CHAPTER 1

I MAKE WITH his name in my mouth. Will. Before I open my

eyes, I watch him crumple to the pavement. Dead. My doing. Tobias crouches in

front of me, his hand on my left shoulder. Then train car bumps over the rails,

and Marcus, Peter, and Caleb stand by the doorway. I take a deep breath and

hold it in attempt to relieve some of the pressure that is building in my chest

an hour ago, nothing that happened felt real to me. Now it does. I breath out,

and the pressure is still there. “Tris, come on,” Tobias says, his eyes

searching mine.” We have to jump.” It is too dark to see where we are, but if

we are getting off, we are probably close to the fence. Tobias helps me to my

feet and guides me toward the doorway. The other jump off one by one: The winds

picks Marcus, then Caleb. I take Tobias’s hand. The wind picks up as we stand

at the edge of the car opening, like a hand pushing me back, towards safety.

But we launch ourselves into the darkness and land hard on the ground. The

impact hurts the bullet wound in my shoulder. I bite my lip to keep from crying

out, and search for my brother. “Okay?” I say when I see him sitting in the

grass a few feet away, rubbing his knee. He nods, I hear him sniff like he’s

fending off tears, and I have to turn away. We landed in the grass near the

fence, several yards away from the worn path that Amity truck s travel to

deliver food to the city, and the gate that lets them out, the gate that is

currently shut, locking us in. the fence towers over us, too high and flexible

to climb over, to sturdy knock down. “There are supposed to be Dauntless guards

here, “Tobias says, “and are now…” He pauses. “Who knows where doing who knows

what.” We stopped the simulation the weight of the hard drive in my back pocket

reminds me, but we didn’t pause to see the aftermath. What happened to our

friends, our peers, our leaders, our faction? There is no way to know. Tobias

approaches a small metal box on the right side of the gate and opens it,

revealing a keypad. “Let’s hope the Erudite didn’t think to change this

combination,” he says as he types in a series of numbers. He stops at the eight

one, and the gate clicks open. “How did you know that?” says Caleb. His voice

sounds thick with emotion, so thick I am surprised it does not choke him on the

way out. “I worked in the Dauntless control room, monitoring the security

system. We only change the code twice a year,” Tobias says. “How lucky,” says

Caleb. He gives Tobias a wary look. “Luck has nothing to do with it, “Tobias

says. “I only worked there because I wanted to make sure I could get out.” I

shiver. The way he talks about getting out it’s like he thinks we’re trapped. I

never thought about it that way before, and now that seems foolish. We walk in

a small pack, Peter cradling his bloody arms to his chest the arm that I shot

and Marcus with his hand on Peter’s shoulder, keeping him stable. Caleb wipes

his cheeks every few seconds, and I know his crying, but I don’t know how to

comfort him, or why I am not crying myself. Instead, I take the lead, Tobias

silent at my side, and thought he does not touch me, he steadies me. Pinpricks

of light are the first sign that we are nearing Amity headquarters. Then

squares of light that turn into glowing windows. A cluster of wooden and glass

buildings. Before we can reach them, we have to walk through an orchard. My

feet sink into the ground, and above me, the branches grow into one another,

forming a kind tunnel. Dark fruit hangs among the leaves, ready to drop. The

sharp, sweet of rotting apples mixes with the scent of wet earth in my nose.

When we got close, Marcus leaves Peter’s side and walks I front. `` I know

where to go ‘’ he says. He leads us past the first building to the second one

on the left. All the buildings except the greenhouses are made of the same dark

wood, unpainted, rough. I hear laughter through an open window. The contrast

between and the stone laughter and the stone stillness within me is jarring.

Marcus opens one of the doors. I would be shocked by the lack of security if we

were not at Amity headquarters. They often straddle the line between trust and

stupidity. In this building the only sound is of our squeaking shoes. I don’t

hear Caleb crying any more, but then, he was quiet about it before. Marcus

stops before an open room, where Johanna Reyes, representative of amity, sits,

staring out the window. I recognize her because it is hard to get Johanna’s

face, whether you’ve seen her once or a thousand times. A scar stretches in a

thick line from just above her right eyebrow to her lip, rendering her blind in

one eye and giving her a lisp when she talks. I have only heard her speak once,

but I remember. She would have been a beautiful woman if not for that scar. ``

Oh thank God,’’ she says when she sees Marcus. She walks toward him with her

arms open. Instead of embracing him, she just touches his shoulders, like she

remembers the Abnegation’s distaste for casual physical contact. `` The other

members of your party got here a few hours ago, but they weren’t sure if you

had made it ,’’  she says. She is

referring to the group of Abnegation who were with my father and Marcus in the

safe house. I didn’t even think to worry about them. She looks over Marcus’s

shoulder, first at Tobias and Caleb, then at me, then at Peter. ``My.’’ She says,

her eyes lingering on the blood soaking Peter’s shirt. ``I’II send for a

doctor. I can grant you all permission to stay the night, but tomorrow, our

community must decide together. And’’---she eyes Tobias and me---`` they will

likely not be enthusiastic about a Dauntless presence in our compound. I of

course ask you to turn over any weapons you might have.’’ I wonder, suddenly,

how she knows that I am Dauntless. I am still wearing a gray t shirt. My

father’s shirt. At that moment, his smell, which is an even mixture of soap and

sweat, wafts upward, and it fills my nose, with him. my entire head with him. I

clench my hands so hard into fist that my fingernails cut into my skin. Not

here. Not here. Tobias hands over his gun, but when I reach behind me to take

out my own concealed weapon, he grabs my hand, guiding it away from my back.

Then he laces his fingers with mine to cover up what he just did. I know it’s

smart to keep one of our guns. But it would have been a relief to hand it over.

“My name is Johanna Reyes,” she says, extending her hand me, and then Tobias. A

Dauntless greeting. I am impressed by her awareness of the customs of other

factions. I always how considerate the Amity are until I see it for myself.

“This is T- “Marcus starts, but Tobias interrupts him. “My name is Four,” he

says. “This is Tris, Caleb, and Peter.” A few days ago, “Tobias” was a name

only I knew, among the Dauntless; it was the piece of himself that he gave me.

Outside Dauntless Headquarters, I remember why he hid that name from the world.

It binds him to Marcus. “Welcome to the Amity compound.” Johanna’s eyes fix on

my face, and she smiles crookedly. “Let us take care of you.” We do let them.

An Amity nurse gives me slave development by Erudite to spend healing to put on

my shoulder, and then escorts Peter to the hospital ward to mend his arm.

Johanna takes us to the cafeteria, where we find some of the Abnegation who

were in the safe house with Caleb and my father. Susan is there, and some of

our old neighbors, and rows of wooden tables as long as the room itself. They

greet us especially Marcus with held in tears and suppressed smiles. I cling to

Tobias’s arm. I sag under the weight of the members of my parent’s faction,

their lives, their tears. one of the Abnegation puts a cup of steaming liquid

under my nose and says, “Drink this. It will help you sleep as it helped some

of others sleep. No dreams.” The liquid is pink, red, like strawberries. I grab

the cup and drink it fast. For a few seconds, the heat from the liquid makes me

feel like I am full of something again. And as I drain the last drops from the

cup, I feel myself relaxing. Someone leads me down the hallway, to a room with

a bed in it. That is all.

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