Hamburgers
Everything hurts. My muscles scream in protest as I continue to climb. My feet are slick with blood, my hands burnt and bloody beyond aid from my nursing skills. For a moment I let myself imagine escaping this hell hole. And it is quite literally that. A hell hole. A gaping hole in the ground where all the factionless children are thrown to fend for themselves. You make it out, they raise you. You don't, you spend all eternity in hell.
So I'm going to make it out. Hell isn't where I want to stay. I like being alive thank you very much. Just not here. Not in this place. It's like my own personal hell. I collapse at the top. My eyes hurt like hell at the sunlight I've never seen. The man standing helping another factionless saw me. And from that moment on, my life would never be the same.
*Tobias's choosing day*
"Dauntless! He choose fucking Dauntless you whore! This is all your fucking fault! I'll teach you. This is for your own good!" Marcus snarls at me.
The crack of his belt. That horrible, terrible, vile, repulsive noise broke the silence so many times that night.
All I remember was the pain, the anticipation of the pain. Much like the anticipation of the hatred that was sure to be directed at me. I knew what faction I was going to choose. Dauntless. It's always been Dauntless. If you weren't brave in the hole, you died. Being courageous and brave despite the daunting task set before you. That was me in the hole. I didn't need a test to tell me that. Dauntless or death. I'm never going back to the factionless.
Those were my thoughts as my "name" was called.
"Twenty-six Eaton." They call.
It was Marcus's last name and my number. That's what they give you. You earn a name if you escape the hole. My number was twenty six. FNE26. Female, non escapee, 26.
They hand me the knife and I nick my palm. The blood dripping from my hand ended in a sizzle as it hit the hot coals of Dauntless. Dauntless or Death. The sound so very satisfying. Nearly more so then the look on Marcus's face.
The hatred radiating off Marcus was palpable. I smile and walk over to Dauntless. I'm the last one, not being part of a faction. The smiles and hollers held the slightest hesitation. I was numbered. Not named. But all that was about to change.
As soon as the faction leaders brought the ceremony to a close my faction takes off towards the stairs and I follow. The burn in my legs is a wonderful feeling after so long of hiding my athleticism. As we approached the train I jump and haul myself up. I help several onto the train, nobody missed it. I had heard about the jump before, I knew I could make it, so I had told myself I'd make sure everyone else made it too.
I watch with awe as the Dauntless borns, jumped out of the train with practiced ease. Some of the transfers followed. All that remain are a large Amity boy and an Eurdite girl.
"You need to jump!" I shout hoping they'd heed the warning.
"You first!" The shout back simultaneously.
My foot landed in the Eurdite girls back. I watched as she hit the roof of the building. That'd leave some bruises but she'd thank me later.
"You need to jump!" I shout again.
He shakes his head. He's panicking and over analyzing it. Grabbing his wrist in a death lock, I run and make the jump pulling him with me. I fell short. My hand instinctively darts out to grab the ledge. My fingers scrape hard, but they hold. Dangling here I realize with a jolt I'd rather fall then let him fall, maybe it's just the values Abnegation instilled in me. But I couldn't let him fall.
A booming voice rings out, "Alright listen up. I'm Eric. I'm one of your leaders."
The Amity boy beneath me screams. It was a shout of mortal terror.
"Hang on! I've got you!" I shout as an idea forms in my mind.
Swinging my arm I get him level with the wall he catches it and pulls himself over. My body screams with that all too familiar pain of over exertion. I force my body to react. My other arm comes up higher, my elbow resting on the gravel, not hanging below the edge now. I release the ledge and haul myself up. I saw the pissed off look of the man who was standing on another ledge.
I got my feet under me and limped over to the crowd silently. I felt the weight of the stares like a physical object.
"What do you think you're doing initiate?" The same booming cold voice demands.
"I was jumping onto the building. But I miss judged the distance and hauled my ass onto the building instead," I answer meeting his gaze head on.
If anything that seemed to infuriate him more. A small cruel smirk played his lips.
"Then I guess you won't mind jumping off the building now?" His voice is mocking.
Oh. Two can play at this game.
"Nope. Not at all," I replied making sure my tone gave nothing away.
I stepped up onto the ledge and without a second thought stepped off. I mean, whose gonna kill the most daring initiate?
My thoughts stop dead as a net cradles my body and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.
"What's your name?" Tobias asks as he helps me down.
Well damn. What is my name?
"Is it a hard one?" He asks, "You can pick a new one if you like. But you can only pick once so make it good."
Tobias still hadn't looked at me.
"I don't have one," I answer as his eyes meet mine.
I saw the exact moment he recognized me.
"First jumper; Casey!" Tobias shouts before I even answer him.
I glare and walk off. Soon enough everyone had jumped.
"The names Four. I'll be your instructor for initiation," Tobias announced looking dark and brooding.
Four? As in the number? Wow. Just, just wow.
He leads us through the pit and to the initiate barracks. After burning our clothes they outfit us in new gear. Mine was a too big loose purple shirt, and black tight fitting leggings, and of course my one elbow length fingerless glove, and the normal sized fingerless glove that cuts off at my wrist.
The rest of the day 'Four' spends teaching us a basic fighting stance. And by the time dinner rolls around I'm fidgeting with unused energy. As it turns out Abnegation and the factionless don't get good food.
"What's this?" I ask the table full of transfers poking at a patty of meat on bread.
"That's a hamburger," The Eurdite girl from earlier, Violina, answers.
She was kinda stuck up. Of course with, bleach blonde hair and pretty green eyes like that, who wouldn't be?
"How do you not know what a hamburger is?" The boy from Amity, Scott, asks incredulously.
He was tall, maybe 6' 3', and broad with a head full of copper wool, and blue eyes.
"Umm... in Abnegation we only ever had chicken,"I reply hoping not to give away anything before that.
"So you've never had a hamburger?" Eric's voice raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
"No. She hasn't," 'Four' answers walking over.
Eric slides onto he bench beside me. I look at him curiously as he picks up my hamburger. He eats it in four bites.
"They're good you should try it some time," He says with that same stupid, shitty, superior, smug, smirk.
Authors Notes- Hey guys Scarlett here. I totally loved this idea. And I hope you do too. Please read and review and let me know what you think. Please. I'm totally open to criticism. Anyways best of luck to you all. Love, Scarlett