One Lucky Winner

Chapter 29 ~ Tobias

Day 1
8:37 PM

I stand up, the only one not hurt. My heart is racing like I've never felt it before. I rush over to Tris, who has collapsed on the ground, unmoving.

"Tris," I say, shaking her. Captain America hit her head with his shield. We just got attacked by them a couple minutes ago.

She groans.

"Are you okay," I say, trying to stay calm, but feeling dangerous panic rise in me.

"Uh..." She stirs, slowly propping herself up on her elbow. I see a large red mark on the right of her forehead.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm alive, at least," she mumbles.

"What hurts?"

"Everything from the neck up," she says. I help her sit up.

"Are you dizzy?" I ask her.

"Yeah," she says. She looks past me, at someone behind me. "Caleb...your neck..." I turn around a look at Caleb.

"I'm okay," Caleb croaks. His voice is raspy. "It's just a burn." It's not 'just a burn'. The whole front of his neck is blood red...I can't even look at it for that long. I look at the dirt.

"It's on your neck," Tris states.

"I know."

"That's not good, though," she stutters.

"I'm fine," he says.

I bravely look back up at the burn. It's deep red in color, and it's blistering. I can't imagine what it feels like to have that on a neck. It makes me cringe with pain.

I reach my hand and gently touch it. Caleb flinches and quickly leans away from me. "Ouch!"

"Sorry," I say. I don't mean it, of course. If he wants me to help him, then he needs to shape up. "Third degree burn," I state.

"...is that bad?" Tris asks after a lingering silence.

"Third degrees are the worst," I say.

"It doesn't hurt that bad though," Caleb says.

"Yeah, that's because all of your skin cells burned away. You're numb." I tell him.

"How do you know all this?" Tris asks me.

"I'm a dauntless initiate trainer. I needed to get some kind of medical education," I tell her.

"Maybe water would help it," Tris says.

I shake my head. "We had some," I say. "But the Avengers kicked our ass. They took everything."

"Not everything," Tris says. "I still have two guns." She gives me a small Beretta M1934 gun.

"Is that all we have? Just two Berettas?" I ask angrily.

"I guess so," says Tris. We sit in silence for a while, until Tris finally turns to me and says, "We need to find allies."

I let out a short, sarcastic laugh. "Do you hear yourself? We're not getting allies," I say angrily.

"We have nothing. Absolutely nothing. We clearly need them," she says.

"I think your concussion is getting you confused," I say.

"No! Tobias, it's not. I really think we need allies."