The first rays of sunshine were just about to make their way across the lake, which was located at the edge of the Dauntless area. Since 6 am their instructor Four chased them around it. By 5 am Four had woken them up in their sleeping quarters where she lived with all the transfer initiates. Not that she could really sleep in a room full of people she did not know.
Alex did her best to pant and stay in the middle of the group during the morning run, even though the pace did not exhaust her the slightest. Her daily sprints through uninhabited districts paid off for Alex, but she was also aware that until she showed her full potential in training, she would not be able to get any more real training done. While she was thinking about when, how and where she could put in extra hours of training on her own, the group came to a stop in front of the Dauntless building. On the way to the training room she looked at her fellow competitors, still memorizing the order in which the initiates had run and how well they handled the morning trip.
At dinner last night, Lucas and Kylie who almost passed as siblings with their blonde hair and blue eyes, had sat down with her. They had both been to Candor before and were used to carrying their hearts on their tongues. They quickly spiralled down into sibling-like discussions, which Alex for the most part just silently enjoyed. To her own astonishment, Alex had not been disturbed by their presence. They were loud and cheeky and wild and therefore much more refreshing than the stern, win-focused discussions she knew from Erudite. A few allies would certainly not be bad, thought Alex to herself as she joined them in the training room.
"Why is Eric here?" Alex whispered to Lucas and Kylie who both shrugged their shoulders.
"Initiates", said Four seconds later, while everyone was still out of breath or talking about the training room and his equipment. He immediately had their undivided attention.
"Today your training begins at Dauntless. All in all, you will train, fight and conquer your fears for one year. Your training is divided into two phases. In the first phase, we will train your body. In addition to endurance, this includes fighting, as well as the use of different weapons such as knives or firearms. After we have trained your physical strength and stamina in the first part, we will concentrate on your mental strength in the second phase."
Some initiates raised their eyebrows and exchanged confused looks, but nobody dared to say anything. No one except Kylie of course.
"Our mental strength? I've seen Lucas try to resist the chocolate cake yesterday and we all know how that went. I don't know if there's any hope of training that," she said with a grin, pointing at Lucas' head. He immediately started protesting loudly which gained them Eric's attention.
"Just because you have a trained body, doesn't mean that you have what it takes for a high-ranking dauntless position. With the second part of the training, we determine who is made to lead and who is made to be lead." He walked over to the two of them. "And your personal first lesson will be about quietly following orders and I think I have just the right task for that. Hey Four, I think we just found our designated cleaning ladies for the training room." He gave them both one last look before returning to his spot next to Four.
Alex let her eyes fall over her fellow students. A tense silence fell over the class. A few exchanged astonished glances, others were seemingly trying to become one with the gray concrete walls. Eric had just made an unprecedented example of the two of them. No one would want to risk this kind of treatment in the near future.
Four took the floor again: "You will be judged on your performance during training. This ranking will ultimately determine which jobs you will occupy during your life in Dauntless, so I would suggest you make an effort."
Alex was not willing to spend her life guarding the fence in all weathers, so there was no need to tell her to try hard enough. Four now instructed the group in the various exercises and then divided the initiates into three groups. One part would spend the next few hours working on their flexibility and muscles with different exercises and fitness devices, the second part would practice throwing knives with Four and the third part of the group would be taught the basics of fighting by Eric.
Luckily, Alex was part of the first group with Lucas and immediately started to train her muscles with different exercises. She deliberately took it slow and used the breaks she was playing to need to observe the other transfers in training. Four seemed to be a good teacher because, after his instructions and support, most initiates hit the target within the first quarter of an hour.
After another round of sit-ups, her eyes wandered to Eric's group, which included Kylie. He had first explained a number of basics to them before letting them repeat those exercises on punching bags. Alex looked at Kylie questioningly who caught her gaze and then dramatically wiped sweat from her forehead as she rolled her eyes in response.
After about two hours the groups changed activities and she and Lucas listened to Four's instructions on knife throwing. As she predicted, Four actually was an excellent teacher but her group apparently contained less talented people because when the lesson came to an end two of the eight people still had not made a successful throw. Unfortunately, Lucas was one of them.
Alex's gaze fell on the foot that was continuously bobbing on the floor opposite her. The water in her glass was already making rhythmic little waves. She was sitting in the canteen with the other initiates. No one else seemed to notice, so spellbound was every one by the story Lucas was telling. He was a good storyteller, all the initiates sitting at the table with them were literally hanging on his lips, but Alex was more interested in the nervously bobbing leg that belonged to this storyteller. She had also noticed the look on his face when the knife-throwing lesson was over and his target couldn't even show a scratch. But most of all, Alex had observed how quickly that expression had disappeared and been replaced by his old familiar beaming smile. All the way to lunch he had been cracking jokes and entertaining the troops almost non-stop - more so than usual.
Alex briefly considered asking him about it, but quickly decided against it and instead watched as the nervous girl from the roof, Carla, occasionally glanced at Four, who was sitting two tables away.
