Please Don't Go

THREE

The banging of something against metal jolts me upright in bed. My eyes sweep across the massive room in search of the source of the awful noise. As my eyes find the entrance they land on Tobias. In his right hand he grasps a rusty metal mug against the equally as rusty pole. Shooting him the deadliest glare I can manage, I run my hands down my face and twist to my left to find Sarah still out cold. I am about to wake her up when the asshole I call a brother begins to speak.

"Everybody in the pit in ten minutes." Is all he says before he makes his way out of the room.

I vigorously Shake Sarah's shoulder in an attempt to wake her. Swatting my hand away she whines in protest and opens her eyes. her blank stare informs me that she has not quite realized that it is time to get up.

"We have less than ten minutes to get dressed and get to the pit." I inform her while struggling to pull on a pair of skintight leggings.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner?" she inquires rubbing the grogginess out of her eyes.

"To- Four was just in here. He only gave us ten minutes. I don't know how you didn't hear the banging of metal against metal." I supply quickly covering up the fact that I almost said my brothers actual name in front of another person.


Sarah once again whines before she dramatically rolls off her bed landing on the floor with a thud. I laugh at her as I pull the slightly too tight shirt over my head.

The walk to the pit is slow and groggy because all the initiates are struggling with being up at such an early hour. In the pit we find Tobias and the blue-eyed leader standing tall waiting impatiently on us.

"Alright, there will be three stages of training. The first is physical." Blue-eyes announces getting straight to the point.

"We will push you to your breaking point to see who has what it takes to be dauntless." Tobias chimes in stepping forward with crossed arms

"The second stage is mental. We will get inside your mind and see how you respond to fear." Blue eyes continues on, ignoring all the murmurs in the crowd.

"The last stage is a combination of both. We will simultaneously test you mentally and physically." Tobias finishes off with a tone of authority I never knew he was capable of.

"The lowest ranking initiates at the end of each stage will be leaving us." Tris pops out from behind Tobias to add that little bit of information.

Looks of confusion fill the faces surrounding me but nobody speaks up. Instead murmurs fill the air as we follow our three instructors to the training room. Walking through the door I take in everything around me. To my left is a raggedy oak table that stretches on for about ten feet. The table holds a multitude of guns. In the center of the room directly behind the instructors is an enormous blood-stained white mat. The other side of the room houses rows of perfectly lined up punching bags of various sizes. It does not take long for blue eyes to confirm my suspicions that we will be starting the day with guns. I may be from abnegation but believe it or not I have actually fired a gun, once. It was right after Tobias had left, I snuck out and ran across a dauntless boy who had stolen his dad's gun to go shooting. I asked him if I could try and he surprisingly let me. Before handing the gun over he carefully showed me how to handle a loaded weapon. The recoil scared the hell out of me but at least I will know what to expect this time around.

Without hesitation I seize a gun from the table and make my way to stand in front of a target on the opposite side of the room to get as far away from Tobias as possible. I watch carefully as he goes through the steps of firing a gun. He starts by showing us the correct stance then he proceeds to show us how to properly hold the gun in our hands. Informing us to never put our finger on the trigger until ready to fire. Then he clicks the safety off. I jump at the loud bang that emits from the weapon as the trigger is pulled. Glancing around the room I sigh in relief knowing that nobody seemed to notice that the noise frightened me. After the little demonstration we all turn to our respective targets and begin firing. Three attempts in and I have only managed to graze the lower left edge of the human shaped target. Sighing in frustration I lower the gun looking back to the target trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. I freeze when I hear a cold and intimidating voice behind me.

"why are you not shooting initiate" he questions with arms folded over his chest.

"I-I wa- am trying to figure out what I am doing wrong." I answer, hating the fact that I cannot help but be honest with him.

"How many times have you hit the target?"

"Uh- I grazed it once." I stutter out embarrassed that I am the only one who has not actually hit the target.

"Shoot again." Blue eyes demands scowling down at me.

"What?"

"You heard me, I said shoot again. I cannot see what you are doing wrong if you just stand there like an idiot." He retorts glaring down at me while I blanch at being called an idiot.

Without questioning him any farther I regain my composure and get back into my stance to fire. This time I miss the target by at least three feet. Grunting he grabs my waist, causing my breath to catch in my throat, and repositions my stance.

"Relax, you are too tense when you pull the trigger. Take a deep breath before you shoot and try looking through just your dominant eye, close the other one." Blue-eyes instructs with his hands still lingering on my small waist.

He steps back to watch me again and I do everything exactly the way I was instructed to. Once I feel myself begin to relax, I close one of my eyes looking down the barrel at the target in front of me. I take one long deep breath before pulling the trigger. Lowering the gun to my side and clicking the safety back on, I look to find that the bullet hit dead center. I cannot keep the smile from forming on my face as I turn to thank blue eyes. When I am fully turned around, I come to realize that he is no longer behind me. The smile slowly falls from my face and I turn back to the target, but I do not miss the glare that Tobias shoots blues eyes in the process.

.......................

At lunch Sarah and I miraculously find a table that is completely unoccupied, and we don't hesitate in claiming it as our own. As we both begin to pick at our salads a boy in our initiation class sits down across from us. Pausing we both look up skeptical of what he must want.

"Hi, I'm Matt." He says grinning ear to ear.

"Hi...." Sarah responds hesitantly.