Insurgent d-2 Read online

  Insurgent

  ( Divergent - 2 )

  Veronica Roth

  One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

  New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

  Veronica Roth

  Insurgent

  To Nelson,

  who was worth every risk

  Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged.

  — From the Candor faction manifesto

  Chapter 1

  I WAKE WITH his name in my mouth.

  Will.

  Before I open my eyes, I watch him crumple to the pavement again. Dead.

  My doing.

  Tobias crouches in front of me, his hand on my left shoulder. The train car bumps over the rails, and Marcus, Peter, and Caleb stand by the doorway. I take a deep breath and hold it in an 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 breathe 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 others jump off one by one: Peter first, then 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, toward safety.

  But we launch ourselves into 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 the Amity trucks 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, too sturdy to knock down.

  “There are supposed to be Dauntless guards here,” says Marcus. “Where are they?”

  “They were probably under the simulation,” 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 factions? 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 eighth 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 codes 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 arm 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 he’s 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 though 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 of tunnel. Dark fruit hangs among the leaves, ready to drop. The sharp, sweet smell of rotting apples mixes with the scent of wet earth in my nose.

  When we get close, Marcus leaves Peter’s side and walks in 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 the 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 anymore, 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 forget 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.

  “Oh my,” she says, her eyes lingering on the blood soaking Peter’s shirt. “I’ll 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 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, fills my entire head with him. I clench my hands so hard into fists 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 to me, and then Tobias. A Dauntless greeting. I am impressed by her awareness of the customs of other factions. I always forget how considerate the Amity are until I see it for myself.

  “This is T—” Marcus starts, but Tobias interrupts him.

&
nbsp; “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 a salve — developed by Erudite to speed 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 parents’ 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 the 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.

  Chapter 2

  I OPEN MY eyes, terrified, my hands clutching at the sheets. But I am not running through the streets of the city or the corridors of Dauntless headquarters. I am in a bed in Amity headquarters, and the smell of sawdust is in the air.

  I shift, and wince as something digs into my back. I reach behind me, and my fingers wrap around the gun.

  For a moment I see Will standing before me, both our guns between us—his hand, I could have shot his hand, why didn’t I, why? — and I almost scream his name.

  Then he’s gone.

  I get out of bed and lift the mattress with one hand, propping it up on my knee. Then I shove the gun beneath it and let the mattress bury it. Once it is out of sight and no longer pressed to my skin, my head feels clearer.

  Now that the adrenaline rush of yesterday is gone, and whatever made me sleep has worn off, the deep ache and shooting pains of my shoulder are intense. I am wearing the same clothes I wore last night. The corner of the hard drive peeks out from under my pillow, where I shoved it right before I fell asleep. On it is the simulation data that controlled the Dauntless, and the record of what the Erudite did. It feels too important for me to even touch, but I can’t leave it here, so I grab it and wedge it between the dresser and the wall. Part of me thinks it would be a good idea to destroy it, but I know it contains the only record of my parents’ deaths, so I’ll settle for keeping it hidden.

  Someone knocks on my door. I sit on the edge of the bed and try to smooth my hair down.

  “Come in,” I say.

  The door opens, and Tobias steps halfway in, the door dividing his body in half. He wears the same jeans as yesterday, but a dark red T-shirt instead of his black one, probably borrowed from one of the Amity. It’s a strange color on him, too bright, but when he leans his head back against the door frame, I see that it makes the blue in his eyes lighter.

  “The Amity are meeting in a half hour.” He quirks his eyebrows and adds, with a touch of melodrama, “To decide our fate.”

  I shake my head. “Never thought my fate would be in the hands of a bunch of Amity.”

  “Me either. Oh, I brought you something.” He unscrews the cap of a small bottle and holds out a dropper filled with clear liquid. “Pain medicine. Take a dropperful every six hours.”

  “Thanks.” I squeeze the dropper into the back of my throat. The medicine tastes like old lemon.

  He hooks a thumb in one of his belt loops and says, “How are you, Beatrice?”

  “Did you just call me Beatrice?”

  “Thought I would give it a try.” He smiles. “Not good?”

  “Maybe on special occasions only. Initiation days, Choosing Days …” I pause. I was about to rattle off a few more holidays, but only the Abnegation celebrate them. The Dauntless have holidays of their own, I assume, but I don’t know what they are. And anyway, the idea that we would celebrate anything right now is so ludicrous I don’t continue.

  “It’s a deal.” His smile fades. “How are you, Tris?”

  It’s not a strange question, after what we’ve been through, but I tense up when he asks it, worried that he’ll somehow see into my mind. I haven’t told him about Will yet. I want to, but I don’t know how. Just the thought of saying the words out loud makes me feel so heavy I could break through the floorboards.

  “I’m …” I shake my head a few times. “I don’t know, Four. I’m awake. I …” I am still shaking my head. He slides his hand over my cheek, one finger anchored behind my ear. Then he tilts his head down and kisses me, sending a warm ache through my body. I wrap my hands around his arm, holding him there as long as I can. When he touches me, the hollowed-out feeling in my chest and stomach is not as noticeable.

  I don’t have to tell him. I can just try to forget — he can help me forget.

  “I know,” he says. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  For a moment all I can think is, How could you possibly know? But something about his expression reminds me that he does know something about loss. He lost his mother when he was young. I don’t remember how she died, just that we attended her funeral.

  Suddenly I remember him clutching the curtains in his living room, about nine years old, wearing gray, his dark eyes shut. The image is fleeting, and it could be my imagination, not a memory.

  He releases me. “I’ll let you get ready.”

  The women’s bathroom is two doors down. The floor is dark brown tile, and each shower stall has wooden walls and a plastic curtain separating it from the central aisle. A sign on the back wall says REMEMBER: TO CONSERVE RESOURCES, SHOWERS RUN FOR ONLY FIVE MINUTES.

  The stream of water is cold, so I wouldn’t want the extra minutes even if I could have them. I wash quickly with my left hand, leaving my right hand hanging at my side. The pain medicine Tobias gave me worked fast — the pain in my shoulder has already faded to a dull throb.

  When I get out of the shower, a stack of clothes waits on my bed. It contains some yellow and red, from the Amity, and some gray, from the Abnegation, colors I rarely see side by side. If I had to guess, I would say that one of the Abnegation put the stack there for me. It’s something they would think to do.

  I pull on a pair of dark red pants made of denim — so long I have to roll them up three times — and a gray Abnegation shirt that is too big for me. The sleeves come down to my fingertips, and I roll them up too. It hurts to move my right hand, so I keep the movements small and slow.

  Someone knocks on the door. “Beatrice?” The soft voice is Susan’s.

  I open the door for her. She carries a tray of food, which she sets down on the bed. I search her face for a sign of what she has lost — her father, an Abnegation leader, didn’t survive the attack — but I see only the placid determination characteristic of my old faction.

  “I’m sorry the clothes don’t fit,” she says. “I’m sure we can find some better ones for you if the Amity allow us to stay.”

  “They’re fine,” I say. “Thank you.”

  “I heard you were shot. Do you need my help with your hair? Or your shoes?”

  I am about to refuse, but I really do need help.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  I sit down on a stool in front of the mirror, and she stands behind me, her eyes dutifully trained on the task at hand rather than her reflection. They do not lift, not even for an instant, as she runs a comb through my hair. And she doesn’t ask about my shoulder, how I was shot, what happened when I left the Abnegation safe house to stop the simulation. I get the sense that if I were to whi
ttle her down to her core, she would be Abnegation all the way through.

  “Have you seen Robert yet?” I say. Her brother, Robert, chose Amity when I chose Dauntless, so he is somewhere in this compound. I wonder if their reunion will be anything like Caleb’s and mine.

  “Briefly, last night,” she says. “I left him to grieve with his faction as I grieve with mine. It is nice to see him again, though.”

  I hear a finality in her tone that tells me the subject is closed.

  “It’s a shame this happened when it did,” Susan says. “Our leaders were about to do something wonderful.”

  “Really? What?”

  “I don’t know.” Susan blushes. “I just knew that something was happening. I didn’t mean to be curious; I just noticed things.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you for being curious even if you had been.”

  She nods and keeps combing. I wonder what the Abnegation leaders — including my father — were doing. And I can’t help but marvel at Susan’s assumption that whatever they were doing was wonderful. I wish I could believe that of people again.

  If I ever did.

  “The Dauntless wear their hair down, right?” she says.

  “Sometimes,” I say. “Do you know how to braid?”

  So her deft fingers tuck pieces of my hair into one braid that tickles the middle of my spine. I stare hard at my reflection until she finishes. I thank her when she’s done, and she leaves with a small smile, closing the door behind her.

  I keep staring, but I don’t see myself. I can still feel her fingers brushing the back of my neck, so much like my mother’s fingers, the last morning I spent with her. My eyes wet with tears, I rock back and forth on the stool, trying to push the memory from my mind. I am afraid that if I start to sob, I will never stop until I shrivel up like a raisin.

  I see a sewing kit on the dresser. In it are two colors of thread, red and yellow, and a pair of scissors.