Learning to Trust

Sequel to The Truth After Allegiant
   
Book Two

   
   

Prologue

Third Person

She hides her face in his chest and clings to his shirt with her shaking bruised fingers as she's rushed into the Erudite hospital in his arms.

She had been in a building of torture for around three years, beaten to the point where she's closer to death alive. Everyone was glad that she survived the long ride from Louisville to Chicago during the rescue when groups 1236 and few people from 2836 ambushed the building.

She almost didn't make it out.

They almost left because they couldn't find her.

1236 had left because their cars were filled with over ninety five people that have been saved; not all were from Chicago they believe, but they were not going to keep them there for the aftershock of all of this.

2836 was just about to leave the building, being the group to re-scan the building for people like her; people they hid.

Walking down another hall of cells, they were confused because David had to be here somewhere. They had even found his computer they had hacked months earlier and sent it back with 1236. They just couldn't find him; but they couldn't find her either.

It was more than a coincidence that only those two were missing, and the two people that stayed back knew that.

The only reason that they only left two people to search was because the rest of 2836 back in the Erudite Technology Room was pretty sure it was just about empty, or else it was nothing they couldn't handle. Plus, they were two dauntless members from 2836; Four and Amar.

They went down hallways of cells, hallway after hallway and banged open some smaller rooms on the ends of halls or hiding under some of the small staircases.

There was a pretty good size stain of dried blood at the bottom of a staircase, and it traveled in smaller little random dots from up the stairs.

"It looks as if someone has fallen down them." Amar says, his voice clearly uneasy.

"Knowing this place, someone was probably pushed down them." Four says in almost the same tone.

They went up the staircase to reveal a hallway of closed doors, most of which contained nothing, but the one contained three still very dark, but dried blood stains on the cement floor.

Another room contained a bunch of shackles which were chained to walls and support beams throughout the room. A few of them had pieces of paper taped overtop of them.

"Come here." Amar says waving Four over to a shackled support beam on the far side of the room.

It says:

Beatrice Prior

Chicago Experiment

Female

19 years old  (here for 2.5)

Doesn't talk

Aim for left leg

Four is left speechless.

"She has to be here somewhere." Amar says almost to the point of being annoyed. He really just doesn't understand where the heck she is, they've checked just about everywhere.

Four thinks about taking the paper with him, maybe someone back home would find some kind of evidence with it. But then he remembers how they all were told not to touch anything extra like this piece of paper because in a few weeks or so they were going to come and investigate the whole building and try and determine everything that's happened. Four decides to leave the paper as he and Amar head off and check at least a dozen other rooms containing nothing but metal beds and medical equipment.

Up the next flight of stairs and there is still nothing. It seems almost identical to the last floor, but without the room with shackles.

They realize that this must be the highest the building comes so they start going down to check the lower levels; those of which are the ones containing mainly cells.

All of the cells are basically the same; almost all have a blanket or two, some have few bloodstains but some more or less than others, and they all are identical to one other all being on cement surrounded with metal poles and there being three on each side. The ones on the ends are touching, sharing a row of metal bars between them, but then having two walls of rough concrete to make it a small sized block. The one in the middle is attached to both cells on either side and only has one rough concrete wall on the back.

The only room that stands out is one where these two cells have bigger blood stains. The row on the left and the cell all the way over to the right has a massive sized dried blood stain, along with one near the back that is much lighter and clearly older.

Then the cell in the middle on that row is a mess. There is literally just about equal amount of blood stain as there is cement floor. It also looks like there is a half cleaned up pile of vomit in the back of the cell. Also to the right there is a handcuff hooked to the metal bar which has one end of it dark with dried blood; obviously used for the wrong reason.

They're pulled away from their thoughts when they hear a gun shot, followed by a blood curling, feminine scream. Four reacts first, taking off in the direction of the scream, Amar is right at his heels behind him.

They race down staircases, hallways, but there isn't any more noise, so they have no clue where to go.

Another gunshot is heard and Four is off before the scream is heard. It's coming from much lower in the building.

Even though there is still no noise following it, they continue to move down through the building. They know that the people aren't near because the gunshot echoed upward, not downward; vibrating the floors, not the ceiling.

"HELP! PLEASE! HELP!" The feminine voice screams, still not sounding anywhere close.

Four is barreling down stairs, Amar close behind as the blood curling scream continues, not stopping. The person is clearly being continuously hurt in some way, and Four recognizes the scream all too well.

Four goes even faster than before until the scream is getting closer. He gets all the way down the extremely long staircase and bolts down the hallway to his left; where the scream is coming from.

The scream has yet to stop at this point.

The hallway curves right into another hallway and he stops short.

The scream is coming from right here.

No higher.

No lower.

Not left or not right of him.

He looks closely and sees a small doorknob coming out of the curved wall.

Taking the butt of his gun, he bangs down on it with much force.

But it doesn't break off.

It takes eight tries until the door finally swings open.

Inside is David, pushing down on a woman's leg with a knife. Her leg is very dark with blood.

Four clicks a bullet into his gun and shoots the man in the skull just as he turns around.

That man has hurt too many people, he deserved to be shot.

Four recognizes the woman all to well.

He thought he had lost her three years ago from the same actions of that same man.

She whimpers and scoots to the back of the small closet-like room.

"It's okay. You're safe now." Four barely whispers taking a strep towards her.

She trembles, blood seeping through the knife deep in her leg.

"Please, no." Her frail voice wavers as she trembles.

The sight is horrendous. She tucks herself as deep into the corner of the room as she can, her eyes clenched tight as she rests her head on the rough wall.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you. We're here to take you back home, Tris. It's me, Tobias." He kneels down to her level, still just feet away from her.

She opens her eyes just a sliver and Tobias sees her blue-grey eyes for the first time in way too long. The redness of them makes her eyes seem even more blue than grey like they usually were.

"Will you let me carry you out of here?" He asks quietly, shuffling towards her another tiny bit.

She doesn't show any sign of answering.

"Tris, it's okay. He's dead. David is dead. I shot him, and he's gone. No one will hurt you anymore, but we have to get you home where you can be helped."

She closes her eyes again and a tear rolls down her cheek. She flinches when it hits a deep cut along her jaw-line on the right side of her face.

'He must have gotten her there with the knife before her leg.' Four thought.

He moves up so he's almost right next to her and reaches out and strokes her shaking hand with his thumb.

"Come on, Tris," he says soothingly. "Let's take you home."

Cautiously, he slips his arm under her knees, her right leg closest to his body, and she winces but doesn't fight him. Then he puts his other arm around her back and slowly her trembling body leaves the now bloody ground.

"There we go." He says calmingly to her as she trembles within his arms.

She recognizes his voice and his scent as he talks and picks her up; the same things she associated with safety back during the war. She rests her head on his chest as she still shakes uncontrollably in pain and fear; fear that this is another nightmare and not reality.

"Do we just leave him?" Amar asks signaling towards David's now dead body.

"I guess so. They'll find him when they come back for investigation, but we can tell them about it beforehand and they can decide from there."

They get her out of the entrance of the building, and the second she gets outside she lets out a loud whimper and shakes so bad Four is scared he'll drop her.

It was the sun. Her eyes hadn't seen anything brighter than the dim, dark cell hallways and rooms for three years and the sun was literally blinding her.

Amar knew, for earlier he was helping people outside of the building get in trucks while Four was someone in the building. He did not know about this problem like Amar did.

"Get her in the truck, quick. It's the sun hurting her eyes. Get in the back with her." He says quick as the both run for the truck. Four murmurs calming things to try and soothe her, but everything else is just too much for her.

Amar opens the back door of the truck and gently Four climbs in, making sure nothing bumps or touches her.

It was amazing that she survived the almost five hour drive from Louisville to Chicago. By the time Chicago was drawing near almost the whole seat where her leg was resting was covered in dark red.

The whole ride Four had to keep her from pulling the knife out of her leg. If she did, it probably would've injured it more, so she had to wait until they get to Erudite for a doctor.

They kept all of the windows cracked open in the truck  the entire time because one: it smelt horrid, and two: they could tell that she was struggling to breathe, but it was a little easier on her when the windows were open because then there was real oxygen coming in the truck. She hasn't had very well air in years, considering the air quality was terrible down in the building.

Tobias

Amar pulled up to the loop out front of the Erudite hospital. There was a small crowd of people standing at the windows in the front of the hospital. We were in touch with everyone by radio the whole time and had told them to be ready because she's in rough shape, but I guess word got around to more than the doctors.

He puts the truck in park and I look down at Tris one more time, knowing she'll be taken away from me once again once we take her into the infirmary.

She's started trembling pretty bad again. She calmed down a lot on the way home and wasn't trembling too bad, only every now and then. Maybe she senses that we are somewhere else or that we've stopped, or maybe she hears the people inside. She sucks in a breath and hides into my shirt again as I carefully carry her out of the truck and into the now opened doors of the hospital.

"It's okay." I whisper to her. "They'll make you so much better here, I promise."

Inside is the very calming aroma of the oncoming December month. Holidays have become more important to all of the factions now instead of just Amity since everything with factions is basically untitled now. Erudite already has a evergreen tree strung with lights and various shades of blue ornaments on it giving off a beautiful scent that fills the whole room.

I walk through the crowd of people that have somewhat made a path for Tris and I. People gasp and some look away while others just stand there scared. 

"Bring her this way, sir!" A nurse calls waving me over.

Two more nurses bring out a small kind of bed on wheels. "You can put her on here." The one says.

Gently I go to put her down, but she won't let go of my shirt. She starts shaking and crying, clearly terrified.

"Please, no. Please, no. Please no." She murmurs trembling.

"Hey, hey." I stroke her matted, filthy hair. "It's okay. I'm going to be right out here, and in there those people will help you. They'll make you feel better and walk again. I'll be right out here. Let them help you."

She continues to murmur the same words.

"Sir, what can we do? We have to take her." Another nurse or doctor asks.

I know what I'm going to do will probably shatter her heart, but it's for her own safety; she's already got a darkened circle surrounding her on the surface of the rolling bed. She probably will not want to trust me anymore like she did to get her here, but she needs medical attention.

I take off my shirt and they wheel her away, her now screaming and shaking, realizing I'm not there.

"We'll get you your shirt as soon as we can, sir!" A nurse calls.

I take a deep breath as a tear falls out of my eye and I watch them wheel her out of my sight.