Sorry, its been so long since I've updated. I went out of town for a few days and didn't take my computer with me. I missed a few days of school too so when I got back I was so busy with make-up work that I didn't have a chance to write .
Thank you to all the favorites and alerts! And thank you leneah1, ScarletPuppy83, HeartOf Gold7, hugabunny12, and PotatosGonnaPotate for the reviews!
And just to clear things up, Eric doesn't know that Alex is Four's sister.
Hope you guys like it ^.^
I leaned out of the train car as we waited for Eric's cue to jump. The darkness swallowed everything in sight. I could barley make out the outline of the trees as they whipped by. My attention was drawn to Aidan as he came up next to me.
"We have to win this," I smiled.
"Oh trust me, I know. We'll never hear the end of it from Jake and Olivia if we lose," he joked. There was that, and also the fact that I wanted to beat my older brother. I would never let him live the loss down and vice versa.
I was about to respond to Aidan when suddenly I was shoved from behind and sent flying out of the train car. I tried to hit the ground running, but tripped and stumbled face first into the dirt and gravel. Pain pulsed through my palms thanks to the new scrapes I had received. As I pushed myself up from the dirt, I heard the rest of my team exit from the train. Aidan appeared at my side as I stood up.
"What the fuck?" I snarled. I wanted to know who the hell did that. There was no one on my team that I would expect that from.
"That's what happened when you're hanging out of a train and not paying attention to your surroundings," I heard Eric say as he stepped through the group of initiates. Of course it was Eric. He ignored my dirty look as he began to lead the way.
"You okay?" Aidan asked as I brushed the dirt off me. I nodded and began to follow Eric and the other initiates. My fist clenched as I stared at the back of Eric's head. I was pissed that he had embarrasses me like that, but there wasn't anything that I could do about it, at least not at the moment.
"So, what's the plan, Captain?" I asked.
Eric pulled a glowing green flag from his pocket and unfolded it. "We need to hide this where Four's team won't find it. Where we hide it and what we do after that is all up to you guys," he announced to the team.
I looked around for a sufficient hiding place. Where we were looked like run-down fair ground so there had to be plenty of nooks and crannies that we could stash the flag in. My wandering eyes stopped at the fun house that was about 100 yards away. "There," I pointed to it and my teammate's eyes followed the direction of my finger. "The fun house."
"Adam," Eric held out the flag out to him and nodded in the direction of the fun house. Adam, understanding what Eric wanted, grabbed the flag and took off in the direction of the attraction. I was surprised that Eric didn't question my choice in hiding place.
"I say when Adam gets back, we break up into two groups; offense and defense," Dean suggested.
"We need people to scout first," Aidan objected. I agreed. We needed to know where to go first.
"Fine, Aidan take Paul with you and go scout. But make it quick," Eric instructed. I sent a pleading look in Aidan's direction. I didn't want to have to deal with Eric without him, not after he already shot me and pushed me out of a moving train within this past hour. Aidan gave me an apologetic look and mouthed 'sorry' before he took off with Paul.
"Instead of splitting us in half, we can just leave two behind to guard and the rest can go. We have a better chance at getting the flag if there's more of us there," It was me that made the suggestion this time. I looked at Eric, expecting him to shoot it down.
"Sounds like a plan," Eric agreed. "Rebecca and Amity will stay behind," Eric stated, referring to Mathew and the Dauntless-born girl. Mathew looked like he wanted to argue about the job he was assigned, but did something I would't be able to do, he kept his mouth shut.
We stood there, some of us engaging in small talk for the next minute or so as we waited for Aidan and Paul to return. Adam had rejoined us as we saw Aidan and Paul running towards us in the distance. Once the boys reached us, they spilled all the information they had acquired.
"Their flag is at the top of the clock tower," Paul huffed.
"Let's go then," and with that, Eric took off at a fast pace towards the clock tower. I had to jog to keep up with Eric as he determinately marched to our target. When we were nearly there, Eric stopped so everyone could catch up.
"Aidan and Paul, you'll take the rear," Eric commanded. "Luke and Adam the left side, Dean and Nathan the right. Me and the Stiff will take the front," I shot Aidan a look due to that last part. Jesus Christ, why can I never seem to get away from him?
"The six of you will attack head on first, then we'll head up the tower while they're distracted with you," No one argued with Eric's plan. We all nodded, but none of us moved. "Why are you still standing here?" he barked.
Our team scattered in their assigned directions. I was left standing alone in the dark with Eric. I could feel the tension between us as we stood there in silence. The silence wasn't awkward though. I was almost comfortable.
"Why did you pick me?" I asked, breaking the silence.
"Pick you for what?" Eric looked off into the darkness, waiting for the shots that had yet to come.
"To come with you. There was definitely more capable people on this team to retrieve the flag," I stated.
"It was your plan," he answered simply. No, there had to be more to that. I opened my mouth to argue with this answer, but was interrupted by the exchange of fire in the distance. Eric and I took that as our cue and headed closer to the clock tower, guns up and ready to fire.
We reached the tree line that was about 50 yards away from the tower before we were spotted. "There's two more over there!" It sounded like Jake.
Eric, without hesitation, pulled me behind a tree as they started firing. I was pressed up against him as I heard multiple darts hit the bark. His breathing was heavy as I looked up at him.
"What now?" We were trapped behind this tree and had no way of getting over to the tower.
"You go and I'll cover you," he decided after a moment.
"What? There's no way-" I began to argued before he cut me off. He couldn't rest the fate of this team on me. No way in hell.
"You asked me why I brought you with me, this is why. Because I know when push comes to shove you'll get the job done. You'll get it, I know you will," his encouraging words took me off guard. I never expected to hear something like that come from Eric. "Now, go!"
He slightly shoved me away from him and from the safety of the tree, forcing me to take off towards the tower. I heard darts whiz past me as I closed the space between me and my destination. Pain shot through my arm as I was hit, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the one Eric had sent into my leg. I kept running and pried the door to the tower open. I quickly closed it and caught my breath.
Once I felt the pain in my arm begin to edge away and my breathing slow, I began my trek up the stairs. I sprinted up the steps and was greeted with a burning ache in my legs, but kept going. I was met with a metal hatch and carefully opened it, not knowing what to expect from the other side. I peeked inside, but it seemed to be empty. The glowing orange flag was just a few feet away. Only when I was fully in the room did I realize that I was wrong.
"So, they sent the Stiff?" I turned around to locate the owner of the voice. Seth stepped out of the shadows, gun pointed straight at me.
"No, they sent the only girl they know that can kick your ass," I snapped. He continued to step closer, one of his nasty little smirks on his face.
"You just got lucky," If he just came a little bit closer… just like I hoped, he took a few more steps in my direction. Bingo.
"Oh yeah?" I swiftly kicked the gun out of his hands and then aimed mine at him. He recovered quicker than I thought and knocked the gun away from me. Shit.
I lunged for him and tackled him to the floor, my fist connecting with his face a few times. He shoved me off of him and I slid across the room. I felt something metal up against my side and was happy to learn that it was my gun. I quickly grabbed it and tried to find Seth.
Unfortunately, Seth had the same idea and I was met with the barrel of his gun. We pulled our triggers simultaneously. I saw Seth drop to the ground with a dart to the chest.
I yelped as pain shot through my neck and down my spine, spreading to the rest of my body. I caught my balance on a nearby table, knowing that if I went down I wasn't likely to get back up. I pulled the dart out of my neck at tossed it in Seth's direction.
I mustered up what energy I had left and lunged for the flag that was a mere 3 feet away. I felt my fingers clamp down on the fabric as I crumpled to the floor. A new pulse of pain throbbed through my body as my grip on the flag tighten. This pain was far worse than that of the shot to my arm or leg. That pain focused on a single limp. This pain flooded my body as it trickled down my spine and to all four of my limps. The serum that simulated the pain of a bullet wound was spreading through my whole body.
I tried to fight the tears, but I felt my eyes begin to water. I heard Seth yelp in pain not far from me as another shot went off. Someone leaned over me and I could just make out their face through my blurred vision. "I got it," I choked.
"I knew you would," Eric smirked. There was a look in his eyes that I'd never seen before. A look of pride. That look made all of this worth it. "You get hit?" All I could do was nod. "Can you walk?"
That was a good question. Eric tried to help me to my feet, both the flag and my gun grasped tightly in my hands. Just as I thought my feet were sold under me, they gave way. Eric caught me before I hit the ground and scooped me up in his arms. I curled into his chest as he carried me bridal style out of the room and made his way down the stairs.
About halfway down the stairs the pain started to dissipate and I my attention drifted from the pain to Eric.
I couldn't help but feel oddly comfortable in his arms. Safe. I didn't understand how he went back and forth from cruel leader to this. He made my head spin. There was times that I wanted to be as far away from him as possible, and there's moment like this one, or the one in the training room that made me want to be as close as possible to him. It drove me crazy.
Only hints of the pain were still present when we got to the bottom of the stairs. "You can put me down, Eric. I think I'm good."
"You sure?" he actually seemed concerned. I nodded and he slid his arm from underneath my knees and let me stand on my own. "Ready to go announce the victory?"
"Yeah, I just have to do one thing…" As much as I'd hate to ruin this moment, I couldn't let him get away with his earlier. I aimed my gun at his leg and fire.
"Goddamnit!" He dropped to one knee, clutching the leg I shot. He pulled the dart out of his calf and threw it at me. "What the hell!"
"Think twice before you decide to shoot me and push me out of a moving train," I smirked.
"I swear to god I'm gonna…" he growled as he got to his feet.
"What are you gonna do, huh? I just won you the game," I waved the flag in his face and he snatched it from me.
"And that's the only reason you're not getting punish for what you just did," Eric stood there a moment, trying to get feeling back in his leg. "Pull shit like that again and you won't be so lucky."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" I snatched the flag back from him. "Let's go announce the victory, Captain," I smiled as Eric rolled his eyes and limped forward. He was having a little trouble so I offered my shoulder for him to lean on. He reluctantly accepted the help as we made our way out to the rest of the initiates.
I was originally going to have Four's team win, because like HeartOfGold7 mentioned, it would be kinda weird having Eric's team win. But I was having a hard time writing it from that point of view so I just had Eric's team win because it was much easier to write.
I hope you guys liked it! I'd love to hear what you guys think so feel free to leave a review or shoot me a PM! :)