Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or Divergent...frowny-face :(
"I love him because he's wonderful, because he's just my Will."~Showboat
Christina feels it instantly; a sudden pang inside her head as if she's quickly woken up from some violent dream.
"Ow." she moans almost inaudibly, grasping her head and straining her eyes to try and see beyond the reddish haze in front of her.
"W-what happened?" the girl next to her groans.
Christina looks around, trying to make sense of her surroundings. "I don't know." She doesn't remember why she's here.
Chrstina doesn't know she's a murderer.
"Will?" she calls weakly. The haze is thick and it's getting to her lungs. The smell is almost unbearable and her clothes…
She scans the crowd in front of her. Everyone looks identical. The are all donned in the same black clothing. With the same heavy black gun attached to their arm.
When Christina picks up her own weapon she realizes, with nothing short of pure terror, that she is almost out of bullets.
"Will?" she calls out louder this time. "Tris?"
They were right next to her. She knew it, it was the last thing she was conscious of; climbing in bed with Will and Tris in the beds on her left and right. She fell asleep with her heart filled with happiness and joy and relief.
And she woke up here.
"Excuse me sir?" she turns to the man behind her. He is old enough to be her father, a tattoo of a snake coils around his neck. His muscular hands have wrapped themselves around the barrel of his gun, and he looks if he's trying to snap it in half. He's shaking; he's scared too. "Do you know what happened?"
The man looks Christina square in the eyes. "No. I'm sorry."
She turns away from him. "Will?" she calls out again. She notices that it's getting harder to hear.
People are screaming and crying. The crowd is dispersing. Along with the haze and the smell, Christina feels like she's in a war zone.
"Will? Tris!" she calls more desperately. They should beright next to her. They should be here.
Her heart is beating faster and faster. All she knows is that she needs to get out.
So she runs.
"Will!" it's almost a plea by now. He was standing by her side the whole time, he has to be here somewhere.
As Christina runs further ahead, the screaming becomes almost unbearable. She notices, for the first time, all the blood on the walls.
And through the haze and the blood and the screaming, the realization comes to her that it's not like a war zone, it is a war zone.
"Tori!" Christina throws herself to the ground where a familiar figure is huddled against the wall, crying hysterically and bleeding all over the grey concrete sidewalk. "Tori, what happened?"
Tori looks up at her. Her face soaked with tears and caked with dirt. A pool of blood is forming from the drops oozing down her left arm. She is hardly recognizable as Tori anymore. "E-erudite! They d-did it!"
But, Christina doesn't understand. "Did what Tori? Did they do all this?"
Tori nods.
"How? They don't even have weapons!" Christina coughs.
Tori says nothing. Without ever taking her eyes off Christina's, she takes the gun attached to Christina's chest and holds it between them.
Her heart stops. Christina takes the blood-soaked shiny black gun with only a few bullets left, and she knows. "We did it."
"M-mind control." Tori stammers. "That was w-what the serum was f-for."
Christina bites her lip. It's all she can do to keep from screaming. "Where are we?"
"A-abnegation." it's all Tori can manage.
And, it all makes sense. "We killed Abnegation. Erudite made us kill Abnegation." and she quickly laughs because for a second, all she can think about is how happy she is that Candor is not involved.
"W-where's Tris?" Tori whispers.
She snaps back into reality and she remembers her friend who was right next to her, who was carrying a gun, who marched in here, who gunned-down half the people in her own faction.
"I'm going to go find her and Will. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Tori nods before shutting her eyes and laying her head against the solid wall behind her.
Christina is up on her feet again and jogging toward the center of town. She tries as hard as she can to avert her eyes from the red and grey bodies lying in piles on the ground. But, there are just so many.
"Will! Tris!" she yells. But, the noise is even worse in the square. People are confused. As they should be. "Will!"
Christina glances around. Those few Dauntless who aren't in complete hysterics are beginning to line up bodies in the middle of the street. Grey, black, and red lay together side by side in what Christina thinks to be the saddest color palate she has ever seen.
"William!" she's becoming more desperate by each passing second as more and more black-clothed bodies are being laid on the street. "Tris! Where are you?"
The haze is getting thicker, the noise is getting louder, and Christina is terrified.
"Please, Will, please. Where are you?" she whispers. She can feel tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Will."
Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes pass and still, nothing. Christina is in full-on panic mode now. Her voice is almost nonexistent, her legs are trembling, her cheeks and eyes are soaked with tears and still, she can't find him. Will would never have left her side. She knows him too well. He would've stayed right beside her the whole time. He had to, she needs him too much.
"Will! Please, where are you?" it's not a whisper anymore.
"Excuse, me?" a hand touches her left shoulder and she spins around to face a boy who can't be much older than herself. He's Dauntless too, his black blood-stained clothes say it all. "The Dauntless heads are trying to gather up a list of the dead, the living, the hurt and the missing, everyone must be accounted for. What's your name?"
Christina wipes her eyes and tries her hardest to keep her voice steady. "C-Christina Fells."
The Dauntless boy takes out a piece of paper and begins to write her name down. "Are you Dauntless-born?" he asks.
She shakes her head. "N-no. I'm Candor-born."
He continues to write. "Do you know anyone who's missing?"
"Yes!" she says almost too excitedly. "Tris Prior and Will Cade."
"Are they Dauntless born?"
Christina shakes her head again. "No, Tris is Abnegation-born and Will is Erudite-born."
The Dauntless boy stops writing for a moment. "Erudite-born, did you say? Can you describe this boy.
Relief spreads itself through her entire body. She's never been so hopeful. "Yes, he had dirty-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and he's probably about three or so inches taller than me. Have you seen him?"
"Yes. Come with me." he turns without looking in her eyes and leads her toward the square.
Christina is happy, she is ecstatic. She was so worried, got so worked up for nothing. Will was probably so busy looking for her that he didn't realize she was looking for him as well. "Thank you so, so much! I was so worried about him! Is he okay? He's probably all cut up." she rambles, her Candor side is getting the best of her.
But the Dauntless boy doesn't turn around, he doesn't answer her, he just keeps walking, leading her into a nearly empty alley-way with a single door, a single Dauntless body, and a lot of blood.
The Dauntless boy stops at the entrance to the alley. "Is this Will Cade?" he asks.
Christina has no idea who he's talking about until she sees his hand holding up a mutilated body.
Now, Christina isn't really one to believe in miracles. But, as she bends down and takes in this wounded boy's sweet face, his dirty blonde hair, she can't help but hope beyond hope that by some sort of…of…miracle. That this broken boy, isn't her's.
But then again, she isn't really one to believe in miracles.
"Will? William?" she takes the boy's hand. It's just as soft a she remembers. Only now, it's so much colder. Tears slip from her eyes onto his pale face as she leans over him. "Will, please."
She touches the lone bullet mark on his chest. The blood has soaked through his shirt and she can't help but wonder if he was in pain in his last moments. If he was scared, if he needed a hand to hold. She could've been there. She should've been there. Then maybe they would be in opposite positions and it would be him who was being asked to identify her stone-cold body.
She would've preferred it that way.
He would've been strong. And she knew if he was here right now, he would be telling her to be strong; that it was okay. But the funny thing was, Christina thought, was that it was completely not okay.
Her tears come faster and faster, falling every few seconds on his unmoving face. Her hand holds harder onto his; she's so afraid to let go. She lets her head fall onto his cheek and she does the only thing she can do at this point; sob.
"Will." she cries his name over and over. "Why did you leave? What happened to you?" These; the questions she will never have answers to. And, she continues to cry.
"Miss?" the Dauntless boy touches her shoulder. Christina can tell that he feels as if he shouldn't be here right now, as if he shouldn't be intruding on this private moment. "Is this the body of Will Cade?"
It takes all her strength to stop sobbing. "Yes," she whispers to her broken-boy, "this is my Will."