Danger is Near

Chapter 6

Once we were all ready we headed down to The Pit. Jem, Tess, Christina, Tris, Amy, Matisse and I.

Everyone was already down there. We took a while getting ready. But seriously, c'mon, we're girls.

As we entered the Pit I noticed Four standing in front of the group of initiates and Eric sitting on a rock a few metres behind him. I had to admit, each time I saw him he looked sexier and sexier.

Four noticed us join the back of the group. He then began to talk. "There are three stages of training".

Before he could continue Eric rised and walked towards him. "Hold it Four," Eric said bluntly. "You girls at the back" he paused, "you're late". As he said this the crowd of initiates in front of us parted. Everyones eyes were either on us or Eric. Eric didn't look pleased, he looked at us, but it felt like he was mostly looking at me.

"So," he started up again, "ladies. Why are you late?" he questioned.

I looked around at the girls and realised none of them were going to speak up any time soon, so I took that as my queue to talk.

"Sorry, we won't be late again." I said.

"Mmhmm. You better not be" Four said. But I knew this wasn't over.

"You didn't answer my question, initiate. I asked why you were late" Eric said intimidatingly.

It felt like he said initiate just to point out that he had power and I didn't. What a jerk.

I began to answer him, "We.. um.. we were just..." I stopped talking. We didn't have any excuse as to why we were late. He looked at me as if I was a pathetic little kid.

"Mmm. That's what I thought," he stated blankly, "if you're late again... You're out" he finished, with a wicked grin.

I knew he was talking to all of us, but it felt like he was just implying to me, as if I was the reason as to why we were all late. Immediately, I was pissed at the girls for not backing me up or helping me out.

Eric stepped back behind Four and let him continue. You could tell Four and Eric had some beef.

"As I was saying, there are three stages of training. The first is physical. It will push your bodies and you'll master the methods of combat. The second will teach you how to use a gun and how to properly use a knife when in combat. The third is mental. Again, breaking point. You'll face your worst fears and conquer them, unless they get you first. You'll be trained separately from the Dauntless born but you'll be ranked together. After initiations your rankings will determine what jobs you move into. Leadership, guarding the fence and keeping the Factionless from killing each other".

Ah hah. Leadership, thats where I wanna go. I thought to myself.

"Your rankings will also determine who gets cut!" Eric's voice boomed.

Everyone's eyes darted towards him. I think we were all shocked. Did I hear correctly...

I locked eyes with Amy. "Cut?" Amy questioned.

"At the end of each stage of training the lowest ranking initiates will be leaving us" Eric said thoroughly.

A shy looking boy in the front stepped forward a little, like he mis-heard Eric. "To do what?" he questioned.

"Well theres no going home to your families, so you'd live factionless." Eric answered.

His eyes pan across all of us, as if looking to see if any of us had been intimidated. I think we all had, but I don't want to show my worry, not in front of Eric.

"Why didn't we know that" the Erudite transfer from before confronted. I think his name was Will.

Eric looked a little infuriated with Will's tone. "It's a new rule." Eric said, eyeing Will, trying to scare him.

"A new rule? Somebody should of told us that!" I piped in, raising my voice a little.

"Why!?" Eric spoke up. "Would you have chosen differently?" he quietly finished.

He was still looking at me. He kept questioning me, "What, out of fear?".

He then looked at everyone else. "I mean if that's the case then you might as well get out now. If your really one of us it won't matter to you that you might fail. Alright. You chose us... Now we get to choose you" he addressed. Showing us his trademark evil grin at the end of his little speech.

It became awkwardly silent. Most people looked worried. I tried to hide my worry though, especially when Eric looked at me. I hated it when he looked at me. It was like he was a hunter and I was his prey.

"Ok guys, follow me. I'm taking you to your training area" Four broke the silence.

We all followed him quickly, wanting to get as far away from Eric as possible.

As we walked, I couldn't help but think about Eric. I was so scared of him and he really aggravated me. But at the same time, I wanted to get to know him, I wanted to get behind that layer of harshness and wickedness. I was sure he had feelings. I was sure there was a reason as to why he was so mean.

"Alright, here we are." Four spoke up.

"This is where you will be training and fighting".

We took a look around and Four let us walk around for ourselves.

He called us back to where he was and said "Dinner is soon, you have free time for the rest of the day. Meet in the Hall at 6:30pm. And remember, seeing as you lot are initiates, you are to be in your dorm at 9:00pm, and no later. Otherwise there will be consequences. See you soon", and with that he walked off.

"So, guys.. What should we do?" I turned around to the girls questioning them.

Christina checked her watch. "Well, its 5:00 now, do we want to just go for a walk until 6:30?"

"I'm pretty sure they have 'shops' here" Jem said.

"Wait. What do you mean, 'shops'?" I questioned.

"Yeah, like places where we can buy more clothes, jewellery and all that." Jem answered.

"Well, I like the sound of that!" I said excitedly.

"Hell yeah! Let's go find them!" Amy buzzed.