Invergent

Chapter Seven

McKell's Perspective:

The crowd of Dauntless pushes us to the stairs and everyone starts running down them. I laugh as Parker pulls me along, the other Dauntless whooping and hollering. My legs burn as we near the bottom, but it's a good feeling.

We exit the building and spread out across the street, running as fast as we can. I grin, savoring the wind in my hair and Parker's hand in mine. We near the train tracks and my heart stutters when I see it winding towards us, lights flashing and horn blaring. We have to jump on that thing, I realize. Maybe it's the adrenaline coursing through my system, but suddenly I can't wait. I grin at Parker and release his hand so I can run faster.

The Dauntless spread out in a line alongside the tracks, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the train. It glides forward without stopping and the Dauntless pile in, one group at a time. The initiates are last, but the Dauntless-borns have done this before, so they don't have any trouble. Before I know it, only the faction transfers are left. I run a few steps alongside the train, Parker in front of me. He hops in, then extends his hand to help me up. I take it and hop into the train car, stumbling slightly as I do. Parker catches me, and we look at each other. I grin, and suddenly neither of us can stop laughing. I feel giddy with relief. The train picks up speed, and a burst of wind knocks me into Parker, which makes us both laugh harder.

We sit against the wall, shoulder to shoulder, and I look around at the other initiates. I'm surprised to see Chrissy crouched on the other side of the car. Besides her, me, and Parker, there are three other Candor-Dauntless transfers. I recognize them, but I haven't spoken with any of them before. There are three initiates from Erudite and two from Amity. Two of the ones from Erudite seem to be a couple. The girl from Amity is in a conversation with a few of the Dauntless-borns, and the boy from Amity has his head buried in his arms.

I turn to Parker and ask, "What do you think it will be like?"

"Wild," he chuckles.

I lean my head on his arm and close my eyes. "I can't wait."

After at least half an hour, I hear someone shout, "They're jumping off!"

I stand up carefully and look out the car door. Like he said, the Dauntless ahead of us are leaping from the train onto a roof. A roof seven stories up. I feel a wave of nausea at the thought of jumping from here to the roof with the gap in between. Parker takes my hand and squeezes it.

"We have to jump off too, then," one of the other Candor girls says. I think her name is Polly.

"Because that makes perfect sense," Parker mutters under his breath. "Leap off a train onto a roof."

"This is kind of what we signed up for," I say.

"I'm not doing it," the Amity boy says. Tears stream down his face.

"You've got to, or you fail," Chrissy says. "Come on, it'll be alright."

"No, it won't! I'd rather be factionless than dead!" He shakes his head, panic in his eyes. I frown and turn back to watch the roof, which is coming closer by the second.

"Ready?" Parker asks.

"As much as I'll ever be," I respond.

"One..." Parker counts. "Two...three!"

We leap out of the train car and it feels like I'm floating in midair for a long second. Then, our feet slam into the ground and I stumble forward. Parker steadies me and grins. I look around and see that all the transfers made it besides the Amity boy. Polly clutches her ankle and Chrissy brushes gravel off of her scraped knee.

Then someone screams. I turn to see a Dauntless girl standing at the ledge, looking at the ground below and crying. A Dauntless boy holds her waist to keep her from falling. "Rita," he says, choking back his own sob. "Rita, calm down. Rita–"

I can't bring myself to look at the pavement, too scared of what I'll see. I turn away and try to block out Rita's wails.

"Listen up!" Someone shouts at the other end of the roof. He's older than the other Dauntless I've seen, and he stands on the ledge casually, like there isn't a deadly drop right behind him. "My name is Dax! I am one of the leaders of your new faction! Several stories below us is the members' entrance to our compound. If you can't muster the will to jump off, you don't belong here. Our initiates have the privilege of going first."

"You want us to jump off a ledge?" asks the Erudite girl. After what we just did, I'm surprised that she's surprised.

"Yes," Max says.

"Is there water at the bottom or something?"

"Who knows?" He raises his eyebrows.

The crowd parts for the initiates, and I can feel their eyes on us. I know what I have to do. I'm going to have to jump off no matter what, so my best strategy is to make a good impression on the Dauntless and be the first one to do it.

I raise my hand in the air. "I'll do it," I call out.

I step forward, but before I reach the ledge, the Amity girl steps onto it, staring down at the giant hole in the ground.

"Excuse me," I say to her. "I said I'm going first."

"Well, I got up here before you, didn't I?"

Angrily, I step onto the ledge next to her. "I called it."

She puts her hands on my shoulders and pushes me off the ledge and back onto the roof. "Hey!" I exclaim. She tenses up and bends her knees, about to jump. Without thinking, I grab her arm to stop her. I jump back onto the ledge as Parker emerges from the crowd.

"McKell!" he shouts as he runs up to us. He roughly grabs both my arm and the arm of the Amity girl, trying to pull us apart. He pulls me back towards the roof while releasing the other girl's arm. I look over just in time to see the Amity girl flailing her arms, Parker having knocked her off balance. I gasp and grab her just as she tips off the ledge. Her weight is too much for me, however, and we both tumble off of the roof, spiraling through the air towards the hole. The wind makes my eyes water and I can't tell up from down. I catch a glimpse of a net below us and manage to rotate myself to land on my back. I smack into the net, then find myself rolling towards the Amity girl, who landed at the same time as me. We hit into each other, my head banging on her elbow.

"Ouch!" I yelp. I push myself up, trying to separate myself from the Amity girl. I see hands outstretched at the edge of the net and crawl over to them, the Amity girl close behind. I grab one and it pulls me off the net, catching me before I hit the ground.

"Thanks," I breathe, looking up to see who helped me. He has long black hair and so many piercings I can't count them all.

He smirks and says, "Two first jumpers? That must be a first. What're your names?"

"McKell," I tell him.

He looks at the Amity girl, who responds, "Elise."

"Make the announcement, Three," the man says.

I look over to see a guy with dark, short hair and dark blue eyes. His eyelashes are so long that they touch the bottom of his eyebrow, which is slightly weird. "First jumpers," he announces to the crowd of Dauntless watching us. "McKell and Elise." They all cheer.

I hear the snap of the net behind me and turn to see Parker crawling out. "Parker!" I call, rushing over to help him down from the net.

"Are you okay?" he asks in a worried tone. "I'm so sorry! I never meant for that to happen!"

"It's okay, I'm fine!" I assure him.

"I'm Erin," the man with the piercings says, holding his hand out for Parker to shake. "I'll be helping to oversee your training." Parker shakes his hand with a slightly confused expression, looking between me and Erin.

"Parker," he says.

"Welcome to Dauntless," Erin says to us.