My eyes won't open.

They are literally clamped down so tight that in spite of the fact that I constantly will them to open, not even a flutter of an eyelid results. I have no idea what's going on right now, where I am, what time it is... Oblivion, though sweet to some, is not exactly a state of mind I like to be in. So if my eyes won't budge, I'll just have to try my hands.

Using all the will power I can possibly muster, I draw my eyebrows close together, wrinkle up my nose, and push through that invisible wall barring me from control. A finger jerks. Once more, Amber, once more. Eyebrows furrowed a second time, nose wrinkled, and after an excruciating moment of tension, I break the wall. I clench and unclench my fist, attempting to regain charge of my mechanics. Shakily, I raise it up to my right eye, pinch a layer of thick eyelashes, and lift up my lid.

The bright blinding light that greets me is not friendly at all, but it does serve as a portal back into reality, and all my memories of the past few hours streak back. After the guard had found me, he had dragged me out of the military van and out into what looked like an army head quarters. Men and women dressed in black, tattoos covering their exposed arms, walked around the area. Walkie-talkies held up to their mouths, they shouted commands into it, using unusual word like 'divergent' and 'factions'. So scary were they, had I been on the receiving end of their command, I wouldn't have dared refuse.

But, I remember now, my glimpse into this strange place was halted within seconds of my exiting the van, as a sharp acute pain was shot into my right arm. I had turned in a shock, just in time to see a thin needle of an injection being removed from me. The guard, who had shot it, had grinned a greasy yellow smile and whispered, "Sleep tight, sleeping beauty", right before darkness had consumed me.

I suppose the injection explains my inability to master my movements when I had first gained consciousness, but at least it's effect was starting to wear away. I kick my feet under the thin sheet on top of me and rotate my head in circles, feeling the relief as my physical properties belong to me again.

But, where exactly am I?

I sit up in the fragile bed frame I was placed in and turn around. Not much to see, to be honest. The bed is the only object in the room. And the room, itself, is like the size of a very large box, the plain walls closing in on me. Dragging my feet to the uncarpeted floor, I gingerly stand up, testing my weight on my newly revived legs.

The door slams open.

Two guards march in and each grab one of my arms, lifting me into the air. "Stop let me go!" I shriek at the top of my lungs and kick my long legs at the guard on my right. "If you don't I'll, um, I'll," I rack my brains, trying to think of a frightening threat. Unfortunately, it's quite hard to frighten the definition of frightening itself. They're leading me down a narrow passage, almost like a corridor in a hospital. Blank white doors stare at me from both sides, hard to distinguish one from the other. But right at the end of the passage lies a dark blue door. Not the peaceful dreamy type of blue, but a harsh dangerous type. You can distinguish this one out of the crowd very easily.

Once we get to the end of the passage, one of the guards takes the whole squirming me into his iron grip, while the other slicks back his greasy brown hair with the back of his hand, and opens the door. A lot nicer than the way they had opened my door, by the way.

"Come in," an authoritative female voice calls out. The guard with the greasy brown hair walks in first, "Jeanine, my lady, here's the intruder from outside the gates that you requested to see." "Well, what are you waiting for, bring her in!" This Jeanine woman apparently has a temper. My guard carries me in and deposits me uncaringly in a wooden chair, facing the desk of which Jeanine Matthews stands on the other side.

She doesn't look like how she sounds. Instead of the menacing robotic woman I expected to see, here stands before me what looks like a rather stylish teacher. Her attractive face is accessorised with rectangular glasses, framing her watery grey eyes. She wears a dark blue dress, figure-hugging, exposing a voluptuous but pudgy figure. Intelligence is in her aura, an intimidating kind, and judging by the expression on her smug face, she knows it too.

Nevertheless, she doesn't truly scare me like the guards did. I'm filled with hope. "Excuse me, Miss, uh, Jeanine, but you don't think you could just, kinda, let me out of here?" "Leave," she instructs the guards, without taking her eyes off me. She's getting a little bit scary now. "Amber Keele," she smiles, "well done on getting this far. Very few have, let me tell you, but you are not like the rest of them."

"Uh, thank you... I think?"

"When I say you're not like the rest of them, what I mean by that, is that they didn't have a choice when it came to their painful but quick death. You do."

Horror, shock, terror. What in the world have I landed myself in to!? Is my intrusion through the gates a big enough crime for the death penalty?! And what does she mean by me having a choice?! Does she mean that I get the highly esteemed privilege in deciding whether I would like to be electrocuted to death or fed to a giant shark?

Putting on a brave face is something I can do, even when my insides feel upside down, so I try to sound calm and civil, "I don't understand, miss". There. I said Miss. Maybe she'll like me because of that, all my teachers at school did. Oh, who am I kidding, I better ask if I can start preparing my funeral.

"Oh you don't understand, you don't understand," she laughed a short sarcastic laugh, "My Amber, you're sixteen presumably?"

"Turned sixteen two months ago."

"And obviously you came through the gates for a reason. To escape your world, perhaps? And then, interrupt me if I conclude wrongly, you would like to stay here if you could?"

I look around pointedly. Not much attraction in an army base, if that was all the gates locked away.

Jeanine immediately gets my point, "Oh Amber, dear, this is nothing. These gates lock away a whole new civilisation. A civilisation much different to the one you came from, and in my point of view, a civilisation much superior."

Excitement tickles my senses.

"I know, from my sources, that you were unhappy back in you past society. I like people to be happy, dear, I really do. Killing the other intruders was something I could not bear to witness. So I've decided to offer you a deal"

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat now, restraining myself from jumping up in enthusiasm.

Jeanine clears her throat, "If you chose to escape or leave our city now, we will find you and hunt you down. Then, you will be killed. But, if you chose to stay, you can stay forever. Live here among the other citizens, be one of us. Just with one tiny little condition."

There's always a catch.

"When the time comes to chose your faction, you will choose Dauntless. And once there, you will keep your ears and eyes open for anyone who confesses or talks about 'divergent'. If you hear that word, you will come to me straight away and tell me who said it."

Wait, what?! I exclaim, "Divergent? Dauntless? Faction? What do those words even mean?!"

Jeanine smiles, "It will be all explained to you later, if you agree to the deal." She obviously saw the look of apprehension on my face as she soothed, "Don't worry, it's not going to hurt you if you accept the deal. You'll just be my little inside helper. Sign here if you accept," she indicates a formal looking contract on her mahogany desk.

At this point, I have no idea what's going on or how I will 'help' Jeanine. But I really really really want to live in the city and start a new life. I stand up strongly, "My entire life has been nothing. I've just been waiting for something to change me, to captivate me. But nothing ever came, from where I was from." Jeanine nods encouragingly. "But now, this contract. This is exactly what I've been waiting for, a chance for rebirth into a world where I might actually fit in. I'd be an idiot not to accept it."

And with that I grab the blue fountain pen beside the contract, and sign a big 'AMBER'. There, it's done. No turning back now.

The sound of hand meeting hand enters my ears and I look up to see Jeanine clapping, her eyes focus on me with an intensity unknown to me before today.

"You'll do very well here, Amber," she smiles, "You'll do very well indeed."