From Andrasta's perspective
I would really like to know what the f_ is going on. I can only assume that's why Max has agreed to meet with the factionless. He'd like to know as well. I get that. Some crazy sh_ has been happening this week, and my head is f_ing spinning. Still, I'm pretty sure we're all headed into a trap.
Believe it or not, I was Amity-born. It didn't take long for the people around me there to notice I was a little, uh, different. I had my mother's red hair, but the fiery temper was mine alone. I think she understood me, though. She was the only one there who did. She used to say that from the minute I could walk and talk, she would continuously have to admonish me to be nicer, and that when she did, I would just glare back at her and yell, "Who's gonna f_ing make me?" By the time I was eight, I was getting into fights almost daily. I'd come home with bloody knuckles and my mother would just sigh and tell me that she wished my father were still there. He was killed when he fell into a combine harvester that he was repairing. If he'd been closer to the City, he might have lived, but medical care in Amity is rudimentary at best. My mother always referred to that day as "when your father left." Like he just walked away – peaceful, like. Have you ever seen one of those combines? No? Take my word for it, it's not a good way to go. And certainly not 'peaceful'. We both always knew I'd be leaving, too. I felt badly about it, but the day I made that cut and squeezed my blood out onto those burning coals was the day I was finally free. My parents had called me Andrea, but after my Choosing, I was Andrasta, named for a goddess of war.
Now I'm a Dauntless leader, one of three. It's supposed to be all three of us making the decisions together, but about eighteen months ago, all that started to change. Amar had been our leader, but when he died Max was elected to the council. I'm pretty sure it was Max who killed Amar. I was too chickensh_ to call him out on it, though. So was everyone else. So much for being f_ing `Dauntless', huh? It was Eric's influence, I think. Max changed when he arrived. Overnight. He became aggressive and power hungry, and as soon as he got onto the council he pushed Harrison and me out of all his plans. He even tried to get Eric onto the council, but thankfully that's still done by vote. Eric was a f_ing psychopath, and he was turning Max into one, too. Despite the chaos of the past week, now that Eric's gone, things actually feel more normal. Even Max has changed – he's more like himself. He used to be a decent guy. It'll be a f_ing shame if we're all killed tonight.
We've reached Abnegation now, but are wandering, lost, among the empty houses. They all look the same. We twitch at every sound. Max is in the lead, and I'm bringing up the rear.
"We should've brought Four with us," Harrison mutters.
"You trust him?" Max counters.
"Yes. Don't you?" answers Harrison.
"He and Eric have hated each other since initiation. For all we know, the factionless have Eric and that transmission was completely fabricated. Four was always good with computers."
I'm silent throughout this exchange. There's no point. I just want to get this over with. "Could you two shut the f_ up? We're probably walking straight into an ambush," I hiss at them through clenched teeth. Thankfully, they do. We turn the corner, and we see a light coming from one of the houses. Max hold up his right fist to halt us. He points to Harrison, then to his own eyes, gestures around the house to the right. He repeats the gesture for me, but points to the left. We circle around the house, but find no one. The curtains are all drawn, and it's impossible to see inside. I don't like this one bit. Max is undeterred, though. He squares up and knocks on the door. It opens. I still can't see inside very well, but Max steps over the threshold, and Harrison and I follow. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly through my teeth.
Inside are five factionless, dressed in multi-colored rags. Four men and a woman. They are all holding rifles. They look rough. We're in the kitchen. At first I wonder if perhaps the house had been stripped bare after the attack, but then I remember we're in Abnegation. This is how they live. There is a table and four chairs in the kitchen, and seated at the table is another woman. For a brief moment, I can't place why she looks familiar, and I struggle. But then I realize – she's Four's mother. Given the circumstances, she seems oddly at ease.
"This was my house, once." She smiles, gesturing for us to sit down. "You may keep your weapons." She nods to Max and Harrison as they take their seats.
"I prefer to stand." I say, keeping my back against the wall nearest to the door. She looks to me then, fixing me in an unnerving stare. I refuse to look away, and this goes on for several uncomfortable seconds before she breaks it off.
"You must be Andrasta?" she asks. I wonder what Four has told her about us.
"Yes."
"And Harrison?" He nods slowly.
"And Max."
"You must be Evelyn."
She places her palms face down, flat on the surface of the table. "We have a lot to talk about, so I'll get right to it. I would like to propose an alliance with you."
"We know nothing about you." Max replies.
"Naturally you have questions. After we're done talking, you may accompany us back to our headquarters. I think you'll be impressed by what we've been able to accomplish. It's the quickest way to learn about who we are."
"The quickest way for us to be killed, you mean." The words fly out of my mouth almost before I think them.
Again, those eyes – studying me. So like Four's. I've always liked and trusted Four, he was one of Amar's favorites. But I don't trust this woman at all. Call it women's intuition. I want to run from here as fast as I can, without looking back. The sentiment is apparently unshared, though. She leans in toward Max and smiles, gesturing toward me.
"I like her," she tells him, her hand brushing his forearm, and her voice sounding far too familiar. I can't see Max' face, but I notice he doesn't pull his arm away. Is that all it takes? She smiles slyly, as if they are sharing a secret. "Of course, you must realize that if I wanted you dead, we wouldn't all still be talking?"
Max chuckles at this, and even Harrison cracks a smile. I notice none of the factionless are smiling, though. They're all watching us intently.
"And what would be the purpose of this alliance?" Max asks.
Her voice changes now. "Water. Pure and simple. Right now, Erudite controls the water. Because of that, they control all of us. That arrangement was never equitable. We factionless felt it most of all, but can you tell me you never wondered why it was that Erudite always got the best of everything?"
I'll say this for her, she has a point. Even as a leader, I now have little contact with the other factions, but as children, we all went to school together. Like the rest of the Amity, my dresses were patched and handed-down. The Erudites' were not. We were tanned and rough-skinned from years of tending fields under a permanently cloudless sky. Water was heavily rationed, saved for the crops. The Erudite always looked as if they never went outside – as if nothing ever touched them at all. There was even a rumor that they had a swimming pool inside their headquarters. A f_ing swimming pool. I never believed it, though.
"Who do you think should control the water?" Harrison asks.
"All of us. Each faction, including ours, could build their own hydrosynthesis plants if we had the engineering schematics that the Erudite have kept secret from us. After that, we could all negotiate a new City order – as true equals."
Max leans forward now, clearly intrigued. "How would we run these plants? We're not scientists."
She waves a hand in the air as if to brush the thought aside. "I'm sure there are some among you who could be trained. We have a number of former Erudite among us. We would help you." She addresses me now, directly. "Surely Amity would operate far more efficiently if the water they needed for crops were produced right there."
I shrug, making sure not to betray how unnerved I am by her knowledge of my background. "Wouldn't that give Amity too much power, then?" I ask. "They'd still control food production."
"Yes, but the Amity have never abused their power. Erudite attacked you, drugged you, and tricked you into slaughtering the Abnegation. You saw the evidence."
"For all we know, you sent that transmission. We have no way of knowing if any of that was true." Max counters.
Evelyn tilts her head to the side, as if considering this point. "True. The videos could have been altered. You'll never know unless you get inside Erudite."
"Our job is to protect the City. We already destroyed one faction, and now there's the possibility that we were misled. It would take quite a bit to convince us to move against another." Harrison reasons.
"I'm proposing a surgical strike. We get in, we get the hydrosynthesis schematics, and perhaps take a quick look around to see if there is any sign of Eric or the aggression experiments. They have very few guards. If we combined our forces, we could subdue them quickly without bloodshed. I agree that it is the duty of Dauntless to protect the City. Isn't it your duty to find out what really happened?"
In my gut, I feel just as uneasy as I did when I walked into Abnegation, maybe more so - but I'm also starting to see the advantage of Evelyn's plan. We have to act. The entire City has seen that transmission – we can't just go on as if nothing has happened.
Max speaks next. "Isn't this a job for Candor, then? They could put Jeanine on trial. Give her truth serum."
"You're assuming that Jeanine would submit to such a trial, and that the Erudite haven't figured out a way to counteract the truth serum." Evelyn responds.
Max sighs now. "We should wait and see how Erudite responds to the transmission."
"That's certainly an option – but they're probably destroying evidence as we speak. We need to do this now. Tonight."
"You're asking a lot." I tell her.
"Listen, it's up to you. If we go in by ourselves, there may be more bloodshed. And whatever evidence there may be against Erudite – well, you'll have to trust us that we haven't tampered with it."
I can tell Max doesn't like this answer. "Alright. We're going outside to talk." Max rises and signals us toward the door. The second I close the door behind us, Harrison opens his mouth to speak, but I shut him down.
"Not here, sh_ for brains!" I hiss.
Max motioned to us to follow him to the other side of a neighboring house. Once we get there, we squat down on the ground.
"Thoughts?" Max asks.
"This is f_ed." I say. "It smells wrong."
"That's the stench of dead Abnegation, Andrasta. Don't you want to know if the stuff in that transmission was true?"
"Of course I do. But if the Erudite were able to trick us, how do we know she's not tricking us now? There are too many unknowns." I respond.
"I say we go see her headquarters. Then we decide. Agreed?" Max looks at both of us. Frankly, I'm surprised he's even consulting us. Before the bomb, it would have been Max and Eric making the decision on their own.
"Agreed." Says Harrison. They both look to me.
I shrug. "F_ it. I got nothing else to do tonight."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews are like crack to me. Is Dauntless going to join in the attack on Erudite? Stay tuned! Sorry Andrasta has such a foul mouth. I can't control her.