JEANINE
When we entered into the city, they were waiting us.
Men in buildings, in the streets, all masked, all armed. They opened fire on our trucks, tanks, and cars.
It was all too fast. I barely remember everything that has happened in the last three hours. The preparation, the hurried screams. The brief look I shared with Natalie Wright. The embarrassed and uncomfortable look shared with Andrew. And the fear of not knowing how was Beatrice.
We are in great numbers. At least we have that advantage.
Half of us will not reach the Bureau, but will ensure that the back half, where I am, can reach. They will surround the way at the Bureau.
The shootings sound strident even from inside armored Angela's car. I pressed hard my knee.
- Take it. - said Angela avoiding eye contact.
She handed me a cloth bag. I opened it immediately.
Inside it were black clothes and a small pistol.
I stared at things as if they were a joke, something strange and otherworldly.
- They will seek a tidy woman, carefully coiffed, dressed in blue. I'm sure they will not pay attention to a soldier. Yet more when my men wear white.
I do not say a word. I took a deep breath and started to take my shirt off, as quickly as possible in the confined space of the car.
...
Strangely, this clothing is not at all uncomfortable. It will be useful.
The sound of the bullets was rising while the Bureau appeared in the distance. As an unattainable goal. Hundreds of us approached more and more. More and more.
And suddenly, the front row stood at their doors. As planned, they don't tried to enter inside. The soldiers started shooting at those who tried to kill us.
And finally we reached the Bureau.
We were positioned ahead of the front line, who still defended us. We were among the loud noise and the Bureau. Thirty large cars and three trucks. All waiting for the right time to enter together. Angela leaned calmly on her seat and pulled out something incredible. It was a white-handled katana.
- I would rather have this than any gun. - she looked at me, her eyes saying a thousand things at once - Do not forget our promises, Jeanie. I know you will not.
- Do not act so irrationally in a moment like this.
She smiled.
- Take care of your girl.
And then all the doors of all vehicles were opened. I felt an adrenaline I had not felt in years. I admit: I hate this adrenaline. Every good Erudite avoids strong emotions.
But I could not be a Erudite now.
I started running, getting lost in a sea of black and white. Running to the Bureau. Running to Beatrice Prior. Always to Tris.
...
TRIS
I stopped counting the hours after some time.
I've been staring at the ceiling without stopping, during what seemed an eternity. I can not even think straight.
I keep imagining my brother, my friends, my parents. How would are all? Why I'm alone in this captivity? Why the uncertainty should hurt like this?
Jeanine. David and Jeanine are brother and sister.
I feel like an idiot for not having noticed the resemblance ever. Platinum blonde hair, gray eyes, smart as hell. But I remember Jeanine doesn't know too. Then I no longer feel so blind.
I need to get out of here. I have to tell her.
And yet, how many will there be? Because I have the grim certainty that David is not alone. How many? How many intelligent and gray-eyed blondes there in the world? How many children Joshua Matthews had had? How many lives ruined? How many?
Jeanine's cries when she was little ... How many children have had to go through that?
Amid the murderer silence, I imagined Jeanine's smile. Her silver eyes. I wish I could talk to her now. More than anything. And try to explain how she managed to control myself, without any serum or simulation, only with her smile and her look.
My Jeanine ...
A noise explodes in the room. Someone is trying to break the door.
- Tris?! Can you hear me? I'm Nita!
Her voice is like hope and despair for me.
Hope because I know I'm not alone, I know someone knows where I am and tries to help me.
Despair because Nita is another person who is in danger because of me.
And if David found her, he would not hesitate even a second to kill her. After all, she was not a Pure.
But despite that, I am aware that I will be much more useful free than with my feet and hands tied.
- Nita! - I scream - Nita, it's me! David found out! He held me here and now is chasing the others!
- Okay ... - she answers, and I have the impression that she is thinking a million things while talking to me. I can almost see her thoughtful and terrified face - I'll take you out of there now.
I see the door handle moving, and then the door opens.
Nita is pale and her brown hair is lying down on her face. I had never seen her scared before, but now, that's exactly how she is.
Quickly, she runs up to me and cuts the ropes that are holding me with a knife.
My wrists and ankles are bloodshot from lack of circulation, and it hurts like hell.
But this is by far my smallest concern.
- Are you alright? - She asks, somewhat exasperated - He hurt you?
- No. - I say shaking my head - I'm fine. And the others? David was going to them when he left me here! He can't to catch my friends. I swear ...
- Calm down. - she raises her hands as if trying to calm me - Matthew saw David walking toward the dormitories and told me he thought it strange. I quickly came to check, and when I approached, I heard your screams and knew something was wrong. Then, I saw David ... and I did not have time to think. I shot him.
- He is dead?
-. No, I did not shoot to kill. I just shot in his left arm, I did not have time to think straight. After that, I hit my gun on his head and he passed out. I called Tobias and he woke the others. They are going to distract the guards, and we need to run to the weapons lab now.
I noded and caught the roupe on the ground.
- He's lying in the hallway, right? Let's tie him!
Nita pulls me by the arm and we run down the hallway.
I feel the adrenaline in every part of my body, I feel the taste in my mouth. My heart beats so hard it hurts my chest.
I see Nita's hair shaking as she runs, and I wonder if we'll be alive in the end of it all.
From the hallway, I can hear noises of a fight, people screaming, objects being overturned. I hear a shot, and I pray to any deity that may exist so that my friends are well.
Then Nita stops along the way, pale and dazed, as if the ground was no longer under her feet.
- Nita? - I ask, confused - What happened? What's wrong?
- David .. - she answers immediately. Her voice sounds distant as if she were not there. Her face shows she is verging on despair. - I left him here! He was here!
At this moment, I feel a bit of her despair. I look to the corner where she points out, and I see nothing but some bloodstains.
- He was here, Nita. - I answer - But somehow he raised-up and left.
- Dammit! How did he do that? I gave him a fucking shot!
- Perhaps, to people like David a shot is not enough. He has very strong reasons to resist pain.
- I should have killed him!
- No, Nita. You know it would not be right.
- If he is free, he can do something to some of them. Tobias, Caleb or any of them. We need to find him before we go to the weapons lab.
- No. - I say, beginning to think - We have no time. I go to the weapons lab while you seek David. Tell Tobias or who you can find. Help to protect them, and I will take care of the rest.
- But Tris ... - Nita's face was haunted - This is very dangerous. You can..
- Die? Yeah, but anyone here can. I need to spread the serum as soon as possible. Now go and try to keep David away from me.
She looks at me for a moment, with fear and with a bit of guilt.
- Okay. - she says - I'm sorry, Tris. It was not to be so, I just wanted ...
- It's okay, Nita. Will be all right. I believe it. In a few hours, this place will no longer be as it is. And we'll be here to see it, right?
She nods, determined.
- The access codes. To enter and then to release the serum. You remember, right?
- Yes. I remember perfectly.
- Right. So go. Good luck, Tris. I'll do my best to keep David far. I promise.
She is gone, and I run toward the weapons lab.
The chaos around me is overwhelming. I see figures moving. Faceless, voiceless, they are all like robots. Some of them saw me run. Some shot me, but I was not achieved.
And when I thought I was about to arrive, I saw my mother for a moment, barricaded behind a table with other people.
My first impulse was to call her. But she disappeared as quickly as she appeared.
I turned and turned to run. I can not waste time. I can not waste time.
When I got to the door of the weapons lab, I had a moment of desperation at not remember its location. Then I remembered that Nita had told us that was behind the bookshelf.
A medium bookshelf full of old books. Using all my strength, I pushed it to the left.
And a metal door appeared before me.
There was a panel on the right. I entered the password, trying not to forget any number. My hands were shaking a little.
The door opened and I walked immediately. Inside, everything was lit with powerful orange lamps. I saw another door across the room.
The door behind me slammed.
A sharp sound filled the place, like the flow of water. But it was not water. A purplish gas began to emerge from the soil.
Death Serum. I knew it without any doubt, with that self-certainty of despair.
I took a quick breath, I opened my eyes, and I rushed to the other end of the room. Toward the door.
The voices of all the people that I loved resounded in my ears. Tobias. Christina. Jeanine. My mother. Caleb. Jeanine. My father. Cara. Will. Nita. Jeanine. Jeanine. Jeanine.
I tumbled out the door with a violent kick.
I ignored the pain in my leg, damped by adrenaline. I did not stop running until I saw the first jars.
The room was gigantic. There were hundreds of serums. All over the walls. All different colors like caramels in a candy store.
I looked around, looking for something like Memory Serum. There was not labels. I took a deep breath to avoid panic.
- Looking for this? - whispered a voice behind me.
I turn very slowly, with a drum in my ears.
David had a purple serum in one of his hands. And a gun in the other.
His suit was covered with blood. Nita's wound was controlled with a makeshift tourniquet.
At that moment, his face was a cold slate, emotionless. A macabre face of someone dangerous.
- I'm surprised you remembered the password to enter. Twenty five numbers. Good memory. It would have worked if I had not just change the key.
He stepped closer to me.
- And what surprises me most is that the Death Serum has failed to kill you.
Another step further.
- But that's what we do, the Divergent, right? ... At the end of all, we can not be controlled.
- Nita! - I say without thinking - What did you do to her?
David smiles, but only for a second.
- Your friend made a serious mistake when trying to stop me. All of you made a big mistake coming to this place with the intentions you have. But you were naive enough to believe that you could destroy the Bureau. I only regret.
I want to focus in that I need to do, but I do not have enough forces. Nita. David killed Nita.
- How did you get here? - I ask, desperate to distract him. My eyes wander around, looking for the panel that will activate the serum. David's gun is still pointed at me, but I can not be afraid, I can not feel anything.
Nita.
Forgive me, Nita.
- The first thing one learns when becomes a leader in this place, is that the pain should not be enough obstacle to make us give up. It's needed much more than a shot to win us. As for you, Tris, I regret that things have to be like this. I regret that your passion for Jeanine has blinded you that way. But that's what the impure always do: they contaminate the pure and influence them with their behavior.
- DON'T SPEAK ABOUT JEANINE ! - I scream lustily, the anger finally taken control of me - You don't have the right to talk about her. Even being your sister, she has nothing of you.
- She's a killer, and you love a killer.
- Still. - I answer - Even if she has committed murders, she did it to protect us from you. Even as a killer, she's a person much better than you, and she is loved in a way that you will never be!
And then I see in front of me. The panel will release the memory serum.
I need to achieve it before David stop me, and he is holding a gun.
"Does not matter." I think. "I need to do that. Anyway."
- I'm really sorry, Tris. But I can not let you survive this. It's nothing personal, you understand. It's just about defending our mission.
And then I hear a bang behind David. I take advantage of the distraction and run toward the panel, expecting to feel the pain of his shots, but it does not.
Instead, I hear footsteps of a third person, and a very familiar voice.
- Before you shoot her, you will be dead. - says Jeanine - It's over, David. Drop the gun, and I can think of to let you live.