When dinner is over, a muscular, menacing looking man orders us transfers to follow him. He leads us to a dormitory, which, I presume, is where we will stay during initiation.
"My name is Eric," he says coldly. "I am one of the five leaders of the Dauntless. We take the initiation process very seriously here, so I volunteered to oversee a bit of your training."
I stiffen. I don't like the feeling of a cruel-looking person like Eric watching me like a hawk as I fail miserably in my initiation. At least he's only there for a bit.
"Some ground rules," he says. "You have to be in the training room by eight o'clock every day. Training takes place every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you like after six. You will also get some time off between each stage of initiation."
That sounds hard. Amity initiates probably get free time half of the day.
"You are only permitted to leave the compound when accompanied by a Dauntless," Eric adds. "Behind this door is the room where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks. You will notice that there are ten beds, but thirteen of you."
He smiles wickedly.
"So, therefore, three of you will have to sleep on the floor." His eyes turn to Ryan, the Stiff.
"W-what? Why me?" he stutters.
"Disadvantage of being a Stiff, mate," Ian says smugly.
"No? Not selfless enough? What about you girls?" Eric suggests, looking at us.
"No," Maddy beats me to it. "We're Dauntless now. Not Amity. I suggest you clear your head and come around the fact that we spilt our blood on the coals, and we are standing here right now, dressed in black. Otherwise, you'd still be a pathetic Nose, sticking your retarded face in a book."
Eric pales. "What makes you think I was a Nose?"
"Maybe you're just not Dauntless enough," Maddy sniggers, but I know she has done research when we were in Amity. The two of us used to sneak into the Amity control rooms and stalk people we found interesting. The thought that we used to find Eric interesting gives me the urge to vomit.
Eric scowls at Maddy, but then continues.
"Anyway, during initiation, you will be ranked. You will be evaluated separately from the Dauntless born, but at the end, your rankings will be together, not considering that they are already better than you."
"What?!" Ella exclaims. "Rankings? Why are we ranked?"
Eric smirks. "The rankings determine the order in which you will select a job after initiation. The higher you rank, the more chance you will have of getting a desirable position."
Everyone nods, and Eric's smile widens. "And by the way, your rankings also determines who gets cut."
"Cut? What do you mean?" the other Erudite girl, Sabina, whispers.
"Well, you see," Eric says in a sickly sweet voice. "A lot of cowardly airheads come into Dauntless, thinking it is just going to be an easy treat. But no. We want soldiers, not cowards. Therefore, in each stage of initiation, we will cut some people who aren't doing well, and at the very end of initiation, only ten people will become Dauntless members."
"Ten?!" a few people scream.
"Wait, that's not including the Dauntless borns, right?" Rose says.
"No," says Eric, clearly enjoying this. "Ten out of both the groups."
"But they are all better than us already! How is this fair?"
"Who said bravery depends on fairness?" Eric says.
"B-but there's twenty-five of us, that means over half of us will get cut!" Sabina cries.
"Glad you can work out your maths, Erudite," Eric drawls. "Yes, out of the twenty-five of you, fifteen of you will be saying goodbye shortly."
"Wait, what happens if we get cut?" I say, hoping that we'd just spend the rest of our lives being cleaners or something.
"Well, you have two choices. Either jump into the chasm, or become factionless forever." Eric's smile becomes bigger than ever before.
"What?!" Images of me sitting in the blistering cold wind, wearing rags and eating one piece of bread a week flash through my mind. No. I will not become factionless. I will be in the top ten. I will.
"How could you do this to us?" Ella sobs.
Eric walks out of the dormitory. As he is about to turn the corner, he looks back and says, "You chose us. Now we choose you."
