The Other One

Chapter Five

The train arrives at Dauntless a little over half an hour later and Marie and I brace ourselves for the jump. Picturing the Dauntless jumping makes this a lot easier. I hold my breath and leap out of the cart, with my eyes closed. I land hard on the roof of Dauntless on my knees and I scrape my elbows against the rubble that lies there. The box never leaves my clenched fist, though.

"We'll have to jump, because they keep the doors to the stairs locked at all times." Marie tells me as she walks toward the middle of the roof, where a giant whole sits in front of her.
"Jump? Off the roof?" I ask in panic.
"I thought you were part dauntless." She questions me. "And don't sweat it too much. We're only jumping into this hole over here." She says as if this is a normal thing.

I squint my eyes and try to look more tough than some scared Amity.
"You'll be fine. If anything, the train ride was more dangerous. Lucas told me theres a net that'll catch us at the bottom." Says Marie.
"Okay." I know now that if I want to survive, I have to trust Marie and her brother. I run to catch up with her and we stand over the edge.
"I'll meet you at the bottom, okay?" She says.
I nod and watch her as she takes a deep breath and plummets down the hole until I can no longer see her through the darkness. I stand where Marie stood and bend my knees. Did she make it? Is she okay? Maybe I should stay on the roof and hide.
No.
Im stalling. I don't focus on what Im doing, and jump.

The wind soars through my hair and my long, red, button-up shirt flows up my back, leaving my stomach and my backside bare. I land hard on a net and spring right back up, until I hit the rope again. The force of my body leaves marks on my skin from the net, but I ignore them and struggle my way off the ropes. Marie helps me off the net, and we continue to move. While we jog, we keep our footsteps as quiet as possible. Dauntless is Amity's least favorite faction. We don't admit it because that would be rude and disrespectful, but everyone knows it.

The tunnels we make our way through are made of damp and cold stone and I naturally despise the lack of beauty and creativity. The halls are empty and I have no idea where Marie is taking me. What if this is a trap? What if Marie was in the office to guide me to my death? Ive never seen her around school... I push the idea out of my head and try to catch up with her.

After turning down countless hallways, I follow Marie down many stairs until we reach a door that she slams her fist against four times.
"How do you know your way around here?" I ask her between breaths.
"I came here for the past three visiting days. Lucas told me incase of any emergency, I should come here as soon as possible. So... here we are." Marie says, catching her breath as well.
I knew that this was bad, that this was an emergency, but hearing Marie say so sends a shiver down my spine.
The door opens seconds later with a large man holding a gun, pointing at us. His hair is the same bleached color as Marie's, but much shorter and spiked in the front. His hand that holds the door open has a tattoo of Dauntless on the front of it. He looks like he's in his early twenties.
"Hi Lucas." Marie spits out in a hurry.
"Oh, its you Marie." He sounds relieved. "Hi, Come on in."
I let Marie in first and I follow behind her.
"Take a seat, right over here." He points to what looks like his living room. "What happened?"
Marie begins, "Both of our results were inconclusive. The teachers tried to kill us, but we escaped. Now were here."
"You're divergent? Both of you?" Lucas asks sounding panicked. I nod, sweating even more than before. "Oh my - so you came right here afterwards?"
"As soon as the teachers came in with needles-" I pause, "we ran away." I finish, disturbed at the words that come out of my mouth.
"Thats whats in here." I lift the box.
"Who are you, again?" Lucas asks me.
"I'm James." I reply "Marie brought me with her."
"Okay... How can I trust you?" When he says this, Marie looks at me, and scoots to the other side of the couch.
"Do you think I'm some sort of spy? To watch you? And potentially kill you? Because If I was, I think you'd be dead by now." These words shoot out from my lips before I process what they mean. Lucas stares at me and Marie does as well. They both looked shocked at what I said, but I know for a fact that they aren't as shocked as me.

"I know where we need to go." Lucas tells us.