So now the whole Chapter 4 is up! Sorry for the wait! There's only one explanation for that: my utter lack of imagination. Please suggest! No matter how lame it might sound to you, it might help me figure out the next chapter! Anyway, enjoy. I have absolutely no clue when I'll post again, as I'm totally out of ideas. I do know that I'll update sooner if I get reviews *wink wink* because they motivate me! And it would go even faster with suggestions, because those motivate me even more! *wink wink once again* (And they give me something to write about...)
Oh, this idea was suggested by Alivegirl4ever2012, so THANK YOU for that! I hope you liked how it worked out ;)
We have breakfast at 7.30 a.m., Zeke told us that we had a long drive ahead of us and that the surprise would work better if it was early in the morning. Of course, this triggered our curiosity, so we woke up early, grumbling threats like 'if this isn't worth it, I'll shoot him and then go back to sleep'.
"Hey, Zeke, where will we be headed?" Tobias asks, as soon as he is done with his eggs.
"I'll tell you as soon as you tell me what your surprise for Tris was." Zeke answers, half out of curiosity and half out of not wanting to tell us. Tobias casts a glance in my direction, and I shake my head. That fact that he went through my Fear Landscape seems weirdly private. Plus, I don't want my friends interrogating Tobias about my fears.
"Well, we're done with breakfast, and you said, I quote: 'The earlier the better. They won't know what hit them', so I'd say we start moving!" I say, to change the subject.
"Alright," Zeke says. "We'll rendezvous at the tracks in 10 or so, okay? I have something to take care of." We all eye him suspiciously. What is he planning for us? Knowing Zeke's weird sense of humour, it is very understandable that we are all a little wary. "Come on, I promise it'll be fun!" Except his definition of 'fun' is very different than mine.
As instructed, we meet him at the train tracks, eleven-and-a-half minutes after breakfast. He's got a backpack stuffed with boxes that look suspiciously like ammo boxes and a weapon's case in his hand. He opens it and presents us a paintball rifle.
"Paintball? That's not original!" Christina complains, and Zeke gives her the are-you-kidding-me-stare.
"The 'what' is a minor issue. The 'where' is where the fun starts."
"C'mon bro, just spill it. Where are we going?" Uriah exclaims, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer. Zeke purses his lips, unsure whether or not he should tell us.
"The Amity Compound." We are all stunned for a moment, then erupt into laughter as the train arrives. We jump in, and once we've all made it into the train, we continue our discussion.
"That's going to get us into trouble." Shauna comments, always a little concerned. She is a great way of slowing Zeke down; she's more careful (for a Dauntless, that is. Any other faction would still consider her reckless, of course).
"No it isn't. The Amity tried to thwart our plan against the Erudite, and most people still want to see them punished for that. The only ones who would disagree with this plan are the Amity, of course, but they aren't going to stop us." I'm starting to doubt this. I consider voicing my thoughts, but Tobias is quicker.
"Zeke. We aren't going to shoot Amity, are we?"
"Of course not! Is that what you guys thought?" At least he has the decency to look ashamed. "We're going to shoot each other, in two teams, in the middle of the Amity compound. That should keep them cleaning for hours, and everyone hates cleaning, right?" Of course. Zeke's idea of punishment is doing housework. Cleaning. Seriously? That guy is hopeless. It does seem like fun though. The few times I actually played paintball were fun.
"I agree, it sounds like fun!" I say, and everyone agrees. Encouraged by this, I continue. "I'll subtract as many points as the hours the Amity need to clean." The others all agree, it is a pretty good excuse to make a mess, after all. And honestly, what 16-to-19-year-olds don't like to make a mess?
The rest of the ride passes in a comfortable silence. I'm leaning against Tobias, and Shauna has put her head on Zeke's shoulder and is starting to fall asleep. I can't help but notice the awkward glances Cristina and Uriah exchange through all this, after all, they're the only ones here who are not in a relationship. Though that might not take too long, I muse. They obviously like each other!
When we arrive at the Amity compound, everyone is still asleep. We sneak into the main hall (thank God the Amity don't have locks, picking them would be boring) and Zeke gives us all a box of ammo.
"Alright! Here's the plan: the boys against the girls! The girls can have the pink paintballs, we'll take black." I smile. Getting to see Tobias covered in pink paint was something I'd never expected. We shove some tables aside to make two mini-fortresses, making a little more noise than needed. Soon, the Amity come in, looking at us wide-eyed.
"What is going on?" A girl, no older than 15, elbows her way to us, earning lots of glares. I raise an eyebrow. Elbowing your way towards a group of Dauntless who are about to shoot each other and your cafeteria with paintballs, with an excited look on your face no less, is definitely no Amity behaviour. I can hear people sigh.
"Maray, not now!" A cowering girl yells. Maray casts a glance in her direction, and the girls melts back into the shadows. We all watch as the girl, Maray, approaches.
"Can I join?" She asks me eagerly. Why me? I'm not in charge. Zeke is, today at least. "Please? I've seen you people play this game before and it seems like fun! And..." She looks around and whispers. "Life as a Dauntless seems like more fun than Amity anyway. I get to choose next year and I don't have a doubt about what it'll be!" Shauna, who's standing next to me, eyes her curiously.
"I've never heard an Amity say that before. If you want to join, it's fine by me. But you should ask him, Zeke. Not sure if we have an extra gun." I'm dumbfounded. Amity? Amity? Since when do Amity girls want to play paintball? Apparetnly, I'm not the only one thinking. That the Amity around us have fled, mostly, but the few that are still cowering in the corners are, despite the fact that they should be happy and forgiving, whispering. Probably about Maray. There's a crying woman, probably her mother. Her father and sister glare at Maray. I didn't even know the Amity were capable of glaring! Then again, the girl just offered to help us make a mess of their home, a mess they'd have up clean up later.
"Okay, Maray's in. Now we have more girls than boys, which means the chances are equal!" Uriah yells, and Christina, Shauna, Maray and I yell back, threatening him, promising him a painful, prolonged death. You know, the usual.
And then we start, and I duck, fire at Tobias, hit him, laugh my ass off at the sight of his face covered in hot pink paint, duck, hit Uriah's chest, and pause to check on the others. Chris has a black stain on her leg and Shauna and I are both still clean, but Maray is covered in paint. The boys probably want to check how tough she is. I resume firing, and every paintball hits the target, Zeke's stomach, the Amity (you might think it's mean, but they should've left when they had the chance!)... I reload, and take the opportunity to look around. The place is a mess. Awesome! I turn around, and see Maray, trying to fire. She hasn't trained with a gun before, so her paintballs are all over the place, but she's improving fast. She looks at me, and we exchange some smiles. This is probably the most exciting day of her life so far.
Our fight slowly moves toward the exit, and suddenly we aren't in teams anymore. The game has changed, and now the point is to get out of the door and out of the compound. So after a second or three we're not just covered in pink or black anymore, but in both. And the Amity cafeteria isn't half pink and half black anymore, but half pink-with-black-stains and half-black-with-pink-stains now. Tobias gets through the cafeteria doors first, and the Amity that were in the hallway seem to magically disappear. We usually seem to have that effect on people while doing something fun.
I shoot the ceiling a couple of times, because that's harder to clean, and then focus on the game again. I turn to face Christina and feel a few stings between my shoulder blades. I whirl around, shooting the person behind me. Zeke. Of course.
"Shooting me in the back? You co-" And then I shut up because of a paint ball exploding in my mouth. If you've never tasted that before: don't. It's gross. I roll, fire, duck, reload, run toward the exit, get shot, shoot back, blink the paint and sweat out of my eyes and come outside. I'm the first! I take cover behind a bunch of apple trees and see the others arrive. I shoot Christina and Shauna in their stomachs and Uriah in his crotch (yes, it mean, and yes, it's fun to see him look around, yelling 'Who did that?'.). I line Tobias up in my sights and pull the trigger, but my magazine and chamber are empty and I'm out of ammo.
"Guys, I'm out!" I yell, half expecting the, to cease fire. Of course, they don't. Now they can get me for getting them. I just morphed into a bull's eye. Dammit. They blast me with all the firepower they've got, and soon I'm soaked. I look like something from outer space, a black/hot pink alien. Even my face and hands are covered in the smelly stuff! Luckily before long they run out of ammo too, and we stroll back inside the compound to check out our accomplishments. The hallway is slippery because of all the paint, and the cafeteria looks like... well, like a battlefield, which it is of course. Upturned tables and chairs are omnipresent, and there are patches of paint pooling around our feet, drops falling from the ceiling, and the walls and remaining food are covered in black and hot pink. I wouldn't advise the Amity to eat that anymore. We high-five and double over laughing. Making a mess: mission accomplished. (Shameless? Who... Us? What!? No way!)
We only get a few minutes to gloat, though, because then we, and especially Maray, get trampled by an angry herd of Amity.
"Why'd you..." "Hours of cleaning!" "I'm on cleaning duty today..." "Maray, how could you?" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You get the picture. Angry Amity. We start to beeline for the exit, but Maray blocks our way just in front of the double doors (which are covered in paint, too).
"Can't I go with you? Please? I won't have a life here anymore after joining you guys! They'll kick me out and I'll become Factionless!" I feel guilty, but we can't.
"They won't kick you out, Maray," I assure her. "They're Amity, for heaven's sake! They're trained to be forgiving!"
"My parents will hate me even more than they already did. You don't know them. They'll kick me out of the house. I can probably stay on the compound, but..."
"It's only for less than a year, after that you're very welcome in Dauntless. You've proven today that you fit in perfectly." Shauna, caring as ever, reassures her.
"Can't I go with you guys already? I'll turn sixteen in three months' time!"
"Sorry, Maray. Only Dauntless are allowed in the Dauntless compound. But if we ever need an Amity accomplice again, we'll know who to go to, okay?" She reluctantly nods. Tobias's words do make perfect sense, after all.
"Oh, Maray, could you let us know how many hours the Amity needed to clean the place, once they're done?" Zeke asks, remembering our promise to subtract as many points as the hours the Amity needs to clean their compound.
"Sure. But where? And why?"
"Tomorrow, 10 am, at the fence, okay? It's because this was part of a game. I came up with this action, and they'll subtract as many points from my list as the amount of hours it will take the Amity to clean up."
"You mean they'll add as many points as-"
"No. They'll subtract. The one who has the most points at the end of the month, has to buy the others dinner."
"Sounds like fun! Sure, I'll be there. See ya!" And with a last wave, she disappears to face her family.
"Well, that was a success." Uriah comments. "Whose turn is it tomorrow?"
So this was chapter 4! I hope y'all are anticipating my next update ;)! Remember, suggestions = motivation! Oh, and I don't own the characters or faction system. Veronica Roth does. I just own the idea of this game :).
If you give me a suggestion, however lame it might be, you get a shout out and probably a chapter based on it! So SUGGEST!
Xx Ilse