Life during a war
Chapter 23: David
I don't know how long we're driving for until we come to a stop. Tobias is sitting on my left, Christina on my right. Tobias holds my hand, drawing invisible patterns on it with his thumb.
A sign on the fence reads Bureau of Genetic Welfare.
I look out of the window and watch as tall gates open, and when they are wide enough we start moving again. It isn't long before we stop again, this time by another fence, a gate opens and we move again.
But it isn't long before we come to another stop outside of a huge building, which must be the Bureau.
Zoe and Amar get out of the front and walk round the back, opening the truck door for us. Tobias gets out first before helping me out, everyone else follows. I look around and the Bureau is huge.
"Welcome to the compound. This building used to be O'Hare Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country. Now it's the headquarters of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare – or just the Bureau, as we call it around here. It's an agency of the United States government." Zoe explains.
We all look confused. None of us know what "airport" or "United States" mean, and all together the words just don't make sense.
"Sorry, I keep forgetting how little you all know." She apologises.
"I believe it's your fault we don't know anything, not ours." Zeke says.
"I should rephrase. I keep forgetting how little information we provided you with. An airport is a hub for air travel, and…"
Christina cuts her off. "Air travel?"
"One of the technological developments that wasn't necessary for us to know about when we were inside the city was air travel. It's safe, fast, and amazing." Amar says.
"Wow." I say, it sounds amazing.
"Anyway. When the experiments were first developed, the airport was converted into this compound so that we could monitor the experiments from a distance." Zoe says. "I'm going to walk you to the control room to meet David, the leader of the Bureau. You will see a lot of things you don't understand, but it may be best to get some preliminary explanations before you start asking me about them. So take note of the things you want to learn more about and feel free to ask me or Amar later."
I gasp at the mention of David. He was the person that my other said not to trust in her letter.
Tobias squeezes my hand to reassure me that everything is going to be okay. I squeeze back and we start following Zoe and Amar into the Bureau.
…
A few feet into the control room is an older man wearing a smile and a dark blue uniform. When he sees us approaching, he spreads his hands as if to welcome us. David, I assume. The man my mother said not to trust.
"This, is what we've waited for since the very beginning." He says.
I take the photograph from my pocket and look at it. The man – David – is in the photo, standing right next to my mother. I cover my mother's face with the tip of my finger. All of the hope that was growing inside of me has withered. If my mother or my father were still alive, they would have been waiting by the doors for me.
"My name is David. As Zoe probably told you already, I am the leader of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. I'm going to do my best to explain things. The first thing you should know is that the information Edith Prior gave you is only partially true. She provided only as much information as you needed to meet the goals of our experiment. And in many cases, that meant oversimplifying, omitting, and even outright falsehood. Now that you are here, there is no need for any of those things."
"You all keep talking about experiments. What experiments?" Tobias asks.
"Yes, well, I was getting to that. Where did they start when they explained it to you?" David asks, looking at Amar.
"Doesn't matter where you start. You can't make it easier to take." Amar answers.
"A long time ago, the United States government…"
"The united what?" Uriah asks, cutting David off.
"It's a country, a large one. It has specific borders and its own governing body, and we're in the middle of it right now. We can talk about it later. Go ahead, sir." Amar says.
"A few centuries ago, the government of this country became interested in enforcing certain desirable behaviours in its citizens. There had been studies that indicated that violent tendencies could be partially traced to a person's genes – a gene called 'the murder gene' was the first of these, but there were quite a few more, genetic predispositions toward cowardice, dishonesty, low intelligence – all the qualities, in other words, that ultimately contribute to a broken society. Obviously there are quite a few factors that determine personality, including a person's upbringing and experiences. But despite the peace and prosperity that had reigned in this country for nearly a century, it seemed advantageous to our ancestors to reduce the risk of these undesirable qualities showing up in our population by correcting them. In other words, by editing humanity. That's how the genetic manipulation experiment was born. It takes several generations for any kind of genetic manipulation to manifest, but people were selected from the general population in large numbers, according to their backgrounds or behaviour, and they were given the option to give a gift to our future generations, a genetic alteration that would make their descendants just a little bit better. But when the genetic manipulations began to take effect, the alterations had disastrous consequences. As it turns out, the attempt has resulted not in corrected genes, but in damaged ones. Take away someone's fear, or low intelligence, or dishonesty… and you take away their compassion. Take away someone's aggression and you take away their motivation, or their ability to assert themselves. Take away their selfishness and you take away their sense or self-preservation. If you think about it, I'm sure you know exactly what I mean."
I know exactly what he's talking about. The factions. They all lose something by gaining a virtue. Dauntless, they're brave, but they're cruel. Erudite, they're intelligent, but they're vain. Amity, they're peaceful, but they're passive. Candor, they're honest, but they're inconsiderate. Abnegation, they're selfless but they're stifling.
"Humanity has never been perfect, but the genetic alterations made it worse than it has ever been before. This manifested itself in what we call the Purity War. A civil war, waged by those with damaged genes, against the government and everyone with pure genes. The Purity War caused a level of destruction formerly unheard of on American soil, eliminating almost half of the county's population." David continues.
"The visual is up." Some guy says.
A map appears on the screen above David's head, it is an unfamiliar shape, so I'm not sure what it's supposed to represent, but it is covered in patches of pink, red and dark crimson lights.
"This is our country before the Purity War… And this is after." David says.
The lights start to recede, the patches shrink like puddles of water drying in the sun. Then I realise that the lights were people – people, disappearing, their lights going out. I stare at the screen, unable to wrap my mind around such a substantial loss.
"When the war was finally over, the people demanded a permanent solution to the genetic problem. And that is why the Bureau of Genetic Welfare was formed. Armed with all the scientific knowledge at our government's disposal, our predecessors designed experiments to restore humanity to its genetically pure state. They called for genetically damaged individuals to come forward so that the Bureau could alter their genes. The Bureau placed them in secure environments to settle in for the long haul, equipped with basic versions of the serums to help them control their society. They would wait for the passage of time – for the generations to pass, for each one to produce more genetically healed humans. Or, as you currently know them… the Divergent. The factions were our predecessors' attempt to incorporate a 'nurture' element to the experiment – they discovered that mere genetic correction was not enough to change the way people behaved. A new social order, combined with the genetic modification, was determined to be the most complete solution to the behavioural problems that the genetic damage had created. The factions were later introduced to most of our other experiments, three of which are currently active. We have gone to great lengths to protect you, observe you, and learn from you."
"So when Edith Prior said we were supposed to determine the cause of Divergence and come out and help you, that was…" Will says.
"We wanted to make sure that the leaders of your city valued them. We didn't expect the leader of Erudite to start hunting them down – or for the Abnegation to even tell her what they were – and contrary to what Edith Prior said, we never really intended for you to send a Divergent army out to us. We don't, after all, truly need your help. We just need your healed genes to remain intact and to be passed on to future generations." David says, gesturing to my stomach.
"So, we're all just one big experiment?" Shauna asks, sounding angry.
"Yes." David says. "This is a lot to take in, so I will show you to a place where you can get some rest, and food."
"Wait." I say. "You said you've been observing us. How?"
Zoe purses her lips. David nods to one of the people at the desks behind him. All at once, all of the screens turn on, each of them showing footage from different cameras. On the ones nearest to me, I see Dauntless headquarters. The Merciless Mart. Millennium Park. The Hancock Building. The Hub.
"You've always known that the Dauntless observe the city with security cameras. Well, we have access to those cameras too." David says.
They've been watching us.
Everything we do has been seen by them.
They knew we were coming because they watched us come. That's why Zoe and Amar came to get us.
We can't trust them.
Hey Ravens, sorry for the wait.
I will update again as soon as I can.
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