Divergent UNIVERSITY ✅

chapter 28

Kenzie wakes in the morning and notices that Tris isn't there. At first she doesn't think anything of it; it isn't uncommon for Tris to train with Tori early in the morning. But once Kenzie has showered and goes to the restaurant for breakfast with the team, she is beginning to become concerned. Tris always makes sure she goes to breakfast with Kenzie and when she walks in and sees Tori but doesn't see Tris, panic overcomes her. She runs over to Tori, "Where's Tris?""What do you mean, 'Where's Tris,' isn't she with you?""No, I woke up this morning and she wasn't there. I just thought that she had an early training session with you. It wasn't until I saw you here alone that I realized that there is something wrong.""Oh NO!" Tori exclaims. "Go tell the coaches that Tris is missing. I'll be back."Tori rushes out of the restaurant to where the other agents are. She tells them that Tris is missing. "You, go to the office and look at the security tapes. See if you can find something. You two, start looking around the building. See if you can find any clues to where she was and who might have taken her."They all nod and go follow the instructions given to them.Next Tori makes the call that she has never wanted to make. "Brian, Tris is missing.""What? What do you mean, 'she missing,' I thought you checked on her last night.""I did. When I went to her room, she was awake. I just told her that I was patrolling before I went to bed. After I checked on her, I went to let the coaches know what was happening, and then met with the agents that arrived here. Once I talked to them and they were patrolling, I went to bed.""How long ago did you find out that she was missing?" Brian asked, unable to mask the panic in his voice."Kenzie said when she woke up this morning, Tris wasn't there. But she just figured that we had an early training session. When Kenzie came to the restaurant for breakfast is when I found out. I'm guessing that from the time that Kenzie woke up to when she got to the restaurant, it's been about thirty minutes.""What took you so long to call me?""I sent the agents around to look for clues and to check the video surveillance. I called you immediately after that.""Okay, okay," Brian says trying to calm his panic. "I'm on my way. I'll call and get a flight down there; hopefully I'll be there soon.""What are you going to do about Four?""I'm going to have to tell him and probably bring him with me. I can't let him out of my sight now. Who knows what is going to happen next."Tori rushes to Tris' room to begin to look for clues as to where she might have gone. At some point, she obviously left the room, but where would she have gone? Tori leaves the room and begins to slowly walk down the hall, scanning for anything that might be a clue. When she gets to the end of the hall she finds the vending machine area and immediately knows that this is where Tris was probably going when she left the room.She pushes the door open and scans the room for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing appears to be amiss and Tori is ready to move on when she notices a couple droplets of blood and a small earring laying on the ground. She knows this earring to be Tris' because it is a shamrock. Brian gave them to her for good luck when she was trying out for the Olympics.Tori takes out her phone and calls it in. She requests that a forensic team come in to try to find some kind of clues.She stays in this room, taping it off as a crime scene, until more agents arrive. She searches the room for more signs of struggle, but finds nothing. She knows that something happened to Tris in this room, but it must have rendered her unable to defend herself.~oOo~Brian rushes down to Four's room to let him know what is going on. When he knocks, Zeke answers the door."Have you heard from Tris?" Zeke asks. "Four can't get her on the phone and he is starting to freak out."Brian pushes into the room without a word. Zeke and Four look at him expectantly. Zeke knows by his silence that there is something very wrong."Tris is missing. Kenzie woke up this morning and Tris was gone. I have a flight out to Kentucky in an hour."Four jumps up, "I'm coming with you.""I figured you'd say that. I got two tickets. So pack and be ready to leave in fifteen minutes."They rush out of the hotel and speed toward the airport. They get to the airport just in time to board the plane. They don't really talk much throughout the flight, both of them nervous about what has happened to Tris and where she could be.Three and a half hours later they arrive at the hotel that the softball team is staying at in Lexington.~oOo~Tris wakes up and immediately begins to panic. Her hands are tied behind her back, her feet are tied together, and she has a blindfold on her eyes.She tries to listen for noises or other indications of where she might be or who might have taken her, but she doesn't hear anything other than a humming sound."Hello?" she calls out, trying to keep herself from a full blown panic attack. "Hello? Is anyone there? Where am I?"She stops and listens for voices but hears nothing. She realizes that the room must be large based on the sound of her voice echoing throughout the room. She decided that wherever she is, no one is in the room at the moment.She tries to calm herself to try to think clearly. She knows that she has to try to remain calm so that she can figure out where she is and how she is going to get out of here.~oOo~When Brian and Four find Tori, she is in the vending machine room that appears to be where Tris was abducted."What do we know?" Brian asks."Well surveillance tapes show that Tris walked down to this room at two-thirty-two this morning. She was followed almost immediately by two large figures dressed in black. Based on height and build they were both men. The surveillance in this room show that they approached her from behind grabbed her and hit her over the head knocking her out. They carried her out of the room and to a car in the parking lot. It was a black 2010 to 2012 Ford E-series commercial van. The video has been sent to the forensics unit so that they can attempt to clear the video enough to make out the license plate number.""Which direction did they travel once they left the parking lot?""They pulled out of the parking lot and turned left heading north on Export Street. That takes you to the industrial part of town. There are a lot of warehouses and other large buildings located in that part of town.""Shouldn't we be there looking for her now?" Four asks."Four, we can't just go running into each warehouse looking for her. All that will do is alert her abductors that we are looking for her. If they get scared they can hurt her or kill her. We have agents in that area watching the warehouses for movement," Tori explains."Has anyone called Natalie to let her know what is going on?" Four asks."No, we haven't," Brian says."I'm going to go call her now then," Four says as he turns from the room to walk to a more secluded and private place to talk to Tris' mother."Hello?" Natalie says."Hi Natalie, it's Four.""Hi Four, how are you?""Natalie, I'm calling you because something has happened to Tris.""What?! What happened to Tris?""She was apparently kidnapped this morning about two-thirty from her hotel in Lexington.""Four, please tell me that you are joking. Where is my daughter?""I wish I could tell you that I was joking, I would do anything to be able to say that. But Brian and I just flew here from State College, Pennsylvania to try to help find her."He hears her crying on the other side of the phone. She isn't able to talk when he hears Bud in the background asking her what is wrong. Bud comes onto the phone and begins speaking."Hello? Who is this?""Hi Bud, it's Four. Tris is missing, she's been kidnapped. She was last seen going to the vending machines at the hotel that they are staying at in Lexington.""Where are you?""Brian and I flew down here as soon as he got the call. Tori apparently found out about eight o'clock this morning. But according to the time stamp on the video surveillance she was taken about two-thirty this morning.""Why didn't anyone call sooner?""I guess it's because they wanted to be sure that she was really missing before they alarmed you guys.""Natalie is going to want to fly down there immediately.""Well, if she is as stubborn as Tris there's no stopping her. But I would think that if you can convince her to wait just a little that might be the better choice.""Well, I guess we'll be seeing you soon then because where do you think Tris got that stubbornness from?"Four snickers just a little thinking about Tris and her bullheadedness. That was one of the things that he fell in love with first. That girl knows what she wants and no one is going to convince her that she can't or shouldn't.He hangs up the phone and returns to where he left Brian and Tori to see if anything has happened in the past few minutes. All he can do is pray that Tris will be okay.~oOo~The girls go to their game at the University of Kentucky. This will be the first game in three years that they are without their star short stop. For the first time the backup steps into Tris' position. She knows that she can't screw this up. She has to try to remember everything that Tris has taught her over the past two years and try her best. If they win this game, they will be going to the College Softball World Series in a week.The girls come together at the beginning of the game and decide that they are going to play harder than they ever have to make sure that they win this game for Tris.Even though they are all very worried about their friend, they try to focus on the game and what they have to do to win. They know that without this win, their season is over and everything that they have worked so hard for all season will come to an abrupt end.~oOo~Tris tries to struggle with whatever is binding her arms together behind her back, but she is unable to loosen it. All she can feel happening is that she is rubbing her wrists raw from the struggle. She has managed to wiggle her head around enough to move part of the blindfold off of her eyes so she can see a little bit of her surroundings.She can see that she is in a large, dark room with only a little light from the sun showing through a small window at the other end of the room.Somewhere in the room she hears the sound of a door opening and footsteps crossing the empty room. By the sound of the echo, she can tell that whoever it is must be large and a man."Well, look who woke up," the voice says. "It's about time. We thought we were going to have to dunk you in some cold water to make you come around faster.""Who... who are you? Why am I here?""Your boyfriend is the reason that you are here. He needs to back off and stop what he is doing to Marcus.""But the trial is already over and Four couldn't have stopped what was happening if he wanted to.""Well, if he wants to see you alive again, he's going to find a way to get Marcus out of jail. Otherwise all he's going to find of you is your dead body."Tris suddenly becomes infuriated. She's apparently been kidnapped by idiots. They have to realize that Marcus has been tried and convicted. At this point there is nothing anyone can do until the appeals go through. She shifts her body so that the eye that she managed to free can see where the man is standing. She can see through the gloom that he is about six feet tall with a thin but muscular build. He looks slightly familiar, but she doesn't know why. He paces back and forth around her and her anger and annoyance builds because she knows that he is familiar to her but the more she tries, the harder it is to find the memory of him. She decides that she needs for him to move closer to her in the hopes that she can get a better look."Are you stupid or something? Even if he wanted to help Marcus, he can't. Marcus is beyond help until his appeal."She hears the man approach her quickly. The sting of his hand across her face jars her whole body."I am not stupid. I was told that I needed to help Marcus so I'm helping him."Tris doesn't say another word. She curls into a ball as tears of frustration, pain, and fear stream down her cheeks soaking the blindfold. Her plan has worked though; she remembers who this man is. He's a guy on campus that used to hit on her all of the time. He always came to the softball games and would place bets on the winners. He must have been working with Marcus all along because memories of him at football games also surfaced in her memory. His name? Eric.