STAGE TWO

ERIC POV

I am sitting in the control room watching the fear simulation room on the monitors. Gus is not happy that I am here. But I really don't give a shit. Four has already motioned that he has had to delete the footage for both Uriah and Tris today. Shit! We are in trouble here. We made sure that Uriah and Tris followed each other so that if we did have to delete footage we could explain it away as a computer error. They are the only two that we know are divergent but it is still possible that there could be more.

Suzy is having her simulation now, I hate having to watch this. Especially when I can't see what her fear is, I can only see her facial expressions. Fuck! Four just gave the signal. I rush out of the control room and down to the fear simulation room. I burst through the door just as Suzy is waking up. Four is playing with the computer and I run over and give Suzy a hug.

"Suzy here is my key. I need you to go and find Uriah and Tris. Take them to my apartment and I need you to all stay there until Four and I get there. Do not talk to anyone or tell them where you are going. Okay?" I say.

Suzy leaves the room without question and I now turn to Four. "What are we going to do?" I ask him.

"Calm down. We will fix this up. Ring Erudite; tell them that we have had to halt the fear simulations because there is something wrong with our computers. I will get Lauren to do her computer thing that she does so that Erudite can't find out that we are manually deleting records. Go out and tell the rest of the initiates they have the day off," Four says.

Not only is my girlfriend in trouble but so is Fours' and his best friends brother. This couldn't be a worst time for this to be happening. Jeanine is going to love this. She will think we have found more divergent's and we are going to have to find a way to hide it.

"How are we going to hide them from Jeanine?" I ask. "She will know that something is wrong."

"Stop panicking. We will get through it. Now go and tell the initiates to go. I need to find Lauren. Once I have found Lauren you can then go and ring Jeanine. I will meet you at your place. Hopefully Jeanine is too busy with her attack plans to worry about us. I better tell Max we have a problem too."

I walk out of the room and see the initiates sitting around waiting for their turn. "There is something wrong with the computer, you can have the rest of the day off," I say.

They all sit there just staring at me. How the hell are these people going to defend Dauntless if we ever have a problem? I just keep walking they will move once I'm gone I am sure of it.

I reach my apartment and I am not in a good mood. Max doesn't give a shit about the computer problem. But that is Max; just find another computer he says. So that is one less person to worry about. Jeanine on the other hand has decided she wants to be in Dauntless for the rest of the fear simulations.

I walk in the door to find Tris, Suzy and Uriah all sitting in the lounge room. I am just about to say hi when there is a knock at my door. I open the door to find Four and Zeke standing there. What is Zeke doing at my apartment? It doesn't really matter at this stage we need all the help we can get.

Four walks past me and into the room mumbling, "We are going to need Zeke's help."

Four goes and sits next to Tris and puts his arm around her.

"Are you two together?" Asks Uriah.

"Yes they are. Now we have more important things to discuss right now," I say.

Uriah just shrugs and keeps his attention on me. "You three," I say pointing at the three initiates, "are all divergent."

"What?" says Suzy.

"Suzy were you aware the simulation wasn't real?" Four asks.

"Yes," she says.

"Fuck!" I say. Not loud but everyone has turned and looked at me.

"Eric you need to stay calm," Four says. "We can get them through this."

"How Four?" I ask. "Jeanine is going to be here tomorrow to oversee the rest of the fear simulations with her little band of scientist. They are going to be watching every move we make."

"That's why Zeke is here," he says.

"How is Zeke going to fix this? It isn't party night. This isn't a game of Dare. Jeanine is going to be wanting blood here," I say.

"Zeke is going to take Uriah through his fear landscape," Four says.

"Awesome I get to see big bro's fears," Uriah calls out with a big grin on his face.

"Pay attention Uriah this is serious. One wrong move and you will be dead or a lab rat over in Erudite," I snarl at him.

The smile is wiped from his face and I can see everyone but Four looking a little green.

"How will this help?" Zeke asks.

"We will each take one of you through our fear landscapes. We will show you how you need to act when you are in your fear simulations. We need you to act like a Dauntless would when you are in there. If you don't' then we are all in trouble," Four says.

"Did you get Lauren to screw up the computer?" I ask Four.

"Yeah she has put a virus on there so as soon as the computer is turned on everything will be erased," he says.

"But Erudite will still have ways to retrieve the information," I say.

"Maybe, but we switched out the hard drives. It isn't the computer they think it is. Even if they retrieve the old data it isn't relative to the fear simulations."

"Where is the hard drive now?" I ask.

"I've hidden it. I don't want anyone to know where it is. That way if anything goes wrong Jeanine can't get the data and everyone is safe," Four says.

It makes sense but I also get the sense that until my mother is safe Four wants a safe guard in place in case I turn back to Jeanine. I know I'm not going too but I can't blame him for thinking I might.

"Good. When are we going to do the fear landscapes?" I ask.

"I think we should use the old fear landscape room. Nobody goes down there and the cameras have been disabled so no one will see us. I think we should go after lunch. The sooner we get this over with the better," Four says. "If Jeanine is going to be here tomorrow then we need to be ready for her. We have to keep everyone safe. We also need a plan if it goes wrong. What are we going to do if she finds out one of them is divergent?"

"Shit! I didn't think of that. Leave it with me I will work something out. Do you all understand how serious this is?"

I don't mean to scare them but this is serious. I watch as the all nod their heads. Good.

"Suzy you Tris and Uriah go and have some lunch. Uriah after lunch, take the girls down to the old fear landscape room. We will meet you down there. Don't tell your friends where you are going or what you are doing. If they ask tell them you three are running an errand for me. That should scare them away."

They stand up and go to leave. Four gives Tris a hug I don't know what he is saying to her but she gives him a small smile. I can see she is worried. As Suzy goes to walk past I give her a hug and try to reassure her that everything is going to be alright.

"Can someone please explain to me what the fuck is going on?" Zeke says. "What is it with the Stiffs? You two are the most eligible bachelors in Dauntless and you are running around not only with initiates but Stiffs? Jesus!"

"Zeke," Four says in his most menacing instructor voice.

"What? It's the truth. And when the hell did Eric become the nice guy?" Zeke asks. "My brother's life is on the line and you two are hugging Stiffs. I think I get to be a little freaked out."

"You explain it all to him. I don't have the patience to deal with his crap right now," I say. I have never liked Zeke but I know Four trusts him with his life. So it is better to leave it up to Four. He will be able to talk to him better than I will. I would probably end up hitting him. Plus we really need him. I know Four doesn't want Uriah going through his fear landscape. I also know I sure as hell don't want him in mine either. Uriah's a good kid but shit we would never hear the end of it if he saw our fears. I don't think there would be enough Dauntless cake to shut him up!