I'm keeping 'em coming.
Some ideas are mine. Everything else belongs to Vernoica Roth.
Dead Girl Walking, ADIAM
I love the night.
I thrived in it. From the darkness surrounding you to the faint warm lights of the lamp posts lining the city street. It gave me this sense of power knowing I could control who could see me and be nothing but a watcher to others.
I sat with Beck in an alleyway, donned in all black military apparel with a hood up to conceal myself. My AR was slung around back, pistol in a leg holster, and pocket knife being used to cut up an apple I grabbed to appease my growling stomach. We had our backs against an old, dilapidated building that even for the factionless was uninhabitable. The only source of light we had was a street light that gave a deep orange glow to the wall across from us.
"I thought you said they were leaving right after us?" I asked Beck, slicing off a large piece and tossing it in my mouth. "They should be here by now,"
"She knows what she's doing, okay? Her parents still watch her like a hawk, but she's a natural at this," He said, taking a bite from a cold hamburger.
I thought of the parents I saw on Visiting Day, bubbly and happy. Seemed like they didn't have a care in the world. But I guess if you have to be honest all the time, that comes with no baggage.
"So, you and her, huh?"
He shoved me lightly and even in the darkness I knew he had a pinch of red to his cheeks.
"Evie doesn't take any shit. She's smart, analyzes the shit out of everything, she's making decisions about her life that I can't imagine people older than us could make," He shook his head and extended a long leg out. "With factions, we're forced to make this adult choice when we haven't even started learning calculus. We're supposed to define ourselves with one thing and for some people it's a blessing to leave other qualities in the dust to become selfless, intelligent, brave, honest, or kind. But her, she can't- no she shouldn't- be placed in one. That's a fucking crime," He took a long breath and for once, I could see why he's fallen head over heels for her.
"She's an amazing person and I'm lucky she let me into her life,"
My heart clenched, knowing both that my brother found someone who was herself and had a relationship based on mutual trust and a belief in something greater and knowing that I haven't.
We heard a whistle, which meant Evie and Asher were here. Beck let out one back and within seconds they appeared before us, donned in black dusters, black button-ups and slacks.
"What took so long?" I asked, rising up from my seat, shaking out my leg from loss of feeling.
"They closed down the train we were supposed to take so we had to wait for the next one," Evie replied, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
"The six?" Beck joined in, towering over the both of us, sounding slighting intrigued.
Evie nodded.
"I rode that the other day, there was no issues with it. It shouldn't be down for repairs that thing runs like a dream,"
"What stops does it take?" I added. I knew the six train vaguely. It was pretty large, the second largest from the one that went through Amity. Shutting down a train that late at night was unusual.
"It takes a few on the inner city, runs through the factionless, and ends up on the outskirts near the fence," Asher finally spoke in a artificially low voice.
"So the perfect train for Erudites to take if our suspicions are true," Evie proposed, taking out her tablet and looking at something. "We should get going, they're gonna have patrols going around tonight,"
And with that Beck led the way as we entered deeper in the alley. The grounds were covered in rocks and garbage, and it smelt like the trash room in the Dauntless compound. As we walked deeper, we started to see factionless appear from the shadows, covered in a variety of blankets and ripped sweaters. Their faces were covered in dirt, bones protruding from their skin. Some coughed, others were entirely silent.
They stared at us like we were foreign creatures. Dressed in nice clothing and carrying weapons, there was no surprise there. They probably all have distant memories of being in a faction, having food, clothes, people to take care of them. And all of that was taken away because they didn't fit what the leaders wanted from them.
The back of the building we were leaning on was transformed into a open space with tarp sheets extending from the top all the way to the bottom, as barrier against mother nature. A woman came out from behind on flap, in a mismatching ensemble of a long gray skirt from Abnegation and a red wool sweater from Amity. She has curly gray hair, pulled into a ponytail, but her face looked surprisingly young. Her eyes caught ours and they widened at the sight of us.
"Hello?" She asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Evie moved in front of Beck and lessened the distance between us and the woman.
"Hi, my name is Genevieve Hazard. I'm just here with a couple friends and we were wondering if you knew of a girl named Haley?" She asked, in a kind voice.
"Why are you here?" The woman ignored everything Evie just said and looked at us in disbelief.
"We need to speak to Haley-"
"You shouldn't be here. Dauntless soldiers shouldn't be here. We've had enough guns coming to our doors and it's done nothing but disrupt the lives of the people forced to live here,"
That caught my attention.
"What do you mean by guns? Soldiers have been coming here?" I asked, moving my way past Beck.
She took a hesitant step backwards and I couldn't blame her, my AR was clearly visible on my back and I was the clean cut example of a soldier.
"We've always had Dauntless come here, sometimes they come to help but most of the time they're just here to scare us into not trying anything," She looked down at her boots that had an obvious hole in the toe. "But now they just come through here all the time, just walking through our home like its a shortcut to get wherever they want to go,"
That didn't make any sense. Dauntless soldiers, whenever they find themselves going through the city, they always take the train straight to downtown. It's faster and the factionless is around a half hour detour from where Dauntless soldiers are normally sent. It was completely impractical.
"Listen, I'm sorry about the trouble we've been causing you, but this girl we need to find can really help us out. And our problem can possibly have something to do with yours. We can solve two problems in one and there won't be any guns involved," I said, placing my hands up in surrender.
The woman thought, looking me in the eyes and tilting her head, scanning me like a computer. After what felt like hours, she finally spoke.
"Haley. The redhead from Dauntless," Her voice was quiet. But her mouth turned into a small smile. "She's very kind. You didn't break her there. And you won't harm her now," It was a promise I could keep.
"She's my friend," I replied.
A sigh. "She's inside, taking care of some of our sick," The woman lifted the tarp for us to enter. Evie went first followed by Beck and Asher. I was about to walk in last when the woman grabbed my right arm, stopping me. I turned and found her grey eyes wide staring into mine.
"If you try and dig deeper, you will die, you know that right?"
For some reason, I wasn't surprised. But she knew there was something going on, which only pointed us in the right direction. Evie and Beck were close, and I joined the final stretch. Which was always the hardest and the most dangerous.
I simply smiled at her.
"I'm not afraid,"
She stared at me for a second and finally nodded, releasing her grip on my arm and allowing me to enter.
The room was large, but still felt claustrophobic due to the crammed tents put together to accomdate the greatest amount of people possible. The light source came from standing lamps around the entire floor. I scanned the tents looking for fire red hair. I found kids, running in torn clothes, the elderly huddled together, and stary dogs roaming the tents.
"Hey, Theo, is that her?" Beck said, nudging me. I followed his gaze to a large tent, where Haley very recognizable, was pouring soup into a man's mouth as he sit in a cot. I nodded and began to walk towards her, ignoring everyone else around me.
"Haley!" I shouted out after she set the bowl down.
It caught her attention to say the least, as she turned and once she saw me, her eyes widened and her jaw fell slack. But as I got closer, I noticed this worry on her face as her eyes darted to the left. I followed her gaze and almost couldn't make out what she was looking at due to the poor lighting. But it became obvious. The all black, tattoos, neon hair and guns.
A lot of fucking guns.
"Theo!" Beck yelled at me before I could realize they spotted me.
And then the shots rang out.