Lost Truths

Jump Ari, Jump

I knew I had to get to Dauntless as quickly as possible and lie my way in, but there was just one little snag in my plan. Neither Caleb nor I knew where either faction was located.

Deciding I would just have to wander aimlessly until I found it, I set off in no particular direction.

After wandering the streets for an hour or two, I saw a teenager clothed in black run across the street and start climbing up the side of a building nearby. He climbed dangerously high, dauntlessly high.

Understanding that he was Dauntless, I ran to the building and with only a slight hesitation I began to climb.

At first I was scared. I'm not embarrassed to admit it, I was scared. It was perilously high. If I fell from this height I was sure to die as soon as I hit the pavement below. By the time I reached the top I wasn't afraid anymore. Climbing the building had been an adrenaline rush, full of excitement and freedom. I could tell I was going to like Dauntless.

I watched the boy eye a train in the distance, rapidly speeding toward us. I understood what he was planning to do. He was going to jump on it without it so much as slowing down.

If I wanted to get to Dauntless I would have to jump too. Jump onto a moving train and hope I wouldn't miss.

As he took off on a running pace alongside the train, I took a deep breath and followed. Sprinting just behind the boy, I noticed our strip of rooftop would disappear in the next few feet or so, leaving a terrific drop off into nothingness.

The boy quickly turned, wrenching open a car and tumbling inside.

I sped up and reached my hand out for the handle of the car. My fingers lightly brushed it, but never fully gripped it. Just a few more steps until I fell to my death. I had to board this train.

The boy poked his head out and meeting my eyes, grabbed my outstretched hand and pulled me into the car roughly. As I fell to the floor of the train car, I realized he had just saved my life. I owed him big time.

"Thanks," I said breathlessly.

He smirked, "You looked like you could use a hand."

"I would have gotten it eventually."

"Yeah, but would eventually have been soon enough?"

I shrugged, trying my best to look casual. "Maybe. Maybe not."

He just laughed and stuck out his hand. "Name's Uriah."

I shook his hand. "Ari."

"Good to meet you Ari. So where you headed? I've never seen someone from another faction try to travel the Dauntless way."

"Oh, I'm actually headed to Dauntless right now."

His eyebrow raised. "Really? Why you wearing Amity clothes then?"

I looked down at my outfit. A light red top and jeans with running shoes. I remembered when I first got here seeing the people and how I thought they looked color coded. I guess I wasn't far off. Each faction wore a certain color and according to Uriah's outfit, the Dauntless color was black.

"Um, it's kind of a long story," I said, gracefully dodging his question.

"Well we've got time until we reach Dauntless."

I sighed. There was no way out of this one unless I felt like jumping off the train and consequently killing myself. Cover story time.

"Well, my faction of origin is Amity, but my chosen faction is Dauntless," I began, remembering the countless things I overheard while imprisoned. It still felt so odd to be free.

"When the Choosing Ceremony took place a few weeks ago, I was sick. Like really sick. I was deemed unable to attend, which I sort of threw a right good fit about. None of my fellow Amity knew I planned on choosing something other than Amity. I got better and ended up telling my faction leader that I hadn't planned to stay in Amity. She agreed I should still have free choice, so today she turned me loose into the world. I've been looking for the way into Dauntless for at least an hour."

Uriah seemed dumbstruck, which I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Dang." He finally found his voice. "I'm sorry about that. It's good of Johanna to give you the choice though, even if you weren't able to choose when everyone else did."

Johanna? Oh, she must be Amity's faction leader. It would be good to keep that in mind. Not knowing my supposed old faction leader would undermine my argument very quickly.

"You're going to have a real rough time integrating aren't you?" he asked.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well Dauntless has got this new thing where the people who don't do well enough during initiation are thrown out onto the streets and become factionless. You're probably going to be placed at the bottom of the scoreboard and since you come from Amity, well..."

"Are you saying that because I'm from Amity I won't be able to do as well as you?" I asked teasingly.

"No, but you can bet Eric's going to be really hard on you."

"Eric?"

"Faction leader, one of them anyways. He's half in charge of the initiates and he's one mean guy. Heard he made a Candor cry last week."

"Lucky I never cry then."

"Well aren't you just a little ray of sunshine."

Smiling I reply, "How bad can he really be?"

"You're about to meet him."

"Wait what?"

"He said he'd be waiting for me to return since I left to pick up something for him. If you're getting off with me at Dauntless, then you'll meet him before you have to jump off the side of a building."

"What? Uriah..."

He stood up, brushing dirt off his pants. "Oh yeah. You have to jump off this train first."

He laughed at my wide eyes. "Come on sunshine, just be Dauntless."

With that he jumped out of the car....and I followed.