His Amity | Eric Coulter x Original FMC |

Chapter Twenty Five

Lia adjusted the strap on her shoulder, scanning the room one last time. Rows of crates lined the floors, stacked high with ammunition, rifles, and compact packs of rations, all prepared to move into the tunnel. The Dauntless moved with practiced ease, a steady rhythm of teamwork with the factionless binding them as they lifted, passed, and packed. Even the once-formal Candor walls seemed transformed by the presence of Dauntless grit, black-clad fighters blending into every corner and shadow. For the first time in weeks, Lia felt the air buzz with something close to hope, a resolve thicker than fear.

"They're almost ready," Four said quietly beside her, a hint of pride breaking through his serious expression.

"Feels like home," Lia replied, catching his smirk in response. And for just a second, the future didn't feel quite as ominous.

That was when Archer burst through the doors, his face pale, eyes wide with urgency. "You two need to see this. Now." His voice held a tremor Lia had never heard before.

Without another word, Lia and Four grabbed their rifles and followed Archer at a sprint down the corridor. Their footsteps echoed in the narrow passage as they descended into the dim, steel-grey depths of the maintenance tunnel. The sounds of Candor faded behind them, replaced by the hum of ancient generators and the distant trickle of water seeping through concrete walls.

The cold air of the tunnel hit them like a wall, but Archer didn't stop until they reached a section up ahead where a few factionless members stood clustered around something on the ground. Lia slowed, catching sight of it—a camera, its casing crushed, wires twisted and pulled apart, its glass lens shattered into scattered fragments that caught the tunnel's sparse light. And then her eyes traveled to the wall.

Sprayed in harsh, jagged letters across the concrete in thick black paint, a message loomed:

"They're watching you."

A chill ran down her spine, her eyes drawn to the uneven strokes of the letters, the way the paint bled down the wall like it was alive. The letters were still wet, glistening under the flickering tunnel lights.

Four let out a low, angry curse. He slammed his fist into the wall, his voice sharp, taut with fury. "They know—Erudite knows we're here. They had to have seen us heading to Candor with the factionless."

Lia's throat tightened, her heart pounding as she tried to focus, to absorb what this meant. She forced herself to breathe slowly, even as a creeping realization began to settle in.

"This wasn't here yesterday, how are the cameras working?" asked one of the factionless, scratching his head with a wary glance at the others. "We got anyone inside Erudite who could've warned us?"

Four shook his head, frustration clear in his eyes as he scanned the faces around him. "No. All our contacts in Erudite went dark after Abnegation. If they had someone on the inside still loyal to us, we'd have known. We've got no one left."

Archer looked at Lia, frowning with the same suspicion now beginning to echo in her own mind. "Lia? You know anyone who'd risk a warning like this?"

She held his gaze, fighting to keep her expression still as her mind raced. She knew exactly who he was alluding to. There was something too familiar about the lettering, the careless, almost reckless style of it, the way the 'E' was crooked, and the 'R' a little too sharp. She could picture that handwriting, bold and uneven.

Eric.

The realization settled in her gut, cold and heavy. But she couldn't let them know. Not now, not without understanding why he'd do something so reckless, or what it even meant.