The moment everyone stepped through the door a chilly breeze brushed past them. The gravel beneath their boots crunched loudly as they made their way toward the train tracks to their left.
It was night and the moon shone brightly to act as a light in the dark.
Is this some type of advanced simulation or is this real? Tris wonders in confusion. How could a room turn into so many different areas?
A loud horn blares and everyone freezes in their spots.
Then a bright light overhead begins to makes its way toward them and the ground beneath them rumbles slightly.
The silent spell is broken the moment Uriah starts whooping, followed by Lynn a few seconds later.
"Come on guys! We need to jump on, remember?!" He calls back over his shoulder with excitement written all over his face.
After a few seconds of bewilderment each person was already running after Uriah in attempt to get to the train.
Everybody except Tris who was only jogging.
Shit shit shit why did I have to get hurt on my head and arm? She thinks frantically.
Not wanting to be left behind too far, she finally starts to run faster after the crowd in front of her. Getting left out and missing the train was the last thing she wanted.
Tris kept her breathing even as the cool air of the night whipped her hair behind her. Even though this was a game, she found that being outside was something she missed so badly. The fresh air, the tress, the sky, the dirt, all so beautiful.
The sound of footsteps catching up to her brings Tris to slow down a little bit.
"Hey... Tris." Will greets. She feels like laughing at the fact that he seems to already be out of breath.
So she does.
"What?" Will asks, his eyes narrowing.
Tris sucks in a breath and coughs, trying to stop her bursts of laughter. "We haven't even ran a quarter of a mile and you're breathing like you're going to die."
He rolls his eyes and tries to match Tris's fast pace. "Oh, well, you know... haven't had...time to... go on a freaking treadmill, Missy."
Another horn sounds and cuts of their conversation. The train comes into view- all silver and shiny under the moonlight.
"What a beautiful train." Tris says sarcastically, causing him to wheeze and chuckle at the same time.
Someone whizzes past them both, jumps straight to the train, grabs a rail, and hops into the railroad car. Myra.
It was like a sudden reminder that there was a game going on. Tris and Will share a knowing look.
Leaving Will behind, Tris starts to sprint toward the train as well. She definitely didn't want to be the last one jumping in.
Tris allows her mind to calculate what she was supposed to do. Run. Jump. Grab rail. Pull body in.
As if sprinting the last few yards of a race, she boosts her speed and changes her direction directly toward the train.
Her heart pounds heavily as she hurls herself at the dark blur where the entrance of the railroad car would be.
She spreads her hands and reaches out toward the small rail she should be grabbing onto but only her left hand manages to catch the bar. Not being a lefty, Tris feels her mind go into a panic mode. Her right hand was bandaged so how was she going to pull herself in?
But before Tris can yell for help someone drapes their arm around her and firmly pulls her in. The moment her toes touch the ground again she frantically steps away from the figure and leans against the wall to calm her heart and breath steadily. It was only now occurring to her that her head was pounding again. She looks at the person who'd helped her in.
Of course it was Four.
She opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out because he'd already looked away.
Oh, so he's still mad at me? Tris thinks with the most smallest hint of bitterness and hurt.
She doesn't have much time to get bothered by it because Uriah calls her name.
Tris turns toward him. "Hm?"
He grins. "There's not a lot of space, you can sit on my lap if you want?"
She doesn't point out that a load of people could easily fit. For some odd reason her eyes flicker over to Four, who's watching Uriah with an unreadable expression. She smiles back. "It's fine, no thanks, I'd rather stand."
Uriah frowns and Tris rolls her eyes. "It if makes you feel any better I'll stand next to you."
She walks over to him until she's about two feet away and leans against the wall while stuffing her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket. The last couple of people make their way into the train and then the ride is silent.
Tris takes this time to fully survey the people around her, and she finds herself feeling a little bewildered by the fact that everyone was extremely good-looking from both teams.
The only two people that weren't? Molly and herself.
A wave of curiosity hits her. All these people here, they looked amazing, their lives seemed perfect. But everyone here had issues, it was honestly so hard to believe or comprehend.
Tris lets her hair fall down in front of her as she feels some stares upon her. Group A must've known that she was missing too.
The silence of the area drifted through the railroad car and a sick feeling of dread washed over her. A year ago when Caleb was getting married to Susan the last place they'd said goodbye was the train station. That was the moment that she realized she was on her own, and in a way it was how she could pay back to Caleb for her parents. A lump appeared in her throat. She hadn't seen Caleb since then- only phone calls. The feeling of being in his presence was strong, he'd always looked like mom.
Finally, right when she couldn't take waiting any longer, a guy with tan skin and dark hair looks and points out the train. "There's a green light, we should be getting out now."
Tris stands straight and practically runs over to the front of the train, she was so tired of staying confined that the thought of being outside again was amazing. She didn't want her mind to drift off like it had already.
She grabs hold of the bars from each side of the door and allows the wind to whip her hair back and forth in a frenzy.
"Wait, Tris! Don't-"
But she'd already relaxed her body, bent her legs, and jumped.
There was a moment of free flying and freedom- just a second- before her legs made compact with the ground and she tumbled about two times before landing in a crouch.
Slowly pushing herself up from weak and shaky legs, she brushes herself off and despite her heavy breathing she bursts out laughing. Quickly opening the strap that held her paintball gun to her body, she readjusts it so that she could now hold it and be prepared to shoot.
She makes her way over to the green light and squints at the brightness. Right below it was a digital timer set for 3 minutes and two glowing flags. As if suddenly sensing Tris, it started to countdown.
She rapidly turns toward the people jumping out the train and cups her free hand that wasn't holding her gun over her mouth. "GROUP A, YOUR 3 MINUTE HEAD START HAS STARTED NOW!"
Of course, she didn't have to tell them this, but Tris honestly didn't really care. She grabs her own team flag and notices how instead of being black, it was a glowing dark-grey so it'd be easier to see than blend in the black darkness.
Eric suddenly shoves her aside and grabs the blue glowing flag. "Move it, Stiff."
Tris snorts. "Wow, I'm so offended." She says with sarcasm dripping in her words. "The name 'Stiff' makes me want to start bawling."
He spins around and grabs her waist painfully. "Don't test me or else-"
"-Four and I will kill you." Zeke cuts off as he shoves Eric away from Tris, and then harder again on the chest so he goes walking backwards a few steps.. "You're wasting your time. You obviously need your head-start seeing as you guys suck, now leave."
His eyes narrow as he opens his mouth to speak, but after thinking better of it he goes away.
Zeke rapidly turns to her. "Are you hurt?"
"...No."
After her answer his expression hardens like what Caleb used to do whenever he'd scold her. Somehow, Tris knew this wouldn't be any different.
"How many times have I told you to stay. away. from. Eric?!" Zeke reprimands.
Tris frowns. "He shoved me first, and called me Stiff! Of course I can't leave that alone!"
Zeke exhales heavily. "Tris, honestly, please don't get him mad. If he ever decides to hurt you and gets you as his target he'll torture you slowly and enjoy it. I'm not saying you're weak, but compared to him you're not going to exactly be She-Hulk, okay?"
His words sort of sting her but she just holds her gun tighter. "Okay, whatever."
Noticing her reaction he sighs and touches her shoulder gently. "I'm serious. We all need to look out for each other if we want to survive. We need you to tone down a bit." He rolls his eyes. "Because you're oh-so-talented"
Despite her pissed mood she breaks into a small smile and bows. "Did you hear that guys? He said I'm talented."
Zeke whips around to see Lynn, Uriah, Shauna, Marlene and Will behind him with amused smirks.
Tris shoves Zeke's shoulder while laughing. "I'm kidding, I'm only kidding."
"Did I miss something?" Christina asks as she makes her way over to them closely followed by Four, and then Al who's taking his time to catch his breath.
"Nope." Zeke answers.
Tris glances at the digital timer that suddenly starts to beep. "Time to start. Their head-start is up."
She hands over the flag to Shauna and begins to follow Uriah who's seemingly leading the group.
After almost 15 minutes, Tris feels her breath become a bit heavy. They'd been strolling for a while, and the ground beneath the had turned into streets.
Marlene takes out her phone and after turning on the light, she shines it at the street in front of them.
"Scared of the dark, Mar?" Uriah teases.
"If you want to step on broken glass, Uriah, be my guest," she snaps. But she turns it off anyway.
As they walk, Tris get a weird vibe from around them. It was... Very weird... and familiar...
Apparently, she wasn't the only one.
"Hey, guys?" Al asks. "I think.. I think I know this place."
Uriah turns around but continues walking backwards. "Yeah, I was thinking that too. It seems familiar but I don't know what."
Everyone looks around and studies their surroundings. Tris frowns at the rusty area around them. They were entering... Some type of amusement park?
There was a carousel closest to them, so they make their way over to it. Shauna breaks into a smile. "The merry-go-round!" She exclaims as she hops onto the horse and waves the flag around while everyone else crowds around her.
Then Shauna sucks in a sharp breath and mumbles something.
"What?" Al asks.
"Navy Pier."
Tris feels her eyes widen. Uriah speaks up. "But... But why is it... abandoned?"
Tris chews on the thought that it might be a simulation, however she doesn't say it aloud.
"Who cares where we are? Okay, it's some fake Chicago Navy Pier thingy. There's a game that apparently everyone forgot about and we need a strategy, so get talking!" Lynn exclaims with her hands thrown high above her head in annoyance.
While everyone begins bickering, Tris doesn't bother raising her voice, she listens to a few of their ideas before getting bored and looking around.
It was so weird, everything looked so real. If this was fake, Tris found she had a hard time believing it.
But it had to be fake, right? Navy Pier wasn't exactly abandoned and rickety and old.
She sighs and turns her attention else where.
Which happened to be Four.
He was leaning against a giraffe near Shauna and and gazing up at the night sky. She was slightly jealous of the way he appeared to look so relaxed with his shoulders back and his gun at his feet.
Tris exhales heavily. They way her group was arguing would make it impossible for her to shout out loud. But she did have a strategy, the first thing they'd need to do was figure out where the opposite team's flag was.
They probably walked a mile, so Eric's team would literally be a 2-mile-radius away. The only thing she could think of was to climb. Taking a glimpse at her group still bickering, she purses her lips in thought- then quickly backs away.
She strolls quietly for a few minutes until she reaches the Ferris wheel; it looked slightly brown from rust and lack of use. Despite the way the wind was whipping her hair in her face, she pops her finger into her mouth and tests the wind.
Definitely windy- but she wouldn't let that stop her.
Tris makes her way over to the side and firmly straps her gun so that it rested against her back and left her hands free. Feeling quite daring, she steps on a rung in front of her and puts her weight on it, making sure to bounce her feet.
It seemed pretty firm. She grabs a rung above her and climbs up just one before a voice interrupts her next move.
"Tris."
The voice is low and calm. She glances over her shoulder, for some reason not feeling startled at all.
"Yes?"
"I came to find out what you think you're doing." Four answers placidly. In the moonlight he looked like a terrifyingly handsome god.
Tris frowns, feeling her voice go cold at the reminder that he might still be angry with her.
"I'm seeking higher ground. I don't think I'm doing anything."
Something flashes in his eyes, something like amusement and also indecision. "Alright, I'm coming."
Tris turns back to the rungs above her, suddenly realizing that he probably thinks she can't handle it.
"I'll be fine." She says stiffly.
When she peeks back at him however, he smiles slightly. "Undoubtedly."
Undoubtedly? What does that mean? Tris thinks. Is he mocking me or is he serious? He's not serious.
She watches as he begins to strap his gun like she had, but since she didn't want to be caught looking she resumes her climbing. After she's pretty far up, she notices how he begins to climb right after her, and it wasn't long before he catches up and is grabbing the very rung that her feet would leave.
They both keep quiet for a while before Four speaks up airily. "So. Are you going to tell me about what happened?"
Tris glances back at him for a second before reaching for the next rung. "What about it?"
They both stay quiet for a full minute.
He finally exhales a breath from his puffed up cheeks, something he usually did when he was annoyed. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"
She almost misses the next rung, and it clearly wasn't because of the wind.
"I-I... What?" She ends up chuckling breezily, plainly confused. "Why are you sorry, again?"
"Yeah, of course. You know exactly why."
Tris tries to search through her head but only comes up with one thing. "That you yelled at me?"
She pauses as he snorts. Not seeing that she'd froze above him, he grabs the next rung and brushes a hand against her waist. As she sucks in a quiet breath he quickly pulls away.
"Sorry," He breathes.
Tris could feel the butterflies in her stomach making her go dizzy. She turns to reach for another rung and almost misses it- then she realizes something.
It's him. She was perfectly fine climbing, it wasn't until after Four had caught up to her did she have trouble with figuring out where to step. Something about Four made her feel like she was about to fall. Or turn to liquid. Or burst into flames. Again, she almost misses the next rung.
When she continues to climb, Four follows after a few seconds, giving her a head-start. "I'm sorry for leaving you." He finally answers, exasperated and slightly gulping the air . "If I hadn't left you wouldn't have been-"
Tris turns to look at him. "Are you alright, Four?"
He gazes down, then meets her eyes for the first time. "Are you human, Tris? Being up this high..." Another shaky gulp of air. It's like he couldn't even breathe. "It doesn't scare you at all?"
She looks over her shoulder at the ground. If she fell now, she'd die. But Tris didn't think she'd fall. A sudden gust of air presses against her left side, throwing her body weight to the right. She gasps and clings to the rungs, her balance shifting. Four's cold hand clamps around Tris's hip, one of his fingers finding a strip of bare skin just under the hem of her T-shirt and hoodie.
He squeezes, steadying her and pushing her gently to the left, restoring her balance. Now it's Tris who can't breathe. She pauses, staring at her hands going white from clutching the rungs, her mouth dry. She could feel the ghost of where his hand was, his fingers long and narrow.
"You okay?" he asks quietly.
"Yes," Tris says, her voice strained.
She quickly continues to climb the last several rungs before they finally reach a platform. Tris moves over to the side to make some room for Four. He doesn't use it all though, instead, he presses his back to the support and breathes heavily with his eyes tightly closed.
He opens them when he feels Tris shift next to him, but then he screws them shut again after watching her dangle her feet over the edge.
Tris notices his obvious discomfort. "You're afraid of heights," she states quietly.
Four slowly looks down at his feet. "Everyone's afraid of something."
This causes Tris to chuckle softly. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything."
He finally glimpses at her as if she's crazy. "What the hell?"
"Hm?" She questions innocently.
He stares at her for a few seconds before something flashes in his eyes and he looks away. "I'm not as brave as you think."
Tris has to force herself not to laugh. This guy who apparently was intimidating toward threatening situations didn't think he was brave. He even beat up Eric for goodness sake. She studies his face and realizes that he was looking back at her.
"What?" He asks softly.
She'd been staring too long. "Nothing."
Tris drags her eyes away from him and observes the city around them. She'd come up here for a reason, she had to focus.
The city is pitch-black, but even if it wasn't, Tris wouldn't be able to see very far. A building stands in her way.
"We're not high enough," She says. Tris looks up. Above her is a tangle of white bars, the wheel's scaffolding. If she climbed carefully, she could wedge her feet between the supports and the crossbars and stay secure. Or as secure as possible.
"I'm going to climb," She announces, standing up. Tris grabs one of the bars above her head and pulls herself up. Shooting pains go through her bruised arm, but she ignores them.
Four gives her an exasperated look. "For God's sake, Tris."
"You don't have to follow me," She says, staring at the maze of bars above her. Tris shoves her foot onto the place where two bars cross and pushes herself up, grabbing another bar in the process. She sways for a second, her heart beating so hard she honestly can't feel anything else. Every thought she has condenses into that heartbeat, moving at the same rhythm.
"Yes, I do," he answers.
This is crazy, and Tris knew it. A fraction of an inch of mistake, half a second of hesitation, and her life is over. Heat tears through her chest, and and she smiles as she manages to grab the next bar.
Tris pulls herself up, her arms shaking, and forces her leg under her so she's standing on another bar. When Tris feels steady, she looks down at Four. But instead of seeing him, She sees straight to the ground.
She can't breathe.
Tris nervously imagines her body plummeting, smacking into the bars as it falls down, and her limbs at broken angles on the pavement, just like Rita when she didn't make it onto the net in Uriah's game.
Four grabs a bar with each hand and pulls himself up, easy, like he's sitting up in bed. But he is not comfortable or natural here—every muscle in his arm stands out. It is a stupid thing for her to think when she's one hundred feet off the ground.
She grabs another bar, finding another place to wedge her foot. When she looks at the city again, the building isn't in her way anymore. She's high enough to see the skyline. Beneath the buildings, the streets that are seemingly there look like tunnels.
For a few seconds Tris only sees a dark blanket over the land in front of her, just faint differences between building and sky and street and ground. Then she spots a blue tiny pulsing light on the ground.
"See that?" Tris asks as she lets go of the bar with one hand and points.
Four stops climbing when he's right behind her and looks over her shoulder, his chin next to her head. His breaths flutter against her ear, and she feels shaky again, like she did when climbing the ladder.
"Yeah," he says. A smile spreads over his face.
"It's coming from the park at the end of the pier," he continues. "Figures. It's surrounded by open space, but the trees provide some camouflage. Obviously not enough."
"Okay," Tris answers. She looks over her shoulder at him. They are so close together that she forgets where she was; instead Tris notices that the corners of his mouth turn down naturally, just like her own, and that he has a scar on his chin.
"Um," Tris says. She clears her throat. "Start climbing down. I'll follow you."
Four nods and steps down. His leg is so long that he finds a place for his foot easily and guides his body between the bars. Even in darkness, she can note that his hands are bright red and shaking.
Tris steps down with one foot, pressing her weight into one of the crossbars. The bar creaks beneath her and startlingly comes loose, clattering against half a dozen bars on the way down and bouncing on the pavement.
A sharp pain shoots through her arm and she is then dangling from the scaffolding with her toes swinging in midair. A strangled gasp escapes her.
"Four!"
Tris tries to find another place to put her foot, but the nearest foothold is a few feet away, farther than she can stretch. Not being able to bear the pain from her right hand any longer, she lets go and tries to hold all her weight with only her left arm. Her hand was sweating, something that normally happened whenever she got nervous- and Tris suppresses a scream after a sudden realization.
I will slip. I will slip. Tris thinks in complete panic.
"Hold on!" he shouts. "Just hold on, I have an idea."
He keeps climbing down. He's moving in the wrong direction; he should be coming toward her, not going away from her. Tris stares at her left hand, which is wrapped around the narrow bar so tightly her knuckles are white. Her fingers are dark red, almost purple. They won't last long.
I won't last long.
Tris squeezes her eyes shut. Better not to look. Better to pretend that none of this exists. She hears Four's sneakers squeak against metal and rapid footsteps on ladder rungs.
"Four!" She yells, feeling her grip loosening ever so slightly. "I hurt my arm earlier! I don't know if I can hold on!"
Maybe he left. Maybe he abandoned me. Tris thinks frantically as she doesn't hear a reply, only his sneakers squeaking faster.
She breathes in her nose and out of her mouth. Tris counts her breaths to calm down. One, two. In, out. Come on, Four is all she can think. Come on, do something.
Then she hears something wheeze and creak. The bar she'd been holding shudders, and Tris groans through her clenched teeth as she fights to keep her grip.
The wheel is moving.
Air wraps around her ankles and wrists as the wind gushes up, like a geyser. Tris opens her eyes. She's moving—toward the ground.
Tris can feel the bubble of hysteria in her throat as the ground comes closer and closer. But she was picking up speed. If she didn't drop at the right time, the moving cars and metal scaffolding would drag at her body and carry her with them, and then she really will die.
Every muscle in her body tenses as she hurtles toward the ground. When she can see the cracks in the sidewalk, she drops, and her body slams into the ground, feet first. Her legs collapse beneath her and pulling her arms in, she rolls as fast as she can to the side.
The cement scrapes her face, and she turns just in time to see a car bearing down on her, like a giant shoe about to crush her. She frantically rolls again, and the bottom of the car skims her shoulder.
I'm safe.
Tris, her chest heaving, covers her face with her hands and moans softly at the way her head was pounding so bad, she felt like someone was smacking her head with a rock repeatedly.
Footsteps run toward her and then her hands are being pried away from her face in a frenzy. She winces as Four holds her hands perfectly in his and pulls her into a sitting position.
"You all right?" He asks softly, eyes showing panic.
Then, unexpectedly, she bites the inside of her cheek and buries her face into his chest, gulping in huge gushes of air as her shoulders shook.
Not knowing what to do, he lets go of her hands and wraps his arm around her in comfort. But then she pulls away and he realizes something.
Tris was laughing.
"Yeah." She gasps through her bursts of laughter. "I'm okay."
He joins in and stands, pulling her up with him. The wheel is still moving, creating a wind that tosses her hair back.
"You could have told me that the Ferris wheel still worked," Tris states, trying to sound casual. "We wouldn't have had to climb in the first place."
"I would have, if I had known," he says. "Couldn't just let you hang there, so I took a risk. Come on, time to get their flag."
He turns and Tris begins to run ahead, completely trying to ignore the pain throughout her body. He catches up next to her and when they finally make it back to the carousel, they see Christina perched onto a horse with the flag behind her.
Tris frowns. Will, Al, Zeke, and Marlene were gone.
"Where'd the others go?" asks Four.
Tris internally smiles at the way he looks as excited as she felt, his eyes wide with energy.
"Did you guys turn on the wheel?" Lynn asks. "What the hell are you thinking? You might as well have just shouted 'Here we are! Come and get us!'" She shakes her head.
"The wheel doesn't matter," says Four. "We know where they are."
"We?" says Christina, looking from Four to me.
"Yes, while the rest of you were twiddling your thumbs, Tris climbed the Ferris wheel to look for the other team," he says.
"What do we do now, then?" asks Shauna through a yawn.
Four looks at Tris. Slowly, the eyes of everyone else migrate from him to her. She tense her shoulders, about to shrug and say I don't know, and then an image of the pier stretching out beneath her comes into her mind. She had an idea.
"Split in half," She states. "There's six of us, so three people go to the right side of the pier, three to the left. The other team is in the park at the end of the pier, so the group of three from the left side will charge as the group of three from the right sneaks behind the other team to get the flag."
"Sounds good," says Shauna, clapping her hands together. "Let's get this game over with, shall we?"
Christina joins Tris in the group going to the right, along with Uriah, whose smile looks white against his skin's bronze. She didn't notice before, but other than the labeling, he has a tattoo of a snake behind his ear. She stares at its tail curling around his earlobe for a moment, but then Christina starts running and Tris begins to follow her.
She has to run twice as fast to match her short strides to Christina's long ones. As she runs, Tris realizes that only one of them will get to touch the flag, and it wouldn't matter that it was her plan and her information that got everyone to it if she's not the one who grabs it. Though she can hardly breathe or bear the pain in her body as it was, She runs faster, and then is on Christina's heels. Tris pulls her gun around her body, holding her finger over the trigger.
They reach the end of the pier, and she clamps her mouth shut to keep her loud breaths in. They slow down so their footsteps aren't as loud, and she looks for the blinking light again. Now that she was on the ground, it's bigger and easier to see. Tris points, and Christina nods, leading the way toward it.
Then Tris hears a chorus of yells, so loud they make her jump. She can hear puffs of air as paint balls go flying and splats as they find their targets. Their team has charged, the other team runs to meet Tris's team, and the flag is almost unguarded. Uriah takes aim and shoots the last guard who has blond hair and turquoise colored eyes in the thigh. Tris frowns as he suddenly freezes, and drops to the ground with a pained expression.
She turns around again and sprints to catch up to Christina. The flag hangs from a tree branch, high above her head. Her body seemed too fatigued to climb like she always would've, but she reaches for it, and so does Christina.
"Come on, Tris," she says. "You're already the hero of the day. And you know you can't reach it anyway."
Then a loud shot fires, and Christina's eyes widen. With no warning, Tris sees a glint her eyes before she shoves her in the front as a shield, and a sharp agonizing pain hits her stomach. There's an explosion of blue paint. Then her whole body suddenly becomes numb and it was like the last thing her body honestly could bear, and she doubles over and hits the ground.
Of course there was a catch in the game, the paint balls were as hard as rocks- and they didn't sting like a regular paintball, to Tris it felt exactly like getting a bullet slamming into your body. But what she was shocked about the most was how Christina just shoved her in front of the paintball so she could grab the flag, she couldn't comprehend how immature and stupid it was.
Without looking at her, Christina turns, snatches the flag, and gives a whoop of victory. She can hear a chorus of yells in the distance.
After a couple minutes someones runs over to her and touches her shoulder. "Oh, my God. Tris, are you okay?"
Every breath sent ripples of pain, but she quietly whimpers and turns her head away, the blackness starting to consume her. She forces on a momentary smile. "I'm fine, Al."
Another set of footsteps, much more quicker than Al's. "What happened?"
"She got shot." Al exclaims with worry. Did he not see Christina or was he lying?!
Al slowly gathers Tris and pulls her up. "We need to leave, Tris. We can patch you up later."
Tris tries to act strong- she didn't want to be the center of attention, but when Al sets her on her feet, she felt so stiff. She tips forward and almost falls to the ground again when Four quickly catches her. "Al, she's frozen for three minutes, look around you. Do you not remember the rules?"
He was right. Around them, the people who had been shot were groaning in pain and lying on their backs, waiting for the stiffness to pass.
They can hear the horn of the train in the distance, a faint sound in the stillness of the night.
"Great." Al mutters.
Four crouches next to Tris and frowns at her attempts to hide her grimaces of pain. "Do you think I can carry you until you can start walking again?"
All Tris heard was, "...think... carry.. again...?
She nods her head absent-minded, and Four gently scoops her up bridal style as to not cause too much pain.
"I can carry her if you can't-"
"I've got it." Four cuts off.
Tris lets her eyes fall closed and leans her head against his chest, listening to his fast heart beat from his quick pace to get to the train tracks.
As Four walks, she can feel her feet start to tingle slightly as if they'd fallen asleep, and Tris begins to slowly curl and uncurl her fists to stretch her body.
"Starting to move?" Four asks softly, his gaze glancing down at her every few seconds.
"...Yeah." She croaks, trying to ignore the sharp agonizing pain on her stomach. "You can set me down."
He places Tris back onto the ground but keeps a steady hand at her back. "Okay?"
She succeeds in balancing herself and walking forward a few paces, forcing herself to not double over in pain. "I'll manage, just want to get this over with."
She could almost wince at the way her voice shook slightly. He eyes the way her body is slightly hunched over but doesn't comment on it.
"I'm honestly so happy today is over." She whispers, though Four hears her.
"Oh yeah, one more thing." He adds.
The train blares again, catching them off guard. Four walks over to Tris until he was right behind her ear, and she sucks in a breath.
"Well done," He says quietly, his lips slightly curled upward.
"I'm exhausted, those idiots called us over to cafeteria at 2 am and now it's probably 5 in the morning." Zeke moans while rubbing his bandaged knee.
Tris was seated on the bed in the infirmary, trying to keep still as Tori bandaged her stomach. The only people that weren't there were Shauna and Christina.
"Ow," She gasps as Tori dabs a bunch of cool, stinging alcohol onto her wound.
"Sorry, but this is a bad bruise, how close to the shooter were you, Tris?" Tori asks, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
She clenches her teeth as Tori pulls tightly on the bandages. "Pretty close,"
"It doesn't even matter how close you were, those paint balls stung like a motherfucker, I swear the material was like an actual rock when it hit me." Lynn adds with a scowl.
"I mean, at least we won, right? Guess in a way it's worth it." Will suggests.
They all nod in agreement.
"So, you climbed the Ferris wheel, huh?" Uriah asks, breaking the silence.
Tris looks up to see him staring at her. "Um, yeah. To get a better view of where the flag might've been, why?"
He shrugs with a small smile. "Nothing, just impressive and cool, I guess."
"Yeah, pretty smart of you." Marlene adds.
"But guys, I seriously can't believe we had to go to a search party for the flag, we missed the whole action!" Al complains with a groan.
"Because life's not fair, Albert. And the world is conspiring against you." Will cuts in.
Marlene giggles. "Haha. Nice theory."
Lynn plays with the bandage on her left arm. "I better be able to use this arm later, honestly."
"It'll go away before the next game, that's for sure." Four says from the corner of the room where he'd been leaning against the wall- silent the whole time.
Tris winces as Tori gives a firm pat onto her stomach. "Alright, there we go, done."
"Didn't need to smack me." Tris mumbles while slowly pushing herself up.
Lynn laughs lightly. "How would you react if I told you that you look like a girl version of the hunchback? Quit doubling over."
"How would you react if I told you that the way your arm is bandaged makes you look like a sorry version of Thing from Fantastic Four?" Tris shoots back. "Having trouble transforming?"
Zeke bursts out laughing and clutches his shoulder as Lynn scowls. "Ow. Ow Tris, stop making me laugh, ow."
Tris narrows her eyes at him and heads over to the door. "I'm not even doing anything, calm down."
She opens the door and leans against it for support. "Don't know about you all but I'm leaving. Get some sleep. Bye."
"Bye." Everyone says in unison.
Tris waves and leaves the room, biting her cheek as she hears the soft footsteps trail behind her.
Knowing it was Four, Tris remains silent and continues to walk until she reaches their room.
He steps forward and unlocks the door with his key. They both make eye contact briefly but then they both look away.
After Tris steps into the room, Four follows and shuts the door behind them.
Tris blows out a shaky breath and slowly eases herself onto her own bed. "Can we please sleep and talk later?"
Four exhales deeply and sits in front of her. He's silent for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Better now than later."
A/N- ...Hey guys, I'm sorry I didn't update, I couldn't find my Divergent book so I had to search up the freaking thing and reread the Ferris wheel scene again, because sometimes things shouldn't be messed with- you should keep it original, know what I mean?
Sorry if there was errors in my writing or if it got kinda boring or shitty... And I honestly appreciate the way you guys encourage me, (*Hugs through screen*)
Anyway, yerp, that's it. My Winter Break started, HOORAAYY! 2 WEEKS, YAAS! I'll sleep in, honestly, I don't have anything planned. But I'll try to write more!
So you all know what the next chapter will sorta be about.. Yeah..
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