CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
TOBIAS POV
"Hey Gus," I call out as I walk into the control room.
"What can I do for you Four?" Gus asks.
"I need to borrow Zeke for a few hours today and Friday," I say.
"You better be going to give me a couple more employees at job choosing Four," Gus says.
"How many do you need?" I ask.
"Minimum two. More would be good," he says.
"I will get you two, if there is anyone else suitable I will try and get you more. But I can't promise anything," I say.
"Thanks Four," Gus says.
I walk over to Zeke and tap him on the shoulder. Zeke looks up and smiles, he loves this time of year when he can get out of the control room for a few days.
"Ready to go?" I ask Zeke.
"You bet I am," Zeke says. "Bye Gus"
Gus just nods to him as we walk out the door.
"So, how are things with Tris?" Zeke asks.
"Good," I say.
"Good, good? Or really good?"
"Really good," I say. "I asked her to move in with me?"
"You did what!" Zeke sounds shocked.
"I asked her to move in with me," I say.
"Don't you think it's a bit soon?"
"Not really," I say. "Before I came here, when I lived with Tris's family. She spent more nights in my bed than her own. I don't like being apart from her."
"How does that happen in Abnegation?" Zeke asks.
"Trust me, we weren't a normal family by Abnegation standards."
"Sounds like it," Zeke says. "So how did you two get away with being together when you were so young?"
"Remember I told you about Marcus?" I say. Remembering the night that I told Zeke about Marcus almost gives me a headache. He and I got extremely drunk and I told him everything. Well almost everything. I left out the parts about Tris. It was just after initiation had finished and I had gone to see mum and dad. Seeing Tris that night was painful, so I went drinking with Zeke. Not being able to handle liquor had me spill my guts to Zeke.
"Well every time I saw him, that night I would get nightmares. I would be screaming the house down sometimes. The only way that I would calm down was if Tris was with me. Sometimes when they knew I had seen him, Tris would just come straight into y room and usually it would stop me from having the nightmares," I say.
"He really fucked you up didn't he?" Zeke says.
"He tried. But it didn't work the way he wanted it too. Not that I really know what he wanted."
"So where you a couple before you left Abnegation?"
"No. Tris has always been my best friend; I have known her since I was born. I didn't realise I felt that way towards her until I was fifteen. I couldn't tell her; I couldn't act on it. The Prior's had saved me. I couldn't disrespect them like that."
"Her dad worked it out first and told me that he would be happy for me to date her when we are older. Then Caleb worked it out. Tris heard Caleb and I talking the night before the Choosing Ceremony, which was embarrassing. Then Tris and I talked, agreed that she would follow in two year's time. We weren't a couple by the normal standard but there was an unspoken connection. Then Lynn started sending the notes between Tris and I. It is a lot easier to tell someone how you feel in a letter than it is face to face. Now she is here and it has all come together," I say.
"Man, that is going to be a great story to tell your grandkids," he says with a laugh. I can't help but to laugh with him.
"Thanks for telling me Four," Zeke says. "I know you don't like to talk about that stuff."
"You are the only person I have ever told Zeke. I trust you with my life, you know that right?"
Zeke grabs me in a man hug. "I do brother. I trust you with my life too," he says.
We reach the training room and I can see that Eric is about to start.
"The next two weeks you will be assessed on your ability to shoot, your knife throwing skills and you will be reassessed on your fitness levels," Eric says. "Today you will have one hour to practice throwing knives. If you hit the target perfectly then that will end your knife throwing assessment. If not, you will have the next two mornings to practice and then your assessment will be the day after."
"How is that fair? Christina says.
"Well Christina, do you really think it's fair to make people who have mastered knife throwing keep doing it? It is a waste of their time," Eric says.
I can hear Christina mumbling to herself. I wonder if she is regretting not training more.
"Do you have something else to say Christina?" I ask.
"No," she says.
"Well then stop the comments under your breath. Be happy we are giving you time to improve," I say.
"The rest of the week will consist of guns. With assessments at the end of each day," Eric says. "Get started."
"Eric I want anyone who completes the assessment today to spend the rest of the week with Lauren. She will send over anyone who still needs to complete their knife throwing assessment to you," I tell Eric.
"Couldn't you have given the rejects to Lauren? I don't know how I will last having to watch Al throw knives for the next three days. His shooting skills aren't much better. It is going to be a hell of a long week," Eric says.
"I'll talk to Al. He is the only initiate who is likely to become factionless," I say.
"Good, he doesn't deserve to be here," Eric says.
"Zeke's here to help. He will also be here Friday for you. Marty should be here in about an hour and he will be helping you all week," I say.
"Thanks," Eric says.
"Okay, I'll leave you with it. If you have any problems let me know. Try not to stab anyone," I say.
I walk over to where the initiates are throwing knives. I can see that Al is having a lot of trouble.
"Al I need you to stop throwing for me," I say. "We need to talk."
I walk away from the other initiates and can see that Al is following me. The others don't need to hear what I am about to tell him.
"Al I'm concerned at how you are fitting in here at Dauntless," I say. "If you don't start to improve you are going to become factionless. You are going to need to put a lot more effort in this week or we won't be able to let you stay."
"I understand," Al says. There is no emotion in his voice. It feels like he has already given up.
"Come on, I will give you some pointers on your knife throwing," I say.
I knock on Max's office door and enter.
"We have one initiate that we think is going to fail," I say as I sit across from Max.
"There is no way to pass him?" he asks.
"We can probably push him through to stage two. He did win one fight but his knife and gun skills are so bad that we would not allow him to be a fence guard," I say.
"See how he goes in his assessments this week and next. I would rather not fail him until the end of initiation because it is going to take Gus time to get all the video frames of training together to show the other leaders."
"I'll start getting the videos together. I can watch the training sessions while I do it. I think Gus will shoot me if I make him get the videos together. We are going to have to give him some more workers at job selection," I say.
"How many did you promise him?" Max asks.
"Two. I couldn't guarantee any more for him," I say.
"That's reasonable," Max says.
"I thought so," I say. "I better go I have a lot of video footage to go through."
"Oh wait Four. Jeanine rang me. She has invited our initiates to Erudite," Max says.
"Why would she do that?" I ask. "This isn't normal."
"I know. But it might be a good idea to do it," Max says.
"Jeanine made a point of inviting Lauren and Eric as well," Max says.
"Why would she do that?" I ask.
"I'm not sure. But I am not having Lauren go back to Erudite," Max says. "So I want you to go in her place."
"Okay. But why wouldn't Lauren want to go back?"
"Let's just say that the fear landscape she lets the initiates see, well, it doesn't show all her fears," Max says.
I understand what he is saying. Obviously she left Erudite for reason that are personal to her. I wouldn't want people to know my secrets, so I don't want to know what hers are.
"I will make time in the schedule for the initiates to take the trip," I say. "Did Jeanine say when she was available for this?"
"She was extremely accommodating. She said she will clear her schedule for us," Max says.
I raise an eyebrow.
"Just be careful while you are there. Watch Eric. I am sure this is the reason why we have been invited. There is something going on, I just wish I could work it out," Max says.
"Back again Four. Come to help out have you?" Gus asks.
"I have. Max needs video footage of an initiate that may fail. So I said I would come down here and do it," I say.
"It's not Kat is it?"
"No, your sister is safe Gus," I say.
"She won't be in the bottom five will she?"
"You know I can't tell you that," I say. "Why? Would you like her to work here with you?"
"That's not a bad idea. She knows what to do so I wouldn't have to train her," he says.
"Have you been training dependants Gus?"
"No. She stays here with me for a couple of hours in the afternoon. With mum and dad being gone I have to look after her. When she finishes her homework she helps me out," he says.
"Fair enough. I will put a word in for her."
I sit watching the knife assessments going on. Tris, Edward, Peter and Myra will be training with Lauren for the rest of the week. Ash, Blade (oh the irony), Mel and Josh will join Eric. Al has started to hit the target. He better do better in the gun assessments.
I Hear a ping and look down at my computer and see I have an email and it says.
T
I am in trouble. You need to get me out here.
C
Fuck! What am I going to do. What has Caleb got himself into. I delete the email, there is no use trying to sending an email back. Caleb has sent the email from a public computer. I am going to have to try and wipe it from my system. Shit, this is not good. Dad warned him about going to Erudite. I need to get our visit to Erudite organised. I just hope I can see him while I am there.
TRIS POV
"Are you joining us for gun training Tris?" Uriah asks as I sit down for lunch.
"Yes," I say.
"Alright. You are going to enjoy training with us and the bonus is no Eric," Uriah says.
"That is definitely going to be a great bonus," I say. Not that I have had too much trouble with Eric. If you don't count him wanting to throw knives at me. I bet Al wishes he was in our group.
"I think I might need to come and hang out with you guys too," says Zeke.
"Yeah that won't be happening Zeke," Tobias says.
"I'm on my way back to the control room anyway," says Zeke. "Are you in the control room this afternoon Four?"
"Yeah, I need to pull up some video footage," Tobias says.
"Okay I want to get this over with as soon as possible," Lauren says. "We are going to be timing you as you dismantle and reassemble your guns. So I want you to take some time to practice and when you are ready let me know and I will come and time you."
"Transfers you are going to be staying with us for the rest of the week. Therefore, if we can get through all the assessments by Thursday afternoon it means we can have some fun with the sniper rifles on Friday," Lauren says.
"Yes," Uriah and Lynn shout out.
"Sniper rifles?" I ask.
"The sniper rifle is the ultimate," Uriah says. "It is for far range shooting, very accurate. We only have a few people who are snipers in the faction. It is a real honour to become a sniper"
"And we don't often let initiates use them," says Lauren.
"That too," says Uriah.
"Okay let's get to work," Lauren says.
We are all pretty quick. For the bet Uriah decided we should just add up everyone's score and whoever has the shortest time overall will win this round. I decided to just bet on myself in the end. It was easier after watching Zeke and Tobias arguing over it.
Training seems to go a lot quicker with the Dauntless borns. I think it has a lot to do with the joking around that they have. Lauren is really easy going and likes to have fun with the initiates. When we are all finished we start to use the hand guns. Lauren wants to get through as much as possible so we can try those sniper rifles.
Friday comes around so quickly and the excitement in our group today is electric. Tobias has joined us today.
"What are you doing here?" I ask Tobias.
"It's sniper rifles Tris. I wouldn't want to miss it. I didn't get the chance to use one until leadership training," Tobias says.
"So not many people get the chance to do this?" I ask.
"No. Usually only the best of the best get the opportunity to do this," Tobias says. "Along with leaders and a few other high ranking members of Dauntless. There has never been a situation where we have had to use a sniper. But we still need to have people who can do the job."
I wonder what situation we would have the use for them. I suppose it doesn't matter at the moment, I should just enjoy the chance to try.
We are all on top of the Dauntless compound. Tobias is explaining how to use the rifle he is doing this because he was the last to be trained on how to use it. Listening to him makes me think that it would have been so much better if he had been our instructor instead of Eric. He is watching how everyone reacts to what he is saying and if he thinks someone isn't grasping what he has said, then he repeats himself.
We are all lined up and ready to start shooting. The targets we are aiming for are three buildings away. You have to use the scope to be able to see the target they are so far away. We also have to think about the wind. Uriah is jumping around all over the place but as soon as we line up he calms down and you wouldn't know it was the same person.
I wouldn't say I am a bad shot but compared to Lynn and Edward I am pretty ordinary. Both are extremely good at this. Tobias is exceptional and hasn't looked like missing the target. I think Uriah has enjoyed this the most.
Our final fitness assessments have just been completed. Rankings for stage one will be announced tonight after dinner. I am sure I have done well. Thanks mainly to Lynn helping me before I got here. We are all sitting in the dining hall, dinner has been eaten and we are just wasting time before the announcement of the rankings come out.
I walk into the dormitory and I see I am the last to arrive. Eric is standing on a chair and explaining how the rankings were decided. I'm only half listening, wishing he would just turn the board so that I can see where I am ranked.
Eric turns the board and I read down the list;
Edward
Tris
Peter
Myra
Will
Molly
Christina
Drew
Al
Second, I knew I had done well but second, this is great news. I walk over to Edward and Myra, first and fourth is great news for them.
"How is that possible?" Molly yells. "How can Myra be fourth?"
"Did you not hear what I said?" Eric says. "Myra has shown improvement in every area. If you want to do well you need to work hard. We have been telling you to work hard for the last eight weeks."
"Let's go and see how the Dauntless born went," I say to Edward and Myra.
"Good idea," Edward says.
I link arms with Myra and we walk out the door.
We walk into the Dauntless borns dorm and Uriah, Lynn and Marlene are jumping up and down with Rita in the middle of them. I look up to the board on the wall and start reading;
Uriah
Lynn
Gabe
Marlene
Rita
Kat
Jett
Mel
Josh
Blade
Ash
I run over to the group and start jumping up and down with them. We have all done really well.
"How did you guys go?" Lynn shouts.
"I'm second, Edward is first and Myra fourth," I shout back.
We start to calm down and all sit on the floor and start laughing. You would think we just passed initiation but we still have two stages to go but I will think about that tomorrow. This feels way too good to worry about stage two right now.