AN: Thank you guys for reviewing! I got asked by Candorinitiate how many chapters until the end of the story. Well, to be honest, I don't know. It could be two or eight, idk. And if Tobias is going to be alright? Right now in this story, no he's not (wait til the end of the chapter, i'm sorry for the feels). The future? I haven't decided. Thank you Mimi for your review, it encouraged me to write this today. Any questions? Leave a review.
Dust floats around the room as the rocks fall to the ground. I pull Gemma backwards forcefully and we both fall to the ground in a heap, far enough away that the falling rocks won't touch us. I stumble to my feet and search the ground for Dale. Gemma's still on the ground, she too stunned to get up so she just stares, wide-eyed at the scene in front of her. Christina and Colin are huddled together coughing and spluttering. Zoe is pushing several small rocks that fell on top of Tom. Alaska finally regains composure and calls out Dale's name hoarsely.
I see him against the side of the wall barely breathing, Alaska spots him at the same time I do and we both charge over to him. Strangely there's no rocks on him but there is blood tricking down the wall.
"Oh my… Dale!" She shrieks.
He coughs out a word but I can't hear it. He repeats it again, more serious and certain than the last. I listen closely and decipher what he is saying. Derek.
I walk back to where the middle of the wall was. "Derek?"
"Derek?" Zeke shouts loudly.
We wait a minute in silence waiting for a response but it never comes.
"Why isn't he responding?!" I say angrily, even though I know that he's probably dead or unconscious so he can't answer.
"Well it's hard to speak when you're standing on me, rock or no rocks, it's pretty difficult." A voice comes faintly underneath me. I don't know if I imagined him speaking, so I look down expecting to see his body, but all I see is rocks.
"You know, some people might hear that as a cue to stop standing on me." The murmur says cheekily.
I jump off the rock I'm standing on top of and crouch down.
"Help me get the rocks off?" I say looking at everyone, but Alaska and Dale, pleadingly.
"If I could, I would be walking by now." He says mockingly but I can hear the pain in his voice.
I lift up a rock that was sheltering his face, it's full of grazes and cuts. Thankfully, it's barely bleeding.
"I wasn't talking to you." I say with a smile creeping across my lips.
Lots of hands grab the rocks that crowd around him and yank them to the side. He winces every time they take on off him. There's a huge one on top on his legs, forcing them to be crushed to the ground.
"How rude." He says jokingly.
"We are going to remove the one on your legs now, okay?"
"I thought you got them all of off?" He asks bewildered.
"Can't you feel it?" I ask jokingly.
"No." He says bluntly.
I feel a pang of worry rising through my body.
Shauna and Zeke share a worried look between themselves and Christina face turns white. Derek can't see them as he is still lying down looking at me.
"Is that bad?" He says a hint of grimace.
"Nah, it's pretty small. I can see why you can't feel it." I lie.
He digs his elbow into the ground her leverage to pull himself up. I push his chest down so he falls back to the floor. I don't want him to see the huge rock.
"No-one ever taught you how to look after your patients?" He says sarcastically.
He stares at me challengingly as he lists himself up, as a warning down to push him back down again. He turns his head away from me to see the rocks. His eyes widen but he tries to keep himself from freaking out.
"Can't you move it already?" He asks Christina who looks at him with pity in her eyes. She looks away and they all start pushing it of him. Afterwards, Shauna punches him in the leg.
"Did you feel that?" She look up at him expectantly.
"No."
"Tell me when you feel something." She says sternly.
She pokes him from his crotch to his toes and he doesn't say anything.
"Nothing?"
"No."
Shauna rolls him over and pulls up his shirt and she runs her finger over his bruised spine and he flinches.
"Can he move?" Dale asks.
"He? I have a name, its Derek by the way and no I can't move my legs."
Alaska holds Dale's arm as the crouch and make their way to us.
"Is that bandage tight?" I ask, looking at Alaska's ripped jumper wrapped around Dale.
"If anything it's too tight."
"Good."
I turn around and look at Derek again.
"We're going to have to leave him here, he can't walk." Zoe says bluntly.
"We can't leave him here." I say angrily.
"He saved me, the rocks started jolting and he must have figured it out that it was falling and threw me to safety."
It must have been a split second decision, he chose to save Dale. He must've knew he didn't have time to get out of the way of the falling rocks.
"What can I say, I'm a hero." He says vainly.
I can't help but smile, he makes a joke about everything.
"I knew I could do it." He says with a matching smile on his face.
"You guys have to go."
I look down at the floor. We can't carry him and we don't have time to take him back out the way we came. We going to have to leave him here.
"And leave you here?" Colin says.
"I couldn't be bothered to fight anyway and I figure that this is a good enough reason not to go and do it, don't you think?"
"Yeah, if anything you're kind of lucky."
That's not the word I would use.
"Yeah, I guess I am." He says thoughtfully.
"You going to go or just stare at me for another hours?"
I laugh audibly and stand up and slowly walk way.
"We will come back for you." I shout back.
"Sure you will." He yells only half joking.
I look back and see Alaska saying thank you for saving Dale and he just shrugs like it was no big deal. Gemma starts climbing the ladder that will lead up to the ground floor of the building. Before I start to climb, I shout, "try not to die!"
"You too, Tris." He replies.
I climb quickly and I almost miss the next rung. A part of me waited for Tobias to swing his arm and push me back onto the ladder, like he's done many times before. I had to do it myself instead and I feel my hate towards Chloe tripling.
Gemma pushes a fake floorboard upwards with a grunt and slide it to the left of the opening. Light appears from the opening and makes my eyes sting. I quickly go through the hole at walk into the room. The others follow and Gemma closes the opening. It's a new apartment, with huge pink lights, several mirrors and a large bed.
"Tris…" Zeke says carefully.
He's staring at something above the bed, I follow his gaze and look at it with horror.
It's a picture of Tobias' back, with huge cuts across it, there is so many cuts that you can barely see his tattoo. It's red raw. In the corner of the photo is Chloe's hand gripping a bloody whip ready to hit him again. I shake with rage and feel more disgust towards Chloe. He could be dead now, having that amount of flesh being ripped out could kill him. I can feel tears start to fall down my face.
"Let's kill that b*tch."