Dauntless Rising

Fighting

I knew what everyone was thinking. That I was going to get kicked out. Become Factionless. Factionless. The word alone made me shiver. What was I going to do? I looked at Ara.

"What should I do?"

"Well, if you want to survive, you're gonna have to work your butt off, and hope you get lucky." Even though that wasn't the most supportive thing to say, she was right.

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

Ara trained with me during our spare time. I got creamed in fights. I had a split lip, a black eye, and bruises all over my body. But I didn't stop. I had come this far and I wasn't going to let anything keep me from staying in Dauntless.

Alex came up to me the day before my final fight. "You're gonna wear yourself out." I had been training even after Ara left to take a break.

"Why do you care?" I didn't even glance at him.

He grabbed my hand and I stopped. I turned around and glared at him. He chuckled. "Because," he said, all Erudite smart, "if you put all your energy into practicing you won't have any left during an actual fight. Trust me."

I sighed and sat down. He sat down next to me and I ran my fingers through my hair. "The thing is... I don't think I'm gonna make it. If I don't work hard and train every day, there's not a chance they're going to let me stay."

"Ana..." he sighed deeply. "I know how you feel." I looked at him. It wasn't till then that I noticed he had gotten slightly more muscular. But he also looked as horrible as I felt and probably looked. "I need the extra help. You don't. You're strong and you need to realize that." He patted my knee. I opened my mouth to object, but he just said, "think about that," and I watched him as he walked into the darkness and out of sight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I checked the board on my way out. I was five people below the line. Alex was second to last. I sighed, fighting back tears. He was right, no matter how much I didn't want him to be.

The next day I had to fight the girl from my dream. Tris. I had just found out her name. 

We circled around each other, until she threw the first punch. She was weak, like me, but she was only just below the line. She was ahead of me. I had to beat her.

This thought sent a rush of adrenaline through my body, and I punched her in the face, catching her off guard. Then I grabbed her legs and knocked her over. She looked up at me, straight in the eye, and suddenly I was back in my dream.

She slowly walked towards me. "You're weak! You think you can beat me? I may be below the line, but I'm still ahead! You're more Divergent than I am! That makes you weaker than me!" She started sprinting at me, pulling out a gun, and pulled the trigger.

I woke up panting in a hostipal bed. Ara, Angie, and Melody were sitting around my bed, looking worried. I looked to my left. And Alex. He had been holding my hand, but quickly released when he saw that I was awake. I smiled in my mind. Stop that, I scolded myself, he's my friend. He was just worried about me.  I sat up.

"What happened?"

"We don't know. After you took out Tris- oh, you won by the way- you started screaming, and then you just... collasped." Alex looked over at Ara.

"The wierdest part is... the same thing happened to Tris." She looked over and I turned my head to look at Tris, who seemed to be waking up as well, her friends surrounding her.

I jumped up, and started to walk towards Tris' bed. We needed to talk.