"It used to be the Erudite initiate dormitory," Uriah says. "I reserved beds for Christina and Cara already."
Sitting on a bed near the door are three girls in red shirts—Amity girls, I would guess—and on the left side of the room, an older woman lies on one of the beds, her spectacles dangling from one ear—possibly one of the Erudite. I know I should try to stop putting people in factions when I see them, but it's an old habit, hard to break.
Uriah falls on one of the beds in the back corner. I sit on the one next to his, glad to be free and at rest, finally.
"Zeke says it sometimes takes a little while for the factionless to process exonerations, so they should be out later," Uriah says.
For a moment I feel relieved that everyone I care about will be out of prison by tonight. But then I remember that Caleb is still there, because he was a well-known lackey of Jeanine Matthews, and the factionless will never exonerate him. But just how far they will go to destroy the mark Jeanine Matthews left on this city, I don't know.
I don't care , I think. But even as I think it, I know it's a lie. He's still my brother.
"Good," I say. "Thanks, Uriah."
He nods, and leans his head against the wall to prop it up.
"How are you?" I say. "I mean . . . Lynn . . ."
Uriah had been friends with Lynn and Marlene as long as I'd known them, and now both of them are dead. I feel like I might be able to understand—after all, I've lost two friends too, Al to the pressures of initiation and Will to the attack simulation and my own hasty actions. But I don't want to pretend that our suffering is the same. For one thing, Uriah knew his friends better than I did.
"I don't want to talk about it." Uriah shakes his head. "Or think about it. I just want to keep moving."
"Okay. I understand. Just . . . let me know if you need . . ."
"Yeah." He smiles at me and gets up. "You're okay here, right? I told my mom I'd visit tonight, so I have to go soon. Oh —almost forgot to tell you—Four said
he wants to meet you later."
I pull up straighter. "Really? When? Where?"
"A little after ten, at Millennium Park. On the lawn." He smirks. "Don't get too excited, your head will explode."
CHAPTER FOUR
TOBIAS
MY MOTHER ALWAYS sits on the edges of things—chairs, ledges, tables—as if she suspects she will have to flee in an instant. This time it's Jeanine's old desk in Erudite headquarters that she sits on the edge of, her toes balanced on the floor and the cloudy light of the city glowing behind her. She is a woman of muscle twisted around bone.
"I think we have to talk about your loyalty," she says, but she doesn't sound like she's accusing me of something, she just sounds tired. For a moment she seems so worn that I feel like I can see right through her, but then she straightens, and the feeling is gone.
"Ultimately, it was you who helped Tris and got that video released," she says. "No one else knows that, but I know it."
"Listen." I lean forward to prop my elbows on my knees. "I didn't know what was in that file. I trusted Tris's judgment more than my own. That's all that happened."
I thought telling Evelyn that I broke up with Tris would make it easier for my mother to trust me, and I was right—she has been warmer, more open, ever since I told that lie.
"And now that you've seen the footage?" Evelyn says. "What do you think now? Do you think we should leave the city?"
I know what she wants me to say— that I see no reason to join the outside world—but I'm not a good liar, so instead I select a part of the truth.
"I'm afraid of it," I say. "I'm not sure it's smart to leave the city knowing the dangers that might be out there."
She considers me for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek. I learned that habit from her—I used to chew my skin raw as I waited for my father to come home, unsure which version of him I would encounter, the one the Abnegation trusted and revered, or the one whose hands struck me.