Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: First her brother left her. Then her best friend left her. And she finally feels completely alone. In the loneliness a desperation is born. She throws herself into secrets and mystery. Some secrets aren't worth seeking. Letting go of everything may be the only way she'll make it out of this alive.
"We All Fall Down"
Chapter 1 "Beautiful Lie,"
Fact, Alexander left four years ago. Fact, Will left last year. Statistic, she could never make it Erudite. That was what children in Erudite were taught. All that mattered was the facts and statistics. And seeing between the numbers are a taboo of sorts.
Last year, Dorothy choose to break that taboo. She stopped caring what she had had been told. She had nothing to lose and everything to prove. She buried herself in research, classwork and work. She couldn't live with her parents and living with Will's parents would be weird. Dorothy was glad that Cara offered her a place to stay. It worked out quite well. Both of them were lonely and both of them needed someone.
Behind her bedroom door Dorothy lived a very abnormal life. She hadn't always been like. She had been the textbook Erudite. Always seeking knowledge. But when Will left she became anger and that anger turned to sadness and loneliness. She lost herself inside of it. Then she went to Visited Day and saw her brother, he called her out on it but she denied it. She caught a glimpse of Will with his new friends as I left very close to when Dauntless would lock the doors. It didn't seem like they noticed her. On the walk back she took the quickest way, which was through the heart of the Factionless sector. She met a blind woman on her walk. Dorothy was drawn to her. They spoke. The woman's words changed everything.
After that night Dorothy began to do her own research and dig into things she shouldn't be digging into. She broke several rules to do her research. She hacked into the Erudite archives to start with. She copied things she needed and found out things she had never dreamed of discovering. The research led her far and wide and not limited to the Erudite headquarters.
It was late, it always was by the time Dorothy would get in. She found a peach and bit into it. She pulled a file from her internship and began to study it. She would often 'barrowed' things from the hospital archives. Today, someone arrived from Amity with a severe rash and had to her stomach pumped. This file she didn't have to 'barrow' she was given it. Her supervisor wanted the four interns to bring their own opinions about it. Not many Erudite kids want an internship at the hospital, they rather be in a laboratory.
It was quite particular what happened to the Amity girl. It reminded Dorothy of a severe allergy attack. She goes into her room and pulls out a medical book. The rash and stomach ache matches an allergy. Dorothy looks at the copy of the bloodwork. She stared at it for several minutes before it hit her exhausted brain. She went back into her room pulling out a box, her research. She pulled out the records of blood samples from the Erudite human subjects. Nothing Erudite does phases her anymore. She looked at the sample from several generations ago. It was a perfect match. At this point Dorothy realized what it was. It was a reaction to a serum. But which serum was this. There was only one way to find out. Back to the archive room. She hides the box under her bed and put the file on her bed. She carefully closed the door behind her.
She slides her ID card into the storage room. She signed out an anti-acid medicine. She wrapped a piece of plastic around her thumb. She places her thump on the keypad. While her left thumb was pressed up against the keypad she takes her ID card and presses on the side of the keypad between the wall and pad. She wedges her card in there until she feels it hit the button. She takes her thumb off as the door opened. It lead to another room which would take her to a secret passage way that lead into the archive room. She silently entered. She reads the sides of shelves looking for 'S'. She finds the tablet with serums label above it. It's too high up for her to reach without knocking anything over. She finds the stool and reaches on her tippy toes for tablet. She knew at this point it would take more then just a simple hack. It was a risk move but she takes the tablet with her back into the room she came from.
For once Dorothy was glad Cara lived at the Erudite headquarters. She usually hated how she couldn't seem to escape Erudite. She grabbed her pen. She rushed back to the room unaware that Cara had woken up. She went back through the hack once again to get back into the room. She curled up into a ball with the tablet. She used her pen to swipe through the tablet.
"What are you doing?" asked Cara.
Dorothy jumped nearly dropping the tablet. She took a deep breath seeing it was Cara. Not like Cara wasn't nosy but someone else would be worse. The last thing she needed was to be caught be security. She'd be in so much trouble she couldn't even fathom it really.
"I'm looking something up for work," admitted Dorothy.
It was a lie. At least a completely lie. She was looking for work but also for herself. Next week she'd find out where she belonged and she doubted it was Erudite. She'd do what the test told her to do. She knew no matter what she'd go getting the information she needs to continue searching will be harder, or maybe she'd find a new source of information.
"Then why did you hack into a room and cuddling a tablet. Why not bring it back to the apartment?" asked Cara.
"I want to return it from where it came tonight," said Dorothy.
"It's two in the morning," said Cara.
"Well, then I better hurry. They do a search at three" said Dorothy.
Cara rose her eyebrow the crease between her eyebrows become more noticeable. Dorothy didn't respond. She was rushing trying not to get arrested tonight. She scanned the tablet look for key letters that would lead her to what she needed. However, she realized how difficult it was to read on the tablet for her.
"Does Amity have a serum?" asked Dorothy.
"Hmm, why do you ask?" asked Cara.
"An Amity girl at work. She came in covered in a rash. She had to have an emergency gastric lavage. It was like her stomach couldn't handle something she had been eating. It matches a reaction to a serum, we talked about it in Chemistry class while talking about serums," said Dorothy.
"They have a peace serum. How else do you think they are happy all the time?" said Cara.
"Can you please get me a cleaning rag and cleaner?" asked Dorothy.
"Fine, only if you tell me what is going on really once we get back home," said Cara.
Dorothy sighed. She didn't want Cara getting hurt but she knew Cara wouldn't give up. She should know too. She cleaned the tablet with the rag. She carried it back through the passageway and back to its shelf. She also clean the stool so her finger prints couldn't be found. She then barely made it into the passageway before security made their rounds into the room. She pulled Cara out and grabbed her card and the anti-acid.
As soon as the apartment room shut and locked Cara turned and faced Dorothy. Dorothy felt a knot in her throat. It was different when Alexander looked at her when he knew she had been doing something stupid. Cara actually cared.
"What's going on?" asked Cara.
"You won't believe me," said Dorothy.
"Try me?" said Cara.
"Well, I've been researching things since I started at the hospital. Things I noticed about people. The more I discover more the truth I find," said Dorothy.
"What truth?" asked Cara.
"That we all live a lie. All the people we trust in leadership are lying to us," said Dorothy.
"Oh please," said Cara.
"Listen to me, every faction has secrets. Do you know that Erudite kills Divergents with the Death Serum? Or that anyone who refuses to do experiments on humans is kicked out of Erudite? Or that Erudite does experiences on Factionless?" asked Dorothy.
"Go to bed, your hallucinating," said Cara.
"You're just blind to see it!"
"Go to bed."
"No, you're not my mother."
"Well, you are staying in my house."
"Oh really, you're going to act like that."
Dorothy slammed her door in Cara's face. She was shaking with anger. She locked her door. She felt like she was going to explode. She thought Cara of all people would understand. She could see Cara trying to open the door.
"Open this door!"
"Go shove you arrogance up your ass!"
"Not possible!"
"Shut up! You can never see what can't be explained with logic!"
"What? That makes no sense!"
"Can't hear you!"
"Your insufferable!"
At this point Dorothy heard Cara's door slam shut. She had never fought like that with Cara. I flopped down on bed and the tears started to fall. It hurt more than any of the times she had ever fought with her parents, whom weren't even her real parents.
That morning there wasn't a single word spoken. Cara went to work early and Dorothy barely saw her. Dorothy made herself like the textbook Erudite she was supposed to be. She took the bus early and got to school well before class. She sat in a morning study group. She talked with the other Erudite students that interned with her. And she went to class timely and quietly. She bared spoke to anyone.
She hated schedules. She had always been tempted to skip class with the Dauntless but never did. She didn't want any unwanted attention. She hated school. She wasn't that great at it. She barely managed to keep her grades B's, which surely wasn't enough of her parents. She'd never admit how hard school was for her. None of it made sense or meant anything to her. The only classes she liked was psychology and human anatomy.
That day she stayed after school for physical fitness club. Erudites rarely attended, but she'd show up every week. She often do yoga with the Amity girls. Then she'd do her fitness test with the Candors, because if she sucked they tell her. She didn't sugar coat herself when it came to fitness. She knew she wasn't that fit, did she like it when the Candors told her that? No, but it gave her enough anger to run decently with the Dauntless. This is the one part of the week she enjoyed. She'd end the night stretching. She learned that going home without doing it she'd get cramps on the bus and when she'd try to sleep.
"Your pretty good smarty," said a Dauntless boy.
He had jet black hair and striking grey eyes. He had a tattoo up his entire arm of a dragon. He had pierced nose. He wasn't nearly as dramatic as some of the Dauntless boys. He didn't look like a pin cushion at least.
"There's nothing good about it. I get angry then I run, nothing special," said Dorothy.
"I beg to differ. There's something different about you, I don't see any of your smarty friends here," said the boy.
"I don't have friends," said Dorothy.
"Are you being smart with me?"
"You did call me smarty."
"You're a very strange girl."
"How observant of you to notice I'm a girl."
"Do you not like me?"
"Not exactly. You aren't in my faction. Why should you be talking to me?"
"Not everything you have to do has to be the way it should be?"
"Yeah, sure."
Dorothy got up and started her way towards the locker room. The boy blocked the door. Now this was getting annoying. Since when did a Dauntless care about an Erudite?
"Move," said Dorothy.
"What you going to do if I don't?" asked the boy.
"Right now I could easy kick you in some unsavory place," reminded Dorothy.
"You got guts smarty. Why don't you join us tomorrow? We do a workout here every day," said the boy.
"Sure," said Dorothy.
The boy moved out of the way making hand flick for Dorothy to enter. She walked through the door then came back out and flipped off the boy. She saw the shocked faces on the Dauntless before the burst out laughing. She showed and changed into her work clothes.
"So what did you guys discover?" asked Logan, the doctor in charge of the interns.
"Looks like allergic reaction," said a scrawny boy named David.
"Hmm, maybe so but of what?" asked Logan.
David didn't answer because he didn't know. An Erudite would never admit they didn't know something or that they were wrong. Dorothy sighed. Boys. Always had to be right.
"I thought it was a glucose or lactose intolerance," said a tall girl with bright red hair.
"Quite possible, Jessica," said Logan.
"What about an ulcer? A glucose or lactose intolerance should have taken her to the hospital sooner?" said a boy with sandy blonde hair, his name was Henry.
"True, very true. However, we don't know if she has been seeking herbal medicine," offered Logan.
"What about exposure to a serum?" asked Dorothy, offering up her thoughts to the group.
Logan gave her a suspicious questioning look. Her heart was racing and her ears turned bright red.
"It happens in lab accidents when interns aren't wearing proper gloves all the time. Couldn't it happen to an Amity girl that had been helping transporting something," said Dorothy.
"Hmm, Nurse Bane, do a double check of her blood work," ordered Logan.
"Yes, Doctor Weston," replied Nurse Bane, a young woman in blond hair done up in a tight bun. She looked barely any older the interns, she must have been an initiate last year.
"Miss Adams and Mr. Millar I'll be stocking today. Mr. Kavis you will be doing laundry. And Miss Fitzgerald come with me," said Logan.
` Dorothy fallowed Logan. Her heart felt like it was up in her throat. She honestly believed she'd be thrown into a padded white room then injected with the Death serum. She tried not freak out. She couldn't stop her arms and hands from jittering.
"How did you know about the serum?" asked Logan slamming Dorothy into a wall.
Dorothy felt the air rush out of her lungs. She froze. No words or thoughts even came. She was completely shocked.
"How do you know about the serum, damn it!"
"I-I-I just hea-rr-d some initiates t-talk about i-i-it last year."
"For some reason I don't believe you."
Logan opened up a door and pushed Dorothy inside. She tried to fight back but he was stocky. She landed back onto cold floor. She felt hands. It felt like days she was in there. She tried to pry the door open with her legs, but it was locked from the outside.
Suddenly her eyes began to feel heavy. Then everything went black. She knew nothing more after that.
Author's Note:
You are going to have to read the next chapter to finds out what happens. Thanks for reading. I hope this isn't too short but I want to pace myself for the rest of the story. Chapters will keep getting longer. Until a few more days.