[18+] BOOK 2.5 (Novella)
A war that destroyed the world. It came and it went, leaving death and chaos in its wake.
In the resulting turmoil England has split into four regions, a safety measure that was 'essential' to ensure that violence would not...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The entire room erupts.
Tris' hands wind around my neck, knocking us backwards. I fall into something hard before suddenly I'm whirled out of the way, the fingers slipping away from my throat as my dress billows out.
Still spinning, I turn back to see Jesse in my place. Tris is recovering from a punch that my knight in shining armour has just delivered to the side of his face.
And then someone else is shoving me up against the wall and I let out a wheezy breath before lifting my hands and slamming them down against the red-haired girl's temples. She stumbles back, momentarily startled. I use the opportunity to wind my hands around her waist, swiftly spinning us around and letting her head clatter into the glass window behind. Her eyes roll back and I let her drop to the ground, knocked out.
Placing my hand against the wall beside me, I struggle to collect my breath before Jesse's friend — Jessica — appears in front of me, her eyes wide and uncertain as she glances between me and the girl on the floor.
"She's just knocked out," I tell her breathlessly. Her eyes switch back and forth before they avert to watch the rest of the room. It's a battleground now, every member of our team fighting the enemy. "We're the resistance," I tell her. My eyes drop to the small kitchen knife in her hand. She's shaking. "All we want is peace."
"It sure doesn't look like it," Jessica snaps back.
I grimace. Wrong choice of words, Kayla.
"Okay... Sorry. All I meant is that we want to stop the corrupt Enforcers." I lift my hand to my face. "The ones who did the likes of this. Who torture people and use their position to destroy anyone who crosses them," I tell her. Jessica's eyes pause on my cheek. "Jesse told us that you aren't like them," I plead with her. "That maybe... you could help us make the North a better place—"
My throat is grabbed from behind and I gasp as I'm yanked backwards. A man I've never seen before sneers into my face before shoving me forwards, straight onto an empty table filled with glasses and plates.
My body crashes down on top of all of them, and the glass goes flying every which way. I feel some of it penetrate through the thin dress and let out a small cry at the pain that spreads through my abdomen.
My hands splay out across the table, desperately trying to grab onto something — anything — to defend myself, but then he flips me over, stopping me in my tracks and landing a swift punch to the side of my face.
An obscene ringing pounds through my ears as my cheek thumps with pain and I spit out the saliva that's pooled in my mouth. I think some of it may be blood.
Lifting my hands, I try to claw at the man on top of me but he's incessant, his eyes wild and unruly before his hands curl around my neck all over again. I choke at the lack of air, my hands flying instead to his arms and desperately trying to free myself from his hold.
