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"Later," I say "Okay?"
He nods I don’t even kno I’ll explain it later I don’t even kno to think straight
But I do kno Erudite will get us to fight
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
I TRY TO get Tobias alone after the rankings are announced, but the crowd of initiates and ratulations pulls him away from me I decide to sneak out of the dormitory after everyone is asleep and find him, but the fear landscape exhausted h, I drift off too
I wake to squeakingfeet It’s too dark for me to see clearly, but asher shoelaces I open , but then I notice that across fro on a shirt Everyone is awake, but everyone is silent
"Christina," I hiss She doesn’t look at rab her shoulder and shake it "Christina!"
She just keeps tying her shoelaces
My stomach squeezes when I see her face Her eyes are open, but blank, and her facialat what she’s doing, herawake And everyone else looks just like her
"Will?" I ask, crossing the room All the initiates fall into a line when they finish dressing They start to file silently out of the dor, but he ritwith him
They are sleepwalkers
I fumble for my shoes I can’t stay here alone I tie my shoes in a hurry, pull on a jacket, and sprint out of the roo my pace to theirs It takes me a few seconds to realize that they s back I e to me
We march toward the Pit, but e reach the entrance, the front of the line turns left Max stands in the hallatching us My heart hammers in my chest and I stare as vacantly as possible ahead ofon the rhythm of my feet I tense as I pass him He’ll notice He’ll notice I’ bad will happen to ht over ht of stairs and travel at the same rhythe cavern Inside it is a crowd of Dauntless
There are rows of tables with mounds of black on them I can’t see what the piles are until I am a foot away from them Guns
Of course Eric said every Dauntless was injected yesterday So now the entire faction is brain-dead, obedient, and trained to kill Perfect soldiers
I pick up a gun and a holster and a belt, copying Will, who is directly in front of me I try toto do, so I end up furitme
Once I’m armed, I follow Will and the other initiates toward the exit
I can’t ar against Abnegation, against my family I would rather die My fear landscape proved that My list of options narrows, and I see the path I ation sector of the city I will save my family And whatever happens after that doesn’t matter A blanket of calm settles over me
The line of initiates passes into a dark hallway I can’t see Will ahead ofhard, and I stu else--a step I straighten, so tenseThey didn’t see that It’s too dark Please let it be too dark
As the staircase turns, light flows into the cavern, until I can finally see Will’s shoulders in front ofanother Dauntless leader Now I knoho the Dauntless leaders are, because they are the only people who are awake
Well, not the only people I ent And if I a about him
I have to find hiroup that stretches as far as I can see with my peripheral vision The train is stopped in front of us, every car open One by one, my fellow initiates climb into the train car in front of us
I can’t turn my head to scan the crowd for Tobias, but I let my eyes skirt to the side The faces on my left are unfamiliar, but I see a tall boy with short hair a few yards to ht not be him, and I can’t make sure, but it’s the best chance I have I don’t kno to get to hiet to him
The car in front of me fills up, and Will turns toward the next one I takewhere he stops, I slip a few feet to the right The people around me are all taller than I a my teeth Too much movement They will catch me Please don’t catch me
A blank-faced Dauntless in the next car offers a hand to the boy in front of me, and he takes it, hisat it, and cli the person who helped me My eyes twitch up, just for a second, to see his face Tobias, as blank-faced as the rest of theent? Tears spark behind my eyes, and I blink them back as I turn away from him
People crowd into the car around me, so we stand in four rows, shoulder-to-shoulder And then soers lace withy I squeeze his hand, and he squeezes back He is awake I was right
I want to look at him, but I force myself to stand still and keep my eyes forward as the train starts to move He moves his thumb in a slow circle over the back of my hand It is meant to comfort me, but it frustrates me instead I need to talk to hioing because the girl in front of me is so tall, so I stare at the back of her head and focus on Tobias’s hand inI’ve been standing there, buttime The train screeches to a stop, and ht before we jump down frolance back at him His dark eyes are insistent as he says, "Run"
"My faain, and jump down from the train car when it’s my turn Tobias walks in front of me I should focus on the back of his head, but the streets I walk now are familiar, and the line of Dauntless I follow fades from my attention I pass the place I went every six months with my mother to pick up new clothes for our faet to school; the strip of sidewalk so cracked Caleb and I played a hopping, juet across it