If she chose Erudite

Chapter 7

The sound of the door closing startles me and I look up from from the blue mosaic design on the ceiling. Caleb had left the room a while ago, but Jeanine has been working on her computer for a few minutes and I have tried to be as quiet as possible. Luckily, she hasn't noticed me.

I open the door to the rest of the room slowly. The room is dark, apart from the stars shining through the window. I walk back to the spot I stood earlier, in front of the window, and put my hands against the glass. It feels cold beneath my fingers and I look down, leaning my head against my hands.

My brother agreed to turn the whole Dauntless faction into mindless soldiers. To use them against the factionless, who seemed so poor and hungry, but are ready to take over the government when the time's right.

The thought of seeing people dying on the streets is unbearable. Not only the factionless will be killed, but also the Abnegation. They walk through the Factionless section all the time to give the Factionless supplies, and they, of course, won't be warned before the attack starts.

I think about what I should do now. I certainly don't want to be in Erudite anymore, I don't want to be responsible for all those deaths, unnecessary deaths.

I could just drop out of the Erudite and warn the factionless, but what effect would that have? They would know about the attack, but they can't prevent the attack. A lot of people would still be killed and because the Factionless could fight back, they would also kill Dauntless. Which means more deaths.

I could also go back to Abnegation to save the ones I love by taking them outside the fence. But who knows what's outside the fence? There could be monsters, there could be an entirely different society, there could be nothing.

And apart from that, why would my parents come with me? I betrayed them by choosing Erudite. Would they still love me? Would they even believe there'll be an attack, or would they just think I'm manipulated by the Erudite and think I'm trying to get them away from Abnegation for Erudite's sake?

My last option is going to Dauntless, to warn them for what Erudite's planning to do. This could prevent the attack and save so many li-

A cold hand touches my shoulder and my head jerks up.

"What are you doing here?"

I turn around and see Cara looking at me with a stern expression.

"I.." I decide to just tell the truth. Cara has already proven to be trustworthy. She knows I'm Divergent and I'm not killed yet, so I assume she hasn't told anyone. "I was just walking through the headquarters and this office was still open, so I went inside."

Cara shakes her head and grabs my shoulder, dragging me to the door. "You have to be careful, Beatrice."

She sighs and loosens her grip on my shoulder. "I need to talk to you, quickly. I can see on your face that something's going on and you need to tell me. If you don't, you can get in a lot of trouble."

I shut my eyes for a few seconds and look up at Cara. "Okay, I'll tell you.. but I have to bring Jane. She's also involved in this."

A few minutes later we're in Cara's room. The rooms are pure white, but the furniture is dark blue.

Jane sits next to me, playing with a strand of her long, black hair. Cara sits on the other side of the wooden table, giving us a cup of tea.

"So," Cara starts, looking from me to Jane and back to me. "Now I really want to know what's going on."

"Well," I start, but I don't really know where I should start. I look at Jane for help, but she shakes her head. You got us into this, so you should talk, says her expression.

"Today we went to the factionless sector of the city, pretending to be dropped out of initiation. That way we would probably get trustworthy information about the factionless. Everything went okay, untill my mother came in,"

I look up to see if Cara's has changed, but she just mentions me to continue talking.

"I immediately blew our cover and Evelyn told us, almost threatened us, not to give this information to the Erudite."

I look at Jane, silently asking her to continue. "Yeah, that's true. I didn't really understand what was going on at first, but the woman who brought supplies to the factionless appeared to be Tris's mother. They recognized each other and that way, Evelyn understood we weren't drop-outs from initiation. We said we were from Candor, but she could see now Tris was from Abnegation." Jane repeats.

"There's more,", I blurt out. Jane looks at me, surprised.

"After I went to the dormitory tonight, I couldn't sleep. I started walking through the compound, and found one office that was still open. It appeared to be Jeanine's."

Jane's  expression changes from surprised to shocked. "Did you go inside?" She asks quietely.

"Yes." I look down, ashamed. It isn't nice to go into someone else's office. It's against all the things my parents ever thought me. Erudite has a bad influence on me.

"At first, I didn't know it was Jeanine's. I just stood in front of the window, looking at the city. I had to use the toilet, so I did, but when I was about to leave, Jeanine came in with someone else."

I look up at Cara and see she's trying not to look too freaked out.

"She started talking to someone else and she started a sound recording. Apparently, there was a microphone on my clothes - or yours." I say, looking at Jane. "She heard our conversation with Evelyn. She heard everything."

Jane looks shocked and lets out a faint moan. "So this is it? We'll be factionless tomorrow?"

"No, you could also be dead." Cara adds.

I roll my eyes and speak up again. "This is no time for jokes. There's more. The person that was with her, was Caleb. He agreed that he would help her, if I could stay in Erudite."

"Where did he have to help her with?" Cara asks me, "This can't be good."

"He's going to help her attack the factionless, using the Dauntless as soldiers." I answer.

"Why would the Dauntless want to help Jeanine?" Jane questions, looking weirdly at me.

"They don't." I say, "Jeanine wants to use simulation serum."

The room becomes silent and Cara's expression is almost desperate when she starts talking.

"We can't let her do this. There'll die so many innocent people."

I sigh and nod my head. "When you found me in Jeanine's office, I was thinking about things I could do. I don't think warning the factionless or Abnegation will work. We have to warn the Dauntless."

Cara nods and looks questioning at Jane. "What do you think?"

Jane lets her hair go and looks from me to Cara with a serious expression.

"I think Tris and I should go to Dauntless."