Insurgent (Divergent)

by Veronica Roth

  I walk up to the highest bench, and lift the chair above my head. It just barely touches the ledge beneath one of the window spaces. I jump, shoving the chair forward, and it slides onto the ledge. My shoulder aches—I shouldn’t really be using my arm—but I have other things on my mind.

  I jump, grab the ledge, and pull myself up, my arms shaking. I swing my leg up and drag the rest of my body onto the ledge. When I’m up, I lie there for a moment, sucking in air and heaving it back out again.

  I stand on the ledge, under the arch of what used to be a window, and stare out at the city. The dead river curls around the building and disappears. The bridge, its red paint peeling, stretches over the muck. Across it are buildings, most of them empty. It is hard to believe there were ever enough people in the city to fill them.

  For a second, I allow myself to reenter the memory of the interrogation. Tobias’s lack of expression; his anger afterward, suppressed for the sake of my sanity. Christina’s empty look. The whispers, “Thank you for your honesty.” Easy to say that when what I did doesn’t affect them.

  I grab the chair and hurl it over the ledge. A faint cry escapes me. It grows into a yell, which transforms into a scream, and then I’m standing on the ledge of the Merciless Mart, screaming as the chair sails toward the ground, screaming until my throat burns. Then the chair hits the ground, shattering like a brittle skeleton. I sit down on the ledge, leaning into the side of the window frame, and close my eyes.

  And then I think of Al.

  I wonder how long Al stood at the ledge before he pitched himself over it, into the Dauntless Pit.

  He must have stood there for a long time, making a list of all the terrible things he had done—almost killing me was one of those things—and another list of all the good, heroic, brave things he had not done, and then decided that he was tired. Tired, not just of living, but of existing. Tired of being Al.

  I open my eyes, and stare at the pieces of chair I can faintly see on the pavement below. For the first time I feel like I understand Al. I am tired of being Tris. I have done bad things. I can’t take them back, and they are part of who I am. Most of the time, they seem like the only thing I am.

  I lean forward, into the air, holding on to the side of the window with one hand. Another few inches and my weight would pull me to the ground. I would not be able to stop it.

  But I can’t do it. My parents lost their lives out of love for me. Losing mine for no good reason would be a terrible way to repay them for that sacrifice, no matter what I’ve done.

  “Let the guilt teach you how to behave next time,” my father would say.

  “I love you. No matter what,” my mother would say.

  Part of me wishes I could burn them from my mind, so I would never have to mourn for them. But the rest of me is afraid of who I would be without them.

  My eyes blurry with tears, I lower myself back into the interrogation room.

  I return to my cot early that morning, and Tobias is already awake. He turns and walks toward the elevators, and I follow him, because I know that’s what he wants. We stand in the elevator, side by side. I hear ringing in my ears.

  The elevator sinks to the second floor, and I start to shake. It starts with my hands, but travels to my arms and my chest, until little shudders go through my entire body and I have no way to stop them. We stand between the elevators, right above another Candor symbol, the uneven scales. The symbol that is also drawn on the middle of his spine.

  He doesn’t look at me for a long time. He stands with his arms crossed and his head down until I can’t stand it anymore, until I feel like I might scream. I should say something, but I don’t know what to say. I can’t apologize, because I only told the truth, and I can’t change the truth into a lie. I can’t give excuses.

  “You didn’t tell me,” he says. “Why not?”

  “Because I didn’t . . .” I shake my head. “I didn’t know how to.”

  He scowls. “It’s pretty easy, Tris—”

  “Oh yeah,” I say, nodding. “It’s so easy. All I have to do is go up to you and say, ‘By the way, I shot Will, and now guilt is ripping me to shreds, but what’s for breakfast?’ Right? Right?” Suddenly it is too much, too much to contain. Tears fill my eyes, and I yell, “Why don’t you try killing one of your best friends and then dealing with the consequences?”

  I cover my face with my hands. I don’t want him to see me sobbing again. He touches my shoulder.

  “Tris,” he says, gently this time. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pretend that I understand. I just meant that . . .” He struggles for a moment. “I wish you trusted me enough to tell me things like that.”

  I do trust you, is what I want to say. But it isn’t true—I didn’t trust him to love me despite the terrible things I had done. I don’t trust anyone to do that, but that isn’t his problem; it’s mine.

  “I mean,” he says, “I had to find out that you almost drowned in a water tank from Caleb. Doesn’t that seem a little strange to you?”

  Just when I was about to apologize.

  I wipe my cheeks hard with my fingertips and stare at him.

  “Other things seem stranger,” I say, trying to make my voice light. “Like finding out that your boyfriend’s supposedly dead mother is still alive by seeing her in person. Or overhearing his plans to ally with the factionless, but he never tells you about it. That seems a little strange to me.”

  He takes his hand from my shoulder.

  “Don’t pretend this is only my problem,” I say. “If I don’t trust you, you don’t trust me either.”

  “I thought we would get to those things eventually,” he says. “Do I have to tell you everything right away?”

  I feel so frustrated I can’t even speak for a few seconds. Heat fills my cheeks.

  “God, Four!” I snap. “You don’t want to have to tell me everything right away, but I have to tell you everything right away? Can’t you see how stupid that is?”

  “First of all, don’t use that name like a weapon against me,” he says, pointing at me. “Second, I was not making plans to ally with the factionless; I was just thinking it over. If I had made a decision, I would have said something to you. And third, it would be different if you had actually intended to tell me about Will at some point, but it’s obvious that you didn’t.”

  “I did tell you about Will!” I say. “That wasn’t truth serum; it was me. I said it because I chose to.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was aware. Under the serum. I could have lied; I could have kept it from you. But I didn’t, because I thought you deserved to know the truth.”

  “What a way to tell me!” he says, scowling. “In front of over a hundred people! How intimate!”

  “Oh, so it’s not enough that I told you; it has to be in the right setting?” I raise my eyebrows. “Next time should I brew some tea and make sure the lighting is right, too?”

  Tobias lets out a frustrated sound and turns away from me, pacing a few steps. When he turns back, his cheeks are splotchy. I can’t remember ever seeing his face change color before.

  “Sometimes,” he says quietly, “it isn’t easy to be with you, Tris.” He looks away.

  I want to tell him that I know it’s not easy, but I wouldn’t have made it through the past week without him. But I just stare at him, my heart pounding in my ears.

  I can’t tell him I need him. I can’t need him, period—or really, we can’t need each other, because who knows how long either of us will last in this war?

  “I’m sorry,” I say, all my anger gone. “I should have been honest with you.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” He frowns.

  “What else do you want me to say?”

  He just shakes his head. “Nothing, Tris. Nothing.”

  I watch him walk away. I feel like a space has opened up within me, expanding so rapidly it will break me apart.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “OKAY,
WHAT THE hell are you doing here?” a voice demands.

  I sit on a mattress in one of the hallways. I came here to do something, but I lost my train of thought when I arrived, so I just sat down instead. I look up. Lynn—who I first met when she stomped on my toes in a Hancock building elevator—stands over me with raised eyebrows. Her hair is growing out—it’s still short, but I can’t see her skull anymore.

  “I’m sitting,” I say. “Why?”

  “You’re ridiculous, is what you are.” She sighs. “Get your stuff together. You’re Dauntless, and it’s time you acted like it. You’re giving us a bad reputation among the Candor.”

  “How exactly am I doing that?”

  “By acting like you don’t know us.”

  “I’m just doing Christina a favor.”

  “Christina.” Lynn snorts. “She’s a lovesick puppy. People die. That’s what happens in war. She’ll figure it out eventually.”

  “Yeah, people die, but it’s not always your good friend who kills them.”

  “Whatever.” Lynn sighs impatiently. “Come on.”

  I don’t see a reason to refuse. I get up and follow her down a series of hallways. She moves at a brisk pace, and it’s difficult to keep up with her.

  “Where’s your scary boyfriend?” she says.

  My lips pucker like I just tasted something sour. “He’s not scary.”

  “Sure he’s not.” She smirks.

  “I don’t know where he is.”

  She shrugs. “Well, you can grab him a bunk, too. We’re trying to forget those Dauntless-Erudite bastard children. Pull together again.”

  I laugh. “Dauntless-Erudite bastard children, huh.”

  She pushes a door open, and we stand in a large, open room that reminds me of the building’s lobby. Unsurprisingly, the floors are black with a huge white symbol in the center of the room, but most of it has been covered up with bunk beds. Dauntless men, women, and children are everywhere, and there isn’t a single Candor in sight.

  Lynn leads me to the left side of the room and between the rows of bunks. She looks at the boy sitting on one of the bottom bunks—he is a few years younger than we are, and he’s trying to undo a knot in his shoelaces.

  “Hec,” she says, “you’re going to have to find another bunk.”

  “What? No way,” he says without looking up. “I’m not relocating again just because you want to have late-night pillow chats with one of your stupid friends.”

  “She is not my friend,” snaps Lynn. I almost laugh. “Hec, this is Tris. Tris, this is my little brother, Hector.”

  At the sound of my name, his head jerks up, and he stares at me, openmouthed.

  “Nice to meet you,” I say.

  “You’re Divergent,” he says. “My mom said to stay away from you because you might be dangerous.”

  “Yeah. She’s a big scary Divergent, and she’s going to make your head explode with only the power of her brain,” says Lynn, jabbing him between the eyes with her index finger. “Don’t tell me you actually believe all that kid stuff about the Divergent.”

  He turns bright red and snatches some of his things from a pile next to the bed. I feel bad for making him move until I see him toss his things down a few bunks over. He doesn’t have to go far.

  “I could have done that,” I say. “Slept over there, I mean.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Lynn grins. “He deserves it. He called Zeke a traitor right to Uriah’s face. It’s not like it’s not true, but that’s no reason to be a jerk about it. I think Candor is rubbing off on him. He feels like he can just say whatever he wants. Hey, Mar!”

  Marlene pokes her head around one of the bunks and smiles toothily at me.

  “Hey, Tris!” says Marlene. “Welcome. What’s up, Lynn?”

  “Can you get some of the smaller girls to give up a few pieces of clothing each?” Lynn says, “Not all shirts, though. Jeans, underwear, maybe a spare pair of shoes?”

  “Sure,” says Marlene.

  I put my knife down next to the bottom bunk.

  “What ‘kid stuff’ were you referring to?” I say.

  “The Divergent. People with special brainpowers? Come on.” She shrugs. “I know you believe in it, but I don’t.”

  “So how do you explain me being awake during simulations?” I say. “Or resisting one entirely?”

  “I think the leaders choose people at random and change the simulations for them.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  She waves her hand in my face. “Distraction. You’re so busy worrying about the Divergent—like my mom—that you forget to worry about what the leaders are doing. It’s just a different kind of mind control.”

  Her eyes skirt mine, and she kicks at the marble floor with the toe of her shoe. I wonder if she’s remembering the last time she was on mind control. During the attack simulation.

  I have been so focused on what happened to Abnegation that I almost forgot what happened to Dauntless. Hundreds of Dauntless woke to discover the black mark of murder on them, and they didn’t even choose it for themselves.

  I decide not to argue with her. If she wants to believe in a government conspiracy, I don’t think I can dissuade her. She would have to experience it for herself.

  “I come bearing clothes,” says Marlene, stepping in front of our bunk. She holds a stack of black clothes the size of her torso, which she offers to me with a proud look on her face. “I even guilt-tripped your sister into handing over a dress, Lynn. She brought three.”

  “You have a sister?” I ask Lynn.

  “Yeah,” she says, “she’s eighteen. She was in Four’s initiate class.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Shauna,” she says. She looks at Marlene. “I told her none of us would need dresses anytime soon, but she didn’t listen, as usual.”

  I remember Shauna. She was one of the people who caught me after zip lining.

  “I think it would be easier to fight in a dress,” says Marlene, tapping her chin. “It would give your legs freer movement. And who really cares if you flash people your underwear, as long as you’re kicking the crap out of them?”

  Lynn goes silent, like she recognizes that as a spark of brilliance but can’t bring herself to admit it.

  “What’s this about flashing underwear?” says Uriah, sidestepping a bunk. “Whatever it is, I’m in.”

  Marlene punches him in the arm.

  “Some of us are going to the Hancock building tonight,” says Uriah. “You should all come. We’re leaving at ten.”

  “Zip lining?” says Lynn.

  “No. Surveillance. We’ve heard the Erudite keep their lights on all night, which will make it easier to look through their windows. See what they’re doing.”

  “I’ll go,” I say.

  “Me too,” says Lynn.

  “What? Oh. Me too,” Marlene says, smiling at Uriah. “I’m going to get food. Want to come?”

  “Sure,” he says.

  Marlene waves as they walk away. She used to walk with a lift in her step, like she was skipping. Now her steps are smoother—more elegant, maybe, but lacking the childish joy I associate with her. I wonder what she did when she was under the simulation.

  Lynn’s mouth puckers.

  “What?” I say.

  “Nothing,” she snaps. She shakes her head. “They’ve just been hanging out alone all the time lately.”

  “He needs all the friends he can get, it sounds like,” I say. “What with Zeke and all.”

  “Yeah. What a nightmare that was. One day he was here, and the next . . .” She sighs. “No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens.”

  Her eyes fix on mine. I never noticed before how strange they are, a golden brown. And now that her hair has grown in somewhat, and her baldness isn’t the first thing I see, I also notice her delicate nose, her full lips—she is striking without trying to be. I am envious of her for a moment, and th
en I think she must hate it, and that’s why she shaved her head.

  “You are brave,” she says. “You don’t need me to say it, because you already know it. But I want you to know that I know.”

  She is complimenting me, but I still feel like she smacked me with something.

  Then she adds, “Don’t mess it up.”

  A few hours later, after I’ve eaten lunch and taken a nap, I sit down on the edge of my bed to change the bandage on my shoulder. I take off my T-shirt, leaving my tank top on—there are a lot of Dauntless around, gathering between the bunks, laughing at one another’s jokes. I have just finished applying more healing salve when I hear a shriek of laughter. Uriah charges down the aisle between the bunks with Marlene thrown over his shoulder. She waves at me as they pass, her face red.

  Lynn, who is sitting on the next bunk, snorts. “I don’t see how he can be flirty, with everything that’s going on.”

  “He’s supposed to shuffle around, scowling all the time?” I say, reaching over my shoulder to press the bandage to my skin. “Maybe you can learn something from him.”

  “You’re one to talk,” she says. “You’re always moping. We should start calling you Beatrice Prior, Queen of Tragedy.”

  I stand and punch her arm, harder than if I was kidding, softer than if I was serious. “Shut up.”

  Without looking at me, she shoves my shoulder into the bunk. “I don’t take orders from Stiffs.”

  I notice a slight curl in her lip and suppress a grin myself.

  “Ready to go?” Lynn says.

  “Where are you going?” Tobias says, slipping between his bunk and mine to stand in the aisle with us. My mouth feels dry. I haven’t spoken to him all day, and I’m not sure what to expect. Will it be awkward, or will we go back to normal?

  “Top of the Hancock building to spy on Erudite,” Lynn says. “Want to come?”

  Tobias gives me a look. “No, I’ve got a few things to take care of here. But be careful.”

  I nod. I know why he doesn’t want to come—Tobias tries to avoid heights, if at all possible. He touches my arm, holding me back for just a moment. I tense up—he hasn’t touched me since before our fight—and he releases me.