Chapter 5
Almost two months had passed since Eric had stolen away in the small hours of the morning from his faction and life. The first few weeks had been rough as he accepted his new role and normal.
The first two days, Eric had taken out all of his frustration, anger and fear on the logs he split with the ax he had found in a 'shed' that was built in the same manner as the cabin not far from it. Before slipping away at night when he had been asleep and without saying goodbye to him, Elle had given him some background on the home and why it was a perfect spot for hiding.
This home had once belonged to an Elder of Amity. After losing his family to either sickness, leaving the faction at their choosing, or the factionless attacks that were more common in his faction; the old man had forsaken company and become a recluse. He himself had been a former Erudite and his son that had transferred there had helped him to design the place. Even snuck in the materials to provide all the luxuries Eric was currently enjoying.
Maybe they had using it like it was being used now in mind because Elle said it wasn't the first time someone had been smuggled into it.
The previous owner had finally decided to leave the city altogether but did so quietly. Most people in Amity still thought he lived there and the supply deliveries weren't out of the ordinary. In exchange it was told to Eric that he could chop wood and leave bundles of it in designated areas for the residents that used it for their heating sources.
Within two weeks he already had what had to be two months worth of wood for barter. The emotions that fueled that were calmed when on one particular supply pick up he found a bag that was clearly from Dauntless.
Taking it back home he opened it to find items that were all too familiar and realized this was from Elle. Things that he had left behind in his apartment during their escape were neatly filling the bag. Well worn books, a small photo album that had been hidden from plain view, his personal weapons that he had left behind in his apartment, items of clothing even filled the bag.
Most surprising, and that filled him with something he hadn't felt in a while, were the boxes and bags of things he could use to prepare some of his favorite foods. Things they had shared with each other in that meal when he first arrived.
It left Eric confused in what to think about Brielle Collins. That in itself wasn't new; it had been the one main constant from the time she transferred. The other part was confused on what he felt for her or was beginning to feel. More importantly what the hell she thought or felt about him.
At times she acted like the very fact she was breathing the same air as him sickened her. Others she showed such understanding of him, his position and way of doing things that had always made him uncomfortable but liked it at the same time.
He knew she responded to him physically but seemed to hate that fact too. It wasn't like he had any experience to draw from but that didn't seem like the reaction of someone who was attracted to another.
Then she went and did something like this and his head was spinning like mad again.
'Are all women this goddamn confusing or is it just the one I seem to be interested that is?'
It wasn't a question that looked like he would be getting an answer to that as the young woman herself never made an appearance again.
He did have a visitor and one he got along with fairly well. Openly he had showed Johanna Reyes nothing but disdain as a Dauntless leader. Privately he had great respect for her considering he would never have been able to help the people he had without her.
Two days into the third week of his seclusion he had been alerted to someone approaching the cabin by the small discreet sensors placed along the path. He had taken the spot Elle had showed him where he could look out and engage from; only to see her making her way up but clearly showing him who she was and that she was unarmed.
They exchanged polite greetings then went to the cabin. He offered her some of the tea he had found himself drinking often now, and she took it with an amused smile.
Her shrewd eyes took him in appraisal. Brielle has worried how the young man would handle being taken out of the fight. So much so that she had asked the elder Amity to post a few of her trusted members on lookout for if he tried to leave. She was fond of Eric so it had been no hardship to give the young woman that piece of mind.
It was also no trouble to obtain a few items they knew would be needed to make sure Eric would not be recognized should he have to venture out into Amity.
Never one for much patience, Eric got the ball rolling by barraging Johanna with questions. It was not a surprise for her that the first was if Brielle had been heard from and if she was ok.
A knowing smile crossed her face before she removed it and answered. "She is well but communication from now on will be hard. The situation is rapidly deteriorating. It hasn't come to fighting yet and there are those of us that are trying to remain neutral that hope we can avoid it. I will admit, that even we are meeting with hostility from both sides. I have hope though. I think we will all need that to make it through this."
"Is it reported I am missing or dead?" Eric asked in a strained voice.
Every piece of the Dauntless in him is crying out to take up arms and fight to stop this.
"It is assumed you are dead though both sides have not claimed responsibility or taken credit. There are those that are still doubtful and think you are in hiding somewhere."
"Then Elle will be found out if they don't believe she took care of me!" Eric raised his voice only to have Johanna place a hand on his arm to calm him.
"She thought of that Eric and placed the blame on one of the men that was assigned to bring you in. I am not sure how exactly she arranged it but I was told you have a signature way of fighting and he was found with markers of that. The story being passed around is that she did her job of luring you out but that you were able to get out of the trap and overcome your attackers. A believable story and makes much more sense than her trying to say that she alone was able to take you out given your reputation."
Eric mulled this over and when he thought through, it was a good plan. Not that Elle isn't capable of taking him out but it was good that people were underestimating her. Something he had always suspected she helped along by placing sixth during initiation. A great source of argument and tension for them. He had been sure she was holding back but could never figure out why, it had royally pissed him off.
Eric scratched the stubble from the beard he had decided to let take over now that he was basically a lumberjack. "So what else have you heard?"
"That is really all. Dauntless has pulled all guards from the wall with the unrest building in the city but also the faction itself. Erudite has their own divide and conflicts. Factionless are getting more bold but that was to be expected. Amity itself is so far out any fighting, if it does come to that, will be a while in making it to our doors. We might not look it and have always purposely kept that appearance but you know we have people that would be capable of defending us."
It was looking bad all around and if Dauntless wasn't united there was no way to restore proper order. Amity might have a handful of people that could handle themselves but wouldn't be able to take on a good sized opposition.
He needed to get back. As if sensing exactly what he was thinking, she resumed speaking.
"Eric, we need to talk about the next step for you. With things looking like they are, going back isn't going to be an option. I promised Brielle a few things and one of them was the option of trying to still keep you in the city. To do that we can't rely on the makeup she provided at first. There is a way to hide the most obvious sources of identification on you but it is your choice on using them."
With that Johanna opened her bag and pulled out a few items. Items he recognized by sight. One was a gel that could be applied in stages to remove tattoos and repair the skin so that it appears as if it was never inked. The other was larger doses of nano-gel and serum along with something help to close the holes in his earlobes that removing his gauges would leave.
He sat staring at those items for way too long. Weighing his options and reviewing in his mind how exactly he had come to be at this place. It took so long that Johanna got up to leave him to his thoughts, unpacked the other bags she had brought for the kitchen and made a light lunch for them.
When she returned to the table she placed a plate in front of him then sat at the small kitchen table with her own plate.
"So my options are staying here but remove all traces of being Dauntless, leaving the city completely or saying fuck it and take my chances then go back?" Eric spoke his thoughts out loud.
"That does seem to be what is before you. Though I know you will appreciate me being straightforward. Is the third one really an option you want to consider?"
Eric raked a hand through his rapidly re-growing, wild hair. "Just sitting here isn't me, Johanna. My faction and city is tearing itself apart. I could be there and try to help bring them together. They need to set aside the dumb shit and see the truth. I am here but what good am I doing?"
Johanna nodded sagely and with understanding. She herself had been Dauntless so knew the disposition that the young leader had was one that would not allow him to sit idle. But he was also Erudite and would see that to rush in and go back would be suicide.
"Eric, even if you went back you would not be able to help as you wish to do. Currently your brothers and sisters in arms see each other as the enemy. They also see you as their biggest one thanks to your reputation and propaganda from both sides naming you as one of the city traitors. They would shoot on sight rather than unite behind you. Something, if I know Brielle, she is working hard to combat. This was the promise I made to her Eric. That if you thought of going back, I tried to persuade you not to. I am loathe to tell you her ultimate reason...but I think you can guess it. If she and those she works with, a very small group we are indeed, fail to stop this madness then something and someone will be needed for what comes after. She believes the city will need you to pick up the pieces when the smoke clears. I happen to agree with that sentiment but I am one of the few that do currently."
Eric is floored by this and while it should make him feel good that someone has faith in him, it doesn't.
"Why? Why does she have such faith in me? Why would she risk so goddamn much for me, Johanna? What is this debt she goes on about but never explains? Tell me that and maybe I can consider the course of action you are suggesting." Eric is half pleading and demanding.
Needing something to go on. To keep him for fighting his way to her side...or maybe he just wants some indication she would want him there.
Johanna was at a crossroads here. She didn't believe that Brielle owed Eric the debt that she clinged to but she also recognized that it was the young woman's way of justifying the betrayal she also felt she was committing in doing what is undeniably right. Brielle was put in a very hard position at a young age. One that caused her much pain when her path became clear those last few months. To save Eric as he saved her brother she would need to betray the sister that loathed and rivaled Eric and everything he supposedly stood for.
"Some of that is not my secrets to tell but I will tell you what I can. Your Elle learned a few years before she transferred that someone close to her was not killed as she had been first told but that you had a hand in getting them out. She discovered that this person was not the only the one you risked for. I am sure you can guess she was informed you were firmly in Jeanine's camp and something of a monster. It has been hard on her knowing the truth but having to pretend that she believes exactly what she has been told. For the life you saved and the things you have been made to suffer because of that, she has taken it as a debt to be paid."
"Fuck." Eric bellowed and shoved away from the table.
Pacing he rubbed the back of his neck.
'What the fuck do I do with that? If I sit back and do as she asks….will it cost her her life? I can't allow that to happen. The debt shit is stupid. I did what I did knowing what would happen. If I disregard what she wants then I put her at risk anyways and everything she is working on. Fucked if I do and fucked if I don't."
Eric had finally paced himself into a decision and he turned to Johanna.
"I will do all the removing shit, stay here and wait. But Johanna my patience and willingness to allow others to battle alone and for me; won't be long. I need to be kept up to date on what is going on. I need to get out of this fucking house from time to time. So I will do what I need to do but I need you to promise me something too."
Taking a guess at what that might be she nodded. "If I get indications she is truly in danger then I will try my best to get her out or convince her to leave."
"Or you tell me and I will go retrieve her ass myself." Eric agreed but put in that final condition.
Johanna let her lips quirk in a smile but nodded and motioned to the table and the food. He sat and they proceeded to have lunch and speak about the next steps now he has decided.
He thought it would be harder on him to go through with the removing of his tattoos but when compared to what is at stake it was nothing.
By the time Johanna set out she had already helped him with the parts he would need assistance on. By her next promised visit in two weeks any trace of Dauntless was well and truly be gone.