Chaos Creator

Chapter 13: Conflict

"QUIET DOWN, EVERYONE!"

I stand in the front of the room next to Jack, but purposefully quite a distance from Vana. After the incident in the cafeteria I avoided Vana for the next few hours. Jack gave me a stern warning about my dangerous behavior which I ignored for the most part. All I could think about was Vana's face when I pressed the knife to the boy's throat. It reminded me of when I got into the fight with Pheonix.

The flash of pure fear in her eyes.

She was scared of me, I didn't deserve her. I never have. I knew I didn't deserve her, but I was too selfish to let her go.

"I know many of you are confused and shaken by what happened yesterday," Jack says. "I have heard many reports from a variety of perspectives, and have gotten a sense for what is straightforward and what requires more investigation."

We were all tired after hours of staying up and deciding what was best for our factions.

"What seems to me to require more investigation," Jack says, "is the Divergent. If you are one of the Divergent, please step forward so that we can hear from you."

Dauntless however did not have complete control over what Jack forced upon us, given we were staying in his faction. I wouldn't have asked for some of the people in my faction to put themselves in the line of danger for the sake of investigation.

I watched a few tense in the crowd, including Daisy. When her eyes locked onto mine I mouthed for her not to step forward.

First there is shuffle in the crowd and Four appears from the mass of people. Then there is Tris close behind, and then right after her is Daisy. I clench my jaw at her disobeying my orders but don't speak up. A few Candor push forward and finally Marcus parts through the crowd.

"You, Marcus?" says Jack, obviously shocked.

"Yes," Marcus says. "I understand that you are concerned—that you all are concerned. You had never heard of the Divergent a week ago, and now all that you know is that they are immune to something to which you are susceptible, and that is a frightening thing. But I can assure you that there is nothing to be afraid of, as far as we are concerned."

"It seems clear to me," says Jack, "that we were attacked so that the Erudite could find the Divergent. Do you know why that is?"

"No, I do not," says Marcus. "Perhaps their intention was merely to identify us. It seems like useful information to have, if they intend to use their simulations again."

"That was not their intention." Tris starts. "They wanted to kill us. They've been killing us since before any of this happened."

An unfamiliar feeling of guilt shoots through me as I remember the nasty things I used to think about Divergents.

"That sounds very much like a conspiracy theory," Jack says. "What reason would the Erudite have to kill you?"

"I can testify that Erudite has been influencing Dauntless in elimnating divergents. I myself was suspected of being divergent a little over a year ago, and Jeanine tried to convince my father to kill me," Vana speaks up.

"Although I'm sorry to hear that, that does not answer my question. Why would Erudite do this?"Jack presses on.

"Obviously we don't know," Four says, "but there are nearly a dozen mysterious deaths recorded among the Dauntless from the past six years, and there is a correlation between those people and irregular aptitude test results or initiation simulation results."

"Correlation does not constitute evidence." Jack states.

I hope Vana has thought of a new place for Dauntless to stay, because it has become quite obvious we could no longer stay here.