Straying Paths

Chapter 1

It was to the west of Amity farm section 4, where there was an old abandoned water pipeline where four children played together. A time with no worries, as the children ran like the wind and laughter echoed under an innocent sky.

If one took the time to look, one would see four Amity kids looking different from the rest. They each sagged with the weight of their objectives on their shoulders and wore a distant, yet determined, look in their eyes.

Hope, Aletheia, Andion and Isaac stepped on the bus. They are headed for the choosing ceremony, where they will decide what faction they will belong to, for the rest of their lives. For now though, they are still Amity.

"How are y'all feeling?" Isaac asked the others. They only knew each other out of everyone in the bus so they decided to sit side by side.

"I think we're all a bit nervous," Aletheia answered.

"Some more than others," Andion said with a chuckle. This made Hope grab her own hand to stop it from shaking. Andion found that odd. Isaac was extra nervous because he had gotten Divergent on his aptitude test. He knew that he would not belong anywhere and was afraid that this would lead to unhappiness for the rest of his life. Hope was also a Divergent, hence, the reason for the nervousness. They had not told anyone about this, however, not even each other. During the aptitude test, they were told that being Divergent was dangerous and should not be told to anyone, not even their own families and definitely not old childhood friends. During the ride to the choosing ceremony, they made small talk to each other, in an effort to get rid of the nervousness. Although they were not as close as they once were, they still found the familiarity comforting. 

Amity was the faction furthest away from the choosing ceremony, which took place in Erudite area. Erudite was the faction for those with a hunger for knowledge. The people in the faction dedicated their lives to improve society with the help of their intelligence. Having an abundance of knowledge was something that the people of Amity did not experience. Amity's contribution to society was farming. They spent their lives on the field, ploughing and sowing, making sure everyone in society would have food. This job took up a lot of time and led to the people not having any free time. Eventually, they arrived at the choosing ceremony, and they spent no more time talking to each other. Other things were on their minds.

Before they knew it, the bus had already arrived inside the Hub. It was a grand building with a circular interior. One of the Abnegation children looked at the building with awe, mouth hanging and eyes wide.

While standing in line to enter the building, they checked out the other factions and they all looked as expected. The people from Erudite stood in line to the left. They were all fancy dressed and spoke very formally. The word nerd was basically written on their foreheads. Furthest to the left was Candor. They were all dressed in black and white in order to represent their faction's values. The Candors saw everything as black and white and they never lied. They were almost like robots. They had no filter. To the right were the Dauntless. They were all dressed in black and almost each one of them had piercings and tattoos. They looked very uncivilised and dangerous. This was very suiting considering they were the ones responsible for protecting each faction. Lastly, furthest to the right were Abnegation. Abnegation values selflessness so they all had grey boring clothes so that they would not become vain and materialistic.

The choosing ceremony started.

***

The blood reflected on the glass shards as it dripped down into the bowl. Aletheia could see her own determined eyes for a moment.

When Alethia chooses Candor, no family member was there to react, they were all gone. A few of her acquaintances gasped from the sudden turn of events. Aletheia had never let out a clue that she wanted to turn to the Candor faction to anyone. For her, there was no choice. Everything was already planned, and the plan was set in motion the moment the choosing ceremony started.

Andion sat down and watched his friends choose different factions to what he had in mind, knowing what they all had in plan. As Andions parents were erudites, Andion decided to choose the same faction as his parents. He wanted to honour them. The choice Andion had in mind will all play into their plan and to seek justice for what erudite did to his parents. While cutting up his hand, Andion looked around the big room for his loved ones, but nobody was there, except for his uncle who has been taking care of him ever since he was a little child. Andion watched his blood run down his hand into the bowl. He was all in his own head at this exact moment thinking about his parents and almost shed a tear, but he held himself back as he didn't want to be looked upon as a weakling. As the blood drop landed in the bowl, everyone in the room started to applaud as the man beside him announced loudly "Erudite it is". While everyone applauded, Andion walked back to the seats, but this time it was not with Amity, rather Erudite.

While walking towards the choosing altar, Isaac's heart pounded like never before. The aptitude test did not tell him what to pick, where he belonged. He had to go with his gut feeling. During his childhood, Isaacs was bullied a lot. He remembered the feeling of being helpless, of not being able to stand up for himself. This had built a drive in him, to never let himself be that vulnerable again. He knew that if he chose the Dauntless, he would be able to not only learn how to defend himself properly, he would also be able to defend others if needed. He was in extraordinary shape from the hard work on the fields and he already knew a little on how to defend himself, since he had practised martial combat on the little spare time that he had from working. Looking over all the options he could choose, he doubted. He did not want to leave his family behind who had always been so loving and caring, but he also did not want to work a job that he despised with all of his life. In the end, he felt like he had to go with the Dauntless. It was hard for Isaac to know that he would leave his parents for good, but the thought of working in Amity for the rest of his life made him depressed. He took the knife and slit his hand over the Dauntless altar. When he turned his back to the crowd, he saw his mother smiling and applauding, with a tear falling down her cheek. Isaac understood what she was feeling. Considering how good hearted his mother was, he knew that she was devastated for losing her son, but happy for him for choosing the life that he wanted to live.

Hope's hand hovered over the grey stones of Abnegation for merely a moment before they were coloured red. Unable to stop herself, she looked up at the Amity section, at her family. Her parents did not look surprised. Nothing she does could catch them off guard anymore, they know how she feels about their faction. It did not matter, since they only cared about their perfect oldest daughter. However, the tears in her two younger siblings' eyes almost made her regret her choice, but only almost. At last, she glanced at her older sister and took a breath for the first time in a few minutes. Her sister's encouraging smile brought back the confidence she thought she had lost.

The Amity faction took the biggest blow this year with so many children leaving .

There were a lot of feelings among everyone. Some could not be still since they were filled with the excitement of starting a new life at their desired faction, while others were crying their hearts out after losing their children to other factions. Before they all left with their respective factions, all of them took one last look at each other, thinking that this will be the last time they will see each other.

Their arduous journey starts now, each with their own goal in mind.