This takes place at the end of Divergent.
* * *
I watch as Jeanine struggles to turn back on her system, the one that turned all the Dauntless into killing machines.
"No...no..." Jeanine sputters, rapidly tapping a button on the large screen in front of her. Nothing happens.
I turn around to Tobias, who's behind me, also watching Jeanine. He looks beat up, but happy. We did it. We stopped her.
I turn back around to Jeanine. "Don't get me wrong. There's a certain beauty to your resistance," I say, mocking what she said to be earlier. She flashes her eyes to me, full of rage.
She flings herself on me and starts attacking me. I try to push her off but she has a rock solid grip on my arms. I feel Tobias's strong hands join me in ripping her off me.
I quickly grab a thing - I'm too hyped to see what it is - and harshly bring it to her head. She crumples to the ground, knocked out. I look at the thing, and it's some kind of pipe.
"We gotta go. Now," Tobias says, jogging towards the others, which includes Caleb, Peter, and Marcus.
Go where? my mind immediately asks. There is no Abnegation anymore, and even if there was I wouldn't want to go there. We can't stay in Dauntless, either...
I shove it out of my head and pick up a gun from one of Jeanine's knocked out guards. I follow Tobias, taking the rear. Tobias starts running, leading us out of Dauntless headquarters. Everyone else follows. I'm behind Marcus, staring at the back of him. If it was up to me, I would have him stay here. He was the head of my faction, but now that I found out what he used to do to Tobias, he's a whole new person to me. I hate him now. I resist the urge to kill him while I run.
Tobias leads us outside, where I hear a train whistle. I look and see that a train is coming on the tracks. I don't know where this train is going, but I guess it's our only option.
Tobias starts running alongside the tracks, so the rest of us follow. When the train is beside him, he hoists himself up and opens a door. He swings himself in.
Peter gets in quickly after him. Then Caleb struggles to run fast enough for the door, but he eventually does and Tobias helps him in, half carrying him.
"Son!" Marcus yells, holding out his hand and struggling more than Caleb did.
I watch Tobias closely, secretly and rudely hoping that he would let Marcus go.
But he doesn't. His face is blank as he grabs his father and pulls him in the train, to my dismay. I wonder why he did that. I figure I'll ask him later.
I sprint along side the train, the only person not in yet. Tobias's head is sticking outside the door, watching me. I'm exhausted, but I can do it.
"I got it!" I scream, my voice sounding high for some reason. I don't want Tobias thinking I can't.
"I know you do," he says, but he holds out his hand to help me anyway. I grab it and he pulls me up, and gets us both in the train.
He closes the door, and all five of us stand there, panting. The train is dirty, with boxes everywhere and a musty smell strong. I wonder where this train is going, and I wonder if we're going to stay wherever it's going.
"What now?" Caleb says in between pants. He's panting harder than any of us, with his face red and his eyes bloodshot.
Tobias half shrugs and half shakes his head. "I don't know." He's barely panting. The room is silent, and I'm scared. I thought Tobias had a plan, but I guess he doesn't.
I walk over by a window and slump against it, images of my dead mom, dead dad, and dead Will coming to my head. I killed three people today.
Marcus sits down right where he is, Peter stays standing, Caleb sits down across from me, and Tobias stands by me. I can feel his eyes on me but I don't look at him. I don't want to talk to anyone right now, not even him.
I suddenly hear a loud sound, kind of like an airplane but louder. A jet? It sounds huge. It gets louder by the seconds, as if it's flying over us.
I look at Tobias, and he's looking out the window, confused and curious. He hears it too, to my relief. I thought I was hallucinating.
"What's that sound?" Caleb speaks up.
Tobias doesn't answer, because he's staring out the window. I look out there and see it.
A huge aircraft, kind of like a ship in the sky. It's silver and shiny, and moving slowly across the cloudy sky. I've never seen anything like it in my life.
"Aliens?" Peter asks, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. I wonder why he's making jokes now. I don't reply, because if I did I would just blow up on him.
There's suddenly a jolt in the train, sending me off balance for a second. I grab onto the nearest thing, which is Tobias's arm. I hold onto him as the train slows and comes to an uneasy stop.
"Why'd we stop," I breathe, looking at Tobias, but his eyes are still glued to the window. I look out it, and see that the aircraft, or airship, or alien-ship, has landed.
Right next to the stopped train.
It's huge, and looks twice as big on land as it did in the sky. It's an abnormal shape, from what I can see from it here.
I gasp and back away from the window, which makes me sick. Why would I do that? I'm Dauntless.
"Everyone get away from the door," Tobias hisses. Everyone goes over by me, in the corner and completely away from the door. I step out of the crowd and in front, figuring I probably should.
"They're coming out," Tobias slowly says, his eyes still outside. He finally looks at us. "Get ready to fight."
I grab the gun I was holding off the ground and point it to the door, Tobias and Peter doing the same thing with their's.
The door suddenly bursts opens, and all these people dressed in white come in, each holding a rifle.
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" one of them screams very loudly, and all the people point their rifles at us. I don't drop my weapon, and nor does Tobias. I'm a statue, not breathing nor moving.
"Are these the ones?" one of them loudly asks another.
"Yes," the other replies.
"I SAID, DROP THEM!" the screaming man shouts to us. I still don't, although I'm shaking with fear.
"Told you they were aliens," Peter says in my ear from behind me. At first I'm still pissed that he thinks this is all a joke, but maybe they really are aliens.
"Not until you tell us who you are, and how you stopped this train," Tobias says calmly, but I can tell he's a bit scared.
"Get 'em," the guy says.
Suddenly all the men in the train, plus a whole dozen or so more from outside, rush towards us. Five of them grab my gun and start tugging. I let go of it and decide to use the very skills I have learned.
I punch one of them and kick another in the groin. I attack another while catching a glimpse of Tobias, taking four at a time. I also see Peter in the corner of my eye, taking a few as well. I wonder how and what Caleb and Marcus are doing.
I finally knock the guy out, and look at the train for a half a millisecond. There seems to be more men than there was before on board. The big airship seems to hold a lot of them. My heart sinks. Will they ever stop coming?
I turn around and start to attack another guy as a voice shouts; a women's voice.
"Stop!"
Everyone does, to my surprise, and the women walks in the train.
Jeanine.
She still looks beat up. The knife cut on her hand is still there and still massively bleeding, and there's a bump and a bruise on her forehead where I knocked her out. But how does she know these aliens, and why is she here? Why is she even awake?
She sees the surprised expression on my face and smirks. "Hello, Tris." I don't say anything because I know I would end up humiliating myself if I did.
She looks at a random man in the white. "Thank you so much for coming."
"It's our honor, ma'am. Which ones would you like us to take? We need three of 'em."
For what?
"Three? Hmm...lets see..." She walks towards us, the white men moving out of the way for her as if she's some kind of goddess.
She gets to us, and stands right in front of me. She looks at the people behind me. I look over and meet eyes with Tobias.
"Let's do this one back here. The tall one in the blue. Hurry up, now."
Men push me out of the way to get to Caleb, who has a bloody nose. They grab his arms and drag him toward the door and out.
"What are you doing to him?! Where are you taking him?!" I shout at Jeanine, close to tears.
She and everyone else ignores me. I'm shaking with fear, anger, and humiliation. Jeanine looks at Peter for a long time, then Marcus, then me.
"Her."
A weird feeling flows through me. Horror, because I'm being taken by these aliens, and relief, because I'll be with Caleb at least. Men forcefully grab me and drag me away from Peter and Marcus. I struggle to get free but their grips are too strong. I meet eyes with Tobias, but I'm forced to break contact as I'm forced out the door.
But we don't go into the airship. We stay right outside the door, so we can hear everything that's going on inside the train. The man whose holding onto me shoves me by Caleb. We exchange a look.
"And let's do this one," Jeanine's voice says, less clear than I expected. The sudden sounds of someone's face being punched and a lot of protests tells me that she chose Tobias.
He eventually comes out of the train, being restrained by more than six men. The people holding him walk straight into the airship. The men holding me walks me in after him.
The airship smells strongly of steel and metal. They steer me to a dark room with only a small white LED light in it, making the room look ghostly and sickening.
The men let go of us, and start to walk away until Tobias stops one of them.
"Tell us where we're going," he demands.
"We'll explain everything later. We're in a hurry." With that, the man rips his arm from Tobias's grip and leaves the room, shutting and locking the door behind us.
There's not even a window in this room. Just the light and three chairs mound to the ground.
"Are you okay," Tobias pants to Caleb, whose nose is dripping with blood.
"Fine," Caleb replies, his sleeve up to his nose. I suddenly realize how awkward this must be for him. He doesn't even know who Tobias is.
"I'm Four, by the way," Tobias says, as if he just read my mind.
"What are you?" Caleb sputters.
"What am I?"
"Like...are you an initiate?"
"Trainer."
Caleb doesn't reply. I walk over to one of the chairs, the one in the middle, and sit down, suddenly exhausted.
We suddenly feel the airship start up again, which makes Caleb and Tobias get in their seats. My mind is spinning, and I feel sick. Why won't they tell us where we're going? Why does Jeanine seem to know these guys? How does she even know them?
I suddenly regret taking the middle seat, because there's absolutely no elbow room. I put my hands on my lap and try not to get overwhelmed by emotion. Sadness, because I killed three people today, and anger, because these people won't tell us where we're going and they took us. I'm afraid I'm going to just burst with sobs and screams at any moment. I feel like a bomb.
I don't know where I'm going but I have a feeling it's going to be a long time.