wounded survivor |Divergent|

chapter 1

Tris POV

I changed the ages a little, Zeke and Four are a year older, and Caleb 2 and a half.

Tris POV

I remember everything about that wretched day. I was thirteen, Caleb was fifteen, and our family was living in New York City. I loved it there, thrived even, but soon I would have to leave. My mom worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department in the North Twin Tower, and my dad was a fireman for the city of New York.

On that day, my mom was going to be home late, so she decided to take Caleb and me to work with her. We were both excited, and we both dressed our best. It was lucky that I wore flats.

After I had finished doing my hair, I walked out of my room and into the entry way of our apartment. I grabbed my black pea coat on over my burgundy shirt and black skirt, because the September chill was already starting to penetrate the air. My father had come back a few hours earlier from a night shift, so I quietly snuck in to his room, kissed his head, and said, "I love you dad." Little did I know that that would be my last "I love you" to him.

I walked back out to where Caleb and my mom were standing.

"Are you ready?" Caleb asked.

I looked up at him, since at the age of fourteen he was a considerable amount taller than me (already 5'11!), as I was 5'3, and answered, "Yup".

I took my mother's hand as we walked down the hall to the elevator. "Will you be missing much today at school?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Nope. In math we are just reviewing the Pythagorean Theorem, and I already know that. And we just finished learning about density in science, so it's just review."

"But you'll study when you get home right?" Mom asked as she pressed the down button outside the elevator.

"Fine." I said. Grades were a big thing in my family.

"Now guys," she said touching Caleb's arm, making him look up from his phone. "You'll be meeting my boss today, Marcus Eaton. I expect you to be on you best behavior."

"When am I not on my best behavior?" Caleb said. I snickered.

"Sure." My mom rolled her eyes as the elevator dinged.

We stepped into the elevator, and I pressed the L button. We shot down the 36 floors that it takes to get to the lobby, and we stepped out of the elevator. My family stepped through the lobby and out the front doors of our building. We walked out of the building and down a block to the subway. Even from here I could see the World Trade Center. We got on the subway, and it dropped us off two blocks from the North Tower. I looked at the time on my phone as we walked. 8:00. I didn't know that disaster would strike in a mere 45 minutes.

We rode the elevator up, and we went into mom's office. Caleb and I each sat down on the couch, as my mom left the office, and I take out the bag we brought of things to do. I took out my favorite book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I opened it to the bookmark at Chapter 5. Just as I start to read, our family friend who also works here, Hannah Pedrad, poked her head through the doorway.

"Hey guys!" She said.

"Hi Hannah," Caleb replied. "How are you?"

"I'm great, how about you?"

"Good, thanks."

"I'm just looking for some files your mom left me." She smiles and moves into the room.

"I think they are over on her filing cabinet." I said. She walked over there and grabbed a file off the cabinet.

"Have you had breakfast?" She asked. We answered no. "The best vending machine is three stories down. I'll take you."

"Thanks." I said. This would be the thing that saved us.

We walked out as my mom walked in. "We're going down to the vending machine. Love you."

"Love you too." She said. We walked to the elevator, and it took us down three floors. Just out of the elevator was the vending machine. Hannah took out her wallet, and then, we heard it. A huge explosion, seemingly floors above us. It took me a second to register what had happened, but Hannah jumped directly into action. She grabbed my wrist and we ran. Most of that was a blur, but I remember my legs burning, and many flights of stairs. We were surrounded by people, and screaming, and smoke. I remember yelling for my mom. Once we left the building, Hannah yelled for us to go, and to run back to her apartment. She turned back to the tower. I yelled, and cried, trying to go back to her, but Caleb held me back. We ran as fast as we could, and the smoke was so strong that I had to pull my shirt over my mouth to breathe.

When we got far enough away, Caleb clutched me to his chest. The South tower was burning. I sobbed into Caleb's test, and he cried into my hair.

"Mommy." I whispered. We wouldn't know until many hours later that both my parents died that day. Both saving people. Selfless until their final breath. We made it to Hannah's apartment, alone since her sons were at school and her husband was a pilot who was flying to Colorado that day. I will never, as much as I want to, forget that day.

A little girl grew up that day, too fast. She watched thousands of innocent people be slaughtered that day. She saw the buildings collapse that day, she and her brother, alone, stranded in this huge world, parentless, with a hopelessly poor sense of what to do next. The girl decided though, that she would live a life for those people. She was reborn from the ashes of her life, burning with a new fire. That girl was me.

Tris Prior.