Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent or its characters.
Chapter 10
From the years of watching Dauntless initiation videos, the one thing that I was the most excited for was capture the flag. It's the one tradition that they have had since the beginning of the experiment. It is also the first time the initiets get a sense who they are but have a lot of fun. Well only if you win.
I'm sitting on the floor near the sinks, thinking about what happened at the fence. What the hell is happening that they would send Matthew of all people here. Like unless he has been keeping something from me (which would be very unlikely because I have been keeping taps on most people at the bureau before I transferred) or there are more problems here then they have been telling me.
It's quiet at this time, well other than people snoring, and it gives me time to think.
I remember when I was a kid, my brother and I were known all over the Bureau. We're three years apart but closer than two peas in a pod. Other than him, I had a younger sister, and her twin brother. I also have another older brother but we never talk about him.
Just over two years ago when I called Matthew, he told me that my younger sister, Ava, had fallen down the stairs. She is such a sweet girl. She's about 13 now (five when I left) and was keeped in the dark about what happened around her.
Hunter, my younger brother, although he was young, loved sports. I hope he did something with it, because although he was young and didn't know what he was doing, he was a natural. We went out in the middle of the night, on the weekends to play a different sport and it made me happy to see so happy. He was also keeped in the dark about what happened at home. He asked our older brother why I was not going out one weekend and he said I was going on a date (never going to happen), he believed him and went on with the day, forgetting about it.
My older brother was something else. He was athletic and amazing with people. He never did like school because it didn't make sense so at night, I would be teaching him. He was able to understand after I explained it which always made me feel good. He has always been so overprotective but I was more overprotective then he was. I was overprotective of him getting hurt (the reason why he has almost no scars and can walk around shirtless if he wanted to), when he was over protective of my "love life". He gave up trying to protect me from my father, so he changed to protect me from the guys that may try to hurt me. He knew that I could never be in a relationship because of all the belt and knife marks along my back and abdomen.
I get interrupted by a flashlight hitting me straight in the face. "Are you deaf, Stiff?" Eric asks standing in front of me.
"Oh sorry."
You have five minutes to get dressed and meet us by the tracks. We're going on another field trip." He announces to all the initets but looks directly at me.
I get up and since I'm already dressed, I put on a hoodie and sprint to the train behind Christina. No one in the pit seemed surprised to see us. I mean when are people not running around here?
We get to the tracks just after the Dauntless-borns. Next to the track is a black pile with long barrels and trigger guards. Next to it is ammunition that has a pig "PAINTBALLS" written on it,
"Are we going to shoot something?" Christina hisses in my ear.
"Everyone grab a gun!" shouts Eric.
Everyone hurries to grab a gun and a box of amo from the pile.
"TIme estimate?" Eric asks Four.
Four checks his watch "Any minute now. How long is it going to take you to memorize the train schedule?"
"Why should I, when I have you to remind me of it?"
As if on cue,the lights of the train appear and we get ready to start running. Four is the first to jump in the train and I'm not far behind him. I don't bother waiting for Christina, Will or Al. I'm about to grab onto the handle to pull myself up when I realise I grabbed a hand. I look up and see Four is pulling me in.
I may be young and was never able to be in a relationship by wow, I don't know what he has done in the past two years but his arms are huge.
"Um, thanks," I say tense when I'm inside.
Ne nods in response. I go over to another door so that my mind can clear up. Within a few seconds, everyone is in.
"We'll be dividing into two teams to play capture the flag. Each team will have an even mix of members, 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. This is a Dauntless tradition, so I suggest you take it seriously."
"What do we get if we win?" someone shouts.
"Sounds like the kind of question someone not from Dauntless would ask," Four sais raising an eyebrow. "You get to win of course."
Eric speaks up. "Four and I will be your captains. Let's divide up transfers first, shall we?"
"You first," Four says.
"Edward."
Four looks at the transfers and almost without hesitations says, "I want the Stiff."
I choke on absolutely nothing. Why me?
People try to hide their laughs.
"Got something to prove? Or are you just picking the weak ones so that if you lose, you have someone to blame it on?" Eric asks with that smirk of his.
Four shrugs. "Something like that."
"You turn," Four says.
"Peter."
"Christina."
"Molly."
"Will."
"Al."
"Drew."
"Last one left is Myra. So she's with me. Dauntless-born initiates next." Eric says.
Christia, Will and I have some small talk since we have nothing to really do.
"Whait. When we went to the tattoo parlor, you said you would get a tattoo, what did you get?" Christina asks.
She has been trying to get me to tell her what I got as a tattoo since that night. "Who said I got a tattoo?"
"Are you kidding me? We went there to get a tattoo and you didn't get one?"
"I mean, I could have just gotten one where you can't see it." Will and Christina look at me in shock. I can tell that Four was listening and is in shock as well. "Hey, there are reasons I transferred."
"Ya, no kidding!" Christina says, still shocked. I shake my head and cuchuke.
"What's Four's strategy?" Will asks me.
I look over our team. "We Eric is going for the bigger and stronger ones. Four," what is his plan? "He won't budge, he doesn't take any of the bigger ones. Oh, I see it now." I lean over and whisper "most of us are smaller, easter to hide, more agile, quik on our feet."
When they're done choosing their teams, Eric smirks at Four.
"Your team can get off second," Eric sais.
"Don't do me any favors, you know I don't need them to win." Four says with a smirk.
"No, I know that you'll lose no matter when you get off. Take your scrawny team and get off first, then."
We all stand up and I see Al looking sad. Something about him just makes me feel uncomfortable? but I'm not quite sure. Still, out of kindness, I give him a smile. I jump off the train when I see someone about to push me. That feeling, when you're floating for half a second, is a bigger rush and high then you can get from any drug. When I land, I run a few steps so I don't fall from the momentum.
One of the Dauntless-born initiates touches Four's shoulder and asks, "When your team won, where did you put the flag?"
"Telling you wouldn't really be in the spirit of the exercise, Malene." He sais coolly.
"Come on, Four," she wines. She gives him a flirtatious smile. He brushes her hand off his arm. It reminds me of how friends interact and it makes me smile.
"Navy Pier! My brother was on the winning team. They kept the flag at the carousel." It was a dark skinned, tall, dark eyed Dauntless-born initiate that blurted it out.
No one objects and we all start walking east towards the Navy Pier.
"We're close to Erudite headquarters, right?" Asks Christina, bumping Will's shoulder with her own.
"Yeah. It's south of here," he says. He looks over his shoulder, for a second his expression is full of longing. Then it's gone.
We walk across the bridge because even if the water is gone, it's still muddy. Once we cross the bridge, the city changes. We never really paid much attention here at the Bureau since no one would ever come here.
I walk up to the dark skinned boy that told us where they hid the flag when his brother and Four played.
"Um hey." I say I say to him. No one is really close so if he will talk to me, no one should hear.
"Hey"
"Can I ask you some questions? Nothing serious, just curious. And you don't have to answer if you don't want to," I say
"Sure."
"Why did you choose Dauntless? I mean you're Dauntless-born but why not transfer?"
"I love it here."
"Ok but if you were born in lets say Amity, would you have transferred?"
"I don't know, never thought of myself other than here."
"What if your brother transferred? You said that his team hid it at the Navy Pier so he stayed."
"He never would have, he has lived here his entire life and he would never leave, unless he would have asked me."
"What if the test told you you weren't Dauntless?"
"I would have never left my family. Unless I talked to them and they would be alright without me."
What started out as just curious of what went through someone's head that has been here their entire life and knows nothing else turned to wanting to know if I made the right choice to leave my family.
"What about you? Why did you choose Dauntless?"
"I don't know, I mean I guess I wanted an escape."
"I know we aren't supposed to ask but did you not get Dauntless as your amplitude?"
I shake my head. "No, Abnegation."
"Really? I mean no offence or anything but how could you get abnegation? You were the first jumper, the only one, from what I have heard, that got a bulls-eye, and you beat up Peter."
"Yeah. I have another question though."
"Now I'm sacred." I chuckle.
"The fence, Four said that if you guard it, you get to go beyond the Amity farms."
"Yeah," he said almost as a question.
"What do you know about it?"
"I don't know much, one you get a job you don't, you don't talk about what they see throughout the day. I do know that they don't always come back."
"Do they find the bodies?"
"No."
"Do you know what's beyond the wall?"
"No. Do you?"
I hate lying, if you find the smallest thing that doesn't line up, you're dead. "They say that the war destroyed everything."
"Yeah, but do you think that there is anything? Like more people that think the same?"
"Probably."
I like him, he's nice and he was willing to answer my questions that he will never find out the reason. I realise how forgetful I can be, I don't know his name and I don't know if he knows mine.
Marlene takes out a flashlight and shines it at the street in front of us.
"Scared of the dark, Mar?" he asks
"If you want to step on broken glass, Uriah, be my guest," she snaps but turns it off anyway.
As we walk, we pass a Ferris wheel. I have seen them before in pictures and all but never in real life. I mean, imagen the view you would get from that thing!
"Think about it. People used to ride that thing. For fun," Will says, shaking his head.
"Probably some lame version of Dauntless rode it. I mean, they would probably hang from the cars." Christina sais.
As we keep walking towards the carouselle, I decide to keep talking to the dark skin boy which I now know is Uriah.
"How did your brother's team win?"
"Actually, I have no idea."
"Really? I mean you seem to know quite a lot."
"Yeah well, he just brags that he won, said where they hid it and left it like that. Can I ask you a question? I have been answering all your questions so can I ask a few?"
"Yeah, shoot."
"What?"
"Go a head, what's your question?"
"Why did you jump first?"
"No one else seemed like they were going to go so I went first, showing that they weren't going to die."
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you go first? You must have known that you were not going to die, all the other initiates have done it."
"They get the transfers to go first knowing that we would all jump at the same time if they let us. What did you eat in Abnegation?"
"That's what you want to ask?" He nods. "Basically the same thing every day, if you had breakfast, eggs and bread and for dinner plain chicken peas and bread."
"That's it?"
"If we eat more it's considered selfish, we have the minimum to survive so we can give some to the factionless."
"Wow."
"When did you start training? Like learning how to fight?"
"Before we can talk." I laugh.
"What seriously?"
"Basically, all parents are different, some want them to start young, some want to wait till they're a little older. Do you have a boyfriend, girlfriend or other relationship?"
"Wow, that shifted fast. But no."
"Really?"
"What did you think that I would be taken?"
"Yes."
"What about you? Clearly you don't have one, but do you have your eye on someone?"
"What makes you think that?"
"I mean, you're talking to me and if you did have a girlfriend, you wouldn't be."
"Fair enough, yes I do."
"Who is it?"
"Nope."
"Fine, have you made a move on Marlen?"
"How can I? She's going to say no, and wait. What?"
"I have my ways. But come on, anyone can see the way you act around her."
"Really?"
"Well, it's not obvious but your smile changes." He looks confused. I roll my eyes, "You joke more but in a nice way. Almost like a sister, she isn't but you would do anything for her. Your brother, you hate him a lot and you wish he wasn't there and he makes fun of you. Right?"
"Yeah."
"But you love him. No matter what, you would be there for him or protect him. A sister you can make fun but you don't as much because they're more sensitive. Or if you fight, you let them win because then they will do it more knowing they can win. A brother you fight and you're lucky to come home with a broken nose. When you're with Marlen, you act like she's your sister, but the love, it's different."
"How do you know so much about siblings and love?"
"I had a brother."
"Had?"
"We haven't talked in a while."
"I'm sorry."
"What? Don't be, it was going to happen sooner or later."
"I don't know what I would do if I couldn't be with my brother anymore."
"Yeah, I get it."
"If you were still talking to each other, would you have transferred?"
"I would, just not to Dauntless."
"Why?"
"He never liked it here, he thought I would be good but he would have hated me. Well, I guess he hates me." I say with a chuckle. "Where does your brother work?"
"Control room. What job do you want?"
"Control room or fence."
"Why?"
"I like computers so the control room is as close as it is. The fence is outside, and everyone seems happy. What job do you want?"
"Leader."
"You know, I think you would be a good leader. You're always happy, good to talk to, nice and you seem to be a good initiate."
"How?"
"Four got to pick the first Dauntless-born and he chose you. Eric was not happy. So if Eric was mad that he didn't get you, you must be good."
We stopped walking when we reached the carousel a minute or two ago and everyone seems to be talking to each other.
"In ten minutes, the other team will pick their location. I suggest you take this time to formulate a strategy. We may not be Erudite, but mental preparedness is one aspect of your Dauntless training. Arguably, it is the most important aspect," Four says.
Will takes the flag from Four. "Some people should stay here and guard, and some people should go out and scout the other team's location. Will says.
"Yeah? You think?" Maralen takes the flag from Will. "Who put you in charge, transfer?"
"No one, but someone's got to do it."
"Maybe we should develop a more defensive strategy. Wait for them to come to us, then take them out," Christina suggests.
"That's the sissy way out," Uriah says. "I vote we go all out. Hide the flag well enough that they can't find it."
Caos. That's what happens, everyone starts yelling at each other saying with plan they want to go with. It's a mess. It's like in movies, when the main character is just there and you can't hear anything anymore because there is so much going on. If they found where the other team hid their flag, we could have a good plan. But the faster we find a plan, the better chance we can get some element of surprise.
The faris wheel. It's high enough, not too far and I can get away from all this chaos.
When I get to the Ferris wheel, I make sure my gun is strung around my shoulder so it won't fall off and start climbing.
When I grab the first rung, I'm happy that I wore my hoodie si I can use it as gloves. Man it's cold!
"Tris?" Who's Tris? Oh wait, that's me. Woops.
"Yes? What's up?"
"I came to find out what you think you're doing."
"Easiest way to find their flag is if we can look far and high enough."
"All right. I'm coming."
What? "Are you sure? I'm only going to be gone for a minute two." When he doesn't respond, I know he's going to follow me. But why? Amar told me that height was one of his four fears.
"Honestly, I'll be fine."
"Undoubtedly." So he will be coming. What's making him come up here? Why wouldn't he stay with the other initiates? What am I missing?
I start to climb anyway. "If ever you need a break, just take it. It takes bravery to admit when you need to rest."
He doesn't say anything so I don't press it. He heard it, it's just whether or not he will listen.
"So tell me, what's the purpose of this exercise is? The game, I mean, not the climbing." He said breathless.
"Strategy." So Natalie told me a bit more about Dauntless initiation then anyone should know. Guess I'm hoping no one makes the connection to us.
"Now tell me, what do you think strategy has to do with bravery?" He asks through a bursting brath.
I now get why Amar liked Four. Despite all he has been through, it makes him, I don't know, like protective. He could have stayed at the bottom of the Farris wheel and not have come up but he did.
"Well, strategy doesn't have much to do with bravery. But…" he is breathing heavily. "Are you alright, Four?"
"Are you human, Tris."
I look down and see the height at which we are at. I would have not hesitated to think about jumping but I need to keep who Four is on the inside safe. After all, it is what Amar asked to do.
A gust of wind came from the left, pushing me to the right. I hold onto the bars tighter, trying to not let the wind push me off. I let out a shriek. I feel a hand on my hip through my hoodie. He squeezed it stedding me.
I try to catch my breath. I look over to the right where the bureau would be and see a flashing light. That flashed "_ _ _ / ._. / ._. / _ . _ _ / . _."
"Are you all right?" He interrupts me seeing the light.
"Yes." I say and keep climbing.
O, R, R, Y, R. I know I didn't catch the whole thing. I try to fill in the missing parts. Sorry, worry, lorry, norry, corry, torry. Most likely to be sorry or worry. The R could be saying it's for me. Or maybe it's an acronym.
On root ready yourself R
Only read- something
Odd race returning. You R
I don't know, none of them makes sense. So it's either; Sorry R or On root ready yourself R.
I don't know what to make of it so I keep on climbing. "You'll find out sooner rather than later," Matthews warned. If there is one thing I know for sure is that they would only send him here if it was the last option, no offence to him. Jack had been trained to go to the experiments so why not send him? All I know is that something is wrong there and at the bureau and they're not telling me.
I get snapped out of my thoughts when I hear Four panting.
"You don't need to keep climbing."
"And why would I stop?"
"If your name doesn't scare people I don't know what will."
"What about my name?"
Really? Well, good thing I'm an experienced liar. "You hear rumors about initiation."
"Oh, what sort of rumors?"
"The next stage, you see your greatest fears." His breathing is starting to get steadier. Good.
I look around, we're not high enough. "I need to keep climbing, I'm not high enough."
"For God's sake Stiff."
"You're one to talk," I mumble under my breath.
"So what about my name?"
So he needs a distraction, got it. "Number of fears you have? It's offly low but wouldn't be surprised,'' because I'm the one that gave Amar the idea of the name.
I find a spot that seems high enough and find a spot that I can wedge my foot. I looked over to where I saw the lights flickering to see if I can find any more clues.
_ _ / . . / _ . / _ _ . / … /_ _ _ / . . .
I can feel Four standing behind me, his breath still catching. I can't let Four know what I'm looking at so I turn towards where the other team should be.
I see a light, one that shouldn't be there.
"Over there," I point out.
"Yeah," he says, a smile across his face.
"It's coming from the park at the end of the pier. Figures. It's surrounded by open space, but the trees provide some camouflage. Obviously not enough," he says.
"Yeah," I say. "Um, if you start climbing down, I'll follow you."
Four nods and starts heading down. I look back at the flashing lights to see if I can catch any other words.
_ . / _ / _ _ _
And I start heading down.
I put my foot down on the first bare that is barely reachable. When I go to put my full weight on it, I hear a crack.
Shit.
I feel the bar fall and my entire body drop and tighten my hold on the side of the bars.
I don't scream. I don't make a sound. It's not hard just, just, normal?
I feel a pull in my shoulders and know that I'm hanging from my hands.
I can feel Jack laughing at me, hanging from my hands "Comon, don't be a girl!"
So, I started climbing down. Slowly bringing one hand down at a time to lower myself to the next bar.
Take that Jack.
The rest of the climb is uneventful.
When we both get down, I start to head to where we left the rest of the group.
"Tris." I look back and see that Four is walking toward me. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you almost fell from the Faris wheel and you are acting like nothing happened."
I really don't know how to answer that. "What do you mean?" I keep walking back to where the group is.
"The bar fell and you acted as if nothing happened."
"Isn't being Dauntless mean to be brave? 'We believe in facing that fear no matter what the cost to our comfort, our happiness, or even our sanity'," I recite from memory.
"Really? You're going to use that against me? What about 'to rely not on myself but on my brothers and sisters, to always project outward until I disappear'? "
"Psychology, so that the individual understands how a person functions within that society."
"We believe in acknowledging the extent to which it rules us."
"Justice is more important than peace."
"Freedom from fear, in denying fear the power to influence our decisions."
"Do not believe that we should be allowed to stand idly by."
"Dishonesty will be my undoing."
"That's not part of the manifesto," I say. I hadn't noticed that we were back until I look around and see that everyone is watching us.
Everyone is slightly scarred, the flag is behind Christina.
An older Dauntless walks towards us.
"Where'd the others go?" asks Four.
"What the hell were you guys thinking? We could hear you guys yelling from over here! You might as well have turned on the wheel or just have yelled 'Here we are! Come and get us!' If I lose again this year, the shame will be unbearable. Three years in a row?"
"Well, what we did doesn't matter. We know where they are."
"We?" Christina says, looking from Four to me.
"Yes, while the rest of you were twiddling your thumbs, Tis climbed the Ferris wheel to look for the other team," he said.
"What do we do now, then?" one of the Dauntless-born intitierssays through a yawn.
Four looks from me to the other initiates. I instinctively go and play with my right ring finger.
"The other team is at the park at the end of the pier," I say remembering what Four said. "So we could split in half. Four of us would go to the right side of the pier to charge while a group of us go to the left to get the flag."
An older girl piped up, "sounds good, Let's get his night over with shall we?"
Christina, Uriah and I are the three that go to get the flag. I notice the tattoo behind his ear. Before I know it, Cristina starts running. And then I get it, she wants the glory of getting the flag. It might have been my plan, but that won't matter. I have to run faster just to catch up with her. I pull my gun that was still around me in front and ready to shoot.
Once we reach the end of the pier, I pull my hoodie over my mouth and nose to cover up the cloud that my breath leaves.
I look up and see the flag. I pout nuge Christina and point to it, she nods and leads the way.
I hear yells and realize that our team has charged. Their team goes toward them and leaves the flag almost unguarded. Uriah sees someone takes aim and shoots them. She throws her gun on the ground as her tantrum and I suppress my giggles.
I sprint after Christina and my hoodie falls off my face. The flag hangs from a branch. I manage to jump high enough to get it.
"Take it, please," I tell Christina and push it into her hands.
"What the hell Tris?"
"I owe you one." She gives me a puzzled look.
Uriah cheers behind us. The next thing I notice, the entire team starts cheering and I join in. Christina holds the flag up high and everyone clusters around her, grabbing her arm to lift the flag even higher. I stay back slightly admiring the view, everyone united, no one worried about what will happen, just living in the moment.
But then it hits me like a ton of bricks.
_ _ _ / ._. / ._. / _ . _ _ / . _. - _ _ / . . / _ . / _ _ . - … /_ _ _ / . . . / _ . / _ / _ _ _
- - O
SORRY R, COMING TOBAIS
SORRY R, TOBAIS IS COMING
No, no, no, no, no, no. This can't be happening. He can't be, he's gone, prison, no escape.
Sorry for not posting for a long time. This was a longer chapter so hopefully anyone still reading this will forgive me. I will be posting at least once a day for the next week and hopefully once a week after that.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
~ you know me 9