Okay, terribly sorry I haven't updated in forever! Sorry! But enjoy this chapter :)


The next morning, I am quickly woken and painfully dragged out of my infirmary bed by Dean and Emily, who hurriedly explain that Cole is taking us on a trip to see the different jobs of the Dauntless members, and we must meet him and the others at the train station in exactly five minutes.

"Sorry I forgot to tell you yesterday," Dean apologizes, handing me a bagel as Emily checks over my bandages to see if they are stable enough for me to run and jump on a train in.

"It's alright," I say rather groggily, still trying to keep my eyes open. I take a bite of my bagel. There's a dull throbbing in my head, and Emily informs me that the bump is turning a strange shade of yellow and green.

"Come on," Dean says, grabbing my arm, which is sore (everything is), and pulls me to the door. "Do you think you could manage to jog?" he asks.

I scrunch up my face, and immediately wish I hadn't, because it makes my nose feel like it's about to fall off. "Sure," I say, even though I don't believe it for a second. After all, jogging seems an impossible feat when moving even my fingers makes me wince.

By the time we reach the train station, I am not even jogging - I'm just stumbling as quickly as I can, trying to ignore the burning fire in my sides.

"You okay?" Dean breathes out as we head towards the group of transfer initiates and Cole.

I nod, but it's more because I honestly don't have enough energy to verbally say anything.

Emily pats my back lightly. "All we have to do is jump onto the train," she says encouragingly.

I muster a smile, resisting the urge to sit down on the floor and sleep. It's dawn, but there is barely any light peeking from the cloudy skies. From a distance, there is the rhythmic sound of a train rapidly approaching, which I can pass off as the sound of apples hitting the basket on the ground if I try hard enough, but I think it has more to do with the fact that I feel senile than anything else.

When we finally get to the group, Fred and Abby wave at us. Michael smiles apologetically at me, and though I return the smile, I feel a part of me that resents him for landing that kick to my head (which, Dean tells me, was not entirely necessary, seeing as I couldn't get up at the time). Cole claps his hands together and says, "Alright. Everyone's here? Good, because the train should be coming right about… now."

Just as the words leave his mouth, the sound of the train intensifies, and a sleek black train appears around the corner and starts to whiz past us.

Cole doesn't look behind as he starts running. "Better hurry! This train doesn't go on for long!" he calls back.

Michael, Fred, Emily, and Audrey immediately start after him. "Come on," Emily says, waving for us to follow.

I nod, but my head feels like it's going to explode, and I don't know how my legs are going to be able to carry me any further. My heart beats quickly at the thought that I'll have to jump on a moving train. Again.

Dean looks at me concernedly. "Ready?"

"Yeah," I murmur, gesturing to my head. "Ready to die."

I'm not kidding (because the pain in my head and the accelerating beats of my heart are terrifying enough to make me fall off the train or something), but he rolls his eyes at me. "Let's go."

Dean breaks into a run, and it's the last thing I want to do, but I follow after him, my head pounding.

He points to a car behind us, which has its door wide open. "That one!" he shouts over the train's noise. He hops into the car before it, which has a narrower opening. This time, he lands perfectly, but I have no time to watch him stabilize himself.

My heart races as I try to measure the timing of my jump correctly, and force all the strength I have left into my legs. Show them they're wrong, I think, memories of last night's talk with Nick and Hanna flowing back into my head. I take a large leap to the right, and feel my feet hit solid ground. It jarrs my legs up to my hips.

"Oh!" I exclaim in surprise that I've actually managed to jump onto the train, before I gasp in pain and crumple to the hard floor, clutching at my sides. "Ouch."

"You okay?" I force myself to look up, even though I already know it's Dean. He must have jumped from his car to mine.

"Yeah," I say, pushing myself off of the ground so that I'm sitting up. My legs hurt, but a small smile forms on my face. "I managed to do it right this time."

"So did I," he grins, sitting next to me. His red hair glints in the small amount of sunlight that's starting to peek through the clouds outside. We watch the scenery whizz by for a few minutes until Emily walks into our car.

"Oh, good, you're both-" She stops for a moment, and when I look at her, there's an expression on her face that makes me want to scoot further away from Dean, but it disappears. "You're both here," she completes. "Cole says to jump when we see the fence."

"What fence?" Dean asks.

"That fence?" I guess, pointing out the car.

It's the barbed wire fence that stands over 20 feet tall, guarded by Dauntless guards, which look like tiny black spots from here.

Dean hops up on his feet and extends a hand out to me. I use it to stand up, which hurts my legs, head, sides, and everything else on my body.

I grimace, walking over to the door. My hands are sweaty. "Let's get this over with," I say, but it's because I'm tired, not brave, that I say that.

Emily agrees, but in a different way. "It's so much better jumping onto the train than jumping off. There's more… thrill."

Which for some reason, makes me go into hysterics, which hurt my sides a lot, to the point where I'm not laughing anymore - I'm gasping in pain.

Dean shakes his head at me, which makes me stop immediately.

"What?" I ask defensively, gingerly holding my sides.

"How can you be so energetic? What with your injuries and all?"

I gape at him, temporarily forgetting the unnerving feeling of needles poking into my sides. "Energetic?" I repeat incredulously. "I'm anything but energetic right now."

He snorts. "Alright."

"I'm not!" I protest. I turn to Emily. "Am I?"

"Well," she says, regarding me with her perceptive grey eyes, "yeah, for someone who got… badly hurt yesterday."

I huff. "But I'm not being energetic, I just want this to be over with quickly!"

"We believe you," Emily says, grinning. "Now jump."

"What?" I yelp as my legs bend of their own accord and I leap off the train right after Emily.

I land on the dirt and roll forward, my head hitting the ground.

I involuntarily let out a scream, opening my eyes that I don't even remember shutting.

Emily is rushing towards me, her hands outstretched. "You hit your head?" she guesses.

I moan in reply as Dean stands on the other side of me. Side. My hips hurt, too, from twisting when I landed.

Emily grimaces. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Not until we get back to the headquarters, anyway. We should go to where the rest are." She vaguely point up ahead, to where I can see Cole's light brown hair sticking out.

When we reach him, Audrey, Fred, and Abby, Cole greets us with an easy smile. "Alright. You've all managed to make it. How are your injuries, Sophia?"

"Okay," I say as lightly as possible. For some reason, I can't remember why I'm supposed to be pretending I'm fine. I want to faint, but of course, I can't. Why can't I? Why not just faint where I stand right now?

Oh, yes. Because of Nick and Hanna. And Joshua.

I add a little smile at the end, to make it more convincing. Cole just nods and says, "Good, then. Wouldn't want you missing out on tonight's events."

My eyes bug out of my face. Somehow, I don't like the way he says it. "What events?" I say as casually as possible.

But he only shakes his head, his brown eyes shining. "None of the transfer initiates can find out," he replies. Cole looks off into a space behind us, and puts up a hand. "Glad to see you've made it," he calls out to the walking group of Cayden, Michael, Kathryn, and Henry.

"We're glad, too," Cayden calls back, which makes Henry snort.

Seeing Michael makes my head pound even more, so I turn away and head over to Abby.

"Ouch," she says as she looks me from head to toe.

"'Ouch', indeed," I agree.

"You excited to see all the jobs around here?" she asks.

I shrug. "Maybe. Depends."

It turns out that the trip is not exciting, because the minute I see the Dauntless soldiers standing on the inside of the padlocked gate, there's a terrible emotion that churns my stomach until I feel sick. On the bright side, while trying to keep the bagel Dean gave me from coming up, the pain in my legs seem to dissipate, and I no longer feel like I'm going to faint.

Because there's only one thing on my mind, and it's that I don't want to be these soldiers. I don't want to be one of them, who stand at this gate all day, waiting for a threat that will never appear. I want to amount to more. And by the looks on my fellow initiates' faces, they are thinking along the same lines.

After we've toured all of the stops, we assemble back at the train station. Cole informs us that it is ten o'clock and that the train will be here in four minutes and twenty-six seconds. Apparently, he knows what we're all thinking, because he stops and regards us with a careful look.

"Somehow, I get the feeling this wasn't exactly a moral booster for you all," he says calmly.

"Not really," Dean speaks up.

Cole gives a laugh, but when he looks at us, I don't see or feel any sympathy coming off of him. "Well, don't worry about what jobs you'll get. Focus on being in the top ten, or you won't have any jobs to consider in the first place."

Which, of course, makes us feel a whole lot better, which Fred exemplifies in his comment: "We only have to be in the top ten of seventeen people, or we'll be factionless. No big deal."

Cole arches an eyebrow, and it's the most Dauntless I've ever seen him, since he's got no visible tattoos or piercings. "And?"

I'm sure Fred or even Dean would have had a wonderful banter with Cole, except another train starts to approach, and Cole turns around.

But right before he takes off running, Cole says, without turning, "The best get into Dauntless. Nothing less."


Her hazel eyes are the only things I can see. Those hazel orbs that look at me in disgust and hatred. I've never had anyone hate me before, so it's a change to have someone dislike me so openly, and for no apparent reason.

Audrey's stance is nimble, and like a bird's. She's light on her feet, and yet new bruises on my legs are going to form at a hundred miles per hour if she keep kicking me there, which she will.

I pant for breath, my hands weakly clutched together in front of me. I take a deep gulp of air and exhale as I aim a fist at her stomach. Her blonde hair spins as she turns to avoid my fist, grabs it, and flips me around until I slam into the mat.

I groan, lying on the floor. I hear Audrey's careful footsteps making their way towards me, but can't do more than scoot a centimeter away.

"Can you get up, Sophia?" I hear Cole's voice say.

I don't make a move or sound, but it has more to do with the fact that I'm trying to contain whimpers of pain from the intense pressure in my head.

"No," Audrey answers for me, her voice malicious and cutting into the air like a knife.

It's odd. I can barely see anything, I can't stand up, and yet I hear Cole sigh from halfway across the room. "Okay. Audrey's the winner of this battle," Cole says.

I'm okay with this statement, until I remember Joshua, and I remember Nick and Hanna. You'll be gone soon. "Wait," I croak out.

It's such a feeble and quiet noise that Cole doesn't hear it. But Audrey does, and she informs everyone, "She said to wait."

I close my eyes and focus on a dot of yellow in my mind. My hands splay out on the ground, and shake as I pick myself off of the ground. My head will not be getting better anytime soon, and my legs will not be working well for awhile. But even though all the Amity in me screams to stop and rest, I don't until I've sat up on the mat.

I hear Dean give me a cheer, but I ignore it. "I can… get up," I murmur quietly, more to myself than to Cole or to Audrey.

Audrey watches me distastefully as I extend one leg out and push myself up with the other, until finally, I am standing and facing her. A sense of achievement rolls through me, but I push it away, because I can't be distracted.

The room is silent, but I have the feeling that only I hear what Audrey says to me.

"You can't beat me. So why bother?" She looks at me, expressionless except for the disdain in her hazel eyes.

And all I say back is, "Mental endurance."

She's caught off guard, and her eyes are filled with confusion, not hatred, so I take that chance to fall forward and push her.

Audrey's face contorts in surprise and she has to walk backwards a few steps to rebalance herself, but she quickly retaliates and pushes me back.

I grunt as I trip backwards and land on my bottom. Hard.

"Done yet?" Audrey asks, walking towards me.

Nick. Hanna. Cole. Felix.

I time myself perfectly. "Not quite," I say, just as I use the last burst of energy I have to stretch out my legs and kick the back of her knees.

Audrey half-collapses, but I see the fire in her eyes as she fixes me with a stare. For some reason, I smile at her, which, of course, angers her even more, so she lands a swift kick into my side.

"Done now?" she asks, as I yelp and squeeze my eyes shut in anticipation.

"Of course not." But I've got no tricks up my sleeve, and I think she knows that, because she digs her foot into my stomach, knocking me to the ground, and making me feel like I'm about to throw up.

After an antagonizing few seconds, she takes her foot off and brushes off her hands. I gasp for breath as Cole says, "And the winner of this battle is Audrey!" The words sting me, and I want to protest, except I can't. No one can argue the fact that Audrey won.

As Audrey makes her way out and to her lone corner of the room, Dean immediately rushes into the arena to me.

"Do you think you need to go to the infirmary?" Dean asks, helping me stand up. I groan.

"No." I have to put an arm over his shoulder as we walk out of the arena.

Abby and Emily rush over to us. "Are you alright?" Abby asks.

"Yeah," I say, waving my hand in the air. Dean helps me to the wall, where I rest my back against the smooth surface.

I glance down at my legs. Already, some parts are a purplish-gray. I grimace.

When I look back up, Emily, Dean, and Abby are all grinning at me.

I immediately flinch. "What?"

Dean shakes his head.

"What?" I demand.

"You were amazing out there," Abby says, her eyes grey sparkling.

I give her a strange look. "I lost," I inform her.

"We mean your determination," Emily explains. She shakes her head. "It was great. Cole looked as if he'd never seen anything like it. You getting up after being beaten up yesterday, the day before that, and today…"

"...was really Dauntless of you," Dean finishes. He gives me an apologetic smile, and I know it's because he still feels guilty for punching me in the stomach yesterday. Cole had paired us together for our daily match, and though I know Dean went as lightly as he could on me, we're in Dauntless. They don't believe in pity.

"Yeah, no wonder you got into Dauntless!" Abby says excitedly.

I look at each of their faces, and can immediately tell that they are not lying - they are completely serious. But at the moment, I wasn't thinking about how Dauntless and brave I was being - just that I needed to prove them all wrong, that I have the ability to be Dauntless.

But Emily's smiling at me so proudly, Abby's patting my shoulder, and Dean's just being so… Dean-like, that I feel obliged to lie again, say thanks, and smile along with them.


In the middle of that night, we are awaken by a loud hammering on the door, then a billion flashlights shining in our faces. A group of people are yelling as they yank the blankets off of us. My head rings from the noise.

"Get up!" I recognize as Felix's voice. "Get changed and be out at the train station in five minutes!"

"What?" I hear Fred complain over the noise. "What for?"

"For fun, darling," says a girl with a sharp voice. She sounds our age, and for a short moment, I wonder if these are possibly the Dauntless-born initiates, when a light shines directly into my eyes, and I see a pair of dark blue eyes before I shut my own eyes to keep out the light.

"Dauntless tradition!" Felix calls out. "Miss it, and you miss part of initiation! Five minutes!"

"Let's get out!" someone says, and the group of people (I estimate there's about ten people total) start out the door, telling us to hurry up or we'll miss the train.

When they leave, the ringing in my head subsides a little. Our dormitory is a mass of chaos and excitement, with everyone wondering what the hell we're going to do that requires us to jump on trains when it's exactly two a.m. in the night.

It's alarming, how quickly we can get ready if we need to, considering the fact that on normal mornings where we're actually groggy, it can take up to half an hour to get changed. But we're filing out the door after two minutes of frenzied changing and questions.

"Come on!" Dean hollers, running down the hallway.

I start to go after him and everyone else, but cry out in pain. Audrey's kicks have definitely left their mark on me. But I grit my teeth and start running, ignoring the intensifying pain in my legs and sides. At least my head isn't hurting as much, anymore.

We reach the train station at the exact moment that the train starts to flash by, so there's no time to rest before the leap. We all just keep running after the other group of Dauntless, who are ahead of us, until we're alongside the train, and begin to hop in.

I don't know if I can muster the strength in my legs to have a good jump, but I've done it three times so far, and haven't died any of those times, so I try not to think about it as I cross my fingers and leap sideways.

I barely make it.

The impact of hitting the edge of the train car at my stomach knocks the wind out of me, and makes my stomach feel like it's burning up. My legs, up to mid-thigh, are dangling over the side, my face pressed to the wooden floor. I feel myself slipping, and let out a small, terrified scream as I dig my fingers between the floorboards. My heart is beating incredibly quickly, and it's the only thing I can hear.

I'm falling. I'm slipping. I'm not going to make it.

And then gloriously strong hands grip me at my armpits and lift me up until I'm standing on solid floor again.

I hunch over, gasping for air, and moaning as I gingerly touch my stomach. There's no blood, at least. I look up at my savior. "Thank you so much," I say between my pants.

The brown-haired boy is obviously strong and bold, but the inviting smile on his face makes me feel at ease. I have the sudden urge to hug him as we do in Amity when we greet people, something that never even crossed my mind for any of the other Dauntless people I've seen. His brown eyes sparkle down at me.

"No problem," he says. "No one else volunteered, so I thought I'd lend a helping hand." He gestures around him, and for the first time, I see that there are four people staring at us two, and Cayden gives me a wave from where he stands in the corner.

"Hi," I say to the two girls and two other boys that I see.

They all just nod at me, and turn away, indulging themselves in their conversations again.

"We're meeting in this car," the boy says to me, "so Felix, Cole, and everyone else should be here soon. I'm Josiah, by the way. Dauntless-born, if you haven't noticed."

I take his offered hand and shake it. "I'm Sophia."

His eyes widen. "No way! You're Sophia?"

I blink. "You know who I am?"

"Yeah, Felix and Nick told me that you're an Amity transfer!" Josiah looks at me, and there's an emotion in his eyes that I can't place. Respect? No, and I wouldn't know why a Dauntless would respect me. Anger? Not really. I get the feeling that it's a mixed type of emotion.

"Oh," I squeak out, but I'm really just thinking that it seems Nick and Felix do a lot of talking about me. I'm not sure if that's flattering or not.

The door on the end of the car opens, and the rest of the transfers come in. I wave for Dean, Emily, Fred, and Abby to come to me. As they're making their way to me, I hear cheers from the Dauntless-born initiates, and glance at the door.

It's Nick and Hanna, walking in with wide smiles on their faces. Their hair looks completely windblown and disheveled, but they grin as if they've both done something prize-worthy.

Dean bounds up to me, glancing at Josiah, who is roaring praise at the two, in confusion. "What's happening?" he asks.

I shrug, trying to avert my eyes from Nick and Hanna. Maybe if I avoid them, then they won't see me.

I'm pretty sure that would have worked, if it weren't for Josiah. He stops cheering and instead calls out, "Hey, Nick! Hanna! Come here, and look who I met!"

My jaw drops open in protest as Josiah reaches out a hand and grabs my left arm, waving it in the air like a flag. The flopping of my arm makes it hurt, and when Josiah lets go, I quickly try to rub the feeling back into my hand.

Nick and Hanna walk over to Josiah, who claps both of them on the back. "Amazing, what you did," Josiah says, shaking his head in wonder.

"What did they do?" Dean pipes in, regarding Nick and Hanna with a contemplating expression on his face.

Nick speaks up. "We jumped on from the back of the train."

Dean raises his eyebrows. "That's it?"

Hanna surges forward, her blue eyes fiery. She pokes Dean in the chest. "Hey, Redhead, you're obviously not from Erudite. I don't think you realize how hard it is to jump on a train from the very back, when it's moving as fast as this train is." She glares at him. "Maybe you need some first-hand experience?"

Josiah puts his hand between them. "Woah, let's not get too violent," he says.

Dean pushes the hand aside, narrowing his eyes at Hanna. "Maybe I'll try it sometime."

"Tell me when you do," Hanna bites back. "I want to see you utterly fail."

A dangerous look forms on Dean's face, and I quickly reach out and push him away from Hanna. "Stop it, Dean," I scold him.

"Yeah, stop it, Dean," Hanna mimics me, but this time, her icy stare is directed at me. Somehow, I get the feeling that she's not very fond of me. "You again?" She laughs. "You're going to get crushed in this game."

"What ga-" I start, but Felix's voice stops me, commanding attention.

"Initiates!" Felix barks out. As I'm turning to the front of the car, I see a slight scowl on Nick's face as he watches his brother. "We have gathered you all here to play a game of Dauntless tradition - Capture the Flag!"

My mouth falls open. I can't play Capture the Flag. Not in the state I'm in right now. And not when we're with the Dauntless-born initiates. For a moment, I hope that they're joking, but I correct myself in my thoughts - the Dauntless never joke about these types of things.

Cole steps up next to him, holding a large box. "You will each have a gun loaded with paintballs inside. Felix and I will be team leaders, and yes, we will be mixing up the Dauntless-born and transfer initiates."

Felix grins. "We'll start with the transfers. When we pick you, come up, get a gun, and stand behind your leader."

The Dauntless-born initiates melt off to the sides and back of the car. Josiah pushes Dean and I closer to the front. All ten of us transfers stand in a straight line.

"You first," Cole says.

I hold my breath as Felix looks at us down the line. I'm going to be picked last. I know I will be.

"Emily," Felix says.

"Dean." Dean flashes a smile at Emily as he casually grabs a gun from the box.

My heartbeat is probably ten times faster than it should be.

"Audrey."

"Cayden."

"Abby."

"Fred."

Fred walks up next to Dean, and the two do some strange handshake together. From behind Felix, Emily and Abby smile at me encouragingly. There's only four of us left.

"Michael," Felix says thoughtfully, which makes me wonder what his strategy is. Everyone on his team is different, in both skill and size. Until I realize…

"Oh," I breathe out, looking from Abby to Emily to Audrey to Michael. Different factions. They're all from different factions.

"Kathryn," Cole says, snapping me away from my reverie.

It's only me and Henry, the blond Erudite boy, left. I can feel everyone's eyes on me, but the only thing I notice is how Felix does not look at me in the eyes - not once. I find that strange, that his eyes skip over my face as if I don't exist. I'm not good enough to be Dauntless.

The weight in my stomach sinks lower. At this rate, I will most definitely be picked last.

Felix purses his lips. "Sophia."

I'm so startled to hear my name, not Henry's, that I literally jump a little on my feet, which causes some laughter from the Dauntless-born initiates. Blushing, I make my way to the box of guns. Knowing that there are only paintballs inside makes me feel better, so I'm able to pick up the gun without handling it like it's a bomb or something. (But it's pretty close.)

The Dauntless-born initiates stand in their own formation, but Felix and Cole do not start picking people immediately - they first share a look, glance at the initiates, and nod at each other.

Cole clears his throat. "We've decided that since there are seven of you, and that cannot be divided equally, whichever side that Nick is on will have eight people versus the other side of nine."

This makes my eyebrows jump incredibly high, and I'm not the only one who's incredulous. From all around me, my fellow transfers are all doubtful that Nick is good enough to count as two people.

But apparently he is, because all of the Dauntless-born initiates nod in complete agreement.

"Alright, go, Felix."

Felix doesn't miss a beat. "Nick."

His younger brother expressionlessly takes his gun and stands next to me, but I see a hint of a scowl on Nick's face.

Cole smiles, as if he completely expected it. "Hanna."

"Josiah."

"Brandon."

"Julia."

"And I'll take both Daniel and Sharon," Cole says. He claps his hands together, taking two guns from the box himself, and tossing one to Felix. "Alright. Whose team shall go out first?"

"Yours," Felix decides. "We'll give you a ten-minute head start."

"Generous of you," Cole grins. "Alright, team, let's go."

Fred and Dean wave to us as they jump out of the train behind their team. I hear holler and cheers as the Dauntless are let free and into their comfort zone - the dangers of being in the wild.

Josiah comes up and claps my back, which makes me wince in pain. "Glad we're on the same team," he says, smiling.

"Yeah."

Felix calls out, "Alright. We've ten minutes to create a strategy. Any ideas?" It makes him sound like he'll help us decide on what to do, but he just walks to the edge of the train car, glancing at his watch and leaving us to talk.

"Hide the flag," Michael smirks.

"Very funny," Abby retorts, before adding her piece. "Split up. We should have two good shooters stay and guard the flag, wherever we are, and the rest should split and try to find where the other team is."

Julia, a pretty, brunette Dauntless-born initiate, speaks up. "No, no," she says, shaking her head furiously, "We'll just be wasting time by searching. We have to find their spot before we do anything like split up. What if one pair finds it, and the others have no idea where to go?"

"We wing it," Josiah declares.

"We'd need some way to communicate," Emily says.

"Can't we just look from high ground to see where they're set up?" Audrey suggests simply. Right now, as she regards our group with her hazel eyes, she doesn't seem malicious at all. It's just when she's around me.

I start to nod, as do Josiah and Abby, but Julia shakes her head. "No, there's no way that Cole would pick a place you can see from a height. He wouldn't put the flag somewhere so… unconcealed."

Josiah nods. "Oh, right."

I notice at this point, Nick scowls and moves to sit down against the wall of the car, not even attempting to participate in the discussion. It makes me angry to know that I'm paying attention to him, so I turn so that I am facing the opposite direction, and try to push him out of my mind.

"So we're back to communication," Michael says helpfully.

Audrey shakes her head. "Like Abby said, the two best shots should stay behind. But the rest of the team should travel in a group, to keep numbers larger. No use in finding the flag if there's only two of you."

"Okay, so scratch the communication part," Abby says, "but one more thing: do you think we ought to conceal ourselves?" She flushes as we all give her a stare. "I mean, it's just camouflage seems to help a lot, and if we can conceal ourselves and the flag, if that's okay with the rules, then we could sneak around in the dark more."

"Nice idea," Michael nods, "except we haven't got anything to conceal ourselves with."

Abby flinches. "Oh. Right."

But as Abby ducks her head, I stand up straighter, a bizarre idea forming in my head. "Yes, we do." Everyone turns to me, and I shift uncomfortably at the attention. Even Nick's blue eyes, from where he's moodily sitting, are on my face. But I force myself to stay still as I gesture towards our guns, shrugging and smiling a little.

"We have paintballs."


Yay for paintballs :) What did you all think?