Chapter Text
Tris
“Wake up,” I hear someone say through the haze of sleep. It’s Tobias. He’s gently shaking my uninjured shoulder. “We have to jump.”
Somehow, my head must have slumped over in my sleep, because it’s resting on Tobias’s shoulder. I sit up and shake the sleep out of my mind.
As soon as my mind wakes up, I’m reminded of the events of the day. The shotgun noises. My dad. I feel a pressure in my chest. Remembering hurts.
It’s dark outside, and I can’t see where I am, but we must be getting close to the fence if we’re getting ready to jump off. Tobias helps me stand to my feet.
Uriah jumps first, yelling with excitement as he sails through the air. Peter and Mother jump after him. Marcus and Caleb jump next. Tobias takes my hand. As we stand at the edge of the car, I feel the wind blowing across my hair.
We jump into the darkness. The impact of hitting the ground jars my shoulder. I would have landed on my knees, but Tobias’s hand steadies me, keeping me from falling. I bite my lip to prevent myself from crying out in pain.
I look around, trying to find my family. My mother must have landed on her feet, but my brother is sitting on the grass, rubbing his knee. “Are you okay?” I ask him.
He nods, but it is clear that the today’s events have gotten to him as well. He sniffles, as if he’s trying to keep from crying. I look to Mother. She looks worn out, and is rubbing her shoulder where she was shot.
We’re close to the fence, just yards away from a path where Amity trucks drive on in order to get food into the city. A gate blocks the road, and a high fence towers over us.
“Where are the guards?” Marcus asks, studying the situation.
Tobias shrugs. “They were probably part of the simulation. Who knows what they’re doing now.”
The simulation. I feel the hard drive in my pocket. I saw what looked like a fight breaking out on the video screens right after we ended the simulation, but I didn’t see what happened after that. Who in Abnegation survived? What about the people in Dauntless? What about the other factions? What about Amity? It’s impossible to know right now. I don’t know if I want to know.
Tobias walks over to a metal box on the right side of the fence. He opens a door to reveal a keypad. “Hopefully the Erudite didn’t think to change the combination,” he remarks. After typing in eight numbers, the gate pops open with a click.
Caleb stares at him in amazement. “How did you do that?”
“I worked in the control room in Dauntless,” Tobias explains, shrugging his shoulders. “I monitored all of the security systems for the city. The codes only get changed twice a year.”
“How lucky,” Caleb remarks, eyeing him warily.
“Luck has nothing to do with it. I worked there because I wanted to always make sure that I had a way of getting out.”
“No need to argue about it,” Uriah says, putting a hand on Tobias’s shoulder. “We are fortunate that Four worked in the control room. Now we can get out.”
I had never thought about being trapped inside the city before. Then again, it has always been peaceful inside the city. The factions had never attacked each other before. I had never really given much thought to what goes on outside of the fence, other than Amity’s farms. In school we were taught that the world outside the fence is dangerous; I never wanted to leave, and felt lucky to be a part of this city.
Tobias
It takes us a while to walk to Amity. We must look like an odd sight. Natalie, Beatrice – no, Tris – , and Peter with their injured shoulders and arms, Uriah, Marcus, and I, walking in a small pack. Caleb is in the back of the group; I can hear him crying, although he’s trying to muffle the sound. Tris is walking beside me. I look over her and smile. She notices my glance and weakly smiles back. I start to feel butterflies in my stomach.
It must be hard for the Priors today, losing a father and a husband. I think back to the day that I thought that my mother died. Although it turned out that my mother hadn’t actually died, the pain was real. In my case, I was also left alone with my abusive father, which might have made it worse, but at that level of pain, do things really get worse? Losing a family member is about as bad as it can get.
We start to see light off in the distance. At first, I only see a few dots of light, like stars along the horizon. The stars slowly grow into window-shaped squares. Soon, we can see the Amity buildings – greenhouses for plants and wooden buildings for living spaces.
We arrive at an orchard. The ground is muddy beneath my feet; I can feel my shoes sinking slightly in the dirt. Overhead, the tree branches seem to form a tunnel. The overripe fruit hanging in the trees smell wonderful, although they remind me that it’s been quite a while since I ate. Too bad I left my backpack at the Abnegation safe house. I had food packed in it.
Marcus brushes past me. “I know where to go,” he says.
I inwardly roll my eyes. Sometimes he thinks he knows everything. It’s a wonder that he didn’t transfer to Erudite. He was certainly not selfless as a father. Still, he walks with the confidence of someone who seems to know where he’s going, this time. I hate having to follow him, but it seems like the best option at the moment. We follow him to a nearby building to the left of us.
Marcus opens one of the doors. If this were Dauntless, it would be locked. In Amity, everybody is supposed to be kind, so I guess that they don’t feel the need for protection. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why I didn’t feel like I could transfer here when I was making my escape from my father. I felt, and I guess still feel, too broken to fit in with them. Yet here I am, once again, following my father into God knows where.
The only sound that I can hear is that of our shoes. Marcus walks over to an open door. Johanna Reyes, Amity’s representative, is sitting, staring out a window. Johanna has a huge scar that stretches from her lip to her right eyebrow. Whatever injury she sustained, years ago, left her with a blind eye and with a lisp. I’ve seen her once or twice before; it’s hard to forget her face. It’s hard not to wonder what happened to her to injure her so badly.
Johanna walks over to Marcus and touches him lightly on the shoulders. When meeting someone from another faction, Amity tries to follow their customs, in order to make the other person more comfortable. She must realize that Abnegation tries to avoid close contact with others. “Thank God,” she says. “The other members of your group got here a few hours ago. We weren’t sure if you were going to make it.” I guess that the other people that I saw this morning, including the old man and the two kids that I saved, must have arrived safely.
Johanna looks at the group of us standing behind Marcus. “Oh my,” she says, looking at the bloodstains on Peter, Tris, and Natalie. “I’ll send for a doctor. I can grant you all permission to stay the night, but tomorrow, our community must decide together. And –” she looks at me, Tris, and Uriah – “they will likely not be enthusiastic about a Dauntless presence in our compound.”
“But – ” Tris protests, “– I’m Abnegation.”
She looks at Tris again. “I apologize. For a second I thought you were – it must be the gunshot wound.” She shakes her head.
Tris is wearing Abnegation grey, and has her hair in the characteristic Abnegation bun. I wonder why Johanna thought that.
“I need you to hand over any weapons that you might have,” Johanna adds.
I take out my gun and hand it to her. Tris is about to give Johanna her gun as well, but I grab her hand and hold it behind her back, preventing her from giving it up. Tris is Abnegation; nobody would suspect her of having a gun. Although Amity shouldn’t be dangerous, it’s better to be safe than sorry, as far as having protection is concerned.
Johanna holds out her hands to me. “My name is Johanna Reyes.” Johanna must be aware of the other faction’s customs. The Abnegation in me still feels uncomfortable shaking hands, but my hand meets hers anyway.
“This is T – ” Marcus begins.
“My name is Four,” I interrupt, frowning. “I’d like to introduce Tris, Caleb, Uriah, Peter, and Natalie.”
Caleb looks at me, then Tris. His expression is disapproving.
“We’re going into the unknown, into a new life,” Tris says, sensing his concern about her name change. “I figured that a new name would help me handle it better.”
Johanna seems oblivious to the conflict, or perhaps she chooses to ignore it. “Welcome to the Amity compound. Let us take care of you.”
Peter, Tris, and Natalie are escorted away to the hospital to take care of their bullet wounds. The rest of us are taken to the cafeteria, where some of the Abnegation that I saw this morning are sitting at long rows of tables. The old man and his children are there, along with a few of the people that I’d seen Tris talking to before. They seem genuinely happy to see all of us, although being Abnegation, they make an effort to not show their feelings. They seem to be especially happy to see Marcus. I hold in my revulsion about how deceived they are about his true character.
I sit down next to Uriah at one of the tables. Someone from Amity brings out a plate of fruit and chicken. We devour the food hungrily. I’m so glad to finally sit down and try to relax, although I don’t know how that’s going to happen. So much has happened in just the last twenty-four hours.
“Are you okay?” I ask Uriah. He fell asleep on the train, so we hadn’t really had the chance to talk.
“I guess,” he says. “I’m not hurt, like Peter and Beatrice.”
“Tris, now,” I correct him.
“Oh yeah.” Uriah takes a bite out of a drumstick. “What’s up with her anyway? She’s different.”
“Yeah,” I feel my mind drifting off, thinking about her. A smile starts to creep onto my face.
“Don’t know what’s up with my brother though,” Uriah continues. “I hope that he’s okay. Imagine waking up from a simulation like that, with all that chaos around you, not knowing what you might have done.” He frowns. “I saw him, before I was captured by some of the awake Dauntless guards. He was as much of a zombie as the rest of them.”
I shake my head. “I hope that he’s okay. Zeke is one of my best friends.”
Shortly after we finish eating, someone from Abnegation approaches us with steaming cups of pink-red liquid. “You have all been through a lot today. Drink this. It’ll keep the dreams away; especially the nightmares.”
I drink my cup. The heat from the drink feels good. I suddenly feel so much more relaxed. Someone from Amity takes me down a hallway, into a small room with a bed in it. I lie down, and quickly drift off to sleep.