To Save a City (Divergent/Eric) 2 of 3 COH Series

Chapter 111

(Hosanna's POV)

Eric and I stand to leave the cafeteria after breakfast.  We call all of the initiates—Dauntless born and transfers—to follow us to the waiting room.  My brother is already getting the simulation rooms set up. He said he wanted to talk to us when we get there though before we make the announcement.
Eric has the initiates take a seat while I knock on the door of my brother's testing room.  I enter and Eric follows right behind me.  "You wanted to talk to us?" I ask him. 
"Yeah, so tell me again, why did Edward and Myra quit?" he questions folding his arms over his chest. 
I glance at Eric.  We can't tell him the truth but I can tell him as much as possible.  "Jeanine wanted them executed.  She found out they're Divergent.  It was the only way to get them out of here and out of her grasp," I explain. 
"So where are they?" Tobias asks me. 
"They're safe," Eric replies. 
"Hosanna, where are they?" he insists again. 
I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket.  I know I'm unable to tell him.  "I can't say.  Just be comforted that Edward is being treated by someone for his injury.  They are both safe and well cared for.  You know neither of us would hurt them.  We had to act quickly and get them out or Jeanine could find out and send someone else to get them.  We have to remain in her good graces still," I elaborate as much as I can softly. 
"Why can't you tell me where?" he persists.
"Because she can't," Eric responds abruptly. 
My brother steps closely to me and Eric moves to push him away.  I put my hand up to stop Eric and allow my brother nearer.  "Why is it that every time I question you like this, your phone rings?" he whispers barely audibly in my ear. 
"Why do you think?" I say just as quietly. 
"Someone is watching us," Tobias breathes.  He backs up slightly and meets my eyes.  My brother just stares at me for a moment, but I can't answer his unspoken question.  I'm sure he knows the answer to that inquiry without a verbal response just from my lack of one.  "Whatever Hosanna," he says dismissively after glaring at me.  "We better get started on these initiates."
Eric and I share a look. If I know my brother, he's not going to let this go. I decide to put it out of my mind for now so I can focus on more pressing issues at the moment.
The three of us step out of the simulation room and stand before the initiates.  Peter and Drew have arrived to the waiting room.  Peter's surrounded by three guards and still in handcuffs.  "Thanks for joining us Peter," Eric jokes. 
He does not look amused.  The rest of the group doesn't seem very happy with Peter either.  I gave a brief speech last night about what had happened between him and Edward to all of the others.  We moved the beds away from the corners with the camera in both dorms and even added another camera per each as well.  They all appear leery of Drew as well. 
"So, this is the beginning of the second stage of initiation.  Eric, Four, and I will be testing you.  You will enter one of these doors and be given a serum.  If you have an allergy or an unusual reaction, please let us know immediately," I say meeting the eyes of each initiate.  Tris looks extremely pale.
I glance to my brother since he's better at explaining this part.  "You will be given a fear serum where each of you will face your deepest fears.  You need to learn to think in the midst of a frightening situation. You must calm yourselves down or figure out a way out of the situation. Do not submit to the fear. The whole point of this is to get out as quickly as possible. Try to remain calm. The faster your time, the better you do, the higher you will rank. Understood?" he asks the room.
A few nod. There are some saying, "Yes, sir."
John, one of our last two Erudite transfers, raises his hand. "Yes," I call on him.
"How does this fear serum work with our own fears?" he questions.
Tobias nudges Eric. "Reminds me of you and Amar on our first day. Should I satisfy his Erudite curiosity?" my brother jokes quietly.
Eric makes a stone-cold face at that comment. My brother goes into a long-winded speech on how the serum interacts with the brain. I've read it all before but the details of such information doesn't appeal to me. Several of the others look a little lost, too. Some nod though, like Tris and Will.  I figured it would be best to get this out of the way so we wouldn't all have to repeat it for each initiate. 
"Alright.  We will call your names starting with two of you.  Peter is going first so he can get back to his punishment in lockup.  Four, you can take him.  Hosanna and I will take John.  Let's satisfy that Erudite curiosity of yours," Eric grins.  He turns around and winks at my brother.  Tobias laughs taking Peter into his testing room while we take John into ours. 
We both step in and John tries to be brave.  He goes and sits on the reclining chair while I take a seat at the computer. 
Eric figured hands on training was best for this so technically today is my first day training in testing the initiates with serum.  We both want to be here to find out if we have any other Divergents this year.  I figured saying something to Lauren might not be a good idea since she's a former Erudite.  She'll help us with the third stage though so we have to find any before then to give them some tips on how to hide it. 
I ready the syringe and start up my computer.  I select the proper program and bring the syringe over to John.  "Why are both of you here?" he asks nervously. 
"Eric's training me on this," I explain. 
"That is a really big syringe.  I figured it would be oral like the aptitude test," he comments apprehensively. 
"Do I need to hold you down?" Eric jokes. 
"No sir, I'm just surprised is all," John responds. 
Eric checks over the syringe to confirm that I put the serum in properly.  "That's fine," he tells me handing it back to me.  "Inject him here," he instructs pointing to a spot on John's neck. 
I take a deep breath before pricking him with the needle and pushing down on the plunger.  He winces. 
"Sorry," I apologize frowning when I remove the needle.  "It'll take about sixty seconds before this goes into effect.  Try to lower your heart rate and control your breathing.  Be brave, John."
I step over to the computer and set the syringe aside. Eric lets me set up the program to begin.  It only takes a few seconds to get ready.  I glance over my shoulder to see John close his eyes. 
His fear simulation starts. He's standing in the Pit. The entire space is empty and not a single person is in sight. John calls out. Nobody answers. I look to Eric in question. I'm not sure what's going on.
"It's called monophobia. It's the fear of being alone," he explains.
"Oh," I respond softly. I watch as John's heart rate keeps raising as he runs around the Pit in search of other people. He runs from shop to shop, corridor to corridor. Not a single soul appears. He reaches the dorm and climbs into what must be his bed. He lays down and begins to breathe slowly. Gradually his heart rate steadies. When it becomes normal, Eric signals me to stop the simulation.
"Some will come out on their own, others you must get them out," he explains.
I nod pressing the control to release him from the simulation. I hear a gasp from John.
"Ten minutes, twelve seconds," Eric announces as he turns around. "How are you feeling?" he asks.
"Freaked out," John replies breathing deeply.
"You don't feel sick do you?" I inquire which I think is what Eric is concerned about.
"No, just on edge," he says.
"When you feel like you can get up, you can go out the back door," Eric tells him signaling to the far door.
John nods. He slowly sits up. "Is it always this bad?" he asks us.
I look to Eric. He shrugs. "I had to do stage three on my first day of initiation so you got it easy," he responds.
John looks to me expectantly. "Um... my fears were based on actual events in my life. Plus, I'm allergic to the serum so I spent most of my time this stage in bed," I tell him.
"So this wasn't that bad," he nods.
"Everyone has different fears. That probably wasn't one of your worst ones," I explain.
"You're right. I have worse fears," he agrees.
"Can I give you some advice?" I say.
"Of course," he replies trying to smile. It's forced but he's attempting to get over what he just saw.
"Go out in the Pit, exercise in the training room, spend time with friends. Try not to let the fear bring you down," I advise him.
"Yes, ma'am," he says with an actual smile. He stands and walks out of the door without trouble.
I look to the next person on our list and open the door to call her in. We go through several initiates. Some have normal fears of insects, heights, crowds, falling off the train, or jumping too short to the ledge. Christina's fear was a little strange. She was afraid of moths. I guess after a while, I could understand. They were crawling into her mouth and nose, covering her body. That was a little freaky.
I call in the last initiate to test. "Uriah!" I shout out.
He looks a little startled by me announcing he's up.  Nobody else is in the room.  I guess my brother must've taken Tris in. He stands up hesitantly and crosses the waiting room to our door.
I close it as soon as he enters. He stops abruptly in front of me and my chest bumps his back. I wasn't expecting that. I put my hands on his shoulders and guide him to the chair.
"I got sick from the aptitude test," he tells me quietly as he sits.
"How sick?" I question.
"They just sent me home early," he says.
"Vomiting, nausea, dizziness?" Eric questions.
Uriah turns his head abruptly, almost surprised that Eric is here. He must've forgotten.
"Um... just nausea and dizziness. They had me stay in the nurses' office for a while before sending a car," he explains.
"Well, at least we may not have to carry you to the infirmary. This serum gave me my worst allergic reaction... well, except the paralytic serum. That could've been because of the amount in the time frame though," I say.
"Wait... it was you last year that got kidnaped?" Uriah questions.
"Do not breathe a word of that, Uriah," Eric warns firmly. "Only so many people know about that."
He nods his head, fear in his eyes. I think Eric still intimidates him quite a bit.
"It was Peter's cousin," I inform him.
"Then why didn't you just kick Peter out after the Edward thing?" he asks confused.
I sigh heavily, "Because we don't need the Factionless army to get any bigger. Peter should've been second. Could you imagine if he taught their army to fight or they got ahold of weapons?"
Uriah nods.  Eric hands me a ready syringe.  I smile at him in thanks as I take it.  I turn around and face Uriah.  He jumps in his seat, eyes locked on the needle, mouth agape. 
"Fear of needles?" I question gently.  He continues staring nodding his head. 
"Do you need me to hold you down?" Eric asks grinning. 
"No... I just... I need to, you know, look away," he says shaking his head. 
"How about you close your eyes?" I tell him since he's still staring at it.
"Okay," he whispers taking deep breaths. 
He closes his eyes and turns his head away from me which is sort of perfect for me to reach his neck.  I notice a snake tattoo coiled around the curve of his ear.  I delicately brush the skin with the ink. 
"I like your tattoo.  Is it new?" I question him. 
"Yeah, I just got it last week," he says. 
I quickly jab him with the needle and push the plunger down as fast as I can.  He winces. 
"I'm sorry," I whisper. 
"You're better than Dana," he grins.  "I think she tries to draw it out and scare me," he explains trying to laugh. 
"She's not my favorite in the infirmary either," Eric adds.  Uriah gives us a real smile.  I explain how it'll take a minute to affect him and walk over to the desk.  Eric has already claimed the seat so I climb onto his lap.  We watch as Uriah's fear unfolds. 
It starts out in a dark room lit by flaming lanterns.  The fire is close to him and only nearby where he's standing is illuminated.  I can hear a strange sound.  It's quiet at first and grows louder as time passes.
"Snakes," Eric says next to my ear. 
I furrow my brows and lean forward trying to make the sound out better.  I see something slither on the ground just where the light begins to fade into darkness.  It starts to move closer and I can see that it is indeed a snake. Their hissing is audible.