Danger is Near

Chapter 21

Eventually I calmed down. For some reason Eric seemed to be scaring me even more. And I had no idea why. He just did...

As the train ride continued we met some of Julians friends. Their names were Oscar, Ace and Kaden. They were all pretty attractive, but I couldn't focus. I continuously had my eyes peeled for any signs of danger, aka Eric.

"Hey. What's wrong?" one of Julian's friends asked.

"Oh, nothing. Don't worry about me" I replied.

"Ok. My name's Ace. Your Eliza right?" he continued.

"Yeah, that's me" I said with a smile.

"Julian always talks about you... But don't tell him I told you that" he smirked, while looking towards Julian who was talking to Amy.

Before anything else could be said Four and Eric gathered everyone together in the middle of the train.

"Ok, this game is simple. Like capture the flag but a little different" Four spoke, raising his voice so everyone could hear.

I looked over at Eric, who was grabbing a strange looking gun out of a bag.

"Weapon of choice!" he shouted while holding up the gun for everyone to see.

Someone then said "Call that a gun?" mockingly. I don't think they meant for anyone to hear but unfortunately someone did. Eric.

He then casually began to load the gun. Aiming at the person who had spoken. It was Molly. He then fired, and straight after, Molly screamed in pain. He had hit her in the leg, causing her to fall against the train wall. You could see the bitter pain written all over her face. She sat on the ground whimpering. Eric then approached her, bent down and pulled the dart out of her leg.

"Neurostim Dart" he announced, while holding it up for everyone to see.

"Simulates the pain of a real gun shot wound" he continued. "Only lasts a couple minutes".

He then looked back down at Molly, who was still sitting on the ground. After staring at her for a while he raised his head saying, "Two teams. Four and I are captains".

Everyone looked to Eric and Four who were standing in the middle of the crowd.

"You pick first" Four said, being generous. But it wasn't a 'nice' generous, it was a 'harsh' generous. Like Four wanted to show he was a 'bigger man' in some way.

Eric looked at him. "Ok.." he said. He looked surprised. He then turned to the crowd in search of his first pick. Please don't pick me, please don't pick me. I repeated in my head.

"Edward" he sternly announced.

Everyone then looked towards Four. He looked as if he knew Eric would pick Ed.

Four then looked towards us. I could see him eyeing Emma. She was just leaning against the wall, probably thinking she would be the last to be picked.

"I'll take Emma" he announced. We all looked at her. She looked extremely surprised.

Damn it. I thought to myself. I was hoping Four would choose me.

"Ohhhh... Picking the weak ones so you have someone to blame when you lose" Eric snobbishly remarked.

Four smirked at Eric. "Something like that" he said.

"Haha! Typical Four" Eric hideously laughed.

Four said nothing in retaliation so Eric continued. "Peter" he chose.

"Eliza" Four declared, while grinning at Eric who looked angry.

Maybe Eric wanted me on his team? I pondered. No don't be silly Eliza. He wouldn't want you.

The choosing continued. And finally we could begin. I had Julian, Ace, Emma, Christina, Amy, Tess and a few others I knew on my team. Which was good. They were my friends.

The train came to a halt at some sort of run down amusement park. You could tell no one had used it for years and years. We hopped off of the train and the rules were explained. Each team had a glowing flag. Ours was blue and Eric's teams was green. The aim of the game was to 'capture' the opposing teams flag. If you achieved this, you won. But it wasn't that simple. First you had to find the flag and then you had to get to it without being shot.

The two teams split up. Four lead us to a hidden area behind these big shipping containers.

"Ok we need a plan" someone said.

"No, first we need to find the flag" Four said.

Amy then began to head towards the massive ferris wheel that was just a few metres away.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm going to find out where their flag is!" she shouted back to us.

We all looked to Four. "I'll go with her. You guys figure out a plan for when we know where their flag is".

Our team began conversing as soon as Four said this. I watched Amy begin to climb up the ferris wheel with ease. As I said before, she has never been afraid of heights.

The Dauntless born people in our team eventually came up with a plan. Amy and Four were still up on the ferris wheel, so we began deciding who in our team was going to do what. Whether people were going to be a distraction or whether you were going to be one of the people who retrieved the flag.

"I'll get the flag" I spoke up fearlessly.

"Alright then" Julian said. "Who else is going to go with Eliza. Two more people...".

"I think Amy should be one of those people. She's the one who seems to have spotted the flag" Emma said as she pointed to Amy and Four quickly walking back to us.

"We found it" Amy said with a big grin on her face.

"It's in the tower over there" Four reported as he pointed to the tower.

"So what's the plan?" Amy asked.

"Well you, Eliza and someone else are going to be the 'retrievers'. While the rest of us take on Eric's 'army'" Ace explained thoroughly. He continued to talk about the plan in depth, telling certain groups of people where they were going to go and what they were going to do.

"So who's going to be that other person?" Four questioned the group.

Everyone looked around a each other and at Amy and I, whispering in conversation.

"I'll go" a quiet voice cut through the hushed whispers. It was Meg. The girl that looked as if she would belong in Amity or Erudite.

"Yes Meg!" I egged her on.

"Ok. Looks like we are all set. Ready to head out when you are Four" Julian declared while turning to him.

"Well, does everyone know what their job is?" Four asked the crowd.

Everyone silently nodded.

"Let's head out" he then quietly muttered.

"Game on" I said. Revving everyone up.