How It All Goes Down
- Tris is outfitted with a bulletproof vest. Like a Ford Model-T, she can have any color she wants… as long as it's black. This is to prepare her to go to the fringe with Amar and George.
- On the patrol, Tris asks Amar is he believes in all this genetic damage nonsense. He kind of does, and Tris can't believe he thinks that way, having lived inside Chicago and everything.
- Tris, Amar, and George get to a little village on the fringe, which looks like a set from District 9, and a little boy runs off screaming "Raid!" (34.32). What? Are they approaching with a can of bug spray?
- Amar explains that the people sometimes think they're soldiers out to hurt them.
- The others spread out to set up some equipment (that's as specific as the orders get), but a gunfight breaks out, and George is in danger.
- Tris gets lost heading toward the direction of the gunfire, and an old woman named Amy appears out of nowhere. Amy lets Tris know that people aren't genetically damaged, and she says that the ridiculous Chicago experiment should be disbanded. She sends Tris away and is never heard from again.
- Tris finally finds George, who is being held at gunpoint by a small boy.
- With surprise on her side, Tris jumps out and tells the boy to drop his gun.
- The boy doesn't. But then he does when Amar pops out and outnumbers him.
- Amar wraps George up in a big ol' bear hug and asks Tris, "Still don't think genetic damage is to blame for any of these troubles?" (34.83).
- Tris, who is able to see that things like—oh, we don't know—poverty and desperation lead to crime, says, "No […] I don't" (34.85).
- On the way back to the Bureau, Amar lets Tris know that he and George are more than just bunkmates, if you get our drift, but he implores her not to tell anyone. "The Bureau is obsessed with procreation" (34.113).
- Tris agrees to help him stay in the post-apocalyptic closet.