"He's an old friend of mine, don't worry"
"I am worrying, because Erudite don't betray their faction to let other factions come snooping in their archives!" I couldn't understand why this 'friend' of Eric's would do this for him, because my old friends back in Candor probably wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire now that I had gone rogue.
We approached the back of the Erudite headquarters, there was hardly anyone around except for a tall man with pointed features and dirty blond hair "incognito, Eric? You're the size of a truck" Eric smirked, his muscles stretched the fabric of his suit and had attracted a little attention during our approach.
"It's good to see you too, Pierce"
Pierce cracked a smile though it looked odd on his face, it was crooked and ultimately out of place "and you've brought a lady friend"
"Pierce, Prue. Prue, Pierce" I smiled awkwardly at the lanky man, I wasn't sure what it was about him that I didn't like, but his cold eyes sent chills down my spine, I didn't trust him.
"Lovely to make your acquaintance but lets get on with this, shall we?" He took a card out of his breast pocket and flashed it to a small black reader by the door he had been guarding, the reader flashed green and then we heard a click, he stretched out a long arm and pushed it open "try not to be too long" Eric nodded and gestured for me to go in first, he followed me in but before Pierce closed the door behind us he said "oh, Eric. This is the first and last time I'll do this" and then tossed Eric his card.
He didn't wait for Eric's reply before he closed the door and left us in darkness. It took a moment for the lights to respond, we were standing in an alarmingly bright white hallway which led to a door behind a grate. Eric stepped in front and walked ahead, he swiped Pierce's card and swung the grate open, then we stepped into the next bit and swiped the card again, the grey steel door opened to reveal a large room with seemingly no end.
Once Eric closed the door behind us I was almost frozen in awe, what we had entered what was like a warehouse with shelving units and pathways carved through them, there were objects everywhere you turned, each with a tag. It wasn't the mess I had imagined, everything was sorted and identified. Then towards the back there were tons of boxes on shelves, there were filing cabinets and book shelves, long drawers which contained papers and display cases.
The sight of it all was intense, the bright white space made it almost possible that we had entered heaven. I had no idea where to start. For a moment I forgot Eric was there and just started running, my boots made a squeaking sound against the floor as I ran, I could have probably run forever, but I eventually stopped and looked at the first object my eyes met.
If there had been no tag I wouldn't have known what it was "megaphone" I read aloud "used to play records which then produces music" I wondered if it still worked, I doubted it, it looked to be in terrible condition.
I then ran towards the boxes and pulled one down "careful" Eric warned "everything has to go back where we found it" I nodded and watched as he sat down on a metal chair, I had noticed a few them down the pathways.
The one thing I couldn't understand was his disinterest, he seemed content to just watch me. I opened the box and found a ton of old newspapers, they dated back years and years, since before the war "how did they get all this stuff?"
"Most of it was probably found searching the buildings, the rarer things were taken from museums and places like that"
I nodded and put the box of newspapers back, I pulled down another and found a box of old toys, they were all dirty and scratched, some were missing pieces and others were just strange odds and ends, the box next to it held toys that were in pristine condition, some of them still in their packaging. It was strange looking at the things children used to play with, we didn't have things like those now. I found a sort of female figure in the ruined toys box, I wondered who she belonged to, if it was the last thing that child played with.
Once I put that box back I moved to another aisle, there was so much to explore and find. I saw a box which had 'Time Pieces' written on it, I supposed that meant things like clocks and watches. I pulled it down and opened it, inside was a gorgeous tiny clock face on a chain, the tag called it a pocket watch, like many of the objects in the boxes it was dirty, but the scratches in the dirt told me it was gold once.
In another box I found a load of holographic discs with stickers on one side, they were labelled as CD's and DVD's. In one of the many display cases was a lot of jewellery, some of it looked like new as if they had just been taken from a shop window, but others looked like they were missing bits and were incredibly rusted and dirty.
Around twenty minutes later Eric and I were sat down in one of the aisles, he was on a chair playing with a ball he had found and I was on the floor with several boxes at my feet "why do you find all this so fascinating?" He asked.
"I don't know, it just is, it's like looking into the past"
"Dauntless never look back" he said.
I chewed my cheek and concentrated on the box I was looking through "well if you don't think this is appropriate Dauntless behaviour then why bring me here?"
He shrugged and kept bouncing his ball on the floor. I got up and put the box back where I had found it and sat back down to open the next one. About three boxes later Eric had thrown his jacket off and was reading a book he had found on one of the bookshelves, I had found a box of random paper, some of it plain, some of it had strange documents with numbers and words that didn't make sense "the paper feels different" I said as I felt it between my thumb and forefinger.
"They used to make it out of trees, but nearly everything is synthetic now" things had to be synthetic, we didn't have the resources to make things the way people used to.
Ten minutes later Eric and I were laughing over some of the strange things I had found. I understood why he had brought me there, Eric didn't care about old earth, if any other Dauntless members had started wondering about those times he would have scolded them because Dauntless don't look back, they don't care about the past, today is all that matters, but he had put his views aside to bring me to that place because he wanted to be with me again, he wanted to show me that he could think of someone else's desires even if they went against everything he believed in.
"We need to leave soon" I nodded solemnly, though I made a promise to myself, this would be the last time I'd think about old Earth and wonder what it was like, once we left that building I'd only think of the future, as Dauntless should.
"Okay, let me just put these back" I didn't notice Eric disappear down one of the aisles and come back, by the time I had put each box away he was sitting exactly where I had last seen him, but he had a mischievous look about him and I knew something was up "what? What did you do?"
He pulled something from behind his back and held it out to me "it's a camera, they take pictures" it wasn't like it was described in Sherlock, it wasn't large with a handheld light and a sheet over one end, it was small and compact, it could probably have fit in Eric's pocket.
I smiled and took it from him, it didn't work, but it was still interesting to look at, at least I knew what it did now.
"Come on, we'd better go" I nodded and handed him back the camera, he put it back and then we both grabbed our jackets, though the room was too stuffy for us to put them back on. We came out of the first door we came through and then the grate, when we came to the last door at the end of the hallway Eric had to swipe Pierce's card again for us to get out.
We closed the door behind us and Eric left the card under a brick which hadn't been there before, when we looked up there was a group of Erudite staring at us, they must have instantly known that we weren't supposed to be there "you two! Who are you? What's your authorisation?"
Eric and I shared a look before Eric grabbed my hand and started running "hey! Stop! Stop!"
But we didn't stop, we ran as fast as we could while laughing hysterically, when we were far enough away we stopped running to catch our breath and laughed until our sides hurt, I think Eric secretly wanted to get caught, because our escape had been the best part of that day.