Momma's Little Soldier

Chapter 7

It was a good thing I chose to wear flats because the first thing we did once we left the auditorium was run when I was younger I use to watch the Dauntless born run through the streets and jump onto or off of the train. I remember wanting to be just like them, boy if I could tell my younger self that I changed my mind completely she would think I was insane. We continued running until we made it to one of the bridges the trains crossover and I watched as the Dauntless born started climbing up the pillars.

Everyone, including myself, noticed what they were doing and picked a pillar to climb up, Max taught me how to climb up a rock wall when I was younger, so I just used my knowledge from that and applied it to this. When I made it to the top, I climbed onto the platform to see nothing but train tracks, "The train doesn't stop here. Why are we waiting here?" A girl with a red and yellow outfit asked out loud. "I'm going to assume we jump onto it. Dauntless is kind of known for jumping on and off trains," I spoke up to her, "my name is Sasha." I smiled at her.

I'm surprised that someone from Amity wanted to join its complete polar opposite, Dauntless isn't about being nice, but then again that was one of my aptitude test results so... "My name is Sonja, but my friends call Firefox." She smiled at me. Firefox? What kind of nickname is that? I was going to ask until the sound of the train horn was coming close, I started to follow the others, but oddly enough they were running in the other direction. Since now wasn't exactly the time to ask, I just kept pushing myself forward into the crowd of people. One by one, the Dauntless born jumped onto the train and opened the doors for everyone else, I grabbed onto the door opening, swung my feet into the train, and brought the rest of my body into the train. "For an Erudite, you did that with ease." My head turned to an older Dauntless woman, I'm assuming that she was just watching us until we actually made it to Dauntless. "I'm a fast learner." That's all I said and I walked through the crowded train to find Sonja.

"Hey, Sasha! Over here." I followed the sound of her voice to the front of the train. "How did you end up over here?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I was constantly running around at Amity, so I think that helped me with this." "Let's get ready guys." I looked over at the same woman who complimented my train jumping skills. Sonja and I looked at each other until we heard the sound of cheering, "It's time to jump! If you don't jump, you don't belong in Dauntless!" How about, I jump, but still don't emotionally belong in Dauntless? Sonja grabbed my hand and started charging for the open doors of the train, "Woohoo!" The second my feet left the ground, everything seemed to go in slow motion.

That feeling ended when I felt my feet hit the hard gravel and forcing myself to not fall over made it feel ten times worse, "That was awesome! I have never felt that much adrenaline in my life! Can we go again?!" I am starting to see why they called her Firefox. "Initiates, welcome to Dauntless." I recognized that voice from anywhere, it was Max. As much as I wanted to just run up and hug him, I didn't want to make it seem like I knew him so I just walked over to him with the rest of the initiates. "I'm Max, the leader of Dauntless, and it is my job to make sure we raise soldiers. People who will protect others, not reckless individuals who will put themselves and others in danger.

If you want to enter Dauntless this is the way in," He looked behind himself, " and if you don't have the courage to jump, then you don't belong in Dauntless." From where everyone was standing, you could see the giant hole in the ceiling. "Who wants to be the first jumper?" Before Sonja could volunteer herself, I stepped through everyone until I was right in front of Max. I wanted to make him proud and if the first thing to do was be the first jumper, then that's what I'll do, "I will." We both looked at each other with a small smile. "Erudite huh? Well at least a transfer is brave enough to go first, unlike the Dauntless born," Max gave them all a hard stare and I saw each one bring their head down in shame, "okay first jumper, welcome." He walked past me and whispered in my ear. "I think you should show them who's the boss." A cynical smile was placed on my lips. "Gladly." I turned around to everyone and told them to move out of the way.

They listened to me, giving me enough room to do what I needed to do, I walked away from the ledge before turning back around to face it. Max looked at me with so much pride, it gave me the courage to do what I needed to do. I started running towards the ledge, picking up speed once I got close enough, jumped onto the ledge, and pushed myself off, going stomach first, falling down into the dark hole below me.

I twisted my body in the air since falling face-first into something wouldn't feel good at all and I was just free falling. What seemed like forever, was just a few seconds, a few seconds of freedom until my back came in contact with something hard, but it shot me back into the air for a moment. When I stopped bouncing around on what I believe was a net, my breath starting acting normal again, and when I was pulled down from the net I came face to face with a man. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and a very chiseled face, "I guess someone likes to show off." He had a strong voice, I bet it comes in handy when he is yelling at people. "What can I say, I'm a sucker for showing off my amazing skills." I let out a breathy chuckle and I could see the corners of his mouth pull into a sorta smile.

He helped me out of the net and set me on the ground, "What's your name?" Even after much thought for the past few days, I could only give myself a good enough name to start my life here at Dauntless. "Ash," I said. "First jumper, Ash," he called out to everyone, and then he looked back at me, "Welcome to Dauntless." The journey begins now, time to start shaping myself into the best version I can be. It's time to make my mother proud...