Tobias - after Allegiant ✔

20

Three days after I'm released from the hospital I go back to work. Parts of my face are still covered with bandages and I wear a brace for my broken ribs. Johanna is gone, but that doesn't mean there isn't any work for me to do. So I wake up at seven am and get ready for the ride with the train. I don't have food - I was planning to get that the day of the car accident - so I leave without breakfast.

Downstairs I empty my mailbox. I don't find it interesting and throw most of it away immediately.

"Good morning, Tobias."

I turn around and see Evelyn walking up to me.

"Hey, Mom."

"You look like you didn't eat breakfast," she says with a raised eyebrow.

"Didn't have anything to eat." I lift a shoulder.

"Luckily you have a caring mother," she says with a sigh. She opens her bag, takes a muffin out of it and gives it to me.

"Thank you."

"No problem." She presses a kiss to my cheek. "Have fun with working, sweetheart."

I smile lightly. "See you later, Mom."

I walk out of the flat to the train stop. On the way I eat my muffin. Evelyn keeps a close eye on me ever since I left that hospital and it's getting on my nerves. I hope it won't take long for her to decide that I'm okay and have everything under control. Maybe it'll work if I ask her to eat dinner with me tonight.

+ + +

I sink in the desk chair and start the computer. It feels strange to come in this office without the sight of Johanna already busy. It's way too quiet this way, way too empty.

Fifteen minutes pass and I'm really busy when the phone rings and I jump. Everyone has a phone at work. Actually the only one who ever calls is the front desk lady. And she has never called me before.

I pick up the phone and say shortly: "Tobias Eaton."

"There are two men standing here in front of me, looking for you," a female voice says.

I sigh. "All right. Send them up. The door's open."

I put the phone back and roll the chair toward the door. I open it slightly and roll back, where I continue working.

Five minutes later someone knock on the door post. I look up. I don't recognize the man.

"Mister Eaton," he says, "I need your help."

"And you are?" I ask.

"Doctor John Williams, from the Bureau of Agricultural Welfare. Nice to meet you."

"I don't want anything to do with the Bureau." I turn away to my computer and get back to work.

"I have a list of people. I need photos of them."

"I want nothing to do with the Bureau," I repeat, pronouncing every word extremely clear.

He walks over to me and lays down the list in front of me. I pick it up and read the first names: Natalie, Andrew and Caleb Prior. I look at the man.

"I know you have access to that information, Mister Eaton."

I sigh and look up the photos. The faster I do this, the faster this man with his stupid photos and Bureau is gone.

I give him the photos of the Prior family and my friends and I see a pattern: they all know her.

"Why these exact photos?" I ask.