The Fault In Our Factions (Chapter 2)

Life Depends On It

I have only one pencil to use at school, and it has shrunk to about the size of three inches in length. The eraser connected to the end is chipped in multiple places, and its so covered in lead the color has faded to near black.

I have to survive three classes and half the day before lunch. And just what I'm looking forward to is coming after I eat. My food tasted soggy and I had trouble swallowing. What was racing through my head was indefinable. The limited number of friends I had kept blabbering away about what they thought the tests would be like, but when they tried to get me to input my thoughts I just let off a strange groan or coughed. None of them seemed to notice the fact that I wasn't particularly interested in discussing them.

The faculty made us remain in the cafeteria after we'd finished chewing on our meals, and one by one names were called to be observed for the aptitude tests. There were five small offices where kids were being taken to, and depending on how long it took for them to finish, mostly four of them were occupied at once. Five students were originally missing from the dining area after the first round, but as time went by there were less and less teenagers.

By the normal standards, we were called into testing in alphabetical order, which meant I was one of the last few to go. My friend Mike Stamford left a good half hour before my turn, leaving me sitting alone on the bench to our lunch table. I wished him good luck and he strolled off towards the hallway, looking like he was prepared to take on anything.

I sat debating what I thought the tests would be like in my opinion. Paper and pencil and some stupid multiple choice questions? An art project? A verbal quiz?

My ideas were interrupted when I heard a lady announce my name to the rest of the room. "John Watson." I really don't want to go. I feel like I may just throw up at any minute, but I know once I get my results I don't have to follow them. Lots of kids transfer.

My feet lead me the the door to the office on the far left, which no one is using but I can spot an adult roaming around inside behind the crack in the doorway.

"Hi," she said semi-politely when I entered. "Please have a seat."

"Is this test hard?" I automatically blurted out without giving it thought.

She gave me a smirked and replied back, "You'll just have to find out for yourself." My test watcher introduced herself as Johanna Mason, and the mocking tone she had in her voice turned out to be true; she always talked to people like she was better than them, a snobby gross sort of noise coming out of her nostrils every once in a while. She didn't have very good manners, and her dark brown hair was pulled back in a loose knot behind her head.

"I said sit," she repeated, and I had no other choice but to settle myself in what looked like a purple dentist chair.

"Seriously though," I chimed in, my voice dipping as I lowered my skull onto the headrest, "this isn't going to be hard, is it?"

"Give me another thirty seconds and your question will be answered."

Johanna started placing thick wires to my forehead with sticky tape, and the end of the shiny element from the periodic table was freezing on my skin. I didn't exactly know what they were for, but I asked no urging questions while she did her job. The tubes were connected to a large, beeping machine with strange shapes and patterns lining the static screen.

"Alright, you're all hooked up." She turned her back on me to grab something I couldn't see off a nearby desk. "Ready?" she questioned, holding up a tiny glass vial filled with clear liquid in front of my face.

"Not exactly," I responded, sitting up and pushing a wire to the side so I could see properly without it blocking my view of vision.

"Well, as soon as you swallow this you better be prepared." She handed over the container with a glare on her pupils. O gave her a look of overwhelming distress as I unscrewed the cork on the bottle.

Johanna rolled her eyes. "Whenever you're ready," she taunted impatiently.

Breathing deeply, I exhaled before tipping the cylinder back and feeling the sticky contents of the container slide down my throat. I got one last blurred look at my instructor's face before the yellow light behind her faded and I fell into a world of darkness.

When I peeled opened my eyes, or so I thought, I found myself stranded on a tiny island about a thousand feet from the nearest shoreline. Huge waves crashed into the side of the rock I was standing on, and foamy bubbles formed on the surface of the water folding over itself.

"You have got to be kidding me," I mumbled, trying to keep my balance on the slippery surface with my flat-soled sneakers. Well, it was do or die. Perhaps there was some way to build a raft out of the only thing available, but I didn't bother to work it out. There were only two solutions; either stay and starve eventually or try and swim to the beach.

But I was never a great swimmer. I never learned how to swim as a kid. Well, there was only one way to find out if I would survive. Pushing my hands together, one on top of the other like I'd seen so many people do before, I inhaled the fiercest breath I could muster and then took a swan dive into the ocean.

I should have tested the water before I jumped. The temperature was so cold I thought I would freeze on impact, but instead the liquid just stabbed like knives as it tried to bite my skin off. The blonde locks on my head broke the surface of the waves, and I was able to regain air into my lungs and gather where I was. Straight ahead was the nearest bit of land, and my arms groped for it as I swam away with stroking motions, doing my best to imitate what professionals would do.

It may not have been a really long distance, but it seemed like it for my height. My sweeping gestures with my arms made me closer and closer to the beach, and I began urging myself on about halfway on.

"Come on," I shuttered through chattering teeth. I think my muscles were ceasing to function and I was being pulled under the tide. I'm going to drown, I thought, just as my head ducked under the biggest wave I had ever seen. My lungs were filled with fluids, not oxygen. Maybe I would develop some absurd form of cancer after nearly drowning to death.

Somehow while in my midst of anxiety, I must have encountered the age of the sea. My open-palmed hands found the wet, mucky substance of sand, and I grabbed on with such strength to haul myself onto the beach as the final tide brushed away.

Seriously, what kind of test were these people thinking of?

This time, another wave came to greet me as I thought my task was done, which it was, but this time it was just a large cloud of black. Everything went foggy as the scene changed, and when I was forced to open my eyes again, I was in a completely different place.

Some sort of forest surrounds me, the leaves on the trees casting a gloomy shadow over the land I am standing on. It's night time, and I seem to be glued to a spot in a large ditch below a circle of property above me. The ground is covered with thick fog and I can't see my own feet.

I feel a lump in my pocket and shove my hand in to extract a flashlight. What good will that do me? I flick it on anyways and spot something shiny in the short, crusty grass just to my right. I have to kneel and put my nose up close in order to really see it.

It's a knife. A pocketknife, but sharp nonetheless as I fling it open. The one thing I didn't notice until I had started to stand up was what the weapon was lying in.

A huge, dent in the ground, the outline had taken the shape of what looked like a dog paw print. More like a footprint on steroids. It was at least a foot long, and the claw were so sharp they made scratch marks in the dirt. Where this dog was I had no idea, but my wondering thought was interrupted when a long, low growl came from over my head.

Flaming red eyes, cold black fur, and teeth as sharp as fangs glared at me. I didn't want to use the knife. I didn't want to use any sort of weapon. But in all fairness, that was my only option. This monstrous hound would surely bolt at me if stayed still, and I kinda preferred not to die in my test; it would probably show a sign of weakness. There was absolutely no way I could train it or make it not harm me, and so as the dog bounded down the hill in the hollow to charge me, my hand had seized the handle of the knife.

I let it fly without much considering in my brain. I assumed it hit the intended target because the scene started to be swept clean again. I had no intention of hurting the dog, and I certainly didn't want to hear the pathetic squeak it let off when the blade had wounded its ribs.

Now it seemed my inner vision had been blinded as I knew the sun was in my final exam. I had to squint in order to see where I was, and from what I pieced together it was a long, open field mixed with dead grass and sand. A drought had definitely struck here once, as I began to sweat the instant my body awoke from the previous simulation.

I stood in front of a hip-high wall made if rusty brick and was staring into nothing. Not a sign of life but me was around, but that deduction was blown away as I heard an explosion rip through the silence I was so pleasantly enjoying.

I threw myself to the ground in an attempt to save my life, and when I raised my head I saw the biggest cloud of ash and smoke I'd ever seen. One single Army soldier was running straight towards me, and I searched with my eyes for something that could defend my life.

The nearest weapon to me was a gun about twenty feet away, and if I didn't start sprinting soon the other enemy would surely reach it first. I'd rather use an unknown object than have my life killed when I didn't take a stance in the world.

As fast as my legs could muster, I began to run through the desert heat, puffs of sand dust coming up in bubbles beneath my feet. The man was easily a hundred pounds stronger than me, but I wasn't going to let that stranger tackle me.

I got there first. But instead of fastening the gun over my shoulder, I picked it up and threw it as far away from us as possible. The random guy seemed so confused and bewildered that he just stood and watched me. The weapon flew through the air and land behind the short brick wall, hidden and out of site.

When we both heard the clang sound, the adult was so outraged he lunged right for my legs. I dodged, and I knew in that moment my only defense weapon was my body. I clumped my hand into a fist and aimed a punch at his muscular face, only it missed and I punched the ground instead. He rolled over and ducked, and I found my nostrils suddenly swarmed full with hot blood. He'd nailed me first, but I wouldn't give up till he made me.

I kicked him hard in the chest from my uncomfortable position on the grass, sand pressed into my blonde hair while I wriggled around in a panic. He merely gave off a grunt and stood up to face me. He was at least a foot taller, but I had a stocky build for my age.

We were locked arm in arm with our shoulders fighting to pin each other to the earth, and I knew I had no match against this soldier. My knee found his thigh and he collapsed a little, and one more swift thrust with my elbow knocked the senses out of him. His body went timber and fell down like a ragdoll, and I suddenly began to criticize myself before the battlefield started to fade away from me.

I just injured someone. I did serious harm to another human being. Why? Why would I do that?

My eyes snapped open and the familiar empty office came into a sharp view, Johanna Mason sitting by my side and observing every move I made. She just sort of seemed pleased when I came back to the real world and, I hope, successfully completed my test.

"What the hell was that?" I spat out, not caring what words flew from my mouth as I gently removed the wires from my head and cast them aside. I didn't care if my results were screwed up because of it.

Johanna gave me a look like I was kidding. "What do you think? she asked sarcastically.

"That was the test? Who came up with that?"

"I don't know the origination of the aptitude -"

"Someone who honestly hates teenagers," I replied before she could. I was breathing way too heavily and my emotions from the simulation must have drifted into the real world, because I could feel large patches of water on my shirt from where I had been sweating.

"Whatever, just shut up." I was slightly taken aback by her rude statement but stared at her with my alarmed blue eyes without saying a word.

"Now, you know you're not supposed to share your test results with anyone, right?" I could tell she desperately wanted to give me a lecture.

"Yes. I won't tell anyone. I really don't want to hear anything else about these horrible things."

Johanna chuckled and I raised my eyebrow at her. "Well if it's any constellation, your results have been calculated."

I stared at her. Just blankly. She didn't continue until she thought the quiet was just too much to bear any longer. "It was a little tight race between two factions at first, but one pulled away in the end and there is one that specifically suits you."

More silence.

"And that is...?"

She let the boring tension sink in before she announced the faction name. "Your results proved you to be placed in Dauntless."