Hey, so, I was planning on posting a chapter on Sunday, but I had a math test, so then I was like ok, well I'll work on it Monday night or Tuesday. Then at 9:15pm, I got an e-mail from my math teacher saying that the test had been moved to Wednesday after I had studied for like all of Sunday (that might be a slight exaggeration, but it stopped me form doing this) so if anyone wants to complain, they can talk to my math teacher... Sorry, had to get that out there, I hate when that happens!
Disclaimer: Veronica Roth doesn't have to take math tests, I do, so therefore I'm not Veronica Roth, though my cat's name is Veronica... (I didn't name her after the author, she came from a shelter...)
I throw on my shoes with the leggings and t-shirt that I already have on and sprint to the train tracks.
Can a girl not get a full night of sleep around here anymore?
The rest of the initiates quickly follow, I'm surprised to see the Dauntless-born initiates here as well. Amar, Lauren and Shauna are standing by the side of the train track next to a box of "paintball" guns. I have never heard of them before, but the name is pretty obvious, I laugh out loud and no doubt I look crazy, but hey- who cares anymore?
Once everyone gets here, Lauren and Shauna yell, "Everyone grab a gun!" I again feel the special connection between the two of them. I see Zeke looking at Shauna and after the interesting little fact from Tobias, I now know why. Shauna's only a couple months at most older than Zeke, but went through initiation a year ahead of him because of how their birthdays fell. They would actually be cute together and I heard that before Shauna's year, they used to hangout all the time. It must be weird for them now…
I shake the thoughts and grab a gun, they all look identical so the choice isn't hard. I sling the strap over my shoulders and stand by the train tracks waiting for instructions. I would talk to my friends, but they're still walking up after the flashlight wake-up call.
Soon the train comes hurtling down the tracks slowing only slightly for us to jump in, I get a running start and leap in, it's only the second time I've done it, but all of the muscle I've built over training has paid off. I see my friends jump in after me and we all go sit on one wall of the train. I hope Amar tells us what's going on soon.
"OK, you all are probably wondering why we got you up at this insane hour," Amar yells over the wind of the train.
"No kidding," Peter retorts.
Amar goes up to Peter, "Someone should have woken up on the other side of the bed, I might just kick you right back into it, or would you prefer a Factionless bed to do that on, I can arrange either."
Peter just sits there, shocked, it's the first time Amar has showed him any kind of personality beside the uncaring trainer. I laugh lightly at this encounter; he totally deserves it.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted- We woke you up as another training exercise. We will split you into three different teams, my team, Lauren's team and Shauna's team. The objective is to get the other two other team's flags," he holds up glowing red, blue and white flags, "and to not be shot by the paintball's. This may require stealing two flags from one team or any other combination; you may also have to steal your flag back. You must have all three flags to win. This will require teamwork and strategy."
"We will now choose teams," Lauren says.
Amar and Shauna and Lauren alternate picking, by the end the teams are as follows:
Amar (blue)- Me, Tobias, Christina, Will, and some other Dauntless born
Shauna (white)- Zeke, Uriah, Al, Marlene, Lynn, and some other Dauntless born
Lauren (red) - Peter, Eric, Molly, Drew, and some other Dauntless born
So basically one team of our enemies, and two teams of friends against each other. This is going to be fun.
For the rest of the ride "there" where ever "there" is, I sit with the rest of my teammates and we try to devise a strategy. Everyone is arguing and putting out opinions besides myself and Tobias, we sit quietly on the outside and try and absorb as much as possible.
"OK," Amar stands up as do Lauren and Shauna, "Who should jump first?"
"Doesn't matter to me, my team will win whenever we get off," Shauna says this showing off what I perceive to be fake attitude.
Lauren just laughs and says, "Sure…"
"So, while you guys fight over that, I'm taking my team and leaving. Ok, my team, get up, we're jumping now!" Amar says this and I immediately get up and head for the opening of the train.
As I walk over, Peter or Eric -there's really no difference between the two- trip me, I stumble and almost fall head first out the train. Luckily Tobias is there to catch me. I turn around and glare at the two of them, I'm done with this, I just don't know how to stop it.
Before they can try and kill me or Tobias again, I jump out of the train and I see Four following, I land on my feet and jog a few steps to steady myself, another small success in Dauntless.
Once everyone has jumped, Amar leads us away from the tracks and then turns it over to us, "Ok, my job is done, it's your turn to prove yourselves, make a plan and get the other team's flags, I'll help with whatever job you give me, I just can't help you with the plan."
The group somehow decides to keep walking in the direction of the Ferris Wheel, around us are crumbling building that haven't been kept in good condition we see one labeled Navy Pier, and it is a pier. Just a huge one. The marsh, the thing that used to be a huge body of water called Lake Michigan surrounds the piece of land that we're standing on, as we turn the corner around a building, the Ferris Wheel comes into full view. The red carts swing on the white frame that is outlined by the moon behind it. I can only imagine what the view must have been like when the marsh was water. The moon's reflection shimmering on the water being distorted by the waves…
From here, we can also see the long stretch of broken up pavement that was Lake Shore Drive. In the peace of the night I can see the cars moving around the bend, headlights shining going to and fro from their different places. I don't actually see this, I can just imagine it happening in a different world. It's hard to believe that this city used to house so many people, the whole city used to be packed and now it's taken up by us; five lonely groups of people.
I shake myself of the dark thoughts and focus on the lighthearted game at hand. We arrive at the carousel and most people take up places on the chipped animals. Everyone again starts talking about our plan of action, I swear they'll be able to hear us from here.
My attention starts wondering, it's not like I have anything to add to this conversation, I realize my sub-conscious has been staring at the Ferris Wheel for a long time and I start to get a crazy idea. I look up at the group and see everyone is involved in the conversation so I get up and quietly sneak over to the Ferris Wheel. I can't believe I'm about to do this. I see the white painted service ladder and I jump up and down on the first bar to make sure it'll hold my weight, thankfully it does.
As I start up the first step, I hear footsteps behind me, man, could people just leave me alone for one second?
"Where do you think you're going?" I would recognize this voice anywhere, he's never going to let me up there, oh well, I know he won't follow me.
"I don't think I'm going anywhere." At this I start my journey upwards again.
I then hear the ladder creak behind me, it's my turn to be shocked, "Where do you think you're going?" I ask this using the same words, but putting stress on different ones, completely changing the meaning. I can't believe he's doing this.
"What do you mean? If you're going, I'm going."
"But you're afraid of heights!"
"Everyone has to face their fears eventually, right?"
I know I'm not going to win this argument so I start putting hand over hand again. As we climb higher and higher, the wind gets stronger and stronger at one point the wind pushes me over and almost lose hold, it's only Tobias' steady hand on my waist that pushes me back that saves me. I can still feel the ghost of his fingers there that hand slipped under my shirt by accident by the time we get to a platform. I move to the edge and sit down to make room for him where it's safer.
He comes up just after me having caught up, his breaths are heavy while I feel amazing being up here, it gives me strength.
"Are you human?" This doesn't scare you at all?"
"Like I said before, I just don't feel like I'm going to fall."
He just sighs and laughs, I can't tell the difference, being this high is really affecting him. He sits down with his back against solid metal, with me up next to the edge, we are still very close. There's no way to avoid it though so I do what I set out to do, I lean over closer to him, stare him in the eyes… and then shift my gaze to the streets and buildings below him that have turned into a natural park now. I can see a glowing white flag through the trees leaves, yes!
"Do you see the white flag through the trees?" I ask him.
He adjusts his head so that it's next to mine looking down my line of sight, "Ya, is that why you came up here?"
"No, I just came to make you face your fears… Of course I came up here for this," I say this in a sarcastic voice.
Tobias laughs then, maybe joking around is helping, "Ok, I see your point."
"I need to go higher though, I need to find the red flag."
"You're crazy, I'm sure we can find it on the ground."
"What, where everyone is mostly likely still arguing?"
"And now I see you're point, up we go."
I smile at the victory and start up the spokes of the wheel, maybe this really was a crazy stupid idea. I hug the metal spokes tightly, keeping my body close to the framework. We climb up about 20 more feet and I turn my head while tightly wrapping my arms around the bars and I'm happy to find a glowing red trophy awaiting my sightline.
Tobias climbs up right behind me so that he has his arms on either side of me, "So we found it."
I just nod, more nervous with him behind me than of how high we are. "Ok, um, you start down and I'll follow, ok?"
"Sure."
We start climbing down and by the time I get to the platform we were on before, my arms are shaking with fatigue. Tobias is again near the solid metal and we shuffle around each other on the small platform. Suddenly though, Tobias takes my hand, "Tris," he takes a deep breath after this like he's even more nervous now than when focusing on heights, "I wanted to tell you, that- that." After stopping his search for the words that I'm deeply curious about, he steps toward me, tips my head up, leans down and… and…. He kisses me.
And there you go... The moment we have all been waiting for has arrived! I will hopefully get another chapter up tonight, we will see... Also, sorry about adding so much about Chicago, I kinda live there (here?) so I had to add a little extra about it!