Surviving Factionless

THE PLAN: Chapter 9

I woke up to Andrew shaking me softly.

"Wake up, it's breakfast time," he told me.

I sat up and stretched. I rubbed my eyes which burned from the morning light streaming through the windows.

"Ok, let's go," I told him when I was ready.

"Ok."

We started walking towards the door. He slid out first and reached out his hand for me so I didn't scrape it against the wood. I grabbed his hand and slid through the hole.

The blinding light hit me. It took me a while to adjust to it.

I released his hand and followed him to where the Abnegation were. I hoped to see Mrs. Prior there, even though I knew she wouldn't be. She comes at night.

Andrew and I grabbed a bunch of food and carried it back to his house. I saw Carol staring at me through the corner of my eye. I pretended to not see her, so she would look away. But she didn't. Just as we were about to turn a corner, out of sight, I glanced back at her.

She had a sad, depressed look on her face. I felt guilty. After all these years of her taking care of me, making sure I got food, clothes and shelter, I just left her. Just like that. I wanted to turn around, thank her for everything, and tell her about my plan to find my mother. But, my feet kept moving forward. My body was fighting my mind.

I finally gave up, and told myself that I would do it later. Before I left.

We reached his house and slid through the hole. It was kind of hard because we had food in our hands plus Andrew had another blanket. I don't know where he got it.

We walked into the place where we slept the night before. There was a small tray made out of a flat square of wood that we used for a table.

I dropped my handful of breakfast onto the tray, Andrew dropping his onto the ground in his "stash" corner. We sat cross-legged across from each other, our knees brushing against each others.

We start eating our breakfast in silence.

'Should I tell him?' I thought to myself.

"So," Andrew finally broke the silence, "do you have a plan yet?" He read my mind.

"Kind of," I answered unsure if I should tell him the whole thing or just part of it, "well, I don't know if it will work, but its worth a shot." That was true.

"Well, tell me!" He said after I didn't speak for a while.

"Ok, alright!" I answered. "I'm going to.... go to all the factions. I'm going to search for her everywhere. If what Carol said was true about her being a faction leader, someone has to recognize her. Even if she isn't a leader anymore." That was part of it.

"How?" He asked after thinking for a while. That word. But this time I had an answer.

"I'm going to ask Mrs. Prior if she can sneak me into Abnegation. She also has a daughter in Dauntless and a son in Erudite. If they are anything like their mom they will help me too. As of Amity and Candor, I'm not sure. I'm hoping that Amity will be kind enough to let me look around or answer a few of my questions." That was everything. My whole plan.

"That's dangerous." Andrew said after a long time of thought and eating. "But, it's definitely worth a try." He took another bite of his can of peas, "I'm just glad I will be there to protect you."

Guilt crawled through my skin. I hated doing this to him. But, I needed to do this by myself. I needed to.