I pass from one side to the other the folders with proposals that Michael gave me when we arrived at The Hub. I look at the clock on the back wall, I still have a couple of hours before the meeting starts. My father and the rest of the Abnegation team are in a private meeting room. Normally we work in the government offices within our faction, but we have spent so much time in this building the last few weeks that the decision was made to work from here so as not to waste time traveling. I'm meant to organize the folders by priority, but nothing they say is important to me right now; who cares about collecting clothing for donation if there aren't enough Abnegation members who can donate the amount of clothing needed for the huge factionless population that now exists.
I decide to pack everything in the cloth bag I bring with me and head down the hall to the end of the hallway where the elevators are located. Abnegation members almost never use them, in their strange logic it is selfish to save themselves the fatigue and hassle of climbing hundreds of floors, but now I am alone and I feel no remorse. I press the button that takes me straight to the floor where the selection room is. I enter it and, as I expected, it is empty. The high ceiling makes it feel drafty and my footsteps echo. I walk directly towards the rows of elevated seats belonging to the Dauntless faction, I sit looking directly at the center podium where in a half circle rest five bowls with the characteristic materials of each faction.
The room has witnessed countless selection ceremonies, I have been in some accompanying my parents but I remember mine as if it were tattooed in my mind. I remember the noise from the hundreds of people gathered here when I took the knife on the podium. 'Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless' said Tori, the woman who administered my aptitude test. How can it be that I have bravery and intelligence inside me and I couldn't make use of them to choose the faction I really wanted? Abnegation does not surprise me, the most selfless act I have ever done was to choose to spill my blood on the grey stones of my faction to spare my parents from suffering.
"Are you having second thoughts Tris?" The male voice wakes me from my daydream, I turn to see the tall, muscular boy sitting in the row where I am sitting, leaving two seats away from each other. "Hi, Uriah," I reply with a subtle smile. Uriah is one of the ambassadors of Dauntless, he is my age and one of the few people from the other factions who sincerely listens to what I have to say during our meetings. We have been working together for many months now, he and the other ambassador Will do not seem to loathe Susan and me, like the Erudite ambassadors, nor are they as complicated as the Candor ambassadors or annoying as the Amity ambassadors.
During our first meetings at The Hub, while discussing the proposals we had for protection patrols in factionless areas she said Beatrice was a name way too serious for me and didn't really seem to suit me; he has called me Tris ever since, I will never dare tell him how much I like that nickname and it's even the one I use to introduce myself whenever I meet a factionless. I wish in Abnegation they would accept to call me that, but I'm not willing to go through the lecture my father gave me back when he explained the importance of introducing myself seriously and living up to the role I'm preparing for.
"They're not making it easy on you huh?" Uriah says as he smiles looking at the podium with the bowls. I admire the carefree attitude he manages with, as if life in general was a game to him, but also the way he can get serious when the situation demands it. "No" I answer him almost in a murmur, though I try not to make my voice sound as defeated as I actually feel. "You're in the right, don't let them take it away from you" he doesn't look at me, but I can't look away from him, he's proving me right, he's affirming what I've tried in vain to let others know, something is going on in Chicago.
"You know something..." It's not a question, I'm affirming it. Uriah turns to look at me and it's impossible to hide the emotions reflected in his eyes, I see fear, anger, uncertainty and something close to guilt. "And you know more than you've let on in the meetings" he's not accusing me, it's as if he wants to let me know that he understands that I have secrets that I can't confess to him and that in turn, he can't tell me his. Everything would be simpler if I could explain to the others that my knowledge of the increase of the factionless besides being notoriously obvious, comes from the sporadic meetings I've had with Evelyn Johnson, the woman who claims to be their leader. But that's not a secret for me to reveal, letting the other factions know that there are people on the streets who are more organized than they are can only end in chaos.
"I know that apparently being part of any faction these days doesn't assure you safety" Uriah nods silently and turns to look at the bowls again "Not even in Abnegation?" he asks. "It's more common for people to leave Abnegation than it is for them to come to it. It is also very difficult to get kicked out of there, but the oppression within the faction is not pleasant."
"Are you being oppressed Tris?" I let my gaze glance dive into the ground below us as if it was the most interesting thing I've ever seen in my life. I'd like to explain, to tell him that yes, that living each of my days trying to be selfless is eating me up inside. That if I were from another faction maybe I would be taken more serious at this meetings. But I can't, I chose to be selfless and I have to make peace with that. As if reading my mind, Uriah changes the subject "There is very little left before the selection ceremony" he says looking at me again as he stands up "Maybe you should focus your points towards the faction initiation processes, word is they can get a bit brutal" his tone is playful again, though his gaze is serious. For the second time in this conversation I am surprised, he is actually being somewhat supportive, I even think he is trying to clue me in so that others will listen to me.
The excitement helps me to be bolder, "Was your initiation brutal Uriah?" he starts to walk towards the exit but laughs and answers me "Oh Tris, you know I can't reveal the secrets of my faction, but for what it's worth, let's just say I'm glad I'm an official member of Dauntless and not an initiate" with that he walks out the big doors leaving me alone.
The rest of the day goes by smoothly, although I had a list of points I wanted to touch on at the meeting, the conversation with Uriah got me pondering and I decided it would be better to allow other factions to present their issues. We spent most of the meeting hearing how Amity was proposing a plan to increase harvest production in any season of the year. When the meeting comes to an end and Max, one of the leaders of Dauntless, asks in general but looks directly at me if anyone has anything else to add, I don't allow myself to be intimidated by the mocking looks of him and Eric, the other leader. The two of them have been nothing but an obstruction in my quest to shed light on the city's problems.
The room begins to empty and the abnegation team remains seated, when everyone leaves we have to make sure everything is neat and tidy. Uriah gives me a friendly smile before leaving. Some of the older members of our faction still have some business to discuss so they allow Susan and I to leave for the faction without waiting for them. We both take the bus in complete silence, Susan is the perfect example of what someone from Abnegation would have to be, small talk is not encouraged and neither is curiosity so we travel in complete silence until we reach the edge of the compound. Susan says goodbye to me and heads to the warehouses, today we finish considerably early so she will take advantage of the remaining hours of the afternoon to help the others; I, on the other hand, head to our offices, I must take benefit of the fact that the others are still in The Hub to investigate at my leisure about what Uriah told me.
There really isn't much information printed to help me find what I'm looking for. Factions have never been required to share official data on members who successfully complete their initiation, but some reports of deaths have made their way to our offices. Esther, the secretary in the ambassador area helps me gather the reports we have for the last three years. I organize all the papers by factions on my desk and laugh as I realize that I am not impressed that most of the papers belong to Candor, Abnegation and Amity and most of them belong to adults whose causes of death do not arouse my suspicion, except for some younger people who either by illness or some unfortunate accident ended up in this pile of papers. On the other hand the Dauntless and Erudite pile is considerably short, most likely neither faction considers that Abnegation should know about the matters going on inside their compounds.
After carefully reading the papers from all factions, I feel a bit of hope mixed with fear as I realize that at least ten of the 15 reports from Dauntless and Erudite are from initiates in the last two years from both born in those factions and transferred. I can't help but wonder if these numbers will have something to do with the divergents, as I highly doubt that these are the only deceased that both factions have had in all this time, but somehow these initiates were processed in reports, was it so as not to raise suspicions?
Now more than ever I wish that despite the circumstances, Caleb and I had kept in touch, but given that two years ago when we chose faction was when the Erudite newsletters started criticizing every act we did in Abnegation, it was never possible for us to go to see him on visiting days; and even if we could have kept in touch despite that, we never heard from him. No doubt he is one of those who take our law of 'Faction before blood' very seriously. But if it were different, I could ask him more about these deaths and the expulsions of his faction members.
With only two weeks to go before the selection ceremony I can't help but urge that we resolve this. Uriah said to pay more attention to the initiations, specifically that of his faction, but how can I do that if everyone is keeping that information as if it were the biggest secret in the world. Tomorrow we won't have meetings until the afternoon, leaving us the whole morning free, the only thing I can think of to not get stuck at this point is to visit Evelyn and share more information than I would like with her. Although she insists that all she wants is for the rest of the citizens to recognize them as people of value, I can't help but be suspicious of her, she has a fire in her eyes that never goes out, a fire that looks for any opportunity to leap and expand into chaos.
Evelyn has my mother's age and although I have no idea what faction she comes from, I know she was not born as factionless. She knows everyone's ways all too well and has a broad understanding of the way meetings are run in The Hub. Whoever she was in her life before the streets, I'm sure she had a privileged position and access to far more information than she has shared with me, but I can't complain, I haven't been completely honest with her either; even though she shared with me the biggest secret of the factionless: the giant amount of divergent among their numbers, I can't let my guard down and tell her that I'm divergent too.
A/N:
If perhaps any of you took enough interest in this story to continue reading this second chapter leave a comment so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself hahaha.
And if you are reading this, thank you :)