[this takes place on the first morning of initiation after Tris chose Dauntless]
POV Tris:
I walk up to the searing blast of bright white lights blaring above me. I groan, along with the others in the dorm, and pull my blanket over my head. After my eyes are a little more prepared for the light, I remove the blanket from my head, remaining in my bed. I look around noticing everyone else's heads remain under their blankets. I almost snicker at this but then my eyes turn to the crowd who came to wake us up; they look pissed. GET Up OR YOUR DEAD!, I think. There are three out of four in the group that came in that look like they can and will hurt us if we don't hurry. The fourth is, Four, the man who gave us a tour of Dauntless. I see another man, I believe he is Eric- I heard someone talking to him at dinner last night call him that- glare at everyone's bed. His eyes turn to me and glance away immediately scan me up and down, as if undressing me with his eyes. One of the others, Max gets tired of our lack of response to the wake up.
"GET UP!" He screams. I flinch and jump out of my bed, unsure of what to do. Everyone else follows suite. Now Four speaks. "Every day, by 8:30, you are expected to be in the training room. You will get your breakfast and we will show you to the training room. It's 8:00 right now so I suggest you hurry." he finishes with a face similar to that of a military general.
They leave and the room turns into a clutter of people trying to get ready fro the day. In a record of five minutes, Christina, Will and I walk to the cafeteria together. We find an empty table and start eating. I look up from my oatmeal and see Four and Eric both walking towards our table from opposite directions. Once they are both one either side of our table, they both look up at a each other, noticing the other for the first time. I see Eric's eyes glance at me and look to Four in time to see his flit away. They both leave and go back in the direction they came.
We all look at each other and laugh uncontrollably. "What- the heck-was THAT!?" Christina says between fits of laughter.
We follow Four and Eric into the training room. "Today You will learn how to shoot a gun." Says Four. He demonstrates.
We all get our own guns from off the table and line up. This is completely uncharted territory. I never thought I would ever hold, much less shoot a gun.
I aim at the target and completely miss, the jolt from the gun sends me stumbling backwards. I try several more times and get a bullet through the target. Aw yeah! I see a shocked look from both instructors. Probably shocked to see a Stiff doing anything successful. Well they should be impressed, most of the others haven't gotten a bullet through yet. Eventually I get a hit through the center.
POV Tobias:
After lunch we head down to a new room. This is where I will teach the initiates the skills for fighting.
"Today you learn technique and tomorrow you will fight each other." I look at the looks on the initiates faces, looking for surprise: which I find. My eyes are drawn to Tris, don't ask me why, but she's striking.
I demonstrate some punches, showing technique and posture. Everyone lines up to their own punching bags. I walk around observing everyone. I see Tris- she's doing poorly. I walk over to her, trying to keep my gaze calm and calculated as I look her. Somehow I manage to not bush wildly like I would if I were caught staring at a girl.
I give her advice to use her elbows and knees, due to her lack of muscle. I suddenly would love to be doing more than simply talking to her. I walk nearer to her, carefully placing my hand on her stomach, reminding her to keep tension in there. I don't know how words come out of my mouth when my brain is so muddled I quickly walk away.
"Today is the first day of the fights. Not all of you will be fighting today because there is an odd number of you." That one who isn't fighting is Tris. Eric and I agreed immediately that she would be the one not to fight.
We start the fight with Will and Al. I don't know who will win but I don't really care. My eyes keep drifting back to Tris and her reactions to the fight The fight is now over with Will out cold. I go to circle Al's name and leave with Will's limp body hanging in my arms. Leaving my initiates with Eric is an absolutely terrible idea but Will needs to go to the infirmary.
After I drop Will off I return to an empty training room. Aw shit, I think. I run frantically around the compound looking for the initiates. I hope no one gets hurt before I can cut in and stop it. Finally I see them: gathered around the chasm railing. I see Christina being dragged over the railing. The first though I have is relief, nothing serious happened to the initiates. The worst is wet and weak and has a couple injuries. I sigh and walk towards Eric.
"You can't just put an initiate over the chasm! That's an attempted murder." He just grins, his twisted sadistic face contorting.
"Yeah, then why don't you turn me in?" He retorts, turning around without giving me a second glance.
I had difficulty choosing the fights last night. Because Tris didn't fight yesterday she must fight the most talented fighter- Peter. What was strange was I thought I saw some kind of pre-grieving expression on Eric's face when I wrote her name across from Peter's on the board.
As the initiates walk in I keep my eyes on Tris. She freezes when she sees who shes up against.
While I wait for the fights to pass, I watch Tris like I did yesterday. Finally when it is her turn I tense up.
Tris tries to dodge and block. She is very resilient- she won't stay on the ground for long. Until Peter gets her hard. He beats her relentlessly. I hate this, this is cruelty. Tris has no chance. I walk out of the room and get a drink of water trying to clam myself down. If the fight is still going on when I get back, I'm calling it off, but I hope I don't have to do that.
When I walk back in his is still going at her. "Enough!" I command I walk to the ring and get Tris out to get her to the infirmary. I would love to stay here with her, but I need to get back to the fights. She will be in good hands. Tris is placed in a cot. Before they wheel her away, I gently brush the hair away from her face.
The next morning we go to visit the Dauntless guarding the fence. When the initiates arrive I see Tris, about to jump on a train. I begin to feel sympathy towards her but immediately retain myself. Tris is strong. Plus, who am I to give her sympathy?
As we load the train I step in easily I turn about to help Tris up but Al gets there first. Although she tries to hid it, I can see she winces when he places his hands around her.
"Feeling okay there?" Says Peter. Just. Shut. Up, I think. "Or are you a little stiff?" What an idiot. Just shut up. Her two friends make a couple comebacks that I don't want to hear. At least she has friends.
"Do I have to sit here listening to your bickering all the way to the fence.?" I snap.
We get off the train and I explain what will lead to the job of guarding the fence. After I finish, the initiates leave to go check out the fence.
An Amity truck pulls up . "Beatrice?" I hear a boy say. Well that's Tris's full name, I guess. Tris walks over to the boy. She hugs him. Oh Tris, careful. Besides being concerned with her mingling with other factions, I am jealous of their hug.
I see one girl from my initiate class wave to me. I think her name is Kate. I go over to talk to her until Tris is done with her conversation. "Bey, Kate. Nice seeing you again." I say, although I never really knew her and talking to her is a little strange.
I go over to Tris and tell her about her extremely obvious problem of making unwise decisions. She retorts with a snap, "It was a two minute conversation." It really seems like she does not like me. I find myself hoping that I'm wrong.
"I don't think a smaller time frame would have made it any less unwise." I say. I find myself with the urge to touch her. I reach my hand out to touch her bruised eye, she jerks back but that doesn't stop me. She doesn't seem particularly comfortable with this, but of course she isn't: she's from Abnegation. I sigh and remove my hand.
"You know if you could just attack first you might do better."
"Attack first- how will that help?" She retorts with venom leaking in her voice. I try not to let it get to me.
"Your fast. If you can get in a few fast hits before they know what's going on you could win." I say. It's true- she's very capable of winning.
"I'm surprised you would know, you left halfway through my one and only fight." Was that hurt in her voice?
"It wasn't something I wanted to watch." I say, immediately regretting it. That could give away so much.. "The train's here: time to go."