Flower Child

Chapter Thirty Seven

   The crowds had pushed me and Tobias apart as they filed out. I tried my best to force my way to him but the sea of Dauntless was to dense, so I gave up and let them force me away from him.
   I go back to the dorm, I'll find Tobias later tonight when everybody has gone to sleep. I lay down expecting to pretend to sleep, but as soon as my head hits the pillow the exhaustion from the day, the landscape and the celebrations, settles in and I can't force my eyes to stay open.
   When I do wake up, it's to the sound of squeaking mattresses and shuffling. I sit up, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. Christina is tying her shoes, Will is putting on a shirt, and Tris is staring at me with wide eyes.
   "What's going on?" I ask.
   Tris quickly stands up and walks over to me, "I don't know, Mor. I woke up and they were like this."
   I look at Christina and my heart jolts. Her face is slack, no emotion on her at all as she seems to stare through whatever she looks at. With one glance at everyone else, they look exactly like her.
   They all suddenly start to file out of the dorm and Tris tries to stop Will but he keeps moving forward.
   "Tris," I whisper, "get ready and follow them. Act exactly like them, okay?"
   "But-"
   "No," I stop her, "just do it, quickly. Erudite has them under a sim, they're going to use us to attack Abnegation and if we don't act like we're under as well they're going to kill us, got it?"
   I pull on leggings and a t-shirt as quickly as I can and put on my boots and jacket as Tris rushes to do the same. We run to catch up with them, they march in a line and Tris and I fall in behind them.
"Mimic them," I whisper to Tris, who is in front of me.
They all move in sync, same foot, same swinging arm. We match them, but it feels wrong, it's to stiff, not as fluid of a motion.
We march towards the pit, but just before we enter we veer left into a hall. Max stands there, his eyes traveling over the line of initiates. My muscles tense and I pray that Tris keeps up the act, we can't get caught. I keep my eyes trained on the back of her head, hoping they don't portray the terror I feel.
We pass him, his eyes move over us and to the line behind me that had turned into the hall.
We climb up a flight of stairs and continue down four corridors. The hallway then opens up into a large cavern that is filled with mindless Dauntless.
We shuffle towards tables with mounds of black objects on them. I can't tell what they are until I'm basically at the table, guns. I watch and mimic Tris as she watches Will, she grabs a gun, a holster, and a belt, only fumbling a few times, thankfully so small that someone would have to have been right next to her, with their eyes trained only on her, to see it.
We follow Will after we are armed and I can see the turmoil play out on Tris's features. Abnegation is her home faction, where her parents are, where the people she grew up with are. She can't do this, and neither can I. I can't do this, my Amity heart would rather turn the gun on myself than kill an innocent, my landscape yesterday proved as much. The plan forms in my mind, pretend long enough until we get to Abnegation, help Tris save her family, and get them out of there, after that is uncertain but I'll figure it out.
The line passes into a dark hallway and I hear Tris trip over something, steps. She recovers quickly, but my heart still clenches in my chest as I pray that it's to dark for anyone to see her.
We continue up in the darkness and come to a turn in the stairs. As we turn, light comes in from an open door at the top. I can see the heads of everyone in front of me and I focus on making myself match their movements again. Another Dauntless leader stands at the doorway, I know he's a leader because they are the only ones awake. Well, not the only ones, Tris and I are awake, I think it has something to do with Divergence, which means Tris is divergent, and Tobias is awake somewhere, unless I'm wrong about him and he really did get Abnegation on his aptitude test.
I have a feeling that I'm not wrong though, I have to find him.
We stop in a large block of black next to the train tracks, the train stopped, which I've never seen it do in the middle of town, on it with every door open. There are so many of us that I can't see the end in my peripheral vision. One by one Dauntless climb into the cars, turning around to help the next person in.
I can't turn my head to look for Tobias, but I can let my eyes wander. A ways down to my right I see a tall boy with short hair, it could be him, or maybe not, but I don't really care, I have to check.
The car we stood in front of fills up and Will turns to the next one. I turn with him but when he stops, I slide over to the right into another line. Tris glances at me and I give her the smallest nod. I step to the right again and Tris takes up the spot next to me. This will have to do, we've already moved to much, it could draw attention. The boy in front of me gets pulled up into the car and I take the next hand, watching Tris in the corner of my eye to make sure she gets in as well.
When I turn my eyes back to the person who helped me into the car my heart stops. Tobias. He's is as robotic as the others, not even glancing at me. Was I really wrong? Is he not Divergent? My eyes burn but I don't let tears push forward.
We fall into rows, shoulder to shoulder. Tris takes up the spot to my left, using her short stature to her advantage when moving around the crowd of taller people. I stare forward, not glancing at her or Tobias, until something happens. Warm fingers lace with my own, Tobias.
Relief floods through me, he's Divergent, he's not under a sim. I squeeze his hand and he squeezes back to as if to confirm all my thoughts.
I keep my head forward, I want nothing more than to look at him, to hug him, to kiss him, but it's to dangerous. He traces small shapes on the back of my hand and it drives me mad, I need to talk to him, but, I can't.
I stare at the back of the girls head that stands in front of me, not focusing on anything other than her hair and Tobias's hand. I don't know how much time has passed by the time the train starts to slow, squealing as it does, only that my muscles ache from standing in the fast moving car. The train comes to a complete stop, the brakes loud on the train that never stops.
   The car doors open and everyone begins to jump out. Right before we jump, Tobias turns his head to Tris and I and says, "Run."
Tris instantly shakes her head, "My family."
Tobias looks at me and I nod, telling him all he needs to know with that small gesture. I'm not going anywhere until Tris and her family are safe. He sighs and nods, letting go of my hand.
I turn my face forward and jump down once it's my turn. We all fall into lines, Tobias in front of me, and Tris behind me. I focus on the back of his head, on the tattoo that peaks over his collar, trying to not focus on the gray world of the Abnegation. There are Dauntless all around us, all in sync, except for the officers that watch us with free minds. The homes are dark, and no Abnegation are anywhere to be seen.
We walk half a mile and then I hear a popping noise. I can't pinpoint where they're coming from but I know we're getting closer as the sound gets louder and sharper. Gunshots. Those are guns making that noise, and that means that this is real, that Erudite is using Dauntless to kill Abnegations. I clench my jaw and keep my pace as steady as I possibly can. I can't imagine what this must be like for Tris.
Ahead of us, a Dauntless soldier shoves a man in gray to his knees. She takes her gun out of her holster and shoots the man in the back of his skull.
The soldier has a gray streak in her hair. It's Tori, the woman who gave me my tattoos. Behind me, I hear Tris falter, a small gasp leaving her.
I have to force my legs to keep moving. We march past Tori and the man, his hand lays in our path and I step over it, trying my hardest to keep a sob from leaving my lips.
We stop, and I force myself to keep still. I want to scream, to find the people who did this, to kill them all. Another gunshot rings and I see a gray figure fall in the corner of my eye. They're all going to die if this doesn't stop, all because Erudite and Dauntless wanted control over a damn government.
Erudite is feeding everyone orders through the sim, how long will it take for them to notice that I'm not doing whatever those orders are? The line begins to break off, doing the unspoken orders like the mindless soldiers they are.
"This is insane," Eric's voice says from my right.
He pokes my cheek and I fight every urge to turn and bite his finger off.
"They really can't see us? Or hear us?" A female voice asks.
"Oh, they can see and hear. They just aren't processing what they see and hear the same way," Eric says, "They receive commands from our computers in the we injected them with." He puts his finger over the injection site on my neck to show her, I force away the urge to smack his hand. "And carry them out seamlessly."
Eric shifts over and steps towards Tobias and leans close to his face with a grin.
"Well isn't this a happy sight," he says, "The legendary Four. No one's going to remember that I came in second now, are they? No one's going to ask me 'what was it like to train with the guy who only has four fears?'" He draws his gun from its holster and points it at Tobias's right temple. "Think anyone would notice if he accidentally got shot?"
My heart slams in my chest and I fight to keep my hands from shaking.
"Go ahead," the woman says, sounding board, "he's nothing now."
"Too bad you didn't just take Max up on his offer, Four. Well, too bad for you, anyway," Eric says, clicking the bullet into the chamber.
I watch as Tobias's hand twitches but mine are already moving to my gun. I pull it out, cock it, and point it at Eric's head in less than half a second. His eyes shoot open wide and then his face goes as slack as the soldiers around us. Next to me, Tris pulls her gun out and points it at the girl to keep her from drawing her own weapon.
"Put your gun down or I'll kill you right where you stand," I growl lowly.
"You won't shoot me," Eric says, but it's not confident.
"You really want to test that theory?" I ask.
I pull the gun away from his head and point it at his foot, firing without hesitation. He screams, dropping his gun and grabbing his foot. As soon as the gun is away from his head, Tobias grabs his gun and fires it at the girls leg. Tris turns and grabs my arm and pulls me into a run. Tobias bolts with us, grabbing my free hand with his own. Tobias and Tris know this place, they lead the way to an alley.
A gunshot rings out and Tris screams, falling to the ground. I stop, pulling Tobias with me.
"Run," Tris yells at us.
"I don't think so," I snap.
I help her to her feet as we are surrounded. She leans her weight on me, barely able to stand. We have soldiers with guns trained on us all around us.
"Divergent rebels," Eric says, he stands on one foot, his face void of color, "surrender your weapons."