The jump from the train had rattled my bones, but it felt surprisingly good. The rush of adrenaline that was coursing through my veins was so different than anything I'd ever felt before, and I found myself loving it already. No wonder the Dauntless members always looked so….alive. There was no thought of my family or Erudite in my mind anymore. All I could think about was my new faction, and the life it would bring.
The herd of initiates made their way over to where some Dauntless adults were standing. I was towards the middle, standing beside a slightly taller girl from Candor. She turned to me, cocking an eyebrow with a small smile before offering her hand to shake. I returned the smile and the handshake, but before I could introduce myself, she shook her head. "I've heard that we can choose new names when we enter Dauntless, so how about we introduce ourselves after that?"
It surprised me that we could so easily pick a new name and identity, but it was also…refreshing. I nodded, taking in her appearance so that I could find her again if we got separated. She was quite pretty, with olive-toned skin and hazel eyes brought out by her shoulder-length brown hair. She had a friendly face, too, and I could already tell that we would be fast friends.
I was brought from my thoughts suddenly by a booming voice—Eric's voice—and everyone around me seemed to jump a little, too.
"My name is Eric, and I'm one of your leaders. From the moment that you chose this faction at the Choosing Ceremony, you've started your testing. From here on out, everything is part of your initiation. That includes getting into Dauntless in the first place."
He was tall, taller than I remember, and much stronger. And he was a leader?—he'd just transferred the year before, how did he become a leader that quickly? He hadn't seemed to see me yet, though I'm not sure if he'd even recognize me, anyways. Maybe he didn't even remember me. I definitely remembered him, though, and I felt a pang in my chest at the thought of my brother. That's when the Candor girl nudged her elbow into my side, nodding towards Eric, and, more importantly, the ledge he was standing on.
Holy shit.
They wanted us to jump.
My eyes widened, and that familiar feeling of adrenaline pumped through my veins again, mixed with skepticism. Eric stepped down from the ledge smoothly, landing with a cat-like grace that I only wished I could harness. "You want us to jump off of a ledge," another Candor boy said, disbelief lacing his voice. Eric turned towards the boy, and I had to strain to look over the shoulder of another initiate to see what was going on.
"I never said I wanted you to jump off of a ledge, initiate. I am saying that, if you want to get into Dauntless, you'll have to jump off of a ledge. If I'm being honest, Candor, I don't give a damn if you jump off of the ledge. But if you don't, you're Factionless. Pick your poison." Eric cocked an eyebrow, his two piercings glinting in the sunlight against his pale skin. His voice was hard and disinterested, and it put me off for a moment. Maybe it was because I remembered Eric from when he would hang out with Tyler—laughing, running around, wrestling. But this Eric was cool, collected, mature, and strong. This Eric was what everyone thought a Dauntless should be.
The Candor shut his mouth quickly, though I could tell that he was fuming on the inside. Eric just smirked a little, turning and leaning back against the ledge, arms crossed over his chest. "Alright, so who's gonna go first? I don't have all day, here."
And, just like that, the entire rooftop went silent, the only sound being the retreating train's clacks and groans. No one wanted to go first. No one wanted to risk it. But, also, no one wanted to go last, and to be seen as a coward. Everyone knew that cowards were looked down upon in Dauntless.
It seemed like hours before someone stepped forward: a Dauntless-born with short cut hair and two piercings in her bottom lip. She walked up to the ledge with a false confidence—I could tell that it was false, because her hands were shaking a little bit. Hmm. Even the Dauntless-borns were a little afraid.
Everyone watched with held breaths as she climbed up onto the ledge, standing there, clenching and unclenching her fists a few times as she built up the courage to actually jump. I heard Eric pipe up from his spot nearby, lounging against the ledge. "Do I have to push you, initiate?"
I scowled a little, because that was a bit of a jerk thing to say. At least she was the first to volunteer, who cared if she was taking a few moments to work herself up to it? But, his taunting worked, apparently, because the girl took a deep breath and jumped, screaming a few times on the way down. I watched as a few initiates bolted forward to see if she'd lived or not, and barely held in a laugh as the Dauntless adults ushered them back with silent glares.
Everyone fell silent again, and then a sound reached us, faint, but there. It was excited clapping and cheering from below, and every initiate relaxed at the sound of it. She'd made it. With the immediate threat gone, I felt a lot better about having to jump to enter Dauntless, and found myself stepping forward before Eric even had the chance to ask for the next jumper. I only realized that I had stepped forward when I was almost at the ledge, and that's when my heart leapt up in my throat. I could feel all eyes on me, his eyes on me, and I briefly wondered if he had figured out who I was.
'Well, I'm already up here,' I thought to myself, taking a deep breath and carefully climbing up onto the ledge. I took care in not looking at Eric, sure that I would give away all of my emotions if I did. I would not be a coward.
I swallowed thickly, trying to calm down as I looked down at the hole in the building. It looked big, but I could tell that if I jumped out too far, my momentum would force me into one of the edges, resulting in injury or death. Damn my Erudite mind.
I could do this.
Before anyone could taunt or push me, I clenched my jaw, stepping off of the ledge and letting out a yelping sound as I felt nothing but air underneath me.
And then it was done. My body hit something soft and bouncy, catching me before I could even come close to hitting the ground. It took a moment to register the feeling of a net under my back, but when I did, a relieved laugh escaped me. A net. There was a net down here. They weren't trying to kill us.
My moment of relief was interrupted when someone yanked on the side of the net, sending me toppling into someone's arms. My feet hit hard ground as I steadied myself, looking up into the eyes of a Dauntless adult. He was taller than me, and looked hard and calculating, but also a little welcoming. "What's your name, initiate?"
I felt my mouth drop open as I tried to come up with an answer, my mind failing me for the first time in my life. We could choose new names, or that's what the Candor girl had said. But did I want a new name?
"Ari," I said before I could stop myself, a small smile curling on my lips. A new name. A new start.
"Second jumper: Ari," the man said, taking my hand and thrusting it into the air as cheers erupted around us. That's when I noticed the large group of Dauntless adults in the room—a welcoming committee of sorts. I was pulled into the group, a few people clapping me on the back, some others yanking me in for a hug, before I was deposited out next to the first jumper. She was grinning just like me, and our smiles only grew as we heard the third jumper hit the net. We were in.
It took a while, but all of the initiates ended up in Dauntless. I'd found the Candor girl again, who was named Rachel. I'm not sure if that was her old name or her new name, but either way, we agreed to be friends.
We talked for a while before the man, (I would learn that his name was Four), interrupted us. Rachel was apparently an only child, and only had a mother. She said that her father had left them to be Factionless back when she was young, and I frowned just at the thought. One of the only reasons that a Candor would become Factionless was to tell a huge lie—like committing adultery in secret, or something of that ilk. She shrugged it off, though, and let me tell her about my own family. I had just finished telling her about my brother when Four interrupted us, whistling loudly to get our attention.
"Alright, listen up. Dauntless-born, I want you to go with Zeke. He won't be your instructor, but Lauren is otherwise disposed at the moment and will catch up with you later. You don't need a tour, so don't ask for one. Also, I'd better not catch you visiting your family. Don't cause any trouble, either. Go to your dorms and then get your asses to dinner. Transfers, stay with Eric and I."
I watched as more than half of our group filtered out, following a darker-skinned man away from the net and towards an opening in the wall that I'd failed to see before. Now that the Dauntless-borns were out of the way, I could see exactly what my fellow transfers looked like. There were no Abnegation, which wasn't really a surprise, but there were quite a few Candors. I counted around eight or nine before moving on to Amity. Surprisingly, there were nearly five kids from Amity, while I was the only person from Erudite. Hm. Definitely a good year for Erudite.
Once again, I was yanked from my thoughts as Four spoke, addressing just us now. "First of all, welcome to Dauntless. I'm Four, as you know, and that there is Eric. I'm going to be your primary instructor during initiation, but Eric will also be involved. We aren't going to get into specifics until tomorrow, when your training begins. For now, you're going to receive a tour, be assigned your dorm and new clothes, and your first dinner as a Dauntless initiate."
I frowned a little at the way that Eric and Four moved around each other. The leader had jumped after everyone else, and had moved to stand near four, though there was a tense gap between them both physically and in the way Four said his name.
Eric looked over us, his eyes calculating. He didn't speak, just looked. I felt his steel gray eyes on my face, stopping longer on me than any other transfer. I looked back, holding his gaze with mine. I saw a glint of recognition in his eyes, the tiniest bit of softness, but then it quickly changed into…coldness. Coldness, and anger, and it was like a bad case of whiplash. Why would he be angry with me? We had barely even spoken to each other before he'd defected, so what reason would he have to be like this?
I didn't have long to ponder about it, though. The transfers started to move, following behind Four as he lead us away from the nets. We walked through a few different tunnels, the sound of thumping music growing louder. I was towards the back of the group with Rachel, the two of us sticking close together as we entered the unfamiliar faction. Unfortunately, though, that put me closer to Eric, who was behind the entire group. I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my head, though I forced myself to stay strong and calm.
It didn't take long for the tour to be done with, ending at the dorms. I made sure to pay attention, trying to memorize every tunnel and doorway that we'd went through. The last thing that I needed was to get lost in this maze of underground rooms.
The clothes that we were provided were standard and black, a refreshing change from my blue dress. I felt a little uncomfortable, changing in front of everyone else, but I forced my mind into the clinical and logical side that I would always have, ignoring the wandering eyes and slipping into a pair of black pants, followed by a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt and some black boots. As I looked around and saw everyone else dressed a lot like me, all looking like we belonged here in Dauntless.
Dinner was surprisingly fun. We sat with the other transfers, getting to know each other over hamburgers and vegetables.
There was a darker-haired initiate from Candor, Luke, who I'd found to be quite friendly. He was brutally honest, of course, almost dangerously so, but he was funny, too. I found out that him and Rachel had been good friends back in Candor. And then there was Ty, from Amity, who was tall and strong from lifting logs and doing agriculture work back in his old faction. I could immediately tell why he wasn't in Amity. Ty wasn't peaceful or always-happy by any means. No, he was intense, and I knew he'd end up being a top initiate.
There were a few others, but those two and Rachel were the ones who stuck out the most to me. We sat together all throughout dinner, laughing and joking around, until the others in the hall began to bang their cups on the tables, the clattering sounds overcoming the talking as five people appeared on the balcony above us. I looked up, seeing Eric there, standing beside a large black man and three others. These must be our leaders.
I forced myself to not look at Eric, instead looking at the leader in the middle, who raised his hand and silenced the banging. "My name is Max. Initiates, stand." Those of us wearing initiates' uniforms stand, including me, and I step to the side so I'm able to see past Ty's shoulder. Damn tall people.
"Today, you have chosen the warrior faction. We are tasked with the defense of this city and everyone in it. We here in Dauntless believe in ordinary acts of bravery, and the courage that makes one person to stand up for another. I expect you to respect that. Do us proud."
I found that Max's words brought a smile to my face, one that only grew when the Dauntless members began picking us up, holding us above the crowd and cheering in our honor.
We were home.
