Hey Family, I hope you're still there! Almost at the end! I've been living life and working but I'm still here. Love Y'all!
I really wanted to explore the fallout from the war in the last chapter and the next few. So I hope you feel all the emotions!
Hana runs with a gurney to the Dauntless garage to meet the car carrying Max. The car tires screech as it pulls in. There's yelling as Uriah and Tobias give directions to the driver.
"Hey, Max, look at me, Can you look at me?" Hana says, moving his head to look at his pupils.
"Where was he hit?" Hana asks, trying to calm her mind and focus on the task at hand.
"Stay with me Max," she tells him,
"Abdomen and Shoulder," Uriah tells her, still moving with Max and applying pressure to the wound.
"Tris, make sure she's okay" Max wheezes. He'd passed out once already but now the pain was subsiding. He knew he wasn't going to make it.
"I'm right here Daddy, you're going to be okay now," Tris says trying to keep her voice light and hopeful through her tears.
Hana secures an oxygen mask on Max. Hana lifts Uriah's hand and shakes her head. She needed to operate immediately. "We gotta move now, I think his liver or kidney has been hit"
Tris stops as she feels another deep cramp. Her body trembles and she clings to Tobias harder, tears falling down her cheeks. "Agh….Tobias, the baby…"
"I need another gurney now! " Tobias yells as he picks up Tris underneath her knees and she wraps her arms tightly around her neck. She buries her face in his neck, tears streaming down her face.
"Come on, I got you, it's going to be okay," He tells her, needing to say it out loud to believe it himself.
Natalie wipes her tears and takes a deep breath before she goes into her daughter's room in the infirmary. Hana was operating on Max and another doctor had looked after Tris. She'd been kept waiting, Tori was trying to calm her down while Marlene stayed with Victoria to help manage the command center.
Tobias walks out of the room, wiping his tears. He sees Natalie and shakes his head.
"Is she okay?" Natalie whispers fearing the worst.
"Yeah but…the baby…" As soon as he says the words Tobias falls apart and Natalie pulls him into a hug, holding on tight.
"Oh Tobias, I'm so sorry" Natalie choked out as Tobias sobbed into her shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Tobias pulled away.
"My mother's dead…" The words were flat. Everything felt so heavy, he needed to focus on Tris, Evelyn didn't deserve his tears.
Natalie cups his face as he looks down at the floor breathing another heavy sigh and fighting back a sob. Evelyn had been her best friend, a sister when they had nothing for so many years. There was a part of her that still had hope that Evelyn could atone for all she had done and come out of this alive and start over. The other part of her knew that this outcome was the only one.
"We will get through this," she tells him firmly despite her emotions being all over the place."Right now we need to be strong for Tris"
Tobias sniffles and nods his head. Natalie heads into the exam room. Tris is in a hospital gown and Natalie tries to keep it together looking at the state she is in. Her hair is messy and she has a black eye with some other cuts and scrapes on her face. She's hooked up to an IV. And Natalie could tell she had been crying, her eyes were red, puffy, and swollen.
"Hey sweetheart" Natalie sits on the bed and grabs her hand.
Tris felt so drab inside. Part of her knew it before she got to the infirmary but hearing the nurse tell her the baby had no heartbeat. It unimaginably wrecked her.
"Is Daddy okay?" she whispers.
"We don't know, but your Aunt Hana is still working on him. We just have to have a little faith"
Tris looks down at her mother's pregnant belly and a fresh round of tears comes over her. She pulls her hand back and Natalie looks confused.
"I'd like to be alone, please," she says simply and turns on her side, trying to hold in the tears.
Natalie pulls her lips between her teeth and wipes her cheeks. She wished she could take away her daughter's pain and make everything okay.
"Okay, I'll let you get some rest, I won't be far away"
Tris simply nods, still on her side and looking at the wall. Natalie shuts off the light and gently shuts the door. She finds Tobias looking stoic, still standing in the hallway.
"She wants to be alone"
"That's what she told me too. What do we do?" He had no idea. His sadness had turned to rage but Evelyn and Eric were already dead. He needed to do something.
"Give her some space, she needs to grieve and so do you. This is a lot to process"
Tobias nods, whipping his hands over his face. He couldn't fall apart now. Max was on an operating table, and even though Evelyn was dead and Jeanine was in custody, the Factionless rebels weren't back down.
"I need to get back out there, I'm going to check in with Victoria"
"I'll be here" Natalie confirms, knowing Tobias wouldn't want to sit in the infirmary with the fighting still going on across the city.
She sits down, closes her eyes, placing her hand on her belly. She would need all her wits about her to make it through the coming days.
"Command, Come in this is Red Bird" Christina calls over the radio.
"Go ahead Red Bird, Good to hear from you" Victoria replies.
"I need a pick-up, we have some goods, we've been laying low, slowing making our way to the perimeter"
"Give us an hour, things are kind of heavy right now"
"10-4" Christina replies and leans back against the wall of a crumbling building she and Cara were hiding out in. They had camped out the first night, staying hidden when a group of Factionless rebels headed past them. Now that the coast was clear, they needed to safely get back to Dauntless.
"Do you think everything is going to plan?" Cara asks. She was so tired. She wants a warm shower and a hot meal and to lie down on a soft mattress.
"I think so…. I hope Will is okay, did you get to him?" They both had been worried. Will let himself be captured to allow them both to escape.
"He's saved me twice now," Cara reflects.
Christina smiles and toys with her bracelet. She was also worried about Uriah. She couldn't wait to fall into his arms so they could pick up where they left off before the mission started.
"What do you think will happen when all this is over?" Cara asks out of the blue as they wait.
"I don't know, I don't think the Factionless are just going to give up easily even if we have the upper hand right now"
Cara nods and pushes a rock with her foot.
"Do you think the factions will exist after this?" Cara wonders. She wasn't expecting Christina to answer. It was more a question to the universe. Could she go back to Erudite? Would she go to jail for the part she played in helping Jeanine?
It took Christina a few minutes to formulate her answer, she hadn't really thought about it.
"I don't know, I think so but I think it won't be the same"
"Red Bird, Transport is on the way, be ready" Command call after what seemed like the longest wait.
Cara and Christina both smile and grin when Tobias pulls up in a truck.
"I'm so happy to see you" she chatters away as she and Cara hop in and he speeds away.
"Did you get the serum and destroy everything else in the lab?" Tobias inquires.
"Yes, everything went according to plan except Will being captured," Christina notices that Tobias seems more tense than usual. She had become accustomed to his intense nature, but he seemed different.
"Is the antidote working?" Cara asks hopefully.
"Yes, we've been pulling in people for observations along with the wounded"
"Did you get Will? Or is he still being held captive" Christina inquires.
Tobias purses his lips and grips the steering wheel. Will's death was another thing that he had pushed to the back of his mind. He'd dung in the past few hours, going back out to help on the front lines as did Uriah. He knew eventually he would have to deal with losing the baby, his mother, and Will but now wasn't the time.
"Will's dead," He tells them, keeping his eyes on the road.
Cara gasps and covers her mouth. Christina feels like the wind has been knocked out of her. She'd gone from feeling hopeful to completely defeated in a matter of seconds. Tears stream down her face as she holds onto the dashboard as the car bumps along.
Max blinks and wonders where he is. He hears the faint beep of a machine and feels something in his nose. He groans and tries to sit up but he feels a heavy weight on him. He stirs and realizes that Natalie is lying across from him.
She smiles and sits up as she feels him moving. She stands up and moves her hand to cup his face.
"There you are" The hours that she waited for him to get out of surgery had been hard. She made up her mind that she wasn't going to lose him again. She'd only left to check on Tris. She'd curled on an empty bed that Hana kept in her office for nights when she needed to stay in the infirmary after Hana assured her Max would sleep through the night.
"Tris, I need to see Tris…" Max grunts in his half-awake state. All the memories of seeing Evelyn aiming for his daughter rushing back to him.
"I know baby, she's okay, you need to take it easy, you were shot"
Natalie tries to calm him, but Max pulls at the oxygen tubes in his nose.
"Hey, Hey… She's okay Max, she's just down the hall" Natalie tells him more forcefully, making him look her in the eye.
Finally hearing her, he leans back trying to breathe easy. She leans in and kisses him.
"I love you" he whispers, his throat scratchy. She smiles and gets some water for him to drink.
"I love you too, Always and Forever" Natalie grabs his hand and places it on her belly. Max smiles when he feels the baby give a strong kick for the first time. He would have never imagined a year and a half ago that Natalie was alive, they had one child with another on the way. His life had changed so much for the better. He was determined more than ever to live and make the city better for his children.
"We knew you were going to come back to us, he missed his daddy".
After a few minutes, Natalie tells Hana that Max is awake. She stopped in Tris' room. Hana wanted her to keep her overnight to make sure there weren't any complications and she was going to allow Tris to be released that afternoon. Tris hadn't said much other than she wanted to be left alone.
"Hey My Sweet Girl," she says softly. Tris looks up and wipes a tear away from her face. "I know you want some time alone but your father is awake. The first thing he did when he woke up was ask about you. Do you feel up to seeing him?"
Tris twists her face but nods her head. Natalie helps her put on a robe and helps steady her as they walk down the hall to Max's room.
Tris hadn't said a word but as soon as she saw Max she rushed to his side and tears followed.
"My baby girl," Max says, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as she buries her face in his neck.
"You jumped in front of that bullet for me, Daddy. Evelyn was going to kill me and you saved me"
Natalie gasps and holds a hand over her mouth, not realizing the full extent of what happened.
"I would do it again, I'd do anything to protect you, Always and Forever" Max vows.
Tris hugs him a little tighter, crying harder now. She had no idea if she could have handled losing her father along with her baby. Natalie walks over and strokes her daughter's hair. They would get through all of this together.
"I need you to get back up to Bravo company" Max barks over the radio. Even though he was still in the infirmary, he had a map of the city across his lap and had been doling out orders. After almost two weeks in the hospital, he was feeling much better and despite Hana and Natalie trying to force him to rest more, he'd demanded Victoria update him and bring him a radio. Hana had given in two days ago, resigning that at least she could keep an eye on him if he stayed in the infirmary.
"We are moving that way now" Harrison calls back.
"Four, what's your position?" Max asks, making a mark on his map with a pen.
"With Delta company, closing in a group near the Merciless Mart… taking heavy fire"
"I want an update in the next hour, we need to gain more ground if we are going to coral the resisters in the southeast section."
He sighs as he looks at the map. They were making progress but it was slow. Abnegation and Candor were still behind the Factionless lines. He had to give it to them, even though Evelyn was dead, the remaining leaders had kept the fight going. Natalie had gently told him about Tris losing the baby a few days after his surgery. There were no words to describe how he felt, only that he would give anything to take his daughter's pain away. Even though she'd been to see him, he could tell she was still struggling with the loss.
Stephan had been invaluable in the fight so far, providing intel on the training practices and locations alongside Natalie and providing more information about their headquarters deep in the factionless section. They had managed to take out Mason, and Max wanted to keep applying pressure, hoping their ranks would falter and they would surrender soon.
A knock at the door interrupts him before Max can make another call.
"I see this healing serum of Erudite has worked wonders" Hana quips as she comes into the room taking her stethoscope from around her neck.
"Any chance I can get sprung soon?"
Hana rolls her eyes as she listens to his chest.
"Breath deep"
Max complies, anything to get him out of the infirmary.
"Well I think you should be good to be released, provided that you take it easy, that means you aren't going back out in the war zone yet besides, I need to free up this bed and if you are back in your apartment, everyone else can get some rest with you barking out orders left and right"
Hana knew her best friend, he needed to be as involved in the military operations as he could. She wasn't sure how long the fighting would last but there weren't any signs of it letting up just yet.
"How many more were brought in today?"
"12…3 dead" Hana had prepared as best she could for this, but it was still devastating to see.
"All ours?"
Hana nods in response as Max presses his middle finger and thumb of his right hand to his temples, going over the numbers in his head for what felt like the 10th time in the past hour.
"That's 76 dead, 100 or more injured…"
Max still has no idea how many were dead on the factionless side but despite the death toll, he knew Dauntless had to keep fighting.
After two weeks of fighting, Dauntless gains the upper hand in the fight against the Factionless. Even though Evelyn had been killed, the other leaders had kept the rebel army going. The antidote had diminished many of the divergent injections with the super soldier serum.
Caleb, Zeke, and Amar were working together leading a smaller group of troops to push back the Factionless even further from Erduite's headquarters, while Tobias and Stephan were focused on taking back the areas surrounding Candor. They hadn't been back to the Dauntless compound, living with their company on the outskirts of Erudite and Candor, camped in hidden spaces as they worked to push the lines back.
Amar fires quickly and drops the three Factionless soldiers firing at him. He and his team circled around to push the perimeter. Harrison and Max's plan was a long shot but it was working.
"I got three, off Wacker, but we're out of the antidote bombs" Amar hears over the radio. "Need back up"
"Heading your way" Zeke chirps over the radio. The team works its way around moving quickly and quietly.
"What you got?" Zeke asks Caleb.
"Two syringes and one gas bomb" He passes one of the syringes to Zeke. They were getting low on antidote. It took two doses to take down some of the super soldiers who had received injections longer. Cara and Tori were working double time to make more.
"Okay, let's move" Amar signals when Caleb and Zeke indicate they are ready.
Amar gasps when he gets closer. There was Geroge.
"George" Amar says as he gets closer. Zeke looked over and sure enough, it was George.
"Now" he yells to Caleb, who launches the grenade that explodes with the smoke-filled antidote.
The three men rush the group. The first super soldier coughs and falls over as she inhales the smoke. Caleb and Amar both work to inject the shorter man while Zeke barrels into George. Zeke had never encountered anyone so strong and George deflects his advances. The glass lifeless look in his eyes and his vacant expression propel Zeke to get up after he takes another hit as he and George trade blows for several minutes.
Amar looks up, he can tell Zeke isn't going to win this fight. He can't focus on George, if he did, he'd make a mistake.
"Zeke, he's too strong, stand down" Amar calls. Zeke doesn't listen, he goes at George again this time, catching a knee to his middle section and is tossed down hard.
"Now" Caleb yells at Amar as he holds the other man in a headlock. Amar takes his syringe and stabs it into the man's leg.
Zeke stands up holding his side. The pain was throbbing, he was pretty sure he had a broken rib or two. He spits out blood and takes a deep breath through his nose.
"I love you, Tori" he whispers.
He pulls the syringe out of his pocket. He has one shot at this. George steps toward him and grabs him by the neck.
Just as he feels everything about to go black, Zeke jabs the syringe into George's arm. George stumbles but throws Zeke causing him to hit his head hard on the side of a crumbling building. Caleb tosses the last syringe of antidote he had to Amar.
"Zeke!" Caleb gasps and the man he and Amar are holding falls down to the ground at the same time George does.
"Come on Zeke," Caleb tells him as he kneels. He'd grown incredibly close to his cousin in the past few months. He'd never really had a best friend before, if anything it was his wife, but outside of Marlene, since he'd come to Dauntless, Zeke has been it.
"Zeke, wake Up, I need you to wake up," he whispers, letting a tear fall. He touches the back of Zeke's head as he tries to lay him flat. Caleb pulls back his fingers to find them sticky with blood.
Amar runs over to George who is about to get up again and stumbles, blinking rapidly. The antidote was working but Amar quickly realized he needed another dose. Amar gives him the final dose of the antidote and a sob of joy and relief escapes his lips.
"We're taking you home" he whispers to Geroge as he checks his breathing. "Back to Dauntless where you belong my love"
"Command, I need a medic, now, off Whacker! Hurry!" Caleb calls over his radio breathing hard. He holds Zeke's head in his lap. Zeke had to pull through he just had to.