INSURGENT: Tobias

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I hold Tris in my arms for the next couple of minutes. Closing my eyes, I breathe in the scent of her, thankful that she is here with me despite everything that just happened. She asks me, her voice muffled as she speaks against my chest, how I was able to avoid the Dauntless traitors and their strange guns.

I tell her how the Erudite girl, Cara, ran to the floor I was on and evacuated the whole of us onto a safe fire escape. I tell her how we split into four groups and stormed the stairwells to surround the Dauntless traitors. The fight was easy, I tell her. They weren't prepared for anyone to fight back.

She only nods against me, not saying a word, but simply taking everything in. As I hold her, I wonder if she is only physically with me. I wonder if her mind is miles away, leaving me to love a shadow.

I leave Tris to her own thoughts, fairly sure that she'd rather be alone than with me right now. The thought is upsetting, but I don't think too long on it. She needs space and I'm still not positive where we stand. Walking around the Candor compound, I notice the remnants of the Dauntless traitor's invasion everywhere, making it very hard to let my mind stray without fear of tripping over some piece of debris.

As I turn a corner, I see someone else wandering around in almost the same manner as myself. I stop dead in my tracks as I focus my eyes on the person on the opposite end of the hall. He stops as soon as he sees me and straightens his back. Our eyes meet despite the distance and a small smile forms on his familiar face.

"Hey, Four." He says quietly, making it almost inaudible from where I stand. I'm not sure if the emotion running through my body is relief or anger, but as I slowly make my way over to him, I begin to more clearly recognize the emotion as relief. Although anger is still present under everything, it doesn't show through in this moment.

I stop in front of him, almost not believing that he's really here.

"Zeke," I say simply, letting out all of the grief that consumed me when I thought he'd betrayed all of us. Though I never meant to make any real friends when I chose Dauntless, somehow Zeke wormed his way past my defenses.

"We all thought you'd surrendered over to the dark side." I tell him, trying to lighten the mood some. Zeke smirks at the comment.

"Are you kidding?" He says jokingly. "They didn't even have any cake. It was horrible."

"Has it always been about food with you?" I ask him, laughing lightly,

"How long have you known me, Four? Of course it's all about food!" He smiles and everything in me relaxes at the idea that everything doesn't have to change.

We laugh together just like we used to and I feel so carefree. More so than I've felt in a long time. I don't want to let it go.

"It hasn't been the same without you, Zeke." I say after the laughter dies down.

"Don't get all sappy on me now, Four. I did what I thought had to be done."

"You hurt a lot of people in the process. Uriah. Shauna..." I trail of, fairly sure that he gets the idea.

He sighs and averts his eyes for a second before looking back up at me.

"You know that wasn't my intention." He says, a frown marring his usually smiling lips. "Is—how mad is she?"

I look at the vulnerable expression on Zeke's face and wonder if he maybe cared more about Shauna than he let on for the past two years.

"Shauna's not mad, really. She's more...sad, I think." I let him take everything in and I don't say anything else on the subject. It isn't my place to tell him anything more anyway.