Momma's Little Soldier

Chapter 20

"We did it! We did it! We had the best team along with the best person EVER!" Tom has been chanting this ever since we started walking back to the Dauntless compound. Jordan and Tucker, kept telling Tom to shut up, while Sonja just kept laughing at the grumpy boys, well I don't blame them for being grumpy we did wake up really early to play a game that they ended up losing. I played with the glowing flag in my hands and smiled, this is what it's like to have fun and take charge... I like it... "Ash." I focused my attention on the Dauntless boy in front of me. "Yes, Jackson?" I asked. "Want to come with us? Call it a short-cut back if you want, it's a little initiation ritual, Dauntless style." I like the sound of that. "You had me at short-cut." With that, I followed Jackson and the very few people that joined us to a building, that didn't look like it was going to crumble if you blew on it. We walked over to a service elevator and Jackson opened it up, "All aboard." My body froze, I was not going to get in that death trap. "Um. Can't we just take the stairs?" I asked hesitantly. Jackson looked at me and shook his head. "Unless you want to walk up 100 flights of stairs. Are you scared of elevators or something?"

"Nope, I'm not scared," I was quick to say, "I was just going to challenge all of you to see who can get to the top floor first, but seeing as though I'm too lazy to run up that many flights of stairs, I'll pass." I forced myself onto the elevator and stood in between Tom and Sonja, just trying to calm myself down. I had been in elevators numerous times before, that was the only way to get around Erudite, but by the way, this elevator looked, I was certain it would snap off its wires and we would plummet to the ground. When I felt the elevator start to move up, my hand instantly grabbed Tom's wrist for support, I tried to silence my heavy breathing as best as I could, but if someone were to look at me they would see how wide my eyes are. I notice Tom look down at me, but I didn't turn to face him hoping he would just understand and not say anything. Luckily he did, all he did was start talking to one of his friends and I started counting the floors as we kept passing them. When we finally got to the top and the doors opened up, I got out as soon as I could and followed Jackson to the door he opened up. Once I walked outside I took a deep breath to calm myself down, I hate elevators... "This view is amazing! I can see Amity from here!" I followed the sound of Sonja's voice to where she was standing and looked at the view. It truly was beautiful, my heart ached in my chest when I saw the Amity dome like Dauntless has the Pit, that dome is the center of life for them. "Do you ever miss it? Amity? Your family?" I asked since I was curious. She never really talks about her life when she was in Amity, I wonder why.

Sonja sighed as she kept staring at Amity, "Sometimes I do, but not really. Don't get me wrong, life there was amazing and I have such an amazing family, but I never belonged there, you know? I wanted to be somewhere that I knew I would fit in, that's why I'm here." Wish I could say the same thing. "Ash, want to go first?" I looked over at Jackson and walked over to him. "And what exactly am I going to be doing?" Jackson grabbed my hand, helped me on the ledge, and onto a harness, where I was laying on my stomach. "All you have to do is hold on and pull the brake at the bottom. You ready?" Before I could answer, Jackson, pulled back and pushed me forward, sending me down the zip-line and gripping tightly to the base of the harness I was in. It was exhilarating, the wind blowing my hair back, goosebumps running up my arms, despite the fact I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, and the view no matter where I looked was breathtaking. Slowly releasing my hands from the harness, I stuck them out as if I was flying and a smile appeared on my face This is what it's like to feel free. This is what it's like to fly. I looked down and noticed how small everything was from up here, it actually made me feel like I was a giant looking down at everyone, I liked it. When the zip line started dipping down a lot steeper, I re-gripped the harness with one hand and reached around to grab the brake with the other. The closer I got to the end, I pulled on the brake as hard as I could to stop myself from running face-first into the wall with the giant red X on it.

I wonder how many people have actually landed face-first from this? The harness came to a stop and the Dauntless people who were there helped me get down, cheering so loud at my arrival. Maybe I can actually get used to being here, maybe I can actually like being here and not just because I was told to. After tonight I realized that I should not push past these amazing moments because who knows if after my Mom's plan takes place I'll be able to experience more of these.

When we all made it back into Dauntless, there was a huge gathering of all the Dauntless members, including the people from leadership. Walking beside my friends I was laughing at Jordan and Tucker, who were arguing about their Capture the Flag strategy's and how they could've been improved, "We all should've just run towards them and I caught them by surprised!"

"And risk getting us all shot at?! Tucker, we needed to use our offensive team to our advantage!" Jordan yelled back. "Ladies, I know you're just jealous that I lead my team to victory, but you need to let it go." The pissed off looks on their faces made me laugh even harder as we walked deeper into the pit. My eyes caught the sight of Eric as he was talking to Max, they both looked over at me, but Eric and I locked eyes. He motioned his head for me to go over there and I looked towards my bickering friends, "I'll be right back." They all nodded their heads and continued walking deeper into the crowd, while I made my way to Eric and Max. "Heard you took control and kicked ass tonight," Max said with so much pride in his voice. "Yes I did, of course, I did have some help from Eric over here." I looked up at him for a second before looking back at Max. A hand was placed on my shoulder and my breath hitched for a moment, "If it weren't for her, we would've lost so I am not taking any of the credit." Where did his cocky attitude and big ego go? I thought for sure he would want to take all the credit, after all, it was his team, "I knew you had it in you to lead, keep up the good work. Well, I'm going to turn in, I'll see you both at the rankings tomorrow." Max left after he gave me a slight nod, don't know if that means something, but I guess I'll find out. It took me a second to realize Eric's hand was still on my shoulder and when I did, I moved my shoulders slightly as I turned my body to face him, thus him removing his hand. I looked at him confused for a second, wondering why he isn't taking all of the credit, then it hit me, "You planned all of this."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, now trying to play cool.

"I knew you weren't dumb enough to give us a plan like you did, you wanted me to take charge and say something. You wanted to prove something, that I have what it takes and that's why you did what you did." Eric just gave me his signature stare, arms crossed over his chest. "You're such an Erudite, Sunshine." A smile formed on my lips as I chuckled. "You can take the girl out of her faction, but you can't take the faction out of the girl." He nodded his head at my saying, stunned was the only emotion I could read. "Well I guess you're right, but there is more Dauntless than Erudite in you than you think. Good job out there tonight." With that he just left me standing there, trying to pick my jaw up off the floor after those last few words.

"Each and every one of you initiates has shown us what you are capable of, some more than others, but nevertheless we know you all will make excellent members of Dauntless once training is over. Here are your results." Every initiate looked at the giant board the was hung up and watched as every persons' name popped up in order of ranking.

1. Ash

2.Bryce

3. Tom

7. Firefox

8. Jordan

12. Jericho

We did it, we finished stage one and I held onto that number one spot. Everyone cheered, some people shook their heads at their ranks, but hey, they didn't give up and that means something. Bryce looked angry, but honestly, I could care less, he is in the top 3 and that should mean something to him. I'm proud of all my friends and their rankings, judging by the smiles on their faces, they are proud as well. Stage two isn't going to be easy, but that means we are one step closer to being accepted into this factions, one step closer to being done, and I am one step closer to make my mother proud of me.