Choose Your Own Adventure: Divergent

Stage Two- 89

The hallway is empty, dark, and crackles with anticipation. Uriah sits next to you, across from Tris, and Lynn is on your other side. You were separated for the first stage, but now Four says you'll be training together.

You're not sure what to make of it.

"So," Lynn says, scuffing the floor with her shoe. "Which one of you is ranked first, huh?"

The silence stretches out. Peter clears his throat. "Me," he says after a while.

"I bet I could take you," Lynn says casually, turning the ring in her eyebrow. "I'm second."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you," Peter says, eyes glittering. "Who's first?"

"Uriah," she says. "And I am sure. You know how many years we've spent preparing for this?"

Before anyone can respond, Four cracks open the door. You resist the urge to jump up and sprint after him. "Lynn," he says, and she strides down the hallway and into the room.

"Stage one was about skill, sure, but no one can prepare for stage two," Uriah is explaining. "At least, so I'm told."

You sit in silence. Tris keeps checking her watch. The door opens again. "Peter," Four says, and he all but sprints over. 

Finally, he calls your name, and you hurry inside, back sore from sitting. You blink at the sight inside. It's a metal chair, linked up to a familiar machine from the aptitude test. A computer sits in the corner.

"Sit," Four says, squeezing your arms and pushing you forward. "This simulation will teach you to control your emotions in the midst of frightening situations. In other words, you're going to face your fears."

He moves your hair to the side, fingers brushing your neck, and holds up an enormous needle filled with orange liquid. He eases the tip of the needle into the tender skin on the side of your neck, and you resist the urge to jump away.

"The serum will go into effect in sixty seconds," he tells you. "You stay in the hallucination until you calm down- that is, lower your heart rate and control your breathing."

"Be brave, Y/N," he says, bending down to stare into your eyes. "The first time is always the hardest."

*****

....

......

You bat your eyes open, humidity swathing your face in its thick blanket. All around you is green and brown, the colors of the jungle. 

You turn around, something moving in the edge of your vision, and come face to face with a pair of eyes. The snake hisses, and you see fangs rushing towards your face, so close you can see down its throat, and you stumble back, screaming and stumbling away. Vines twine up and trap you, and you try to kick them aside. You feel cold scales against your pant leg and yell, more snakes writhing from the earth to pin you down, lunging towards you and away and hissing...

A blazing-hot pain shoots through your arm and you scream, a snake lodged in your shoulder. You try to shake it off, venom shooting through your body, yelling for help as the scales coil around your neck, your mouth-

You need to calm down, Four's voice echoes in your head, and you sob, trying to ignore the snakes and the venom and-

How fast you get out depends on a random choice you're about to make.

If you choose 1, go to 90.

If you choose 2, go to 91. 

No looking ahead! Let it be random.