WAR GAMES.
"So this is what you meant by rest up," Syn tries to catch his breath, he was the last on the train, and that was because he had decided to 'party in the Pit' with a few dauntless-born initiates. He barely got any rest before Eric and Four busted into the dormitory to rush everyone onto the train.
Four offers him a nonchalant shrug before lifting up a piece of fabric.
"We'll be dividing 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. This is a Dauntless tradition, so I suggest you take it seriously."
"Alright," Eric speaks up now, "Everyone take a gun and then Four and I will pick teams."
Cal holds the gun loosely, it's light enough to carry with a single hand and she's thankful for that already. It wasn't like the gun they had fired earlier, a real gun - but this one, it looked real.
Cal jumps when someone collides with the wall of the train harshly, and her eyes follow Caine down as he clutches his chest - a dart lodged in the center.
"Oops?"
"Neurostim dart," Eric explains, giving a sheepish looking Syn a pointed look, "Simulates the pain of a real gunshot wound, lasts a couple minutes."
Cal brings up her hand to hide her laughter, and Syn shoots her a crooked grin.
"Two teams," Eric continues," Four and I are Captains."
"Alright," Four nods towards Eric, "You pick first."
Eric raises a brow before scanning the crow initiates, he looks over Cal and holds her stare for a long second before looking at her brother, then back over to her, "Cal."
"Syn."
A few 'oohs' come from the other initiates and Cal can't help but smile a little at this.
"I promise I won't shoot you in your pretty, yet bruised up, face, C," Syn teases, slinging the gun over his shoulder.
"I'll make you eat your words, Syn."
Cal moves to stand beside Eric, listening as him and Four go back and forth picking transfer initiates, and then dauntless-born initiates. After a few moments, Cal finds herself on a team with Ben, Sonny, Caine and three Dauntless-born. She stands in between Eric and Ben, the flag being held in between the fingers of a Dauntless-born girl who goes by the name of Laney.
CAPTURE THE FLAG.
"So," Eric begins, looking at the initiates with a raised brow, "What first."
"Split up into two groups," A dauntless born male begins. He was a tan skinned male, with bleached hair and a centered lip ring. He was tall and lanky, but had the defined muscles that all Dauntless members seem to have. He had introduced himself as Z, "Offense and defense, yanno?"
"That's too general,"Another Dauntless-born speaks up. In contrast to his tanned friend his skin is fair, freckles coat themselves on his cheeks like dirt and his eyes are the brightest shade of blue that Cal had ever seen. His brown hair was long, and pulled up to the top of his head in a messy bun. He went by Troy, "Everyone does that, why don't we just rush their flag?"
"We've gotta find out where their flag is first," Cal offers, the idea itself is obvious enough but no one has said it.
"If we go up, we'll get a view of the park."
Everyone turns to look at Ben, who purses his lips together. The silent Erudite transfer hadn't said much of anything since he's been in Dauntless. He's offered plenty of smiles and a few chuckles here and there, but the only time Cal remembers him speaking is when he said his name.
"So he can speak," Caine starts.
Cal cocks the gun back and slides the dart into place, she lifts the gun towards Caine's neck, "Shut up, Caine."
Z, Troy and Laney snicker as Caine shuts his mouth closed, looking at Cal a heated look of hatred.
"Okay," She starts, turning her eyes away from Caine, "Who wants to find a place to look up while the rest of us find a place to set the flag."
Laney and Troy offer themselves up and run off to a building close by, leaving the rest of the group to find a place to hide their flag.
"Now," Cal begins, her eyes scanning the the buildings.
"If we put the flag up high it'll be a little harder to find and to reach," Ben's voice is soft and to hear him clearly a silence falls over the initiates, "We can leave a few behind as guards, the rest can go to -"
"It's in a building near the pier! On the roof!"
"Alright," Cal hums.
"There's that swing set," Z offers, nudging Cal with his elbow. She has no idea when she became the go-to man, but suddenly everyone is looking at her.
She nods again, "That's a good idea, tuck it into one of the swings will make it harder for them to climb, but it'll also be difficult to put."
"I can do it," Sonny offers quietly, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah, let the skyscraper over here do it," Troy agrees, the nickname causes Sonny's cheeks to redden and Cal rolls her eyes.
"Okay... so now we need two groups."
"Offense and defense?!" Z puffs out his chest pridefully and Cal grins.
SPLIT UP.
Cal walks slowly in step with Eric, their arms brush each other as they walk and she can't help but notice just how warm he is.
"Z?"
"Sup?"
Cal looks over her shoulder, pointing to the roof of the building they were going to go to. They had split up evenly: Ben, Sonny, Caine and Laney with the flag and herself, Eric, Z and Troy on the hunt.
"You think you can be the one to get the flag?"
As much as she would like to, Z's height is their advantage.
He smirks, shooting her a wink, "Anythin' for the pretty lady."
Cal rolls her eyes but gasps when an arm shoots out in front of her, stopping her dead in her tracks. She glares up at Eric, who doesn't make eye contact but instead stares ahead of them, squinting his eyes towards the building.
"Split off here."
"What?" Cal asks, knitting her brothers together, "Splitting off into a small group will make it -"
"Harder for them to pick us off."
"Or easier," Cal disagrees.
Eric tightens his jaw, shooting his gaze over to Troy and Z, "You two, go around the right side. We'll go around the left."
Cal huffs quietly, nodding to both Z and Troy as they give her sheepish looks - as if apologizing for leaving her with Eric.
"Duck down."
"What?"
Cal has to hold in the yelp that threatens to rise from her throat when Eric drags her down by her collar, practically pulling her under his arm.
"Watch it!" She hisses, trying to smack his hand away from her collar, "I could shoot you, ya know?"
Eric smirks at her, "You wouldn't."
Cal glares, but doesn't disagree. She knows that if she tries to insist she would, he would see through the lie.
"I see your brother," Eric leans in closer to her, grabbing the back of her neck with one hand and pointing in another direction with the other, "He saw the other two."
"You used them as bait."
Cal shakes her head, a part of her feels bad for the two Dauntless-born, but the other is sure that they'll be fine even with the stim-darts being shot at them.
"Let's go."
They stay low, and walk side by side for a moment before Cal decides to take the lead. She's smaller, and can look around corners without bringing too much attention to where she's at.
"Those pants look good on you, kitten."
Cal stops, her cheeks firing up with embarrassment at Eric's comment. She glares over her shoulder, dangling the stim-dart gun in his direction as a silent threat.
The next series of event's happens too quickly for Cal even to recall properly. One moment she's looking at Eric with reddened, embarrassed cheeks and the next she's being hauled up until her toes are barely touching the floor. She wiggles, but the persons grip on her never loosens. She feels the cold, rounded end of the stim gun against her upper arm and she freezes.
"I was hoping I'd be the one to catch you!"
Cal want's to groan at her brothers excited tone, her arms are held down and she knows if she continues to struggle he's just going to shoot. She turns, looking over her shoulder to glance at her twin. His face glistens with sweat, and his cheeks are red from (most likely) running around. Cal turns her head back to Eric, who has his gun aimed up at her brother.
"Sorry, Cal."
Confusion bubbles inside of her, and she's about to ask Eric why he's sorry until pain explodes in her stomach. She gasps, withering and wiggling out of her brothers grip until she drops to the dirt. She groans, her hands blindly searching for the neurostim dart that Eric had shot into her stomach. Cal hears someone else drop and footsteps rush away.
She tilts her head up, her cheek brushing against the dirt.
Eric is cursing loudly, his body tense as he desperately tries to pull the three stim darts out of his body.
"You shot me."
"You were in the way."
Cal rolls off of her side and onto her back, and she can't helped the pained laugh that rises in her throat, "You asshole."
AUTHORS NOTE
I rewrote this chapter, because originally I had Cal on Four's team. Also, I'm pretty sure War Games was suppose to be before their final fight but oh well.
I also liked the idea of the neurostim-darts over the paintballs.
Thank you theotheralison, Maya6996, StardustSpike, DauntlessProdigy4Life for your reviews!
And a special thanks to RiverRunsDeep, I really appreciated your review and I'm working on some time with new initiates + conflict.
Thank you for reading!