Hi everyone! Thank you so much to those of you that have viewed/favorited/followed/reviewed this story so far. In the reviews, one of you asked me about my update schedule. I answered them in a PM, but I'll also answer it here so you're all aware. I don't have a set schedule. In about two weeks, I will be going off to college. For that whole weekend (Thursday into Monday), I have freshman orientation and then classes start that Tuesday. I imagine that I will be very busy during this time, adjusting to college life and such, especially during orientation/move-in weekend, so updates will probably become sporadic. However, until then, I'm going to try my hardest to give you all a new chapter every day or every other day.
I really believe in and have high hopes for this story. I'm very glad and grateful that so many of you do as well.
Another VERY IMPORTANT THING: I've made a last minute decision to add another initiate. His name is Matt and he's from Candor. This will be important later on.
One thing I forgot to mention is the dynamic between Eric and Four. They are not the best of friends, however, they are not enemies either. They are tolerant of and civil with each other. This becomes important later on in the story.
Thanks for reading!
Once again, Veronica Roth owns Divergent and I do not *sad face*.
Once we have all jumped, we all convene in one large group. Standing in front of us is the man that helped me out of the net and a woman. They look to be about the same age.
The man says, "Dauntless-born go with Lauren. Transfers stay with me."
"Follow me. I assume you don't need a tour of the place." The Dauntless-born follow the woman, Lauren, through a set of double doors off to the side. After they are all gone, our group has been diminished my half since, surprisingly half of us are transfers. I expected there to be more Dauntless-born than transfers, but both groups are even. That leaves eleven of us left. There is only one Abnegation and one Amity, me. The rest of us are from Erudite and Candor. The latter surprises me a little. I can't help but imagine that it must take a lot of bravery to be honest all of the time, but I guess that I wouldn't know.
After they all leave, the man addresses us. "Usually I work in intelligence, but for the next few weeks, I will be your instructor. My name is Four."
"Four? Like the number?" Christina asks.
"Exactly like the number."
"What happened, one through three were taken?"
Four slowly approaches Christina and leans his face very close to hers with his eyes narrowed.
"What's your name?"
"Christina", she squeaks.
"Well Christina, the first lesson you'll learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. If I wanted to listen to Candor smart mouths, I would have joined their faction. Do you understand me?"
"Yes." She says this so quietly, it's almost inaudible. I decide that it would be wise to be careful around him.
Four turns away and heads towards a set of double doors. The doors lead us into a large underground cavern. The walls are made of large, uneven blocks of rock.
"This is the Pit, the center of life here at Dauntless. Follow me and I'll show you the chasm."
He leads us over to the far right side of the Pit, which is significantly darker than the rest. The floor we are walking on turns into an iron bridge with a railing on only one side. Below us, the floor goes off at a sharp angle and there is a roar of a river. The water strikes the wall and sharp rocks at the bottom and sprays upward. There is a ledge made of white rock circling around the chasm starting at the edges of the bridge.
"The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!" Four shouts over the roar of the river. "A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again. You've been warned."
Four then leads us into a large room: the dining hall. When we get there, everyone is already eating and absorbed within their own conversations. When we look for empty seats, Tris, Christina, and I find a mostly empty table near the side of the room. This leaves Tris sitting in between Christina and Four, while I'm on Christina's other side. In the center of our table there are platters of food. Some of them contain bread and vegetables, but the other contains circular pieces of meat. Tris and I both look at them confused, not knowing what to make of them.
"Have you two seriously never seen a hamburger before?" Christina looks at us with wide eyes.
"No, I've seen one, I've just never eaten one," Tris responds.
"Yeah, me too. In Amity, we don't eat the livestock, just what's grown in the fields."
Christina looks at me impassively. She then looks at Tris. "What about you?"
"Abnegation eat plain food. We consider extravagance to be self-indulgent and unnecessary."
"Wow, no wonder you guys left."
"Yeah, we left just because of the food," I say.
After we've been eating for a while, everyone around us begins to slam their cups on their tables. As the banging gets louder, I see a man approach the railing of a ledge above the dining hall. This man seems older than all the other Dauntless I've seen so far and he has dark skin. He stands at the railing waiting for the banging to cease. When it does, he speaks.
"Initiates, stand." We stand.
"You have chosen to join the warrior faction. Where we are tasked with the defense of this city and all its inhabitants. We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, and the courage it takes for one person to stand up for another. Respect that. Do us proud." As he leaves, the room erupts in applause. This is the first time since I've arrived in Dauntless that I really feel welcome here.
After dinner, Four disappears and leaves us with Eric. Eric leads us down a long series of hallways, although, he doesn't tell us where he's taking us. That feels unsettling to me. However, what feels more unsettling is why a Dauntless leader is being made responsible for a group of initiates. While we are walking, we are all silent, even though no one told us not to speak.
When Eric stops, he stops in front of a large wooden door, and we gather around him. "As you all know, my name is Eric and I'm one of your leaders. Here in Dauntless, we take the initiation process very seriously, so I volunteered to oversee your training."
This, like everything about him, makes me feel uneasy. I'm discovering that being around him makes me lose my focus and now I find out that I'll be around him all the time? This could be a problem.
"First, there are some ground rules. First, you have to be in the training room by eight o'clock every morning. Training will take place from eight to six, with one break for lunch. After six you are free to do whatever you like. You will also get some time off in between each stage of initiation. Second, you are only permitted to leave the compound if you are accompanied by a Dauntless member.
"Behind this door is where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks."
"Girls or boys?" someone asks.
"Both. Anyway, initiation is divided into two stages. We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act when faced with fear. Each stage is intended to prepare you in a different way. Stage one is primarily physical. We will push your bodies to the breaking point and teach you the form of hand-to-hand combat. Stage two is primarily mental/emotional. Once again, we will be pushing you to the breaking point. You will face your worst fears and learn how to conquer them.
"During the first stage of initiation we will be trained separately from the Dauntless-born initiates, but you will be ranked together."
"Why are we ranked?" asks the girl from Erudite.
Eric gives her a wicked-looking smirk. "Your rankings serve two purposes. The first is that your rankings determine the order you will select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available so, if you want a good job, plan on doing well here. The second purpose is that only the top ten initiates will be made members."
I feel like my heart has dropped into my stomach. We are all standing as still as statues.
"What?" Christina asks.
"There are eleven Dauntless born initiates and eleven of you. At the end of stage one, the bottom five initiates will be cut. The remainder will be cut after the final test.
There are twenty-two of us. That means that twelve, one more than half of us, will not become members. I can tell out of the corner of my eye that Christina is looking at Tris and I, but I cannot bring myself to look at them. My eyes are glued on Eric and will not move, waiting to see what bombshell he will drop on us next.
"What happens if we get cut?" Peter asks.
Eric replies with another smirk on his face. "Well, you'll leave the Dauntless compound and, since there's no going home to your families, you'll live factionless."
The Erudite girl clamps her hand over her mouth to suppress a sob. I've seen the factionless many times when I would go into the city for school. I remember them looking very sick and depressed and dirty wearing dirty clothes and always begging for food. I refuse to become factionless. I will become a member.
"But, that's not fair!" Molly cries. She sounds angry, but she looks like she's about to break down and cry. "Someone should have told us that!"
Now Eric looks angry. "Why? Would it have made you choose differently? Because if that's the case, you should get out now. If you are really Dauntless, it won't matter to you that you could fail. And if it does, then that makes you a coward, which means we'll want nothing to do with you. You chose us. Now we have to choose you."
I lie in bed listening to ten other people's breathing and snoring. I've never slept in the same room as someone else before, much less a boy. Growing up, it was always just my mother and I, so I've never had to share a room before. If I want to be Dauntless, I guess I'll have to get used to it.
I can tell that some of the other initiates are crying, or are trying to hide the fact that they are crying. I, however, refuse to cry here. I also refuse to believe that I will fail. It will be alright here. I will be alright here. If I say it enough, maybe I can convince myself that it's true.
Suddenly, I hear a strangled sob and the sound of someone rolling over in bed. From where the sound is coming from, I can tell that it's one of the Candor initiates, Al. Al is the largest of all of the transfers. I wouldn't have expected him to break down and cry, but I guess you can't judge a book by its cover.
To drown out his muffled sobs, I return to my thoughts. I wonder if I will cut my long, wavy black hair short. Or if I will get a piercing or tattoo that will blend well with my piercing blue eyes and pale skin. Even though I was Amity and outside in the sun a large amount of the time, I somehow avoided getting a tan.
No matter what I do, I feel like I have to do something to feel like I belong here. I have to do something to look the part of being Dauntless. I wonder what my mother will say about whatever my appearance will become when she comes to see me on Visiting Day – if she even decides to come at all. I imagine that she will, since she would probably consider it to be unkind of herself to not come and visit me. I can't allow myself to get my hopes up. I have to accept the possibility that she may not show. The thought makes me want to cry, but I suppress it. I refuse to cry and show weakness, even though no one else can see it here in the dark.
My mind then wanders to the thought of my father. I wonder if I will see him here. It's possible that I'll run into him eventually but, he worked on the fence when he and my mother met, so it's more likely that he'll be out on the fence and not within the compound, especially near the initiates. I've always gone back and forth on whether I want to meet him or not. I know that it's not his fault that he's never been able to see me. I can blame the government for that. But, on the other hand, I just can't help but hate him for never being in my life. Even though I don't know all of the facts about the situation, I feel like he could have fought the government. I feel like he could have tried harder to be a part of my life. Especially considering that mother is Amity, I can't imagine that some sort of compromise would have been impossible. If there's one thing that Amity excels at, it is making compromises.
As a matter of fact, even if I did see him, I wouldn't know that it's him. I don't know what he looks like. I don't even know his name. And, if I do ever meet him, what if he doesn't care about me? What if he wants nothing to do with me? And that is the thought that finally gets me to shed a tear.