Thank you to everyone who took the time to review this last chapter.
And thank you to BK2U for her willingness to Beta my little story.
Chapter 5 - The Tipping Point
I left Erudite for a reason, I think bitterly while I finish looking over the lab report. I need to submit it to Alan before I go home tonight, so he can look it over first thing tomorrow before turning it in to our boss. I put the report in Alan's inbox and turn off the lights as I leave, since I am the last one in here tonight. The thought of being stuck in a lab day after day was one of the reasons, besides the fact that Tori had already left, that I knew I would never stay in Erudite. If there were fieldwork or something else to break up the monotony of lab work it would be better, but the walls never change and they're constantly pressing in on me.
I glance at the screens that show Chicago as I walk by the control center. The main screen shows many grey-clad Abnegation setting up the Choosing Ceremony bowls. "Choosing Ceremony again tomorrow," Kay observes to a co-worker while she shakes her head. "Hard to believe it's been a year already."
My breath catches. As soon as I am around the corner where they can't see me, I press my back against the wall and slowly let myself slide down. A year. I've been gone for almost a year. I close my eyes, blocking out the world around me as I think about the past year.
It has been both easier and harder than I thought it would be on the first day I arrived here, shell-shocked and unsure of exactly what was going on. Alan has been a big help — my surrogate sibling. The stand-in for Tori, he's taken me under his wing and explained things to me the way I think she would have if I had been able to stay in Dauntless with her.
Alan has steered me away from making mistakes, like the day I saw a girl that reminded me of Danika and tried to talk to her. He was the one who gently pointed out to me that she wears a green working uniform, not blue; she is genetically damaged, therefore I should make sure to stay away from her. He explained to me that I should never become entangled with someone who is GD, and patiently made sure I understood the importance of GPs sticking together with GPs. Later that day, I watched her lose her temper at one of her GP supervisors. She threw the first thing should could find at him. Fortunately it was only the dust rag she had in her hand, but Alan pointed out to me how it was just proof that she, and the other GD like her, don't know how to react to conflict.
It troubled me that, according to them, Tori is a GD, but the more I watched her this year, the more I realized they are right. Tori is flawed. There is so much that she doesn't handle correctly. I love my sister, and there isn't much I wouldn't do to be back with her. But still, she is flawed, damaged. The Bureau is right to try to find a way to help her, a way to fix her genetics.
Maybe that's why I stay in the lab. I want to help them find a way to help people like Tori as quickly as possible. A shortcut to healed genes so that we can be together again. She's my sister, and I love her the way she is, but if she were perfect, like I am… it would be so much easier.
"Are you okay?" Ava's voice cuts into my thoughts.
I open my eyes and see her crouched in front of me. Another person who has taken me under her wing. She's no longer a Dauntless leader, and by the time I joined Dauntless she was already at the Bureau. But as Lucas, a boy who was removed from Dauntless the year before me confided, Ava was always a mother figure to the faction. Just because we aren't in Dauntless anymore, it doesn't mean she no longer sees herself as our mother, even if we were never in the faction at the same time.
"I just realized it's been almost a year since I was taken out," I say hoarsely. "I'd lost track of time."
Ava smiles sadly. "It's easy to get caught up in our lives here and forget about what is going on back home, isn't it? How is Tori doing these days?" she asks without waiting for an answer to her first question.
"She's gotten better," I say quickly, not wanting to admit I really don't know how Tori is doing these days. She was a wreck when I first left. Her drinking and temper helped prove to me that Alan was right, that the GP and GD are different. Tori's behavior became a piece of what convinced me that the Bureau knows what they are doing in keeping the Chicago experiment contained within the safety fence while genes heal.
"Good," Ava answers with an odd smile on her face. "I'm glad to hear she's doing better. Anniversaries have a tendency to be hard on the people we leave behind. On the first anniversary of my "death", my husband spent time by the chasm just staring out into it. For a moment or two I was afraid he was going to jump in an effort to join me, but about the time he put his foot on the bottom rail and looked ready to hoist himself up, our daughter showed up with our grandchildren, and…" Ava blinks away some tears.
"I haven't watched Tori recently," I admit on a whim. "I'm trying to fit in with my new life, and it has been too hard to watch her alternate between struggling and moving on."
Ava looks at me with understanding. "It's as hard on us to be dead as it is on them to believe that we are."
As a rule I do try to avoid the control room, where so many people congregate to see what is going on in Chicago. It bothers me that it seems to be entertainment to those who have never lived there. Sometimes I think they don't realize that the residents of the experiment are real people living and dying. I worry about people extracted from the city, like Lucas. He's been here a year longer than me, but doesn't seem to be able to let go of our old home. He watches every night, flipping cameras until he finds a family member or a friend, and then he watches them like they are his lifeline, the only thing that keeps him in touch with reality.
My death was faked so late at night that I hope Lucas and the gawkers will be gone for the evening when I get there. I need to see Tori. To see if, like Ava's husband, she contemplates joining me in my supposed death. Only her death would be real, not faked, if she does that.
Thankfully, the only people here are the ones on duty. I find a private area and sit down, finding the camera with the best view of the chasm and settling in to see if Tori shows up. Part of me hopes she doesn't. Part of me knows that if she doesn't, it means one of two things: she's started moving on, or she's drunk in her apartment. I don't know which of those ideas alarms me more.
I sense someone sitting down next to me, and I know without looking that it's Ava. I don't mind Ava being there. She's been more of a mom to me than mine was. Not as much as Tori was when we were kids, but it is nice to have a mother figure here in such a foreign place.
Tori shows up about five minutes before the time I "jumped". I'm pleased to see that she is walking steady and sure. I'm relieved that she doesn't put a foot on the railing, but leans on it with her arms and looks down at the churning water below. She isn't there long before Hana shows up.
"What's the deal with Hana? Is she from here like Natalie?" I ask Ava as they talk.
"No, Hana was born in the city, just like you and me. As far as anyone can tell, she's not Divergent." I notice again how Ava clings to the terms of the city. She never refers to someone who is Genetically Damaged as GD like Alan, they are simply 'not Divergent'. Someone who is Genetically Pure isn't GP to her, even if they were never part of the city experiment, they are always 'Divergent'. "David explained to me that Hana works in the control room, and she somehow noticed that Natalie wasn't what she seemed to be. She would recognize Natalie when she was dressed in the wrong faction colors and in the wrong place. Natalie decided to recruit her, and she's been helping her ever since."
I see Tori and Hana embrace. It's good to see, since I know at one point Tori seemed to blame Hana for my death. I didn't want to be the cause of the end of their friendship. Tori needs all the friends she can get.
When Tori walks off, I realize I'm a little disappointed that neither Danika nor Lance showed up to be there for my sister, to take a moment and mourn me. I guess that means they are moving on; I suppose I should be glad.
"The samples that we take today from the fringe will help us to see where people are with the healing process when they aren't part of an experiment. There are a few people in the general population that were given the same healed genes as the people in the experiments were, but we lost track of them a long time ago," Alan explains to me as we bounce in the back of the truck. "About every ten years or so, we offer food and clothing in exchange for a little blood so we can take a look and see if there is any change in the percentage of genetic healing that we find in the population."
"How does it look?" I tilt my head, interested in what he has to say.
"Not very good," Alan admits as the truck rumbles to a halt. "The percentage seems to either stay the same or decrease. At least that's what my experience indicates, along with the records I've looked over from the past. It looks like the people who were given the healed genes either didn't have children or died. Or maybe it was their kids who died. It doesn't really matter. The percentage we see here isn't growing in the fringe like it is in the experiments."
"Look at their living conditions," Ava mutters bitterly before turning around from her spot next to the driver. "We're almost there. When we get there, everyone needs to stay close together. After our lives, the most important thing we get out with are the blood samples. If we end up with problems and have to evacuate, take all the samples you can grab and evacuate. Don't worry about any of the rest of the equipment."
"But nothing is going to happen," Alan gives Ava a withering glare and takes over, "So plan on bringing out everything that you take in, plus the blood we collect." He starts making assignments as we draw closer and closer to the drop off point. I end up with a bag containing two hundred and fifty needles and a bag that is insulated to store the blood samples.
I also end up with a gun that Ava hands me despite Alan's protests. "He was training for Dauntless. He knows how to use a gun, and if something happens you'll be glad we have another person who's armed. If nothing happens, then it doesn't matter."
After we stop, we walk through makeshift homes. It surprises me when I see how young everyone looks. If I had to guess, I would say there are more people here younger than my seventeen years than older. We walk close together, Alan making his announcement as we walk through. "Follow us. We have food and clothes if you need them. All we want in exchange is to take a little of your blood for testing."
Everyone here reminds me of the factionless population — gaunt, pale, beaten down — but unlike the factionless population at home, Alan's offers of food and clothes don't appear to be tempting. No one follows us to wherever Alan is leading us. "Why isn't anyone coming?" I ask Ava in a hushed tone while I look around.
"Because no one trusts them," Ava says coldly. "The Bureau has done things to these people to destroy what little trust they have in humanity."
"Like what?" My curiosity forces me to ask the question.
"Like nothing." Alan injects his view into the conversation.
"Look at how they live!" Ava counters indignantly.
"They chose it," Alan replies with casual indifference.
"They chose it?!" Ava fairly howls. "Would you have chosen to live like this if there was a better option?"
"They have other options. They could live in one of the cities." Alan remains calm.
Ava huffs, "These kids are not Divergent. There's not much of a life for them in the cities, either."
A young boy about ten years old comes up to us. "What do you have to eat?" he questions Alan.
Alan pulls out a bag of jerky to tempt him. "I have beef jerky, for one thing."
The boy pulls out a crude knife. "I'll take the jerky and the bag it came from." He holds the knife out to stab Alan.
I act on instinct, grabbing the boy's arm and wrenching it behind his back. "Drop the knife."
A weird, piercing whistle sounds from the boy's lips.
"Everyone out!" Ava yells. Apparently, she knows what is about to happen.
I turn to follow Ava's direction, but Alan stands there, frozen. Urchins — I don't know any other name to describe them — stream out from everywhere. I grab Alan's arm and roughly pull him along with me, back towards the van.
He stumbles and pulls against me, like he thinks he can go back and reason with them, that he can still accomplish his goal today of getting blood samples.
The mob starts pelting us with anything they can find: mud, rocks, unidentifiable pieces of trash. Both Alan and I are hit several times, but I keep a firm grip on him, and when we make it back to the van I push him into it in front of me, afraid that if I leave it up to him, he'll still try to go back.
"That," Alan declares hotly, "is why you never trust someone who is Genetically Damaged. I offered him food and he turned on us. He drew a knife on the people who were going to help him!"
Ava shakes her head at Alan, and turns in her seat to look at me, changing the subject as she does. "I could use your help."
"What do you need?" I ask, wondering why she is asking me instead of Alan.
"I need you to come back to Chicago with me."
I stare at her openmouthed. There is no way I just heard her right.
"They gave the fear simulation that landed you here to our whole faction during the last few weeks. There is a mass exodus planned for the Divergent. I need everyone I can gather who is familiar with the city, and if possible with Dauntless, to come with me and help with some of the work for the extraction."
I think about the boredom I feel on a daily basis in the lab, and about the excitement of being in the field today. Even if some of it was because things went wrong, it's better than staring at the walls all day. "Count me in."
We gather at the meeting point an hour before we are supposed to leave to help with the exodus from Chicago. They want to give us some time to go over the plan and to meet with the people that we don't yet know but with whom we'll be working today.
"We're leaving now!" Ava's voice is harsh as she rushes in to join us.
"What?" Lucas stops his conversation with a woman I don't recognize.
"There's been a real train accident involving our train." Her voice is agitated. "We don't know what is going on. David is gathering medical supplies and a medical team to send out to us, but we're going. Now."
"How bad is it?" Lucas looks panicked. His older sister is on that train.
"I don't know. I don't think anyone knows yet. We don't know if there's just been a small accident or if someone on the other side figured out what was going on and there's been a real accident similar to what we had planned. Chicago natives, on the truck with me. Support, to your own truck," Ava commands. "Medical personnel will join us with the medical trucks. We can't wait for them. We're leaving. Move out."
We all clamber up into the trucks following Ava's command. There are more people from Chicago than I had realized. There's a couple holding hands that I don't think I've seen before. The man, Darren, I vaguely remember from Erudite. He was in Tori's class and had, I thought, died in a car accident outside the library less than a year after his initiation.
The woman I'm sitting next to is the one that Lucas was talking to earlier. She looks like she came from Dauntless. There is a tattoo of a rope of flames that circles each arm just below her shirtsleeves. She is powerfully built. "I'm Trina," she introduces herself in a low voice. "And this is my husband—"
"Darren," I say his name quickly. "You were in my sister Tori's class."
Darren looks at me for a moment and smiles slowly. "Georgie."
I groan. Tori's hated nickname follows me, even out here. "I prefer George."
"That's right, you always made a face when Tori called you that. Is she one of the ones we're getting out today?" He sounds interested.
"If she is, no one has told me," I say, letting myself wonder for the first time.
"Then she's not," Trina says bitterly. "I asked about my younger sister, and I was informed that if she was, they would have already told me."
Darren rubs her arm soothingly. "She's safe in there, Trina."
"It's not about her being safe, and you know it." Tears glitter in Trina's eyes.
"I know, but I'm sure Kelly knows you love her, and she's forgiven you by now," Darren says reassuringly.
Suddenly, Trina turns on me hopefully. "Did you know Kelly?"
"I'm sorry, I was pulled out during initiation. I didn't meet too many people outside of my class." I find myself wondering what the story is between her and her sister, and why she wishes she could see her so badly. "I haven't seen you around the Bureau." I change the subject to what I hope is a safer topic.
"Trina and I left the Bureau, we live in Milwaukee now. I'm a teacher and Trina works in the fire department. We're here just for the day. Ava requested as many of us from Chicago as she could get. She had planned on us talking to them about what life on the outside is like, but now…" Unsure of what we are going to be doing since there is a real accident, Darren's voice trails off.
We are all unprepared for the train wreck. It was supposed to be a nice, neat, organized situation that was totally under control. Instead, it is barely controlled chaos. There are groups of injured people clustered around. Amity healers move within some of the groups.
The worst is the line of unmoving people laid out in rows, mimicking the train tracks that they are laid out near. I don't want to think about why they aren't moving.
Lucas jumps out of the back of the truck before it even comes to a complete stop and runs towards the chaos, yelling his sister's name as he goes. When it is my turn to jump out of the back, I notice a lone figure in Dauntless black running away from the scene. I'm about to point it out to Ava, but something stops me. There is something about the size of the person running, and the fact that she looks pregnant, that makes me think of Hana, and Hana works for Natalie. If it is her, I would imagine that Natalie is the one who sent her away. So I let her run away without pointing her out to anyone, and jump out of the truck waiting for directions.
Natalie limps up to us. I wonder for a moment if she was in the train wreck, but her navy outfit identifies her as being with either the Bureau or Erudite, not Dauntless. "Ava!" Natalie gives her a quick hug.
"What happened?" Ava asks her as they part.
Natalie sighs heavily. "I'm not completely sure. The train didn't slow down for the curve, but it was this morning with everyone on it, not this afternoon running the other direction, when it would have been empty."
"Someone got their timing wrong." Ava's voice is hard but hopeful.
"I wish I could believe that," Natalie says weakly. "But it's the wrong time of day, going the wrong direction, and… we can't find the engineer. I'm afraid they jumped out and left the train to crash."
Ava's eyes close for a moment, then open with determination in them. "What do you want us to do?"
"We've started triage. There are four groups. The Amity healers are with Group One. Do you have a medical team with you?"
"They are a little behind us. We weren't expecting to need them, so they are being gathered up right now."
"Anyone with you that has any medical training?" Natalie asks hopefully.
"You were both raised Erudite. How much medical training do you have?" Ava checks with Darren and me.
Darren answers first. "Basic, but Trina is an EMT with the fire department."
"Trina and Darren, go help the Amity healers," Natalie directs.
"George?" Ava turns her attention to me.
"Mom wanted me to be a doctor, and I've taken first aid, but I'll warn you, I don't handle blood well," I answer truthfully.
Natalie smiles at my response like she knows about my fear simulation. "Why don't you go find Group Four and check them over. As long as they are okay, send them over to me so we can start talking to the Divergent survivors about what is going on. If the medical staff isn't here yet when you're done, move on to Group Three. We'll try to keep you away from blood as much as possible."
"What are you going to do with the non-Divergent?" Trina asks softly.
"If their Divergent spouse is dead, we'll give them the memory serum. If they are alive, we'll talk to both of them about what their options are." Natalie takes a long slow breath. "It's going to be a long, hard day."
Natalie's prediction about a long, hard day was optimistic. The Divergent who are single, and those whose spouses died in the wreck, are the first group to leave. The singles in the group look shell-shocked, but better than the newly created widows and widowers who have a glazed, uncomprehending look about them.
As they climb up into the trucks that will carry them to the outside world, I notice a confrontation between Ava and a redheaded woman. "I'm not going," the redhead declares hotly to Ava.
"Marley, you can't go back," Ava says patiently.
"Don't you see, at least one of us has to." The redhead's voice is determined.
"No, I don't," Ava returns shortly. "They are trying to kill you, Marley. You have to get out of there, now."
"If all the people who are Divergent die, it will look too suspicious. If even just one of us survives, it raises the possibility that all of us traveling somewhere together could have just been a coincidence," she argues back.
"George!" Ava spots me and waves me over.
"Yes?"
"Can you go find Natalie? Let her know I need her because we have an extremely stubborn lady here who thinks she doesn't need to leave with the rest of the Divergent." Ava glares at Marley the entire time she speaks to me.
I head off to find Natalie, leaving the two of them to their staring match. Marley does have a point, I think to myself. Having one or two of them go back is a good idea to throw them off track, but I'm not sure it is worth the risk. "Natalie." I wait until she finishes with the person she is speaking to before I speak up.
"What's up, George?" Natalie looks decades older than the day she got me out of Dauntless.
"Ava said to let you know she needs your help. One of the Divergent is being 'extremely stubborn' and refuses to leave," I inform her in a low voice.
"Who?" she asks worriedly.
"I think I heard that her name is Marley. She's the redhead talking to Ava." I point her out.
"Marley?" Natalie sounds shocked. "She was one of the ones in on the plan. What is she thinking?"
I follow Natalie as she heads toward them, unsure if I need to, but too curious to see what is going to happen to stop myself. As soon as she reaches them, Natalie begins. "Marley? What is going on?"
She takes a deep breath. "You need to send me back, like this, injured." She points to the white bandage on her face that is already seeping blood.
"Why?" Natalie asks patiently.
"If Erudite did this and all the Divergent die, and the only survivors are non-Divergents, it will seem too suspicious. It will confirm for them that they were right. They will keep watching and keep killing Divergents. But if even one of us survives, it will raise the question of whether it might have been just a coincidence that all of the Divergents on their list were headed out somewhere together, and that almost all of us died. So I go back, injured. I'm going to be scarred." Marley takes a deep breath, tears gathering in her deep green eyes. "I'm going be hideous. No one is going to want to look at me. If this was real, I'd leave Dauntless. I'd become factionless rather than take their pity over my ruined looks. So it will make it all the more convincing to Erudite when that happens."
A comprehending look starts to cross Natalie's face. "How long do you plan on staying?"
"How long do you think is safe? I stay just shy of that and then become factionless. I hang around for a week, maybe two, let the factionless patrol see me, and then I disappear. Just another lost member of the factionless. No big deal."
Natalie purses her lips together as she thinks. "That's a risky plan."
Marley gives a derisive laugh. "It's just me. No one important. And looking like this?" She points again to the white bandage. "I really don't care if something does go wrong."
"You'll check in with Hana as soon as you can." It's a command, not a question.
"It's okay for Eli to know what is going on, too, isn't it?" Marley verifies.
"Yes." Natalie pinches the bridge of her nose, like she's trying to relieve a pressure that is building up there. "You should definitely let Eli know, too. It's probably going to take both of them to get you out of there."
There are odd sights everywhere I look. Lucas disappeared to find his sister as soon as he left the truck. The first time I see him after that, Trina has her arms around him. I'm afraid of what that means.
There is one woman in a red t-shirt and yellow overalls who holds a young boy in black. He looks like he's getting too big to be held, but she holds him and talks to him with their foreheads touching. Suddenly he looks around and yells, "Mom-ma! Daddy!"
Zoe, a young girl who works at the Bureau, comes over and talks to them. She points the woman over to the rest of the Amity and the GDs who aren't coming with us. She starts separating them into groups. The only exception is the Amity woman and the Dauntless boy, who seem to be their own group.
Natalie wanders over and she and Zoe talk for a few minutes. It doesn't seem to be a very friendly discussion. Zoe walks over to the mismatched pair. The Amity woman allows Zoe to give the little boy a drink from a vial, before taking her own vial. Zoe turns her back for a moment, and it almost looks like the woman dumps the liquid out, but as I watch her she reacts like the rest of them. Ava had told us there was only one child leaving, and the only reason he was leaving was that both of his parents were Divergent. If I had to guess, both of his parents must be dead, so they are going to send him back. I wonder who his parents were.
The Amity are soon given memory serum. They look dazed and confused while they are given new memories. Their faces are blank, and they parrot back everything they are told. It seems to me that their memories are going to match a little too exactly, but since they can't be allowed to remember us, I can see why they are doing it.
The injured from Dauntless who are going back seem to be handled more as individuals. They are treated and given the serum along with a specific memory or thought about how they sustained their injury.
The last thing I see that day are the bodies. I walk down the rows of bodies that are laid out to be taken back to the city for the factionless to cremate. Unexpectedly, I see a body I recognize. I look at it for just a moment, making sure I am right. I see the body next to her. My step falters as I realize that both Jazz, my trainer, and her husband are here. In my mind's eye, I see her kissing the top of her son's head as she leaves breakfast each morning during my initiation.
The little boy I saw being held by the Amity woman must have been her son.
"I'm leaving," Lucas says two days later as we sit at breakfast.
"What? Where? Why?" I look over at him shocked. He certainly doesn't think he can go back to Chicago, does he?
"I finally admitted to David that I just can't handle being here anymore. That I can't stand watching and knowing my family and friends have moved on without me," Lucas takes a long shuttering breath, "and my older sister was on the train." He trails off into a silence that tells me I was right. His sister wasn't one of the survivors.
"I'm sorry," I say softly, after what feels like an appropriate amount of time.
Lucas nods his thanks. "I can't watch my family go through it again, especially not since it is real this time and I'm mourning her, too. But I just can't keep myself away from the monitors. David's going to talk to Randall, his boss, since he is the one in control of the Bureau. David thinks he can get me moved to Indianapolis and I can help out there." Lucas sounds a little unsure about this idea.
"Why Indianapolis?" I've heard of that city. I think I've tested some blood samples from the fringe outside of it.
"Indianapolis is another experimental city," Lucas says quietly. "They are starting to have some problems. There are no factions there to help people learn a better way of thinking, just rules to keep everyone in line. They know what they are doing there since they didn't have their memories erased."
I wonder for a moment if that would make a difference. If knowing where we came from — what was on the other side of the fence and why we were there — would keep something like the killing of the Divergent from happening. If everyone knew the truth, would we still be with our families or would they be even more determined in hunting us down?
"Anyway," Lucas continues. He must have gotten tired of waiting for me to say something. "I would still be helping. David's going to try to talk Randall into letting me be part of the police force there. I might even be able to pass some of the ideals of the factions on. The most important thing to me is that they don't have any cameras that show our city there. I don't plan to forget where I came from, I just can't keep straddling two worlds."
"When do you leave?" I ask as Lucas stands up.
"I don't know for sure. Everything still has to clear Randall. I don't know how long it will take, but I'm hoping it will be soon." Lucas scuffs the toe of his shoe in the ground. "Ava's going to need someone to replace me on patrol. I was thinking about it, and you don't seem to be too happy in the labs some days, and you did a really good job keeping your wits about you at the blood brawl in the fringe and again at the train wreck. Would you be interested? Would you like me to mention you as a possibility to Ava?"
It only takes me a second to think about it. Security — patrolling the fringe — that's a Dauntless job. That's more like what I thought I was getting myself into by leaving Erudite. "Let Ava know I'm very interested."
I hope you enjoyed this little look into George's life. I don't have any intention of taking this any further. I appreciate all of you who took the time to read, review, follow, and/or favorite my little story here.
Thank you again to BK2U for agreeing to beta this story. I appreciate you finding the time for George's story amidst your other authors' chapters so I can publish it when these events happen in The Blackest Shade of Gray.
I'm back to Hana's world again. I hope to see you there! - SR