Chasing Dauntless (A Divergent OC Fanfic in Dauntless)

Chapter Three

I was woken by the sound of harsh metal clanging. I sat up. Seconds later, the lights turned on. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. Chase leaned on the railing on the landing leading into the dorms. "Wake up, people," he yelled. He looked lazily around the room, and finally got to me. I was the only one up. Chase gave me a small nod, then turned and left.

In the training room, we all stood facing Chase. "This is day one of initiation," Chase called to all of us, pacing in front of our group, everybody dressed in black. "There are two stages of initiation: physical and mental. At the end of each stage, several people will be cut from the group of rising Dauntless: born and raised in Dauntless and you guys." Everybody shifted. "What do you mean, cut?" somebody called. Chase whirled around, and stared down the girl who had asked. "Which word did you not understand?" Chase growled. I narrowed my eyes. "Chase," I said sharply. He turned to me, and his expression changed slightly. "She means where do we go if we're cut?" Chase glowered for a moment, then straightened and continued pacing. "Those cut will become factionless," he announced. There were several small gasps.

"You will all be ranked on the public board." Chase pointed to it. It stood, blank now, with slots for our names. There was a red line near the bottom of the board, and the tiles there were red. "Those in the red will be cut at the end of the stages. It is possible to greatly improve your rank, but don't count on it."

Chase explained how initiation would go: a brief description of what we would be learning (weapons, their control, hand-to-hand combat, winning fights, general toughness) in stage one of initiation.

"Today," he said, clasping his hands together, and smiling a strange smile. "Is gun day."

We all stood thirty feet away from flat human-shaped targets with a circle in the chest, designating the best spot to shoot. Chase and the other instructor, Eve, had shown us all how to hold and load a gun. The Dauntless-born initiaties had joined us, though they were at a different set of targets.

We all had been given our guns, and were given a short amount of time to learn how they felt. I held the black gun in my left hand. "Dominant hands, everyone," Chase called, looking meaningfully at me. I dropped my right hand to my side and held the gun in my left hand. I looked meaningfully right back at Chase. Why couldn't he just assume I was a lefty, which I am, or something? Chase gave a small sneer, shook his head slightly, and looked away. Why did he, of all people, have to be my instructor?

When it came time to shoot, I held the gun at arm's length. I held it with both hands and aimed right in the middle of the circle, and pulled the trigger. The recoil knocked me back slightly, but I kept my feet in place. I flinched, but tried not to, at the sound. I looked near the feet of the target for the bullet. To my surprise, I saw the bullet lodged in the deep blue rubber of the circle. I had gotten on the circle itself. I was suddenly aware of someone behind me. "Pretty good," Chase muttered reluctantly, staring at my target. He walked on. I had a feeling he wanted me to do poorly at this.

Well, I just had to prove him wrong.

At the end of shooting, I had gotten inside of the circle twice, on the circle itself nine times, and pretty close all the other times. It was better than almost all of the people in the group, including the Dauntless-born. Everybody was in a big group, walking from target to target, examine them. Most of the targets barely had any bullets on the body part itself. Bullets littered the concrete floor in front of the flat, blue, faceless people on the walls.

When we reached my target, everybody stared. "Damn," someone called. I suppressed a smile. Chase made his way to the front of the group. He shoved past me, his black short-sleeve V-neck rubbing against my slim black hoodie momentarily. He was wearing black pants today and the same boots as the day before. I had found good cropped leggings that cut off mid-calf, and was wearing them.