Some of the things from this chapter are almost direct quotes from Divergent. I'm throwing that out there just to be known. This chapter is also not as good as the first one, in my opinion.

There's a link to Lance on my profile if you want to check him out.

After all the initiates jumped down the hole, I counted twenty-five people. There were twenty-seven of us at the start and we'd already lost people. That was not something that I ever had to deal with in Amity. The only way people died there was from old age or the occasional allergic reaction.

"Hey, are you okay? Your eyes got all dark," Kadence whispered to me as we all congregated together.

"Yeah, everything's just setting in," I whispered back, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "How are you? All your pieces still in place from the jump?"

She just smiled and nodded her head at me, bumping our shoulders. I'd had friends back in Amity, but I'd never had a best friend. I'd never felt it before yet I knew that that was what this was turning into. Before I could tell her what I was thinking, the guy that caught me after my jump drew our attention up to him.

"I'm Lance, follow me," he said, drawing all of our attention to him.

Lance led us down a long, dark tunnel with occasional lighted torches along it. I'd never been somewhere that the sun couldn't reach me. A bubble of panic tried to rise up my throat, but I swallowed it down. I chose to leave the sunshine of Amity for the adventure of Dauntless. I could do this, I was finally free.

The group of people in front of me stopped suddenly and if it wasn't for T grabbing my arm, I would've slammed into the Erudite boy in front of me. I was yet again thankful for him, he saved me from a more than embarrassing encounter with him.

"This is where we divide," the girl with Lance announced. "The Dauntless-born initiates are with me; I assume you don't need a tour of the compound."

She stepped to the side and half of the crowd followed her down another dark tunnel. Once they were gone, I took a count of all the transfers. There were four from Candor, three from Amity, four from Erudite, and one from Abnegation. The faces of my fellow ex-Amity members were familiar, but I didn't know their names. I hadn't even realized that there had been other transfers from my Faction at the Ceremony this morning.

"I'm going to be your instructor for the next few weeks," Lance announced. "I realize I'm not much older than the lot of you, but don't underestimate me. I was second in my class, and I'm not afraid to prove it."

"You're instructing us, but you weren't first in your class?" the Erudite boy, Eric, asked with a sneer.

I didn't even see Lance move until he had Eric pinned to the wall with his arm at his neck. I expected myself to flinch, but I didn't. I knew Lance wasn't lying when he said he would prove himself and Eric was stupid to think that he wasn't. This wasn't a place that authority should be questioned, especially by transfers like us.

"If I was first in my class, I wouldn't threaten you. That's why I'm training, I'm not afraid to rough you up," he told him calmly. "Any other remarks you'd like to make?"

I saw something flash across Eric's face, but he held his tongue. I was honestly surprised that he wasn't a Candor transfer, he had all the traits of one. The arrogance, the honesty, the lack of ability to hold his comments. I'm sure that was going to get him seriously hurt, but it wasn't my business. He would learn eventually, even if it was the hard way.

Lance stepped back and resumed his position in front of us. "If that was the only question, I'd like to get this tour started."

Everyone looked around at each other, but no one opened their mouths. He had effectively silenced any doubts we had in his ability to lead. Well, I still had a few, but I'm sure they would be gone after we trained for a couple days. When people were fighting, their true colors came out.

"We're going to start with the Pit, it's the place where everything happens down here. You'll learn to love it," Lance announced as he lead us further down the opposite hallway that the Dauntless-born had gone down. "It has all your needs: clothing, food, supplies, there are even places for you to spend your free time. That's assuming you're going to have any these few weeks."

He pushed open the set of double doors in front of him and stepped to the side as we all piled out onto the landing. It was accurately named because it was a literal pit. I looked to the side and saw something that made my heart soar: sunlight! It was coming in from the windows that were located on the ceiling. Even if I left Amity, it was nice to have something here that reminded me of home.

We made our way down the staircase slowly because there were no railings on the side. I was looking around at the people scattered when a group of children ran up the stairs around us. They were on the side with no rails but lacked a fear of falling. I guess that was what it was like to grow up Dauntless, you had no fears.

I couldn't help but think back to him and wonder if it could've been different if we had been born into Dauntless instead of Amity with their frivolous, slap-on-the-wrist punishments. I'm sure the Dauntless would have punished him for what he'd done. I would've actually told someone if I lived here, or at least that's what I wanted to think…

"Are you sure you're okay?" T whispered to me as Lance talked about the things that you could do in the Pit. "You look a little bit pale."

"I'm okay, I'm a little woozy," I explained. "I was too anxious to eat breakfast this morning and I'm feeling it now."

"You're lucky, red," Lance said, making everyone look back at me. "We're going to the dining hall right after I show you all the chasm."

I smiled up at him, trying to hide the embarrassment that I'd been caught talking. "That's good because I'm famished."

He winked at me before turning back around and leading us to a place shrouded in shadows. As we got closer, I realized that it was the source of the roaring noise I'd heard earlier. I was surprised to see the only the only safety barrier I've seen since we left The Hob until I looked over at the rushing water.

"This is the chasm," Lance shouted to be heard above the roaring water. "I know some of you are thinking about proving your bravery by jumping, but I would advise against that. There have been many before you who've tried, and I've been one of the men who pulled the dead body up out of the water. There are better ways to prove your courageousness than diving headfirst to your death. Even as I say this, there will be at least one who do it anyway despite my warning. Others think it's better to end it all than to become Factionless…"

That thought chilled me to the bone, but that might have been added to by the coldness of the air coursing off the roaring water. Suicide was never something that was talked about in Amity, neither was death. It was too sad and depressing for the happy compound to be part of. When you died, you had a service of planting you in the ground and putting flowers over your body. It was gross, but dead bodies made good fertilizer…

"And with that thought fresh in your blossoming little minds, I'm going to take you to eat," Lance told us, making me smile despite myself. "I didn't forget about you back there, red."

"And I'm very thankful for that," I replied, making Kadence chuckle and elbow me in the ribs.

Lance led us back through the Pit and into a room that was alive with chatter. As soon as we walked in, everyone started clapping and cheering and just all around making noises for us. Lance joined in and soon enough the noise was deafening in an unfamiliar way, but it made me laugh along with Kadence; even T flashed his almost smile. It was loud and boisterous in a way that would've gotten someone punished in Amity, but it seemed to be normal here.

After the cheering died down, Kadence took my hand and led me to a set of empty seats. I grabbed T's hand before she yanked us towards them. I'm sure T was going to get used to me touching him through the next few weeks, he had to. I was a touchy person and Kadence seemed to be the same way.

We all sat down and Lance found his way to one of the empty seats in front of us. He wasn't bad looking. He had curly brown hair that seemed to lie however it chose instead of how he wanted it to. His eyes were bright blue and his smile was mischievous in a way that reminded me of the little boys who used to take the apples from the baskets after we picked them.

I looked at the table and saw that we would be eating hamburgers for dinner tonight. I'd never eaten meat before, it was a rule that most Amity abided by. We couldn't eat the things that we didn't grow and my family couldn't keep animals alive.

I reached forward and grabbed one along with Kadence and Lance, but T just looked at them curiously. He was from Abnegation which meant he'd probably never even seen a burger before, he only ate bland, tasteless foods.

"It's beef, it comes from a cow. It's good," I told him, handing him a burger and pouring some ketchup onto his plate beside it. "Dip it in that and enjoy."

He did as I instructed, but still seemed skeptical. Kadence caught on to it too and said, "It's a hamburger. How have you never heard of them before?"

"Abnegation is big on masochism," Lance said before taking a bite of his burger.

"We –they- don't believe in eating food with taste when it can be given to others," T explained before taking a small nibble. "It is good!"

I laughed at his excitement when he took a bigger bite. I threw my head back with laughter, letting it fill me up until I was about to burst. Kadence joined in with me and soon enough our entire table was laughing except for Eric. He was scowling at the group of us, but I just brushed him off.

"You're got the best laugh I've ever heard, red," Lance said after the peals of laughter died down. "It's contagious!"

I just rolled my eyes at his obvious flirting and went back to eating. I wasn't focused on a relationship, especially after him. I just wanted to train and become stronger than I already was. I wanted to push myself until I broke and then go further. I was free, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to work my butt off.

Once we all finished eating, we gathered back together as a group and met with Max this time. Lance just disappeared, but I didn't question it. I figured he'd show back up later when we started our training and I would grow sick of him. He was going to be pushing us to our breaking points and beyond.

"I'm Max, we met before on the rooftop. I'm glad to see that all of you made it through the entrance," he said.

He then turned on his heel and headed away from the dining hall. We walked through the Pit again and down another set of dark tunnels. I started making a mental map of everything in hopes that I would remember how to get around soon. Max stopped the tour in front of a wooden door.

"I'm going to tell the lot of you the ground rules. This is the only time you're going to hear them, so you'd better listen well," he said, falling into leader mode easily and quickly. "You all have to be in the training room by 8 o'clock every morning because training takes place from eight to six, with a break for lunch. After six o'clock, you're free to do whatever you please. You will also have some free time between each stage of initiation."

So Lance was being dramatic when he said that we wouldn't have any free time. What I got from Max's rules was that I had more free time here than I did in Amity. I was anxious to explore my new home and maybe even make some changes to my appearance while I was there.

"You're only allowed to leave the compound if you're accompanied by a Dauntless," Max said, drawing my attention back to him. "Behind this door is where you're going to be sleeping for the next few weeks."

He pushed the wooden door open and we followed him inside. "As you can see, there are fourteen beds. We thought more of you would make it this far, but we were obviously wrong. Dauntless isn't for the weak and you're already weeding yourselves out. That makes my job easier and your job harder."

"What are you talking about? How does it make your job easier and ours harder?" the girl in blue from the rooftop asked.

"The first stage of initiation we keep the transfers and the Dauntless-born initiates separate. Training with transfers is easier than those born into the Faction, they were raised knowing how to fight. The less of you to train with, the less you learn about it," Max explained to her. "You're all evaluated together though. At the end of the initiation, your rankings with be compared with the Dauntless-born initiates. They're already better so you're going to have to train hard to earn your spots."

"Rankings?" a boy with shaggy blonde hair in Candor white asked in confusion.

There was so much going on and so much information to take in. I'm sure there was a lot at every initiation, but this seemed a bit excessive. I thought Dauntless meant freedom from everything including rules, but I guess I was wrong. No society can live without rules to keep it in place, I was raised to believe that and I did wholeheartedly.

"Your ranking has two purposes," Max went on. "The first purpose is to determine the order in which you pick your jobs after initiation. The second is that only the top ten initiates are made members of Dauntless, transfers and born alike."

That hit me like a wrecking ball; we all wouldn't make be members. I looked around at the group of people in the room with me and realized that, in theory, less than half of us would make it. The main group would be Dauntless-born, Max said it himself.

"You mean all of us aren't members?" Kadence asked, her hands on her hips in outrage. "What happens if we're not chosen?"

"You become factionless," Lance said simply, walking up to stand with Max.

"Why didn't you tell us that before?!" Eric asked in surprise, his face turning red.

"Are you saying that you would've chose differently at the Ceremony if you'd know?" Lance asked, his anger coming out again as he approached Eric. "If that's true, I look forward to kicking you out. If you're really one of us, it wouldn't matter if you might fail."

Lance looked at all of us meaningfully before leaving the room. Max seemed to be in full agreement with him because he just nodded his head. His fingers were clasped behind his back as he watched us react to him.

"You've chosen us, now it's our time to choose you."

I got more follows than I thought I would so I posted this chapter. I hope that I get a review for it...