Danger is Near

Chapter 3

I only hear the sizzle of my blood on the burning coals for a split second, before I hear the cheers and loud, encouraging shouts erupting from the Dauntless section of the hall.
I am in some sort of disbelief, as I am welcomed into the Dauntless crowd, offered a seat and given a bandaid for my bleeding palm. I feel strange.
As I am sitting, I look straight across the room and spot my family instantly, my two brothers, my mum and dad. I see the feelings of sadness and betrayal written all over their faces. Instantly I feel like I'm going to throw up. I've always hated the feeling of hurting people I love. Especially when I cant do anything to fix it.

"Matisse Naidu".

Matisse' name is called out and I am praying to the high heavens that she is still planning on choosing Dauntless. I dont want to go through this alone.

*Sizzle*

She chose Dauntless. Im over the moon, as she approaches the Dauntless crowd, accidentally tripping a little down the stairs. But that doesn't affect her. Matisse has always been a trooper. She takes a seat next to me. Her face is bright red, but she looks so happy. I begin to feel nervous again. What if she fits in way better than me? What if she ditches me for Dauntless born people? Who will I have then?

Another name is called out, it's one I'm very familiar with.

"Amy Raymond".

I smile. Almost tearing up, knowing I wont see my dearest friend for who knows how long. Amy always understood me and was one of the only people I spilt all my secrets to. I didn't know how I would survive without her.
I was lost in thought, and for the third time I was brought back to reality when I was startled by the applause coming from Dauntless.

Huh?

I saw Amy walking towards Matisse and I, with a great, big cheesy grin on her beautiful face.
She chose Dauntless, just like me.

The ceremony rolled on and on and we watch all our friends decide their own futures. A few more people from Amity choose Dauntless as well. I know some of their names, Matt, Julia, Ben, Josh. At the end of the ceremony as soon as we are dismissed Dauntless are off and running through the doors.

As I ran I felt the light breeze against my legs. I never really liked to wear my skirt long in Amity. I always hoisted and rolled mine up so it was just above my knees. I could never run properly when it was below my ankles. I felt like some sort of outcast running amongst the people dressed in black, but I remembered that soon I would be one of them. As I caught up to Matisse and Amy the Dauntless born began to climb up tall posts connected to the train tracks above. I'd seen them do this a few times on the way to and from school, but I never thought I would be joining them.

The three of us found a pole and Amy began climbing up first, she had never been afraid of heights. I began to climb after her. Matisse followed behind me.
We were surprisingly the first "transfers" to make it up to the train tracks. We waited around for a bit, until everyone else has made it up. A loud racketing noise came from further down the train line. The Dauntless born began to run ahead of the noise and we followed. I had never witnessed what happened once they made it up the poles and it looked like we would be catching a train. I shouted out to Amy, whose running a pace ahead of me, "Looks like we will be catching a train!".
"Yeah, looks like it!" she shouted back just as they all began reaching for handles on the outside of the moving train, hooking one foot on a step and heaving the rest of their bodies into the carriage.

All of a sudden it was our turn.
Amy went first, she slipped a little but someone who was in the carriage already helped her aboard. It was my turn. I leaped onto the step with my right foot and held onto the handle with both of my hands. As I swung myself into the carriage I bumped into someone.
"Whoa! Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry!" I said as I leaned on the person a little bit to regain my balance.
The person turned around. He must've been a Dauntless born, but he could also have been a transfer like me but just from a couple of years ago.
"Oh..." he said, sounding a bit startled.
"That's ok. I remember my first time catching the train" he said.
"Takes a bit of getting used to".
"What's your name Amity?"

I didn't even realised he was talking. I was too fixated on his tall, slender figure, his flowing brown hair and his light blue eyes. He was quite attractive, I had to admit.

"Uh, umm.. sorry?" I asked.

He chuckled a bit. "What's your name?"

"Eliza", I answered. "What's yours?"
"Julian", he replied.

As soon as he said that I turned around to see Amy and Matisse looking at me with impatient faces. I was always the one that got distracted by boys back at Amity, and sometimes this annoyed the girls.

I turned back to Julian. "I should probably get back to my friends," I said as I nodded towards them. Proving that I wasn't just some shy girl who didn't really want to talk to him, and that I actually had friends in need of my company. "It was really nice to meet you though" I finished. I smiled sweetly and walked away.

"Ooooh look at you go. Already getting in with the Dauntless boys." Matisse teased.

I chuckled as I put my arm around her, "I'm so glad I have you as a friend Matisse".

Two girls approached us, one was a stiff and the other one was a transfer from Candor.

"Hey, my name is Jemima but you can just call me Jem, and this is Tess" the Candor girl said in a friendly tone.

"Well hi! My name is Eliza but you can just call me Lize, and -" I got cut off by Amy before I could say the rest. "My name is Amy". "And I'm Matisse".

Before any of us could utter another word we heard a Dauntless lady yell out "Get ready!"

"What does she mean by 'get ready'?" Tess questioned as she looked out the side of the train.

She quickly flicked her head back to us, "They're jumping".

"What!?" the rest of us exclaimed as we also took a look out of the side of the train.

They were jumping. Tess was right. And if they were jumping, that meant we would be jumping too. If we didn't, well, we would end up factionless. And there was no way in hell that I was going to be scavenging for food through dumpsters with the smelly factionless folk.

As I watched everyone jump I realised that it's about a 2 metre jump. From the train to the ledge of the building.

"We should jump, before we miss our chance," I said. I noticed Tess and Jem had already made their way to the other side of the carriage, preparing to run and jump. We left enough space for them to safely jump out of the train.

Just as they jumped out of the train screaming I rounded up Matisse and Amy. "C'mon girls, all at once".