Soulmates

Chapter 3: Introductions

Once all the initiates jump, Lauren and the man who pulled Tris from the net address the group.

“My name is Four,” the man says, “and this is Lauren. Along with Eric, we will be your initiation trainers.”

Beside Tris, Christina giggles. “What, were 'One' through 'Three' taken?” she jokes.

By the look on Four’s face, Tris can tell that he has heard that joke before, and that he doesn’t find it funny.

“What’s your name?” Four asks Christina.

“Christina,” she squeaks.

“Well, Christina, the first thing you’re going to learn in Dauntless is to keep your mouth shut. If I wanted to be surrounded by Candor smart mouths I would have transferred there. Got it?”

Christina nods, squeezing her lips shut.

“Dauntless-born,” Lauren calls, breaking the tense moment. “Come with me. I assume you don’t need a tour of the compound. Transfers, you’re with Four.”

Lauren and the Dauntless-born initiates leave down a dark hallway. Tris looks at Four, who is examining them like he’s trying to decide who will survive. She notices that he refuses to make eye contact with her. He must have dismissed me as a failure already, she thinks to herself. The thought should worry her, she knows, but instead, Tris feels anger surge through her. I’ll show him, she thinks. I’ll show them all.

Four leads the group through the Dauntless compound. He points out the Pit, where the Dauntless shops are. He shows them the Chasm, and warns them that a daredevil jump from the bridge is  a guaranteed death sentence. Then Four leads them to the dormitory, a long, narrow room with rows of bunks and foot locker chests down each side. Like the rest of the compound, the walls are dark stone, and the floor is a solid slab of concrete worn smooth by time and generations of Dauntlessinitiates. Three bare lightbulbs hang from the ceiling in the center of the room.

“This is your new home,” Four says in a bored tone.

“Girls or boys?” asks a slight Erudite girl.

“Both,” Four answers.

Surprisingly, the Erudite girl looks happy. She smiles at the large Erudite boy she’s been sticking close to. He grabs her hand, and Tris suddenly realizes that they’re a couple.

Two of the Candor transfers, a red-headed boy and his better looking dark-haired buddy, also look pleased, though in a more leering way. The girls look less happy. Tris feels anxiety bubble up in her chest. Her mother told her Dauntless initiation would be tough, but she didn’t mention sharing a room with strange boys.

After the briefest glimpse of their new living quarters, Four leads the initiates to the cafeteria. When they arrive, the Dauntless members whoop, stomp, and cheer in celebration of their new initiates. Tris grins broadly, loving the noise and energy of her new faction. The initiates follow Four like ducklings, sitting with him at a long table filled with strange food Tris has never seen before.

No one else seems lost or surprised by the food. Christina grabs a circle of meat and puts it inside a bread roll. Tris follows suit, sneaking a sniff to see if she can identify the meat.

“It’s beef,” Four says around a mouthful. “Put this on it.” He passes Tris a bowl of red sauce.

“You’ve never had a hamburger before?” asks Christina, her eyes wide.

“No,” Tris says. “Is that what it’s called?”

“Stiffs eat plain food,” Four growls. ‘They don’t believe in enjoying anything, including dinner.”

She smirks. “No wonder you left.”

“Yeah,” Tris says, rolling her eyes. “It was because of the food.”

The doors at the entrance to the cafeteria burst open suddenly, and Eric steps inside. He’s so wide with his broad shoulders and muscular arms that he seems to fill the doorway. As he steps in and conversations around the cafeteria taper off, Tris realizes that he doesn’t just fill a doorway, but an entire room. Maybe an entire faction. Unconsciously she scoots a little closer to Four.

Eric looks anything but pleased to be there. He scans the room until his eyes land on Four. The animosity that Tris sees on Eric’s face, and the tension she feels radiating off Four tell her everything she needs to know about the relationship between the two men. They’re rivals, enemies, two alpha males forced to share territory.

Eric marches straight for their table. “Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don’t show up,” he says to Four.

Four answers without looking up at the young leader. “Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I have.”

“Tell him yourself,” Eric snaps. “I’m your leader, not your bitch.”

“Fine,” Four says coolly. “You take the initiates back to the dorm, and I’ll go talk to Max.”

Eric growls, and Tris tenses in preparation for an explosion. Four has backed Eric into a corner by forcing him to either take the message to Max or take the initiates. For a full minute no one speaks. Four looks smug, with his arms crossed across his chest. The initiates sit absolutely still with their silverware halfway to their mouths or their jaws stopped mid-chew.

“Transfers!” Eric finally bellows. “Come with me.” When no one moves, he yells again. “Now!”

Eric marches the new initiates back to their dorm room, and brusquely hands out black training uniforms and combat boots with as little conversation as possible. 

“Some ground rules,” he barks when the clothes are all distributed. “You have to be in the training room by eight o’clock every day. Training takes place every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you like after six. You will also get some time off between each stage of initiation.

“You are only permitted to leave the compound when accompanied by a Dauntless member,” Eric adds. “The first stage of initiation is physical. We keep transfers and Dauntless-born initiates separate for that, but that doesn’t mean you are evaluated separately. At the end of initiation, your rankings will be determined in comparison with the Dauntless-born initiates. And they are better than you are already. So I expect—”

“Rankings?” asks the Erudite girl. “Why are we ranked?”

Eric smiles, clearly excited about the unwelcome news he is about to deliver. “Your ranking serves two purposes,” he says. “The first is that it determines the order in which you will select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available. The second purpose is that only the top ten initiates are made members.”

Pain stabs Tris’ stomach, and the initiates stand still as statues. And then Christina says, “What?”

“There are eleven Dauntless-born, and nine of you,” Eric explains in a condescending sing-song tone. “That equals twenty. Ten initiates will become Dauntless, and ten will go bye-bye.”

My odds, as the smallest initiate, as the only Abnegation transfer, are not good. Tris thinks.

“What do we do if we’re cut?” a boy asks.

“You leave the Dauntless compound,” says Eric indifferently, “and live factionless.”

The big Candor girl starts to object. “But if we had known…”

Eric cuts her off. “Are you saying that if you had known this before the Choosing Ceremony, you wouldn’t have chosen Dauntless?” Eric snaps. “Because if that’s the case, you should get out now. If you are really one of us, it won’t matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward.”

Eric pushes the door to the dormitory open. “You chose us,” he says. “Now we have to choose you.”

Some of the initiates look stunned, their mouths opening and closing like fish out of water. The dark-haired former Candor boy looks smug. The Erudite girl stiffles a sob, pressing her face into her boyfriend’s chest. Tris feels colder. Harder. I will be a member. I will, she thinks.