Chapter 37 Chapter 37: Gunshots from the Glass Building

Both the Erudite and Dauntless forces are concentrated in the Disinterested area of ​​the city, so we are unlikely to encounter difficulties as long as we escape from the Disinterested area. As for who goes to the Dauntless faction base with me, it's really up to me.Caleb was the perfect choice, because he knew the plans of the Erudites best.Despite my protests, Marcus insisted on going because he was good with computers.And my dad acted like he was included in the first place. I watched the rest flee in the opposite direction—to safety, to the Amity.After watching for a short while, I turned and headed to the center of the city, to the battlefield.We stand next to a train track that takes us to dangerous places.

"What time is it?" I asked Caleb. He looked at his watch: "Twelve past three." "Should be there any minute," I said. "Will it stop?" he asked. I shook my head: "The train will go very slowly when passing through the city. We have to run a few steps beside the car and jump on it." For me now, hopping on the train is so easy, so natural.For the rest, it won't be easy, but we can't do it halfway.I looked back to the left, and against the backdrop of gray buildings and roads, the headlights of the locomotive shone golden.When the golden halo got bigger and bigger, I started to stand on tiptoes and step, and then the locomotive slid by in front of me, and I started jogging.Seeing the door of a car open, I quickened my pace, ran alongside, grabbed the door handle on the left, and flung myself into the car.

Caleb jumped, landed hard, rolled sideways into the car, and reached out to help Marcus.The father then jumped up, landed on his stomach, his legs dangling outside the car, and dragged his legs in with him.They walked into the car, and I stood at the door, holding on to the handle, and watched the city flash past. If I were Jeanine, I'd send most of the Dauntless to guard the entrance to the Dauntless, just above the base pit, outside the glass building.So it is wiser to enter through the back door, and using that entrance requires jumping from the building. "I suppose you regret choosing Dauntless now," Marcus said.

I wondered why the person who asked this was not my father, but he, like me, was watching the city.The train passed through the precinct of the Erudite School, and it was pitch black at the moment. From a distance, it was very peaceful, and there was probably a sense of tranquility inside the walls, away from all the conflicts and realities they created. I shook my head. "Even if your faction leaders participated in plotting to overthrow the government, wouldn't you regret it?" Marcus spat. "But there are things I do need to learn." "How can learning become brave?" Father asked softly.

"Learn how to be selfless," I said. "Usually, they're the same thing." "Is that why you have the altruism symbol tattooed on your shoulder?" Caleb asked.I'm almost sure I see a smile in my father's eyes. I smiled and nodded. "The dauntless pattern is on the other shoulder." The sunlight reflected from the glass building above the base pit hits my eyes.I stood, clutching the handle by the door, for balance.We are almost there. "When I tell you to jump, just jump down, as far as possible." "Jump down?" Caleb asked, "Triss, this place is as tall as a seven-story building!"

"Jump to the roof." I added.Seeing the surprised look on his face, I said, "That's why they call it a test of courage." The so-called courage is relative.Jumping off here for the first time, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.Now, jumping off a rooftop from a moving train is nothing in comparison, because I've been through more hardships in the past few weeks than most people will go through in a lifetime.And none of them compare to what I'm about to do at the Dauntless base.If I had survived, I would undoubtedly have done many more difficult things, such as living a life without any factions, and things I would have never imagined.

"Dad, you jump first." As I said that, I took a step back so that my father could stand by the side of the carriage.If he and Marcus jump first, I can time it so they jump the closest.Caleb and I were younger and wanted to jump as far as possible.This is an opportunity worth trying. The train track turned, and the moment it was parallel to the edge of the roof, I yelled, "Jump!" Dad got on his knees and jumped forward, and before I could see if he made it, I pushed Marcus forward and yelled, "Jump!" My father jumped onto the roof, but it was so close to the edge that I gasped in horror.After watching him sit up in a patch of rubble, I pushed Caleb to the front.He was standing on the edge of the car door, and before I could say "jump", he had already jumped down.I took a few steps back to give myself room to run up, and when the train reached the end of the roof, I jumped off.

For a moment, I was suspended in nothingness, and then my feet hit the concrete floor, stumbled and ran two steps to the side, avoiding the edge of the roof.My knees hurt, and the huge impact shook my whole body, and even the wound on my shoulder hurt.I sat down, gasping for air, and looked across the roof, where my father and Caleb were standing on the edge, holding Marcus's arm.He didn't jump onto the roof, and he certainly didn't fall. Somewhere in my heart, an evil voice kept ringing: drop, drop, drop. But he didn't fall.Father and Caleb dragged him up.I stood up, patted the gravel off my pants, and thought about my next step.Telling them to jump off a train is one thing, but jumping off a rooftop...

"The next part is why I asked why I'm afraid of heights." As I said that, I walked to the edge of the roof.There was the sound of their shuffling footsteps behind me, and I stepped onto the ledge of the terrace.The wind blowing up the side of the building made my shirt bulge.I looked down through the hole, seven stories below me, and then I closed my eyes and let the wind blow on my face. "There is a big net underneath." I turned my head and said.They looked confused and didn't understand what I wanted them to do. "Don't think about anything, just jump," I explained.

I turned, and as I turned, I leaned back, gave up my balance, and fell like a rock, eyes closed, one arm outstretched, feeling the wind.I tried to relax all the muscles in my body before hitting the big net, and then the big net hit my shoulder like a cement slab.I gritted my teeth, rolled to one side, grabbed the pillars supporting the net, swung my legs and stepped out of the net, and knelt on the platform with tears blurring my eyes. Then came Caleb, who yelled and jumped down. The net caught him, tightened and then stretched out.I stood up with some difficulty. "Caleb!" I hissed, "Here I am!"

Panting heavily, Caleb crawled to the edge of the net, then fell, slamming onto the platform.He flinched, stood up reluctantly, and stared at me with his mouth open. "How many times have you... skipped this...?" he asked between breaths. "Twice now." He shook his head. Father also fell into the big net, and Caleb helped him step out of the net.Standing on the platform, he immediately bent over and vomited.I went down the stairs and was almost at the bottom when I heard Marcus slamming into the net and moaning at the same time. The cave was empty, and the passage stretched into the darkness. According to Zhenning, apart from the soldiers she sent back to guard the computer, there was no one left at the Dauntless faction base.If we find the Dauntless, we should have found the computer.I looked back and saw Marcus standing on the platform, his face as white as a sheet of paper, but he was safe and sound. "So this is the Dauntless base," Marcus said. "Yeah," I said, "and then?" "I never thought I'd be here in my lifetime," he said, brushing his fingers over the wall. "You don't have to be so wary of me, Beatrice." I had never noticed how hard his eyes were before. "Beatrice, do you have any plans?" the father asked. "Yes." I mean it.I did have a plan, but I didn't know when I thought of it. I'm also not sure if this plan will work.But we can take advantage of these points: there are not many guards on the base, and the Dauntless are not known for their sharpness, so I will try to stop them from moving. We walked down the passage leading to the deep pit of the base, and there were lights every three meters.As we walked into the light of the first lamp, I heard a gunshot and immediately fell to the ground.Someone must have seen us.I crawl into the next gloom.The fire of the pistol should have flashed by the door leading to the deep pit of the base. "Is everyone okay?" I asked quietly. "It's all right," said the father. "Then stay here first." I ran to the edge of the cave.The lamps protrude from the wall, so there is a long narrow shadow directly below each lamp, and I am small enough to hide if I stand on my side.I could walk along the edge of the cave, and pounce on the guards who were shooting at us before they got a chance to put a bullet in my brain.It is possible. One thing I have to thank Dauntless for is that the ordeal took the fear out of me. "Whoever you are," cried a voice, "put down your arms and raise your hands." I turned around, with my back against the stone wall, and moved forward sideways, with my feet intertwined, squinting my eyes in the dimness to see clearly.Another shot broke the silence.Finally reaching the last light, I stood in the shadows for a while, letting my eyes adjust. Fighting, I can't win, but if I move fast enough, I don't have to fight.I stepped lightly and approached the guard at the door. Only a few steps away, I realized that even in a relatively dark place, I knew this greasy black hair and the long nose with the narrow bridge. It's Pete. A chill pierced through my pores, surrounded my heart, and penetrated into my stomach. Pete's face was tense—he's not a sleepwalker.He looked around, scanning above and around me.Judging from his silence, he has no intention of negotiating with us, but will kill us without hesitation. I licked my lower lip, and with these last few steps I rushed forward, pushing up hard with the heel of my palm and hitting him on the nose.He cried out, covering his face with his hands.My body was shaking from the tension, and while he was squinting, I kicked him in the groin. He fell to his knees, and the gun fell to the ground with a clatter.I grabbed the gun and put the barrel against his head. "How did you become conscious?" I asked. He looked up.I cocked the cartridge and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "The leader of the Dauntless faction...they evaluated my record and removed me from the simulation." "Because they've discovered that you're inherently murderous and don't mind killing hundreds of people when you're sane," I said. "Makes sense." "I don't have... the tendency to kill!" "I've never seen an honest guy who can lie like you!" I put a gun on his skull. "Where's the computer that controls the simulation, Pete?" "You won't kill me." "You all overestimate my personality," I said in a low voice. "They think so because I'm small, a girl, and a zombie, and they think I can't be cruel, but they're wrong." I moved the gun six or seven centimeters to the left and shot him in the arm. Immediately, Pete's tragic screams echoed in the passage, blood spurted from the wound, he screamed again, his forehead hit the ground.I moved the gun back to his head, trying to ignore the torment of guilt in my heart. "Now that I realize your mistake," I said, "I'll give you another chance and tell me what I want to know, otherwise don't blame me for shooting at a more critical place." Here's another thing that works for me: Pete isn't selfless. He turned his head, looked at me with one bright eye, bit his lower lip tightly with his teeth, exhaled tremblingly, inhaled tremblingly, exhaled tremblingly again. "They're watching," he spat. "Even if you don't kill me, they will. The only condition I tell you is that you take me out of here." "what?" "Take me... ouch... together." He flinched in pain. "You want me to take you," I said sarcastically, "with someone who wants to kill me...?" "That's right. If you want to know what you want," he moaned. It sounds like I still have a choice, but I don't.Thinking about how he has been my nightmare countless times, how he has hurt me - every minute wasted on this, there may be many more members of the Selfless who die at the hands of the mind-controlled Dauntless army. "Okay," I could barely get the words out, "good." I heard footsteps behind me, so I gripped my gun and looked back.It turned out that it was my father and the rest who came over. Father took off his long-sleeved shirt and wore only a gray T-shirt underneath.He crouched down beside Pete, tied the shirt around his arm, and fastened it.As he pressed his shirt against Pete's bleeding arm, he looked up at me and asked, "Was it really necessary to hurt him?" I didn't answer. "Sometimes pain is for a greater good," Marcus said quietly. In the back of my mind, he was standing in front of Tobias with the leash in his hand, and I heard him say, "This is for your own good"... I looked at him for a while.Does he really believe that?But it sounds like something that only the dauntless would say. "Let's go," I said. "Get up, Pete." "You want him to go?" Caleb asked. "Are you crazy?" "Did I hit him in the leg?" I said. "No. He can go. Where are we going, Pete?" Caleb helped Pete up. "Glass Building," he flinched again as he spoke, "eight floors." He led us out the door. Past the roaring river and the blue-lit pits of the base, it's more deserted than I've ever seen it before.I scanned the stone walls for signs of life, but found no movement, no one standing in the darkness.I gripped my gun tightly and climbed up the path leading to the glass ceiling.The emptiness around me made me shiver involuntarily.It reminds me of endless fields in nightmares where crows appear. "What gives you the right to shoot someone?" my father asked as I followed me up the climb.At this time, we passed the tattoo parlor.Where is Tori now?Where is Christina? "Now is not the time to discuss ethics." I responded. "Now's the best time," he said. "You're probably going to kill again any time you get the chance, and if you don't understand—" "Understand what?" I said without turning my head. "Time is redemption. For every minute I waste, some selfless people die and some fearless people become murderers. That's what I get. It's your turn." .” "There is always a right way to do things." "How can you be so sure that's the right way?" I said. "Stop arguing." Caleb interrupted us, his tone full of reproach, "We have more important things to do now." I continued to climb, my cheeks burning hot.I wouldn't have dared to talk to my father like that a few months ago, and I probably wouldn't have even done it a few hours ago.But that changed when they shot my mother and took Tobias away. In the roar of the river, I heard my father panting. I forgot that he was old and his bones could no longer bear the weight of his body. I waited in the dark, watching the sunlight cast on the stone walls of the base pit before climbing the metal stairs to the glass ceiling.A shadow moves across the sunlit stone wall, and I start timing until the next shadow appears.The guards made their rounds every minute and a half, standing for twenty seconds at a time, and then continued their rounds. "There are people with guns up there, and they will kill me if they see me, as long as they have a chance." I whispered to my father, looking into his eyes, "Let them slaughter me?" He stared at me for a few seconds. "Go, God help you." I climbed the stairs cautiously, stopping before my head was exposed.I waited, watching the shadows, and when one stopped, I climbed the stairs, raised my gun, and fired. The bullet missed the guard, but shattered the glass behind him.I fired another shot, and when the bullet hit the ground next to me with a "ding", I quickly lay down.Fortunately, the glass ceiling is bulletproof, otherwise the bullets would shatter the glass, and I would fall down and die. A guard fell.I took a deep breath, put my hands on the ceiling, and looked for the target through the glass.I let the gun back a little and fired at the guard who was rushing towards me.The bullet landed in his arm, luckily the arm holding the gun, and the gun fell to the floor and slid out on the glass. Trembling, I emerged from the hole in the ceiling and grabbed the gun before he could touch it.A bullet whized past my head, so close, it brushed my hair.My eyes widened, I swung my right arm over my shoulder, my body burned, and I shot three times behind me.Miraculously, a bullet hit a guard.The pain in my shoulder made my tears flow uncontrollably.The stitches must have been torn.Definitely is. Another guard stood across from me.I lay down on the ground and aimed both guns at him, my arms on the ceiling, staring at the black barrel of his gun. Then, something surprising happened, he pointed his chin aside, beckoning me to go. He must be a Divergent. "All clear!" I yelled. The guard sneaked into the "fear space" room and disappeared. I pressed my right arm to my chest and slowly stood up.Due to the limited vision, I have to run desperately down the trail, I can't stop, I have to run to the end. I handed Caleb a gun and stuck the other in my belt. "I think you and Marcus should be here with him," I tilt my head in Pete's direction, "he's just going to slow us down and make sure no one follows us." I hope he doesn't understand what I mean - even if he's willing to sacrifice himself, I'm going to keep him here to keep him safe.If I go to the upper building, I may not be able to come down.My best hope is to destroy the scenario simulation system before someone kills me.When did I decide on this suicidal mission?How did this decision come so easily? "You're risking your life up there, I can't stay here," Caleb said. "I need you here," I said. Pete knelt down, his face was sweaty and gleaming with oil.For a split second, I almost felt sorry for him.But then I remembered Edward, and the tickle of the assailant's cloth over my eyes, compassion lost to hatred.Caleb finally nodded. I approached a fallen guard and removed his gun, eyes averting the wound that had taken his life.My head hurts throbbing.There was no eating, no sleeping, no crying, no shouting, not even a moment's rest.I bit my lip tightly and dragged myself towards the elevator on the right.eight floors. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I leaned my head sideways against the glass and listened to the beep of the elevator. I glanced at my father. "Thank you for protecting Caleb," the father said. "Beatrice, I..." The elevator reached the eighth floor and the door opened.Two guards, guns in hand, stood ready outside the door, expressionless.My eyes widened suddenly, and as soon as the gun fired, I immediately lay down in the elevator, only to hear the bullet shatter the glass.The guards fell to the ground, one alive and groaning in pain, one quickly dying.My father stood above them, still holding his gun. I staggered to my feet.There are guards running from the left corridor, judging from the consistent footsteps, they are controlled by the situational simulation.I'm supposed to run down the hallway to the right, but since they're coming from the hallway to the left, that's where the computer should be.I lay between the two guards my father had just shot, trying not to move. Father jumped out of the elevator and sprinted down the hallway to the right, with a group of Dauntless guards chasing after him.I put my hands over my mouth to keep from yelling at my father.There is always an end to the corridor. I wanted to put my head down and not look at it, but I couldn't.I looked over the back of the downed guard and my father shot over the shoulder at the guard who was chasing him, but not fast enough.One of them hit him in the stomach and he let out a groan of pain so loud I almost felt the vibration in my chest. He clutched his bowels, banged his shoulder against the wall, and fired again, repeatedly.The guards were under the control of the situational simulation, and even if the bullet hit them, they kept going until the heart stopped beating, but they didn't catch up with my father.Another shot rang out, and the last guard fell. "Dad." I wanted to yell, but I just yelled angrily. He fell to the ground and our eyes met like the distance didn't even exist. His mouth opened as if to say something, but then his jaw dropped to his chest and his whole body collapsed. My eye sockets were hot, and I couldn't stand up weakly. The smell of sweat mixed with blood made me feel nauseous.I want to put my head on the ground and let this be over.I want to go to sleep now and never wake up. But what I said to my father earlier was true—for every second I wasted, a disinterested person died.Now I have only one thing left in this world, and that is to destroy the situational simulation system. I forced myself to stand up and ran down the hallway, turning right at the end with only one door ahead.I push open the door. The opposite wall is full of screens, each thirty centimeters high and thirty centimeters wide, there are dozens of them in total, each showing a different corner of the city: the city fence, the central building.The streets in the Selfless area are now full of Dauntless soldiers.On the ground floor of the building below us, Caleb, Marcus, and Pete were waiting for my return.On this wall is everything I've ever seen, everything I know. One of the screens is not an image, but a line of code.It moves so fast that I read nothing.This is the scenario simulation, the code has already been written, forming a complicated list of instructions, and thousands of different results are drawn up in advance. There is a chair in front of the screen, and a table.Sitting on the chair was a Dauntless soldier. "Tobias." I yelled out.