Chapter 14:
Renesmee's point of view:
Dauntless underground shopping center -
Me and the rest of my friends had gathered outside of the tattoo parlor with the Dauntless-born kids.
"Love the hair, Nessie." complemented the Dauntless-born girl, Lynn, with a smile.
I looked at her and she had just come from the salon. She had cut off all of her hair. She was completely bald.
"Thanks." I said. "I thought it would be a cool fashion statement. And why did you shave your head? Is that a Dauntless fashion statement?"
"No." answered Lynn. "You transfers did target practice and exercising today since you guys technically need to catch up, figuratively speaking. We Dauntless-borns are in what might be called the advanced class; we fought today. But every time I fought a guy he wouldn't take me seriously, so I figure if I make my self ugly then they'd look at me as more of a threat."
"Makes sense." I said.
"Anyway, your new hair and tattoos too." said Lynn excitedly. "I swear now, no one would ever have guessed that you were from Abnegation."
"Alright everyone, get yourselves into a PARTYING MOOD!" shouted the Dauntless-born girl, Marlene, excitedly. "Because we're all going to a party in The Pit, tonight! We got snacks, booze, flashy disco-lighting, and rock music on the dance floor!"
Everyone cheered at the top of their lungs and we ran off to The Pit.
The party was everything Marlene said it would be. Music, dancing, an open bar, fighting, food, and I also found out there was a Swingers party in a large separate room off of The Pit. The only rule at the Swingers party was to use protection and that both partners had to be consensual.
Me and the girls were dancing on the dance floor when I was tapped on the shoulder. I recognized his scent, it was Max, one of the leaders of Dauntless.
"Beatrice Prior?" said Max, addressing me.
I pretended to put on a confused face and shook my head.
"That's not my name." I told him.
But he could sense that I was joking.
"Okay," said Max, "Nessie"
I turned around and faced him.
"Max." I addressed him politely.
"I just wanted to meet the first-ranked initiate after the first day." said Max with a smile.
"Thank you." I said.
He then scrutinized my hair and tattoos.
"I can see that you are fitting into Dauntless quite well on your first day." he said politely. "I like your style."
"Thank you." I told him.
"So, who does the first-ranked initiate choose for her friends on her first day?" he asked with interest, looking at the people I was associating with.
Maybe this was a Dauntless thing? is he evaluating me?
"Oh, this is Christina, and Al, from Candor." I point. "Will, and Mickey, from Erudite. Hunter, from Amity. And I don't know if you know Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene, Dauntless-born?"
He smiled and nodded at each of them in respect, and then patted the shoulders of of the last ones.
"I do know them." he confirmed. "I'm glad that I didn't need to lose you three, and to the rest of you, we always welcome new faces."
He then turned to me.
"Nessie, I just was wondering if I could speak to you in private, please?"
I could hardly deny a leader of Dauntless.
We walked out of The Pit and into a secluded hallway.
"How are you enjoying your new faction?" he asked.
"Oh, I love it!" I told him. "I've made some new friends and everyone has been real nice."
"I'm glad to hear that." he said in approval. "It was quite a surprise...at the Choosing Ceremony...you picking Dauntless. It must be a particularly different change in lifestyle from Abnegation."
I had no information on my host's intentions with the Choosing Ceremony. What to tell him?
"Well, I felt that my long-term destiny was to be a protector, not a volunteer worker." I said, feeling that telling him what he wanted to hear was best.
"That is excellent." he said enthusiastically.
But what was the purpose of this conversation?
"But enough about that." he then became serious. "I asked you here to talk of a different matter."
He paused before going on.
"It was quite a display of talent that you put on this morning before training started." he stated an observation.
I decided that I should act a little bit more like the Abnegation nice girl.
"I'm sorry." I said. "It was not my intent to cause any trouble by getting Eric kicked out of Dauntless on a bet."
Max's expression changed to reassurance and he raised his hands up, palms forward, in defense.
"Oh, Nessie. It's quite alright." he said with a tone of reassurance. "Too be 100% honest, I never really liked him all that much. I only made him one of a leaders because...actually I can't talk about it."
What could that be about? No matter, maybe I can get it out of him. Though it might not be relevant.
"It's alright." I told him reassuringly. "You don't have to tell me anything that you don't want to tell me."
"Thank you, but I would like to know, how you achieved such a feat of skill if you were raised in Abnegation?" he raised his eyebrows in inquisitive interrogation.
"It was just an adrenaline rush. Plus, when he and I were fighting, the ideas for the best moves in order to beat him just came naturally to me."
"Impressive!" he said, impressed. "I could definitely use someone like you in Dauntless." his face then changed to professionalism. "Four told me all about your little speech that you gave to Eric this morning before training, about the flaw in his initiation policy; get from the Choosing Ceremony 39 bad initiates and only keep the 24 best, then we're basically just recruiting 24 weak links, but, have the Choosing Ceremony give us 45 strong and skilled initiates and only keep the 24 best, then we are throwing out 21 strong links...now, personally, I had only agreed to his new methods about initiation, by kicking out the lowest ranking initiates, very reluctantly. I was looking for ways to improve the faction and his method seemed more less the only method, plus he was about to become a Dauntless Leader. I tried to persuade Four to become the new Dauntless Leader at the time because he had ranked first, while Eric only ranked second."
He seems like a half decent guy. He believes in the ideals of his faction but somehow falls to? ...some unknown pressure? Why?
"I feel compelled to say that I might have been a little rebellious;" I said, "when Eric told us that only the top 24 would become members at the end of Stage 2, I had felt this sort of 'sixth sense' if you get what I mean? I didn't like him. And I felt this strong desire to get rid of him. Again I wish to apologize, it was inappropriate of me, and Four explained it to me right afterwards."
"I see." said Max. "But, people like you are the very people that I need in Dauntless. People with a strong will that will stand up for what is right, and who will defend their fellows, like you did for your fellow initiates that you feared would rank the lowest."
"Thank you."
I felt I should seize this opportunity to perhaps try and save my fellow initiates that would rank near the bottom. I reached out and gently place my hand on his wrist. I tapped into his brain telepathically. I placed a hypnotic suggestion into his mind.
'You will think of changing the rules for allowing a chance for all initiates to become members!' I programmed into the hypnotic suggestion. 'The new rules will come into effect before the end of Stage 1. You will forget that I did this to you and you will pass the idea off as your own.'
I took my hand off of his wrist. His eyes sort of unfocused and he wobbled on the spot for a second but then shook it off and appeared to have not noticed.
"I will say that you do have some very interesting ideas. You are the kind of person I want for improving Dauntless." he smiled in an affectionate way. "I will want to talk to you later."
He winked.
"Please enjoy the party. Good luck in the rest of initiation. And thank you so much for getting rid of Eric."
He patted me on the shoulder and walked away.
I returned to the party. I met my friends.
"What was that all about?" asked Uriah, curious.
"Oh, he just wanted to ask me a few personal questions and reprimand me for the thing with Eric." I exaggerated.
He let it drop.
We continued dancing through the evening. I decided to keep a low profile, but people kept coming over to me to offer me congratulations for being the first-ranked initiate at the end of day one, and a few criticisms from some other people that it would take more time to see if I would stay in first-place. Though other people also complimented me on getting rid of Eric. I must have shaken hands with most of the people in the pit by the end of the night. People complimented me on being the stiff that embraced the Dauntless lifestyle so fully.
Eventually we bid the Dauntless-borns good night and they went off to the Dauntless-borns dormitories. Four, then told us to get to bed.
I waited until everyone else was asleep, and then I ruffled up my blanket and bed sheets so that in the darkness, weak human eyes would not immediately realize that my bed was unoccupied. At vampire speed I was out of the dormitory, and then out of the Dauntless compound in seconds.
I needed to hunt.
At vampire speed I headed for the fence. I ran through the streets that were mostly empty, though I crossed the scent of a few factionless people but I didn't look for them. I got to the border of the city and approached the fence in the darkness, no one would see me. With vampire ability I jumped over the 20 meter high fence and landed on my feet on the outside. I could smell birds and rodents everywhere, but I was not going to hunt them; they don't have much blood in them. I couldn't smell the scent of any deer, or elk, or bears, or mountain-lions. I would probably fine some further out from the fence, but I didn't want to stray too far. I decided that I would have to cheat. Not cheat by feeding on humans, but rather I would steal. I ran in what I quickly found to be the direction of the Amity farms. I jumped into a giant corral that surrounded a domesticated herd of bovine cattle. (They'll do.) I ran at one and bit into the neck, the herd scattered, but I quickly drained the cow of blood.
The domestic bovine tasted funny? It's genetically modified; my sense of taste could tell. Probably, this animal's DNA has been genetically programmed to produce twice as many baby calves in a fraction of the time, and the baby calves would probably grow to full maturity very quickly for slaughter. It's only a guess of course, but in this re-developing destroyed world, that would be the most likely probability with genetically modified farm animals.
My thirst was satisfied.
With vampire strength, I picked up the animal and took it out to a remote secluded spot away from the Amity farms and buried it under 20 feet of dirt. I'm sure the Amity cattle rancher would notice that one was missing, but what would they suspect?...that it was hunted by a vampire, and that it was me? (Lol) No one would find it.
I then ran back to the fence, jumped the fence, and ran back to the Dauntless compound, and into the dormitories at vampire speed. No one saw me. I then went to sleep and waited for morning.
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