Anomalous

Chapter 4: Omega's Choice

The Eruditus are smug, but the Abnegatus are horrified. Then it's Omega's turn, and she's sure she will choose Abnegatus, but then she realizes that if Apollo wasn't fit for a selfless life, then how could she be?

In a final decision, she slices her hand with the knife and her blood drips onto the coals.

"Omega Dianna Crawford."

"DOMITARE."

Omega's father glares at her in accusation, but her mother smiles. Apollo appears to be having an easy time with this, which she takes as a betrayal.

"Welcome to Domitare!"

Domitare is the first to leave, running down the stairs in a wild frenzy, and their first task as initiates is to jump onto a moving train.

"Come on. Let's go."

"Come on!"

Omega has a lot of trouble at first, but finally, a Candidus transfer reaches out to help her. She watches as a boy doesn't make it onto the train; he has already failed initiation and is now homeless.

"You made it."

"I'm Hemera Moirai Elgort."

"Omega Dianna Crawford."

The Candidus girl introduces herself as Hemera, and as they ride the train to Domitare's headquarters, Omega wonders how she didn't notice that Apollo was leaning towards Eruditus all along.

"Is it just me or are they trying to kill us?" Hemera utters.

"Get ready!" a Domitare woman announces.

The Domitare initiates have to jump off the train onto a rooftop seven stores high. Missing the jump would mean falling to one's death.

"They're jumping." Omega says.

"What?" Hemera asks in confusion.

An Abnegatus boy refuses to jump; he would rather be homeless than dead, but Omega disagrees.

"What if you don't jump?" An Abnegatus boy asks.

"What do you think? You'll be Outcast. Good luck, Aion." then he jumps.

"Together?" Hemera utters.

"Yeah."

"One, two, three..." Omega counts then they jump hand in hand and make it, most of the others do, but a Domitare-born girl falls to her death. Her sister has little time to mourn. Omega worries about surviving initiation.

"All right. Listen up. I'm Hades Phanes Silvestri. I'm one of your leaders. If you want to enter Domitare, this is the way in. And if you don't have the guts to jump, then you don't belong in Domitare."

A Domitare leader named Hades greets them and informs them that to enter the Domitare coalition compound, they must jump off the building.

"Is there water at the bottom of something?" an Eruditus boy asks.

"I guess you'll find out. Or not." Hades answers.

"We just jumped. They want us to jump again?" Hemera utters in disgust.

"Someone's gotta go first. Who's it gonna be?" Hades challenges them.

Everyone else is reluctant to go first.

"Me," Omega answered. Omega steps up. She looked at the building and took off her suit.

"Yeah, Pawn, take it off!" a man teased her. "Put it back on!"

Without thinking too much, Omega jumps.

"Today, Initiate." Hades utters.

A net catches her and a young man reaches out of hand to help her up. She notes his deep, dark blue eyes.

"What, you get pushed?" the young man asks.

"No."

A Domitare girl nearby remarks that she can't believe a Pawn was the first to jump, and then the young man asks her name, telling her to think about it, because she doesn't get to pick again. Finally, she settles on "Mega".

"What's your name?" he asks.

"It's....Om.."

"Is that a hard one? You can pick a new one if you want, but make it good. You don't get to pick again."

She sighs deeply. "Okay... My name's Mega."

"First jumper, Mega!" the young man shouted. People cheers.

"Welcome to Domitare."

The man, known as Alpha welcomes her to Domitare, then Omega smiles.

The initiates are split up between Domitare, born, and transfers.

Alpha Uranus is in charge of the transfers.

"Domitare-born, go with Eris, transfers stay with me." the young man speaks in front of them.

He announces that most of the time he works in the control room, but for the next few weeks he will be their instructor.

"Most of the time I work in intelligence but during your training, I'll be your instructor. My name's Alpha Uranus Nicholson."

Hemera, true to her Candidus personality, mouths off immediately, and Alpha puts her in her place.

"Alpha like the Greek Alphabet?" Hemera asks.

"Exactly like the Greek Alphabet," he answers.

"What happened, Beta, Gamma, and Delta were taken?"

"What's your name?"

"Hemera... Hemera Moirai Elgort."

Alpha comes closer to Hemera and then whispers.

"Well, Hemera. The first lesson you learn from me if you wanna survive here, is to keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Alpha walks first.

"Follow me," he commanded.

The first stop on their tour of the compound is the Hell, a massive underground cavern. Built into its walls are places for food, clothing, supplies, and leisure activities. There are plenty of Domitare around, but Mega noticed that she doesn't see any elderly members.

"This is the Hell. The center of life here at Domitare."

The next step is their respective quarters, their rooms.

There are beds around seem like a meter away from each other beds.

"You're gonna be sleeping here for the next 10 weeks."

"Girls or Boys?" an Eruditus boy asks.

"Both," Alpha replied.

"Nice," Hemera added.

"That works." the Eruditus utters.

"If you like this you're gonna love the bathroom," Alpha added.

"Great."

The bathroom doesn't have any partition or privacy it is open and anybody can see you doing your kinds of stuff.

There are cubicles for each of them and a toilet bowl that is so close to one another without a partition.

Okay...

"Seriously?" Omega utters.

"Is there no other area?" a boy asks.

"Are you kidding?" Hemera sighs in disgust.

"You should feel right at home, Candidus. Everything out in the open."

"Is this a joke?"

"Get changed," he commanded while leaving them in their rooms.

"Right. Shower, anyone?" a boy shouted.

Alpha then shows them the Abyssus, where only a railing separates them from a several-story drop into a churning river.

Alpha informs them that it is there to remind them of the fine line between bravery and idiocy, and people have jumped and died there in the past.