What if the War Never Happened (Divergent)

Chapter 17

Austin PoV

We start to follow the three instructors down a dark tunnel. All of the transfers look nervous, even some of the Dauntless-born but only one looks genuinely bored.

Its Ashley, or Ash, I mean.

As we walk there are lights that are evenly spread out down the hall but between the lights, is darkness. I find it a little scary but I'm not afraid of it. I can't be. I can't look scared in front of Ash. She'll think I'm weak.

What? Why do I care what she thinks of me? Its not like I like her. Do I?

"Okay this is where we split off. Dauntless-born I'm guessing you don't need a tour of the place." Four says. 

Before Four and Six leave, Ash runs up to him and whispers something in his ear. He nods and whispers into the other girl that was walking with us. She nods.

I hear footsteps coming from behind us and we all turn.

" Zeke. You're late." Four says in a stern voice. He doesn't sound anything like he did when he was talking to his daughter. Well it is his daughter and we are strangers.

"Shut up Four. So Ash, I'm guessing you're going to leave us and go to Carter's place." Zeke says

She nods. "Oh and can the Stiff come with me?" she asks all of the instructors.

Everyone shares a glance then they all nod.

"But first, my name is Shauna and this is Zeke. Those two are Four and Six" that other girl says. "Okay you two can go now, show him around, will ya."

"Okay" Ash says gesturing me to follow her.

We start to run down a few hallways and my eyes are adjusting to the new environment. Ash stops at a door and runs her fingers around the door frame. Trying to find something. She finally finds what she is looking for and unlocks the door.

She gestures for me to go in and I do as I am told. I look around and see a bed, a couch, a small fridge in the corner and a bathroom. Really everything you need to live. She walks over to the bed and grabs a few things. I go and sit next to her on the bed when she picks something up and looks at it.

Its a picture of her when she was little and, I'm guessing, Carter. They have black clothing on and have colorful splatters all over them and are holding paintball guns. I recognize the guy from the picture. He was the one that transferred to Erudite. Obviously, they weren't family, so they probably were dating considering I saw them hugging twice and holding hands.

"So is that your boy friend?" I ask.

She gives me a confused look but answers " No. We were best friends until he transferred to Erudite. He said I could take some of his things for myself right before we started running out of the building." She still stares at the picture. After about a minute, she gets up and gets a backpack  and starts to put stuff in it. Some pictures, some clothes, a paintball gun, some other stuff I can't see.

We leave the room after about fifteen minutes and we walk in silence. 

"So... the big bad prodigy has a soft side." I say jokingly.

She chuckles at my comment which makes me smile. "Yeah. Well everyone has a soft side. You, me, my dad, my mom, your dad, your mom. "

"Well not really my family. They couldn't care less about me." I say. Once I realize what I said, I wish I hadn't. Ash doesn't ask about it though, which I'm glad about. 

We stop at another door after ten minutes of turning corners. She takes out a key from her pocket and unlocks the door. She walks in first this time and I follow. 

She goes into, what I'm guessing is, her room and puts the backpack down.

We leave and she shows me the training room and the Pit. The Pit is the biggest place in the whole compound. There are so many people here, its just indescribable. We walk over to the chasm and she explains that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy. That someone jumps off of it every year and it will happen again. She shows me the dining hall next and we go our separate ways then. I sit with the other initiates while she sits with her family. They are laughing and talking. Her table is crowded with people. She must be really popular here. That must be why her dad called her a prodigy.

Our table is pretty quiet for the most part, a few words exchanged about how big the Pit is or how the instructors scared them shit-less.

Its kind of funny because you see them one second joking around then the next, you see them with no emotion, shouting at kids.

Later, when I finish my food, I go over to Ash's table.

"Hey, do you mind showing me where the dormitory is?" I ask her.

"Sure." she says shrugging. Before she gets up, I see her friend elbow her looking at her with a smirk. Ash slaps her playfully and grabs her tray, throws it away and shows me to the dormitory.

"So this is the wonder place where you get to sleep. I might sleep here as well but that depends on if my parents let me sleep back at our apartment." Ash says. She has the luxury here. Everyone here knows her and loves her. I heard a few random Dauntless saying how they hated how Jack treated Ash and how they were going to get their revenge.

When I stood up for her, I had no idea why I did that, it just seemed right. But I got socked in the eye and jaw. 

"Well thanks... Oh and can you show me to the infirmary? I think I should get this looked at. I think its throbbing" I say pointing to my swollen eye.

She walks up to me and puts her hand on the side of my face. She gently puts her thumb right underneath my eye. She looks up and me and I look back at her. We stay like that for a while until she realizes that her hand is still on my face.

I kind of liked the feeling I got when she grazed her hand over my eye. It sent sparks through me but she was just doing that to look at my eye. So it didn't really mean anything.

"Yeah, it is throbbing a little but it'll be fine. I think it will heal in two days. He didn't punch that hard." Ash says looking down sheepishly.

"Okay...um thank you." I say softly.

"Your welcome." she says and then leaves.

I am left alone in the dormitory with the heat of her thumb still under my eye. 

I pick a bunk that has nothing on it and climb inside of it. I can hear people coming in and going to sleep as I sit there with my eyes closed.

I'm pretty sure that everyone is asleep when I open my eyes again.

There is someone trying to get onto the bunk above me, without disturbing me.

"Its okay. I'm already awake." I whisper.

"Oh okay ." they say and jump on the side of my bed and pull themselves up onto the bed above me. 

"Night" I say closing my eyes.

"Night. and Welcome to Dauntless." the person says.

After that I fall asleep and have a dream-less night.

Happy Four/ Tobias Day!!!!! Initiation day!!!

And Austin Mahone's Birthday. Gotta love him...

<4