The gun pointed at him."Caleb." She says,"I love you." Tears running down her grayish-blue eyes. The birds on her collarbone ready to take a flight. She doesn't shoot him instead at the soldier in his front. He looks back and he sees her run away into the darkness. Into a possibility of never coming back.
Caleb wakes up with a startled face; sweat dripping down his face. That face of hers still haunts him every night. Six months have passed and a lot has changed. Everyone has moved on but him. Caleb looks for the source which woke him in the middle of night. His blower has been ringing for the past five minutes. Blower, he thinks. Funny name for an old machine. It used to be called cell phone in olden days, now blower. The phone starts ringing again and this time he picks it up.
"Hello," he says rather dreamily, consumed in his thoughts.
"Hey, it's me Cara," replies Cara from the other side of the blower."Sorry to disturb you in the middle of the night, but a situation has occurred. And you are required to report immediately."
"Fine," Caleb keeps the blower down. He and Cara work together at the agriculture department. They are not friends but they somehow connect. Maybe because they both lost someone very close to them.
Caleb walks to the bathroom. His hands dangling at his side. He looks at his face in the mirror. Up until this point, He always though he looked different not like her. But now every time he looks in the mirror, he sees her. His gestures, his manners. Every bit of it is like her. Tears start welling up in his eyes. He looks at the corner of the mirror. There is blood. And with that blood something's written: She died because of YOU, Caleb.
He still remembers when he wrote that. 5 months before when he shifted to this new place, he felt he didn't belong here. Those dreams kept coming to him. And one night he woke up feeling sick. He dragged himself to the bathroom. While standing in front of the mirror, he saw her again. In him. He thought he didn't deserve to live so he took the scissors from the closet and cut his hand. The Blood dripping from his nerves. He thought before dying he would at least blame himself once more. So he wrote what he sees now standing in front of the mirror.
"It should have been me," He whispers to himself softly. "Not you….not you, Tris." The cut on his hand starts to burn like fire as it always does when he thinks of her. He didn't deserve to live but someone had saved him that day. Only if he knew who.
He takes one last glance at the face of the murderer in the mirror and goes to take a shower. It's been 3:20 now and he hurriedly wears a grey shirt and blue trousers with a black jacket. A lot has changed in the six months. There are no factions thus any color for identification. He is a normal citizen of Chicago, the name which has been there for centuries. And he is obliged to wear any color he likes. He closes the door of his penthouse, the many perks of being a renowned scientist. And gets into his black car,buggati and drives away to Amity sector. There maybe no factions but the areas still have their faction names to pay a tribute to those who were one of them. To those who lived but not to see the outside of the gates. To those who believed in FACTION BEFORE BLOOD.
The buggati stops in front of the compound where he radio playing his favorite song; Hey soul sister by Trains. He wonders when this song was written. How old it was. The best classic. He had never got a chance to listen to music. Being an Abnegation, he was taught to be selfless. To make music for others but never listen to it. Then he never had time for it. Always consumed in books. Craving for knowledge. But now, things were different. He could tap his feet's to the songs of Bokolov, the new singing sensation,any time he wanted.
The security guard opens the gate and let him in. The buggati drives inside the compound to the parking lot where a special place is reserved for him to park. The buggati finally parks in front of the name: Caleb Prior. He opens the door of his buggati and steps out from it and breathes peacefully. In the past six months, he have had a lot of problems but whenever he comes to his lab, he feels fresh and peaceful. As soon as he enters through the main gate of the lab, Cara runs down to him.
"Oh, Thank god!" She says drawing a breath of relief. "You are wont believe what happened."
"Well,not unless you tell me." He replies with a sigh.
"Not funny,Caleb." Cara answers." Jordan and Cassey are waiting for you upstairs."
Caleb didn't like the tone she was talking in. So he hurried after her to the lab he worked in with his colleagues. Upon arriving he saw that Jordan and Cassey were circling around arguing about some possibilities of the thing which Caleb couldn't get a good look on.
Jordan and Cassey were both his good friends and they worked together too. When Caleb was admitted in the hospital, they came daily to visit him. They had been his pillar of support when no one was there. They had helped him overcome his guilt as they both thought but the truth was they weren't much of a help in that area. Jordan had black eyes and disheveled blonde hair and was a total hunk. Maybe that is why Cassey was dating him, who herself attracted a lot of attention with her blue oval shaped eyes, jet black hair and a model type of body. People always got confused if she was really a scientist or a model in Goha, the fashion magazine.
"Jordan! Will you please shut up?" exclaims Cassey, who looked worried."We are working right now."
"Fine. But I don't think we are able to come to a solution over here so I thought of spicing things if I said that you look a total bomb…" Jordan fell silent suddenly when he saw Caleb and Cara standing in the doorway.
"I see you both were taking good responsibility of the serum while I was away." Cara retorts
Till now, Caleb was not paying attention to anything they were screeching about. He was thinking about those time when he was a kid. A six years old happy kid and Tris was with him. They were running around the house playing tag and suddenly a serum came flying in. SERUM!
"Woah! What?" Caleb says coming back to his senses. "Serum? What in the hell is going on?"
"Caleb," Cara answers. "there is no need to make a scene. We recently found a serum of unimaginable powers on my…"
"But I thought it was illegal now. I thought every god damn serum was destroyed under the new policy. I thought it was banned to make serums." Caleb interrupted, not letting Cara complete her sentence.
"I think you should let Miss Cara to complete what she is saying,Caleb." Jordan interjects.
"Thank you, Jordan." Cara acknowledges. "As I was saying it was found on my doorsteps at 11'o clock yesterday night. I tried calling you but you didn't reply. I obviously don't blame you for it."
"But why your doorsteps? "Asks Caleb, finally controlling his rage.
"We don't know exactly either but we think whoever left it there knew that Miss. Cara is the head of this department." Cassey answers to the question. "That person even left a note in it."
"Yes," Cara says."It said that someone powerful is trying to create a serum that can either create us or destroy us. And that he is a well wisher and wants us to look up into this situation."
"Well, he ought to know that we don't deal with all that stuff help in making good food." Jordan says moodily.
"But if it is a big problem, I guess we can change ourselves to something , I didn't like this boring job." Cassey replies.
"Serums. Tris .It killed her. I won't let it harm anyone else. I just won't."Caleb murmurs to himself.
"Sorry,what?" Jordan says.
"If this serum is so powerful we ought to do something before its too late. Tris died to protect us from these serums. We cant let these serums control us again." Caleb says aloud." Well did the well wisher mention what it does?"
"Ummm..He did. But it's all myth. I don't believe it." Jordan answers."It said that it makes the consumer immortal but with deadly side effects. And that the person who consumes it becomes powerful."
Caleb looked shocked at that. He knew it was possible. In Erudite , Jeannine had been researching on it. He was too but they never got close to the solution. But Jeanine had said that it was made possible years ago.
Everyone was looking at Caleb who was deep in thoughts. They had got use to this habit of his. He always traveled to a different world when something of the past was mentioned. Now it was just one of those moments.
"I believe in this well is possible." Caleb says finally."I know exactly what to , before that I want to meet someone."
"Who?" asked Cara.
"Tobias Eaton or rather, Four."