Divergent: An Untold Love Story

Chapter 11: The Heat

Ah, breakfast. The reason I wake up in the morning. Next to my job. It's been a week since Eric tried to kill me. It's been six days since I woke up in Eric's apartment to hear him say that he still hates me but isn't going to kill me. They told me that from now on I was going to reserve my duties as an "observing Leader" as Max called it. I seemed to like him more every day.

"You can sit here, you know," Eric's voice interrupted. "After all, you are a Dauntless Leader." Not wanting to spark his anger, I sat in front of him.

"Listen. After the Initiates train, Jeanine needs us for a meeting in Erudite. It's super important that we be there. And after that I thought, maybe..." Eric trailed off.

"You thought maybe what?" I asked, suddenly interested.

"Well, I thought-" Max interrupted.

"Eric, Sierra. Jeanine has requested all of us at her office in ten," he informed.

Eric and I were running toward the train in a blur. Eric jumped up to the edge and slid the entrance open. Heart pounding, I reached for the handle and missed. My legs ached and I was falling behind. Just in time, Eric held out his hand. I hesitated, but took his offer, not taking the chance of missing the meeting. He pulled me up. I was gasping, but my running wasn't the reason for it.

It was the fact that Eric held me with one arm around the curve of my back. And he was looking directly into my eyes. That was the moment I realized that Eric's eyes were a brilliant light blue. They resembled a spring lily in a way. As soon as our moment had started, that's how soon it ended. But what I seen in his eyes were beyond a cruel, blood-thirsty maniac. No, in those blue eyes, there was a hint of a soul I wanted to discover and a heart I wanted to claim. . .

"As you can see here, I have calculated the Divergent population then, to the population now. And as you can see," Jeanine scrolled the screen down, "the numbers of their race have increased."

"Wait, if you know their population, then why don't you kill them?" I asked her with deep concern.

Jeanine cleared her voice. "The technology we use for this information, called global gathering, picks up Divergent signals all across Chicago. It takes an almost-approximate guess and registers the information to my software. We don't know who they are, our their locations, but we can get an educated guess about how long we need to search."

"And how long we need our attack to last," Eric spoke up. Attack? On who? When? Where? Why? How?

Jeanine must've noticed my confused expression, because she explained. "For two years now, me, Erudite recruits, and Dauntless Leadership have been observing Abnegation. We've concluded that they are harboring Divergents, and abusing their children. They are both crimes, and are punishable. But considering they have been committing these crimes for a decent amount of time, I have decided to unite Erudite and Dauntless to attack them as soon as possible." The idea sounded absurd at first, but then I thought about it. Divergents can't be controlled. And you'd think that, being the governing faction, Abnegation wouldn't dare to break such a law.

"Doesn't it say in Article 5 of the Chicago Faction Organization Manifesto that 'Keeping such secret information, such as harboring a Divergent, is punishable by death'?" The question I asked sounded dry in my mouth; Abnegation was the original faction of Tris. Oh, crap.

"Why yes. Did you happen to study the entire Faction Manifesto in school, Sierra?" Jeanine asked me.

I nodded, and she looked impressed. "Once again, keep your eyes open. I cannot stress this enough: if you even suspect someone of being Divergent, come see me. My office is always open for the greater good." She sent me a radiant smile, and I gave her a confident nod. My mission: find the Divergents. And that's exactly what I was going to do. . .

<•>

My knuckles are bruised, and my muscles ache. Ever since Jeanine called Dauntless Leadership for a meeting about the Divergent issue, I've been training hard to prepare myself for the attack on Abnegation. Of course, O hadn't fought in years, and I'll admit that I kind of lost the skills I learnt at the Fence. I took my knuckles and hit the punching bag with the side of my fist. I kept doing that in a pattern.

"What are you doing?" A sudden voice made me jump from behind. Eric.

"You scared the living daylights outta me," I spat at him. I looked back to the punching bag. It had puddles of blood on it.

"Keep tension here." Eric took his hand and rested it on my side, making my stomach flutter. I regarded him and took a moment to gaze upon his beautiful eyes. He was so gorgeous. Snap out of it, Sierra! I forced my head back to my training, and Eric strode away. I wished he'd have stayed. But I had a goal to reach and I wasn't about to let a small, but a possible, love interest ruin that. For me, love didn't cone easy. And I had never been good at flirting. When I played hard to get, all my "crushes," if you will, scattered like a wildfire. Eric wasn't exactly my first choice, but I wasn't going to get involved with him for a LONG time. As I kept my focus on training, I chanted in my head, Shake it off Sierra shake it off Sierra shake it off Sierra.