GUYS YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SORRY I AM SORRY SORRY SORRY!

I know it's no excuse, but I had strep throat so yeahhhh I skipped school for three days and apparently we had like two tests that are important and I don't know anything about the material BECAUSE I WASN'T THERE. GAHHHH.

Btw, I might stop Grey to Blue to Black for awhile, idk, I just wanna finish this story and prob The Beauty of One and get on with my life because this is kinda weighing me down, because this is just a hobby.

Have any of you heard about the new phone thingy that is like Siri but like Corona or something? When I first heard it, I thought of, hold onto your hats fellow Gleeks: KIKI! YASSSS. :D

Goal: 286 favs, 387 followers, and 730 reviews! I know you guys can do it!

Please review, follow, favorite, and check out my other stories!

Chapter XXXIII. The Traitors

TRIS

I walk down the hallway with Lynn at my side, towards the elevator bank. I watch as some of the older Dauntless start marking the walls with colored squares. "You know," Lynn starts, "considering the fact that Dauntless don't really care if they get lost, and looking at this," she gestures to the colored squares. "Kinda worries me."

I nod. "I kinda agree," I say, "But that's because the Dauntless headquarters is their home. This is Candor, and the Candor headquarters is like a maze to them. A maze which they want to learn to navigate through."

She looks at me. "You could be Erudite, Four." I forcibly roll my eyes.

That's one thing that's not in my aptitude, I say in my head. At least I didn't have to confess my aptitude test results.

"I have my moments." I say, then look around at all of the not-so-familiar faces. "Why did everyone leave Dauntless headquarters?" I ask. "The traitors aren't there, are they?" My lips slightly turn down, thinking of Zeke.

"No, they're at Erudite headquarters. We left because out of all of the places in the city, the Dauntless headquarters have the most surveillance cameras." Lynn sighs. "Cameras that could easily be accessed by the Erudite. It would take forever to find and disconnect all of the cameras, considering the fact that there a total of a hundred-six just in the pit."

She picks at her cuticles. "So, we thought that the best thing to do was to leave."

"Smart," I say.

"I have my moments," she mocks. I slightly grin.

Lynn jabs her finger into the button for the first floor at one of the elevators. Uriah and Marlene step inside the elevator with us.

We stand in silence for a while. My heart starts to pound because of one, heights, and two, my claustrophobia. I breathe steadily and rest the back of my head on the wall. Until Lynn breaks the somewhat comforting silence. "So…" she starts, "What, are we even doing."

"We are going to spy on Erudite," Uriah answers.

"I have a feeling that this is going to backfire," says Marlene, her sweet voice sounding worried.

I shrug. "We'll just have to let it play out."

The elevator jolts to a stop and we slip out of the small enclosure, and my breathing pattern returns to normal.

A few Dauntless with large guns pace back and forth in front of the doors, keeping an eye out for intruders. In front of them stands a small group of younger Dauntless, including Shauna and Lauren.

As we approach them, Lynn stops short, and I accidentally stop on her heel. "Shit," she swears.

"Sorry," I mumble, as Uriah wears a grin on his face.

"What a charmer you are," teases Shauna, smiling at Lynn. Now that I look closely at the two of them, I realize how much they don't look alike.

"Yes, that's my ultimate goal. To be charming," Lynn replies. Shauna drapes an arm across Lynn's shoulders. It's strange to see someone like Lynn with a sister—to see Lynn with a connection to someone at all. I look down, thinking about the lovable jokester named Joey.

Shauna glances at me, her smile slightly disappearing. She looks wary. I almost frown; ever since the interrogation, trust has been lost in several close friends.Christina, my head reminds me.

Tobias.

"Hi," I say, because there's nothing else to really say.

"Hello," she says blankly. I notice how much the lack of her boyfriend is getting to her; the swollen skin under her eyes, the slightly red nose.

"Oh God, mom's gotten to you, too, hasn't she." Lynn facepalms and sighs. "Shauna—"

"Lynn. Keep your mouth shut for once," says Shauna, her eyes still positioned on me. Her muscles are tense, like she thinks that I might attack her at any moment, with my special brainpowers.

Like I would even hurt an innocent, I want to respond, feeling the cold metal of the imaginary gun in my hand, remembering myself in my third fear.

I see Marlene giving me a look of pity and Uriah's eyebrows turned down in the corner of my eye. "Oh!" he says, rescuing me, "B-Four, do you know Lauren?" he lightly flinches at his little slip-up.

"Yeah," Lauren answers, before I can even open my mouth to respond. Her voice is sharp and clear, like she's scolding him, except it actually seems to be the way she naturally sounds. That's what everyone thought of Marcus. I normally try not to live in the past, but my past was brought back within the past few weeks.

"She went through my fear landscape for practice during Dauntless initiation. So she knows me better than she should, probably."

"Really? I thought that the transfers would go through Tobias's landscape," Uriah questions.

"Like he would let anyone do that," she says, snorting.

Something inside me gets warm and fuzzy. He let me go through it. And he went through mine. And the reason why he didn't let anyone go through was probably because of his sixth fear.

My eyes shoot up when I see a flicker of blue over Lauren's shoulder, and peer around her shoulder to look a better look.

That's when I hear the gunshots.

The glass doors explode into tiny fragments, and Dauntless soldiers with blue armbands stand on the sidewalk outside, carrying guns that I have never seen before.

Guns with narrow, blue beams of light streaming from above their barrels. "Laser sight attachments," Lauren whispers, followed by a small curse.

Then someone screams loudly, almost as if they are pained to say the word, "Traitors!"

The Dauntless draw their guns, almost in perfect unison. I reach back to my back pocket and find not a gun, but a knife, and I mentally curse.

I duck behind the wall of loyal Dauntless in front of me, using them as a human shield.

All around me, people drop to the ground. My fellow faction members, my closest friends. All falling—they must be dead, or suffering in that small section between life and death that I have experienced countless times—as the earsplitting bang of bullets fill my ears.

Then I freeze. I freeze in fear as one of the blue beams is fixed on the middle of my chest. I look into the eyes of the Dauntless traitor, who's eyes show no mercy. I dive sideways to get out of the line of fire, but I don't move fast enough.

Because his finger pulls back on the trigger, and I fall.

My shoulder hits the ground first and I clench my jaw, holding in a groan. The pain subsides to a dull ache, and I slide my hand under my jacket and search for the wound.

I don't feel any blood, but when I feel, my teeth bit down on my lower lip and I taste the metallic twang of blood in my mouth. I run my fingers over my shoulder gently, and feel a hard bump where the skin used to be smooth.

I look at the floor next to my face, where a metal cylinder the size of my hand rolls to a stop against my head. It looks similar to a firework. Before I can get up or move the strange contraption, white smoke quickly sprays out of both ends. I cough heavily, and throw it far away from me, deeper into the lobby. But I hear the same noise.

But the noise is much, much louder.

The cylinders are everywhere, filling with smoke that thankfully does not burn or sting, but only blocks my view for a few seconds before disappearing completely.

I don't understand what the point of that even was.

Lying on the floor all around me are Dauntless soldiers with their eyes closed. I almost have a heart attack, thinking that they are all dead, as they lie with their eyes shut and body motionless. I frown as I look Uriah up and down—he isn't bleeding, and I don't see a wound anywhere near his vital organs, which means he isn't dead. What knocked him unconscious? He lies next to Marlene, who has the same symptoms.

I look over my left shoulder, where Lynn is in a strange, half-curled position. She's also unconscious. I look back at Uriah, whose fingers wrap around Marlene's, and I remember that he was aware the day after the final rankings. He is Divergent. I pray that he continues to keep up the act.

The Dauntless traitors walk into the lobby, all ready to attack with their guns held up. Noticing that everyone else is unconscious and I might be killed, I act like my friends. I drop my head and close my eyes; not forcibly, but tight enough to make it seem natural.

My heart races as the traitor's footsteps come closer, and closer, combat boots squeaking on the marble floor. I bite my tongue to suppress a small cry of pain as one of them steps on my hand; not like I'm not used to it anyway.

"Not sure why we can't just shoot them all in the head," one of them says. "If there's no army; we win."

"Now, Bob, we can't just kill everyone," a cold voice with an annoyed tone says. The hair on the back of my neck stands up, and chills run through my bones. I would know that voice anywhere. And it belongs to one of the leaders of Dauntless. The man with the buzz-cut blond hair, eyebrow piercings, multiple tattoos, and a permanent scowl. The enemy of Tobias. The one who almost killed him, but I shot him in the foot before he could.

Eric.

"No people means no one left to create prosperous conditions," Eric continues. "Anyway, it's not your job to ask questions," he reprimands Bob, voice raised. "Alright, half in the elevators, half in the stairwells, left and right! Go!"

I open my left eye the tiniest bit possible, and see a shiny, chrome, grey slur to my left that is in the shape of a gun. I close my eye once again. I think about the outcome of what would happen if I opened my eyes, grabbed the gun, and fire it at him before he knew what hit him. But there's little chance that I won't be shot down by the twenty other Dauntless traitors.

I lay still until I hear the last footstep disappear behind an elevator door or into a stairwell before opening my eyes. I prop my elbows up, sitting up. Everyone in the lobby appears to be unconscious—or at least, the ones that aren't bleeding, and those that are, are dead. Except for Uriah, who still lies still.

Whatever they gassed us with, ithad to be simulation-inducing, because if it wasn't I wouldn't be the only one awake. It doesn't make any sense, as it doesn't follow the simulation rules that I'm familiar with—but I don't have any free time on my hands to mull it over. I wrap my fingers around my knife and get up, ignoring the ache in my shoulder. I run over to one of the dead Dauntless traitors near the doorway. She is, or now, was, middle-aged; there are streaks of grey in her dark hair.

I try my best to ignore the bullet wound in her head, but the dim light shines on what looks like bone, and I almost gag.

I almost feel pity, until I tell myself, I don't care who she was, or what her name was, or how old she was. I care about nothing but the blue armband she wears.

And I have to focus on that. I try to hook my arm around the blue material, but it doesn't come loose. I notice that it's attached to her black jacket, which I have to salvage as well. I hurriedly unzip my jacket, hoping that Eric hasn't called in any reinforcements to follow him. I remove her jacket from her arms and from beneath her heavy body.

"Four!" someone says. I turn around, quickly putting my knife back in my pocket, as the traitor Dauntless didn't carry any.

And then I remember that Uriah's aware. He stands behind me. "Get a jacket," I command. He crouches next to one of the other Dauntless traitors, this one young, not even old enough to go through Dauntless initiation. I flinch at the sight of his death-pale face. Someone so young should not be dead, even if he is a traitor. Or, was.

I shrug the woman's jacket on. Uriah pulls his own jacket one, his mouth twisted. "They're the only ones who are dead," he says quietly. "Something about that seem wrong with you?"

"They must have known that we would fire, but they came up anyway." I say. "Questions later. We have to get up there," I say, my tone urgent.

"Up there? Why?" he raises an eyebrow. "We should get out of here. And bring them with us," he looks at Marlene, Shauna, and Lynn sadly.

"You want to run away before you know what's going on?" I scowl at him. He almost flinches, and I feel bad for reprimanding him, as he is leaving his unconscious girlfriend. "Before the Dauntless upstairs know what hit them?" I continue.

"What… what if someone recognizes us?" he stammers.

I shrug. "We just have to hope that they won't."

I sprint toward the stairwell, Uriah on my heels. As soon as my foot touches the first stair, I wonder what on earth I even intend to do. There are a good chance that there are more of the Divergent in this building, but will they even know what they are? Will they know how to hide? And what do I expect to gain from getting myself caught in a battle against an army of Dauntless traitors? So many questions spiral through my head, but I just breathe, and focus on the task at hand.

But deep inside of my broken self, I know the answer: I am being reckless. I will probably do nothing. I will probably die.

But I don't think I even care. I mean, I have no family, a lot of people hate me, and I'm in a fight with Tobias.

I sigh.

"They'll work their way upward," I say in between breaths. "So you should… go to the third floor. Tell them to… evacuate. Quietly," I stress the final word, knowing that Uriah isn't exactly your definition for silent.

"Yes sir… err… madam…" He jokingly salutes me, still running up the stairs behind me. "Where are you going, then?"

"Floor two," I say. I am about to bash my shoulder into the second floor door, before I remember how to properly break open a door. I kick my right foot as hard as I possibly can near the lock.

"What are you doing?" asks Uriah, eyebrows scrunched up.

I give him a look. "To look for the Divergent."

Please review, follow, favorite, and check out my other stories!

Goal: 286 favs, 387 followers, and 730 reviews! I know you guys can do it!

~TrissyPoo