I gasp and push myself away from the table.

"She's alive." These are words I never thought would come out of my mouth. “I can’t believe it.”

“Yep,” Tris puts his head in his hands. “And I didn’t even think for a second that her death could have been fake.”

“It’s not your fault. You had to assume the worst after seeing Marzia and Orlan die. You don’t think straight while you grieve. Neither of us did.”

“But Lucien did!” He slams his hand on the coffee table. “I should have been there. It should have been me!” I hush him.

“She asked you to leave, and you did as she asked. Now isn’t the time to worry about that. It’s time to worry about what the other articles say.” I try to swallow a lump that’s stuck in my throat. “They’re going to kill everyone. I don’t know how. They will, though.”

“None of them will hesitate when the day comes.” I realize that after reading this, I will not be able to sleep. I’ll spend every minute waiting for people to burst in our door and murder us.

Our heads jerk towards Yve when she walks out of the bedroom. Instead of wearing her uniform, she’s in a baggy gray sweater that falls over her right shoulder and long black leggings. There are bags under her eyes.

“Are you mad at me?” She asks us both. She holds her torso and crosses her feet. I look at Tris. I can’t find the heart to be angry with her. She wanted to get to the bottom of it. She’s reckless, yes, but smart. She did what she thought was right. It’s better than we could have done.

“Of course not,” Tris assures her. “We’re done yelling. I explained everything to him. We’re finished with the sneaking out situation.”

“But,” I start. “Now we have an entirely new problem,” She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it and looks back up at us. I set down the papers I’m holding and stand up. “Listen, Yve…” I slowly walk towards her and rest my hands on her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to be so harsh on you this morning. I get mad because I care.”

“I know.” Her voice is so quiet. It’s easy to tell that she still feels terrible. This entire thing really is taking its toll on her.

“Is there anything else that you know? Anything you read. Even if you think it’s insignificant. It may be important.”

“Well,” She takes a deep breath. “I was thinking about the second one. I think at least every other day we need to check in for dates. While we wait for the dates to come out, formulate a plan.”

“What would that plan be exactly?” Tris stands up and walks over to a recliner nestled in the corner of the room.

“That's what formulating a plan is, Tris.” She rolls her eyes. She begins to move in the direction of the couch but stumbles.

“You’re not okay,” I tell her. “You need to go to sleep or something. Rest on this whole thing for a minute.”

“I don’t know why I still feel so awful. I mean, no one else seems as bothered as I am.”

“Hey, we all react in different ways. Just get some rest, alright?” She nods and paces back to the other room. Within the span of a few minutes, we can hear her snoring.

“She did that for us,” Tris tells me. “I hate that. This is the kind of world we live in. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“To be quite frank,” I start. “This in on us. This wasn’t the way we planned to raise any children we had, but they forced our hand. For now, all we can do is figure out how to get everyone out of here before time runs out.”

“I know.” I’m not sure which statement he’s responding to. All I know is that until we leave, we will always be on edge. I can see all the pain in his eyes. It isn’t just about them. He loved Zaera so much. He spent years blaming himself for her death. I could barely get him out of the hole he dug himself in. I cared about her too. She was one of my best friends.

He wants to get home before she really does die. She's without half of the support she used to have. Zaera is stubborn and won't listen to many people. It was four out of six of us that left. I helped get Marzia and Orlan out. Lucien never had the best ideas of what to do. Two heads are better than one, but if neither are level-headed, then things won't work out.

Now I have a whole new problem. Tris wants to get back to Urbem as soon as he can. I have a feeling that he could be just as reckless as Yve. He's like that when it comes to Zaera. He's always been like that when it came to her. All he wants now is to see her. To talk to her. To hold her again. Hopefully, he’ll work with us instead of around us.