This is the equivalent of chapter 12 of Divergent! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Divergent trilogy or any of the characters
Standing in shadows by the barrel of paint guns, I wait for the initiates to come out of their rooms. I see the Dauntless initiates run up, and Tris and Christina lead the transfers behind them. I take a small step back into the shadows as they grab their guns.
"Time estimate?" Eric's voice perturbs the darkness.
"Any miute now. How long is it going to take you to memorize the train schedule?" I sigh. I've known Eric for two years, and I know he never will.
"Why should I, when I have you to remind me of it?" Eric shoves me in the shoulder with his last comment, but I don't notice.
The train light comes around the side of the corner, and it covers my once hidden face with a blanket of light. I adjust the position of the gun on my shoulder and I move out of the light so it casts a shadow of my jaw. I leap first onto the train and I hear Tris's footsteps behind me. I hear her slip, and I know I should let her fall, but I don't. I reach out my hand, and she grips my forearm, sending a jolt of electricity down my arm, all the way through to my heart. As soon as she is upright, she lets go quickly and refuses to meet my eye. I sigh.
Once everyone is in, I begin to talk. "We'll be divided into two teams to play capture the flag. Each team will have an even mix of members, Dauntless-born initiates, and transfers. One team will get off first and find a place to hide their flag. Then the second team will get off and do the same." I grab the door for balance as the car reaches a turn. "This is a Dauntless tradition, so I suggest you take it seriously."
"What do we get if we win?" I hear the unidentified transfer's voice pipe up.
"Sounds like the kind of question someone not from Dauntless would ask." I raise my eyebrow, showing Eric that I am indeed Dauntless. "You get to win, of course."
Eric smugly takes over from here. "Four and I will be your team captains. Lets divide up transfers first, shall we?" I nod, and I see Tris look disappointed.
"You go first," I say quietly.
Eric shrugs. "Edward."
I lean against the door frame and sigh with a nod. I scan the room, but I know already who I'm going to choose. "I want the Stiff." Tris. Her name is Tris.
Everyone laughs at my choice, but Tris turns bright red. "Got something to prove?" Eric's smirk is already reappearing. "Or are you just picking the weak once so that if you lose, you'll have someone to blame it on."
I shrug. "Something like that. Your turn."
"Peter."
"Christina."
"Molly."
"Will." I bite my thumbnail.
"Al."
"Drew."
"Last one left is Myra. So she's with me." Eric sounds annoyed at this, but Edward looks pleased, and I can't help but smile. "Dauntless born initiates next." We list through the Dauntless-borns, but I'm not really paying attention to them. My eyes are on Tris. She appears to be figuring me out. About halfway through the Dauntless initiates, she gets a smug look on her face, and I throw her a nod. She knows my strategy.
"Your team can get off second," says Eric.
"Don't do me any favors," I reply with a smile. "You know I don't need them to win."
"No, I know that you'll lose no matter when you get off." Eric bites down on the metal rings around his lips. I resist the urge to shiver. "Take your scrawny team and get off first then."
My team stands up, and they begin to jump off the train. Molly shoves Tris off the train, but she sticks the landing anyways. I smile softly, proud of the team I chose, and proud of Tris for landing like a Dauntless.
"When your team won, where did you put the flag?" I realise that Marlene is talking to me.
"Telling you wouldn't really be in the spirit of the exercise, Marlene." I speak coolly, although I begin walking towards the carousel.
"Come on, Four," she whines. You know, I really hate when girls whine. But the only thing I hate more, is when girls I'm clearly not interested in try to flirt with me. She throws me a flirtatious smile that gives me the creeps and her hand begins to run down my shoulder and onto my biceps. I hope she's only joking, and I brush her hand off of me. I hear Tris snicker in the background, and I sigh, just a little bit of tension leaving my body.
"Navy Pier." I hear Uriah call out behind me. "My brother was on the winning team. They kept the flag at the carousel."
"Let's go there, then." I smile at Will's suggestion, picking up the pace. We walk across the bridge and towards the carousel. The silence in this place fills me with a longing peace. I look out behind the buildings and see the Ferris wheel. We reach the carousel and I pull the flag out of my pocket.
"In ten minutes, the other team will pick their location. I suggest you take this time to formulate a strategy. We may not be Erudite, but mental preparedness is one aspect of your Dauntless training. Arguably, it is the most important aspect." Will takes the flag from me.
"Some people should stay here and guard, and some people should go out and scout the other team's location." I sigh as Will begins to take charge.
"Yeah? You think?" Marlene takes the flag from Will. "Who put you in charge, transfer?" I hold utterly still as Will holds his ground.
"No one. But someone's got to do it."
"Maybe we should develop a more defensive strategy. Wait for them to come to us, then take them out," Christina suggests weakly.
"That's the sissy way out," Uriah speaks up, "I vote we all go out. Hide the flag well enough that they can't find it."
Everyone bursts out into conversation, and I sit down on the edge of the carousel. I look at the sky, and I take in a breath. Now would be the part where Amar sits down next to me and reassures me that I will like Dauntless. I wish he was here now to help me. Rather than Amar, I see Tris standing a foot away. She eyes me, then she closes her eyes in peril. I smile. The smile wipes off of my face as I see what Tris is about to do. I notice that she has the flag. She begins to climb.
"Tris." My voice feels low.
"Yes?" Her voice sounds strained from hanging onto the rungs.
"I came to find out what you think you're doing." I try to keep my voice calm.
"I'm seeking higher ground. I don't think I'm doing anything." Her sassiness, while any other trainer would find it annoying, it makes me smile.
"All right. I'm coming." I've always made an effort to view her with respect. People treat her like a child because she's smaller, but she isn't a child anymore. She's perfectly capable of making her own decisions. But so am I, and that's why I'm choosing to climb up with her.
"I'll be fine," she tries to reassure me.
"Undoubtedly." The word escapes my lips with not a single trace of sarcasm. I begin to climb after her, going faster than her. "So tell me…," I speak quietly, the heights starting to get to me. "What do you think the purpose of this excersize is? The game, I mean, not the climbing." I see Tris stare down nervously at the ground and I force myself not to look.
"Learning about strategy. Teamwork, maybe."
"Teamwork," I repeat numbly. The panic in me gets stronger the higher we climb, and I let out a breathy laugh, hoping Tris doesn't catch the fear in my voice.
"Maybe not," she says, but I barely hear her. The blood rushes in my ears. "Teamwork doesn't seem to be a Dauntless priority." The wind picks up and I struggle to hold on.
"It's supposed to be a priority. It used to be." I suddenly realise how close I am to Tris. My fear of heights changes. I know what that fear feels like. It's a cold, stabbing fear that gets me in the night. I'm unable to move when I'm high up. This is different. I feel an adrenaline pumping in my veins, like I have to move faster to protect myself and the people around me. And that's when I realise it. It isn't the heights that's scaring me right now, although no doubt that's somewhere in my mind, it's Tris. I notice her almost miss the next rung, and I realise I'm distracting her too.
"Now tell me, what do you think learning strategy has to do with… bravery?" Tris appears to catch her focus.
"It… it prepares you to act. You learn strategy so you can use it- are you alright, Four?" I suppose she hears my heavy breathing.
"Are you human, Tris? Being up this high… It doesn't scare you at all?" She looks nervously over her shoulder, but then a confidence bides over her face. She knows she won't fall, and I really do admire that. A gust of wind brushes over her and pulls her away from me. I wrap my arm gently around her waist, the palm of my hand going just under the hem of her shirt, and I feel the electricity. I pull her back towards me and then I let go quickly.
There's something Eric doesn't understand. The Dauntless teach us to be strong and forceful, but there is something urgent and powerful about gentleness, about mercy. There is an honor in showing defeat.
"You okay?" I gently ask Tris, as she appears short of breath.
"Yes." Her voice sounds strained and wobbly.
We reach the top and she takes a seat, leaving me a little bit of room. Her legs dangle over the edge, and I long to pull her back, but I don't. I keep my legs positioned strategically underneath me, panting at the top, trying not to look down.
"You're afraid of heights. How do you survive in the Dauntless compound?" I sigh. I knew she'd figure it out eventually.
"I ignore my fear. When I make decisions, I pretend it doesn't exist." I notice Tris staring at me. She stares for a long time, looking astounded. "What?" I notice my voice has gone quiet. So has hers.
"Nothing." She sighs. "We're not high enough."
"For God's sake, Stiff."
"You don't have to follow me."
"Yes I do." I hear her sigh, and then she smiles. She looks down at where I used to be sitting, and I hear her gasp in fear. I grab a bar with each hand, not looking down, and I pull myself up. I smile back at her. We continue to climb.
"See that?" I see Tris pointing at the light on the ground. My face is so close to hers if I leaned in any further my nose would be in her hair. I breathe out softly, and I see her shiver.
"Yeah." I smile softly. She helped me get up here.
"It's coming from the park at the end of the pier. Figures. It's surrounded by open space, but the trees provide some camouflage. Obviously not enough." She looks at me for a second, then remembers what she's doing.
"Okay. Um," she clears her throat. "Start climbing down. I'll follow you." We climb in silence. After a moment, I hear her scream my name. "Four!" I feel the panic that she had banished rise again in my throat. The bar she had been holding onto broke.
"Hold on! Just hold on, I have an idea." I try to keep my voice calm for her sake, but I know she can hear my panic. I know she won't last much longer.
"Four!" She scrams again, but I can barely hear her. The bar she's holding shudders, and the wheel begins to move. As she gets to the bottom, she lets go. I walk next to her. I wrap my hands around her wrists, prying them from her eyes. I enclose one of her hands in two of mine.
"You all right?" My voice feels unsteady. I press our hands together.
"Yeah."
I start to laugh, and Tris joins in.
"You could have told me that the Ferris wheel still worked. We wouldn't have had to climb in the first place."
I sigh. "I would have, if I had know. I couldn't just let you hang there, so I took a risk. come on, time to get their flag." I hesitate a moment, and then I take Tris's arm, my fingertips lightly caressing the inside of her elbow. We run up to Christina and three others that I can't see in the dark.
"Where'd the others go?" I ask.
"Did you guys turn on the wheel? What the hell are you thinking? You might as well have just shouted 'Here we are! come and get us!'" The girl in the dark shakes her head. "If I lose again this year, the shame will be unbearable. Three years in a row?" I sigh with a smile.
"The wheel doesn't matter. We know where they are." I say, my voice growing stronger.
"We?" Christina looks from me to Tris.
"Yes, while the rest of you were twiddling your thumbs, Tris climbed the Ferris wheel to look for the other team," I say.
"What do we do now, then?" Another Dauntless in the dark asks. I look at Tris, admiration growing in my eyes. She lights up with an idea.
"Split in half," she says. "Four of us go to the right side of the pier, three to the left. The other team is in the park at the end of the pier, so the group of four will charge the as the group of three sneaks behind the other team to get the flag." I beam in excitement at Tris's idea.
"Sounds good," says the Dauntless-born girl, clapping her hands. "Lets get this night over with, shall we?"
Christina, Tris, and Uriah take the group of three, while the other three Dauntless borns and me go for the charge. We go in as planned, and the other team shoots us down, but I see Tris and Christina behind them, and Eric and his team seem unaware of us. I see Christina grab it, and Tris looks disappointed, but that's okay. She was the real hero today. I stand up, and our team circles and we all whoop and yell. Christina holds the flag high, and we all cluster together. I find Tris. "Well done," I say quietly.
Oh sorry, two more things. First, this is the longest chapter I have ever written, somewhere around 2,500 words, so yay!
Second, the next chapter in the actual book of Divergent is the knife throwing scene, and since the lovely Veronica Roth already wrote that in Four's POV, I'm going to skip it. I don't want to even attempt to compare with her work, so I will be moving on straight to Chapter 14 of Divergent!
-Laura (Laura013)