Chapter four: Welcome to Dauntless!
Chapter four!
As the women who helped me get out of the net takes me on solid ground I look for Beatrice and spot a man next to her. The man had short dark brown hair and really dark, amazing blue eyes.
I can't hear what she's saying, but in Candor they teach us how to read lips, how to tell when someones lying... I never really needed to use all of that information until now. I make out what she's saying. She told the handsome man 'Thank you' he nodded and walked next to the dark haired woman and helped other initiates. I walked over to Beatrice and stood next to her.
"Uh... who was that?" I ask. She blushes. "Well he was very handsome. Don't you think so?" I ask annoying her. She smiled.
"Shut up!" She said, and gave me a playfully punch I laughed. We watched as the other initiates jumped down in front of the dauntless crowd. Some yelling the whole way down. We watched as every time someone else came down the man announces their name, and all the Dauntless cheer and pump their fists.
"Who's the girl?" I ask Beatrice. Pointing to the dark haired woman who helped me earlier.
"That's Lauren." Beatrice answered. An awkward moment hit us so I spoke up.
"You know my friend Sophie had just transferred to Abnegation!" I informed her. She smiled.
"Wait... Sophie Temberlake?" She asked with excitement.
"Yeah, did you know her?" I asked. She nodded.
"She was the only person who tried to talking to the Abnegation. She is such a sweetheart." Beatrice answered. I smiled.
Beatrice and I engaged in a conversation. I joked and she laughed and visa versa. I start to see the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
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When all the initiates stand on solid ground again, the girl Lauren and the guy with the impossible blue eyes lead us down a narrow tunnel. The walls are made of stone, and the ceiling slopes, so I feel like I am descending deep into the heart of the earth. The tunnel is lit at long intervals, so in the dark space between each dim lamp, I walk silently with Beatrice.
The Erudite boy in front of Beatrice and I stops. I watch as Beatrice smacks into him. I watch as she stumbles back. I try to help her but the crowd keeps pushing me forward. I look at the Erudite boy whom Beatrice bumped into earlier I notice that it is the Erudite boy....Will!
I froze, caught in the sight of him. I was not sure if I should smile, wave or call his name. Maybe I should say nothing. He probably doesn't even remember me. I was pretty rude. I decide I will not say anything. I looked away I kept my eyes locked on Lauren, maybe if I have something to focus on it will lessen my thoughts, as well as my emotions.
"This is where we divide," Lauren says, she looks at all the tributes, as if analyzing all of us. "The Dauntless-born initiates are with me. I assume you don't need a tour of the place." She smiles and beckons towards the Dauntless-born initiates. They brake from the group leaving nine initiates. Three Erudite transfers, one Abnegation transfer, and five Candor transfers. I eye all of the unfamiliar initiates. which does not take long I know all the Candor transfers, I just met the Abnegation transfer all that's left is the last two Erudite. Ones a male and the other is female.
The male has dirty blonde hair, and brown eyes, an interesting figure. The girl has mousy brown hair, and big lips. I notice out of the corner in my eye the guy take the girls hand and lock his fingers with hers. Affection, they must be boyfriend-girlfriend. It's a good thing that no one can hear me right now, because I sound like a total Candor. I guess sometimes the habits never go away.
"Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks, I am your instructor." He says. I focus on him he has a spare upper lip and a full lower lip, dark-blue eyes, long lashes and more than six feet tall. He looks muscular, and he has a scar on his chin, looks like a scar from a fight. He looks intense. "My name is Four." He's joking right?
"Four? like the number?" I blurted out. Again I sounded like a Candor, except this time I had said it out loud.
"Yes," Four says. "Is there a problem?" I tense up at that.
"No." I answer simply.
"Good. We're going into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It-" I can't help it I start to snicker.
"The Pit? clever name." I immediately stop when Four walks up to me, and leans his face close to mine. For a second he just stares at me.
"What's your name?" He asks, in a tense voice. I start to get a bit of a nervous feeling.
"Christina!" I squeak.
"Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction," H e hisses. "The first lesson you'll learn from me is to keep your mouth shut, got that?" I don't even bother with an answer I slowly nod. Four starts towards the shadow at the end of the tunnel. The crowd of initiates start to move forward.
"What a jerk." I mumble to Tris.
"I guess he dose not like to be laughed at." Tris reply's.
Four pushes a set of doors open, and we walk into 'The Pit' as Four called it.
"Oh," I whisper. "I get it." I say with understanding. 'Pit' is the best word for it. It's an underground cavern so huge, that I can't see the other side of it. Uneven rock walls rise above my head. Built into the rock walls are stores. Some sell clothing, and others shoes. It's like my own personal heaven.
People are everywhere, talking and shouting, gesturing, expressing. I notice that there are no elderly people here, I guess they can't keep up with the pace.
"If you follow me, I'll show you the chasm." Four says. He waves us forward. Four has no Dauntless scarring as far as I can tell. He turns towards us and I notice a tattoo peaking from the collar of his shirt. I look to my left and see Will. His eyes are focused on me. I hold eyes, then he looks away.
He leads us to the right side of the Pit, which is conspicuously dark. I squint and see that the floor I stand on now ends at an iron barrier. As we approach the railing, I hear a roar—water, fast-moving water, crashing against rocks. I look over the side. The floor drops off at a sharp angle, and several stories below us is a river. Gushing water strikes the wall beneath me and sprays upward. To my left, the water is calmer, but to my right, it is white, battling with rock.
"The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!" Four shouts. "A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again. You've been warned."
"This is in credible," I say, as we all move away from the railing. "Incredible is the word," Tris says, nodding. Four leads the group of initiates across the Pit toward a gaping hole in the wall.
The room beyond is well-lit enough that I can see where we're going: a dining hall full of people and clattering silverware. When we walk in, the Dauntless inside stand. They applaud. They stamp their feet. They shout. The noise surrounds me and fills me. I smile, and so does Tris. We look for empty seats. Beatrice and I discover a mostly empty table at the side of the room, and I on purpose sit a chair away from Four leaving the empty space between us for Tris to sit in.
In the center of the table is a platter of Hamburgers.
"It's beef," Four says. I look up to see Four passing Tris a small bowl of ketchup. "Put this on it."
"You've never had a hamburger before?" I ask, widening my eyes, in shock.
"No," Tris say. "Is that what it's called?"
"Stiffs eat plain food," Four says, nodding at me.
"Why?" I ask Tris, she shrugs.
"Extravagance is considered self-indulgent and unnecessary." Tris explains, I smirk. "No wonder you left."
"Yeah," she say, rolling her eyes. "It was just because of the food."
The doors to the cafeteria open, and a hush falls over the room. I look over my shoulder. A young man walks in, and it is quiet enough that I can hear his footsteps. His face is pierced in so many places I lose count, and his hair is long, dark, and greasy. But that isn't what makes him look menacing. It is the coldness of his eyes as they sweep across the room.
"Who's that?" I hiss.
"His name is Eric," says Four. "He's a Dauntless leader."
"Seriously? But he's so young." Four gives me a grave look. "Age doesn't matter here." I want to ask: Then what does matter? But Eric's eyes stop scanning the room, and he starts toward a table. He starts toward our table and drops into the seat next to Four. He offers no greeting, so neither do we.
"Well, aren't you going to introduce me?" he asks, nodding to Tris and me.
"This is Tris and Christina." Four says.
"Ooh, a Stiff," says Eric, smirking at Tris. He smile, and pulls at the piercings in his lips, making the holes they occupy wider. Ouch! "We'll see how long you last." Eric says.
"What have you been doing lately, Four?" he asks. Four lifts a shoulder.
"Nothing, really," he says. Are they friends? My eyes flick between Eric and Four. Everything Eric did—sitting here, asking about Four—suggests that they are, but the way Four sits, tense as pulled wire, suggests they are something else. In Candor I learn't that, this kind of behavior means that they are rivals.
"Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don't show up," Eric says. "He requested that I find out what's going on with you." Four looks at Eric for a few seconds before saying,
"Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I currently hold."
"So he wants to give you a job." The rings in Eric's eyebrow catch the light. Maybe Eric perceives Four as a potential threat to his position.
"So it would seem," Four says.
"And you aren't interested."
"I haven't been interested for two years."
"Well," says Eric. "Let's hope he gets the point, then." He claps Four on the shoulder, a little too hard, and gets up.
"Are you two...friends?" Tris asks.
"We were in the same initiate class," Four replied. "He transferred from Erudite."
"Were you a transfer too?" Tris asks.
"I thought I would only have trouble with the Candor asking too many questions," he says coldly. "Now I've got Stiffs, too?"
"It must be because you're so approachable," Tris says flatly. "You know, like a bed of nails." He stares at her, and I get back to eating my hamburger.
"Careful, Tris." Four says to her. A Dauntless member at another table calls out Four's name, and Tris turn to me. I raise both my eyebrows.
"What?" Tris asks.
"I'm developing a theory."
"And it is?" I picks up my hamburger, and grin.
"That you have a death wish."