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Chapter 21

TJ

I don't see my sister for the rest of the day. When it comes time for lunch she is not present. Leon says nothing to me as he sips water from a plastic bottle. We eat in silence and I move toward my next tasks afterward.

When I am done, sweaty and worn out, I haul myself to the upper levels of the facility. My sister and I found a few bedrooms with bathrooms attached. They had thin beds on short frames that had looked like they hadn't been slept in for a least a few months. Apparently either Leon took tidying up too seriously, or he had visitors here before us. The facility seemed unusually well kept for something that was built during the war. A war that happened before either of my parents were even born.

Leon can't be the only person who's ever lived in the closed underground parts of the city. But the way Amar made it seem, he had only just moved back a several years ago. The way this place was built and looked, he couldn't have done all this renovation, restored and activated the irrigation and power systems, all while keeping a low profile. When I think about it, Amar knew all too well where the place was and he didn't seem at all fazed by the appearance of it. Perhaps it served as something else before it was ever Leon's home.

There are many places in the city that seem blocked off or destroyed still. Even after all the time my parents and their friends spent rebuilding it. It seemed as if, even though the faction system they grew up in was abolished, people still lived somehow according to them. Not just personality wise, but in the city too. I didn't know much about the factions, but I do know the city was separated into areas according to each one.

My parents never talked much about their old homes in the abandoned Abnegation houses I would sometimes see when I rode in Dad's truck. He would look at their plain, square and hollow frames with a prolonging glance each time we drove past them. I know he didn't have too many good memories there with his father's abuse and Grandma Evelyn's abandonment. Even my mother would stare too long at them, a glint of sadness filling her bright eyes when I saw them in the side mirrors on the car. Her parents memory holds pain just like my father's. Different pain. But pain all the same.

But I've always been curious about the Dauntless compound. I listened with my sister as our parents told us stories about it. About the chasm with the water hitting the rocks, the Pit alive with members clad in tight black clothing. The crazy initiation they went through. My mother told us her favorite memory of Dauntless was climbing the ferris wheel at Navy Pier with my father, but also zip lining from the top of the Hancock Building. That was one thing I could live without doing. My father strongly agreed with me.

Although it's been closed for years, some of the surrounding apartments are still there and people live in them. A lot of the old Dauntless who weren't so willingly ready to give up their faction got first choice in living there. If they didn't, they got in them one way or another. I shuddered to think of what exactly they did to get where they wanted, but my father and Uncle Zeke assured me violence wasn't involved. Or at least they hoped.

After I shower and change into a clean set of sweats and a shirt, something I could immediately get up and wear while training tomorrow, I enter the bedroom my sister and I found. Inside are two thin and short bed frames with our individual sleeping bags draped over on them. I hope to see my sister sitting on her bed, but the room is empty. I peer down at the foot of the bed and her bags are still here however. Now I'm worried.

Natalie cannot possibly survive on her own up top, especially without any supplies or resources. Not that she isn't strong or smart, but I'm certain if Amar told us to stay put, then we should obey. Something in his letter set uneasy in me. I remembered I had it and I walked over to the dirty sweats I tossed off in the corner at the foot of my bed. I pulled the small piece of paper out and read it again and again.

The DGD. The city may fall into their hands. We are doing what we can up here. The words that stuck out to me the most.

I laid back on my thin mattress and crinkled the paper between my fingers, folding creases into it's edges. If we've been here for nearly a month now, and the DGD has been able to almost seize the entire city then that probably means no one is probably safe. Whatever they are doing, it has something to do with Resurgents. It has something to with my sister and I.

The girl who cornered me the first day of school is one. I remember her laugh and sweetly sickening voice. She was either there to kill me or take me. But for reason, her mission was interrupted. R5. That's what she said her name was. Probably not her real one.

I try to recall the events from that day. Seeing the van after we left the house that morning with Andrew. Seeing it again after we left school. Then something drops in my stomach and I swallow hard.

The DGD has been watching us for a long time. Longer than I probably think. Amar said that they completely infiltrated my father's job. How could Dad not notice that? If they replaced all of his trusted advisers, employees, and whoever worked for him, how could not tell? Unless the people who worked for him, were never really his to begin with.

I let out a frustrated sigh and the thoughts rush through my head without stopping. Resurgent genes. What's so special about them other than people who have them can do extraordinary things, regular humans can't? The DGD is after more than just my sister and me. I bet anything there are more people in the city like us. They have to be young too. Just like us.

As I turn over on my side, I try to shut my eyes and clear my mind from the racing questions and theories my brain is developing. When I squeeze my eyes tighter I see my cousin Andrew float into my mind. How his body lay eagle spread under the rubble from my home. I don't know how survived it, but apparently he did. Although, Amar and George said his condition was critical. He may be dead.

The thought chokes me up and I feel the warm salty tears begin to form under my closed eyes. I can't imagine Uncle Caleb and Aunt Susan, if they were even still alive, coping with that. I try to image the three of them, alive and somewhat happy. I try to imagine that I will see them and my parents whole and safe again.

I think of my whole family safe again. My sister, Aunt Christina, Grandma Evelyn, Uncle Zeke, and everyone else.

Though the thought may be a fantasy, futile and childish, it gives me peace. Peace I fall asleep to.

My body now is used to not properly sleeping. I'm not sure if I've even had a solid six hours each night I've been here. Leon rarely sleeps and so do I.

I am dragging the buckets of water up the long metal stairs before I know it. The weight of them is apparent, but noticeably lighter. Even still my fingers ache and stiffly cry around the I climb each step carefully and swiftly into the room with the basins, I stop as I get closer. I hear a sound of palms smacking water and splashing onto the concrete floor. I didn't know Leon would be here so early and I didn't think he would be doing the exercise with me.

The idea of him standing over me, his eerie body heat blazing on my skin and his hawkish eyes peering into me, doesn't scare me as much as it used to. When I'm focused on the exercises, I act like he's not in the room. It usually works until he's barking criticism at me or my sister.

My sister.

I looked for her again this morning, expecting her to at least come back for her bags, but she was still nowhere to be found. I wondered if I asked Leon to help me find her, he might consider it. But something in my stomach tells me don't even try it. I feel guilty for not following her. For not trying harder to stop her. But there was something in me between the guilt that felt worse. Relief. I was relieved I didn't have to see her sharp looks or act like I didn't hear her disgusted sighs when I made mistakes. She has always seen me through a half lens. Perhaps it is because I see myself that way.

Being here in this underground facility and away from my parents has made me realize how much I'm not like them. They are natural born fighters. It passed to my sister, but it skipped over me. I can't relish over my fists connecting into someone's body, breaking their bones. I was afraid that even though I was aware of that, there was some part of me that could find enjoyment in it. In the violence.

When I enter the room with the basins to my surprise and shock I see my sister. She's hitting the water with her palms, her face contorted with focus and stress. Her hair is messy and her eyes are slightly bloodshot. I wonder if she slept at all or where she went yesterday. I see Leon towering over her with his strong arms folded across his chest. I feel his strange body heat pulsate toward me. It is raised, but calm as it radiates through the room. I think whatever the odd temperature his body has, is connected to his emotions. But I'm not completely sure.

I say nothing as I lug my water buckets over to my basin. I pour the freezing lucid green water carefully as possible into the bowl. I don't spill any. My arms ache and burn, but the buckets are easy to move now.

I hear my sister's grunts as each palm smacks the surface. She does not acknowledge me. I begin my exercise, thrusting my right hand hard on the water. It splashes over the rim of the bowl and onto my front. I thought I would be used to the cold sting of the water, but it still makes me cringe each time.

"Your sister here, apparently had a change of heart." Leon's slow voice comes from in front of me. "Good thing she turned around from going back up to the surface yesterday, wasn't very nice up there was it, girl?"

Natalie said nothing for a few seconds and I watched the corners of her mouth tremble. She mumbled "No sir, it wasn't."

I stopped hitting the water to look at her. Her face was pale and I realized her eyes weren't red from a lack of sleep. She'd been crying hard. Why?

I looked up at Leon who was glaring at me.

"Continue." He said dully. "When you are finished, why don't you show your brother what you saw, then meet me in the dojo."

He disappeared before I could look up. I looked at Natalie who was still concentrated on the basin in front of her. It was nearly empty.

"Natalie…what did you see?" I asked slowly.

She didn't respond. She sniffed, wiped her nose with the back of her hand, then continued her exercise.

"Natalie—

"I can't tell you, okay! You….just need to see it for yourself." She snapped acidly at me. But there was something else there behind her voice. It was sadness and fear that rattled behind her tone.

I stared at her as she rose up and said "I'm finished. Can you hurry up?"

I turned back to my bowl and finished the water exercise within ten minutes. Normally it would've taken me nearly an hour to get through two buckets.

When we leave the room Natalie takes the adjacent set of stairs next to the main ones that lead back to the dojo. The usual sunlight that floods the tunnels from the skylight is gray, dull, and smells of hot rain. It feels odd. I don't say anything as I follow her up a ladder similar to the one we entered the facility with Amar and George nearly a month ago.

Natalie reaches a hatch above her and pushes up with her left palm hard. It springs open and soft rays of dim light hit my eyes. I can smell soil, rainwater, and something else familiar I can't quite identify. As I hoist myself upward I find myself standing in a small space covered in windows. Some of them are grimy, while others are cracked or broken out completely. The floor is covered in pots with plants, green and leafy. There are small rows with flowers and herbs on my right and on the other side, there are bushes with different colored berries on stems.

"What is this place?" I ask looking at bright plant moist with water droplets. Its leaves are bright and I smell something pungent and sweet coming from it. Then I recognize the smell I couldn't remember. It's basil. Mom kept a small plant on the window sill of our kitchen.

"A subterranean greenhouse." Natalie says walking toward the open doorway of the space. "Leon says it runs on a solar powered system filtered down through the surface."

She leaves and disappears from view slightly. I look around one more time at all the plants before I follow her out on to a earthy, stone floor. The greenhouse is one of three that situated inside and the others have the same glass panels adoring them as well. Just as cracked and broken in certain spots.

Natalie stands still as she looks toward a wall in front of her. I walk up next to her and she points weakly at a ladder a few feet away. I look up at the rusty metal rungs and handles and see it leads to the circular balcony over our heads. I climb the ladder quickly and I look back to see if my sister is behind me. She is still standing and she shakes her head at me. Whatever I am about to see is something that keeps her stationary with fear.

I look around for which way to go and she shouts from below "Your left, there's a lookout post, climb up!"

I see the post on my left and small stairs lead toward a metal crow's nest with a small seat inside. I walk up the steps carefully, they are narrow and slightly slippery. My throat feels dry as I swallow when I sit down. In front of me are a pair of worn and weathered looking scopes. I try to smudge off some of the grime on the lenses with my fingers and peer into them.

Though the image isn't completely clear I can see Chicago. The buildings are shining even in the dull light. I can tell it's cloudy today. I see the train tracks in the distance and even the office building where Dad works. Or used to work.

Everything looks the same. Albeit, darker, but the same. It is also unusually quiet.

I almost break away from the lenses, but then I stop when I get to a corner of the city where Willis Tower is. Or was.

There is a giant spire made of black glass and steel in it's place. It looks almost like crystal in certain places. There are long spikes and antennas protruding out its sides. It almost looks as if it is moving and breathing.

My heart pounds in my ears and I feel my breath begin to become uneven. What is it? When did it get there?

As I peer further, on the side of the building are three bold letters.

DGD.

The city belonged to them now. Amar and the others failed.

I swallowed hard and wiped my sweating palms on my hands as I continued to look at the giant living spire in the sky. It loomed over the city and when I moved the lenses upward, it seemed as if the clouds were spiraling around the top point.

I looked around on the streets as close as I could. I saw DGD vans, trucks, and cars everywhere. There were more building with their letters on them. I could see citizens, the few of them that walked the streets, move quickly past anything with their symbol.

But what I saw next made my heart drop into my stomach.

On the streets were trucks with large cages made of black metal with citizens inside attached on the back. The hands were gripping outside of them frantically. I couldn't hear anything, but I know from the way they were moving, they were screaming. There were all sizes and shapes. Old, young, women, and children.

One truck followed after another. All toward the spire in the sky.

I broke away from the viewing scopes and held my head in my palms. I could feel myself shaking and I thought the morning muffins and juice I had would come spilling out my mouth. Something wet and salty trailed into my mouth. I realized I was crying again. I felt like all I did was cry.

But I didn't want to. Not anymore.

I looked up and walked back toward the ladder leading down to my sister. When I reached her she said nothing as she looked at me.

"I saw." I choked hoarsely.

She nodded.

"Why?" I asked looking toward the greenhouses. "Why are they doing that to those people?"

"Because" came a deep, blank voice from the greenhouse we entered from "They want to make this world for them. They want to make this world for people like us. Only."

I looked over at Leon who peered up into the ceiling. His arms were folded as usual and his body leaned against the doorframe casually.

"But…that's not…how—they can't!" I shouted.

Leon laughed "Oh yes they can, boy. And they will. It's already happening."

I shook my head and felt the back of my neck and my face begin to burn.

"I won't let it." I growl.

Leon laughed again "Oh? How? With that baby anger of yours?"

"No." I say firmly "I will learn from you."

Natalie rounds on me and stares at me in disbelief.

I stare Leon directly in the eyes for the first time ever. His gaze is intense and burning, but it reminds me something I've felt in my parents. Warmth and safety.

"Are you aware that I am a killer?" He asks darkly moving away from the door and toward me.

I swallow hard and shift back a little as he comes toward me. But that doesn't stop me.

"Yes." I say firmly.

"Is it your wish to learn how to kill those who stand in your way?" He asks again standing next to me and my sister. His body heat engulfs me now and makes my brow sweat.

I pause for a moment. I look over at Natalie who still looks at me as if she's seeing a stranger.

"Well, boy?" Leon growls. His temperature spikes a little and scalds my cheeks.

"No." I say. "That's not my wish. I wish to learn how to protect those who mean most to me. Kill if only necessary."

Leon's nostrils flair up at me and he paces back and forth around me, like a lion preparing to strike. He stops after a few moments, turns his back toward both of us with his arms folded again. I watch him closely as he turns back around with a wide grin.

"Okay." He says.

Time to fight.

the memories are almost at an end! see you next update