"Get ready to jump!"
That is all I heard as I stand as fast as I can and make my way to the opening of the train car to see dauntless jumping onto a roof. I think this is insane, but I jump because I don't want to be factionless, I slam into the roof and feel the pain of scraped skin on my leg and arms, but I am alive and I have a smile on my face. I have never had such a rush before, and I have to admit I liked it. I see a few people standing on the ledge and walk towards them with the rest of the initiates.
"My name is Eric and I am a leader in dauntless if you want in you have to jump if you don't we will be done with you." I see him scan the crowd and I feel him linger a bit when he see me, I look up and I am face to face with my brother! That can't be right? My parents told me he picked Amity, this is anything but amity. Why would they lie to me, and why was he here, and how was he a leader?
He looks away and continues "Who will jump first?" A dauntless boy with short dirty blonde hair steps forward climbs the ledge and jumps with a yell not of joy but of terror, he is gone as fast as he jumped and we all form a line to jump I am third in line. I look over at the group of dauntless members and see Eric, my brother looking at me intently almost daring me to not jump. I turn away and let myself fall without a sound. I blink and I hit a net which knocks out the air in my lungs and I take a moment to remember what just happened. I see a hand and reach for it and it helps me get off the net. I see a tall man and a small girl she smiles at me and says welcome to dauntless, and points to me where to go, I nod and walk to the other initiates though a sound of whooping and screams from dauntless members all around me. Once the last person hits the net, the 2 people that were on the platform plus another girl much taller and older then the blonde motion for us to follow them.
The taller girl calls out "Hey I am Lauren I will be training the dauntless born all you guys follow me I doubt you need a tour" about 20 people leave our group leaving Six of us in the transfer group.
The small girl smiles " My name is Six and this is Four we will be training you lot now if you follow us we will show you to the pit which is the center of life for the dauntless and you will soon learn to love it." Six turned around and I saw the tall man named four give her a quick smile. Well if they are not together they will be soon I think to myself.
Before getting to the pit I hear a candor boy going Hey Four and Six what happened to One, Two, Three and Five? I see four stop and turn as if an invisible turntable was under his feet.
"What's you name" he glares at the boy.
"Chris" he says softly.
"Well Chris" I see Six smile a little as if remembering something funny.
"If I wanted to deal with Candor smart mouths all day I would have joined them." Four is intimidating but also very sure of himself. I have learned already to be careful around him. Six opens the door and I see the pit. It is like something I have never seen before. People in black everywhere running, jumping, playing, yelling.
"Now if you follow us we will show you the chasm."
We walk over to the chasm and I know not to go to the railing, I can tell it is high, and I don't need to show weakness right away. We are ushered to the dining hall where we are greeted with cheers by other members. I get some food and find an open seat next to a few transfers. I sit next to Chris and a girl named Stephanie though she told me she was just going to go by Steph now. Steph was from Candor as well. The only other erudite was a boy named James, and we did not really get along so I am happy to sit by some people I can hopefully soon be able to be call friends. I see James sitting with two other Candor, both boys. Six and Four are sitting at a table with a bunch of people and then the room goes eerily silent and I turn to see Eric walking in. He walks over the Four and says something to him and I see Four turn his head slightly in my direction I quickly advert my eyes. Eric jumps onto a table telling all the transfers to stand as he will continue the tour of dauntless and show us to our dorm. I get up with Chris and Steph and follow Eric out of the dining hall. I hope that at some point I will get to talk to him alone and figure out exactly what is going.
"Danni!" I open my eyes in a flash no one calls me that, no one except my family and even then it is usually just my father and I think the worst. I see a dark shadow over me and I feel my heart rate increase. As my eyes start to focus I realize it isn't my father, but Eric. He motions for me to follow him so I quickly pull on some sweats and follow him into the hall. We pass a water fountain and walk further down the hall. When he stops I see his eyes look around the ceiling and he nods to himself. We stare at each other for what seems like eternity before he finally speaks.
"What are you doing here Danni?" I cross my arms and feel a pang in my chest. Wouldn't my brother be happy to see me?
"I could say the same to you." I tell him. "This isn't Amity this is in fact the furthest thing from it. Why would mom say you went there why did she lie to me?" He pinches his nose a sign of frustration.
"Look" he says to me "I just meant why did you choose to come to dauntless, I mean you're not exactly a prime candidate for us and I don't want to watch you become factionless if you can't make it, I am a leader here and I can't show favoritism and didn't you think how mom would feel if I had anything to do with you being factionless. Also, I never told her to lie I never told her anything I knew where I had to go and I went, case closed."
"What do you mean, what happened to you? You used to be happy and carefree now you strike fear into people and look like you have more metal in your face then skin." He stares at me with his cold eyes, but when I look at the rest of his face he seems relaxed and smaller then what his eyes portray.
"Just be the best you can be and hopefully you survive initiation, it isn't going to be easy and I am not going to take pity on you. If you make it through then we can talk more" With that he walks away from me for the second time in my life.