Chapter 40:

Tris' Perspective

    I wake up with Tobias slung over my shoulder, and smile. My head is pounding. Probably a food overload hangover. I shrug away from him, and look around to see that Natalie isn't here. I walk into her room. Not there. Maybe the bathroom? I walk into the bathroom. Nope. Upstairs, maybe?

I run down the stairs and open the door. "Natalie!" I shout. No answer. I'm starting to get worried. I run back up stairs, and run into my bedroom. "Natalie, if you're in here please come out this isn't funny!" I say.

I run back into the living room, and Tobias is laying on the couch, his mouth wide open. "Wake up, Natalie is gone!" I shout. He springs up and snorts. "What?" he asks hazily. I run my fingers through my hair and sigh.

    "Natalie's gone! I can't find her anywhere!" I say. His eyes go wide and he stands up. "Where could she have gone?" he says. He looks wide awake now, like he didn't just take a nap.

    "I have no idea, did she sneak off?" I say biting my lip. "I don't think so, she was grounded." he says. "I know, but where the hell could she have gone?!" I shout. "I don't know!" he shouts back.

He winces, and rubs his forehead. "I have a really bad headache, can we not yell?" he says softly. "Fine, but we need to find her. I'll call her." I say. "But the signal." he says.

    "I don't care, I need to find her." I say. I pick up my phone from the coffee table, and dial her phone number. I then hear a small ringing coming from Tobias' pocket. He giggles, and pulls the phone from his pocket. He is super ticklish.

    "Damn it, I took her phone away!" he says. I yell in frustration and wince as my head pounds harder. I hang up the phone and toss it on the couch. "Geez! Why now? When the world is slowly crumbling before me, she has to disappear!" I shout. The both of us wince.

I have no idea where she is, and don't even know if she's okay. Or alive. My eyes burn, and Tobias is standing there holding his forehead, staring at the ground. "Maybe she's trying to turn herself in?" he says.

    "No, we're miles from the Bureau. She'd have to drive to get there." I say. He looks at me with wide eyes, and his mouth drops open. "Or she was taken there." he says. "What?" I snap. "Kidnapped! Maybe they kidnapped her, and brought her there!" he says.

Oh gosh. That is a very accurate theory. "W-we should go. NOW." I say. He nods, and we run straight for the door. I go to open it, but it won't budge. "What...it's locked!" I say. I jerk the handle, and thrash around using all my might to try and rip the handle off, but I know I can't do it.

    "Let me see that." he says, and I move out of the way. He wiggles the handle around, grunting. "It's a timer lock. I can hear the beeping." he says. I press my ear to the door, and hear beeping. "What's a timer lock?" I ask.

    "It's a lock that can be put on any door and it locks itself in a chosen amount of time, so once that that it starts beeping it's locked. And once the beeping stops again...." he says, but stops. "What happens?" I say.

He sighs, and shakes his head. "Tobias, what does it do?" I shout. I don't care at this point that my head is banging against my skull anytime I hear something loud.

     "It doesn't matter right now, all that matters is that we get out of here. Fast." he says backing away from the door. I don't know how we're gonna get out any other way, we are-how many stories underground?

He walks straight into our bedroom. I follow him, almost tripping on the ledge on the door. Gosh, I'm so clumsy......He walks over to the bare floor, and kneels down. "What are you doing?" I say, kneeling next to him.

Just as I say that, he had pulled out his pocket knife and is cutting into the carpet. "Wha-" I start, but he hushes me. He cuts it into the shape of a big square, and tears away the rest. It reveals a large wooden door.

    "When the heck did this get here?" I say pointing to it. He groans and closes one eye, clearly thinking about it. "Uh, when it was being remodeled. I had Zeke come in and help me with it before the builders put the carpet in." he says.

    "Why didn't you tell me?" I say. "I forgot about it, until now." he says, opening the hatch door. It smells very earthy and slightly like mold. He climbs in first, and I follow him down the creaky ladder. "OW!" he yells. 

I realize that I stepped on his hand. "I'm so sorry!" I say. He mumbles something and says, "It's fine we just need to hurry." I look behind me to see where I'm going so I don't step on his fingers again.

I hear his footsteps on concrete, and then feel his fingers wrap around my waist as he sets me down on the ground. "Thanks." I say, and walk beside him down a narrow, concrete tunnel.

It feels eerie down here, and kind of creepy. I stare at the back of his neck where I can see the corner of his tattoo. He is still much taller than me, and not much has changed. I'm still small. 

    "We need to hurry." he says, and starts jogging. I hear my footsteps echo off the walls as they bounce back into my ear, making my head tingle with pain. I can't imagine what they could be doing to Natalie right now. Oh gosh, she's with Marcus. I bite my lip, and try and keep from that tear in my right eye from falling on my cheek.

What could Marcus be doing right now? Tobias' scars on his back push its way into my mind, making me shiver. I might be the only one without scars from Marcus. The thought makes me want to vomit, much like I wanted to earlier.

    "Tobias, when does this tunnel end?" I say. I try and look around him, but again I am too short and this tunnel is too narrow. "I don't know, just keep going." he says. I nod even though he can't see me. I then realize what a terrible 12 year old experience Natalie has had.

Feeling the pressure of knowing hundreds of people want to kill her because she's different, she's been shot, seen me almost dead floating in the top of a tank, was almost drowned in a tank, seen Jeanine hung by a rope outside her window, had more than enough gun barrels pressed to her or aimed at her, had to pay six hundred dollars to save our lives, raped by a boy she just met, waited out in a hospital waiting room not knowing if her parents will survive or not, gone through Nightorn, considered suicide, thought she killed her Dad with her own hands, and has been kidnapped by Tobias' worst nightmare.

And she smiles through the pain.

I am overwhelmed at what she has been through in a period of only two weeks.

I smack into Tobias' back. I blink a couple times remembering why I'm here. He turns around and puts his hands on my shoulders, staring at me. I stare back into his deep blue eyes. "Are you okay?" he says. "Yeah, I was just lost in thought." I say. He lets go of my shoulders, and it leaves a cold presence when he's not touching me. Not in a sexual way, but just plain touching.

Like holding hands, or when he cradles my head. Like that. That is my favorite type of touching from him. He turns around and looks up at another ladder. Where did that come from?

    "Now, I think we'll be a little ways outside the fence considering how long we walked." he says. How long did we walk? I then hear a huge bang and Tobias turns to me, biting his lip. "Or that will happen." he says.

My mouth drops open. The safe house was blown up. By a lock. All of our valuables were in the safe house. There goes Natalie's jewelry. I look at the wedding ring on my hand, and underneath it is a small tattoo that says, TB in a patch of Dauntless flames. Tobias has the same tattoo on his ring finger, he just has a black silver ring over it instead of a diamond with black specks in it.

    "Did Natalie's j-" he starts but I interrupt him by nodding. He sighs loudly, and starts up the ladder.

Alriiiiight! Chapter 40! I never thought I would get this far!!! *Makes a really weird Fangirl noise* I couldn't have done it without my AMAZING readers! You guys have motivated me to keep writing this! Thank you so much, because if it weren't for you, I would not be typing this right now! I am so thankful for you guys!!!! Don't forget to vote and comment! :)