Hey y'all! Thank you so much for all the reviews on the last chapter! I got excited finishing this chapter so I hope y'all like it! Love y'all!
Cara bit her lip as she hit enter on the screen letting the computer run the latest report on the information from the factionless divergent that had started the first dosage of the simulation serum. She was concerned, the numbers were growing but she felt she could throw off the results just a little to buy Natalie and Max a few more weeks. Knowing that the kinks she was putting in would be discovered, she resigned she would have to find a way out sooner rather than later. Eric seemed to be watching her closely now and she wondered if she was on borrowed time. She enters a few numbers and makes a note on her writing pad.
A scream causes her to jump and she turns around to the large cells where they studied test subjects after they received their first dosage. A woman was lying bloodied on the ground with George standing over her.
"That's enough George, you can return to your room," Eric says as he hits a few buttons on the keypad which causes a door to open and two Erudite lab technicians walk in.
"Dump this one and the other one away from the factionless section, we don't want the factionless to become too suspicious now that they are readily coming in for testing and serum doses" He instructs.
"Jeanine's not going to be happy" Cara remarks and focuses her attention back to the computer screen.
"There's an endless supply of people now, the overall number is more than enough" He shrugs as Cara rolls her eyes.
Erik smirks and walks over to her. "You know you and I could have a good time together, I bet you would be fun if you would loosen up," Eric says as he runs a finger over Cara's shoulder.
She jerks away quickly. There was something about Eric that unnerved her and it was more than how easily he followed Jeanine's orders with no remorse. The fact that he kept himself close to her now, always just behind her, or in the lab at the same time as her had her even more uneasy.
"I think we should focus on the task at hand." She says with a little less confidence than she would like which causes him to smirk.
Cara continued to write notes, not acknowledging Eric anymore but she felt his eyes on her. She swallowed nervously. He knew…She had to make a run for it.
"I love it when you come home for lunch" Marlene gasps as she tightens her legs around Caleb's waist. She was planted on their dining room table with her skirts around her waist.
He groans and quickens his pace which leads to both of them crying out in pleasure as they reach their peak.
"So do I, and I love being married," He says with a lopsided grin. He gives her a quick kiss before pulling away. They quickly clean up and Caleb rushes back downstairs to grab the soup Marlene had made for him.
"Glad you made this already since I have to eat fast now" He teases as she comes back downstairs shaking her head with a grin.
They both look up when there's a knock at the door.
"Amar, Welcome," she says when she opens the door and steps aside for him to enter.
"Harrison, welcome, Can we offer you something to eat?" Marlene asks as she gestures to the table where Caleb is now getting up from his seat.
"Hello Marlene, Caleb. No, thank you. But we are going to request that you provide us lodging for the evening" Amar greets as he and Harrison make their way into the home and take a seat at the table.
"Good day to both of you, I'm assuming something is going on for you both to be here" Caleb reasons, looking at both of them as Marlene closes the door and joins them at the table and they all sit down.
Harrison and Amar take time to catch up with Caleb and Marlene on the plan for the next day, the issues with the antidote for the serum, and Candor and Erudite.
"We are planning to speak with Andrew and Marcus regarding Abnegation and what they will be willing to agree to for the safety of the other council members."
"Andrew and Marcus, in Dauntless with Max and my mom…." Caleb says sounding skeptical.
"Max doesn't want them in Dauntless, but Amity will be happy to give them refugee"
"I have a feeling this isn't going to go well…" Marlene foreshadows. Caleb has the same feeling as he reaches under the table to grab her hand.
Tris and Christina walk with their guns on their hips, the scout teams are preparing to leave that evening, and Tris and Christina decide to take the train with Uriah to Amity to retrieve the peace serum for Hana, Tori, and Will to analyze.
Christina looks down at her watch, she suggests that Uriah meet with Johanna and retrieve the package to give her and Tris some alone time. Originally she and Uriah were planning to make the trip alone but She could tell something was going on with Tris at breakfast and suggested she tag along.
Tris was grateful to have an escape; Her mind was spinning after her revelation the night before; she needed some space from Lynn and Tobias to clear her mind. After the long ride to Amity Christina tries to get Tris to talk while they wait for Uriah.
"So, you ready to talk about what's been up with you?"
Tris sighed but she needed to get out everything she was feeling and make some sense of it. She sits down on the ground against a tree near the train tracks.
"I think I'm pregnant…" Tris says quietly looking away at the rows of empty fields that had recently been harvested and the large community building in the distance.
Christina wipes her face with her hands and waits a moment before she speaks. She could tell things were changing between Tris and Lynn. It never escaped her over the past six months the connection she could see between Tris and Four.
"Well, I can see how that is going to be problematic…Is it Four?"
Tris simply nods her head.
"Does Lynn know that you've been messing around on her?"
Tris still doesn't say anything and shakes her head no.
Christina doesn't say anything for a while, as she paces back and forth trying to find the right words to help the situation.
Finally, Tris decides she's ready to talk.
"How did you know you wanted to be with Will instead of Uriah? Then you changed your mind? Why? How did you know?"
Christina blows out a breath before she answers. She hadn't ever really put her feelings into words to anyone but Uriah before but feels Tris needs to hear them. They had spoken about this before, but it is clear Tris is still struggling with her feelings. The truth was that Will had forced her hand a bit.
"Uriah and I had a connection, and so do Will and I Do I think if Uriah had spoken up sooner, things could have been different? Maybe…but I knew I wasn't in love with Will. I knew that what I felt for Uriah, was different, more intense. Even though we are taking things slow, my feelings are growing for Uriah in a way they didn't with Will."
Tris nods in understanding.
"It's the same with Lynn, She's been so special to me but we're always arguing, she never let up about me keeping secrets from her. I couldn't tell her about the task force and my mom and the distance between us just keeps growing but Four, he's so different…we've been through so much together…."
"Did you and Four ever try a relationship before in Abnegation? When did you two start hooking up?" Christina ponders as she sits down on the ground next to Tris.
"No, we kissed before Choosing Day that's it. I'm not even sure why, I guess it was a goodbye because we wouldn't see each other for a year, I don't know…There was talk about an arranged marriage between us if we had stayed in Abnegation. The thought of it weirded us out because we had been best friends since we were small. I guess if I think about it, I've always loved him. It was an intense night, he was upset and It just happened about a month ago…then it just kept happening even though I know it's wrong. I feel so selfish but Lynn and I can be good, I just... I don't know… Now Four is pissed because I haven't broken up with Lynn even though I told him I loved him too…"
Tris feels so disgusted with herself now that she is saying it out loud.
"You gotta sort out your feelings Tris, it's not fair to Lynn or Four to keep stringing both of them alone. Regardless of what you decide about who you want to be with, you need to be honest with Four about the baby so he can have a chance to be involved" Christina tells her firmly. She understood being confused completely but leading someone on was
Tris starts to sob and Christina scoots closer to wrap her arms around her. How did she end up making the same mistakes her mother did? She realized that she needed to find some time to talk to Natalie.
"Max would like you to take this information seriously. " Harrison informs Marcus and Andrew. After he and Amar had talked with Caleb and Marlene, they made their way to the Abnegation offices to speak with Marcus and Andrew as planned.
"And why didn't Max come to deliver this news himself" Andrew asks curiously. He knew enough to figure that Dauntless knew more than they were letting on and that Max would not willingly help him.
"Max is meeting with Candor," Amar says simply as Andrew tries not to scowl. From listening to Tris, Max, Natalie, and Tobias, he understood just how manipulative Andrew and Marcus were and how much of their outward personas were an act.
"If we could address all the members with the safety briefing and set a plan for…" Harrison encourages.
"That won't be necessary," Marcus says with a fake smile and nod.
Harrison bites his tongue. This told him that Marcus and Andrew are in deeper with Erudite than they had imagined.
"We understand, we would be grateful if you would allow Caleb and Marlene to put us up for the night, we'll be gone at first light" Harrison finishes.
"Of course, Caleb please escort them and then return here," Andrew tells them with a polite nod.
Marcus paces in his office with Andrew standing with his hands on his hips. They could pretend to play nice with Dauntless or continue to hold their ground based on the deal they made with Erudite.
"We can't go to Dauntless, Max is never going to protect us…." Andrew reasons aloud. He didn't trust Max and wondered if he agreed to go to Dauntless would he be walking into a trap?
"Now that Jack is siding with them, and taking refuge we may not have a choice if we want to keep Candor and Amity as an ally. We know Jeanine has already started pressuring Johanna," Marcus says to himself rather than Andrew.
"Does it matter now? Let them go, We've committed to the plan. Jeanine has everything she needs, we just need to sit back and wait."
The door opens and Caleb enters. He had escorted Harrison and Amar back to his home where Marlene would prepare dinner.
"Father, We need to listen to Dauntless. Call for an assembly this evening," Caleb urges.
"You will do as we say, we have no reason to trust Dauntless" Andrew reminds him sternly.
"You have every reason to trust them, there is a war coming, we can't sit back and do nothing…" He was tired of this, he was tired of pretending that he didn't know exactly who Marcus and Andrew were. He wanted to protect the people of Abnegation.
Before Caleb finishes speaking Andrew walks over furious and moves to backhand him but
Caleb moves quickly and catches Andrew's hand before it can connect with his face. Andrew's eyes go wide in shock as Caleb pushes him back causing him to stumble a bit. Beatrice had defied him every chance she got, but Caleb had never been this bold.
"Caleb…" Marcus says in a warning tone as Andrew rubs his wrist glaring.
"You will never lay a hand on me again…." Caleb says in a deadly voice.
He turns and walks out, not caring to hear what else Marcus and Andrew have to say.
"Caleb come back here…" Andrew shouts but is met with the door slamming shut.
Cara looks around her room. She had a few things in a backpack but it wasn't much since he wasn't trying to draw attention to herself. She decided that now was the time to make the run to Dauntless. She couldn't risk telling her father anything, not that he was missing her anyway. Her mother had died when she was 7, her father remarried the very next year and she never fit in with her stepmother. When she turned 14 she was selected to work with Jeanine based on her test scores in school. Jeanine had been so impressed with her work she mentored her and took her under her wing, keeping her close when she became the leader of Erudite. Cara couldn't even remember the last time she had seen her father, who worked in the department that developed new mechanical advances in farming for Amity. Jeanine discouraged family attachments, even within Erudite, so Cara learned to keep to herself mostly.
Cara pulls her hair into a ponytail and slips a hat on. She then dons a dark blue rain jacket with a hood. She puts a small box containing two vials of the simulation serum and a thumb drive with the latest information that she could risk pulling about the serum in her jacket pocket. Never in a million years did she think that she would think she would ever leave Erudite.
She looks at her watch and quickly exits her apartment. She takes the stairs and exits the building where the Erudite leadership apartments are close to the main building. It was a hard cold, that made her shiver. She had no idea how to jump the train, which left her no choice but to walk to Dauntless. She hoped she could make it but, there was no way she could do it once the blizzard hit.
Based on the surveillance that Erudite had received, she knew Dauntless had a perimeter set up, some of Eric's spies had allowed them to slip through to Amity the week before. She planned to find a Dauntless and see if they could take her the rest of the way citing she needed to speak to Max. It was a crappy plan, but it was all she had.
She starts walking and stops, her heart beating wildly when she sees a shadow on the building across the street.
"Get it together Cara, you can do this" She coaches herself in a whisper as she starts walking again.
"I've been waiting for you to slip up" A familiar voice calls.
Tears well up in Cara's eyes as she stops dead in her tracks again. Eric had followed her. She thought she could slip out unnoticed when he was drinking with a few guards who had defected from Dauntless.
"I'm just going for a walk" She lies as she turns around slowly seeing him with an evil smirk.
"Nice try. Jeanine thought someone was downloading information from the system. I told her it was you, but she didn't want to believe me until I saw you yesterday slipping a flash drive into your pocket"
"Just let me go…" Cara pleads. She looked from side to side for any place she could escape.
"Now we both know I can't do that…" Eric stops when he thinks he hears a noise but proceeds to walk quickly to Cara grabbing her roughly by the arm.
"Please let me go…" She begs again even though she knows it is useless.
"I started to shoot you right here but I think I'll have some fun with you first"
Fat tears run down Cara's cheek and she feels like she's going to vomit as she struggles and Eric pulls her against him.
"Let her go" A deep voice calls out from the shadows of the alley across the street.
Cara and Eric both freeze. Eric looks to the alley squinting trying to see who was there.
"Help me, Please, He's going to kill me…" Cara starts to beg but the words quickly die on her throat as Eric delivers a swift backhand causing her to stumble and fall to the ground with her lip bleeding.
"Shut Up," Eric tells her as he draws his gun, and points in the direction of the voice.
Will moves slowly with his gun drawn. It was only a coincidence that he and Zeke were scoping out the side entrance of this building. They were supposed to move undetected as part of their scouting mission but they couldn't let this woman be assaulted right in front of him. He knew Zeke thought the same thing as soon as they observed the scene start to play out in front of them.
"This has nothing to do with you" Eric yells as a figure still cloaked by the shadows moves into view and now he can see they also have a gun drawn.
"Drop your weapon" Will calls out now fully revealing himself. It was so cold he could see his breath.
"Not a chance in hell" Eric smirks as Will moves closer.
'We can do this the easy way or the hard way but we're taking you back to Dauntless" Will informs him.
"I guess it's the hard way…" Eric grunts cocking his gun. There would be hell to pay if Cara escaped.
"You'll be dead before you pull the trigger," Zeke tells him now stepping out from the opposite direction where he had circled around.
Eric frowns at the sound of Zeke's voice knowing exactly who was behind him. He hated Zeke Pedrad almost as much as he hated Four. So cocky and loved by everyone, it made him sick.
"Trying to play at being a hero Zeke? Or still trying to live in Four's shadow?" Eric taunts.
"Shut the fuck up and walk," Zeke tells him nudging him in the back with the barrel of his gun.
Eric surprises Zeke by quickly dropping his gun and throwing an elbow to Zeke's face causing him to stumble back and his weapon to drop too. Zeke recovers quickly and throws two punches to Eric's body. Will quickly grabs Cara and pushes her behind him with one hand, his gun still pointed and finger on the trigger with the other.
Cara gasps as she stands behind Will watching the fight play out in front of her. These two Dauntless should be nowhere near Erudite but she was thankful that they were, it saved her life.
Eric scrambles on the ground trying to reach for his gun but Zeke knocks him down and delivers several more punches. He rolls over and tries to reach for his gun when Eric scrambles on top of him.
"Shoot Will" Zeke grunts as he takes a punch to the face. He and Eric had fought during initiation. They were evenly matched but Zeke had won that fight and he knew he could now.
Will was nervous, he didn't want to chance hitting Zeke. Eric comes at Zeke again who pushes him off with a swift kick to the stomach.
Zeke manages to grab his gun and fires a shot at Eric from the ground.
"Son of A Bitch" Eric calls out as the bullet slices through his arm. Zeke quickly recovers and gets up to take off moving. Erudite would be all over this place soon and they needed to get out fast.
"Go!" Will tells Zeke who grabs Cara by the hand and they all start to run. She stumbles as she runs but both Will and Zeke pull her down the alley.
"Come on, as fast as you can" Zeke yells at her practically dragging her toward the truck.
"Fuck" Zeke yells out as gunfire starts and bullets hit the brick building next to them.
Eric tries to run after them but the bullet wound in his arm is starting to slow him down. He sees the blood from his wound trickling down. He aims and takes one final shot. He wanted to take out Zeke but Will would do.
Will lets out a yell when he feels the bullet pierce his leg causing him to stumble as they turn a corner.
"The trucks not far… Can you make it?" Zeke asks as they all stop, panting and taking deep breaths. He looks up and listens but doesn't hear any footsteps. Thankfully it didn't look like Eric was able to follow them.
"I don't know…" Will grunts, the pain shooting up his leg. "I think the bullet might have hit an artery, I need you to tie off this leg. Use your belt"
"Hold this" He instructs Cara as he passes her his gun. He follows Will's instructions and wraps his belt around his upper thigh making a tourniquet. He then slings Will's arm over his shoulder to help him walk.
'We gotta move fast, the truck is right down this street" Zeke instructs Cara as Will moans in pain. "Push through the pain, we're almost there" Zeke coaches. He was thankful they opted for the truck instead of taking the train in case they needed to make a quick getaway.
"Victoria Come In" Zeke calls over his radio. He looks over at Cara who is trying to make Will as comfortable as she can.
"Go for Victoria, What's wrong Team 3"
"Will's been hit, Heading back now, almost to the checkpoint. Meet us in the garage with the med team, Over"
"Copy that Team 3. Do you need backup?"
Zeke looks in the review mirror. He didn't see anything. It didn't look like they had been followed.
"That's a negative, we are in the clear now"
"Hang in there Will, Hana's going to be waiting"
'Here that Ma's going to patch you up, just hang in there Will" Zeke tells him.
"Thank you for saving me," Cara tells them as she tries to put more pressure on Will's wound.
"Want to tell us what was going on between you and Eric back there?" Zeke probes Cara. She looked disheveled and scared. She'd probably be dead if they hadn't.
"I was trying to get to Dauntless to provide them with information to stop Erudite, I need to see Max, Natalie told me to find him," Cara tells them desperately as they help get Will into the passenger seat and she squeezes in next to him.
"Are you Cara?" Will asks trying to focus on something other than the pain as Zeke speeds over on the bumpy road.
"Yes…How do you know who I am?" Cara asks curiously.
"Natalie told us you helped her, and gave us the flash drive"
Cara let out a strangled sound of joy. Natalie was safe, Dauntless had the files she had stolen and now she was safe too.
"Looks like we ended up at the right place at the right time," Zeke says with a smile.