TRIS POV
It seems as though as soon as my head touches the sad excuse for a pillow on my cot, I am awakened by people yelling and flashlights shining in my sensitive eyes. And suddenly I don't remember why I found capture the flag so enjoyable last year.
"Wake up!" Four shouts over the sounds of disgruntled initiates stirring awake. Through the beams of light, I make out the figure of Lauren standing next to him. "Enough of the pathetic groaning. Get dressed and be at the train tracks in ten minutes or consider yourselves factionless."
With an unamused sigh, I sit up and pull a jacket on and replace my pants with a tighter, less comfortable pair. When I am tying the laces on my shoes, Christina hops off her bunk to stand in front of me, fully clothed and alert.
"What time is it?" I ask between a yawn.
She checks her watch. "One," she answers.
Grumbling unintelligible things to myself, I shove myself off of my cot and follow her out of the dormitory.
The Dauntless compound is always on the cool side, but tonight—despite it being summer—it is even colder outside. I zip my jacket up all the way in an attempt to keep out the slight chill, at least until we begin our training exercise. One by one, initiates file out of the compound and into the night. It is the first time we have been outside in a week and a half.
Justin wanders over to where Christina and I are huddled together.
"Why so grumpy, Tris?" he teases, his brown eyes looking even more awake than Christina's.
I level a warning glare at him. "It's one in the morning."
At my words, Uriah practically skips over to us with a grin that indicates that a joke is due at any moment.
"Only you two could be this chipper in the middle of the night," I remark, walking over to the crate that carries paintball guns and the identical one that holds ammo.
"Lighten up," Uriah says as he loads his own gun. "Or I'll shoot you with one of these, and then you'll really be awake."
Undeterred by the threat, I slide the strap hooked onto my paintball gun over my head and cross my arms. The last few initiates trickle out of the compound and spill out in front of the tracks. The train has still yet to make an appearance, and I can tell that Four is impatient by his wide yawn and the way he fidgets with the paintball gun slung around his shoulder. Sometimes I wonder why he makes us do these petty exercises, when we both know that real war is nothing like this.
A train horn sounds. We all aim our heads toward the end of the train tracks, where a train turns the corner, its headlights blinding all of us momentarily. It travels over the tracks with a click-click and rumbles the ground beneath our feet.
Before it passes, we wisely get a running start. My friends and I get split up as we jump on the train, so I am one of the last ones left to do so. Except, unlike the other few initiates that have yet to board the train, I get help from an unexpected source.
I don't know if it is because we are supposed to be a team now with the whole suicide conspiracy, or if it really is just a kind gesture, or if he is just helping everyone else on and I'm not special. But either way, Four holds out his hand to me as I run alongside the moving car, and I take it gratefully, still sore and recovering from my recent brawls.
"Thanks," I say once I am standing inside the train, facing him out of breath.
He gives me a passive nod and heads to the middle of the car, where Lauren is. I don't know what to think of his actions, so I don't.
YOU ARE READING
Chasm
Fanfiction"There is a chasm between us, a gaping schism that only seems to widen as hard as we try to close the distance. Someday, our combined efforts to reach each other again will lead us both into the abyss." After an overthrow of the unwanted factionless...
