Rampant: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Two) ©

Chapter 5

                Jude was practically foaming at the mouth when we found him; hands clenched and a vein in his forehead pulsing noticeably. Behind him his younger brother Wayne was yanking on his coat, trying to stop him from attacking the blonde boy who’d been shoved into a corner.

                “Do you hear me? I will not have you corrupting my little brother!” Jude growled, jabbing a finger into the boy’s chest.

                “Jude, chill, this wasn’t even Felix’s idea,” Wayne defended. “I was the one who–”

                “Shut up Wayne,” Jude snapped, yanking his shoulder from his grip. “If something happened to you, do you know what that would’ve done to mom?”

                “Nothing was going to happen, trust me.”

                “Yeah, what Wayne said, it was all carefully planned out. Perfectly safe,” Felix interjected from his corner.

                I swear, Jude seemed like he could’ve spontaneously combusted at any moment.

                “Sage, Iris, thank god, can you please talk some sense into him,” Wayne said in relief when he noticed us approaching. “He’s totally overreacting.”

                Iris and I ran forward; her objective Felix, childhood best-friend and rumored sweet-heart, and mine Jude, the guy who looked ready to start shooting. Though I didn’t have quite the same ability to calm him down the way Finn did, I knew him well enough to know how to diffuse the situation. I shouldered past him and planted myself so that I’d be in the way if he tried to strike.

                “What’s going on?” I asked. “What did he do this time?”

                Jude tried to sidestep me, but I shifted and repeated my question.

“What happened?”

                “Nothing!” I head Felix protest behind me, then quietly he added, “… not this time anyway.”

                I looked over my shoulder and gave him a withering look, to which he mouthed back; sorry.

                Felix was essentially mischievousness personified into the form of a living boy. He was always either pulling a prank, wagering a series of bets, or accomplishing some random dare his friends had challenged him with. I’d met him a few days after Iris and I had talked in the chasm. Though we’d never been especially close, I couldn’t help but find the kid’s antics endearing.

                “What did he do?” Jude repeated irately. He pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to me; a bag labeled flash powder, and another that said sodium silicate. “They were going to make bombs!”

                “Cherry bombs!” Felix pointed out not-so helpfully. Jude took a dangerous step forward, but I again blocked his advance. Felix really wasn’t helping his own case.

                “Well, that doesn’t seem so bad,” I said, almost retreating when Jude’s glare flashed to me.

                “I wasn’t finished,” he snapped. “They were going to make bombs and then set them off in the dauntless armory.”

                “Just to see how well those gas masks and bullet-proof vests work,” Wayne interjected matter-of-factly; as if his admission would make the whole thing totally reasonable. “It was for scientific purposes. If anything, you should be thanking me.”