battle breaking out all around him with shots fired from both sides. Vaguely, he knew he wouldn't be able to stay upright for much longer. He reached up to take Edgar's gun from him, shoving his arm to the side where the trigger happy factionless fired his gun once more. The air went out of Eric's lungs and he lost all ability to hear anything as he saw blood splatter out of Tori's head. He saw her eyes turn lifeless as she fell to the ground. Unable to keep himself upright anymore, he fell right beside Tori's body as the fight went on around him.
As the time had dragged on, Maggie shifted between confidence and terror. She would feel her spirits rise as each group of Dauntless emerged with more and more apprehended factionless. Her stomach would plummet whenever she heard gunfire brake out. The latest event had lasted longer than any other. She knew it must have been a big fight and her instincts told her that her friends were involved. She felt so sick from the worry and hated not being in there with them. To make it all worse, nobody had found Max, Eric, Four and Zeke yet. There were some serious injuries to take care of but even the busy work didn't keep her from her fearful thoughts.
"It's been too long. We should be going in after them." Maggie overheard Jason saying to one of the leaders. The leader shook his head.
"First, we need to make sure we have these factionless completely secure."
Maggie could tell Jason was starting to argue his point but she had to block it all out or it would make her go crazy.
"I can't take this much longer." She whispered to Dieter who was helping her bandage a gunshot graze. "The not knowing. I can't stand it."
Dieter sighed. "I know. But we all have our roles to play. Trust in your friends. They know what they're doing."
Maggie heard shouting coming from just outside the hideout's entrance. She looked over and her heart started hammering just about out of her chest. She could see Max, holding a gun, guiding Edgar and another man outside. Max was covered in dust and mud and had a grim look on his face. Christina and Tris followed behind him and Maggie could see that Chris was crying. What came next had her knees buckling and she fell to the ground, her breaths coming in and out so shallowly that her vision was beginning to turn white at the edges.
Four, Will and Zeke were carrying out a limp body. Eric's body. He was covered in blood and what she could see of his face was so pale she wasn't sure he had any blood left to lose. Tears slid silently down her cheeks as this horror scene was unfolding in front of her. She summoned all her strength, took a couple of deep breaths and stood to gather her medical supplies.
"Let them go!" an eerily calm voice rang out, silencing the crowd. Maggie could see Four and Zeke lower Eric to the ground. They moved toward the new threat.
"It's over Evelyn." Four spoke calmly. "Look." He gestured around them. "Your faction has been captured. You've lost."
"Just give me Edgar and I'll go." She replied.
"That's not going to happen." Four shook his head.
"Shut up and hand him over!" Evelyn shrieked as she pulled out a gun. She aimed it at Zeke. "Or I'll kill your friend." Before anybody could do anything, Four pulled out and fired his own gun and dived in front of Zeke as Evelyn pulled the trigger.
I know this chapter is so rushed. I've had writer's block over this chapter for almost a year and I just wanted to get it finished. Let me know what you think and hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to get through xx
