INSURGENT: Tobias

Chapter 6

My eyes catch the sight of Peter on the floor, his face contorted in pain, with and Amity woman crouched beside him. Across from him, Tris is being held back by one of the Amity, rage evident on her face. Even though she’s being held back, Tris continues to struggle against the Amity man’s hold on her.

“Tris, calm down!” I say to her.

“He has the hard drive! He stole it from me! He has it!” Tris yells, her face showing her need to get it back. I walk over to Peter, press my foot against his ribs to prevent him from being able to move and grab the hard drive from his pocket. Very quietly, I say “We won’t be in a safe house forever, and this wasn’t very smart of you.”  My gaze meets his and I send him a death stare.

I turn toward Tris and give her a stern look before I speak. “Not very smart of you, either. Do you want to get us kicked out?” Her features pull down at my words, probably because she knows I’m right, but she won’t admit it. The Amity man starts to drag her down the hallway and I can see the terror in Tris’s eyes as she’s being taken away.

“What do you think you’re doing? Let go of me!” She yells at him. On the outside it might seem like she’s being defiant or brave. But I know better. She’s terrified. But she can’t keep doing this! She’s putting herself at risk and I can’t have that. I know she’s hurting and she needs time but she can’t just lash out whenever she needs to.

“You violated the terms of our peace agreement,” The Amity man says calmly. “We must follow protocol.” I know she’ll hate being taken away to wherever they’re going, but this has to happen. I also know that ‘protocol’ isn’t anything bad here. The Amity only try to keep the peace. So as Tris’s eyes lock on mine, I have no hesitation when I speak.

“Just go,” I tell her. “You need to cool down.” For a second, the hurt in her eyes makes me guilty. But just for a second. I watch the man pull her down the hallway until she’s no longer in sight. Slowly, I turn around and head out the first door I can find, which thankfully leads me to orchard. I take a deep breath and let the fresh air consume me.

Why now? Why did she have to go and do that after everything had been going so well today!? This just goes to show you that my life is never normal. Abandoned by my mother, abused by my father, betrayed by my faction… and now on top of it, Tris is acting like…like… gah! I don’t even know what to call her! Doesn’t she understand that we have to be extra careful right now? Us, especially. She can’t go around making scenes like this all the time. We have nowhere else to go right now.

I ramble on and on in my head, trying to let my frustrations play themselves out. I walk around in the shade of the trees, keeping far away from everyone else. I absorb the peace emanating from the environment around me. The wind rustles the leaves in the tree above me. The sound soothes the war going on in my head.

“Four!” I hear Tris call out my name, but she sounds different. I can’t tell what it is, but something is definitely off. “Four! Where are you?” I turn my head to the sound of her voice.

“Tris?” I ask to the empty space on my left. Ducking under a branch, I catch sight of Tris, a big, goofy grin spread across her face. As her eyes connect with mine, She lets out a giggle and starts running toward me. But I’m not sure running is the right word.  She’s running as if the ground is tilting from side-to-side under her, the goofy grin stuck on her face the whole time.

Just as she’s about to reach me, though, she slips, but I’m quick to catch her. My hand grabs her waist, steadying her. She pulls her body closer to mine and looks up at me in a way that I guess is meant to be seductive. It might’ve even been funny under other circumstances.