But Then I Met Her | ✓

Chapter 55

I kiss her, wrapping my arms around her waist. I lift her up, holding her against me. I set her down, remembering her shoulder. I stare into her eyes, the blue faded to a sharp gray. My fingers brush over her forehead, her eyebrows, her cheeks, her lips. I almost killed her. I almost killed her.

I let out something between a sob and a moan, tears pricking my eyes. She pulls herself against my chest, sobbing into my shirt. She leans against me, and I hold her up. I almost killed Tris. 

"How did you do it?" She asks, her voice thick with tears.

"I don't know." I say. "I just heard your voice."

We stand  there for a few seconds, and then she seems to remember something. She pulls back and wipes away her tears with her palms, and turns back towards the screens. She looks at the one with the drinking fountain on it.

She stands next to me for a few minutes, staring silently at the screens. She and I seem to be thinking along the same lines- how can something so small control so many people? "Was I running the simulation?" I ask.

"I don't know if you were running it so much as monitoring it." She says, and a weight lifts off of my chest. "It's already complete. I have no idea how, but Jeanine made it so it could work on it's own." I feel a shot of hatred run through me at her name.

I shake my head. The Erudite in me can't help but be amazed at the genius of the whole thing. "It's...incredible. Terrible, evil....but incredible."

Tris sees one of the screens, and her eyes widen in terror. "Tobias," she says, her voice tight and afraid. "Now!"

I run to the computer screen, and my fingers seem to move on their own. Thank God I'm so good with computers, or else I wouldn't be able to do this. Tris keeps her eyes on the screen, and I key in some commands. It seems like a string of random letters and numbers, but I understand what it's doing.

"Tobias." Tris says in warning.

I tap the screen again, and I see everyone on the screen go still. I look up, and watch as they look around in confusion. Tris sits on the ground, sighing. I crouch next to the computer, pulling off the side case. "I have to get the data," I explain, "or they'll just start the simulation again."

"Got it." I hold up the hard drive, a piece of metal about the size of my palm. I offer it to Tris, and she shoves it into her back pocket.

"We have to leave." She says, getting to her feet. She points to the screen on the right, where Dauntless men and women fire at each other, shout, and run in every direction.

"Yes, we do." I slide my arms over her shoulders. "Come on."

We walk down the hallway and around a corner. Tris looks around for something- or maybe someone- but I don't know who. There are the bodies of guards on the ground, and then I see a man in Abnegation gray, with short dark hair. Andrew Prior. Tris's father.

She lets out a strangled scream and turns away, vomiting against the wall. She crouches near the wall, and I consider comforting her, but instead pushing the button for the elevator. I can't help her with this. I wish I could, but I can't. I do not know how to handle that kind of grief, and I doubt that I ever will. I look away from her, giving her some privacy to be weak, to cry because her father is dead.