All rights to Veronica Roth..I own nothing.
It's 9:45 pm and Zeke sits on my couch. His hands are folded and he goes between staring at his feet and somewhere outside in the distance. I can tell by the look in his eyes that he's strained. Not that I'm doing any better.
" You have to calm down!" He tells me. I've been either standing by the window or pacing for the last two hours.
" I can't calm down!" I say, not even looking in his direction, "You didn't see his face! You didn't see the fear!"
" Well can you at least have something to drink so that you stop pacing? You're wearing me out, man!"
I realize that is probably driving him nuts. I go to the fridge and grab two brown bottles out and give him one. I open it and begin to chug it with all my might. I can hardly breathe but for the moment it takes my mind off of things. There's a knock on the door. I drop the bottle, sending bits of beer all over my seat and dash for it. I fling it open and see Matthew standing there. His hair is out of order and he looks like he probably ran the whole way here.
Without hesitation he comes in and says, " Lock the door."
He crosses into the living room and sees Zeke sitting there. At first he looks like he's going to pitch a fit, but then stops." Alright fine! " he says, walking to the windows. He proceeds to shut all of my curtains.
" So?" I bark. " What did you find out?"
" First off. Why is this important to you?" Matthew asks. It seems like such a bizarre question to me. Like one he shouldn't have even asked. " Honestly! What do you think this is?"
"Well to be honest I wasn't thoroughly invested aside from the fact that someone who's known me since my Dauntless days is trying to contact me. And then your face! Your face man told me everything! "
" So, BH isn't a city!" He tells me, looking at me with his wary eyes again. " I don't know where it is, but it isn't anywhere in the registry."
" Well that's odd isn't it? " I tell him, looking over to Zeke, who generally seems confused to all that is going on.
"I suppose so, yea." Says Zeke, turning to Matthew, " is that the worst of it?"
" No. Not yet at least." Matthew says. " Two, nearly three, years ago I was asked to work on a project. One that was high level of clearance and very seldom talked about. The projects name was Remnant." He clears his throat and continues, " The bureau had a theory that the Divergent had special qualities to them. Since they had become genetically perfect, they had become literally that. Perfect. Their minds worked faster. Their bodies healed differently. Well, they always wondered what would happen if that was harnessed. Used for the benefit for mankind. They were only conducting small tests. Trying to use it on a cellular level. Mainly using animals. We saw changes in their chemistry. Animals with deformities were getting better, smarter."
He pauses and gives us a moment to take all of this in.
"Jeez!" Zeke says, breaking the silence. "So it was working? That cracked out idea was actually working?"
Matthew turns slightly toward Zeke, "It really was. We were in the process of getting a grant in order to take it to the next step. The human step."
" What stopped you?" I ask him
" Some thought it was a terrible idea. See in order to do this we would have to test on humans. And no one is ever okay with that." He drifts off and get quiet.
" What?" Zeke asks leaning forward on the couch, " What is it?"
For a moment he looks Zeke and I see his cheeks get bright pink, slowly he turns his head to me.
" Before the awakening, when we used to watch you all on the monitors, we didn't use your names since there were so many of you. So you all had codes of a sort. And the most important had high clearance codes." His voice drifts off again, but after a moment he finds his strength again. He hands me the single document sheet I had given him.
" D1 was given to a special person. The most special person in the program. A single human being who showed more promise than anyone else. A Divergent to over shadow all others." Slowly he looks me in the eyes.
All the air escapes my body. " Tris."
" Wait! Wait! Wait!" Zeke shouts, standing up. " What does that mean? So what, they're performing experiments on her body? Then who went down the zip line the other day?"
I grab my Beatrice jar and slam it on the table in front of Matthew and point to it.
" What're you telling me Matthew?" I yell, gripping for any conclusion., " You mean they still have her body and I've been…I've been mourning someone else's ashes?"
I feel bile in the back of my throat and I can hardly keep it down.
" I don't know what it means!" He yells back at me, standing and meeting my eye level. He runs his hands through his hair roughly. " I have no idea alright!"
" THIS INVOLVES TRIS! So how the fuck do we get an idea?" I scream. I'm at my boiling point. I'm swallowing hard to keep the vomit down.
" I have to look more. They only have a general description on here of how much money they're allowed. It doesn't list what it's for. If we can find that out then maybe it will clear some things up. " His words are helpful, but they sting.
I start to get dizzy. I think it's just my anger but then it takes me over. I lose focus and tunnel vision kicks in. I stand strong, breathing heavily through my teeth. Suddenly I lose myself, falling into the wall, " I just, " I start but can hardly finish, " I need to go lay down."
" Tobias!" Matthew calls out but I hear Zeke stop him.
I make it to my room but crawl across the bed like a child. To think of the horrible things they could have done to her! I imagine them chopping her up into little pieces and performing tests on them. Placing her between glass slides and looking at her through a microscope. Deconstructing her into just another experiment. I cry myself to sleep that night.
Writers note: nothing much for notes today. Just hope that you are all enjoying the story as much as i am writing it. As i write it, my heart is literally breaking for Tobias..just shattering for him.