Trivia #1 Answer: So, which Sheronnale is writing this story? The responses are tied:

#1— 1 vote

#2— 1 vote

#3— 1 vote

The correct answer is…#3! If you guessed right, have a cookie! If you guessed wrong, thanks for taking a shot at it anyway! Have a cracker!

And now, without further ado…

YEAR 2245: AGES 10-11

June 25

Johanna

"Checkmate!"

"NO!"

"Yippee, I win!"

Johanna and her little sister, Yvonne, laughed as they played chess. A while ago, somebody had noticed that the ancient game's black-and-white tiles and objective rules fit perfectly with the values of Candor, and now it had taken the faction by storm.

The doorbell rang. Grumbling, Mr. Reyes opened the door to reveal a freckle-faced young man in a cheery yellow shirt.

"Hello!"

Johanna tapped Yvonne on the shoulder and pointed. "Look! It's Freddie!" In a blur of black and white, the two girls shot towards the door and dragged their brother inside, laughing.

Mr. Reyes folded his arms and barked, "Johanna! Yvonne! Get away from him! He's not part of the family anymore!" As the girls backed away resentfully, he turned to the teen and snapped, "How dare you come back here? Didn't you get the message when we didn't come on Visiting Day last year?"

Frederick Reyes smiled blandly and replied, "Don't be so mad, Dad. I thought you just forgot, so I decided this year I'd be the one to come find you."

Mr. Reyes felt his blood boil. "You are not my son anymore! Get out!"

Johanna winced. That was harsh. She'd never been a fan of insults, even though the Candor hurled them around like yo-yo's.

"Oh, for goodness sakes, Graham," entreated Mrs. Reyes from behind him, "don't be so angry. Let the boy stay, just for today."

"He's betrayed us, Suzanna!" protested Graham as his wife and son embraced one another. "He left Candor for those lying, delusional—"

"Graham!"

"It's okay," interrupted Fred quickly. "I just missed y'all and couldn't resist popping over here. But if I'm causing trouble, I'll leave."

"Nonsense!" said his mother. "You've come a long way. You've got to stay for dinner."

"The day I let an Amity eat in my house is the day I die!" roared Graham.

"Stop being so unreasonable! Amity is as good a faction as us!" Suzanna snapped.

Johanna watched her parents argue, feeling her stomach clench uncomfortably with the tension. She didn't understand why the Candor detested the Amity so much. Even if they did sugarcoat their words from time to time, they seemed infinitely happier than most of the members of her uptight faction.

"Mom, Dad, can Fred take us out for a stroll? That way he won't have to be in the house," Johanna begged, wanting to stop the fight but unable to bear the thought of seeing Fred leave again so suddenly.

Mr. Reyes looked as though he might spit fire. "You are NOT going ANYWHERE with that—"

"I think that's a brilliant idea," interrupted Suzanna, glaring at her husband. "After all, we don't take the girls out very often. The fresh air would be good for them."

"NO!" roared Mr. Reyes, pulling on his hair in frustration. "What if he takes them to Amity and…and…converts them?!"

Suzanna rolled her eyes. "Nonsense. Fred'll bring them back by dinner. Right, Frederick?"

The oldest Reyes boy nodded. "Promise."

"Suzanna, for God's sakes! Just because you came from Amity doesn't mean-"

"Let's get out of here," Fred muttered in an undertone to his siblings, pulling them outside. As Yvonne began pelting her brother with questions about Amity life, Johanna glanced back at the ebony door that marked their apartment. My mother was a transfer?

"Freddie! Freddie! Can we go see your new home? PleasepleasepleasepleaseyPLEASE?!" cried Yvonne, her brown braids flying wildly out behind her as she hopped up and down.

"Yeah, can we?" Johanna asked. She had never been anywhere beyond the Candor sector of the city; her father had a very low opinion of the other factions.

Fred hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Yes, it should be okay. I've finished my initiation now, and anyone is welcome at Amity headquarters." He led them down the walk to his truck, which was loaded with empty crates.

Johanna clambered into the bed of the truck while her sister hopped onto the front next to her brother. The rough-hewn crates released a scent of fruit, heavy and tangy, which contrasted sharply with the smog Johanna had grown used to in the city center. As the truck rumbled forward in the warm, humid air, she leaned forward expectantly. All my life I've wondered what it would be like to live on a farm, she mused. Today, I'll finally get to find out.

The school and city center ambled slowly past. Seen from the moving bed of a pickup, they felt somehow more solid, more imposing, than from the buses Johanna had ridden all her life. She tried to remember what she'd learned in Faction History about these buildings. Long ago, there were dozens of skyscrapers in the city center, but most collapsed following the population deflation during the Prefaction War. Now, the council keeps only the vital buildings maintained, allowing the rest to deteriorate…

After a time, the truck suddenly jolted upwards, pulling Johanna out of her daydream. She peered down at the road below. The asphalt, so smooth and black just minutes before, had now turned cracked and gray. The tall buildings were gone as well, replaced by heaps of twisted metal and rotting garbage. In the distance, Johanna thought she glimpsed a figure sifting through the muck.

"Fred, where are we?" asked Johanna nervously, tapping on the pane of glass that separated her from her siblings up front. "Is this where the Abnegation live?"

"No, factionless," came the reply.

Yvonne's eyes grew wide as she strained to look at her dilapidated surroundings. "Factionless? Why would these people be factionless?"

"Because they failed initiation in whatever faction they chose and got kicked out," Johanna told her sister through the window. She thought for a minute. "How does that happen, Freddie? Don't they give you a test that tells you what faction you're suited for?"

Fred sighed as he wound his way around the gigantic potholes in the road. "Yes, they do, but that test isn't 100% accurate. Some people may be suited for a faction, but not enough to make it. Others choose to return to the faction of their birth, even if they're not meant to be there at all. Those tend to get kicked out as well. Thankfully, the Amity initiation wasn't that difficult. You just need to be able to grow a plant and not argue with anybody for a month."

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman in a tattered black dress stumbled out to the middle of the road. She squinted at the crates stacked at the back of the truck and let out a hoarse cry. "Food! Give me food!"

"I'm sorry, there's nothing in there," Fred called to the woman as she ran after the truck. "I sold everything in the city!"

He stepped on the gas. The battered old Amity truck shot forward, rattling over the uneven pavement. The beggar woman disappeared as they rounded a corner, her hungry cries ringing after them. Johanna shuddered uneasily, beginning to regret her choice of sitting in the bed of the truck. "Th-they must have a terrible life if they need to beg for food like this, right?"

"Horrible lives," Fred emphasized. "Since they are without a faction, they have no government to take care of their needs. They live as vagabonds, performing menial jobs in exchange for scraps of food and clothing. It's the worst way to live. Abandoned. Alone. Jo, Vonnie, never let that happen to you. Even if it means choosing a faction you have an aptitude for over one you'd like to live in."

The girls shivered, unused to seeing their brother looking so solemn. "Is that why you left Candor?" asked Johanna after a moment.

Fred nodded. "I would never make it past the initiation. I could never be completely honest all the time. It hurt to leave the family, though."

Johanna pondered his statement. I feel like that all the time, too. Some things are better left unsaid. Does that mean I'll have to leave Candor as well? Daddy will be so angry with me. But I don't want to end up factionless.

"Uck. Who lives here?" Yvonne demanded shrilly as a row of dull gray cement houses came into view. "These houses look so boring!" Well, thought Johanna, at least my parents will definitely get to keep Vonnie.

"That's where the Abnegation live. They patterned their houses after their clothing: plain, neutral, inconspicuous. They shun material wealth above all else."

"But don't they get tired of all the grayness? I mean, seriously!" continued Yvonne. "What strange people!"

Her brother frowned as he stopped to check his map. "They're not strange. One thing you learn when you transfer factions is that the people one faction aren't any better or worse than those in other factions. They just have different visions."

Johanna doubted her sister understood what Fred meant, but she found the thought intriguing. Not any better or worse. Just different. Her father would certainly have something to say about that.

Soon, the rows of bland houses ended, followed by another lonely stretch of abandoned buildings. Far away, a gap in the concrete opened up, revealing a large expanse of greenish goo. After fifteen minutes or so of driving, they arrived at what Johanna could now see was a marsh. "There's the Erudite Headquarters," Fred called out to his sisters, pointing to a cluster of skyscrapers made of glass and steel. Each was topped by an assortment of solar panels, windmills, and strange, boiler-like machines. Unlike the Abnegation sector of the city, this area was bustling with activity. Silver cars with black roofs filled the streets, along with blue-clad pedestrians rushing off to unknown destinations. I always thought the Candor and Erudite were quite similar, since facts are truth, Johanna thought. But apparently not. The Candor would hate to live scattered like this; we all have our apartments within the Merciless Mart so we can run into each other and engage in spontaneous debates.

They passed the Dauntless section of the city last. Johanna would never have noticed it if her brother hadn't pointed out the ordinary-looking glass building near the train tracks.

"Wait, the Dauntless live in there?" asked Johanna incredulously. "All of them?" The building didn't look like it could hold more than about fifty people, and it was clearly empty.

"Well, that's the entrance to their headquarters," Fred corrected himself. "They all live in an underground cavern below that."

"They live in a hole?!" exclaimed Yvonne.

"They're Dauntless. What do you expect?"

At long last, the old truck arrived at the fence. A few teens in black T-shirts and shorts guarded the large metal gate. Most had their hair dyed in strange colors and were covered in piercings and tattoos. To Johanna's shock, all of them also carried guns.

"What's your business?" asked a ferocious-looking man with a green mohawk.

"Hi!" Fred waved cheerfully. "I am Frederick Reyes, of Amity. I came in a few hours before to deliver food to the city, and now I'm returning to the fields. How are you doing?"

The guard ignored his friendliness and peered at the truck. "Why are you riding with two Candor girls?"

"Oh, they're my sisters," answered Fred cheerfully. "This is Yvonne, and the one in back is Johanna. I thought I'd bring them out to show them the fields. Do you think we look alike? Mother always said-"

"Stop!" barked the man with the mohawk. "I don't care who they are. You are not bringing people from other factions outside the city!"

"It's Visiting Day," Fred pointed out. "Lots of my faction members' families came out to see their children."

The man snorted. "Don't tell me you were so desperate you went into the city to retrieve your relatives yourself."

Fred looked genuinely puzzled at his statement. "Why not?"

The man face-palmed. "The point is—"

"Oh, c'mon, Ivan, let 'em through," said a young woman with purple hair, walking up to see what the holdup was about. "You're being paranoid! They're just two little girls. We could easily shoot them if they get up to any funny business."

Johanna froze. Did she just say 'shoot'?

The mohawk guy scowled and walked over to the electronic keypad. With a deep groaning, the gate slid open. "When are you bringing them back out?"

"Oh, in three or four hours," said Fred, steering carefully through the narrow gate. "Can't be too late, else—"

"Okay, okay, get out of here!" cried the man, covering his ears.

Fred sighed to himself as he drove out of the gates of the city and onto a cracked dirt path. "The Dauntless never seem to appreciate friendliness. They're so grumpy if they're not risking their lives."

But Johanna wasn't listening. She was staring in fascination at the lush green orchards that stretched as far as the eye could see, beginning about four hundred yards from the gate. Unlike the twisted, half-dead trees that grew among the piles of debris in the city, these trees had dark, smooth bark, dense foliage, and brightly colored spheres hanging in their branches. A subtle change had come over the air as well; the metallic tang of smog that forever shrouded the city was gone, and in its place was a sweet, unidentifiable scent.

"You know the fruit you buy at the supermarket? Apples, oranges, pears, mangos…they're all grown right here," Fred told his younger sisters. "It's not harvest time, though, so don't try picking any."

"What's that sound?" asked Johanna, tilting her head at the faint buzzing in the air. "Tractors?"

"Nah, those are insects," said Fred, laughing at his sister's confused expression. "I know, it's hard to believe those little winged things in our bio textbooks are actually real, but I assure you, they are."

He pulled over at a dirt rut and brought the truck to a shuddering stop. "This is my new house, you two."

Wow, Johanna said inwardly, surveying the wooden cabin before them. It's not very big compared to Candor headquarters, but it certainly looks cozy. Made of dark, unpainted wood, it almost blended into the grove behind it. While her brother helped Yvonne out of the truck, Johanna swung a leg over the edge and hopped down. When she landed, her feet seemed to sink a little. Cautiously, Johanna looked down and discovered that the ground appeared to be covered in a thick, crumbly layer of dark brown grit punctuated by blades of grass. So this is dirt.

Squealing, Yvonne pushed open the door to the cabin and ran inside. Johanna picked her way carefully over to her brother, careful not to soil her white shoes. "Fred, you forgot to lock the door."

The young man laughed, ruffling Johanna's hair. "That's one of the nice things about Amity. Nobody ever steals. It would cause too much conflict." Fred considered this for a minute. "Actually, the Abnegation don't lock their houses, either, since there's literally nothing to steal. Neither do the Dauntless. They'd just love to see someone try to take their things so they can beat them up. It's only Candor and the paranoid freaks, Erudite, who are worried about security."

Johanna laughed and followed her brother into the cabin. Like the outside wall, the room and its tables and chairs were made entirely of wood. Yvonne stood next to the fireplace, gazing up at a canvas of multicolored splotches. "What's this weird thingy?" she asked as they walked in.

"That's art," Fred explained, smiling at the canvas. "I made that when I first got here."

Johanna stared up at the shapeless blobs. "Why? What is it for?"

"Well, in this case, for decoration," answered her brother, picking up his banjo. "But I made it just for fun. It helps me express my feelings."

Johanna and Yvonne exchanged doubtful glances. "How can those blobs express your feelings?"

"Remember when we were young and we used to doodle on scraps of paper? How we laughed when we tried to draw certain people and it never came out quite right? That was a kind of art," Fred tried to explain. Again, he was met with blank stares. "Okay, listen to this."

Fred strummed his banjo and began to sing. Johanna chuckled and thought her brother looked ridiculous at first, but as her sister began to clap to the beat, she found herself relaxing and swaying along with the tune.

"Hey, Fred, what's cookin'?" asked a young man with sandy hair, popping his head through the open doorway. "Mind if I show you a tune?"

"No prob, Greg!" said Fred happily, handing his banjo to the man. He immediately struck up a lively melody as the three siblings clapped along.

Less than five minutes later, a woman in her mid-thirties showed up, carrying a small lamp. "Hey, Fred, thanks for lending me your lamp!"

"Come join us!" Fred beckoned, picking up another banjo and trying to imitate Greg's strumming. Johanna and Yvonne watched, fascinated, as more and more people streamed into the cabin. Within minutes, there was a full party going, complete with singing, dancing, and even refreshment. Yvonne blinked, her Candor eyes unused to all the bright reds and yellows. Johanna, on the other hand, thought the group looked beautiful.

The festivities lasted the whole afternoon. The Reyes sisters, who were normally shy around strangers, found the Amity not at all imposing. Before they knew it, they had been introduced to everyone in the room and were dancing along with them. Unlike the Candor, who look at everyone like a potential debate opponent, the Amity are happy just to meet us, Johanna observed.

At some point, Fred checked his watch, did a double take, and plucked his siblings out of the hoedown. "Sorry, everyone, I've got to go. My dad will kill me if I don't bring Jo and Vonnie home before dark. You know how the Candor are."

Looking genuinely sad to see them go, the Amity waved goodbye to the Reyes. "Bye! Come again next time!"

"Goodbye!" Johanna called to them as their truck pulled away from the cottage. "I love the Amity. They're so…happy."

"That they are," Fred agreed, stopping next to a giant, dome-shaped glass building. "Before we go, do you want to see the greenhouse?"

"Yes!" Johanna and Yvonne exclaimed, jumping down from the truck again as their brother pushed open the heavy glass door.

While the outside air smelled of cool dew and ripe fruit, the air inside the greenhouse was much richer and damper. Plants filled almost every available space, standing in pots, creeping along the ground, and climbing the glass walls. Breathing deeply, Johanna had the distinctive feeling that she was somewhere ancient, primal.

"Look at that," said Fred softly, pointing to the large tree that took up most of the center of the greenhouse. It appeared to be suspended in a giant pool of water. "Isn't it amazing? It's over fifty years old."

The setting sun cast a golden light through the tree's foliage, making it look as though it were laced with tiny, twinkling jewels. For a moment, the three people stood in silence, soaking up the peace and quiet. I like this place, Johanna decided.

As though he'd read her thoughts, Fred said quietly, "It would be best not to tell father about how much fun you had here."

Yvonne frowned. "But what if he asks us? Not saying would be the same as lying."

Fred sighed and looked down at his sisters. "Do you really think it would benefit father to know you came here, when he could live far more blissfully without this knowledge?"

"Are you saying we should hide the truth?" asked Johanna. She found the idea both frightening and strangely exhilarating at the same time. Never before had she considered that lying could be for someone else's benefit.

"That is a choice you'll have to make on your own," replied Fred. "C'mon, time to go."

August 13

Marcus

"What happened to him? TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"

Marcus hid behind his mother as Dexter Eaton besieged the Erudite doctor walking out of the autopsy room.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Eaton. After performing a thorough analysis, I have been unable to locate any anomalies within the integral structure of the subject's anatomy. The brain and cranium are still intact, suggesting no concussion or head injury, and there is no evidence of residual clotting within the auxiliary vessels, so there was no cardiac arrest—"

"STOP WITH THE JARGON!" Mr. Eaton roared. "All I want to know is who killed my son, and why?"

"There is no evidence of murder—" the doctor began, but was cut off yet again.

"Of course you're saying that!" Dexter snarled. "Somebody within your faction is responsible, and you're covering for them!"

Marcus groaned inwardly and looked around for a place to escape. Unlike Dexter, he had never been fond of his aloof brother and wanted nothing more than to have some peace and quiet.

"Law is not within my area of expertise. You will have to contact the Candor if you wish to file a lawsuit," replied the Erudite coldly.

Mr. Eaton looked as though he was about to hit him, but his wife dragged him quickly away. "Come on, let's get out of here. There's no use talking to these morons. They'll never admit the truth."

"Do you want the body for burial?" the doctor called after them.

"We'll come back with a coffin tomorrow," Zoe Eaton answered over her shoulder.

For most of the drive home, what remained of the Eaton family was silent. Marcus watched his father furrow his brows, muttering to himself as he turned around corners. One of the reasons Dexter had chosen to transport supplies from Abnegation headquarters to the factionless, he knew, was because he needed to do his thinking while he drove.

For the thousandth time, the boy wondered why his father was so sure an Erudite was responsible for his brother's death. Could he have possibly made any mortal enemies in the two months since he transferred? Or was it because somebody had a grudge against my parents?

The minute they got home, Mr. and Mrs. Eaton immediately sat down at the rickety kitchen table and began conversing in low, angry voices. Marcus thought about going upstairs to his room, but decided against it. There's nothing to do up there besides dusting off the empty shelves.

"Mom, Dad, can I go to the library? I know you need to be alone."

To his shock, Dexter stood up smacked him in the face. "ARE YOU INSANE?! YOUR BROTHER'S JUST BEEN KILLED, AND YOU JUST CARRY ON BEING YOUR OWN NONCONFORMING SELF?!"

Marcus shrank against the wall. "N-not the Erudite library, I m-meant the public one…"

Mr. Eaton stepped forward and grabbed a fistful of his son's short brown hair. "Do you know why Richard is dead?!" Through watering eyes, Marcus looked pleadingly up at his mother, hoping she would rescue him. However, Zoe simply looked on silently, her expression unreadable.

"Not everyone is fit for one faction, Marcus," breathed Mr. Eaton in a haggard voice. "There are some misfits. Weirdoes who can go into two or more factions. Your brother was one. On the Aptitude test, his results came out Abnegation and Erudite, equally. And he left it that way on his answer sheet, the idiot did! Well, the Erudite can't stand to have exceptions, because it'll screw up their quantum mechanics or whatever, so they killed him."

Marcus winced from the terrible revelation and the burning pain in his scalp. "But…but how can you be sure?"

"Think about it," said Mrs. Eaton grimly. "A perfectly healthy sixteen-year-old dies at Erudite headquarters, two months after he's taken his aptitude test. What other explanation could there possibly be?"

"But Richard joined Erudite!" protested Marcus weakly. "Surely they'd think he's not a threat?"

"Don't ask me what those crazy people are thinking," snarled Mr. Eaton, dropping his son to the floor. "Richard is not the first! At least seven Divergent have died mysterious deaths in the last ten years! No evidence, no puncture wounds. They're just found on the ground, out cold. You are NOT going to be next, UNDERSTOOD?"

"But I get so bored in Abnegation—" Marcus began.

Dexter picked up an umbrella from the nearby stand and beat Marcus savagely on the back. "YOU ARE ABNEGATION AND YOU ARE STAYING ABNEGATION!"

"Dex, what are you doing?" asked Zoe mildly. "Don't kill our only remaining child!"

"I'm going to beat the Divergence out of this boy. It's for his own good," Dexter replied, whipping his son again and again. "You think Abnegation is boring, foolish boy? There are things only we councilmembers know that could uproot the city! I would show them to you when you're older, but NOT if that RIDICULOUS EYEBALL FACTION KILLS YOU FIRST!"

Marcus's screams of pain echoed around the small house.

October 2

Natalie

The chilly autumn wind curled through the air, bringing the first hints of winter as it whistled through the cracks of the many crumbling buildings in the city. Ten stories above the ground, a girl with wavy golden hair laughed as she leaned out the doorway of a moving train, enjoying the feeling of iciness on her skin as she hurtled along at more than 70 mph.

"Where exactly are you taking us again, Nat?" asked one of the Dauntless, Ethan, as he spun a pocketknife lazily on one finger.

Natalie grinned mischievously. "To one of the factionless sections of the city, the part farthest from the marsh. There are loads of brick buildings and telephone poles there that are perfect for climbing!"

"Have we been there before?" asked another Dauntless, a girl with dark red hair and dozens of piercings in her ear.

"I doubt it, Liz. It's pretty hard to spot from the train. I only found out about it 'cuz Mom showed it to me," Natalie answered.

Liza sighed enviously. "You're so lucky to have a Dauntless leader for your mother, Nat."

"Yeah," agreed another Dauntless boy, Wilson. "Our parents all have no problem risking their own necks, but when we go out for a little adrenaline rush, then they get all Abnegation grandmother-y on us!" He stopped and continued in a high-pitched voice, "Just because I throw knives around doesn't mean you should, honey!"

"So true!" the pack of Dauntless on the train shouted in agreement. They proceeded to do a series of progressively more outlandish imitations of their parents, clamoring over each other to be heard.

"Hey, I haven't got it all good, you know!" Natalie protested. "My dad is a real pain when it comes to grades."

"He is," asserted Vera. "I wonder why he chose Dauntless, actually. Your dad gets so worked up whenever you fail a test you'd think he was Erudite."

"But you know what?" shouted Natalie above the roaring wind. "Remember that 1,000 word report that's due tomorrow?"

The Dauntless answered her with a mixture of blank stares and panicked expressions.

"I haven't even started. Not one word. Because I. Don't. Care!" Natalie ended on a whoop that was soon swallowed by her friends' as the train hurtled down the slope towards ground level.

"Now?" asked the Dauntless, looking to their unofficial leader for guidance.

Natalie tensed by the doorway. There was a metal fence with spikes in this part of the city that she needed to jump over, and one false step could seriously injure her. "Three…two…one…Now!" Natalie bent her legs and jumped as far as she could. As the girl sailed over the chain link barrier, the tip of her shoe caught on one of the spikes, tilting her off balance. With a loud THUD! Natalie crash-landed on the cracked concrete below. "Ow…" She examined her four limbs gingerly. A few new cuts had appeared over the numerous scratches she already had on her skin, and they were slowly oozing blood. Satisfied that nothing was broken, Natalie climbed to her feet and watched as her companions disembarked from the train with varying degrees of success.

"C'mon!" Beckoning to her friends, she scrambled nimbly up the nearest telephone pole. The rotting pillar creaked and swayed under her weight, though it didn't seem to be in immediate danger of collapse. From the top, the Dauntless girl stopped to look out at the city spread out before her. Far in the distance, she could just make out the skyscrapers of the city center, gleaming in the afternoon light. The marsh lay, an undulating plain beside it, dotted with the occasional tree. As she looked down, Natalie could see the dense mess of abandoned buildings below her, practically begging her to come explore. Knowing the power supply to these parts of the city had been cut long before, she broke off a piece of electric wire so that it was now only attached to the adjacent pole. She took a deep breath and launched herself towards a gap between two buildings, screaming with exhilaration as she swung within a foot of the ground before arcing high into the sky again. The other kids abandoned their schoolbags by the tracks and copied Natalie, swinging from pole to building top to abandoned 18-wheeler without a moment's hesitation. Before long, they moved on to climbing buildings, finding precarious footholds among the crumbling bricks and teetering billboards.

"I dare you to climb to the top of that huge trash pile!" Liza challenged Ethan, who immediately scaled the mountain of junk with no difficulty.

"Wilson! Bet you can't make it to the top of that five-story building!"

"Are you kidding me? My five-year-old sister could do that blindfolded!"

"Hey, Vera! Try cartwheeling across that narrow ledge!"

The five Dauntless scampered through the abandoned suburbs for hours, challenging each other to do ever riskier things. This is the most wonderful feeling in the world, Natalie thought, feeling the adrenaline coursing through her blood with every jump and swing.

It seemed like only a few seconds later when Vera sidled up to her as she scaled her fiftieth building. "Er…I'm sorry, Nat, but I gotta skidaddle. My folks think I'm at Kirsten's house finishing my homework!"

Natalie looked up in alarm at the darkening sky. "Good lord! How long have we been here? HEY, EVERYONE! TIME TO GO!"

"But everything's more fun at night!" the Dauntless protested, their voices echoing around the abandoned suburbs.

Natalie sighed. "I know, but Vera needs to go, and so do I. We might be grounded if we're out too late."

Seeing the wisdom in her words, they dropped to the ground from all sides and sprinted as one back towards the train tracks. As they rounded a corner, a figure suddenly shuffled forward out of the darkness and stood in their path. What the heck? Natalie, who was running at the head of the pack, skidded to a halt and saw that it was a grimy-looking, toothless old man, wearing a filthy red shirt and black pants. Factionless.

"Give me some food!" he croaked, looking pleadingly at the five children. "Please! The younger factionless took all the good begging spots by Abnegation!"

Before Natalie could respond, Wilson jumped in front of the man and drew a knife. "Get out of the way or hunger will be the least of your problems!"

The man let out a howl of despair and made a grab for the snack bar sticking out of the boy's pocket. Wilson jumped backwards and slashed downwards with his knife.

"STOP!" Natalie screamed, wedging herself between them. Luckily, the factionless man didn't seem to be seriously injured. Why didn't he just hand over the snack bar?

Wilson frowned. "Nat, the freakin' hobo's trying to mug us!"

"He's just hungry, there was no need to stab him!" the girl snapped, rummaging in her bag for an orange and handing it to the man. "Wouldn't you fight someone for food if you hadn't eaten for a week?"

"So you're just going to give him what he wants, like a coward?" asked Liza incredulously as the man mumbled his thanks and disappeared into the darkness.

"This isn't a question of bravery, it's a matter of helping out a fellow human being!" Natalie retorted, turning towards the train tracks again. "Being Dauntless doesn't mean you have to beat up someone just because you can!"

Wilson, Vera, Ethan, and Liza exchanged looks behind her back. "Whatever you say, Nat."

The introductions are done. In Chapter 4, the characters will start running into each other. Which leads us to our…

Sheronnale Trivia #2!

Two of the children who appeared in the previous chapter (Chapter 2) will eventually fall in love. Can you tell who? Unfortunately, it would give too much away if I were to reveal the answer next chapter, so you will have to wait until said couple actually gets together in the story to find out. You can start submitting guesses, though. (WARNING! I don't write a lot of fluff, so please don't expect a whole drawn-out, angst-filled romance. Rather, the relationship exists because it motivates one of them to make a decision.) As usual, winners earn a virtual cookie. Here are some rules to help you guess:

1) This pairing is not incestuous, slash, or femslash.

2) The lovers may or may not have been in the same scene in Chapter 2. For example, Evelyn x Zachary is just as likely as Jeanine x Zachary, even though Evelyn met Zachary but Jeanine didn't.

3) The two people do not necessarily end up married. In other words, Tori x Andrew is completely possible despite the fact that Andrew marries Natalie later.

4) I prefer plausible pairings to unlikely ones. Interpret this however you wish.

R&R!