The first thing I see when I open my eyes is darkness and some patches of light. It takes me a second to realize that I'm in a crouch position, my head between my knees and my arms around my head. I look up to see Four and Lauren smiling at me from across the room. Oh yeah, I think to myself, fear landscape.
I arise from my crouch and watch as Lauren comes over and unhooks the wires from me. Four nods at me and says, "Well done."
"What was my time?" I ask, curiously.
Four and Lauren glance at each other and Lauren smiles, "One minute, twenty-seven seconds."
"Is that good?" I ask, still curious to find out how I did compared to the other initiates.
"Belle," Four says looking at me with wide eyes. "That's better than the high average."
I nod and smile a little. I still got it.
I follow Four and Lauren out the door and walk past people who gaze at me, either in awe or fitfully.
Uriah grins and scoots over, giving me some room to sit. "Good job," he says, grinning.
I smile and say, "Looks like I developed a new fear," hoping that joking will allow me to get over it.
Uriah smiles, a little sadly. "Me too."
"Me three," Lynn grumbles next to Marlene, who rubs her on the back.
The rest of the day goes by rather quickly. Edward goes next, and his time is very close to mine. Peter's eyes are bright red when he comes out of the landscape, but he acts tough and sets his jaw. Al goes into a fetal position in the corner, but gets through the landscape; however, his time is one of the lowest and it's really clear that he's upset. Christina tried talking to him, he brushed her away and watched the other initiates grudgingly.
Tris goes after, and does better than everyone. Her time is the highest, and I watch in awe as she sets her jaw and begins kicking and punching at the air with perfect form until the landscape fades away and her gaze refocuses.
When she walks out, I see Four look at her and a slight smile plays his lips as she walks away. The smile faded though, when Eric glanced over.
Other initiates go by, like Marlene, who did well too. At first she began kicking, at what I presume were the invisible walls. Then, she crawled into a fetal position and managed to decrease her heart rate enough for it to stop.
When everyone is finished, Four gets our attention and says, "Alright, we're done for the day. We won't have any training tomorrow, but the day after will be your final day of training. On that day, you will have to face your greatest fears as fast as you can infront of a panel of the judges; mostly Dauntless leaders. Later that night, the rankings will be revealed at diner, in front of everyone. Only the top twelve will make it, since we have a bigger group of initiates this year. See you all then." Four turns around and walks back with Lauren to clean up in the landscape room.
I walk out with Tris, Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene as we make our way back down to the dorms. As soon as we get inside, I can feel the tension in the room.
Drew and Molly are sitting on their beds, scowling in our direction. Edward and Peter are staring each other off from each side of the room, but Peter quickly breaks it off when we enter.
Christina and Will are over talking in the corner and look up when we walk in. Other initiates huddle around the room, waiting for the scene to unfold, which I can tell, won't be pretty.
Peter slowly walks in our direction and scowls. "What are you doing here?" he asks Uriah, Lynn and Mar.
Uriah rolls his eyes. "Don't try to act all tough with me, transfer. We can go wherever we want, it's our compound anyway."
"Not for long," Drew says, as he sneers in the corner with Molly.
"How so?" Lynn asks, stepping forward.
Peter at first, for almost a split second looks scared, but quickly recovers. "It won't be your compound for long, when we beat you in the rankings and you become factionless."
Uriah snorts. "Please transfer, try not to get your hopes up."
Peter's gaze shifts from Uriah to me and then finally lands on Tris. His eyes narrow and he stalks froward again, this time to stand in front of her.
Peter towers over Tris, but she still keeps her stance steady and her back straight. "What's your secret?" he asks, suspiciously, his voice drawing out every word.
Tris narrows her eyes at him and cocks her head to the side. "What are you talking about?"
Peter snickers. "Seriously? You sucked in the beginning of training. Sure you got in a good hit once in a while, but being ranked first the next time? What are you taking? Drugs?"
Tris rolls her eyes and says, "You're a major idiot, you know that?"
Peter's eyes widen at her in rage, and he looks over at Christina, Al, and Will. "Is that why you guys aren't friends anymore? Because you found out that she was tricking us all by playing the victim, then turns on us and shows us she's better?"
Christina opens her mouth to interject, but Peter continues. "Because, I totally get it. I'd be pretty hurt if my friends found someone better to hangout with, and started beating me in training," he says, his eyes fixed on Al, especially for the last part.
Tris is about to say something, when Four walks in. As soon as he sees Tris and Peter, his face goes hard and he intervenes. "What's going on here?" he asks, his voice cold and his eyes fixed with hate on Peter.
"Nothing at all," Peter says with a sarcastic smile and walks back over to Molly and Drew. I notice that Al's closer to Peter than he is to Christina and Will, and begin to worry that Peter's dragged him to the wrong side with his little speech.
Four looks around the room and finally his eyes land on me.
He walks over and says, "You have a guest."
Before I can ask, Four turns and starts walking out of the dorm. I give Uriah's hand a quick squeeze and offer Tris a smile. "Be back," I say as I follow Four.
Once in the hallway, I have to jog to catch up with Four, who didn't bother to slow down for me.
"Who's here?" I ask, curiously.
At first Four doesn't answer, but as we turn right at another hallway, Four says, "You're brother, Louis."
Before I can say anything again, Four opens a door and gestures for me to enter first. I recognize the room immediately; it's Eric's office.
Inside, sitting at the desk is Eric and off to the side is Daniel who's shaking a man's hand. The man is in all blue, and I know him instantly.
"Louis?" I ask.
He turns and flashes his warm smile. "Hey, Belle."
I run up and give him a hug, forgetting about the other people in the room.
"Whatever you doing here?" I ask, the smile uncontrollable now.
"Oh you know, just dropped by. I was here to take care of some shipments from Erudite and thought maybe I'd come and see how you were doing."
I grin at him and wait for someone else to say something. "Can I talk to my brother for a minute or two?" I ask, turning to Eric and Daniel.
They exchange and glance, and nod. "Sure, but Four you'll need to stay."
I look back and watch Four nod, and soon Eric and Daniel exit the room and close the door on their way out.
Louis looks back just to make sure they're gone and pulls me over to sit. He whispers quietly to me, "Is he a friend?"
At first I'm confused. "Does he know about the SerumX thing, Belle?" Louis asks, annoyed.
It takes a second for me to understand, considering that I'd forgotten all about the Serums and the actual problems we were facing with the landscape today.
I turn to Four and say, "Four, meet my brother, Louis. Louis, meet Four, my instructor."
Four nods his head. "Ah, I.. He's the one from Erudite I told you about..." I whisper the next part a little quietly. "The one who said he'd check out the SerumX stuff..."
Four's eyes light up with recognition as he walks over. "Any news?" he asks, his voice low but obviously curious.
Louis nods, and his eyes grow dark. "I wasn't able to get a lab to myself, but I did the best that I could. That serum is no good. It has high levels to produce controlled hallucinations, something like your fear landscape serum, but stronger. There's electrodes that are wirelessly linked to computers, so I'm guessing that this is meant to control someone. My best advice is to not let anyone inject you with that. I don't know what they plan on using that stuff for, but it can't be good."
Four leans in and asks, "I found a set of battle plans sent from Erudite to Dauntless. I was wondering why they'd send us that, or if they really intend on a war, how they'd get us to be their soldiers. Could they try to use that serum to control us?"
Louis's eyes widen and he nods. He opens his mouth to say something, when the door opens and Eric walks in followed by a woman in blue.
"There you are!" she says as she spots Louis, and I recognize her to be Cara, Will's sister that I met during Visiting Day.
"Sorry," Louis says, as he looks at me. "I just wanted to see my sister before we left.
Cara barely glances in my direction and says, "Well we should get going now."
Louis nods and stands up.
He kisses me on the head and engulfs me in a bear hug.
"See around, kiddo," he says as he walks out the door smiling at me, but I know that smile is just fake, considering the information we've just spoken about.
That night, I go to sleep in the dorms next to Tris. I knew that she'd need me nearby today, especially after the show Peter made.
It's around early morning when I awake, maybe around two AM when I hear it. The sound's muffled at first, but quickly rises and becomes more clear. It's a high pitched sound, and at first I think it's just in my dream, but when I open my eyes and come back to reality, I hear it clearly.
I look over and see that a few beds are evacuated. The one where Tris should be sleeping is empty, and so is the one where Al, Peter, Drew, and Molly should all be.
My heart sinks as I hear the scream again, more in agony than the cry for help it was before.
