I was always ready. I knew what I had to do. There wasn't anything else I could. I put down the note, and jumped.
(A few days earlier)
I woke up in my little home, not far from the Hub, where my parents worked. My life hasn't been all that fun. I needed a chance to be free. Today was that chance. I'd choose my life after today. All I had to do was take the test. That was the hard part.
|xx|
I was one of the first to arrive. Candor was second, along with the other factions.
"Are you ready for this?" my friend, Sam, asked me.
"No one is prepared for this challenge, Sam."
"I'm aware." We walked into the Hub. Today we'd be taking the test to determine where we belonged, and as intelligent as I was, I didn't want to be Erudite.
|xx|
I walked into a room that I'd never been in before. There was an Abnegation woman waiting for me. "Greetings." I said.
"Please have a seat." I took a seat in the chair in front of me.
"So, What's going to occur?"
"I am going to put you under a simulation. From there, you will rule out which factions you should choose over the ones you shouldn't."
I nodded. The woman gave me something in a glass tube. I drank it.
|xx|
"Choose."
I whirled around. In front of me was table and two baskets. One contained a knife, the other a hunk of cheese.
"What?"
"Choose one." The voice said. I picked up the knife and put it in my back pocket.
I heard growling a few feet away from me. I turned to see an aggressive dog coming slowly toward me. I looked away. Looking away is submission. Looking foreword is an attack. I thought. By now the dog was so close I could smell it's breath. A little girl came up.
"Puppy!" She said. The dog turned. I knew what was going to happen. I don't let innocent people die. I brought the knife out. "Hey turtle breath!" I said to the dog. It turned, and launched itself at me. I stabbed it.
|xx|
The next part was a little confusing. I was on a bus. A man holding a newspaper pointed to a face that I that I couldn't quit place my finger on. I swore I'd seen him before, but I didn't know where.
"Do you recognize this man?" The person reading the newspaper asked. He pointed to the picture.
"No." I reply.
"You can save me. Do you know this man?"
"No." I say again.
|xx|
"Your results were inconclusive."
"What?"
"Your results-"
"How can they be inconclusive? The test is supposed to tell us what to do!"
"It does. You are among a few people of whom the test doesn't work. You are Divergent."
"Divergent?"
"You can't tell anyone about this. Not one."
"Understood." I walked out of the room. Sam was waiting for me. His hand were shaking.
Divergent. What does that mean to me? It means different in logic. So am I different from the people around me? I'd strive to find the answer.
|xx|
"There was a problem with the Aptitude test today." My father said.
"There was?" I asked, trying to sound curious.
"Yes, no one knows who, though."
"I am going to narrow my choice now." I went upstairs into my room.
"Let's see... Amity and Candor are out. Abnegation? No. I'm not selfless enough. Dauntless or Erudite? Dauntless or Erudite?" Dauntless or Erudite? That was the question on my mind when I fell asleep.
|xx|
"Nick Rider." I stepped toward the bowls. Dauntless or Erudite? The memo is 'faction before blood.' I value my family. Erudite. Eric hands me the knife. I'm not smart enough. Dauntless. I don't want to leave my family. Erudite. I slide the knife over my hand. My blood starts to drip on the carpet. I am free. I am brave. I say to myself. My hand goes over the coals. "I am free."
|xx|
The Dauntless are brave. They are wild. That's what makes a person free. I followed the new Dauntless initiates. Luckily I had studied hand-to-hand combat. Fear is another factor I have to face. We exit the hub. The trains. The Dauntless born initiates jump first. I'm the first transfer to try. I leaped, and grabbed hold of the rail. Soon, all but one, a Candor transfer, are on the train.
"What took you so long to choose, Four-Eyes?"
Four-Eyes is slang for Erudite, since they wear glasses all the time. I don't need them. My hair is always black and short, my eyes a blue-green color.
"You made the strangest transfer, Sean. Amity to Dauntless. Never heard of it."
"It happens. Some Dauntless choose Amity."
"You have a point. Bus statistics show that less then one percent of initiates are from what Erudite call opposite factions."
"Such as?"
"Abnegation and Amity to Dauntless, Dauntless to Abnegation or Amity, Erudite to Candor, And Candor to Erudite."
"So I see." Sean said.
"We're getting off!" One of the initiates shouts.
I look out at the sky before me. Fear is just a lie. I say to myself. I jump. I am free.
|xx|
I hit the roof with such a force it takes the wind out of my chest. Sean goes down onto his knees.
"At least I landed on my feet."
"Shut up."
"Hey! Check this out!" I hear an initiate scream.
We walk over to the other side of the roof. A giant hole waited for us at the bottom.
"Who do you think should jump first?"
I didn't think. I didn't have to.
"Move!" I say, and jump into the hole.
|xx|
A net. I felt around for an opening. Once I found one, I stepped out.
"Who are you?" A voice said.
"Nick. Nick Rider." I reply.
"First jumper, Nick!" Another voice says. Lights go up.
"Welcome to Dauntless."
|xx|
They came when they were least expected. One moment, I was pretty sure I was alone, and then from the silence I heard the sounds of footsteps on the hard, cold ground. Just my luck.
"Don't come any closer." I warn, reaching for the knife in my pocket. Initiation wasn't to hard at the moment. Just because I was in first didn't mean they had to stab my face with a butter knife, which they failed to do.
"We aren't going to hurt you, Nick. It's stage two time."
"I'm coming." The tattoo I had gotten an hour earlier still stung. I described it as a wolf 'howling in the starlit night.' Tori did a good job on it.
|xx|
The simulation was brutal. When I went in, I felt terrified.
"Calm down Nick. It's just snakes." There were to many. Most of them were nonvenomous, but the One on Andy's arm, a green and silver rattlesnake, scared me half to death. I had to get out, but I couldn't. The sakes slithered onto me. My heart started racing. If someone had a heart meter, it'd be shattered. I took a deep breath. Again and again.
|xx|
I couldn't take it. The snakes, the sharks, everything. The Chasm was the worst. The only way I could face that fear was to do it myself, without simulations. I picked up a pen, and a piece of paper.
|xx|
Dauntless,
If any of you are reading this, I wasn't afraid. If this is a simulation, I wasn't afraid. I am selfish, I am brave, and I am free. If you read this, I was never afraid.
-Nick Rider, Divergent.
A.N. I am free is my extension on Tris's quote.