Now or Never

Chapter Twenty Three

Tris helps me up using her good arm, I use the end of my gun to push myself up and set as much weight as I allow myself onto her shoulder.

I glance back at the body; right in the head and without a second thought. She knows where her priorities lies, I'll give her that.

"Are you alright?" I ask through barred teeth, limping as we walk towards a street sign.

"I don't want to talk about it," she mumbles to me. I just nod, I don't want to talk about what I've done today either.

...

I lean on the wall as Tris knocks on the door, just as her mother instructed.

It feels like forever waiting for the door to open, but when it does, a familiar boy greets us. For a second, I see Ethan in him. But the realization comes just as quickly, it's her brother; Caleb Prior.

He presses his hands on her shoulders, but backs away when she groans in pain.

"Beatrice. Oh God, are you shot?"

Tris glances at me. "She has it worse than me."

Caleb looks at me slumped against the wall, panting in pain with my free hand pressed against the wound to try to stop the bleeding. His big eyes grow wider as he wraps his arm around me and guides the two of us inside.

There's a good amount of people waiting for our arrival, people who I haven't seen since I left Abnegation but still come into memory as my neighbors. Caleb, and now another man, guide me towards one of the cots against the wall. I moan in pain as I sit, pressing my hand back on top of the hole.

I watch as Tris moves through the group, but doesn't take long for me to see who's sitting across the room trying not to make contact with me. Marcus.

I have two reasons for wanting to kill him now: one, Tobias; he abused him and plays a big role in how far his anger can go. Two, Ethan; he couldn't convince him to leave and now is part of the reason why he's dead.

But that could easily be my fault, too. I'm the one who told Ethan he couldn't trust Marcus.

"How did you know about this place?" Caleb asks Tris. "Did Mom find you?"

The image of their mother falling to the ground plays in my mind, the bullet in Ethan's head overlaps the image with more gun shots popping off in the distance.

"Excuse me?" I manage to say through the quiet sobs I've been making, "do you happen to have a bucket I can use?"

"What for?" A man with greying hair asks.

"I think I need to throw up."

Once I've let out what I needed to, someone taking the bucket to empty outside, a few people help me lay down on the cot with my leg propped up to be operated on. At least what they can manage with the few supplies they have here.

Andrew- Tris's father- and Caleb sit on either side of me; Tris close to my head, a few people surround us.

"I don't mind waiting, Tris can go first," I mumble to Andrew. She's had the bullet inside her longer than I have, and she'll need her arm for shooting.

"That's very kind of you to say, Amalia, but this is a more serious injury that needs attending to," Andrew brings the lamp a woman brought over closer to see the damage. I make a groaning noise when he just hovers over my leg, feeling the heat enter my insides.

"If you need a hand to hold onto, I can offer mine," Caleb grins at me.

"Caleb, no," Tris warns him.