Chapter 13
Jamie POV
As we all file out of the dining hall, I look up to the leadership table and see that it is already empty. They must have already gone ahead to prepare the serum.
I didn't want the celebration to end, not just because I was enjoying myself, but because I knew what was coming and couldn't tell anyone other than Tris. She and I glance at each other, both knowing what's waiting outside the door.
As soon as we step out, we are immediately ushered into one of three lines, each leading up to someone holding a syringe, injecting each person. Once I get up to the front of the line, I see Eric, and I feel a small glimmer of hope light up in me, but then I see his eyes. They are the same as they used to be. His eyes are made of ice again. Lately there has been a small flame behind them, he always seemed to be happy about something when I was around, but now I look and see nothing but cold, emotionless, empty eyes. Even when he looks at me and I feel the pinch of the needle in my neck, he doesn't seem to recognize me. I'm just another person passing through. That's not Eric. He must have been right about the purpose of the extra serum.
Once we get through the line, everyone is sent back to their quarters. Now that it's right on top of us, I'm afraid of what's going to happen in the morning. I feel myself dozing off, but I force myself to stay awake. If there's one thing I've learned in Dauntless, it's that the sleepless nights are the longest nights, and I need this night to last as long as possible. I don't want morning to come.
What seems like only moments later, I hear shuffling all around me. I sit straight up, realizing that everyone else is already awake and moving. Ugh I must have fallen asleep anyways. I look around and see them all doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Everything is synchronized. I look over to Tris's bed, and she's awake now as well. We both rush to get dressed and find a place in the line that everyone is forming.
I do my best to match every movement of those around me, not wanting to be caught. We pick up guns then head outside. I see a train coming and look up to the front of the line. Yep, everybody's jumping on. I get on the train and start looking for everyone I know. I see Tris who has moved beside Four. I can't help but notice a slight tug at the corner of his mouth when she grabs his hand. He's aware, he must be Divergent as well. I continue my survey and find Will and Christina. Eric must be in a different train car, I don't see him in here.
Everyone starts moving, jumping out of the train cars. I follow, jumping out and landing on Abnegation soil. I see the rows of grey buildings that they call their homes. There are people dressed in grey from head to toe, all of them looking up at us, exchanging questioning looks with each other. We all keep marching through and I hear the first gunshot. My head snaps towards the sound, and I see a woman fall to the ground, her small son watching her. I want to go help the boy, but I know I have to keep moving. Besides, even if I tried, it would be too late by the time I got to him.
As soon as that first shot went off, I started hearing them all around me, all the people I once knew, now just mindless drones shooting anything dressed in grey. I see Tris and Four, so I go towards them. With the both of them being awake, I need to stick with them. With the three of us, we might be able to get some people out of Abnegation, keep them safe. As soon as I get close to them, Four turns around, gun pointed at me.
"Four, she's awake. She's like us."
He puts the gun down and looks at me for a second
"Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it, you needed to be sure."
"Yeah. Lord knows, if I had shot you, Eric would kill me as soon as this is all over."
"Good point. Where are you guys going?"
"We're trying to find my parents house, gonna try to get them out safely."
"With there being three of us, we might be able to get more people out."
Tris nods and keeps going towards her parents house, Four and I following. After we've been walking for a few minutes, Four stops and I hear the *click* of a gun being cocked. Tris and I move to the side and I see Eric pointing a gun at Four's head.
"Well, look at what we have here. The great Four, now just a mindless drone."
So Eric is conscious enough to know who everyone is, but not enough to realize that he's about to shoot someone that's he's known since his initiation. Sure, they don't get along, but this isn't Eric, he wouldn't actually kill Four. I still see the cold blankness in his eyes. I hate that he's back to this, so I tune out most of what he's saying. I know he's just taunting Four before he kills him.
In a snap of movement, I see Tris put her gun to Eric's head. The other leader, who was standing beside Eric, points his gun at Tris, so I point at him. Eric looks away from Four and at the people around him. His fellow leader, then Tris, and finally me. Something in his eyes changes when he sees me. He has the look you get when you see someone in a crowd that you know you've seen before, you should know them, but you can't quite put your finger on how you know them, or where they're from. Something about me flipped a switch in his brain.
"Eric, if you shoot him, I will shoot you."
"Tris, hold on just a second. I think he remembers me."
"Remembers you? Of course he remembers you, he sees you every day."
"Tris, the leaders are under a sim too. They figured someone might be trying to help us."
"Oh please, this is just some stupid excuse you're making for him again. You know he's not under a sim, none of the leadership are. They're the ones behind all of this, don't you understand that? He's about to shoot Four, and when he's done with that he'll probably kill the two of us, and you're still trying to stand for him."
"Do you know how I figured so much out about the plan against Abnegation? Because Eric is one of the leaders and he told me. He told me because he wanted to protect me. Not only that, but he protected you. He's the one that told me you were Divergent, he's the one that had me get you in on this so you wouldn't be wondering what in the world was going on this morning. He helped us. The only reason I passed through the fear simulations without being found out was because of Eric. He coached me through. He's been caring for me since the beginning of initiation, and I have to say it's pretty hard to keep up an act for that long, so I'm pretty sure he's not faking it. I trust him and I trust that the man standing here in front of me, holding a gun to Four's head, is not Eric. Not truly."
The whole time we're standing there arguing, nobody takes a shot because everyone has a gun pointed at them. If you shoot, you get shot in this little circle. Tris still looks like she doesn't want to believe me, but she knows I'm right.
"Do not shoot him."
She just reluctantly nods and lowers her gun, therefore the other leader does as well, then I put mine down. Now, the only one still holding up a gun is Eric. He still hasn't taken his eyes off me. He looks confused, like he's not really sure what to do.
"Eric, it's me. You know me."
Eric still just looks at me for a moment, and I have my eyes locked on his. I see the flame reigniting in his eyes, but just barely. I'm so locked on him, I don't see the gun being raised to my head. I hear it go off, but I don't feel anything, I only see a flash of black in front of me, before I'm pushed onto the ground.
Eric POV
I don't remember the last few hours, I don't remember going to bed last night, I don't even remember injecting anybody, but I know I must have. I must have been right, they injected us as well. As I lower my gun from Four's head, I see Jax, the other leader beside me, lift his gun to Jamie. I jump in front of her, pushing her out of the way, and I feel a pain in my shoulder. The gun was aimed at her head, but luckily for both of us, she only comes up to my shoulder. I hear another shot, and I see Jax fall beside me.
"Eric!"
That's her voice. I've closed my eyes, but I know that's her.
"Hey Jamie." I say, meekly.
Letting my Erudite roots take over, I think over what's happening. I'm losing a lot of blood, I can feel that, especially considering that I'm laying on the ground, however I still feel like my head is spinning. Though I'm losing blood, I'm not fatally wounded, I was hit in the shoulder, no where near my heart.
I hear Jamie start to do the same thing, telling Four she needs a jacket or something to wrap my shoulder.
"If I can wrap it pretty tightly, that should put enough pressure on it to supress the bleeding. We can't just leave him here, but it's not like he can go back to the compound. We have to keep him with us."
I hear voices around me, but everything kind of melts together as my brain gets fuzzy. I feel hands lift me up, then feel something wrap around my arm and shoulder. I'm too weak to fight them off, but I don't like not being in control of what happens to me.
"Eric, do you think you can stand up?"
I feel myself smile just a bit when I hear Jamie's voice.
"Yeah sure."
I try to lift my legs and get up, but I just kind of flop back down. Honestly, I'm too lazy to try at this point. I feel half dead.
"Alright, we're going to have to help him."
I feel arms pulling me up, and I want to smack whoever just bumped my shoulder. I swing my arm in that direction and feel my hand make contact with somebody as I hear Four grunt.
"You know, if you would've gotten up on your own, we wouldn't be having this problem."
I just grunt in return.
"Crap." Is all I hear before I feel rougher hands grab me, and feel the others being pulled away from me. I'm being dragged somewhere, but I still can't fight off whoever this is. I feel the ground under me change from dirt to a tile floor as I hear doors open. Finally, everything is still and I hear Jeanine's voice, but I can't really make out what all is going on. It all sounds like mumbling, but then I hear something that rings out clearly.
"I need the boys, but take the other two, Jamie and Beatrice, out back. You can dispose of them, I don't need them."
Yeah, that's not happening. I just took a bullet for her, you're not going to kill her right after I saved her. Despite the fact that I feel like crap and just got shot, I get up off the ground faster than I think I ever have and run out the door before anyone can catch me. I hear Jamie yell my name when she sees me come out the door. As soon as she yells, I see one of the men swing down and hit her in the head, knocking her out. A wave of anger washes out any feelings of pain I had. I tackle him to the ground, kicking out and taking the other man down as well. Tris hops up and takes care of the one that I just kicked to the ground while I try to hold this guy down. I dropped my gun when I jumped in front of Jamie, so I don't have one. The best I can do is hit him hard enough that he'll be knocked out for a while, or at least long enough that I can get Jamie and Tris out of harm's way.
I hear more voices behind me as the people that were with Jeanine have now come out to try to hold me down. Whatever she was planning to do with Four and I, has obviously been put on hold.
"Tris, I have a plan! You remember capture the flag?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Do that."
She has to think for a moment, but she understands what I mean. When we played capture the flag, Four held all of us off while she snuck past us and got to the flag. Here, I'm holding them off while she goes in and gets to Jeanine. While I'm dealing with these guys, I hear a gun fo off inside. The guys in front of me all stop in their tracks, giving me the chance to get past them, back inside.
As soon as I get it in, I see Jeanine laying on the ground, dead, and Tris holding a gun up. Four is sitting in a sim chair and I see a syringe in Jeanine's limp hand, but it doesn't appear that she got to him. Tris turns and shoot the control board and the screen that Jeanine was working with. As soon as she does that, I hear all of the chaos outside start to die down. Everybody is out of the simulation now. It's all over.
I go out and find Jamie who is starting to wake up. I'm starting to feel my shoulder again, but I don't care. Right now, I'm just glad she's safe.
"Dude, you took a bullet for me."
I laugh. She's definitely awake now.
"Well, as I've previously stated, I'd be bored without you. I couldn't just let the guy shoot you."
"Thanks."
She laughs just a little, I guess more out of relief that it's all over, more than anything. I sit down on the ground beside her, and put an arm around her, puling her into a hug. She doesn't protest, in fact she wraps her arms around me and just puts her head on my chest. We're both glad to see the other one still alive.
"Jamie, I need to tell you something."
"Oh yeah? And what is that?"
"I love you."
She's quiet for a small moment, which kind of worries me.
"I thought you'd never say it. I love you too."
She looks up at me and kisses me on the cheek. I don't know what my face looked like, but I'm sure I looked pretty stupid. I know I was grinning like an idiot. I didn't stop grinning until she kissed me again, then layed her head back on my chest. Then I started grinning again. So that's all I had to do to get the girl. Just take a bullet for her and she'll love you forever.
