Chapter 5

TOBIAS

"Tori?" I asked as I spun around. Was everyone who had died in here? As I thought the question, Tris answered.

"There are only a few of us it seems, and we don't fully understand how it works in here yet but we are getting closer to answers. We can't tell you much yet and you will have to be careful on the outside. Things are getting more tense." Tris said, and lead me over to a large round table that was now in the middle of the room.

We each sat down and I thought about a fairy-tale that Marcus had surprisingly told me as a child on the rare days he wasn't beating me "for my own good". It was something to do with the Knights of the Roundtable where even the King was equal to his knights. Having no head of the table, no one outranked another. It made for clear discussion and plans to be concocted without political debates making the waters murky.

Tris sat next to me and held my hand. Uriah sat on her other side and Tori sat on my other side. Marlene sat on the other side of Uriah and in the blink of an eye, the table adjusted so it met up with us and we all sat together.

"Right so what is with the fear landscapes?" I asked, not really knowing where to start, but wanted to know exactly where they were. "Are you trapped in here? Is this just a way of communicating? Where are you?" I asked and looked at Tris for the answer. But it came from Tori.

"We are elsewhere. That's the best we can offer you at the moment. We are not trapped in here exactly but nor can we pack up our current location and come to you. This is the best way we can communicate and it is only going to be for a limited time. He gets closer to preventing this every day."

"He who?" Zeke asked.

"We can't say," Uriah answered. "The best we can offer is that He is someone who controls our current problem but not He who controls the whole problem." None of this was really answering our questions. Zeke and I were starting to get frustrated.

"So if we have a limited time, how are we going to make this work? What can we do?" I asked. We needed to establish some clear communication.

"You can keep doing what you are doing. Come back and see us and we will do what we can from here. The best we can offer is currently the fear landscape. It will enable us to visit you for the moment," Tris answered and squeezed my hand. It made me wonder about my dreams of her. Were they real too? We all went silent for a moment.

"So how are you all in here?" Zeke asked.

"The best we can offer is 'As a time-asymmetric event causes a warranted chain reaction, and so we be chosen'," replied Marlene, the most serious I had ever seen her. But that didn't make any sense. What did that even mean?

"Is there anyone else?" I asked.

"The best we can offer is the chosen are few," Tris answered again. I slammed my free hand on the table and Tris and Mar jumped, startled. The other hand was still clutched in Tris's hands tightly.

"Seriously guys? You get us both in here to play these word games? There is something big going on and you can't even tell us straight up what it is? And Cara is missing after your little escapade in dropping in to her fear landscape. Did you know that? She is in danger and you can't even give us one straight answer!" I said, my voice rose so that I was shouting by the end. I stood up and yanked my hand out of Tris' grasp and started walking away.

"Tobias wait," Tris said and chased after me. "Tobias, please!" Her heartfelt tone made me stop though I didn't turn to face her. She came around in front of my and grabbed hold of my face in her palms, forcing me to look at her. I sighed.

"What Tris?"

"Tobias, he is coming. I don't have long. We don't want to deceive you and I promise you will understand everything soon enough. Come back in tomorrow. Soon you won't need the landscape. I promise. You are becoming more perceptive in your dreams as well." She smiled at me. I reached up and placed my hands over her small ones.

"So it's real?" I asked, emotion making my voice crack.

"Yes. This is new!" she said fingering the tattoo of a double triskele on my wrist. It was the symbol of everlasting love and I had written with it 'My One True Love'. She would always have my heart. She looked behind her then back at me and said "I love you". Then Zeke and I were back in my loungeroom.

"Dammit!" I cursed and slammed my hand down on the arm rest of the chair.

"Come on Four, we need to focus. What was the line Mar said? Something about a time-asymmetric event and a chain reaction?"

I thought about that nonsensical line. "A time-asymmetric event causes a warranted chain reaction and so we be chosen," I replied. "Does that sound right to you?" He thought for a second then nodded. I could really use Cara's help in analysing this. She was the brain in the equation. While I had forgiven Caleb, I wasn't sure I could trust him with something like this so I dare not ask.

"What the hell is a time-asymmetric event?" Zeke asked, his voice rising. I put a finger to my lips and tried to keep him quiet.

"Ok let's analyse it. There's three parts to it – a time-asymmetric event, a chain reaction and the chosen. A chain reaction is something that occurs as a result like a drop in water ripples outwards. I could be wrong here but I'm guessing a time-asymmetric event has something to do with it occurring again despite changes in surroundings or something like that. So perhaps the 'chosen' are people who make the same event happen which causes the ripples?" I said, thinking aloud.

"That does tend to make sense. I would have thought then that the 'chosen' would come around once a generation or once a lifetime. Not twice in less than a decade," Zeke replied. I was surprised at his thought. I hadn't even thought about that. Was I lucky enough to get her twice in a lifetime? Did I deserve it?

"That's a point. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps they are the ones that will create a change in an event? And perhaps they are back again now because there really is something afoot that needs to be changed now? As in they come back when they are needed instead of once a lifetime?" I mused. Then we both shrugged.

"Oh I forgot to tell you, Hana wants us there for dinner," Zeke said and I laughed. "Shauna, Caleb and Christina are coming as well." It was getting close to dinner time so we packed up. I was suspicious about leaving the serum at my apartment so we took it with us. It was dark when we got outside.

"Can we go by Cara's? I want to check out her apartment," I said and Zeke nodded. We caught the train into the middle of the city and walked from there. Cara had given me a key and at the time I had wondered why. Now I didn't care, it was useful. I unlocked the security door and we walked up the ten flights of stairs to her apartment.

I didn't need the key, the lock was broken and it was taped off. We ducked under the tape and went in. I tried the lights but they didn't work so out came our flashlights. The place was trashed. All her furniture was upended, all her belongings were scattered all over the floor. Everything that once had a place on a shelf or table was on the floor. It didn't look like much of it was broken or damaged though I noticed, just out of place. Well tipped up on the floor.

We moved silently through the apartment and into Cara's bedroom. Her clothes were all over the floor and her drawers were either half open with the contents on the floor, or the whole drawer was on the floor. Her mattress was tipped up but not slashed. There was so much out of place that either someone was looking for something or they were trying to make it look like they were but either way had presumably found it.

This concerned me as well. Things like this didn't happen in Chicago. Well hadn't yet. Could it be a disgruntled member of the fringe? Could it be someone from this People's Revolutionists? She was a scientist working on serums. Though was ours the only serum she was working on? And come to think of it, why wasn't Tris concerned with Cara's disappearance? All the signs pointed to someone malicious taking Cara. I doubted she was in safe hands. I hoped she was alright.

As we began leaving her room, I stepped to the side to let Zeke past me and heard the floor board squeak softly. Zeke stopped and looked at me and we both looked down as I removed my weight and placed it again with the board making the same sound. We both squatted down and used Zeke's pocket knife to pull up the board. Hidden in the dust was a note. I wondered how long it had been there. The paper looked fresh.

I opened it up as Zeke shone the flashlight over it. I blew off the dust that had accumulated inside the folded piece of paper. Zeke coughed in protest and I laughed.

"Tobias,

Presumably it will be you curious enough to find this. We have Cara. While she is with us, she is in no danger and we are not a danger to you. Trust your instincts. We will be in touch soon.

ForTris FourTris"

A hasty line had been put through ForTris and FourTris replaced it. Zeke looked at the expression on my face and chuckled. There was so much we could take from the name. They were working for Tris? They were working for both of us? Presumably with the name of ForTris or FourTris they were on our side. Didn't give much away, which was just like Tris these days.

"Well, that's a relief," Zeke said. "I'm glad Cara is safe but I want to know who this new group is. Sounds just like Allegiant when they came out. Not surprised Cara is involved somehow, whether she knew it or not," Zeke said and again I was surprised at his insight. I had never realised how he wasn't just an atypical Dauntless. He was much for insightful and thoughtful than I had ever given him credit for. I had made it a habit over my lifetime to make quick judgments of people.

I had done it to Tris initially too, thinking she was pushed instead of being brave enough to be the first jumper. Thinking she wasn't tough enough to last through Dauntless training. Then thinking she was unable to be hurt and that my snubbing her at breakfast the first morning after we kissed wouldn't have affected her. I needed to be much more accepting of others. I had even done it to Christina, thinking her nothing but a loud mouth Candor. Which she was, but she was a lot more too. Speaking of Christina, we needed to get to Hana's before we drew too much attention to ourselves for hanging around here too long.

"I'm glad she's safe. Big weight off my mind knowing the new serum isn't in the wrong hands as well. The group obviously has something to do with Tris. We will have to ask her when we go in tomorrow," I said and we replaced the floor board and started moving out of the apartment. As we neared the door, we heard a noise and both flicked off the flashlights in an instant, moving to either side of the door so we could grab someone should they come in.

It wasn't noisy enough to just be a neighbour down the hall in my opinion so Zeke and I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nobody entered. My eyes had adjusted enough to the dim light that I motioned for Zeke to see if he could see anyone outside because he had a better view out the ajar door. He nodded then moved silently to have a peek. He flattened himself back against the wall and I could tell he had seen someone. A few seconds later I saw someone pushed open the door and ducked under the tape and entered, trying the light switch. When the light didn't come on, I heard the voice mutter something under its breath. I wondered who it was. I couldn't get a clear view of them.

Zeke and I waited silently as they crept further into the room, not having a flashlight. I looked at Zeke and he looked at me and silently counted to three on his fingers then we both flicked on the flashlights and shone them on the intruder.

"Caleb?!" Zeke and I said incredulously. He walked over to us.

"Tobias? Zeke? What are you two doing here?" he asked, seemingly shocked.

"I was accompanying this good police officer to check in on a friend's whereabouts," I replied and Caleb pulled a face to show he didn't entirely believe me. But he didn't question us.

"Why are you here?" Zeke asked him. Caleb looked a little sheepish.

"Wanted to check in on a friend's whereabouts," he replied, using my line. I looked at Zeke. I knew there was something else going on here but it wasn't really my place to question it. But it did make my suspicion about them being in a relationship a little more likely. "Did you find anything?" Zeke and I shook our heads and neither of us looked at each other to save calling attention to the face we were lying. Clearly neither of us were suited to Candor because Caleb accepted it without question though his face fell. I think he hoped we could shed some light on it but we couldn't at this juncture. If FourTris had wanted Caleb to know, they would have communicated with him.

"Well let's all get out of here. Mum wants us there for dinner," Zeke said and we left, pulling the door closed behind us. We walked back down to the overhead train line and Zeke and I climbed up the pylons without a moment's hesitation. After a beat, Caleb climbed them as well and joined us. I looked at my watch.

"How long?" Zeke asked and half a second later we heard the familiar rumble of the train and ran alongside it, pulling ourselves in. Caleb was reasonably used to this by now though he still wasn't very good at it and I knew had we not essentially forced him, he would have gone a different way to Hana's.

We jumped off the train near Hana's and walked the rest of the way with Caleb slightly limping though he never said anything or complained. I was guessing he had landed badly but didn't want to point it out to us who would not offer any sympathy. I guess old habits die hard. Zeke let us in when we got there and it was heart-warming to see Shauna standing in the kitchen with her leg braces on, cooking with Hana. Christina was watching them and chatting. She caught my eye and winked and I wondered again if this was going to get awkward.

I said hello to Hana, Shauna and Christina and then went into their loungeroom. Christina followed me in. "I have heard something about you Four."