(text in italics is original from Allegiant)
MY BROTHER STANDS behind the microscope, his eye pressed to the eyepiece. The light in the microscope platform casts strange shadows on his face, making him look years older.
"This is definitely it," he says. "The attack simulation serum, I mean. No question."
"It's always good to have another person verify," Matthew says.
I am standing with my brother in the hours before he dies. And he is analyzing serums. It's so stupid.
I know why Caleb wanted to come here: to make sure that he was giving his life for a good reason. I don't blame him. There are no second chances after you've died for something, at least as far as I know.
"Tell me the activation code again," Matthew says. The activation code will enable the memory serum weapon, and another button will deploy it instantly. Matthew has made Caleb repeat them both every few minutes since we got here.
"I have no trouble memorizing sequences of numbers!" Caleb says.
"I don't doubt that. But we don't know what state of mind you'll be in when the death serum begins to take its course, and these codes need to be deeply ingrained."
Caleb flinches at the words "death serum." I stare at my shoes.
"080712," Caleb says. "And then I press the green button."
Right now Cara is spending some time with the people in the control room so she can spike their beverages with peace serum and shut off the lights in the compound while they're too drunk to notice, just like Nita and Tobias did a few weeks ago. When she does that, we'll run for the Weapons Lab, unseen by the cameras in the dark.
Sitting across from me on the lab table are the explosives Reggie gave us. They look so ordinary—inside a black box with metal claws on the edges and a remote detonator. The claws will attach the box to the second set of laboratory doors. The first set still hasn't been repaired since the attack.
"I think that's it," Matthew says. "Now all we have to do is wait for a little while."
Then Caleb hesitantly says: "I would like to suggest something that could improve our possibilities for success."
Suddenly I feel something like deep contempt growing in me and he must see this from my expression, as he hesitantly continues, his voice cracking. "I am not searching for my ways out. I am really willing to do this. But there is quite some possibility that you will be close to explosion too and there is quite some possibility that I won't success to come into the lab ... When Cara and I were researching truth serum, we also studied compounds that are used to inoculate people against it and against other serums. We didn't find anything useful about death serum. But we found that all these compounds have surprisingly similar composition and they have overlapping strategies."
"You suspect that the inoculation against truth serum could be useful also against the death serum?" Matthew asks.
"I am not sure, but it could help. I am not suggesting only inoculation against truth serum, but against all four serums - truth, peace, memory and fear."
We exchange a look.
"What about possible joint effects?" says Matthew hesitantly as he is playing with his string.
Caleb just shrugs, "I didn't hear for any till now..."
After a few silent moments Matthew decides and says, "You are right. There is nothing to loose. At the same time it could be useful to be protected against all these serum themselves. Who knows what will happen in the weapon lab and in the chaos afterwards."
YOU ARE READING
Allegiant - alternate ending
FanfictionThe Allegiant ending was not so bad but it made me empty. There were two reasons why I did not like it. Firstly the sacrifice as it is now seems useless to me. For Caleb it was more another grief than help (not thinking about Four...). And the secon...
