Chapter 18
The engine in the car groans loudly as Tobias slams his foot onto the accelerator.
"C'mon!" He yells through gritted teeth.
The car protests by jerking a few times, throwing me forward. My head collides with the headrest each time and I'm once again reminded of the pain searing through my skull. The mood in the atmosphere has rapidly changed from jovial to terrified.
Grey, dark clouds have drawn in, closing in on us. It looks as if rain is about to start pouring out of them like water out of a bucket at any moment. We have been driving down a long stretch of broken road for at least half an hour, if you look closely enough you can see faint markings of road lines. We've had glimpses of the fence which surrounds our city every so often. There is a thicket of trees surrounding us, their leaves a colour of green I've never seen before. It feels like they are closing in on us, making me feel claustrophobic. It's a beautiful sight, but I ache to be back inside the security of the fence. No matter what state the inside may be in.
"Are we going to make it?" Christina asks from the seat behind me, her voice laced with worry.
"I hope so." Tobias' voice is barely a whisper.
I turn in my seat to take a better look at his face but his expression shows no emotion. It's as if he is as cold as snow. Just as I become undecided about whether it's worth going into full panic mode, he glances at me. Though his expression shows nothing about what's happening inside, his eyes tell a different story. They show a storm similar to the one brewing outside, pleading with me to stay calm.
"Do you have experience with cars, Four?" Shauna questions. She is sat in the back, next to Christina. She is the only person in this vehicle that seems nonplussed whether we manage to get back to the compound.
"Yeah, my Dad has one. I used to tinker with it sometimes." He responds absently.
"And you weren't ever tempted to plant explosives in it, maybe cut his brake wires?" There goes Christina's brain-to-mouth filter again.
"No." Tobias seems to be going further into himself by the minute.
Feeling the mood in the car taking a nose dive into oblivion, I decide to change topic. Maybe if we create a plan for when we do arrive back at the compound, it will help.
"So, how long was I gone for?" I ask to nobody in particular.
"A day or so." Christina replies.
"How exactly did you find me? I didn't realise we were this far out."
Tobias replies this time, but never takes his eyes away from the road. "I knew from intelligence that Darius has installed tracking devices to nearly all vehicles. I hazarded a guess that she would steal Mr Dawson's car, he's old, frail and lived over the way from us. Wouldn't put up much of a fight." His fists clench ever so slightly against the steering wheel.
"How did you know it was Evelyn who had taken me?"
"A hunch." His teeth are now gritted together. "It's funny that even though I've hardly spoken to the woman in twelve years I can still tell the way her mind works." I guess you will always have a connection with your parents, even if the relationship is broken. My body suddenly swells with longing for the warm embrace of my mother or the soft touch on my forehead from my father.
It dawns on me that choosing faction before blood will never truly release your family from your heart. Even though we take steps through life and add to our collection of family through friendship and relationships, we cannot ever let the people who raised us drift away. Whether it has been days, months or years; you still call them family, because that is what they are and always will be. A connection that will never be lost or broken, no matter what happens.
Suddenly and all at once, the fence comes into view. The trees have disappeared and in their place is … well, nothing. Plains of dirt that go on for miles and out of sight. The road in which we are travelling upon is still extremely broken, every so often I'm lifted so far out of my seat by a pothole my scalp tickles the roof of the car. I hang onto the dashboard for dear life. The car has started to groan loudly once more.
The sight of the fence has kicked everybody's minds into high gear, suddenly there is a lot of fast talking about what will be inside of the fence once we arrive.
"Security levels have doubled since everybody that failed testing was removed." Tobias says, turning around in his seat. He says directly to Christina, "Pass Tris the gun behind you." It wasn't as much of a request as a demand.
Christina hands me the gun and my throat tightens just a little with apprehension. I really don't want to hurt anybody I don't have to. Shooting at Evelyn was very different.
"I don't think getting in will be a problem, but I heard talk of a scheduled meeting between the leaders and everybody that has passed the test due to take place shortly after we left. I couldn't honestly tell you what we're about to walk into." Shauna says.
"Have to just wait and see." Tobias says under his breath.
"Tobias – you said security has doubled. We are driving directly towards the fence. How do they know it's not an invasion? We are armed. I know they're Dauntless on the front line but how are they to know we mean no harm?" I ask. We are still hurtling towards the fence speedily, I just hope my thought didn't arrive too late.
"Good thinking." Christina, Shauna and Tobias say in unison.
"Do we attract attention and wave them down or do we just attempt to wait it out and hope for the best?" I gaze over at each to see what they think. The only response I get is a few blank faces.
"I think that they're going to be on edge at the moment, looking out for anything suspicious under Darius' orders. Let's drive directly to the fence. Everybody put their weapons under your chairs. Let's not give them an excuse to kill us." Decision made. Everybody nods their heads in assent and does as I've asked and slides their weapons under their chairs.
My stomach clenches as the fence draws nearer and nearer. If I peer at the large timber structure of the fence surrounding our city closely, I can see black figures dotted randomly across different levels.
We drive through the large harvesting fields, getting a few suspicious looks from Amity who are harvesting crops, even with the funny looks upon their faces, they still wave politely.
There is a breeze in the air, no doubt from the oncoming storm. The dark contrast of grey against the golden yellow field reminds me of my fear landscape and instinctively my palms sweat, fists clench and throat tightens. How I wish I could forget everything I ever faced during that time. I hate that at any point, something or someone might be able to trigger this feeling within me without realising what's happening.
The car comes to a halt when we are face to face with the large black iron fence that permits vehicles into the city. I realise the panic stricken feelings I have acquired from the distinct comparison of the fields to my fear landscape cannot be pushed back quite as easily as I had hoped. A fresh tidal wave of anxiety comes crashing down onto me.
"What do we do now?" Christina asks.
As if the gate had heard her question, it slowly creeks it's way open. What seemed like hours later, there is enough space for our car to pass through, and we trundle along at a slow pace.
Tobias looks to his right, as if expecting someone to hop out of one of the derelict buildings. I follow his gaze and see nothing but dark shadows.
My door is pulled open at speed, making me jump out of my skin. I flip around, and come face to face Uriah, a stony expression plastered onto his handsome face.
"We've been expecting you." He smiles at me. I soon realise that I had mistaken his smile for a grimace. He looks almost disgusted. "Get out of the car with your hands in the air" He directs his gun directly at my forehead. I oblige immediately.
"Everybody make their way over to the vehicle in front. No funny business, I don't care if you live or die." I look over to the others, they all have the same confused expressions on their faces. I thought it was pretty obvious that he doesn't care if we live or die, when he has the gun aimed directly at us?
As we make our way over to the front of the car, I hear him snap his fingers towards other Dauntless members that were stood a few feet behind him.
"Search this vehicle thoroughly." He barks in their direction.
There is a large vehicle parked not too far ahead of our own. I can't believe I missed it – but I had. It didn't occur to me that we might be apprehended as soon as we arrived back in the city. The driver of the vehicle jumped out and swings opens two large doors at the back, inside there are seats against either side.
"In." The driver says. His face is obscured by a dark cap, which matches his thick black vest and dark khaki pants. We stumble into the van and just as we had taken our seats, we heard footsteps approaching.
"Your weapons have been seized. You are going to be taken straight into custody for interrogation." The door slammed so hard I felt air whipping against my face.
Tobias swore loudly.
In no time at all the vehicle was slowing down as if we had reached our destination. Two doors opened and shut again, then the doors next to us swung wide.
"Follow me." Uriah snapped.
We had arrived at the Dauntless compound. Instead of the initiates' entrance, which could only be approached by jumping off a train and onto a roof ledge, we were standing in front of a large metal door.
With guns aiming directly at us, we followed Uriah and the driver of the van down steep, narrowing hallways I had never come across before. What worried me most is I know these are not recorded on any camera. For one, I had never seen these corridors on any rotation in the Control Room. Secondly, there wasn't a camera in sight.
The hallway smelt strongly of damp earth. The lights that usually hung off the corridors were set further and further apart the deeper we went down. Every so often, the light haunted Uriah's face in an eerie way. His expression never changed, but I couldn't help reflecting that these shadows were like his personality. From light, to dark.
"We're here." Uriah said suddenly.
We had reached a room which had "03" labelled on the small hole of a door. Uriah opened it, and let us enter. He stood in the doorway once we had all piled in to the small, cramped room.
"I'll be back once we have scheduled your interrogation. Until then, sleep tight." The small grimace had once again returned to his face. The door slammed shut behind him, and I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach as a deadbolt was fastened with a sharp thud.
"Now what the hell do we do?" Shauna asked incredulously.
"Nothing we could do. As I see it, we have two options. Option number one is to think of a strategy for our interrogation. But don't be fooled to think they aren't watching or listening to our conversations." I gaze around the room, and to my surprise, see no evidence of cameras. I won't be fooled so easily, though.
"And the other option?" Christina asks.
"Break the hell out."
The silence that followed my second option was thick with doubt. There's not a chance we would be able to break out of this room. I took in my surroundings, a cold concrete floor with off-white tiled walls. No windows. Extremely claustrophobic.
For the second time in what I believe to be seventy two hours, I had been stuck in a small enclosed area against my will. This time was different however, looking at the people around me. The other difference is this time it's not me who I am worried about, but Tobias, who is by all accounts curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, breathing at a very peculiar pace.