The Second Day of Every Third Month – Chapter Nine
I'm lying on my bed in the dormitory when Tris comes in. It's been two days since my fight with Edward and I feel truly exhausted.
"Hey Pen, brought you a muffin." Tris tosses the muffin to me and I catch it easily before shoving the entire thing in my mouth. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I've aged forty years in two days." I laugh, "How was kitchen duty tonight?"
Eric wasn't kidding when he said we'd be working in the kitchens for our insubordination. Mostly I don't mind the work but today I decided to skip because the exhaustion was too much. Sleep over cooking seemed like a pretty decent priority.
"I'm pretty sure I now know how to make every Dauntless dish ever, no more Abnegation-like food for us." Tris smiles and I'm happy that she's happy. She never smiled in Abnegation, but then again neither did I, it seems transferring to Dauntless was just the change we needed.
"That's awesome." I tell her before rolling over on my side and pulling my blanket up to my chin.
I've only been laying down for a few minutes when the door to the dormitory is slammed open and someone shouts "Everyone up!" Eric stands in the doorway, flashlight in hand, surrounded by Dauntless members. Beside him Four stands with an evil smile on his face.
In the bed next to me Tris seems to have forgotten who is screaming at us because she just continues to lay in her bed. I go to kick her cot but the sound of Eric chastising her stops my foot midair, "Did you go deaf, Stiff?" in the past couple days he has becoming increasingly cruel to us, a few times he's even resorted to hurting us physically with slaps on the back of the head, or painful punches to the shoulder. Luckily I haven't yet found myself under his hand but Tris is looking dangerously close to it.
I kick her cot hard and she finally gets up. "You have five minutes to get dressed and meet us by the tracks," I've already changed my pants and thrown my jacket on over my shoulders, "We're going on another field trip." Dread fills my stomach as I pull my boots on, hopefully this field trip is nothing like the last. Alone time with Eric is the last thing I want.
Eric had set me down gently on Fours couch before moving into the bathroom to grab some medicine. Tris had left just a minute earlier to get me some food.
"Are you stupid?" Eric asks me from the bathroom.
"What?" I slump back against the couch, too tired to get into it with him.
"I said," he's moved out of the bathroom and is now crouching down in front of me, smearing some sort of balm over the cut on my lip. Nothing he's doing right now feels remotely intimate, its cold and clinical, he doesn't even look me in the eye when he continues, "Are you stupid?"
"No, I'm not," I push his hand away from my face and go to stand up, "I want to leave."
"Clearly you must be," he pushes me back down on the couch. "Why would you head butt someone? Do you know how dangerous it is to do that without proper training, you could have seriously hurt yourself?"
"Since when do you care?" I ask him.
"I am always concerned for the health of future dauntless members," he stands up and makes his way back to the bathroom, "Max has laid his eyes on you, if you don't make it through, if you get hurt and we have to drop you, I won't be able to protect you."
"I don't need your protection." I say more to myself then to him before standing up from the couch.
When Tris comes back with food Eric is still in the bathroom, I quietly usher her out the door and we make our way back to the dormitory.
Tris has just pulled her shoes on when we begin to sprint down the hallway towards the train tracks. Dauntless members part for us, but other than that they take little notice of us.
When we make it to the tracks we are just behind the Dauntless initiates.
"Are we going to shoot something?" Christina asks, pointing to a pile of guns stacked neatly on a table.
"I hope not," I tell her before reaching out and grabbing one.
There are three different sized guns, on that resembles the ones we used on the first day of training, another about the size of a pistol, the last one resembles the sniper rifle I used the other day. The one I've grabbed is the sniper rifle, Tris and Christina both grab the ones we used on our first day.
"Time estimate?" Eric asks Four.
I sling my rifle over my back before moving to the table with ammunition on it. Instead of regular magazines cartridges with small needles in them are laid out on the table for us to grab.
"Any minute now. How long is it going to take you to memorize the train schedule?" Four asks Eric, looking at his watch.
"Why should I, when I have you to remind me of it?" Eric nudges Four with his shoulder. In the light of the approaching train they look like friends, and that's it, not two men who work tirelessly to change the world we live in.
Once we've all climbed onto the train Four speaks up, "We'll be dividing into two teams to play capture the flag. Each team will have an even mix of Dauntless-born initiates, and transfers. One team will get off first and find a place to hide their flag. Then the second team will get off and do the same."
Four looks to Eric who is holding a pistol in the air, "Weapon of choice," He says, holding it up for everyone in the car to see.
"You call that a gun?" Molly whispers to Peter loud enough for all of us to hear her.
Eric point his gun at her leg and pulls the trigger, Molly falls to the ground and begins to cry "Neuro-Stim dart," he says pulling it from her leg, "it simulates the pain of a real gunshot wound, but it only lasts for a couple minutes."
The car sways from side to side and Four steps forward again, "This is a Dauntless tradition, so I suggest you take it seriously."
"What do we get if we win?" Someone shouts from the back of the train.
"Sounds like the kind of question someone not from Dauntless would ask," Four says, raising an eyebrow. "You get to win, of course."
"Four and I will be your team captains," says Eric. He looks at Four. "Let's divide up transfers first shall we."
I look to Tris and Christina hoping that we'll all be on the same team but knowing that's probably not going to happen.
"You go first," says Four, leaning against the wall.
Eric shrugs his shoulders before his eyes land on me, "Penelope."
I grind my teeth but step forward to go stand with him, just my luck.
Four says nothing for a minute before crossing his arms over his chest, "I want the other Stiff."
The train car erupts in laughter, Tris' cheeks turn read and I attempt to suppress a growl from escaping my throat. I move forward to say something but Eric's hand reaches out and grabs the strap the holds my gun to my back, he yanks me back towards him before speaking up, "Got something to prove?" he asks, "Or are you just picking the weak ones so that if you lose, you'll have someone to blame it on?"
Four shrugs. "Something like that."
Eric picks Edward who comes over to stand beside me. His black eye has faded and his face is no longer swollen, still we say nothing to each other.
"Christina." Four's team.
"Peter." Is Eric trying to piss me off? Surrounding me with people that absolutely hate my guts.
"Will." Four says while biting at his thumbnail. His team doesn't look so good. Eric's been picking from the top of our initiate class and Four from the bottom, is he really trying to stack his team so he has someone to blame when he loses?
"Al."
Four picks Drew and Eric picks Molly which leaves Four's team with Myra, which I'm thankful for because I have no clue how she would react to being on the same team as me.
Eric and Four fly through the Dauntless-born initiates and I'm surrounded by people I don't know and people that hate me, being led by the biggest ass arguably in all of Chicago.
"Your team can get off second," the ass says.
"Don't do me any favors," Four smiles, "You know I don't need them to win." So Four's won before.
"No, I know you'll lose no matter when you get off," says Eric, "Take your scrawny team and get off first, then."
While Four's team makes their way off the train I slide up over to Al and decide that he will be my buddy for this horrible field trip.
"This is going to suck," I say propping my elbow up against the wall.
"No doubt." Says Al.
"Let's just try not to get shot, okay?" laughing I put my hand out for him to shake.
"Deal. Do you think it hurts?" he asks me.
"I don't know, probably a lot, but maybe not as much as Molly made it look? I'm not sure, we'll probably find out tonight though."
"Yeah," he laughs nervously, "I'm not looking forward to that."
"Me neither," I tell him before standing up straight again, were getting ready to jump off the train.
"Land on your feet." Eric orders me, he, Al, and I are the last ones on the train.
"Whatever." I say to him before grabbing Wills hand and launching myself out the open door.
I don't land on my feet, and neither does Will, we both land in the grass on our knees.
Before I can pull myself up off the ground Eric is there yanking me forward. "Next time I tell you to do something, initiate, you do it, understood?" he releases my arm and shoves me forward again.
He doesn't wait for my response before storming off and ordering us to follow him. Will comes by and pulls me back up off my knees.
"What was that?" he asks.
I shake my head, "I have no clue."
Eric leads us inside of a dilapidated building. "Okay, what next?" he asks us.
"What do you mean what next? You're our instructor." A Dauntless-born asks from the back of the room.
"This is all on you guys, I'm just here to assist. Talk amongst yourselves, figure out what you want to do." He says leaning against a counter.
"We need to find a good spot to hide the flag." Peter says next to me.
"No shit." I murmur under my breath.
"I'm sorry what was that Stiff?" He says bumping his shoulder into mine.
I go to swing at him but Al is pulling me back against his chest.
"Call me Stiff one more time Peter! Do it!" I pull out of Al's grasp and move towards Peter. He's maybe a foot taller than me, standing toe to toe with him I have to crane my neck back just to look him in the eye but still I stare him down. I'm done with being treated like shit by everyone here, I belong here just as much as they do. "Say it one more time!" I poke him in the chest and he pulls his arm back ready to swing at me, but before he can do so Eric is pushing us apart and is holding Peters fist in one hand in a vice like grip while he grabs my wrist and twists it behind my back, pushing me into the wall.
"Are you two children done?" He asks, squeezing Peter's fist in his hand and pushing me into the wall with more force. "Good, because I want to win, and in order to win we have to work together as a team, understood?" His voice is full of malice, we all nod our heads silently. When he releases us both he moves to the back of the room and we stand in silence for a moment.
"This is what we're going to do," another Dauntless-born speaks up. This one is almost as tall as Eric with dark black hair and tanned skin, his body is covered in tattoos. "That museum across the street with the bell tower, that's where the flag is going to go. You," he says pointing at me, "you're on guard up there, you've got the rifle so just pluck off any of the other team you see approaching the building and shoot anyone that comes in that tower. Half of us will stay behind and defend the building while the other half go and get the other flag. We let them come to us and we hit them hard and fast, let's finish this real quick."
Everyone seems to agree with him and we all follow him to the bell tower building. We're standing at the base of the tower Eric pulls the flag out of his pack, its bright neon green. We both climb the stairs together, when we're standing out in the open on the top of the building Eric hangs the flag up from the hook where the bell used to reside.
"Don't let anyone through, okay?" He says, before going to climb down the hole.
"Wait!" I tell him pointing out to the horizon where a giant illuminated circle is, "What's that?"
"The Ferris wheel? Is he stupid, he's just given away his position?" Eric rubs his chin for a second before pulling on his piercing. "Stay here, shoot anyone that's not on our team." He orders before closing the hatch in the floor and running downstairs.
I scan the horizon and look for anyone approaching us, after ten minutes of seeing nothing I decide that maybe Four has decided to have his team wait us out, maybe if nothing happens for a while Eric will have us move out in full force to go get the other teams flag.
Suddenly downstairs erupts in screams. I scan the area again but I see nothing,
There coming at us from behind.
"We're fucked." I tell myself, sliding down against the wall and aiming my gun at the hatch in the floor, the only way to get in to the bell tower.
I pull the butt of the rifle into my shoulder and wait, any minute now someone will open that hatch and I'll have to shoot them. It feels like hours but I know it's only been minutes, the hatch creeps open an inch or two and I can see Tris' head popping out of the hole. Quickly I move forward and slam my foot down on the hatch. I don't want to shoot her but I also don't want to lose.
I'm standing directly on top of the hatch now and I can feel Tris' trying to push it open but I weigh too much.
"Move Penelope!" She screams slamming into the hatch, I stumble forward, not prepared for that amount of force and that's all she needs.
Quickly she climbs out of the hole, her gun trained on me, Christina follows her. I'm fucked.
"Shoot me!" I tell them.
"What? I'm not going to shoot you." Tris says, swinging the gun over her back.
"Christina do it!" I tell her, throwing my rifle down on the ground.
Christina needs little encouragement and next thing I know there are two darts sticking out of my chest.
"Fuck!" I scream, my chest feels like it's on fire, like someone's stuck burning hot coals inside of me.
Tris moves forward to comfort me but I wave her off and roll up into a ball in the corner of the room. "Go," I tell her before letting out a blood curdling scream.
It feels like I've been on the floor for hours when Al and Eric find me. They roll me onto my back and Eric pulls the darts out of my chest. "Grab the gun," he tells Al before pulling me up on my feet. "Can you walk?" he asks.
I nod my head, tears streaming down my face.
Al gently places my gun back over my shoulders before looking me in the eye, "Hurts like hell don't it?" He asks while pulling up his shirt to show me the dried up blood on his abdomen where he had been shot.
Eric helps me down the ladder and Al follows behind us, when were out of the museum with the rest of the initiates Eric moves to go stand with Four while Al and I go to find our friends.
Christina and Will are running ahead of us, Christina holds the flag high above her head screaming in victory.
"We were on the wrong team." Al states dejectedly at my side.
"There's always next year." I tell him, patting his shoulder.
He smiles but it doesn't reach his eyes, he's thinking the same thing we all do every waking day we have here in Dauntless: None of us are safe. Not yet.
Sorry it took so long to update. Review and let me know what you think. Much love to you all!
