LOL, I don't really know why I was so excited to write this chapter, maybe because this has the scene I've been replaying in my head over and over again the past few days, and the scene that got me to start this in the first place. So, yeah. Review please! :D Thanks for the other responses so far :)

Chapter 4

The Factionless

We leave the initiates' compound almost immediately after our early breakfast. Outside our building is a line of plastic bags laid out on the empty lot. We each take at least one and get on our way.

As we walk along the sidewalk in two or three lines, I can't tell because some stray to the sides, one of the members in front, our initiation leaders, turn around and begin to walk backwards to address us, while another members supports her from behind.

"When we enter the Factionless sector of the city, we will need every one of you to take extreme caution. Cracked roads, open manholes, buildings on the verge of collapsing, and of course, people we are never too sure how to handle." She pauses as she looks behind her after stumbling slightly against an uneven part of the sidewalk. "And that is a sign we're getting close."

She turns her back to us and continues, "In those plastic bags you are carrying is either food or clothes which you will distribute among the Factionless you pass evenly. If they've received their share of both, move on and look for others; they scatter throughout this area, so you might even find some in alleys or inside buildings."

She turns her head over her shoulder to looks at us for a last-minute reminder, "Since this is most likely the first time the transfers have been to this part of the city, we will have to ask at least one Abnegation-born to accompany each transfer, and everyone else, do your rounds in pairs, as well."

Given the even number of initiates, we will be doing this in pairs. I was just about to ask Susan to be my partner when I see her talking to Diane, and then she turns to Rhea and they both look at Tina. Then she turns to me.

"Who are you taking, Beatrice?"

"I, uh—," I don't know. I shrug and look at one of the transfers. I spot Riza, skipping steps on the sidewalk, her head bowed down, and I suddenly remember my plan to ask her about Dauntless. Yesterday, I remember replaying my questions in my head, molding it to sound right. I was about to ask Susan about her, just as we stop when we almost bump into Robert, who had stopped walking to walk with us.

"The guys are all paired up," he grimaces, then asks, his mood suddenly perked up, "So, who's available?"

I look behind him, at Riza, then I look at the Dauntless she transferred with, Bryan. He looked behind his shoulder to glance at her, and she looks up almost at the same moment. He winks at her, and I suddenly know that if not her, I know who I want to spend this day with.

"I am. Someone I know got another partner before I even knew what was going on…" I look at Susan from the corner of my eye and I realize that I'm back with the sarcasm I think the Abnegation do not appreciate that I want to take back what I said. But instead, she grins, and retorts, "Hey, you seemed out of it, Beatrice!"

I laugh with the others who were listening in. Then Robert, moving to my other side, takes the plastic bag of food in my hand and balances it with his own on both his shoulders. I see Susan exchange looks with Rhea, and this subtle notion reminds me of Caleb: of how it used to be me and Robert exchanging those looks, and it was him and Susan flirting. But with that thought, I backtrack. Could Robert be flirting with me? I finally see my future going in perspective.


"To project always outward," Janice, our leader, recites as she skips past a crevice on the sidewalk, "Until I disappear." We say it back in unison. A bus passes us as we walk, Abnegation children sitting by the windows looking at us, curious, wondering if they will be in the same position as us in a few years.

A huge crack at the right side of the road that the bus had just avoided tells us that we have arrived at the Factionless sector of the city. We begin almost immediately, copying Janice and the other leaders when they begin giving supplies to the wandering Factionless.

I spot one staring out through the window of a building, and I look at Robert and motion for him to come with me. By the base of what once seemed to have been a sidewalk, I pull down my bag from Robert's hand and crouch down to open it. The knot was tighter than I expected, so I strain my fingers and sit on the ground to pull it loose. Robert crouches down beside me and attempts to untie the knot of his bag as well.

"So, Abnegation life living it up for you, yet?" he asks. I pull my hands back and massage my fingers, turning red from all the pulling, and look at him.

"What?"

"I'm not blind, Beatrice," he grins sneakily as he plays with the knots of the plastic bag, "Your mask on Choosing Day may have fooled some people, but not me… and most especially not Caleb."

I stare at him for a while, not breathing. Then I take a deep breath and fall on my behind as I exhale. I put my legs out and rest my arms on my knees, trying my luck with the knots again. I snicker under my breath and look at him, squinting my left eye, "Was it that obvious?"

"Noooo," he teased, rolling his eyes, "I just guessed."

I slap his arm, laughing, the sleeves of my father's gray dress shirt falling. I fold it up just above my wrists before I plop my hands down on my lap. "I—

"I don't know what came over me, really, I didn't— I didn't know what I was thinking, I just…" I pause, taking a deep breath before proceeding, "I felt for a while that maybe I wasn't… fit for Abnegation. And for even just thinking that, I already feel selfish."

I look down and turn away from him, embarrassed about what I just confessed to him. "Hey," he whispers, "I'm not judging you for being true to yourself." I look back at him for a while, trying to read his expression, and smile at him.

"It's just normal, I guess. I can't really imagine anyone to be truly selfless, you know? It's... I don't know; sure maybe some, but…" and he trails off. I stare a while at the bag in front of me that I just opened and look at him as realization began to dawned on me.

"YOU, Robert?" I ask in shock, a bit too loudly at first, but when I see his expression, I shrink back on the floor and whisper, "You wanted to transfer, Robert?"

He stares at me as he tries to say something but just ends up with a long "What?" He continues to stutter and ends with a snort. I laugh at him as he shakes his head.

"Robert!" I sit up on my heels and slap his arm.

"Yes!" he says, in between laughs, "Yeah, I— I guess…"

I bend down to level with his bowed head and stare at him.

"But what made you stay?"

He looks up at me retorts, "What made you stay?"

I sit back down and snicker, "Oh, okay, so we'll be stubborn about this, then."

He shakes his head and look back at his plastic bag, opening it.

"You know, I'd understand. It… it just makes perfect sense, I mean you're smart, and then there's Caleb—"

"Wait, what?" I cut him off.

He looks back up at me, looking shocked at my reaction. "Erudite," he says, a pitch too high for him, "I said it would make perfect sense if you still chose to transfer there even after these articles lately—"

"You thought I was going to transfer to Erudite?" I have to stop cutting him off, I think, but he has got to stop surprising me with these things.

His face contorts strangely as he asks "You weren't?" and I shake my head, sort of laughing. The thought of him thinking I would just proves that he may not have been paying much attention to me these past sixteen years, much. Then again, neither have I; I never saw Caleb's Erudite-side until the Choosing Ceremony, nor Robert's… selfishness, maybe.

"Erudite? Really, Caleb, why Erudite?" I keep laughing, a bit too hysterically, but the thought that anyone would think I would want to transfer to Erudite makes me sick to the stomach for some reason. I think I may despise the Erudite subconsciously, even more now that they have claimed my brother, so I just laugh it off.

"I just told you: you're smart, and… well, when I saw your reluctance at the Hub after Caleb made his choice, I just… assumed…"

I shake my head.

"Well," he begins, "If not Erudite, which is it then? Amity?"

"Nope. Not my thing."

His eyebrows draw together, a crease forming at the top of his nose. "It's not Erudite or Amity. And let's be honest, Beatrice," he looks at me through his lashes, with his head bent sideways, "You're not very honest."

He snickers as I make a mock-shocked gasping sound and hit him hard on his back. He rubs his back and goes silent, a slight smile still on his lips. "Then, Beatrice, that only leaves one other faction."

I sigh. Robert is the first I've ever told this to; not even Caleb knows this. I look at the back of his head, his curly blonde hair still short from last week's cut.

"I never took you for the Dauntless type, really," he turns his head to the side to look at me, his left eye squinting, the sun rising behind me.

"What, you don't think I can handle it? Being brave?"

"No, the… violent, strong," he points at the plastic bag I was unable to open just a few minutes ago; I am tempted to hit him again, "parts of Dauntless."

"I could have worked on it. I bet they go through training during initiation," I tell him. And I do really, but I will never really know for sure, anymore.

"Okay, so I get that," his voice suddenly low, almost like a whisper, "but why'd you stay? You seem to really want it, given that your aptitude test bothered you enough to consider it? Why didn't you, I don't know, go for it, instead?" his tone was different, a bit desperate for the answer, a bit frustrated, even. I don't know why; then I think I do. Maybe he wanted to feel comforted that he was the only one who felt the same way as him, selfish but selfless at the same time. He was still probably having second thoughts like me.

I open my mouth, about to correct him about my results, to tell him that I got Abnegation, like Tori told me to, but I stop. It would raise more questions if I tell him I got Abnegation, like why would it even pass my mind to transfer to Dauntless if not for the aptitude test? So I decide against it, and decide to just let him believe my results were Dauntless, and anyone else who I might end up wanting to confess to about my reluctant choice.

"When Caleb transferred, I couldn't…" I stutter, "couldn't bear the thought of leaving my parents. He'd left me no other choice, so I stayed." I look back at him. "You did the same thing too, you know, Robert."

I don't know what I said wrong, but he looked… almost disappointed, or insulted, I don't know. I don't see a reason for him to feel that way.

"Oh no, Beatrice, no… I could've left, Beatrice. I could've," the emphasis he put on the word 'left' evident, "Susan chose before me, and she stayed. I could've left feeling relieved that I didn't leave my parents alone, and knowing their selflessness, they'd even visit me. But I didn't."

I blink. "You and I," his finger switching back and forth, pointing at me then him, "it turns out, have very different ways of viewing life, and that includes," he sits up and kneels on one knee, turning his back on me, as he twirls the top of his plastic bag around his palm, "the choices we make, along with the decisions and reasons that come with it. And our reasons are…" he turns around to face me, him now being higher than me, he looks down at me, his eyes widen when realizes how close he has gotten to me with that movement, and looks away, back to his plastic bag, throwing it over his shoulder and standing up, "also… different."

He turns back to me one last time and smiles at me, practically closing his eyes. When he stands up, I stare blankly at his back, until he turns around and nods his head towards the building, and I finally stand up to follow him, half-carrying, half-dragging my bag behind me.


We spend the rest of the afternoon giving out food and clothes to the Factionless, which, luckily, Robert and I both have in our bags. Some of the Factionless accept our donations with no trouble, used to it and actually expecting it now. Others shy away from us. They aren't all like this. Some Factionless still have the virtue of their past factions with them, but I suppose they begin to lose it over time. Years spent alone can do that to people, I suppose.

When Robert and I reach an empty lot with several of the Factionless roaming and sitting around, we decide to ration out our food and clothes to hasten our rounds.

Having families among the Factionless is rare. Not impossible, but rare. I heard in a meeting, one I wasn't supposed to be listening to, once, from one of my father's colleagues, that it is one of the reasons why the Factionless are what they are now. They were too selfish to be Abnegation, thinking of their own needs and wants instead of thinking of what future their children would have, too idiotic to be Erudite and think things through, things like that.

While crouched down, giving and old woman, leaning against the ruins of a building, her food and clothes, a boy who looked around his pre-teens walked towards us. He seemed to be limping, so I wish the old woman care and turn away from her and towards the boy. I take out a set of clothes folded neatly into plastic and one Styrofoam package to hand over to him.

As I reach out for him to take it, he approaches slowly at first, then when he was close enough, grabs the styrofoam from my hand and opens it immediately to bite into a piece of chicken, the plastic of clothes falling on the floor beside me. I pick it up and approach him, and he looks up at me. He reaches for the plastic of clothes, but I see, for an instant, his eyes flicker to the plastic behind me. Being the kid he was, he moved fast as he ran for the plastic, grabbing what he could fit in his small hands, in this case two more of the styrofoam packs and, before running away, grabs the plastic of clothes from me.

I was too stunned to do anything about it, other than try to grab him at the last minute. But he quickly moved away and skirted past Robert who was walking towards me, a confused look on his face as he watched the boy run into an alley; he probably didn't see what the boy just did.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"I don't… I don't know, he seemed… shy." I just say. I didn't want to know if he would chase after the boy to get back the food, but I didn't tell him just to be safe. The boy may have taken those for a reason. And the mere fact that he was that young implies having a family, maybe even younger siblings.

He shrugs off further question and we go on with our rounds, but I can't help but think of the state the Factionless are in. I wonder how different they could be that they would fail their initiation or leave their old faction. If faced with the choice, I believe I would rather be dead than Factionless, no matter how I look at it.


It is only when we get home that I realize it took all of us until dark to finish our rounds. Tina and Rhea were telling us the story about how one of the Factionless threatened them to hand over their supplies; they would have if Bryan and Riza, the transfers from Dauntless, didn't interfere.

As I stare out the window of the cafeteria, Robert sits down beside me.

"Hey, where are you this time?"

"Not in a hole, that's for sure."

"Are you, by any chance, at the Dauntless or Erudite compound?" he whispers in my ear. I punch his knee and shush him. I can't afford letting anyone else know about it. He grins.

"Erudite. I miss Caleb," I admit.

"I do too, but we have to move on. Hey, you might get to see him on Visiting Day," he says, winking at me before leaving.

And with that happy thought, I smile. I actually have something else to look forward to now.


Thoughts? Bad chapter, didn't live up to your expectations? Any errors found, go ahead, by all means! Be brave. :)