When Districts Collide

Chapter 5: Wren

Peter and Xavier were up to something. I knew it, Tobias knew it, and Isaac was following along. I needed to know about the serum, and the only way I could do that was behind my friends' backs. Theo knew nothing, which was probably better for him not to. Tobias and I had to keep this from him. Isaac too, but he wasn't too concerned yet, not until Peter made an actual move.

"I didn't think he would be like this. Why?"

"Why does he want the Divergents dead again or why is he betraying you?"

"Why everything? He knows what Tris and I stood for. He knows it." Tobias said in his room one night after the revelation while we were discussing. I had just been with Theo for the evening, and came to Tobias' room to crash, or so he thought. I hadn't seen my apartment for a good three days now. I wondered if I still could get in.

"Because, he picks the winning side. Right now, he doesn't see the city as any good. They're just doing the same old thing. But the Capitol, look at the advancement. Look at Xavier, who's head Gamemaker. He holds lives in his hands every year, every day. Tell me, what was Xavier like in training?"

"He was ruthless, but not even close to Eric," he was referring to his fellow initiate, "I thought that he took the Capitol job to get away from it all, not for power."

"Well, he sucked Peter into the propaganda, and you know how strong his morals are."

"What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know." I paced the room. That was a lie. I knew what I had to do, I had to go to the airport Tobias talked about and scout it out. There had to be something there, some sort of connection to the Allegiant. They couldn't have just taken it all with them after the War, Tobias said none of it was destroyed, only shut down. I had to go. I had to go tonight. And he couldn't know.

"Can't we just arrest Peter?" He asked, pulling me away from my train of thought.

"Not without a formal charge. What are we going to charge him with? 'I'm not sure if you're actually working against the Dauntless but we're going to make sure that doesn't happen even if it's a false charge?'"

"A bit lengthy."

"You get my point." I scowled.

He plopped himself on the bed, sighing out with frustration, his hands over his face. He was giving up. At least for now. I knew that tomorrow, he would be riled up again, but I wouldn't be there to listen. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet, but I knew I needed to find something.

"Are you going to stay here tonight? I can understand if you don't want Theo to find out anything."

"No, I think I'm going to head back to his place." I couldn't stay with Tobias, he couldn't know what I was up to.

He looked at me funny, normally I would never pass up an opportunity to spend a night with him and liquor in his room, joking and telling stories all night, but I couldn't. Not this time. Maybe if I came back, unless I went on to discover more.

"Are you sure?"

"Nothing happened the last time, I'll be fine over there."

"I have no doubt, but you two aren't even together." He seemed to be getting jealous.

"Well, perfect way to, isn't it?"

His eyes narrowed at me. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing, there's nothing you don't already know!" I defended myself. "I'm an open book for you, Tobias. Theo just helps with..." I didn't feel like saying the word out loud, since I had been feeling normal for the past few days.

"Right, I almost forgot." his face softened, but in a sad way. He knew I was lying, he knew he helped too. "Have fun, Wren. See you tomorrow. I'll probably be up all night if you do want to come back."

"See you in the morning." I wouldn't.

I went into my apartment to get a change of clothes and walked quickly back out, not wanting to disturb Payton and Erin, who were sitting curled up with each other on the couch reading. I always tried to get out of there as quickly as possible, lest I see anything worse, like Adam and Mels. They were my friends, but the last thing I needed to see was something akin to what he and Caroline used to be.

There were now three keys on the locket chain I had, now that I had added back Theo's. I went to the door, and tried the doorknob to see if it was open, and it wasn't. Not peculiar at this time of night, since it was around eleven thirty, but still strange. I took the key and opened the door to Theo talking with Peter about something. Peter looked dismayed and Theo looked angry. Had he found out about Peter's scheme?

"You have no right going into Erudite headquarters and changing school programs." I heard him say. No one had heard me come in, so I stayed by the bathroom door so they couldn't see me.

"I did what I had to, the children need to learn about what happened to the Divergents." Total lie. Peter could never be Candor, although he came from them.

"They already know about it from Faction History. There was no need to put a psychology class among the sixteen year old students." So he was thinking to put the upper level students in the psychology class? To help inform them of their decision, I supposed would be his excuse.

"I want to inform them of what they are, why they need to stay safe." Close enough.

"Safe? They're still out there, factionless! We're lucky that they get decent city jobs."

"They're there by choice. They could have easily been like you, or Wren-"

"Don't bring my girlfriend into this."

"She's not your girlfriend, Theo. Don't defend her." he snapped back.

I could here him stand up. "I don't care what she is or isn't. I'm going to defend our kind. You still had no right to go and publicise anything through an Erudite class schedule. One more slip like this and I may have to be forced to arrest you on Tobias' command."

"I'll leave you to it, then." he stormed out past me and slammed the door. I could hear his frustrated shouts through the wall into the hallway.

I decided to make my presence known by closing the bathroom door as I would if I had come in. Theo looked over to see me, having no idea that I just listened in on his reprimand. He smiled at me, all the worry immediately draining from his face.

"Hi, Wren. I didn't think you would be back so I locked the door. Well, I supposed Peter unlocked it. He seemed to be moody tonight." he lied to me, so he wouldn't worry me. Too late, I was already keeping secrets from him. I would let him have it though, because I was also keeping this from him.

"Yeah he seemed it. What was that about?" I decided to push my luck.

"Oh, nothing really, he was just mad that I got a promotion in the control center and he didn't." Lie number two coming from him.

"Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I was wondering if I could spend the night here? Tobias is kind of angry at me too."

"Why so?"

"Thinks I'm spending too much time with you." That was a lie. Tobias would never get angry over that.

"Is he jealous? I didn't think he..."

"I think he's just mad that you're curing my panic more than he is. So I told him I was going to come over here tonight."

"Of course, do you want to share the bed or..."

"I'll take the couch, if that's fine. It's just kind of nice to be here where everything is calm."

"Okay," he frowned a bit. I was acting a bit out of place. I needed to lie better. I hadn't lied to anyone for a while.

We both sat on the couch, neither one of us tired in the least, and laid together, his arms wrapped around me. There was nothing else but that, in the silence of the night. I closed my eyes and leaned further against him, sighing out. I was not content, I was upset with myself. These were my friends, they deserved to know what I was doing. But they couldn't. It was up to me alone to find out what was going on, because I was the only one here Divergent with an Erudite aptitude. Theo had his own problems, so I didn't want him to help me.

"I think I want to sleep, is that okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Goodnight." he got up and went to his own bed, leaving me to rest on the couch. I would wait until he was asleep to leave.

It was around two thirty when he finally slowed his breathing, signaling that he was asleep. I moved swiftly and quietly, gathering my clothes and my small bag, taking them with me. I grabbed a bottle of liquor he had and some food, just in case it was longer than a day or two. I didn't think it would be, Tobias had said before it wasn't that far of a drive, so it shouldn't have been too far of a walk either.

When I went outside and shut the door, I saw a light flooding out from Tobias' room. He wasn't kidding, he was planning on staying up all night. I moved past his room and into the dark hallway, finding my way to the glass doors signifying my release. I started running as soon as I got down the stairs and saw the train already approaching. I sped up, sprinting and jumping onto the last car as it passed by. I sat against the wall, breathing heavily as I looked for the Amity compound to jump off at. I needed to climb the gates where there were no Dauntless guards, and then I would be out of the city.

As I approached the gardens that Adam and I walked on the first day, I saw the gates behind it leading out. It was dark, and clouds were reigning in, signaling rain in the next couple days. Hopefully I would get there before it did.

The garden looked fuller than it did a few months ago, but maybe that was because it was dark. It at least hid me as I walked through, careful where I stepped. Dauntless did teach me that, at least, how to walk in the dark without killing myself. I was surprised at all the things I learned being put to good use. There was one thing I forgot, though. I forgot my gun. I had my belt of knives with me in my bag, and I had put it on in the train, but my gun, the prized possession of most Dauntless, was sitting in Tobias' room on his couch. He would find it, and come looking for me in Theo's room, only to find that I was not there. I shook the thought from my head and kept going, nearing the gates. I had not been discovered, and this section didn't house any guards, so I was safe.

I started to put one foot in the chain link when I heard a rustling in the bushes behind me. I stopped and crouched down, my knife ready. The noise stopped and the footsteps turned around after a few seconds, and I resumed my climb once again. Once I was at the top, I put one foot over the ledge and scaled down the other side. I hadn't bothered to look back in fear that I would chicken out and make my life harder, but when I got to the bottom and hopped off, I turned around to see the gardens and Amity compound facing me. I made it to the other side. I was in the Amity farms, which meant another half a mile and I would be out of the city for good. I took the liquor out of my bag and drank to the freedom. The only thing now was finding the damn airport, since Tobias never gave me coordinates.

I headed in a straight line past the edge of the farms, but still didn't see anything. I was probably half a mile from the gates, and when I turned around, I could still see the lights in the city. I could barely see the gates themselves, but I did catch enough of a shadow to see a figure walking towards them, disrupting the lights. Then I ran.

I couldn't be caught, not now. This was the worst time to get caught. The figure started climbing over the fence and when I heard the chain links after he jumped, there was shouting. I couldn't discern the voice to be a guard I knew, but I kept running, and although he was keeping good pace with me, I was still half a mile out farther than he was, meaning he wouldn't catch me if I veered off, so I did. I made a hard left and ducked, hoping he wouldn't find me. Maybe I wouldn't have been so scared if I knew who it was, but this was no time for taking chances.

My heart pounded as I kept listening for his footsteps to pass by me, but I didn't hear anything for five minutes. After seven, I started to hear the faint pound of jogging against the ground, but the grass should have been tall enough to conceal me. The jogging slowed, which made me even more frightened, and I saw the outline of the figure fifteen feet away from me, breathing heavily. He looked around, kept walking, and didn't see me. I sighed out heavily after I thought he was gone, and stood up. Then I heard the trigger click.

"Hello, Wren." The voice said behind me.

"Four." I gasped quietly.