Those Five Words

13.

Chapter 13

FOUR POV

I love the training room. It is the place I have spent almost every day training with Amar in for the last few years. Every morning before school I would get up and come down here and workout with Amar. It all sort of started by accident. I remember I was about twelve and I came down here just to check it out. It was the year before Amar would have his Choosing Ceremony.

Amar wanted to be the best; he had been training for years. I would say he is the best but I think I could take him now if we had a real fight. Not that I would want too. I don't actually like hitting people; I don't like to inflict pain if I don't have too. But I like the feeling that I have the power and strength to do it.

So I was watching him train one morning, I had been watching for a couple of weeks, when Amar noticed me sitting in the corner.

"Hey Four, what you doing?" he asked me.

"Just watching," I replied.

"Want to try?" he asks. He is pointing at the punching bag. I nod my head and start to walk over to Amar and the punching bag. He showed me some easy moves. And from that day on we have been training together.

Now he is my instructor. I suppose he has been my instructor for years now but he was also my friend. Now we can't have our usual joke around while we are working. Now I have to show him the respect he deserves as he trains us. Not that I am going to need much training, it is just as well. I am not looking forward to having to fight any one. I think the best thing to do is to get it over with as quickly as possible. Try and knock them out quickly. I really hope Amar doesn't match me against one of the girls. I would hate to have to hurt one of them. But I will if I have too, my aim is to be ranked first. Make dad proud.

"Okay initiates gather round," Amar says. As he waits for everyone to gather around him I stand there and get to see just who has transferred to Dauntless and who chose to stay. I hadn't really taken much notice last night with everything that was going on. "Today we are going to learn how to shoot a gun and then we are going to learn some fighting moves. Transfers as I said yesterday you will be training with the Dauntless-borns but for stage one you will be ranked separately. You will also only have fights with other transfers."

"Why can't we fight the Dauntless-borns?" Eric asks. He is a lot more confident today than he was yesterday when we had to go through our fear landscapes. I know the only reason he is asking is because he wants to fight me. I know he thinks he can beat me, all because he got that one punch in that time at school. I think if I had to fight, Eric is the person I wouldn't feel bad about hitting. He just grates on my nerves. He is exactly the type of person that dad and the other leaders have been trying to weed out of Dauntless. Sadistic bastards who are only here because it gives them an excuse to hurt others.

"Well Eric I think it is in your best interest that you stick to fighting the transfers. From what I know you are only good in a fight when you sneak up on the person," Amar says. The Dauntless-borns are snickering in the background at Eric now. Everyone knows how he gave me that black eye. They also know that he usually only tries to pick on Dauntless-borns that are a few years younger than he is.

At least this shuts Eric up for the time being and we get to start playing with the guns. Amar hands us each a gun and we go and line up in front of the targets.

Amar walks over to where I am standing and he says, "Why don't you give yourself a challenge today? Shoot with your left hand."

I just nod and give him a smirk. Too easy I think. I have been practising with both hands for two years. I don't mind though, I love feeling the power of having the gun in my hand, placing my fingers around the cold metal, watching as the bullets hit the target exactly where I want them too. Not that I would want to shoot someone but I'm glad I know how.

^-^

Fights have been going well. I have been giving Shauna lessons every night. She isn't very good at fighting and I know she wants to do well. At least we know if we do well we will all pass initiation. They were talking about introducing cuts. They were thinking of cutting the lowest ranked initiates. But dad decided because we had such low numbers this year they would allow everyone to become a member as long as they were competent. I'm thankful that these are the rules. I would hate to see one of my friends cut. Or any of the Dauntless-born really. Although seeing Eric cut would be a treat, but it wouldn't happen anyway, he is the highest ranked transfer, he is going to make it into Dauntless easily.

I have to fight Zeke today. I have been dreading this all morning as I watched the other fights. We have been sitting together watching the other fights but we haven't been talking. Zeke knows I can beat him and he also knows I don't like to harm my opponents. I don't know what he will do when we get into the ring. Zeke has never been a good fighter but he can hold his own. My other two fights were won easily. I just kept blocking their shots until they left their faces unguarded and then one punch knocked them both out. It was the easiest way to get through the matches with the least amount of damage. My fight against Chad only lasted twenty five seconds. I felt bad for him afterwards; it was really embarrassing for him.

I can see Amar is about to call Zeke and me over. "You ready for this?" Zeke asks.

"Yeah," I say.

"It's about time you had some competition," Zeke jokes as we walk up to the mat. I chuckle a little; I don't want to act too confident in front of my friend. Zeke has always been here for me. He was my first friend in Dauntless, he knows me better than anyone else although he doesn't know who my real father is. He knows that Max is only me step dad, I'm sure most of Dauntless know. Especially with the fact that you can tell just by looking at us. There is nothing about me that would make people think that Max is my dad, other than the fact I call him dad and we act like father and son.

"Make this quick will you, I'd really like to go to lunch," Amar say with a laugh.

"Not a problem Amar, I'll have him knocked out in a minute," says Zeke with a huge grin on his face. This just makes Amar laugh even more.

We are in the ring and Zeke is jumping around, a lot like Uriah does when he has had three pieces of Dauntless cake. He is jumping around and throwing wild punches that aren't anywhere near hitting me. I can see he is leaving his face open. So I say, "I'm really sorry Zeke." And then I punch him. He is out.

"I think that is a new record Four, it only took you fifteen seconds," Amar says. "Dump Zeke in the infirmary and then head to lunch."

"Lunch everyone," Amar yells to the rest of the group as Shauna helps me to get Zeke to the infirmary.