𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐌𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆

𝟎𝟏𝟎

"𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡.
𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩
𝙊𝙬𝙣 𝙢𝙚, 𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙚.
𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙡."

𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘎𝘶𝘺 - 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘌𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩

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The sound of a gunshot rattled in your ears. Even with the silencers, the piercing bang made you wince occasionally. You were grateful for Four's heads up the night before. Firearm training was not as easy as you would have guessed.

Your group was sprawled out over the roof of the main training compound. Stationed between Al and Tris, you had your rifle propped awkwardly against your shoulder as you squinted down the sight at your target.

Instructions were short. Vague. This was only a pretest. They wanted to see what kind of battle-ignorant children they were working with. It was the end of the third week and you still felt as weak as you did when you first arrived.

"You kinda just...point and shoot, ya know?" Al advised, thumbing ammunition back into his clip. You pretended like you didn't see him trip and scatter bullets across the gravel a few minutes ago, but he knew you were the only one.

Al was easily one of your favorite people struggling to survive initiation. Aside from Tris and Christina, of course. He had strong, broad shoulders and a pair of naturally sculpted arms. He went out of his way not to hurt anyone even though he was built to take down everyone in his path.

You smiled and nodded at his advice, too polite to tell him you knew exactly what you were doing already. In one swift motion, you flicked off the safety and fired four rounds into the plastic dummy in front of you.

A couple of people's heads turned and Christina leaned back to squint down at you from two booths away. "You're telling me you didn't know what a hamburger was but you can shoot that thing no problem?"

"We had a wolf problem on our farm when I was younger," you said with a shrug, sitting up and pulling back the chamber to release a smoking bullet shell. "They kept coming for my family's chickens. The Dauntless guards gave my father a rifle like this one."

Al's mouth opened and closed helplessly. You readied yourself to aim one more time but as soon as you pulled the trigger, the recoil knocked you flat on your ass. Christina and Tris turned away to conceal their giggles and you huffed in defeat, blowing a strand of hair out of your eyes. You missed the dummy by at least one foot.

"All hail (Y/N) the mighty wolf hunter," Peter joked as he passed by.

You stuck your tongue out at his retreating figure just as a long shadow obscured you from behind. The girls stopped giggling and pretended to return to their weapons. Al slumped down further, making himself look even smaller as he continued struggling with his magazine.

Four stood directly over you, blocking the weak light of the sun. "Need some help?" He asked, taking a mental note that you'd been shooting pretty decently thus far.

"No."

He pretended to laugh. You knew right away that it was false. Fake. Performative.

"Stand up."

With a groan, you got right back into position. No time-outs in Dauntless. Not even when your butt was definitely going to be bruised in the morning. It only took you a split second to notice Four inching his way into your space until his torso was pressed flush against your upper back.