Divergent Parody: Avirgent (11 page)

He blew a kiss to me, and the other girls in the room. “Alright guys. I'll be back. I'm going to get ready.”

“Where are you going? The bathroom's are right behind us.”

“Yeah, but I gotta scope that blindspot once more, and check for any guards. I didn't see them today, but they probably come out at night. All the freaks do.”

 “Like our friend Limp?”

He snapped his fingers  “Exactly like our friend Limp.”

Lisa got up from her seat, the chair scraping. “Anything you want me to do?”

“Nah, you just sit there. Hailey needs to company. She starts sniffing her ass when she's alone...and it's not a pretty sight.”

Hailey smiled bright. “I love sniffing my ass at random times.”

 Al slicked his hair back further and cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentleman...Elvis, is leaving the building!” He played air-guitar, and shuffled out of the room, making us laugh.

 He stopped just right in the room's entrance, his hand on the doorknob. “Elvis, has left the building.”

“For good.”
BANG!
It was loud enough to wake Christine. She jumped up and screamed with us, as Al's blood and brains fell to the floor along with him.

Standing over him was TB4 grasping a gun, with Al's blood splattered all over his face. TB4 stared at me straight in the face and said, “Let's go for a ride. Now.”

 
CHAPTER 7: THE FREAKS COME OUT AT NIGHT

“Get in the car.”

I stood there in the night, the wind brushing my hair in my face, paralyzed.

“I said get in the fucking car now!” He held the gun up to my head and he was no longer the handsome man I swore I fell in love with. He was the psycho douche Al...poor Al warned me about.

TB4 grabbed my elbow, and shoved me into his grotesquely expensive Chevrolet.

“Raaaargh!” He screamed loud and kicked the bottom of my door. I heard a gunshot, and saw him shoot a window out of a room upstairs in the Tricker facility.

 He ran to the side of his car, got in, and started driving down the road.

 My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest, hammer away, and whatever other cliché I could think of. I had only known Christine and the other girls for a day, even Al and they already felt closer to me than my entire family. I hope they're alright.

 Poor Al. Hailey was sobbing and damning TB4. Christine and Lisa did the same. I heard Christine say, “Careful tumbleweed,” as TB4 dragged me away.

TB4 sniffed, and swerved the steering wheel vigorously as he passed a red light.

I didn't bother questioning it, I only wondered what was going on.

“Where are you taking me?” I said, my voice low, and filled with fear.

“To your grave bitch.”

I started tearing up. “Why? Why would you-”

“...only if you don't comply,” he said, angrily. “Do what I say, and you won't die. Understand?”

I nodded.

He sighed. “I know what you are.
They
know what you are, but God forbid if they ever...ha ha!”

He laughed like a psychotic maniac and kicked in his seat. He made the car go faster somehow, and everything was a blur from that point on.

I was sweating in my sweater and desired to tell him to go slower, but something told me he'd go faster, much like our encounter earlier. I said slower, he went faster.

 I wouldn't think of this to be any different. That's when I felt my conscious, the one Al referred to as Jiminy Crickett...whoever that was. He was right, I did regret having sex, now I regretted it even more. Which is sad, because I love sex, but with TB4 it was harsh, it was cruel, and I fooled myself into believing he was in it for both of us, when he was only in it for himself.

 “Who are
they?”
I asked him.

“Heh, who do you think?! Jesus Christ? No! Jeanine Wilhart and the Smart-asses! That's who! Everyone knows your test results came up Avirgent!” He turned a corner and I saw a huge Ferris wheel in the distance. We were driving closer and closer to it.

 “So they're after me?” I said, looking at the Ferris wheel, and then back at him.

“Do I need to spell it out for you like every God-Damn thing?!”

I shook. “S-s-sorry. So, are you helping me? Is that it? You're saving me from them?”

There was a little hope in my speech. Maybe he wasn't so bad afterall. Maybe he was my hero.

He laughed loud. “Saving? Right. Not because I like you, but because I need you. You're the key to ruling the world and the ticket to what's beyond that damned fence! I don't know why I'm telling you this,  but God-Dammit, I feel so honest right now!”

 He laughed like a hyena again, and I lost all hope. I looked down at my tattoo and it reminded me of the old TB4 before he suddenly went crazy. Looks like my brother's words were even more true. What a wild ride I found myself in.

 “They're on their way now,” he said, in a depressive tone. “If they got a hold of you...aaaaaaggh!”

I was wondering how he had even known. It was as if Juniper told someone, or someone forced her to give up my status as Avirgent.

 I gulped. “So am I a super-hero or something? Wonder-woman?”

He shrugged. “Time will tell. All I know is, you're dangerous, very dangerous.”

“Yeah, but how?”

He looked into my eyes menacingly. “What did I tell you about asking questions?” He raised his gun from the seat and pointed it toward my head.

 I smirked. “Wait, it doesn't matter what I do because in the end, you need me. You can't kill me.”

He put his gun down. “You're right, but let's pretend I can kill you so you can act afraid.”

“But why? I'm rather calm actually. In fact, thanks for taking me. If I'm so dangerous, I could just kill you myself once I realize my true potential.”

He sneered. “Shit.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can't believe I was so scared. Please make sure you kill them all before they get to me please. That way, there's no more threats. Yippe!”

He groaned and parked in front of the ruins of an amusement park.

“We're here,” he said flatly, and we got out of the car. He went to the trunk and I followed him as he opened it up.

 “Nice. Are we running around the park or something? Capturing them?” I said, now laid back and calm. I grabbed my hand mirror and adjusted my hair.

He grunted. “We're climbing a Ferris Wheel.”

“Why?” I smirked while asking this, clearly in joy that I could ask questions without anyone telling me not to ask anymore.

 “To scope the area for
them.
” He took out a sniper-rifle and tied it around his shoulders.

I pointed to a large building  the same height a block away. “Why don't we just go to the roof and we can roam around freely instead of standing on a Ferris Wheel in the cold?”

He closed the trunk shut and locked it. “You're irritating. I'm almost pissed that I actually had sex with you. It wasn't even that good.”

He brushed past me and started walking toward the Ferris Wheel several feet away.

 “Asshole,” I shouted, and caught up with him. He glanced at me a couple of times and said, “You make sense, but it's better for us to be atop a Ferris Wheel than a building. If we're atop a building, they can get there easier.”

“They can also kill us easier if we're on top of a Ferris Wheel you idiot. They could use one of those things my brother uses in Grand Theft Vehicle and blow up the Ferris Wheel with that.”

He paused, “You mean a rocket launcher?”

“Yeah.”

It seemed as if I dumbfounded him then. I had never felt so smart as I did then. Maybe my Avirgent powers were kicking in slowly by the minute. I was becoming smarter and smarter, but I still felt dumb.

He titled his head back and forth, nodding. “Yeah, that...that...” He rubbed his stubble.

“That makes sense. The building
is
the better poison.”

“Good. So let's go.”

He looked at the Ferris Wheel longingly, as if doing so would turn it on. “I really wanted to go for one last ride before I left.”

He looked down at me, with half-watery eyes. “My Mom used to take me here all the time during the Summer Holiday. I just wanted to share that moment with you.”

 He tried grabbing my hand, but I took a step back, disgusted by him. “That won't work. Just walk.”

 He looked up at the Ferries wheel one more time and started walking with me down the street.

“My entire life is in that park you know,” he said, trailing his hands across the cage fence around the amusement park.

“Like I care?” I said.

“I wouldn't expect you too, I wouldn't expect anyone too. You, Jeanine, the machine...I wouldn't expect anyone. You're all tied in to your smartphones, and tablets and-”

“Oh God, shut up! I'm sick of it!” I yelled, rolling my eyes. “Materialism this, materialism that, can you and everyone else just shut up? I get it, materialism is taking over, but that doesn't mean humans are too far gone.”

 He kept looking down at the block, while crossing his arms, the rifle still clasped tight around his shoulder. Thankfully enough, convenient enough, there was no one down the block with us. It was night time, and as Al said, “only the freaks come out.” But I didn't see any freaks but us.

TB4 sucked his teeth. “You know this park hasn't been used in ten years? That's how bad things have gotten. I want to change that.”

 “With me?”

“Yes.”

“But how do you know I'll comply?”

“I know.”

I shrugged. “No, you don't. You're just grasping at straws here. Let me guess, big mamma Jeanine treated you wrong, and now you're rebelling against her. That's why you told us to just leave, and let Limp win. You didn't want to waste anymore time taking action against her and the Smart-asses. You'd probably capture me in some cage or whatever, kill them, and then use me for whatever purpose you have. You just missed one thing...”

He down at me as we started crossing the street, the light was red, but there were no cars out there, only the wind and the night.

 “What?”

“Either way, you
wouldn't
have killed them. A one man army against millions in this city? Sounds like a last stand more than a way to become the King.”

He gulped. “As long as I kill Jeanine...that's what matters. She'll be here. She'll never pass up the opportunity to kill an Avirgent herself.”

We stood in front of the building now, and I paused. “What if you're wrong?”

“What?”

“I said, what if you're wrong?”

His mouth hung open, like some mentally retarded child, and his arms fell limp.

“I'm not wrong,” he said in a hollow, unconvincing tone.

He turned and started for the front doors, and I followed him.

 ---

 He almost took my breath away the moment I saw him. Now, he's making me lose my stomach. TB4 wasn't cool, confident and calm. He was a sweaty, paranoid case of a man on the run from the Machiavellian government he wished to rebel against.  

 On top, the roof was cold and rigid. I felt small rocks crunching against my feet and saw soda-cans, human refuse, and cigarette butts rotting.

 He took me to the edge, and there was a small ledge preventing someone from taking an easy fall. I never understood that. No matter how high you put a ledge up, someone will always find a way over it.

“I'm anticipating their appearance in-”
BANG
!

We jumped, TB4 knocked me back after the first gunshot hit the ledge. “Stay down! I got this!”

He put his eye into the scope, and started shooting away, recovering from the recoil of each hit.

“Aaah!” I heard someone shout below.

“You motherfucker! You motherfucker!” Shouted another man from below. He sounded almost exactly like Al.

 I heard a machine gun roar and TB4 jumped back, and fell to the gravel. Above him, somehow I was able to see the bullets shoot the stars and the sky, almost in slow motion. I felt like I was in a dream, or some movie. Was this the Avirgent power?

TB4 looked at me straight in the eyes and said, “I'm not going to fail, I'm not going to fail.”

He got back up, and was hit square in the shoulder by a stray bullet. “Aaagh!” He fell to the floor clutching his arm and I crawled across the gravel to do whatever I could.

 I took off my sweater and wrapped it around his shoulder. The night was cold but I had no choice.

“No! No!” He shouted. “Dammit, this wasn't supposed to happen!”

 I finished wrapping it around his boney erect arm and said, “Yeah, well...it did.” I sighed. I guess we were both screwed. He was getting his just desserts soon, and I was soon to be destroyed for being different from everyone else, just because they assumed I would do something to them. Maybe they were scared, or maybe they were just jealous. Maybe Jeanine, whoever the Hell that woman was, was just jealous of me. I'd know soon enough.

 “He ain't got up for a couple of minutes,” I heard one of them whisper. Maybe another power from my Avirgent status. I could hear them whisper from twenty-stories high.

 “He ain't?” said a rough voice. “You mean he 'didn't,' get up. You wanna speak like a freakin hick go live with my cousin sally in South downtown. She probably has another pick up truck just for you.”

“You're an asshole!”

“Rather be that, than a freakin' idiot. Come on everyone! She should be up there, hiding right with him.”

Shit! I ran for the door to the roof, but before I could, the door busted open. They  were carrying rifles, and machine-guns.

Standing in front of me, holding a rifle up to my head was a pale white man wearing a designer suit, slicked back hair, and designer shoes.

One shoe was matted with blood, and the other was clean and pristine.

 He smirked and said,  “Well, ain't you a hot number, and the great white hope? You're gonna make a lot of money for me kid.”