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Chapter One: How it started
The day it all started was in truth the day I last cared for. I had just turned/ it was a relatively normal day in the sector of erudite my family resided in. The only difference was that I had gotten sick and was held home from school. It was in truth as horrible as it was getting over a nasty flu strand that the yearly vaccine I already took was probably the only reason I didn't end up being admitted into the infirmary and instead got to stay home with my father til I was to get better. Which wasn't mostly horrid.
On the last day before I was to go back to school, sick or not. I made my way to my father's study to ask if he could make me some soup or just give me some rice cakes to fill my stomach until he was free to do so. Only when i walked into his study did I find him opening a box while he spoke to some distinctly familiar female voice on his computer screen.
“Coutler with how well the device was thought out it should very easily be able to read how high the level of divergence a person is.” the female said. My father nodded taking out a coned object with a firearm-esk handle.
… maybe I should just wait til he's done with our leader.
“So I would just insert a memory drive into the slot to record the data. Will this also keep track of who it's administered to? A visual representation, of course, to identify who has already had the use of the machine.” Father asks as he moves the tool around the office testing out how the objects feel for him. “I'll get the developers right to that. Seems simple enough to add on.” she agrees intently. “Jeanine, how do you intend to get the factions to agree to being tested? Surely this is a remarkable piece, there is no question of that.” he starts kindly. “But logically only one other faction would even concede to the use of this on their members.”
Though I was always too curious for my own good.
“Dauntless, sure if you give them enough information and ride Max till he thinks it's his idea.” he almost smirks at the screen. “However amity, candor, and abnegation would only do so through intense blackmail.” he puts out. “Joanna would never give way from her faction's values for her gain.” he points out. “Kang blatantly refuses to believe there's even a possibility of having an actual divergent person in existence.”
“Hudson,” Jeanine spoke up “I'm aware that Jack sees no way of this being real, just wait til I get the finalized plan worked out.” she supplies “Marcus is our real problem.”
Maybe I could blame it on the eavesdropping on being really sick, not entirely lucid, but fuck I need to get out of here before something worse happens.
“We could formulate an intro to the plan type plan soon. Evelin surely will leave him soon, in the very least she’ll report him to Dauntless for his wrongdoings against her.”
Backing away from a room you are already in is much harder of a thing when your family's study has apparently never been dusted because of all the bunnies in the air and still being on the mend.
Going into a sneezing fit into the doorway to the room was the worst absolute thing that could happen when I should be in bed still instead of listening to a coup in the waiting only for what I can assume is the entire faction. So when the tingle in my nose starts to hit, starting to hold my nose to stop the onset from giving away my place.
But it didn't stop the feeling in my nose just gave it more reign and opened my mouth hoping to just have me be able to breathe when everything just goes white.
—--
Blinking open my eyes, I see another pair of eyes staring back into mine.
“Dad?” I ask, wondering what just happened to me and why my dad looks like he's maybe about to cry just a little. “Erikson,” I've never heard him speak so softly “Are you alright?” ignoring his question I look past him. Good, we are still in the study, “what happened? I was going to sneeze and then, and then?” his stare of confusion is something I never thought I would see “You probably just got confused trying to go to the bathroom, we should go to the infirmary soon, you fell. I think you should make sure there was no concussion after that fall you had during your swan dive into your sickness.” he teased. Trying to nod up at him I just end up a groaning mess on the floor.
The smell of my vomit is coming to me now, “I don't want to be sick again.” was the only thing that came out before everything faded and everything went away except for someone calling my name.
“Erickson!” is yelled out
I wonder who’s calling for me.
“..ting a car...”
Where are they going? Am I going with them? Hmm.
“..hings ok.”
Of course, it is, what could be wrong?
“Stay with me.”
But I'm already here with you, where else would I go?
—-
“You can't do this to a child!” is all I can hear now. “Let alone my child! After everything I've done for you.” it's my father yelling. “you would really do this to me?”
The urgency to fully wake up is all that there is now, but I can't. I don't know a damned thing that's happening outside the comfort of my closed eyes.
“It's not personal at all Hudson, you knew that this was what we were working for always has been.”
Jeanine is doing this, she's the one making my father feel this hopeless.
There's a wailing of metal chiming against metal screaming louder than the arguing voices in the room.
“Silence Coutler before I have you removed for the negligence of a dependant in your care.”
What a bitch to someone she uses for her own gain.
“It's reading!” She sounds as giddy as a schoolgirl
“Divergence reading in progress.” an artificial voice speaks aloud in the room “Divergence reading 56 percent complete.” the same voice speaks. “Don't think that for a second that I wasn't going to test your children, we need to test everyone. No one is trusted, so we shall be starting with our dependants.”
The sounds of the mechanical creaking start to get louder, drowning out anything else with the uproar in the room.
“Divergence reading complete.” the artificial female speaks.
“Would you like to know the results?” it asks.
A noise that I can't even begin to describe left Jeanine at the question, “Yes, I want to know the reading.”
“Very well. Divergence level is 92 percent.”
“What factions are present in the subject?”
“Aptitudes present are,
Erudite.
Dauntless.
Abnegation.