Chapter Twenty-One
Liv gripped the duvet to her chest so tightly her knuckles had turned white. She hadn't slept all night her mind too busy re-running the events that had unfolded at Eric's apartment. Everything he had said echoed around, torturing her further and even as the bright morning sun light filtered through the blinds she still couldn't stop dwelling. Heaving herself upright, Liv swung her legs out of bed and ambled through to the bathroom to have a quick shower before work. How was she going to act like nothing had happened when she had to work with him all day? It was an impossible task and she had thought briefly about not going in but that would likely only make it worse, and right now she didn't think she could mentally take another thrashing.
The hot water had done little to wash away her bad mood, it had only given her a new space to wallow. Maybe work would distract her? It was unlikely that Eric would bring up anything, he would still be far too angry so she'd probably have a day just to concerntrate on her work load, a long and tedious distraction. Finished dressing, Liv headed down to the mess hall to join the rest of her faction for breakfast, but when she got there it was completely empty. Not one person was there and stranger was there had clearly been no breakfast laid out that morning.
"Hello?" She called out unsurely into the also empty Pit. There was no answer, only the distant echo of her own voice bouncing off the cold stones. The cool trickle of panic began to course through Liv's body, Dauntless or not this was completely out of the ordinary and she was entirely alone. In the walk to the mess hall she'd seen no one and then there was no one on the way to The Pit. She needed to find Four; he had warned her something big was happening, if this wasn't it then Liv had gone mad and this was all a vivid dream. As fast as her legs could carry her in the ridiculous heels she had to wear for work, Liv beelined to the control centre of Dauntless where Four worked when he wasn't training the Initiate's but before she could reach her destination someone grabbed her from behind, their hand covering her mouth tightly and preventing the scream that had risen up her throat from escaping.
"Liv, what the hell are you doing?"
Immediately Liv relaxed recognising Four's voice. "What is going on Four? I went to the mess hall and no one is around." She searched his face for an answer but Four remained silent. "Four!"
"I don't know, everyone is in some kind of trance," Four paused to quickly check they were still alone. "Except a few people. Who I saw get gunned down." Snatching up Liv's small wrist he quickly dragged her into the control room, flung open a cupboard and threw a Dauntless uniform at her. It might have been too big but it would have to do. "Change quickly, we need to follow the others. We dont want to raise any suspicion."
A million questions swam through Liv's mind as she haphazardly yanked her clothes off and pulled on the uniform that was far too big for her. When she had been a child her mother had told her to picture problems as files, order the files and the problem unravels. Mentally flicking through everything that had happened since she had first learnt that Felicity was a Divergent, Liv logically riffled through her memories until finally it clicked into place. "The tracking devices," Whipping around she faced Four, who had been turned around allowing her to change some what privately. "The devices are controlling them. But why not us?"
"Divergent's." Whispered Four.
"But I'm not Divergent. It all makes sense, except for the fact I'm not a mindless zombie."
"We can figure it out as we go along Liv, but now we need to move." Instructed Four pushing her out of the room and down to where he had seen the other members marching towards.
Both of them fell into the same rhythmic pace that the controlled Dauntless took, their eyes locked straight ahead and dead of any emotion. Filing into a line the moved forward uniformly until they reached the front of the line where a table full of guns was led out; following suit they grabbed a gun each and marched behind the people before them to the Dauntless train dock and boarded the packed train. Inside the metal carriage everyone stood like statues, eyes always ahead, unwavered. It was like nothing Liv had ever seen before, not in any of the books she had been forced to read in school or from her time in Dauntless had she ever heard of anything like this happening before. This was new and utterly terrifying. How long would this go one? How long would she and Four have to act along to stay safe? Where was the army of mindless Dauntless even heading?
As the train whirred to life and began its journey on the high tracks above the city, Liv heard the shuffling footsteps of someone behind them, further down the carriage. Both she and Four kept their gaze fixed ahead, not daring to turn and see who it was that was moving, it wasn't worth getting caught out for curiosity. In her periferal vision, Liv recognized the blonde hair and tanned skin of Tris; she had come to a stop the otherside of Four also keeping her eyes dead ahead, but Liv didn't miss the little flicker of Four's and Tris' hands, silently letting each other know they were okay.
The train had stopped at Abnegation and the first mission all three of them agreed on was finding Tris' parents. Having marched to the concrete cube that Tris had directed them into Four quickly shut the door while the younger girl frantically searched for her parents, calling their names.
"Where would they go?" Liv asked, peering fearfully out of a small window. Outside members of Abnegation were being shoved along by the Dauntless army and Liv flinched as a man who was unwilling to follow was shot in the head instantly. "There's children here Four, we have to get them out." Just as she had feared a Dauntless member threw open the house door and ordered them all out to continue the search. Falling back into the purposeful march the trio followed the large group striding through Abnegation, guns tucked neatly at their sides. Then she saw him.
Walking with his usual confident stride, Eric and Max rounded a corner and headed straight towards the three of them. With a smirk he stepped infront of Four, who stopped instantly, eyes dead. "The legendary Four, a mindless drone. You were first in your class now your...nothing." Stepping aside to continue on with Max, Eric paused and turned back to Four.
"What?" Max asked. "Think he might be?"
"There's one way to find out."
Liv felt her heart stop as the pistol pressed against Four's forehead, on any usual day it wouldn't have taken much for Eric to shoot his rival but now there was nothing stopping him but to her amazement Four remained stoic.
"Say good bye asshole."
Beside her Liv could practically hear the little snap in Tris' facade, and before she could stop her Tris had raised her gun to the back of Eric's head.
"Goodbye."
Instantly Max raised his gun and pointed it at Tris and Four aimed his at the back of the former leader. "Move and you die."
Eric laughed darkly as he turned to look at Tris. "A stiff?" Looking back at Four he smiled coldly. "Two stiffs."
Up until that point Liv had remained still, staring at the scene before her but there was no way she was going to let Four die, not after everything he had done for Felicity and Eric had made his feelings for her unpleasantly clear the night before. Silently, she pushed her gun to Eric's temple and prayed that her resolve wouldn't break as he turned to look at her.
"Olivia? You?" Eric's steely gaze locked onto the dark haired beauty, with further inspection someone should have realised something wasn't right with her, for one her uniform was atleast two sizes too big so it obviously wasn't her own. A dangerous wave of jealous washed over him, if it wasn't hers it was likely Four's. "You won't shoot me."
The smug confidence that laced his voice awoke something within Liv; she was sick of him telling her what she would and wouldn't do, she was sick of bending to his will and getting nothing back, all in all she was sick of him and even with the feelings she had for him there was no chance in hell she was going to let Four die because of Eric. But before she even had time to act, Liv was caught off guard as Eric grabbed the end of her gun and slammed in back into her face knocking her off her feet forcefully. Her vision blurred from the impact, the hit had been bone breakingly hard, from the floor she could just make out the scrap between the other four. "Go!" Liv found herself screaming when Four went to run back and help her. "Get out of here!"
"I knew when I first saw you that you were special." Max hissed, hauling Liv to her feet but her hair and holding her tightly. "We can't let any Divergent's slip through, not even the pretty ones."
Bile rose up Liv's throat when she felt the warm touch of his hand on her lower back, never had someone disgusted her so much. Mustering all the fire she had Liv sniffed back some of the blood that was pouring from her nose and licked her bloodied lips before spitting in Max's face. "I'd rather die than feel your hands on me ever again."
"Woah-wee! No wonder you liked fucking this one Eric, so firey."
Eric leaned forward and smiled wolfishly at Liv. "See how firey she is once Jeanine starts testing on her."
The back of the armoured truck was pitch black, Liv couldn't see even an inch infront of her own face and with every bump the truck hit it knocked her off balance and with her hands bound behind her back she fell off the metal bench only making her surroundings even more confusing. The journey to Erudite wasn't overly long, but alone in the darkness Liv couldn't help but think of her family. Felicity was some what safe in Amity but for how long? And if Four was captured there was no one to help her sister. Oh god her parents. She hadn't given too much thought to her mom and dad, neither were Divergent so they didn't seem to be in any immediate danger but with them believing she was Divergent would they also get punished? What is they thought her parents had hidden it for all those years? Liv was drawn from her reveries as the truck came to a screeching halt and the door to the back of the truck was flung open, bathing her in painfully bright sunlight. Squinting through the dramatic change in light Liv could just make out the grey buildings of Erudite, but they weren't at the main entrance she had lived there long enough to recognise her surroundings.
"Time to go." A dark hair woman barked, pulling her harshly from the vehicle and dragging her towards the building. "I don't understand why they want some of them alive? Be easier just to kill them all." She spoke to another Dauntless member, to her Liv may as well have been an insect.
"Where are you taking me?" Liv asked desperately trying to memorise the route they took into the building, if she was ever going to get herself out she needed to remember the way.
The dark haired woman looked down at her with a hateful sneer. "To the holding cells," She stopped for a moment as they entered a hexagonal room with four cells on the diagonal walls, clear glass blocked off the entrance into each cell allowing people to look in at all times. Hoisting Liv forward, the dark haired woman pushed Liv into one of the cells and removed the cuffs from her wrists, the male escort keeping a gun trained on Liv during the entire transaction. "Believe me what's waiting for you outside this cell is much worse."
Every internal impulse told Liv to hit the woman standing over her, but the gun did it's purpose and kept her in line and she could only scowl as they left through the glass door. Even though the main wall of the cell was entirely made of glass it was one way, so the moment the door slid shut Liv was plumited into darkness, a single bulb dimly lit the small space and offered little light. Getting to her feet Liv paced the grey room, she had always thought beter when she was moving, she had to get out of there no matter how impossible it seemed, what is Amity was next? What if they found Felicity? Her whole body shook, her mind working at such a frenzied speed, but nothing. Liv was drawing a blank, even with her years in Erudite she couldn't see any logical way she could get out of her predicament. "Fuck!" Her scream was so coarse her voice cracked. Slamming herself into the glass wall, Liv began smashing her fists into the solid glass so hard that the skin in her fists began to split open making blood smear down the wall. "I want to see Eric now! I want to know how that fucking asshole can do this!" When her screams went unanswered Liv drew her head back and slammed her head so hard against the glass she felt the material vibrate wildly under her fingertips. "Get Eric!" Again she hammered her skull into the glass causing blood to stream down her face and drip warmly onto the floor around her feet. "Get Eric!"
The door slid open at what seemed an achingly slow pace but it wasn't Eric who walked proudly through the doorway.
"I'm afraid Eric is busy right now, but I'm sure I can help you...babe"
A/N/ Another update :) Thank you so much to NiNa5, Ariwolff14, LaurenB16 and .353 for your feedback on the last chapter. Let me know what you think about this one, I hope you all enjoyed it. And its another cliffhanger, I'm sorry I just love them lol. I hope to update again tomorrow and all will be explained as to why Liv isn't being controlled :)