Chapter 2
Haii guys, so I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and you got a bit of an insight of what the story is going to be about, and you might have started to wonder as to who the main character is. Well from what you have read, you know that she is in Candor, and admires the dauntless, but that is about all that is the same as the book. So you might find out who she is in this chapter. Get excited. Enjoy!
XX AnnabethEverlarkPrior
The test starts after lunch. We sit at the long tables in the cafeteria, and the test administrators call ten names at a time, one for each testing room. I sit next to a boy from Abnegation, and a girl from Dauntless, who's face is almost half metal from peircings. The test administrators are mostly abnegation volunteers, although there is an Erudite in one of the testing rooms, and a dauntless in another. To test those of us who are in Abnegation, because the rules state that we cannot be tested by someone of our own faction. The rules also state that we can't prepare for the tet in any way, so I don't know what to expect. My gaze drifts to the dauntless across from me. They are laughing and shouting and playing a game of what seems only to be a game of dare. At another set of tables, the Erudite chat over books and newspapers. In constant pursuit of knowledge. A group of Amity girls in yellow and red, sit in a circle on the cafeteria floor, playing some kind of hand slapping game involving a rhyming song. Every few minutes, I hear a chorus of laughter, when one of them gets eliminated and has to sit in the centre of the circle. At the table next to them, a group of Candor boys make wide gestures, with their hands. They seem to be arguing about something, but it mustn't be serious, because some of them are still smiling. At the Abnegation table they just sit quietly and wait.
XxX
An Abnegation volunteer speaks the next round of names. Two from Dauntless, two from Erudite,two from Amity, two from Candor, and then: "From Candor: Will and Christina." I get up because I'm supposed to, but if it were up to me, I would stay in my seat for the rest of time. I feel like there is a bubble in my chest that expands more by the second, threatening to break me apart from the inside. I follow Will to the exit.
Waiting for us outside the cafeteria is a row of ten rooms, that are used, only for the Aptitude tests. Waiting for us outside the cafeteria is a row of ten rooms. They are used only for the aptitude tests,so I have never been in one before. Unlike the other rooms in the school, they are separated, not by glass, but by mirrors. I watch myself, pale and terrified, walking toward one of the doors. Will grins nervously at me as he walks into room 5, and I walk into room 6, where an Abnegation woman waits for me.
She is not as severe-looking as the young Dauntless I have seen. She has small, dark, angular eyes and wears a gray robe. It is only when she turns to close the door. If I didn't feel like my heart had migrated to my throat, I would ask her what the test would be like. Mirrors cover the inner walls of the room. I can see my reflection from all angles: the black and white fabric obscuring the shape of my back, my long neck, my knobby-knuckled hands, red with a blood blush. The ceiling glows white with light. In the center of the room is a reclined chair, like a dentist's, with a machine next to it. It looks like a place where terrible things happen.
"Don't worry," the woman says, "it doesn't hurt."
Her hair is black and straight, but in the light I see that it is streaked with gray.
"Have a seat and get comfortable," she says.
"My name is Susan."
Clumsily I sit in the chair and recline, putting my head on the headrest. The lights hurt my eyes. Susan busies herself with the machine on my right. I try to focus on her and not on the wires in her hands.
She attaches an electrode to my forehead.
Humming a little, she presses another electrode to my forehead and she presses the next electrode to her own, and attaches a wire to it. She stands behind me. I squeeze the armrests so tightly the redness pulls away from my knuckles. She tugs wires toward her, attaching them to me, to her, to the machine behind her. Then she passes me a vial of clear liquid.
"Drink this," she says.
"What is it?" My throat feels swollen. I swallow hard.
"What's going to happen?"
"Can't tell you that. Just trust me."
I press air from my lungs and tip the contents of the vial into my mouth. My eyes close. When they open, an instant has passed, but I am somewhere else. I stand in the school cafeteria again, but all the long tables are empty, and I see through the glass walls that it's snowing. On the table in front of me are two baskets. In one is a hunk of cheese, and in the other, a knife the length of my forearm. Behind me, a woman's voice says, "Choose."
I reach out and grab the knife and grip it tightly in my right hand. The baskets disappear. I hear a door squeak and turn to see who it is. I see not a "who" but a "what": A dog with a pointed nose stands a few yards away from me. It crouches low and creeps toward me, its lips peeling back from its white teeth. A growl gurgles from deep in its throat, and I see why the cheese would have come in handy. I think about running, but the dog will be faster than me. So I go with my instinct and start for the dog. I plunge my knife into the beast and it cowers whimpering. I throw my knife at it and it dodges and jumps at me, I try to move out of its path but it is on me before I can even take a step. I stumble, tripping over a discarded chair and fall painfully on the hard ground, knocked my chin against the floor tasting blood. Not realising I dropped my knife, I turn over lash out a kick hitting, the dog in the face and it staggers back, it falls to the ground and I grab my knife off the ground beside me and stab it, where it's heart should be. It yelps and flails then goes stiff and cold. I get up slowly and I hear a loud bark from behind me. I turn and see a dog identical to the one I had just fought, I blink, and when my eyes open, a child stands across the room wearing a white dress. She stretches out both hands and squeals, "Puppy!" As she runs toward the dog at my side, I scream "RUN!", but I am too late. The dog turns. Instead of growling, it barks and snarls and snaps, and its muscles bunch up like coiled wire. About to pounce. I drop my knife. I don't think, I just jump; I hurl my body on top of the dog, wrapping my arms around its thick neck. My head hits the ground. The dog is gone, and so is the little girl.