The Unlucky Ones

[33] - Dead

[Tobias]

Al. Al. Al.

Why do all dead people become heroes in Dauntless? Why do we need them to? Maybe they're the only ones we can find in a faction of corrupt leaders, competitive peers, and cynical instructors. Dead people can be our heroes because they can't disappoint us later; they only improve over time, as we forget more and more about them. Al was unsure and sensitive, and then jealous and violent, and then gone. Softer men than Al have lived and harder men than Al have died and there's no explanation for any of it. But Tris wants one, craves one, I can see it in her face, a kind of hunger. Or anger. Or both. I can't imagine it's easy to like someone, hate them, and then lose them before any of those feelings are resolved. I follow her away from the chanting Dauntless because I'm arrogant enough to believe I can make her feel better. Right. Sure. Or maybe I follow her because I'm tired of being so removed from everyone, and I'm no longer sure it's the best way to be.

" Tris, " I say.

She spins around, eyeing me.

" What are you doing here? " She asks. " Shouldn't you be paying your respects? "

She sounds bitter, angry that he's dead. Angry that Al got away with his attack and is now being seen as not a coward but a hero, one of the bravest of Dauntless.

" Shouldn't you? " I ask.

I move toward her.

" Can't pay respect when you don't have any. " She says.

I'm surprised, for a moment, that she can manage to be so cold--Tris isn't always nice, but she's rarely cavalier about anything. It only takes her a second to shake her head.

" I didn't mean that. " She says, quietly.

I nod.

" Ah. " I reply bluntly.

She shakes her head.

" This is ridiculous, " She says, flushing. " He throws himself off a ledge and Eric's calling it brave? Eric, who tried to have you throw knives at Al's head? He wasn't brave! He was depressed and a coward and he almost killed me! Is that the kind of thing we respect here? "

I shake my head.

" What do you want them to do? " I say as gently as I can--which isn't saying much. " Condemn him? Al's already dead. He can't hear it, and it's too late. "

She sighs.

" It's not about Al, " She says. " It's about everyone watching! Everyone who now sees hurling themselves into the chasm as a viable option. I mean, why not do it if everyone calls you a hero afterward? Why not do it if everyone will remember your name? "

But of course, it is about Al, and she knows that.

" It's... " She's struggling, fighting with herself. " I can't... This would never have happened in Abnegation! None of it! Never. This place warped him and ruined him, and I don't care if saying that makes me a Stiff, I don't care, I don't care! "

My paranoia is so deeply ingrained, I look automatically at the camera buried in the wall above the drinking fountain, disguised by the blue lamp fixed there. The people in the control room can see us, and if we're unlucky, they could choose this moment to hear us, too. I can see it now. Eric calling Tris a faction traitor, Tris's body on the pavement near the railroad tracks...

" Careful, Tris, " I say.

She frowns, twisting her mouth sharply.

" Is that all you can say? That I should be careful? That's it? " She asks.

I understand that my response wasn't exactly what she was expecting, but for someone who just railed against Dauntless recklessness, she's definitely acting like one of them.

" You're as bad as the Candor, you know that? " I say.

The Candor are always running their mouths, never thinking about the consequences. I pull her away from the drinking fountain, and then I'm close to her face and I can see her dead eyes floating in the water of the underground river and I can't stand it, not when she was just attacked and who knows what would have happened if I hadn't heard her scream.

" I'm not going to say this again, so listen carefully. " I put my hands on her shoulders. " They are watching you. You, in particular. "

I remember Eric's eyes on her after the knife throwing. His questions about her deleted simulation data. I claimed water damage. He thought it was interesting that the water damage occurred not five minutes after Tris's simulation ended. Interesting.

" Let go of me, " She says.

I do, immediately. I don't like hearing her voice that way.

" Are they watching you, too? " She asks.

Always have been, always will be.

" I keep trying to help you, but you keep refusing to be helped. " I say.

She scoffs.

" Oh, right. Your help, " She says. " Stabbing my ear with a knife and taunting me and yelling at me more than you yell at anyone else, it sure is helpful. "

I cock an eyebrow.

" Taunting you? You mean when I threw the knives? I wasn't taunting you!" I shake my head. " I was reminding you that if you failed, someone else would have to take your place. "

To me, at the time, it almost seemed obvious. I thought, since she seemed to understand me better than most people, she might understand that, too. But of course, she didn't. She's not a mind reader.

" Why? " She asks.

I swallow.

" Because... You're from Abnegation. " I say. " And... it's when you're acting selflessly that you are at your bravest. And if I were you, I would do a better job of pretending that selfless impulse is going away, because if the wrong people discover it... well, it won't be good for you. "

She cocks an eyebrow.

" Why? Why do they care about my intentions? " She asks.

I shake my head.

" Intentions are the only thing they care about. They try to make you think they care about what you do, but they don't. They don't want you to act a certain way, they want you to think a certain way. So you're easy to understand. So you won't pose a threat to them. " I say.

I put my hand on the wall near her face and lean into it, thinking of the tattoos forming a line on my back. It wasn't getting the tattoos that made me a faction traitor. It was what they meant to me--an escape from the narrow thinking of any one faction, the thinking that slices away at all the different parts of me, paring me down to just one version of myself.

" I don't understand why they care what I think, as long as I'm acting how they want me to. " She says.