Chapter II

The last name was called, and they had chosen their faction. Altogether ten people had deferred to Dauntless, fifteen to Erudite, two to Abnegation, five to Amity and ten to Candor. I wondered out of all of those who would make it and who would give up halfway through. I was the only one to defer out of Abnegation, very rarely did people leave. The members around me stood up and took off running through the double doors. I took off after them, trying my best to keep up. I wasn't the slowest and was in the middle of the sea of black. We ran down the stairs, there was cheering and shouting all around me. We continued out the double doors and into the bright sunshine, the running never ended. We approached the train track and I saw people began to climb them. I was getting out of breath and wasn't sure if I had it in me to climb, but I had to at least try. I followed the other's lead and going at a steady pace. A quarter of the way through my arms were burning, I was using muscles that I never had to before. Three quarters of the way through I lost my grip and someone above me grabbed my arm.
"Careful, you don't want to be falling off." I smiled at him and carried on with the climb. I was helped over to the platform.

I was catching my breath when I could see the train approaching us to my left. I chewed my cheek nervously, I knew what was coming, I saw it be done plenty of times. The platform began to vibrate, and I could see people beside me shifting on their feet, ready for what was to come. The train began to slow on its approach and people around my started to jump onto the train as it approached. I tried to follow their lead and I was running beside a carriage, second from last. I grabbed onto the rail and tried to swing my body in, I was not strong enough. If I didn't make it then that was my initiation over and I was either to kill myself or become factionless, there was no going back. I found the strength to swing my body in and I fell on top of someone. I quickly stood up.

"I'm really sorry." I said and looked at the person I fell on, it was the boy with red hair that I stood next to at the choosing ceremony.
"Don't sweat it, name's Alex." He held out his hand.
"Jamison." I mumbled back shaking his hand. He started to laugh.
"How Abnegation. You know you can change your name; no one would know the difference." He smiled. "So, what is your name?"
I took a few seconds to think. "Jamie."
"Well Jamie, nice to meet you. How was your first jump onto a train?" He was lively and full of energy.
"Gotta admit, I liked it." I laughed.
"You'll get on just fine." Alex put his arm on my shoulders and pulled me over to a group of other Dauntless members. "This is Jamie, Jamie this is Alice, Cameron and Lewis." Alice was about 5ft 4 her hair was cut short and dyed neon pink, Cameron was the tallest out of the group and had long black hair, Lewis a few inches shorter than Cameron had blue hair and it was styled as a mohawk. They all had various piercings and tattoos and looked mean.
"Hi." I said quietly.
"So, we have a stiff joining us." Alice said casually with a smirk on her face. "We'll make you dauntless in no time."
"Wonder how well you'll do with the training." Cameron looked thoughtful.
"Hey don't give him such a hard time." Alex laughed.
Before we knew it the train started to slow down.
"Are you ready stiff?" Alice grinned.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We're gonna jump." Lewis replied in a low voice. He looked over at Cameron and smiled.
"I'll jump with you." Alice grabbed my hand. "On three, one….two….three." It wasn't graceful to say the least. I scuffed my knee. I looked round and Alice was beaming, of course they had all done this before. I looked around and saw how many transfers there were. Four Erudites, two from Candor and three Amity. I quickly studied them all and knew if I wanted to get ahead, I'd have to train hard. Everyone started to huddle around and there was a man stood on the ledge of the building. He looked strong, mean and his grey eyes were cold. His brown hair was slicked back and there was a glint of metal on his eyebrows, it was the man I saw with the group of dauntless the day before. The man looked around and when he saw me there was a faint look of disgust on face. He then looked up and cleared his throat.
"Welcome to Dauntless, I am one of the leaders Eric. Your first test is to show how brave you are. If you cannot do this then you do not belong here." There was silence all around and you could cut the tension with a knife. "Who is going to be the first person to jump off from where I am stood?" People looked at each other.
Alex turned to me and whispered. "I think Eric has lost his mind." I nodded my head.
Eric then barked "If no one decides to jump I will start throwing each of you off the side of the building. I was shoved by someone stood behind me and the people I banged into moved out the way for me. Eric's eyebrows shot up and he smirked. He was silent. I looked over the edge and all I could see was black. Surely, he wouldn't want to kill me? I knew I didn't have a choice; I didn't want to be factionless and to be honest what was worse that could happen? I would die.
"Come on stiff I haven't got all day." Eric grumbled. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and fell.

I landed onto something bouncy and it clicked, a net. I let out a laugh and felt hands grabbing me to help me off the net. "What's your name?" I couldn't see clearly as it was dark in this room.
"Jamie." I replied.
"First jumper, Jamie." The people around me cheered.
There was a woohoo that came with the next jumper and Alex's name was called. He was laughing as he approached me. "I wanna do that again." He was grinning now.
"It was kinda fun." I replied.

The initiates came down quite quickly afterwards and Eric was the last to come down. He shrugged off everyone's hands and got himself down. Eric then proceeded to walk off through the dimly lit corridor followed by the other dauntless that had helped us off the net. A voice spoke up when the room was cleared out about from the initiates. "Welcome to Dauntless. I am Lauren and this is Four." A female voice spoke up. In the light you could tell this woman was well built and had her hair tied up. I heard someone whisper "What sort of name is Four?"
Four spoke up afterwards. "Dauntlessborn follow Lauren, unless you need a tour of the place. Everyone else follow me." Alex looked over to me.
"I'll catch you later." And he took off to be with Alice, Cameron and Lewis.

Four led us through the corridor and it started to get lighter. The music started to get louder and there was more noise. Four then spoke up. "We are approaching the heart of dauntless. Here is where all the shops, restaurants, clubs and bars are." We entered the massive cavern and it was busy. Children were running along paths with no rails and no fear in the world. There were people shopping and a few looking our way. I noticed a few eyes on my and people whispering after they looked at me. I knew that of no other Abnegations that went to Dauntless and I wasn't sure if anyone had transferred over recently, that had been kept hidden from me. Four continued on and we approached a set of double doors. He opened the door and we stepped inside. There were ten beds all in a circle, so there would be no privacy. One of the females gasped. "Oh, it gets better." Four then turned around to face us, his eyes were lit up. My heart leaped out of my chest. He looked so much like Tobias; however, his features were sharper and he looked more in shape. Four looked at me and I noticed the look of realisation on his face. Four quickly looked away and led us into the bathroom. The showers were shared however the toilets offered privacy.
"Least the stiff can hide in here." An erudite man laughed. There was laughter from everyone else. Looks like I'll struggle to make friends here. Four then turned the attention back to him. Four announced "You have five minutes to get dressed into your new clothes." We all made our way to the beds, set out in a circle.

I was the last to pick their bed and I ended up near the dorm door. At least I would have a quick escape if I needed to get out, I told myself. I had no time to be shy, keeping my back towards the wall, no one needed to see the scars. I slipped off my stiff grey top and put on the loose Dauntless top and quickly switched my trousers and shoes to boots. The trousers were loose too and I was thankful for the belt that was provided. I was just doing up my belt when Four walked into the room again. "There is a tradition that is followed when initiates from outside of Dauntless join us. Follow me and bring your old faction clothes." I picked up the old stiff grey clothes and shoes and Four motioned for us to all follow him. I noticed that Four would only give me quick glances, and it made me think more that it was Tobias. We approached a door and could feel the heat off it. Four opened it and inside were fires burning. "You will throw your old clothes into the flames and commit to being Dauntless, forget about your old factions, you are not them anymore." I quickly threw my clothes into the flames giving a quick goodbye to Abnegation and Marcus. Never would I have to deal with him again.

Four had led us into the mess hall and I saw Alex waving me over from his table. I approached him and he was smiling. Sat next to him was Lewis, Cameron and Alice were sitting opposite him.
"I hope you don't mind but we got you some food. We know that you probably ate really boring food and to save yourself the embarrassment of standing in the line and gawking at the different food we chose." Alex beamed. I looked at the plate in front of me and didn't recognise any of it. Alice laughed, "Wow you must've had really boring food in Abnegation. This is a beef burger and chips. I dread to think what you had to eat." I smiled and hesitated before taking a bite. It actually tasted quite nice. "Wow this is good." I said between mouthfuls, they were all laughing. We chatted amongst ourselves mainly me telling the group what it was like living in Abnegation.

There was a siren that sounded and we all looked up to where the leaders were standing. A tall muscular man was stood at the edge of a railing above us, Max and stood next to him was Eric, a woman with blonde hair cut short and an older man. "My name is Max and I am the main leader of Dauntless. Today we celebrate new initiates to Dauntless and welcome back some old faces. Today you made the decision to join us. Forget about your old factions, this is your home now. Faction before blood." "Faction before blood." Was echoed throughout the mess hall and we were all lifted up in the air with cheers.