Devotion (Four/Theo Eaton x OC) [COMPLETE]

Chapter 9: Controlled or in control?

Later that same day, all the initiates that passed the final testing were gathered into one room to receive a tracking device. Since I had been officially accepted into Dauntless, I also was herded into one of the many waiting lines.

"Alright, listen up," Eric announced from a metal staircase. "Before you leave tonight, I want you all in four lines. Everyone gets a tracking device. Don't ask questions, just a precaution."

Something about the whole idea of a tracking device made me suspicious. My parents never had one and Four hadn't mentioned anything. I frantically searched the crowd for his familiar figure, but couldn't find him. Suddenly desperate to be beside him, I discreetly slipped out of the line to continue my search, but Eric found me first.

"Congratulations, Swift," he said with his usual smile that made my blood boil. "You know, I honestly didn't think you would pull through on your training with your high ego."

A breeze tickled my ear and I instinctively turned, punching the lurking person behind me in the face. They groaned as they held their bleeding nose and dropped the instrument they were going to use to insert a tracking device.

There wasn't time for me to register their intention until too late. Before I could stop Eric, he shot a tracking device into my neck while I was distracted. I glared at him and roughly shoved his shoulder with my own as I walked past.

No matter how hard I searched that night, I couldn't find Four. He wasn't in his room or anywhere else I looked in Dauntless. It was useless to continue so I eventually found myself in the kitchen to refuel my energy.

"I don't know where he is, James," I sighed and took the cookie he offered me, biting into it. "He's never disappeared like this before and frankly, the whole thing makes me nervous with these tracking devices and whatnot."

The Asian chef patted my shoulder gently, "I'm sure he'll turn up."

I groaned a little in frustration, "I vowed to protect him, but I can't do that if I don't know where he is!"

"As my grandfather used to say—" in mid-sentence, James's eyes suddenly glossed over and his expression became blank. The wooden spoon dropped from his hand as he walked in a daze through the kitchen door.

"James!" I grabbed his shoulder, but he shook off my hand and continued to walk down the halls. I cautiously followed him closely as other Dauntless with the same blank expressions fell into line. They all walked like zombies single-file into the pit.

"They can see and hear us," I heard the Dauntless leader say to Eric and three other men as they surveyed the soldiers from the center of the room. "They just don't process it the same way. Commands come in through the transmitter."

So this is why they needed the transmitters. Controlling devices. Everyone was under the same influence, but for some reason, I wasn't affected. This meant that I was going against their system somehow and may endanger myself by acting differently to the other Dauntless. Through this reasoning, I decided to play along and act as mindless as the others looked.

James and I waited as a group of Dauntless collectively grabbed guns from a table, other Dauntless loading the soldiers onto the train. We gradually moved through the line toward the train, receiving our own guns from the table as I tried to maintain a blank expression.

"What's going on?" one man asked his friend, straying from the line. "What are we doing?" He walked around and searched the soldiers' faces like a lost puppy. My heart raced as I feared what they would do to a person who was not under the influence of their tracking devices.

"Hey," Eric approached the man, "everything's fine, there's nothing to worry about."

I shuddered as Eric suddenly shot him. The man's body fell to the ground as the sound of the gunshot reverberated throughout the room. Divergent.

My eyes continued to search the crowd for Four as I followed the actions of the soldiers in front of me, allowing myself to be loaded onto the train like part of a livestock herd. Once the vehicle was fully loaded, we were set in motion down the tracks.

I couldn't help but look even harder for the back of Four's head. As I scanned the sea of people, I realized he might not be in my cart, but then I spotted the familiar tip of Four's tattoo over his jacket collar and let out a sigh of relief. He was here.