Page 54 of The Sixth Fraction

On Visiting Day, families—even families of different factions—can reunite and spend time together. The Pit is full of fathers hugging their daughters, and mothers embracing their sons, and siblings joking around with each other, and grandparents hiking up the steep path to the building above.

In other words: It’s a nightmare.

I’m happy to get away from it all, even if it’s only for an hour or so. I set out for a run right after sunrise, then board the train that’s heading west, toward the Amity compound.

There’s never been much reason for me to go to Amity. Every quarter I have to go to the wall that surrounds our city to make sure the signal repeaters—which extend the reach of the Dauntless computer so we can project simulations outside the city’s boundaries—are up and running. But beyond that, the Amity greenhouses, shining in the sun, the neat rows of corn and wheat and soybeans, the herds of cud-chewing cows . . . they’re something I saw up close just once, as a child. I remember them like a dream.

But I’m not going all the way there. I get off the train at the last stop before Amity, a lonely outpost overlooking an abandoned street. Trees have outgrown their boundaries here, their roots swelling beneath the broken sidewalk. Vines shroud the walls of crumbled buildings. Not even the factionless can live here.

Evelyn is standing at the railing, looking down at the pond below us. If I had to guess, I’d say a fire hydrant malfunctioned here, but now it’s a whole ecosystem. Algae floats on the water’s surface. Frogs hop along the bank.

Evelyn’s dressed like a Dauntless today, all in black, her thick hair in a braid. She straightens up when she sees me.

“It’s Visiting Day,” she says, with the barest hint of a smile. Her eyes stay sad, though.

I hate when people look at me like that.

“Yeah,” I say. “Makes it easier to leave without anyone noticing.”

“Right.” She looks away. “Tris told me you two had an interesting conversation.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I made my feelings about becoming factionless pretty clear, so you can stop sending your lackeys to talk me into defecting.”

Evelyn frowns. “She wasn’t a ‘lackey.’ I thought you’d have some things in common with her, that’s all.”

“No, you thought she’d make a good tool.”

“I know you’re angry with me—”

I snort. “ ‘Angry’?”

“—but I’ve never given you a reason to believe I’m some kind of manipulative mastermind.”

“You’ve given me reason to believe you’re a liar,” I say.

She flinches like the word was a punch, and I almost—almost—feel bad about it. But I also meant it.

She turns toward the pond, bracing her elbows on the railing. She’s wearing her mask again, blank and controlled.

“So did you just invite me here to berate me?” she says. “Because if so, I have other things I would rather be doing.”

“No.” I turn so we’re both facing the same direction—out, not looking at each other. There’s a rabbit hopping next to the pond. As I watch, it chews a blade of grass, its nose twitching.

“I wanted to give you a chance to be honest with me, actually,” I say. “You must have some purpose in pursuing me. So you can either tell me what it is . . . or leave me alone. For good, this time.”

“A big change is coming, and when it does, you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side, with the wrong people around you.”

“Well, the ‘right’ people were chanting ‘Death to factions’ at the Choosing Ceremony,” I say. “That’s the change you’re talking about, isn’t it? As far as I can tell, the factions are still in charge of everything.”

I’m not looking at her, but I can feel the energy moving through her like electricity through a wire. With Evelyn there’s always a little too much going on beneath the surface. Like her body can’t quite contain it all.

She says, “It’s not a distant dream. It’s imminent.”

“And you think I should be enthusiastic about turning my back on my entire life in favor of this imminent dream?” I say. “The same one that got an innocent boy killed?”

“That was unfortunate. But it only happened because a sentry shot first.”

“Sentries are my people, you know,” I say. “I’ve got a Dauntless name and a Dauntless job and a whole Dauntless life. I’m not just going to leave it because of a vague pronouncement from you.”