Divergent Writing Scraps

Scraps 11

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She coughed once, spluttering little specks of blood. Her eyes opened slowly, and then widened like she’d seen a ghost. She shot up, screaming like some wild animal.

‘It’s okay Tris, I’m here, I’m here,’ my voice was small and weak, like a little boy who’s lost his Mum.

Her eyes flickered around the room, and then at me. She breathed quickly, every inhale flying up and down wildly. 

She just stared blankly at me, and then tears welled up in her eyes. ‘Tris?’ my hand went to the side of her head. ‘Did you die as well?’ the tears came, and her voice was soft and croaky.

‘No. I’m alive. So are you, but-‘ she looked at me, shocked. ‘I died!’ she was shaking like a leaf, pale and quivering. She looked down at her sheets, and her hand went to her head. ‘Wait!’ my warning came too late.

She immediately groaned, whimpering and bending over. 

I went to hold her. ‘You got shot.’ she sobbed and curled into me. ‘In the head, twice. You were dead. Grayson died. Ryder’s leaving. I killed Lane. The war is over. We won.’

The last words feel strange on my tongue. We won. We didn’t really win. People died. Families were shattered. Factions destroyed. Almost everything we know decimated.

‘How am I here.’ she says after a while, when she’s stop sobbing and my back and arms are stiff.

‘Did Grayson ever tell you about Resurgence serum?’ I said quietly into her ear.

She gave the slightest shake of her head. It was like she didn’t quite believe she was alive. Like she thought it was just a dream to ease her into death.

‘Well he said it was developed by Erudite a long time ago, sometime before the war, so they could keep the leaders alive. But they kept it secret, and Grayson and a couple of others re-discovered it.’ I can see something of a tiny smile form on Tris’s face. ‘And it’s weird. It’s some sort of a neuro-simulator. Like it manipulates your cells and wakes you up, and removes any damage on the inside.’ 

Tris looks up at me, and for the first time in a while I see the light in her eyes returning. I kissed her lightly, careful not to hurt her. ‘I’ll see you soon, okay?’ she looked scared ‘Don’t go’ she whispered. I can see it. The same look when he shot her. When she died. 

‘Do you wanna go to my apartment?’ I didn’t want to stay here. ‘We’ll get you cleaned up.’ She nodded. She was still quivering, so I picked her up. I brushed a strand of hair out of her face. ‘Hey, it’ll be okay.’ she bit her lip to stop from crying out. I realised blood was still covering most of her. She must be cut everywhere.

I carried her, stepping as quietly as I could. I tried to avoid the front entrance, where it was packed with medics and injured people. 

I didn’t really have an apartment here, that was all the way back in Dauntless. We made our way up a flight of stairs, Tris whimpering at every step. There were row upon row of abandoned apartments, and who knows, they could go all the way back to the war times. I slipped into a nice one with a view of the ferris wheel and marsh. No surprise, it was empty. There were tables and chairs, but nothing on them. It still looked like it had been cleaned recently though. 

I lay her down on a couch, and started to go towards the door. There had to be a bath nearby. And then I ran into someone.

Evan.

His brow was creased. ‘What are you doing up here?’ I realised that no-one would know Tris’s revival. Maybe not even about the Resurgence serum. ‘I…uh…’ He peered over my shoulder. I grimaced as Tris gave a rather loud moan. ‘Is someone in there?’ The band on his arm, labelling him as a medic, was stained with blood. I steeped to the side to bar his path.