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Chapter 21

I like to think he picked me first because I'm a sharp shot, but I have a deep seeded feeling that is definitely not the case. Perhaps it's because he wants to watch me squirm under his control, or even worse, because he just wants my company. Our team consisted of Jason, Jed, Sarah and I. Along with five Dauntless borns who had the audacity to shove us aside as dead weight. They didn't even introduce themselves before they shat all over us. Our team jumped first, I still hadn't mastered the art of jumping off trains, unfortunately I slipped on the gravel and fell into a summersault. The Dauntless born sniggered like little school children.

"Oh crap, Clem are you okay?" Jason asked as he pulled me to my feet. I brushed myself off quickly, nodding. I glanced over to where the group had accumulated around our fearsome leader. He rolled his eyes as he took a glimpse at my dishevelled appearance. As we joined our party it was obvious there was going to be a huge rift between the Dauntless born and us.

"This is your exercise, I'm going to step back and let you formulate a plan," Eric said lazily as he leaned against an old flag pole. He picked and bit at his nails until someone spoke up.

"Well we need to start by hiding the flag," A girl with purple locks and a nose ring stated. A slow clap ruptured through the air.

"Well done, you think of that all by yourself?" Eric sneered sarcastically.

"We need to evaluate our surroundings first, there's no point just hiding the flag willy-nilly if we don't make sure it's the best possible hiding place first," I chirped up, earning myself some vulgar glares.

"Clem's right," Jason piped up, "We're in an old scrap yard, there must be something here we can use to our advantage," Eric sat back and watched the debate commence.

"We could hide it in the trunk of an old car," A tall, chiselled Dauntless born spoke. His voice was authoritative. He obviously thought he was the alpha. His hair was dark, which went perfectly with his olive toned skin and green eyes.

"Why hide it at all?" I asked cocking my brow. "Over here we have the upper hand, plenty of blind spots and hiding places, if we hide the flag and march over there demanding theirs we are sitting ducks, we don't know where they've hidden it,"

"Yeah it could take ages to find it, and all while dodging bullets," Jed added.

"So what you just want to leave the flag out for them to get? Play defence?" The purple haired girl retorted. She shot a disgusted look to Eric, who in return just shrugged his shoulders and continued picking at his fingers.

"The flag pole," Sarah smiled, cottoning on to what I was thinking. "We hang it from the very top, the only way they can get to it is by winding it down, we can pick them off one by one as they give it a go,"

"The flag will be in such a visible spot that they hopefully won't be thinking tactfully," Jason nodded, liking the plan.

"Hopefully they just go straight for it, forgetting everything they were taught,"

"You're baiting them," A tall bulky fair haired girl smiled.

"And how do you suppose we get their flag? After all that is the aim of the game?" The alpha scoffed.

"We will send you and a team mate of your choice, you obviously think you're such a big deal, I'm sure you can handle it," I smiled sweetly. Before the big galoof tried to chat back Eric had already interrupted his train of thought.

"Are we done with this little tea party?" He said simply, crossing his large arms over his chest. "We good with this plan?" He asked, his question obviously aimed at Mr Alpha.

"Yes sir,"

"Great, execute it," He smiled, clicking the safety off his pistol.

Mr Alpha and Blondie had set off down the train tracks to find the others base camp as we all waited patiently. Jason and Sarah were set up in the west, hiding inside an old car piled on top of a rusting van. Jed had taken refuge in a bush near by the flag pole where our luminous green flag danced around in the chilling winds. Eric and I were on foot, hiding behind a giant digger in the south east. For now it was just a waiting game.

"I thought you were supposed to be team captain?" I quizzed Eric suddenly.

"I am,"

"You're not really being much of a captain,"

"I can't make it too easy, if I took charge we'd have a win for sure, and there'd be no point of even having the test," He spoke cockily. I rolled my eyes as I kept an ear out for movement other than my own shaking hands. A few minutes of awkward silence passed.

"You didn't chase after me yesterday," I blurted out suddenly, it was meant to be a thought, but unintentionally became word vomit. There was a deadly pause before I heard him exhale.

"I didn't," Eric confirmed.

"Why not?" I asked curiously without thinking.

"It wasn't worth it," He murmured lowly. The familiar sound of crunching gravel alerted my ears. If I was a cat they'd be pricked up and rotating like homing devices. A figure clouded by shadow tip toed past the tipper end of the lorry, scanning the area for any sign of assault. Eric slowly raised his weapon to fire, but too late.

"Mother*$%#£~!" It was Gabriel who I had hit in the right shoulder with my Neurostim dart. I smiled to myself proudly as he writhed around on the floor clutching the projectile. Eric huffed by my side, obviously disappointed in the lack his lack of action. The man was only happy when he was acting in some kind of violent manner.

"You told me not long ago I need to learn to say no more often," I put out there. I waited for his reply, but there was none. "I understand now you never meant to you," Gabriel was still wriggling around on the floor, crying out like the mommas boy we all knew he was. "Is that why you didn't come after me?" I pressed.

Another faceless figure approached and bent down to assist Gabriel, before I'd even lifted my weapon Eric had shot two darts into the torso of the poor individual. The night air echoed with a high pitched scream. It was evidently Jayne, so I didn't feel quite as bad.

"Has anyone ever said no to you before?" I pressed further. All I heard was a low growl. Apparently I was the first.

"If you don't shut your trap you're going to give away our location," Eric seethed through gritted teeth. Screams could be heard from the other side of the scrap yard; I hoped they were the oppositions. A couple of armed figures approached the flag pole, pointing up at the luminous flag. However a split second later they were both flat on their back grabbing at various parts of their body. I knew I could rely on Jed. Eric was still and silent, waiting for his next victim and calculating his next move. I may as well have not even been there by his side. I might've pushed him too far, he wasn't even angry, he was just silent, and that was even more terrifying. I couldn't lose the mission before it had even started rolling. So I bit the bullet and decided to dig myself into a deeper hole.

"Eric I'm sorry for shouting at you yesterday, I just want you to know I didn't say no because I don't like you," I sighed, glancing at his focussed form. "I wasn't ready for that and I panicked," I was starting to get alarmingly good at lying. I was lying.

"You're sorry? You think you hurt me? Hilarious," He smirked, his voice low and unpleasant. I resisted the urge of shooting him right then and there, if only it had been a real gun. I hated his cocky arrogant attitude, it made me want to stamp all over his stupid handsome face and rub some dirt in it afterwards. I had to throw my hateful energy into something, or I definitely was going to do something to mess this whole thing up. The more I thought about his sleazy sexy voice and his hateful mesmerising eyes, the more I wanted to kill him. So I decided to do the polar opposite, and threw myself at him, planting a large deep kiss on his soft surprised lips. He grabbed me at first, ready to throw me off, but instead pulling me in deeper, returning the embrace. I was only half surprised, already confident he was caught in my trap. This only confirmed it. We broke for air and stared into each others eyes before snapping back to reality.

There was faint shouting in the distance. We waited a moment, ready for an oncoming attack, Eric moved further in front of me, shielding me from the action. Probably because he wanted a better shot at whatever was coming next. But instead the two Dauntless born arseholes ran into view with an orange flag proudly protruding from a raised fist. They were tremendous perfect arseholes. I jumped up for joy and cheered along with the rest of the group, bar Eric of course. Four emerged from the darkness with his broken team to congratulate us all. The two leaders shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

"It wasn't even Eric leading us," Sarah suddenly blurted out. Four raised his eyebrows at Eric who in turn shot me a sly smile. Four tried to play it cool, but I could tell he was pleased, and proud. I shook his hand curtly.

"Ranks will be revealed in the morning, anyone below the red line, I'm sorry but this is the end of the journey for you," Four announced sadly.

"For those lucky enough to get through, you have a couple of rest days before the next stage of initiation begins, this is purely mental so spending the next few days hammering the punching bags will not be beneficial," Eric snapped.

"Rest up, you all deserve it," Four smiled, waving us in the direction of the tracks.