Rampant: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Two) ©

Chapter 8

                To say I wasn’t doing well would’ve been the understatement of the century. Without the buffer of alcohol, Randi was forever in my thoughts. And even though I fought to keep her memory at bay, she’d been slowly creeping up on me as the hours passed by.

               Because it was Sunday, one of the few days when the Cage was actually closed, I had absolutely nothing to do the whole morning. Usually, I’d taken to spending all of my free time at the bar. However, due to Banks’s new rule, I found myself completely at a loss. I was lucid, and I didn’t like it. There was nothing to protect me from the raging accusations of my subconscious.

               This is your fault. She died because of you.

               The things that made me remember her cut like pieces of glass. The sound of laughter, the memory of her lips on mine, the net where we’d laid and stared at the stars, my dreams, it was all as painful as the deepest wound.

               It was when darkness had set over the city that I knew I had to get out. I had to do something. Without having any sort of plan, I fled from the compound and out into the brisk night air. I inhaled deeply and craned my head up to gaze at the sky. A few stars were out, shining and glittering, and the moon was but a silver crescent in all the blackness of the universe.

               I felt so insignificant.

               “Sage, where are you going?”

               I turned and was surprised when I saw Dan standing behind me. He was breathing rather heavily, and I deduced that he’d chased after me. I hadn’t even heard him.

               “Nowhere, I just needed some air,” I explained. “Were you following me?”

               “No, I love a good-spirited jog in the middle of the night” he said, attempting to sound like he was joking but without success. “Seriously though, what’s going on? Why the rush to get out?”

                I thought of a hundred lies in the few seconds that elapsed, but as I stared into Dan’s worried eyes I couldn’t get myself to bring any of them to fruition. I was just so sick of lying.

                “I need a distraction,” I admitted, “and if I have to stay in there a second longer, I swear, I will go out of my mind.”

               In the distance I heard the familiar rumble of the train, and then almost instantly an idea popped into my head. Of course, why not? Dan and I had invented it during one of our excursions with Finn and the boys. It was wild, it was reckless, and it was dangerous; I wanted to go train surfing.

               I grinned at Dan, who still seemed confused, and then swiftly turned and began to run towards the approaching train.

               “Hey, what are you doing?” He shouted as he sprinted after me.

               “Having fun, isn’t that what you’re always telling me to do?” I answered as I sped up.

               When the train passed by, I easily grabbed onto one of the handles and pulled myself in. Dan followed a few seconds later, and then gave a genuine laugh when he saw me start to climb up the siding of the car and towards the roof.

               “Dude, train-surfing? Why didn’t you say so sooner!” He crowed, completely on-board with my plan.

               Once we were on and the train began to pick up speed, Dan and I fought to maintain our precarious balance on top of the swaying platform. Up ahead, I could see one of the many turns the car would take, and I braced my feet against the floor to get some purchase on the slick aluminum tiling. The air whipped all around me, making the fabric on my jacket snap, and for an instant I almost felt as if I were once again falling through a hole and into the dauntless compound.