I sit in the crowded hall of sixteen year olds all chatting away. There are many expressions around me, some worried, some excited, some doubtful, the list goes on. Meanwhile, I try to figure out Dauntless traits. Bravery, survival instinct, maybe not originally, but violent. They tend to be loud, and used to attention, I think as I observe some black clad teens nearby.
I hear my name called, and follow an abnegation woman into a small room.
"Alright then, if you just sit down here, take this serum, and you'll be good to go!" She says as I lie back comfortably. I down the shot of liquid, and my head starts to clear. The feeling was similar to the peace serum actually. When I look around again, the room is empty. This is interesting.
"Choose." The voice is clear and I raise my eyebrows pointedly at the two bowls in front of me. Cheese or a knife. That was an easy one. I grab the knife instinctively. Axel had never really let me even consider trying knives out, but I had practiced moves at home with a kitchen knife to try it out. The bowls disappear and I look around, waiting for the next test.
A low growl comes from behind me, and a feral black dog bends low. I crouch to it's level as well, baring my teeth with a hand supporting me on the floor. The dog seems to hesitate before coming forward, and I place the knife on the floor, though my hand doesn't leave it. I need not have worried though, as the dog merely lowers its head into my other hand, letting me stroke it softly.
"Puppy!" I look up to see the next test, a little girl walking towards the dog, growling once more. Before it can even take a step towards the little girl, my hand grips the knife and I curl my arms and legs around the writhing dog, knife at it's neck.
/
All of a sudden the dimly lit room become a bus, white as I look out the window. There's a man reading a newspaper, who looks nothing short of a prison fugitive.
"Do you know this guy?" He asks, his crooked yellow teeth glaring at me as he shows me a man in the paper. I barely even glance at it before saying shortly "No." I don't care whether I do or don't, I don't trust the guy in front of me. Though I do recognise the face, I trust my instincts.
"You're lying, lying I say! I know you know him!" He takes a step forward and places his hands on my shoulders, however they barely graze me before I side step out of the way and squarely punch his jaw.
"If I said I didn't, then I don't." I finish curtly, before the bus fades.
I blink my eyes open, and sit up warily. The Abnegation woman is staring down and the monitor, a slight frown on her face.
"… how unusual." She murmurs before turning to me. "Unlike the 95% who receive their faction, you received Dauntless. And quite strongly as well. I never would've expected it from Amity."
I shrug unapologetic. "I never liked it there. It doesn't really surprise me." I say quietly, but she still smiles and sends me off.
I leave the room into the white halls of erudite, not bothering to wait for the next truck. It would do me good anyway, walking back to Amity. Everyone knows that a main part of Dauntless initiation is physical, and even though I like to think of myself as physically fit, I'm sure just sparing for half an hour a day won't bring me up to dauntless standards. The past couple of months I've been sprinting through the fields back to my house instead of walking, but I'm always exhausted by the time I get there, I can't even get up the stairs a normal speed.
As I walk through the streets, curled up in my own mind as I walk briskly, I avoid the factionless areas as much as possible. I guess I should make sure I wear trousers or something movable for the choosing ceremony…
Ugh….fuck. What the hell am I doing in a hospital? All the walls are white… its blinding me. I look down at myself and notice my arm in a cast. Mother of god the fuck did I do.
I sit up with a groan and finally notice my mother sitting in a corner chair of the hospital room, and she comes to my bedside.
"Miss Knighthood, you have woken up then. Do you remember what happened yesterday?" Before my mother can open her mouth a man in a sleek erudite white coat with the classic framed glasses walks in, black hair gelled back neatly.
"Um… I was walking back from my aptitude test… that's all I remember." I say, scratching the back of my neck sheepishly.
"Well, you were hit by a car in region 6. Luckily it wasn't too serious, the civilians who hit you brought you here. Some witnesses said you walked into the road." The doctor tells me sceptically. Oh fucks for all.
"I was thinking quite hard and probably spaced out. Dangerous I know while walking by roads, it won't happen again sir." I say politely. He seems to accept it before I go on. "What exactly did I damage?" I ask.
"Your arm is broken from your landing, and you have more serious bruising on your shoulder. You also hit your head, and have a minor concussion, so though you are able to go home, if you are in pain take some of the pain meds we have given your mother, and lie down. You were lucky, Miss Knighthood."
"Dear, try not to frighten the life out of me. I'm glad you're okay, but be more careful in the future." My mother says with a smile. I nod at her before staring out the window of our kitchen. This may prove difficult. Only I would receive such luck. A broken arm takes weeks to heal, and I only have one until initiation starts. Physical work will be limited, and it will be a severe handicap. Then again, it may make people forget about me as competition, which from stories I have heard can be quite intense. If only-
"You're not staying are you." My mother's voice breaks my reverie, and I look to her.
"No." I reply honestly, and she looks away.
"I always knew, right from the start really…" She mumbles, I stay silent. "Wherever you go, stay safe for me okay? Be happy."
"Of course mum." I say, before she carries on peeling carrots happily as if nothing had happened.
The sun rises, and I bolt upright. Today was the day. I grin, before yanking the covers back hurriedly, going straight for a shower. I scrub myself squeaky clean, letting my strikingly dark red hair down to my waist, getting rid of any dirt. I held my right arm out of the shower, doing my best to clean with one arm immobilised. In terms of figure, I had really shaped up the past two months. Before, I wasn't big, but I had fat around most parts of my body. Now it was mostly gone, leaving my 5 foot 7 figure slim. Though what I saw now was a flat stomach, I knew soon it would become muscle. My chest was bigger than most my height and width, as well as hips. I hadn't really thought about it till now, standing in the mirror, but I guess I now had quite an enviable figure.
Unfortunately, I hadn't foreseen being forced to wear "my best dress", which I managed to persevere into being a loose white t shirt dress. It goes down to my knees, which allows me to wear some tight athletics shorts underneath. The shorts peaked out from underneath whenever the dress lifted a couple of inches, but I paid no mind to it. I also went for the more logical smart trainers instead of flimsy sandals, and left a hairtie around my wrist. I took one last look in the mirror into my startling dark green eyes, then rushed downstairs to eat.
Breakfast was a quiet affair as usual, but unlike all the other days my mother accompanied me into the city. I streamed through the white halls seamlessly, until we got to the choosing ceremony.
Black, blue, grey, red, yellow… the colours were like a blast to the face. At the front were five bowls, which represented the five factions. As I understood it, the leaders took it in turns to do the speech each year, and this year being Amity, I droned out the speech id almost learnt from memory by now. And then, it started. I couldn't help but watch the names go past. Erudite, home faction. Erudite, home faction. Abnegation, home faction. Dauntless, home faction. Dauntless, to erudite. Amity, home faction. Amity, Abnegation. It stayed as it had been most years, amity and abnegation swapping a few initiates, candor and erudite a good few, as well as dauntless. I was focussing so hard on the colours that
"Ow." I gasp lightly at the light elbow in the side I get from my mother, who indicates my name has been called. I instantly stand, and make my way up to the front. Johanna, the amity leader, looks at me and smiles sadly handing me the knife. I don't think she's surprised either, as I move instantly to the coals on the far side from amity. And I let the blood fall.
Cheers from dauntless erupt, as I walk over, and I allow a small, real smile onto my lips as I go over to sit with my new faction. I didn't bother to pay too much attention to the rest of them, but I did notice an increase in more unusual transfers after myself. A candor to amity, an erudite to abnegation. And lastly, another amity to dauntless.
"Another amity? Jesus what is going on this year!" A dauntless born says a few seats away from myself. It was a girl, who had an obvious baby face. Light hair, tan skin, small frame. I didn't know her name, and I hadn't been listening to them either.
At last it was the end of the ceremony, and time to start running. My legs were strong, very strong, and I managed to keep up with the dauntless born easily as we reached the train tracks. My breath caught. Finally, I would get to do something fun!
My left hand laced over a rung as I climbed up the frame lithely as possible, swinging up to the top. It was like climbing trees, but colder. And I was the idiot with a broken arm. I used my legs as much as possible, and reached a ledge with the rest of the initiates. Despite my arm, I seemed to be the first transfer up, and I didn't stop, moving along the ledge to near the front.
I grin was permanently on my face as the dauntless born yelled and cheered as the train came into view. And then we resumed running I made sure to watch those in front of me as the train came along beside us and the grabbed the handles and climbed in. I continued running, pumping my left arm. Oh shit. I was the only remaining person at the front, and I was running out of ledge.
"Argh!" I let out a grunt as I launched myself of the ground, clasping the handle tightly with my left hand. I curled round the door, to be pulled in by some dauntless born.
"Nice going! We didn't think you'd make it with the arm!" A tall, cheery boy with long blonde hair said, patting me on the back.
"Thanks." I reply shortly. I look around. The only transfer in this carriage was me.
"You managed to get up here just fine, when I saw you choose us I thought you'd flunk out before even climbing!" Another guy, tan with brown hair said. "Name's Leon, and that's Mark."
"Nice to meet you." I reply as per se.
"Hey! I may want to change my name, I haven't decided yet!" Mark exclaims, and I blink.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Oh don't worry, you don't need to tell us your name yet. You can choose it when we get there." Mark tells me.
"Oh." I don't think I need to change my name, I've always quite liked it.
I lean against the wall as the two dauntless born boys make up the conversation, merely watching really. And soon, some of the others in the carriage point out the window.
"Hey, we're here!" A girl with bright pink hair says.
"They're jumping." Another boy says.
Excuse me. I don't think I heard that right. I move over to the window, but indeed, two dauntless clad men have jumped from the moving train onto the roof of a building, followed by the next carriages. The doors open up, and I move back to get a run up.
"Hey, it's best just to go for it, nothing bad will happen! Just get it out of the way!" Leon tells me, and I nod non-committedly. But then without a second thought, as the building comes into view I lead back on my back leg, then push forward as hard as I can and jump.
I remember my gym lessons from when I was younger vaguely, in fact barely, but I manage to curl up into a forward roll ish position as I get to the roof, my broken right arm wrapped up protected by my body as I hit the ground. It doesn't go half bad, maybe a graze on my elbow, and a rip in my dress that may have already been there.
"Great! You made it amity!" Mark comes up to grab my hand and help me up, which I take. As I stand I take a look at the now dirty white t-shirt dress with a slit ripped into it. Oh well. I tie my hair into a ponytail, turning around and see the rest of the initiates land on the roof. More dauntless born than not, as expected, though I notice 4 candor, 4 erudite, 1 abnegation and to my surprise the amity girl as well. Though I can say with certainty that there were more who chose dauntless than eleven.
"Initiates! Listen up! My name is Max, one of the leaders of Dauntless." One of two men standing on a ledge shouts. He's obviously older, greying hair and wrinkles on his dark skin, especially compared to the young man next to him. He has pale skin and dark blonde hair, and is even taller, at a guess six foot. He has multiple piercings on his ears, and since I am closer, I can see where an eyebrow piercing could be, though it had no jewellery. What I don't fail to notice is that despite the age gap, both have strongly muscled biceps on display, wearing tight black vests and trousers.
"This, is the entrance to Dauntless." He says, suspense filling the air as he looks behind him. Over the edge? "If you can't jump of the edge, you obviously don't belong here." Murmuring fills the initiates as their fears are confirmed. They're not going to kill all the initiates as soon as they got them, so there must be something to cushion us at the bottom. Thinking back to gym, it could be a foam pit, or water, something to absorb the momentum.
"We tend to give the honour of going first to a transfer." Max adds. Don't go first. It will draw too much attention.
"Is there water at the bottom or something?" An erudite transfer, his short gelled brown hair glued to his head despite the wind.
"Who knows?" Max shrugs, and I let a small smirk grace my lips.
"Alright then… I'll go." The same erudite boy moves forward, but hesitates before stepping up to the ledge.
"Now, initiate." The other man next to Max almost growls, and the boy flinches. However, he does step up, and after a few seconds, jumps.
His scream echoes up, before they go quiet. They may be known as reckless, but there's no way they'd let all their new meat die before we even get trained up, it's completely illogical. Maybe first drew too much attention, but seconds not to bad right?
"Well who's next?" Max asks, and I move forward.
"I'll go." I say quietly, stalking forwards. There are whistles in the crowd along with some very obvious mutters of Amity.
"You gotta be kidding, amity. You sure you'll be alright with that arm of yours?" Max asks, raising his eyebrows. I meet his eyes before curtly answering.
"I'll be fine." And without breaking my step, I get to the ledge letting myself fall forward, rotating at my ankles, falling, a grin on my face.
The wind whistles through my ears and I stay facing down, eyes pulled open as the sight at the bottom starts to clear. I don't remember being that high up, but soon enough I see the criss cross of the net beneath me. I twist my body just in time to land on my back with my arm tucked in, bouncing up before angling to land and slide off. I let out a thrilled sigh, before looking around the underground faction. Its dark, and cold. Just what I like. A man next to the net with warm skin, brown eyes, brown hair and a tall muscled figure offers me a hand, which I accept.
"Name, amity." He almost barks at me, and I look to him.
"Avery."
First chapter done! I hope everyone enjoys it, and as I have only just started this story it could go in any direction, so if you have any criticism or ideas please feel free to review!