Chasing Dauntless (A Divergent OC Fanfic in Dauntless)

Chapter Eight

We climbed up to the top of the water tower. I walked around on the small circular platform ringing the tall, thick tube supporting the massive bulb that held all of our water. "Pretty good view," I said, leaning over the railing. I glanced over at Chase. He had just pulled himself up onto the platform. He looked around for a moment, then grinned. "It could be better," he said. He gestured with his head to the water capsule. I smiled too, realizing what he meant. There were pegs in the otherwise-smooth, rounded cylinder of a water bulb, leading to the very, very top. Chase darted over and instantly started climbing. I ran over and started climbing, too. I'd always been a fast climbed, and quickly caught up to Chase. "Damn, girl," he said when I reached him. He smiled at me, but didn't move. I bent down and went up through his arm. "Thanks," I said, and climbed through. Chase had sort of zoned out, and pulled away his arm a little late, but not before my ass had brushed it.

I reached the top of the water tower, and crawled to the middle. Seconds later, Chase joined me.

The top of the water tower was small: probably only about twelve feet in diameter. It was slightly raised in the middle. I crept over, and slowly stood. I felt Chase crawl over behind me.

I slowly stood up.

I was at one of the highest points in the city, completely exposed. I had a complete view of everything around me, except for anything below. Anybody could shoot me now.

Chase started to stand too, but lost his balance. He roughly grabbed my arms. "Shit, Chase," I hissed, then giggled. Chase rose, and smiled. Chase let go of me with the hand closest to me, but not the other. I shifted my arm, and Chase's hand went to my waist. We looked at the towering, moonlit city before us.

After some silent staring at the playing grounds for our game, I took a step forward. Chase let go of me, tingles staying on my waist where his hand was. I shoved away the confused "what the fuck" thoughts and saved them for later. I decided to keep my head in the game. I squinted, then pointed. "Chase, look!" In the ferris wheel, almost completely across the boundaries, in the very top, still compartment, was a soft red glow. It disappeared for a moment, then returned. I realized somebody was crouched in there with it. "The ferris wheel," Chase murmured. I could feel warmth radiating off of him. "Dammit!" he hissed. "Why the hell didn't I think of that?" I smiled, and gave him a small shove. "Maybe because you're an idiot?" I joked. Chase grinned, and pushed my hands away. "Compared to you, yeah." I smiled and glanced at my feet, unsure of where to look.

I was surprised by the sudden compliment.

There were several stretched seconds of silence.

"Let's go get it," Chase finally said. I nodded, agreeing, my voice still lost. "We should gather up some teammates." I nodded again.

Chase and I had gathered the entire team in the tunnel. I had found my voice, and was commanding everybody. We had stationed a few people as defense, but most of us would be on the attack. A few sharp shooters would hide and be snipers. We would split into several groups and attack from several sides. Chase and I and a couple of other people would climb up the ferris wheel to get the flag while other people distracted most of the the other team. "Are we ready?" Chase whispered in the huddle. We all were leaning in, arms resting on each other. I was next to Hannah and Chase. "Snipers, go!" Chase whisper-shouted. The snipers raced off to their positions. The rest of us waited a minute, then we ran.

We all sprinted to the ferris wheel. Small groups of people slowly broke off for their predetermined roles. When we heard them yell loudly and obviously, "Get up, man! We're almost there!" we knew the red team was going for them. Chase and I headed for one side of the ferris wheel, the other two with us went for the other side. I jumped onto the ladder and scrambled up it as fast as I could. The others climbed up a little bit, but hid in the lower cars. Chase and I climbed as fast as we could for the top part. "Jess, keep going!" Chase yelled. I felt him stop and heard him shoot some people below us. Then he caught up to me.

We finally reached the top part. Chase and I pulled out our guns, and went to the top part. A boy was huddled in there. He looked up at us and raised his gun, but there were already two fresh paint marks on the front of his vest: one from me, one from Chase. "Damn it," he said. Chase clambered over, shoved him aside, and grabbed the flag. The boy watched helplessly as Chase stuffed the flag into his shirt. "Guys!" he called down, but nobody could hear him. Chase and I exchanged smirks and quickly climbed down.

"We need to get it back to our base," I hissed to Chase as we climbed down. He groaned. "Ugh, that means going back in the tunnel." "You have to come, Chase," I protested. "I know, I know. I wasn't planning on skipping." From his tone of voice, I knew he was smiling smugly. "We're Dauntless." I gave a triumphant laugh, but kept it quiet. "Hell yeah we are."

Chase and I got down, and ran behind the ferris wheel, where we crouched, still, our guns up and ready. We shot down several red team members before running out.

We stayed close to buildings and stayed low on our way to the tunnel.

Chase and I briefly split up to go around a small building, for safety, and to lose anybody who may be tailing us. I heard a guy's voice, and crept over and looked over.

Duncan was standing, his back to me, his gun pointed at Chase. He was pointing his gun at Chase. Chase was pointing his gun at Duncan, too, but looked slightly worried. Duncan sounded arrogant and confident, but he clearly didn't know that Chase had the flag. I knew Chase saw me around the corner, but he didn't look. That would be a dead giveaway.

As I watched, Duncan raised his gun up to his eye, unnecessary for being so close to Chase. I knew he was sneering at Chase and about to shoot him. Chase still pointed his gun at Duncan, but I knew Duncan would shoot first. I whipped out my gun, smiled slightly at Chase, then shot Duncan in the back of the knee. He went down. Chase shot less than a second after I did. When Duncan yelped breathlessly in pain, I knew Chase had gotten him just below the ribs, in the middle, knocking the wind out of him. "Guys!" Duncan tried to yell, but his voice was hoarse and absent. He glared at Chase, then spun around to me. He glared fiercely at me, not seeming to remember that it was a game. I waggled my fingers in a sarcastic wave and smirked at Duncan, then darted away.

Chase and I found each other again. "Thanks," Chase murmured. I grinned. "Anytime," I replied. "By the way, that was a strategic move: back of the knee. Brought him right down," he said. I gave a soft laugh. "It went perfectly with your shot. That was genius, knocking the wind out of him so he couldn't yell." Chase beamed, his tousled hair shining in the moonlight. "Thanks."

We were more careful, checking around corners carefully. Finally we reached the mouth of the tunnel. Chase barely paused before running in.

I grabbed his arm happily as we raced down the tunnel gleefully.

As we ran, Chase fumbled around and grabbed the flag. He held it out to me. "Take it," he said. I shook my head. "Take it," he urged again. I finally grabbed it so we could run faster again. "Why?" "It was all your ideas that got us the flag." I smiled softly. "Thanks."

We reached our flag, where it waited with the defense that had stayed. Chase and I slowed to a stop. I walked over and touched the red flag to our blue one. Cheers rang through the tunnel. Chase grabbed the red flag with one hand and my forearm with the other. He rushed us outside, where we clambered up the side of the tunnel. When he reached the top, he held down his hand for me. I grabbed it, and he hoisted me up.

I suddenly remembered when Chase had pulled me onto the train, right after initiation.

Both of us on top of the tunnel, Chase raised his hands, clutching the red flag. "Whoo!" he yelled, his voice ringing out over the playing field. "Whoo hooo! Yeah!"

Other team members joined us. "We won! We won!" We won!"