Resurgent

Chapter 10

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!" I stretch my vocal cords to the maximum. My throat hurts, but right now my concern for Tris is more than any of my physical pain,"GET HER HERE!"
"Tobias, oh, Tobias. You'll never change, will you? I must say, your concern for useless people is always the most-"
"Don't call her USELESS!"
"Why would you ever like a girl like her?" He continues as if he didn't hear me,"She isn't even beautiful-"
"SHE IS BETTER THAN YOU, PETE ROGER GILBERT!
"Alas! That's untrue. By the way, don't you worry about your girlfriend. We're treating her just the way she should be treated."
"I hate you! Get her here right now! Who do you think you are?!"
"Tobias," He says, "Don't be a pain in the ass, because whatever you do, will get reflected on that girl."
"Pete," I say, my chest heaving up and down,"Get. Her. Here. Don't do anything to her. Do what you want to do, but to me."
"Ooh, typical boyfriend worry," he says.
"She doesn't even know you, Pete!"
"But, what she did to me was worse than what a person would do to the people they knew."
"She did nothing to you!"
"Of course she did. She was the one who," he takes a drastic pause before telling me what Tris did,"Killed my mother."
"What?" I ask. Tris didn't kill anyone's mother. Even if she did, it was in the attempt to save the world, the civilisation left.
"My mother," he said, his eyes showing that hint of sadness,"Was in Erudite. Just like I had told you, Tobias. She was supposed be the leader. She was denied the chance by Jeanine Matthews."
"Your mother," I say, my ears ringing,"Is dead."
"She is, but at that time, she wasn't. She was in Erudite. I went to Erudite that day. And you know what?" He looks at me with bitterness ,"She had to  protect Jeanine, and that is why she gave her life! She was killed by that girl of yours. And then, When I learnt that she was killed, Boy, was I sad! After all, my revenge on her was left out. I wouldn't be able to torture her, would I? But I always kept an eye on you. I thought you were my friend, that you'd at least remember me, but no. So when I was told that she had come back, I was overjoyed. Now I can cause pain to both of you. If only you had been good. But, don't be sad, you'll meet her soon."

I open my mouth to rebuke him, to yell, to take out my frustration on him, but before I know it, he gags me again. I shake myself very hard to get out of that stupid chair. Pete turns around to leave.
"Let's hope she's alive by the time she can meet you, Tobias."
That one sentence makes me numb all over. I had already almost lost her once and now, I can't let it happen again. I squirm and go haywire in the chair, but the rope is too strong. I don't feel any pain, but when I look down at my wrists, they are bleeding quite a bit. Somehow, I don't feel anything. Right now, my biggest concern is to get Tris out of here. I don't know what to do.

After a long time, I give up the squirming. I know moving when I'm bound is not going to help me at all.
"Think, Tobias, think," I tell myself.
All I draw up is a blank. I know that right now, my mind is absolutely clouded and I can't think straight. Something, somewhere will be available to help us out of here.

Zeke.
He can help me.
He knew where we where going, and he didn't see us come back. Maybe he must've realised that we're missing. Hopefully, he has informed the police so that they can help us.

I feel so paralysed right now. I can't do anything. In some other room, Tris is being tortured, and I'm here, bound in some chair, unable to move. I experience a sinking feeling, as if everything in the world is coming apart. Once again.

I look up when I hear another scream. This time, I can tell it's not Tris. It sounds more like that of a man. Maybe even Pete. I don't want to take my hopes too high, but I have a feeling that Tris is really bashing those guys up. She was Dauntless, after all. Won't she know how to beat up a few people?

I wait for another scream. It comes echoing into my room, and this time I know for sure that it's Pete-

The door flies open, and there, panting, stands Tris. She doesn't look too good, there are bruises and cuts on her face. But apart from that, she looks fine.
"Tobias," she gasps and comes running to me. She wraps into a warm hug. She undoes the bounds and stares at my wrists. Tris runs a hand over them and looks up at me.

I don't feel anything, except the joy of reunion.
Tris takes off my gag, and she kisses me .

"We need to leave, right now," she says.
"Yeah," I reply. When I stand up, my legs are wobbly from sitting in a chair for too long.

Tris has a gun in her hand. We run into the corridor and there are a lot of bodyguards there. She skilfully brings them down one by one and we disarm them. Loaded with guns once again after almost one year, I feel good. As if I'm back in Dauntless.

We run through the sparsely decorated corridors. The walls, just like the room, are painted blue. It's like a maze, but manage to navigate our way through the place. Shooting down people, we reach an exit. Tris looks at me and I nod.

We run out into the darkness.

"Tris," I say, once we are some distance away from that place ,"What did they do to you?"
"What did they do to me?" She asks, surprised ,"Ask me what I did to them."
"But I heard you scream..."
"I heard myself scream, too. Except that it wasn't me-It was a recording of another girl with a voice like me, screaming. They played it to increase your anxiety. When I woke up, I heard them playing it and I understood what they were upto. They hadn't bound me, probably thinking of me as a 'weak girl', and I got up and beat all of them up, especially that Blondie. He yelped the most."
"Pete." I mutter.
She turns around to look at me and says with surprise,"You knew him?"
"Yes. He was my best friend when I was a kid. He ran away from Abnegation."
"You really need to improve the quality of your friends."
"Do I?" I glare at her. She understands what I mean and says,"Some of them, at least."
"Where are we?" I ask, suddenly realising that we don't even know the way home.
"I have no idea," Tris says ,"Maybe we can catch a cab and that'll take us home."
"How often do you find a cab at three a.m.?"
Almost as if on cue, a cab comes onto the road and we signal to it to stop. We get into it as fast as we can, sure that Pete's lackeys are after us.
"To Raymond Apartments, please," I say.
"And where is that, sir?" The cabbie asks in his nasal voice.
"Near Hyde Park, that's where."
He turns around abruptly and says,"Hyde Park? This cab won't  go there, so I'm sorry."
"Why not?" Tris asks.
"I don't think driving three hundred miles at this time will be good for me."
"Three hundred miles?" I ask ,"No, you don't need to drive-"
Then the gravity of the situation strikes me. We're nowhere near Chicago.
"Where are we?" I ask the cabbie.
"In Carlyle."