Divergent: Peter

Chapter 17

"Peter." Someone hisses. "Peter! Get up, you lazy ass!" I open my eyes, seeing Molly standings above me, shaking my shoulder. "What?" I say groggily, rubbing my eyes. "It's Al. He's dead." I sit up fast, getting dizzy. "What?!"

She shrugs, "Drew heard Al ask Tris to forgive him, but Tris threatened to kill him if he came near her."

I laugh. "That sounds threatening. Did she kill him?"

She punches me in the arm. "Shut up, you idiot! He killed himself!"

I feel stupid. All I can say is, "Oh."

She sits down on the bunk bed across from mine, looking exhausted. "Yeah."

* * *

Drew, Molly and I are taking ships from a silver flask that Molly stole from the kitchen when we see Tris, Will, Christina and Uriah in font of us. Uriah offers her a flask that looks much like ours, and Tris shakes her head. "Surprise, surprise," Molly sneers. She elbows me in the stomach. "Once a Stiff, always a Stiff."

She leans forward, whispering into Tris's ear, "I read an interesting article today. It was about your father and the real reason you left your faction."

Tris's little hands ball into fists, and the next thing I know, her fist is connecting with Molly's jaw. Molly stumbles backward, then regains her balance and lunges at Tris.

Before Molly can touch her, Will grabs her collar and pulls her away. He looks between both of the girls, saying, "Quit it. Both of you." Molly snarls and rips her shirt out of his grasp. Tris turns around to face Eric, her arms folded. "Quiet down, everyone!" Eric shouts.

Someone bangs on a drum, and all the shouts die down, but there is still some muttering and whispering. "Thank you. As you know, we are here because Albert, an initiate, jumped into the chasm last night." Eric continues, "We do not know why, and it would be to mourn the loss of him tonight. But we did not choose a life of ease when we became Dauntless. And the truth of it is... The truth is, Albert is now exploring an unknown, uncertain place. He leapt into vicious waters to get there. Who among us is brave enough to venture into that darkness without knowing what lies beyond it? Albert was not yet one of our members, but we can be assured that he was one of our bravest!"

A cry breaks out from the middle of the room, followed by shouts from around the Pit. "We will celebrate him now, and remember him always!" He lifts a bottle. "To Albert the Courageous!" Everyone shouts, "To Albert!" I stay silent. Everyone starts yelling, "Al-bert! Al-bert! Al-bert!" This continues until they re just yelling and screaming random things.

I take the flask from Molly and take a big swig. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tris turn and run. After everyone stops screaming and yelling, all the Dauntless break off into their own groups, laughing and talking.

I turn, like Tris, and run.

* * *

A few days later, Tris changes. She is smiling nonstop and is really pissing me off, and she's not putting her hair up. The thing that changes most about her is that she is wearing very low-cut shirts, revealing tattoos I didn't know she had: 3 birds, flying, the Abnegation symbol, and the Dauntless symbol.

At breakfast, I carefully watch Tris when Four walks in. Her head snaps up and she smiles. Se raises her hand as if to call him over, and when he sits down at his regular table, her hand drops back onto the table, defeated. She definitely likes him.

Once again, Drew and Molly are silent, so we all just listen in on Tris's tables conversation. "You go through one of the instructors' landscapes. My brother told me." Tris looks up, staring at Uriah.

Christina asks, "Ooh, what instructor?"

"You know, it really isn't fair that you get all the inside information and we don't." Will pouts.

"Like you wouldn't use an advantage if you had one." Responds Uriah.

"I hope it's Fours fear landscape." At first I thought it was Tris who said that, but it turned out to be Christina.

"Why?" Tris doesn't look up.

Christina rolls her eyes. "Look like someone had a mood swing. Like you don't know what his fears are. He acts so tough that he's probably afraid of marshmallows and really bright sunrises. Overcompensating."

I stifle a laugh as Tris shakes her head. "It won't be him."

"How do you know?"

"It's just a prediction."

I watch as Tris looks up at Four and there eyes meet for a second, thn he looks away.

* * *

After Lauren leads us to the fear landscape room, she turns around and puts her hands on her hips. She starts talking. "Two years ago, I was afraid of spiders, suffocation, walls that inched slowly inward and trap you between them, getting thrown out of Dauntless, uncontrollable bleeding, getting run over by a train, my father's death, public humiliation, and kidnapping by men with out faces."

We all stare at her, not knowing what to she wants us to do. "Most of you will have anywhere from 10 to 15 fears in your fear landscapes," she continues. "That is the average number." A Dauntless born girl who I ont remember says, "What's the lowest number someone has gotten?"

Lauren replies, "In recent years, four." I look at Molly and we exchange glances. His nick name is Four, and he doesn't tell anyone about his fears. Coincidence? I don't think so.

"You will not find out your number today. The simulation is set to my fear landscape program, so you will experience my fears instead of your own. For the purposes of this exercise, though, each of you will only face one of my fears, to get a sense for how the simulation works."

She goes from front to back, assigning people fears. I get public humiliation. Drew gets being thrown out of Dauntless- I know that's one of my fears, but I don't know of its his or not.

Will goes first, dealing with the spiders, then Uriah, with the moving walls. I'm next. She hooks me up to the computer, then without saying anything, inserts the needle into my neck.

I open my eyes, and find myself in the training room again, surrounded by Dauntless, a punching bag in front of me. Again. But this time, they are all watching me expectantly, waiting. One steps forward and says, "Kick the bag." I'm confused. I thought this was supposed to be humiliating.

I frown, but I get ready to kick it. I snap my leg out, about to kick the bag, but something jerks my foot to the side, making me miss it completely. Everyone laughs. One little girl turns to her mother and says, "I could do that! What wrong with him, Mommy?" I feel my cheeks reddening as I try to explain to the Dauntless that something moved my foot, but they just laughed, and I turned redder and redder.

"Argh!!!" I yell, my foot flying, missing the bag again. The Dauntless burst out laughing again. Again and again and again, my leg misses the punching bag, my face turning redder and the people laughing harder. Finally I give up and just sit down. "Go to hell." I whisper.

I open my eyes. I'm back in the fear landscape room. Thank god.