Team Work

I awoke with a stiff groan. The ache was already annoying, though I could feel that my body was still partially numb from pain medication. My eyes fluttered and took a few moments to readjust to the new light - especially the white walls that I was not use to. This was the second time I'd been in the infirmary in Dauntless. Unfortunately, this time it was much worse. My whole face ached and my head was pounding. As well as injuries from my last fight, I could now feel the injuries from my first fight again. Another fight lost... Another step closer to being factionless.

" Finally. It's taken you long enough to wake up." The sound of Eric's voice shocked me, and I instantly pulled myself up into a sitting position on the bed, wincing as I did so. Eric frowned as he saw this.

" What are you doing here?" I questioned, rubbing my eyes and wincing again. It didn't take long for me to realize that the pain was coming from my eyebrow piercing, a place where Drew had hit continually.

" You should never have got that piercing. Drew used it to his advantage." Eric scolded, his eyes narrowing in anger.

" What I do and don't is none of your business."

" It is my business when you're knocked out for a whole day!" A whole day? Had it really been that long? How much had I missed? Would my ranking be lower because I've missed training? All the thoughts clouding my mind only caused my head to hurt more.

" A day!?" Confusion overtook my expression and Eric's eyes locked on me. " What did Drew do to me? Last time I was out for barely an hour!"

" He cheated." Eric announced, his voice hardening as he spoke. These words seemed to anger him. " Thus meaning his rankings will be lowered and your's won't be affected."

" Cheated? What did he do?" The only memories I had left of yesterday were hazy and I found myself not wanting to think about them, since it only hurt my head more.

" He continued the fight after orders were given for him to stop. He received punishment for his lack of being able to follow orders." Eric explained, while glancing over at a bed across the room from my own. I found myself following his gaze and my eyes caught onto an unconscious Drew, who now had a large bruise across the side of his jaw.

" Punishment? What happened to him? He's been knocked out!" I exclaimed. What I saw horrified me as I knew that had definitely not been done by me.

" I knocked him out. An eye for an eye," Eric stated simply, unnerved and not at all remorseful about it.

" Because that's how Dauntless works..." I reminded myself in a sarcastic whisper, holding back from rolling my eyes. What Eric did seemed unfair to me, but I didn't over worry about it since it was Drew and I despised him. " How much of training have I missed?"

Eric rolled his eyes. " Not much. You missed another days worth of fights and exercises."

" Is Tris okay? She seemed pretty beat up from her fight with Peter..." I asked. My mind was working in logical stages of importance - I was finding out everything I needed to know in the order of the things that my mind worried about most.

" No. She's out," Eric answered.

" What do you mean she's out?" I demanded. Those words could mean a few different things.

Eric sighed before responding, " She's Factionless now. She's lost 2 out of 3 fights and she's not fit enough to take part in the next important stage of physical training."

" So? I've lost 2 out of 3 fights! I don't exactly hear you telling me that I'm out!" I exclaimed angrily. " What? Just because she's a stiff means that she gets worse treatment than everyone else?"

" She's a stiff, she was never going to make it. Stop being so sensitive about it." Eric's eyes hardened and his voice deepened. " The reason why you're not out is because Drew cheated. But you're not taking part in the next stage, you need your rest."

" What!?" I shook my head and frowned. " No! I'm awake now I'm fine! When is the next stage, anyway?"

" It's tonight and I'm telling you, you're not fit enough," Eric stated, more dominantly this time.

" I don't care. You don't get to decide what I can and can't do." I glared at him.

" As your Dauntless Leader-"

I interrupted him," Your status doesn't matter. Since I'm still an initiate, I have to take part in all stages of training. I'm not missing anything else! For all I know, I could still be below the line! I need the highest rank possible!"

" Why are you so determined to get yourself even more hurt?!" Eric snarled furiously, storming out of infirmary before I got a chance to reply. Luckily, no one had been around to hear the argument between me and Eric.

I sighed deeply as soon as Eric was gone. For some reason, I hated arguing with him. Though it annoyed me that he was trying to keep me away from training - it was like he wanted me to fail. But then why would he help me improve my shooting and fighting skill if he wanted me to fail? None of it made sense. His change in demeanor was beginning to constantly confuse me; one minute I felt as though I could trust him, the next I felt as if he was exactly like his father. It seemed that his parents had, had a large affect on his personality. Right now he was treading on a fine line with being himself and exactly like his father.


Later on that day, I climbed out of bed and headed over to where Tris was laying. Earlier on, Christina, Al and Will had visited us all, announcing to Tris that she was out and telling me when the next stage begun. I found it extremely unfair that Tris had been named Factionless before the rankings had even been given out properly. From my own understanding, it seemed that it all had something to do with Eric and I didn't like it. He had to be evil to everyone but me... Why?

" Tris! Come on we need to go," I ordered her, masking the throbbing pain from the deep bruises on my face and back.

" What? What are you talking about, Rianna?" Tris was instantly confused and I rolled my eyes at her. The one thing that I had found myself doing a lot recently - which I should definitely not be doing - was defying Eric's orders. I knew that nobody else would dare do it. But so far, defying him, had worked out better for me. So why stop?

" You're coming with me to get on the train for the next field trip tonight, it's part of training," I explained, hoping that Drew wouldn't wake up. It pleased me that he wouldn't get to take part. It served him right. " Come on, before we miss it!"

" B-But I'm factionless..." Tris stated sadly, avoiding looking me in the eye.

Again, I rolled my eyes. " Who cares? Show bravery by defying an order. Trust me, it will work."

" Okay." Tris beamed at me after a few moments of contemplation, hurriedly following me out of the infirmary and towards the exit to Dauntless. It didn't take long for us to run there and my aches and pains were bearable enough. By the time we arrived, everyone else had already made it onto the train. I pushed myself into sprint to dash after the train, while Tris followed behind me.

" Come on! We're almost there!" My voice seemed to alert Four, who was already inside the train. He looked down to see me sprinting and preparing to jump, then he looked back at Tris. Strangely, his eyes stayed on her and he seemed worried. Before I had chance to dwell on this further, however, I'd already launched myself onto the train, surprising a few people.

" You're not supposed to be here," Eric growled as he caught sight of me, pulling me to the side so nobody else noticed our dispute.

" Tough. I'm here and so is Tris. You either kick us both out and just let us take part in this damn training session!" My annoyance was audible in my voice and Eric stared at me after I'd said this. His eyes seemed full of different emotions; frustration, worry and anger. I couldn't tell which was more prominent.

" Fine, stay. But this is the last time you get to defy an order," Eric seemed to be holding back a smirk and I scoffed at him, knowing he was being truly serious. I knew that he knew that I would always do it again, no matter what he said.

" Right... You keep telling yourself that," He let out a small chuckle at my answer, before his attention turned elsewhere. Like earlier today, I followed his gaze and noticed Tris in Four's arms. It looked as if Four had just helped Tris onto the train like Eric had helped me on the first day.

" Are your injuries okay?" Eric asked, switching his attention back to me. His eyes lingered over the bruises on my face, frowning deeply as he did.

" I'm fine. Quit worrying." I inaudibly gasped in horror as I realised what I had just sad. Guiltily, I looked up at Eric and saw his eyes glaze over with protest and denial.

" I wasn't-" He began to state angrily.

" I know, I know. Slip of the tongue..." I told him quickly, shaking my head and looking down at the floor. " Sorry." Before the conversation could get any more awkward, Christina rushed over to me with Will and Al.

" You made it! We thought you weren't supposed to come..." Christina said, grinning widely at me.

" Who cares? Tris came with me too, we're both staying for training and Tris is back in," I replied, shrugging simply.

" How did you do that?" Al asked incredulously, while both Christina and Will, too, looked confused.

" I'm just incredibly amazing like that," I winked at him and grabbed Tris' hand, pulling her away from Four and into our group conversation. For the rest of the journey, we all chatted animatedly. Today had been a bit of a downer, but things had brightened up now that some of our problems had been solved. We all mostly talked about what we were going to be doing tonight and why we had to do it in the dark. Our theories ranged from ridiculous to reasonable.

" Initiates!" I, like everyone else, turned at the sound of Eric's booming voice.

" Tonight we will be playing capture the flag. For those of you who have never placed, the whole point of the game is to capture the flag of the opposing team. Once one team captures the others flag, the game is over and that team wins. Each team will have an even mix of initiates. This is Dauntless tradition, so I suggest you take it seriously," Four explained, his voice sounding softer than Eric's. It always seemed to and I couldn't understand why.

" Weapons," Eric dropped a bag on the floor that had guns pointing out of it. The guns obviously weren't real and they looked very similar to paintball guns.

" You call that a gun?" Molly smirked at Peter. Seeing there group was strange since they had a member missing. I smirked as I spotted Eric pick up a gun, knowing exactly what he was going to do. Molly dropped to the ground, screaming in pain as Eric shot her with the gun, not hesitating at all.

" Neurostim-dart," Eric announced, smirking as he saw Molly in pain. " It simulates the pain of a real gun shot wound but it will only last a few minutes." I stared at the gun in shock. I knew it wouldn't be a real gun but I wasn't expecting this. Fear was bubbling within me and I tried hard to push it away. Fear was no accepted in Dauntless. " Four and I are captains. Lets split the transfers."

" You pick first," Eric smirked triumphantly as Four said this.

" Edward," Of course Eric went for the strongest candidate first. Edward made his way over to Eric, picking up one of the guns.

" I pick the stiff." There were a few murmurs of surprise as Four said this and Tris looked extremely confused. I patted her back with a smile and gave her a little shove towards Four. Christina smirked at me as I did this.

" Picking the weak ones so you'll have someone to blame when you lose?" Eric smirked and I rolled my eyes. The tension that was constantly between both Eric and Four was annoying and pointless. Usually it was just Eric being too competitive.

" Something like that," A complete lie.

" Rianna." I looked up in surprise at Eric who had an emotionless expression. Hiding my confusion, I headed over towards Eric, joining Edward without another word. Eric didn't even make eye contact with me. However, when I glanced over at Four, I noticed the confusion marked on his expression too.

The rest of the team was picked in a matter of minutes and I was disappointed to see that all of my friends were on the opposite team. Eric had clearly only chosen people with strength. That's what didn't make sense to me - why had he chosen me? I was from amity. I probably had a low ranking. Why did he have to be so confusing? All those years ago he seemed like such a straightforward person to me; a guy who was made to hide his kindness since he had horrid parents. Now he seemed to be changing every day. One minute he was ruthless Eric, the next he was helping me.

" Hey, I'm sorry about our fight. We're cool, right?" I blinked up at Edward since I had been lost in my own thoughts. Eric was now picking from the Dauntless born.

" Yeah, we're cool," I smiled at him gratefully. Edward had always been a good person; a kind dauntless rather than arrogant, like Peter.

" Psh, she's only saying that so you don't kick her ass again like everyone else," Molly laughed at Peter's comment and I instantly sent a glare to him.

" Oh yeah? Where is your friend Drew by the way? I noticed he was missing..." I said innocently, smirking as I saw Peter's angry expression.

" Apparently it's not only me who doesn't like people messing your pretty little face up," Peter winked and I didn't reply. The reason being, that I had no idea whether that was sarcastic or not. It hadn't sounded it, but it was Peter; sarcasm was his defense mechanism.

" Who's messed who's face up?" A bubbly, deep voice interrupted the, now, silent conversation. Looking up, I met dark, enigmatic brown eyes and a head of dark brown hair. The boy to the side of me was strongly built and he had a sort of boyish charm to him that I couldn't describe. He already seemed like one of those guys that girls swooned over. " Ah, your the one with the messed up face. Was this guy bothering you about it?"

" Yep, I'm messed up face girl. You really know how to compliment a girl, don't you?" He smirked at my comment, a turned more towards me. " Oh, and Peter's nothing I can't handle myself, thanks."

" Wow. Where are you from? Don't tell me your another Candor transfer..." He rolled his eyes.

" Amity. Not that it's any of your business." I almost laughed as complete and utter shock formed on his expression.

" Even bigger wow. If you didn't look so serious I'd think you were lying. You were the one that caught everyone's attention on choosing day?"

" The one and only," I rolled my eyes.

" Well, amity, I'm Blake. Do I have the honour in getting to know your name?" Blake asked, smirking. For some reason, I could tell I liked him already - not in the boyfriend type way, but a friend type way. He seemed nice enough and his comments were actually quite amusing.

" Rianna." I told him, breaking eye contact as I looked up at Eric, who was now handing out guns. Eric's eyes lingered longer on me and he had a deep frown on his face.

" Do you know how to use a gun?" Blake asked sarcastically as Eric handed me a gun, before abruptly turning away from me. I frowned at Eric, slightly confused.

" Well why don't you be my test dummy?" I turned back to Blake and he laughed at my comment.

" No need, I-" Blake was about to continue before Eric's voice cut him off.

" My team!" Eric shouted, gaining all of our attention. " Get ready to jump."