Amity to Dauntless [Eric Coulter]

The Dauntless Compound

Chapter 2

I watch as Kimberly puts a bandage on her hand. She looks at her feet while she walks toward the Dauntless crowd, and I know that she's doing it purposely to avoid my eyes. A Dauntless gives up his seat for her, just like one did for me, and she sits in the chair next to mine. I sit slowly next to her once the clapping dies down.

"What are you doing?" I ask, trying to keep my voice down. "Why did you pick Dauntless? I thought you were going to pick Abnegation."

"Did you see the way those Dauntless bullied the Abnegation? I don't want that."

"You would have been fine, they're not-"

My voice was cut off due to the calling of another person picking a faction. I didn't even bother to look at who it was or what they picked. Once they moved on, I continued, "not all like that."

"Well I can't change it now. So you can either keep moping around or you can be glad I'm here."

She crosses her arms and avoids looking at me. Deep down though, I know she's right. She has picked her new faction, and there's no turning back for her now. She either has to make a life with Dauntless or be Factionless. Still, I didn't want to let her off that easily. For the rest of the ceremony, we sit in silence.

Once the ceremony is over, all the Dauntless stand up and start pushing toward the door. I grab Kimberly's hand and move along with them, not wanting to lose her in the process. Once outside, we all break into a full sprint, heading back to the tracks.

"Come on Kimmy," I say, dropping her hand to sprint. She follows closely, I can see her yellow dress out of the corner of my eye. My sides begin to cramp up, causing discomfort, but I know I can't fall behind the Dauntless born. I sneak looks occasionally back to Kimberly to make sure she's keeping up.

We stop once we get to the train rails to catch our breath as a mob of Dauntless start to climb the posts.

"This is insane." I hear Kimberly say. She's panting hard but so are the other transfers. We seem stay together, knowing we have being out of our element in common.

"You're telling me." Says girl wearing white and black. "What are they doing?" Asks an Erudite boy, looking up at the Dauntless. "Climbing, obviously." Says the Candor.

"Come on," I say, grabbing Kimberly's hand. I stop when she doesn't move with me. "What's wrong?"

"What if I can't, (y/n), that's so high-"

"It's just like climbing the apple trees back in Amity."

This seems to give her a boost of confidence, and I help boost her up to start climbing. It takes a while with her climbing in front of me, and we weren't the last ones up. Once we're up on the platform, I look at my hands, seeing some callouses have popped open from rubbing them on the metal. They aren't bleeding though, which is all that matters.

"Get ready to jump!" One Dauntless says, getting everyone to perk up. We see the train coming, and the horn is loud being this close. The minutes it whizzes by, people start running again, this time jumping on the train.

"Ok, Kimmy, just like running to jump on the hay wagon."

She didn't seem to even need my words, but saying them out loud made me personally feel better about jumping onto a moving train. She was already running ahead of me, her blonde hair flowing freely behind her. I ran to catch up and watch as one of the Dauntless born help her up into the train. He holds out his hand next for me and the people around him are yelling encouraging things. I grab onto his hand and feel my body being swung up into the train car.