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I help her guide the end of the ladder through the classroos Marcus helps us steady it Fernando whoops when the ladder hits the Eruditeacross the alley

"Tilass," I say

Fernando takes the glass-breaking device from his pocket and offers it to me "You probably have the best aiht arm is out of commission I’d have to throith my left"

"I’ll do it," says Christina

She presses the button on the side of the device and tosses it across the alley, underhand I clench my hands as I wait for it to land It bounces onto the sill and rolls into the glass An orange light flashes, and all at once the --and the s above, below, and next to it--shatters into hundreds of tiny pebbles that shower over the Candor below

At the same time, the Candor twist and fire up into the sky Everyone else drops to the ground, but I stay onat the perfect synchronicity of it, and the other part disgusted at how Jeanine Matthews has turned yet another faction fros into parts of a machine None of the bullets even hit the classroom s, let alone penetrate the room

When the Candor do not fire another round, I peer down at the Madison Avenue and half facing Washington Street

"They respond to movement only, sodon’t fall off the ladder," I say "Whoever goes first will secure the ladder on the other side"

I notice that Marcus, who is supposed to selflessly offer himself up for every task, does not volunteer

"Not feeling very Stiff today, Marcus?" says Christina

"If I were you, I would be careful who you insult," he says "I a for"

"Is that a threat?"

"I’ll go," I say, before Marcus can answer "I’ht?"

I shove the stunner under the waistband of le on theChristina holds the ladder from the side as I clamber on top of it and start forward

Once I’es of the ladder and s The ladder feels about as solid and stable as an aluht I try not to look down at the Candor; try not to think about their guns lifting and firing atquick breaths, I stare at s left

A breeze blows through the alley, pushingthe Ferris wheel with Tobias He kept me steady then There is no one left to keep round, three stories down, the bricks smaller than they should be, the lines of Candor Jeanine enslaved My arht arap

The ladder shifts, e of thefra one side steady, but she can’t keep the ladder frorit my teeth and try not to s at the same time I have to let the ladder sway a little Just four o

The ladder jerks to the left, and then, as I

I yell asaround the ladder andin space

"Are you okay?" Christina calls fro up and wedge it beneath my body My fall made the ladder slip even farther off the sill It is now supported by just a millimeter of concrete

I decide to move fast I lurch toward the opposite sill just as the ladder slips off My hands catch the sill and concrete scrapes ht Several voices behind ritwith pain I kick at the brick building, hoping it will give me traction, but it doesn’t help I scream into my teeth as I pull myself up and over the sill, halfThankfully Christina didn’t let the ladder drop too far None of the Candor shoot me

I pull myself into the Erudite room across the alley It is a bathroom I collapse to the floor on h the pain Sweat trickles down my forehead

An Erudite woman comes out of a stall, and I scramble to my feet, draw the stunner, and point it at her, all without thinking

She freezes, her arms up, toilet paper stuck to her shoe

"Don’t shoot!" Her eyes bulge from her head

I remember, then, that I ae of a sink

"My apologies," I say I try to adopt the fory, with everything that’s occurring We are reentering in order to retrieve some of our test results fromLaboratory 4-A"

"Oh," the woman says "That seems rather unwise"

"The data is of the utant as soet riddled with bullets"

"It’s hardlyto recover it," she says "Now if you’ll excuseto wash ood," I say I decide not to tell her she has toilet paper on her shoe

I turn back to theAcross the alley, Christina and Fernando are trying to lift the ladder back onto the sill Though rab the other end of the ladder, lifting it back onto the sill Then I hold it in place as Christina crawls across

This time the ladder is ap without trouble She takesit as I shove the trash can in front of the door so no one else can coers under cool water to soothe them

"This is pretty smart, Tris," she says

"You don’t have to sound so surprised"

"It’s just" She pauses "You had aptitude for Erudite, didn’t you?"

"Does it matter?" I say too sharply "The factions are destroyed, and it was all stupid to begin with"

I have never said anything like that before I have never even thought it But I’m surprised to find that I believe it--surprised to find that I agree with Tobias

"I wasn’t trying to insult you," says Christina "Having aptitude for Erudite isn’t a bad thing Especially right now"

"Sorry I’m justtense That’s all"

Marcus coh theand drops to the tile floor Cara is surprisingly ni banjo strings, touching each one only briefly before she moves to the next one

Fernando will be last, and he will be in the same position I was in, with the ladder secured from only one side I move closer to theso I can tell him to stop if I see the ladder slip

Fernando, who I didn’t think would have trouble, moves more aardly than anyone else He has probably spent his entire life behind a coht red, and holds the rungs so tightly that his hands turn blotchy and purple

Halfway across the alley, I see so slip out of his pocket It is his spectacles

I scream, "Fernan--"

But I ae of the ladder, and topple to the pavement