Page 32 (1/2)

I aliant, before we left Now I’m not sure she cares whether the factions survive or not, but she still cares about the people I can tell by the way she watches the screens, eager but afraid

Even over the chatter of the people around us, I hear the gunfire when it starts, just snaps and claps in the lass in front of le switches to one inside the building the invaders have just forced their way into On a table within is a pile of s couns the people here have, in all their abundance, but in the city, I know it’s valuable

Several uard the table, but they are falling fast, outnu theun into a factionless man’s jaw The factionless are overco to bullets I see only when they’re already buried in flesh The Allegiant spread through the rooather everything they can Zeke piles stray guns on the table, a hard look on his face that I’ve only seen a few times

He doesn’t even knohat happened to Uriah

The woman at the desk taps the screen in a few places On one of the se--a piece of the surveillance footage we just watched, frozen at a particular e ets, a , dark hair covering one side of her face

Marcus, of course And Johanna--carrying a gun

"Between theed to rally ly, though, the Allegiant still don’t outnumber the factionless" The woman leans back in her chair and shakes her head "There were far et an accurate population count on a scattered population, after all"

"Johanna? Leading a rebellion? With a weapon? That makes no sense," Caleb says

Johanna told me once that if the decisions had been up to her, she would have supported action against Erudite instead of the passivity the rest of her faction advocated But she was at the mercy of her faction and their fear Noith the factions disbanded, it see other than the iant She has become a soldier

"Makeswith my words

I watch them empty the roo like seeds on the wind I feel heavier, like I a a new burden I wonder if the people around me--Cara, Christina, Peter, even Caleb--feel the same way The city, our city, is even closer to total destruction than it was before

We can pretend that we don’t belong there any in relative safety in this place, but we do We alill

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

TRIS

IT’S DARK AND snoe drive up to the entrance of the coht as powdered sugar It’s just an early autu I take off et out, and offer it to A it now, and I used to think that o aith time, but now I’ht

Warh the doors The compound looks cleaner than ever before, now that I’ve seen the fringe The co How can I walk these squeaky floors and wear these starchy clothes when I know that those people are out there, wrapping their houses in tarp to stay warm?

But by the tione

I scan the room for Christina, or for Tobias, but neither of thee book on his lap, scribbling notes on a nearby notepad, and Caleb reading our nore that

"Have either of you seen" But who do I want to talk to, Christina or Tobias?

"Four?" Caleb says, deciding for y room earlier"

"Thewhat room?"

"They have our ancestors’ naet a piece of paper?" he asks Peter

Peter tears a sheet from the back of his notepad and hands it to Caleb, who scribbles so on it--directions Caleb says, "I found our parents’ naht side of the room, second panel fro at me I look at his neat, even letters Before I punched hi me himself, desperate for time to explain himself to me But recently he has kept his distance, either because he’s afraid of iven up

Neither option ood

"Thank you," I say "Umhow’s your nose?"

"It’s fine," he says "I think the bruise really brings out my eyes, don’t you?"

He smiles a little, and so do I But it’s clear that neither of us knohat to do from here, because we’ve both run out of words

"Wait, you were gone today, right?" he says after a second "Soainst Evelyn, attacked one of her weapons storehouses"

I stare at hi in the city for a few days now; I’ve been too wrapped up in what’s happening here

"The Allegiant?" I say "The people currently led by Johanna Reyesattacked a storehouse?"

Before we left, I was sure the city was about to explode into another conflict I guess now it has But I feel detached from it--almost everyone I care about is here

"Led by Johanna Reyes and Marcus Eaton," Caleb says "But Johanna was there, holding a gun It was ludicrous The Bureau people seeuess it was just a ain, then walk away fro to his cot andCaleb’s directions