Starting Over

Chapter 53

Ed and I sneak out of the apartment building and onto the street. We start weaving in between buildings as I lead him toward Abnegation. I'm counting on Molly not knowing anything about the layout of Abnegation. I highly doubt she does.

"Keep up with me," I tell Ed as I start to silently run through the streets of Abnegation. I look over my shoulder every now and then to make sure he's still behind me. Every time I look back he's still there. I throw in random turns here and there to make it hard to follow us. There's nobody behind us now but that doesn't mean someone couldn't end up behind us.

"Where are we going?" Ed asks.

"You see, I could be a jerk and tell you that if I wanted you to know then I would have told you, but I won't do that. We're going to the train."

"Why the train?"

"It's faster than running."

"Yes, but it's expected."

"But if they get on the train and are waiting there when we get there... well we know how that goes."

"When will the train even get here?"

"It should be here soon. We need to hurry up. Follow me."

We speed up and continue to run through Abnegation. I know taking the train is a risk because it's predictable but running is slower and that could be even more of a risk. Anything we do at this point is a risk. The trick is figuring out which one is the least dangerous. Right now all I'm focused on is making it back to the Dauntless compound safely.

We finally make it to the train tracks and stop. The train either isn't here yet or already passed. I'm hoping for the former. If the train already passed then we have to wait for the next one and that wastes time. I don't want to have to do that.

"What's the plan?" Ed asks.

"We wait."

We wait for a few minutes before I start to think we missed it. I sit down on the ground to wait. After I've been sitting for a minute I start to hear the train approaching. I sigh in relief and jump up. I really didn't want to have to wait. When the train gets close enough I start running and jump on. Ed is close behind me.

"So," I ask as I sit down, "what do you want with Four?"

He shrugs. "He's a leader and he trains transfer initiates. He might know Molly. He also seems like the type that wouldn't put up with this sort of thing. He's a jerk, but he also seems like he's good at what he does. Taking care of things like this is his job, and he needs to know what's going on."

"He doesn't put up with things like this and he is good at what he does. That's why he's in leadership." We're quiet for a minute before I decide to ask him something. "Why were you working for Molly? You obviously don't like her if you're helping me get away."

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "A job's a job. I have to do what pays the bills sometimes. I don't really know her other than by reputation but I don't agree with her on many things. This is one of those things."

We don't talk for the next little bit as the train rolls on. Eventually we're close to Dauntless and I stand up. I look out the door and there's nobody waiting for us. Ed gets up as well and we get ready to jump. We jump onto the second roof so we don't have to jump off the roof onto the net. This way we just run through the door and head down into the compound. Ed follows me through the halls as we head toward my apartment. Everything is surprisingly quiet for Dauntless but I guess I'm not out at 4 am very often to know what it's like at this time of night.