Chapter 1

In this story, Caleb goes in to stop the death serum as expected and Tris stays behind. The dauntless living outside the wall, as well as many of the others, must decide what to do now, not knowing whether inside the city everyone is dead or not.

I sit on the floor in the hallway, willing myself not to cry. I will not cry here. Now Caleb is gone and I have no-one, my family is dead. My mother, my father and now Caleb all died for me. I don't deserve their sacrifice I have done so much wrong. I wipe away the moisture on my cheeks, I cannot show weakness. I have to be strong.

I hear footsteps and then Tobias crouches down beside me. He sits there for a minute before I rest my head on his shoulder and he wraps me in his arms. Just the sound of his breathing is a comfort to me, I still have him, despite all we've been through.

"Caleb loved you Tris." He whispered comfortingly into my ear.

He doesn't understand that that's the problem: everyone who loves me dies. I get hurt and they die and I'm left alone.

"I'm alone now. I have no-one."

He draws back and looks into my eyes, stroking my cheek with his hand.

"You have me, I'll be your family now."

He embraces me and I close the space between us, grateful for his warmth and his heartbeat. I still have him, and I will stop at nothing to protect him. I won't let him die for me too.

—

"We must create a new civilisation. We can go back to the city, salvage what's left. There we have farms and resources." Says a Dauntless man I don't know the name of.

I remind myself that there are no factions now. A gathering has taken place in the main room, consisting mostly of the people who came from the city and people who worked here. Tobias is standing next to me, listening carefully, relaxed against a wall. Christina is on my other side, her eyes wide with concentration and she listens to the conversation,

"But we don't know if the death serum was distributed in the city?" Someone says, "There may be no-one there to greet us."

"Where else would we go?" Someone else yells.

The room erupts in chaos, everyone arguing on the best course of action, and I'm hardly listening. I struggle to pay attention, my mind keeps wandering back to Caleb and his sacrifice, but I know I must listen. This is my future and I should have a say.

"Be quiet!" I shout. I'm surprised at how strong my voice sounds.

Everyone stops, their attention is on me. Tobias turns to look at me and nods, encouraging me to go on, trusting my opinion.

"My brother didn't give his life for us to sit here and argue. We need to work together to survive. I say we vote. We can either stay here or go back to the city."

Tobias speaks up, "I agree with Tris. And I think we should go back to the city, there we have the amity farms and homes. Who agrees with me?"

Several people shout and raise their hands in agreement, it seems the general opinion is to go back. I'm not surprised. Despite the bad memories, the city is still home for me too. It is where my parents lived and going back there will make me feel closer to them. Everyone is looking at Tobias and I, we have proven ourselves to them and now they look at us expectantly, waiting for either one of us to take the lead.

"Alright then." I say, "We'll take as many resources from here as we can and we'll go back to the city. We'll leave in a few days time."

No-one objects to us taking authority. People begin to disperse, going back to their rooms to collect their stuff. Christina pats me on the shoulder before she runs to catch up with them. Tobias takes my hand,

"They look up to you Tris. You have proven yourself to them and they will follow your lead." He says. His eyes are full of faith. He believes in me.

"I know. I just hope I don't let them down."

—

I lie on a bed in one of the rooms. Despite having been here for weeks now I still don't really know my way around, just how to get between the main areas. Tobias isn't here: he's been spending a lot of time at Uriah's bedside. I know he is filled with guilt for what happened to him, and I don't know how to take that pain away. It's dark outside but I don't feel like sleeping. Instead I decide to go and find Christina, she has a talent for making me feel better.

Eventually I find her sitting by a window, staring into the barren landscape. I sit down beside her, and for a while we just sit there, neither of us wanting to break the silence.

"Soon we'll be back out there, making our way to the city. I wonder if my parents will be alive." she says without making eye contact.

"They have to be," I say, "Caleb can't have died for nothing." I don't think I would be able to handle it if Caleb's sacrifice didn't make a difference. Despite everything he did to me, betraying our parents by transferring to Erudite and helping Jeanine torture me, he deserves to make up for his wrong-doings by saving thousands of lives.

Christina grips my hand a little to tight,

"It is wrong that you have lost so much Tris, we all have. I just hope we can go back to how things were." She says

"But everything will be different now. I can't imagine a world without factions."

"I think it might be nice."

I turn to her in surprise, unable to mask my reaction.

"We won't have to be categorised by one way of thinking anymore. I can be brave and honest, I can be more than one thing." She elaborates.

I guess she's right. And since I'm divergent, it will be easier for me than most to fit into a new system without factions. I never thought that maybe even people who weren't divergent could still be more than one thing, could still refuse to be categorised. I just hope that this new way will bring everyone together as a community, not leave us all feeling lonely and separated.

Eventually I make my way back to the dormitory, my eyelids heavy and I fall into sleep, dreaming of wait awaits me when we return to the city.