Chapter 36 Chapter Thirty-Six

I was pursued by three Dauntless soldiers, moving in unison, their footsteps echoing in the alley.One of them fired, and I quickly got down on the ground and rubbed my hands on the ground.The bullets whized past and hit the brick wall to my right, sending broken bricks flying everywhere.I ducked around the corner and loaded the gun. They killed my mother.I aimed the gun at the alley and fired blindly in random bursts.They weren't the real murderers of my mother, but that doesn't matter—it doesn't matter at this moment, like death itself, you don't think that can be real. Now there was only the sound of a set of footsteps, and I stood at the end of the alley with my guns in both hands, aiming at him.My finger was on the trigger, but I didn't push it down hard.The person rushing towards me was not a grown man, but a boy.A disheveled boy with a vertical line between his eyebrows.

It's Will.Although his eyes were glazed over and he was unconscious, he was still Will.He stopped, imitating my movements, planted his feet firmly, and raised his gun.In an instant, I saw his finger move to the trigger, and heard the sound of the bullet sliding into the chamber, and I fired.I closed my eyes tightly and couldn't breathe. The bullet hit him in the head, and I knew that because that's where I aimed. Without daring to open my eyes, I turned around and stumbled out of the alley.North and Fairfield.I had to look at the signposts to know where I was, but I couldn't read the words because my vision was blurry.I blinked hard a few times and stood only a few meters away from the building where my family members were still alive.

I knelt by the door.Tobias would surely say that making noise is a very unwise move.Any movement could attract the attention of Dauntless soldiers. I pressed my forehead against the wall and screamed, then, a few seconds later, hurriedly covered my mouth to silence the sound, and screamed again.The scream turned into a sob, and the gun fell to the ground with a clatter.I can still see Will. He is smiling in my memory.pouted.The teeth are so straight.Eyes sparkled.He laughed and played, and he was more vivid in memory than in reality.Either he dies or I die.I chose to let myself live, but felt that I had died with him.

I knocked on the door, and knocked twice, then three times, and finally six times, as my mother told me. I wipe the tears from my face.This was the first time I had seen him since leaving my father and I didn't want him to see me breaking down and crying. The door opened and Caleb stood in the doorway, and I was amazed to see him.He stared at me for a moment, then put his arms around me and put his hands close to my wound.I bit my lower lip tightly to prevent myself from screaming, but I couldn't help moaning, and Caleb took a step back. "Beatrice. My God, you got shot!"

"Let's go in and talk about it." I said weakly. He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with his thumb.The door closed behind us. The lights in the room were dim, but I could clearly see familiar faces, former neighbors, classmates, and colleagues of my father.My father stared at me like I had an extra head.Marcus was there too.My heart hurts seeing him - Tobias... No.not like this.I can't think of him. "How did you know about this place?" Caleb asked. "Did Mom find you?" I nod.I also don't want to think of my mother. "My shoulder." I quickly changed the subject.

Now that I'm safe, the adrenaline that drove me here wears off and the pain gets worse.I fell to my knees, water dripping from my clothes onto the concrete floor.A choked sob rises in my throat and I desperately need to release it, but finally I fight it back. A rug was rolled out by a woman named Teresa who lived on the same street as ours.She's married to a council member, but I don't see her husband here.He may be dead. Someone had switched a lamp from one corner to another, so there was some light around.Caleb pulled out a first aid kit and Susan handed me a bottle of water.If you need help, there's probably no better place in the world than this room full of selfless people.I glanced at Caleb, and he changed back to gray clothes.Seeing him in the Erudite Precinct now seemed like a dream.

Dad came over, put my arm around his shoulders, and helped me across the room. "Why are you wet?" Caleb asked. "They're trying to drown me," I said. "Why are you here?" "I did what you said—what Mom said. Researched the simulated serum and found out that Jeanine was inventing a remote serum signal transmitter so that its signal could last longer. Based on this, I Tracked down information about the Dauntless and the Erudite... Anyway, when I found out what happened, I quit the Erudite test. I should have warned you, but it was too late." He said, "Now I'm already a nonpartisan."

"No, you are not," said the father firmly. "You are one of us." I knelt on the mat and Caleb took the medical scissors and cut a piece from the shoulder of my shirt.Caleb removes the square cloth, revealing first the tattoo of Selflessness on my right shoulder, then the three ravens on my collarbone.Both my father and Caleb looked at my tattoo with fascinated and shocked eyes, but said nothing. I'm on the ground, Caleb holds my hand tightly, and my father pulls out the antiseptic from the first aid kit. "Have you taken bullets from other people before?" There was a trembling smile in my voice.

"You'd be amazed at how much I can do," he replied. So many things about my parents blew my mind.Thinking of my mother's tattoo, I couldn't help biting my lower lip. "It will hurt a little," he said. I didn't see the knife go in, but could feel it.The pain spread all over my body, I cried out through clenched teeth, and grabbed Caleb's hand hard.Beyond the screams, I heard my father tell me to relax my back.Tears rolled down from the corners of my eyes, and I did as my father said.The pain started again, and I could feel the scalpel moving under the skin, and I couldn't stop screaming.

"It worked," he said with relief.He only heard a "ding" sound, and he threw the thing on the ground. Caleb looked first at his father, then at me, and laughed out loud.I hadn't heard him laugh like that in quite a long time, and it made me cry with joy. "What's so funny?" I asked sniffling. "Never thought we'd be together again," he replied. The father washes the skin around the wound with something cold and says, "Stitch time." I nod.He threaded the needle as if he had done it hundreds of times. "One," he counted, "two...three."

This time, I gritted my teeth and kept silent.Of all the pain I've been through today - the pain of being shot, the pain of nearly drowning, the pain of getting the bullet out, the pain of being reunited with my mother and losing him again, the pain of finding Tobias and losing him, it's the easiest endured. After my father sewed up the wound, he tied the thread and wrapped the wound with a bandage.Caleb helped me to sit up, separated the hem of his two shirts inside and out, pulled the long-sleeved one off his head, and handed it to me. My father helped me get my right arm through the shirt sleeve, and I pulled the rest over my head and hung it around my neck.The clothes were fluffy and fresh and smelled like Caleb. "So," said the father softly, "where is your mother?" I lowered my head, not wanting to convey such news, and I didn't know how to speak. "She went," I said, "to save me." Caleb closed his eyes and took a deep breath. For a split second, Dad looked devastated, then quickly recovered, looking away from his tear-stained eyes and nodding his head. "Very good." His voice was a little tense, "He deserved to die." If I open my mouth now, I will definitely break down, and I must not break down at this time, so I just nodded. Eric called Al's suicide brave, and he was dead wrong. My mother's death was brave.I remember how calm and determined she was.Her bravery didn't just die for me. When she did this, she didn't show off, hesitated, and didn't consider other options. He helped me to my feet.It was time to face the others in the room, and my mother told me to save them.Because of this, and because I am Dauntless, it is my duty to save them.But I still don't know how to take on this heavy responsibility. Marcus stood up.Seeing him, the image of him whipping my wrist with a belt came to mind, and my chest tightened. "It's only temporarily safe to stay here." Marcus finally said, "We're going to withdraw from the city. The best place to go is the Amity Faction jurisdiction. I hope they can accept us. By the way, Beatrice, you understand Dauntless tactics? Will they stop fighting at night?" "Not a Dauntless strategy," I said. "The Erudite planned the whole thing, and they didn't even have to give orders." "No order?" asked the father. "What do you mean by that?" "I mean, ninety percent of the dreadnoughts are sleepwalking. They're in a simulation and don't know what they're doing. The only reason I'm different from them is because I'm..." I'm in this He hesitated for a while, "It's because consciousness control doesn't work for me." "What is mind control? So they don't know they're killing?" Father's eyes widened. "right." "That...it's terrible." Marcus shook his head, but I always felt that his sympathy was too deliberate, "I woke up and realized what I did..." There was silence in the room, maybe these selfless people were wondering how they would feel if they were in the position of Dauntless.Then an idea popped up—— "We have to wake them up," I said. "What?" Marcus asked. "If we wake up the Dauntless, they might rebel when they realize what's going on," I explained. "The Erudite loses their army, and the Selfless don't get hurt any more. It's all over." "It's not that simple," said Father. "Even without the help of the Dauntless, the Erudite will figure out something else." "How do we wake them up?" Marcus asked. "Find the computer controlling the scenario simulation and destroy all data." "Easier said than done," Caleb said. "It could be anywhere, and we can't go all over the learned district to find it." "It's..." I frowned.By the way, Jeanine.When Tobias and I entered the office, Jeanine was saying that something was so important that she had to hang up the phone in front of us.She also mentioned that "security needs to be stepped up now"; later, when Tobias was sent away, she said, "Take him to the control room".The control room is where Tobias used to work, with Dauntless monitors, and computers.That all speaks for itself, our destination is the control room. "At the Dauntless base," I said firmly, "that makes the most sense. All the Dauntless data is stored there, why not control them from there?" I vaguely realized that I said "they".As of yesterday, I was technically Fearless, but I didn't feel that I was Fearless, and certainly not selfless. I think, I am still the original me.Not the fearless, not the selfless, not even the unpartisan, but the divisive. "Are you sure?" Dad asked. "That's an educated guess," I said, "and the most likely inference I can make." "Then we should decide who goes to the Dauntless base and who goes on to the Amity territory," he said. "Beatrice, what kind of help do you need?" The question shocked me, and the look on his face.The way he looked at me, the way he spoke to me, seemed like he and I were of the same generation.If not accepting the fact that I was grown up, he was accepting that I was no longer his daughter.I feel more like the latter, and it makes me feel more painful. "Anyone who knows how to use a gun and dares to shoot can follow me to the Dauntless faction base." I said, "Also, don't be afraid of heights."