A New Life

Chapter 16: Simulations

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DIVERGENT, THAT BELONGS TO THE VERY TALENTED VERONICA ROTH.

All of the initiates Dauntless born and transfer, are sitting in a bright hallway that almost doesn't belong in Dauntless. It's white and brightly lit with a single door at the end. Inside that door, Eric, Four and the current initiate. Every twenty minutes or so a new initiate is called and the others come out shaking and scared as hell. If I wasn't so tired maybe I'd be racking my brain to know what lies behind that door, but instead I doze off between names. No one went back to sleep last night, but the others seem better off, seeing that they had at least some sleep before the incident. Edward lived, but could no longer continue training, so he and Myra left. Because of this, Al made it to the next stage, two Dauntless borns ranked below him being cut. I am finally pulled into darkness, propped against the wall of the cold hall, only to be yanked back out by my name being called. I let out a groan as I push myself up and walk into the room, avoiding the eyes of Four who hold the door, closing it behind me. In the room is a chair that resembles the one from my aptitude test, multiple computer screens and a few stools. Eric sits on a stool in front of a computer in the corner of the room and turns to look over his shoulder at me. I see the corners of his mouth twitch up and try smiling slightly however my eyes droop and a yawn escapes me.

"Man you look tired." He chuckles.

"You have no clue." I groan. "The only sleep I had gotten in the last twenty-four hours was out in the hall right now." I say almost slurring my words from exhaustion.

"Have a seat." Four instructs and I gladly sit leaning back in the chair. "We're gonna put you into a simulation to train you to act while facing your fears. We'll inject you with a serum that uses the part of your brain that creates fear and that'll put you into the hallucination," Four explains to me, tapping things on his computer. "The serum has transmitters that allow us to see what you're going through on the screens. The fear will continue until you either calm your heart rate and breathing or find a way to face your fear." He walks towards me with a needle in hand. He injects the serum into my neck and leans over me. "The serum will go into effect in a minute." He lean closer. "Don't change anything and only use what is accessible to you." He whispers and I nod. "Be brave Tris." He says before my eyelids get heavy and the simulation pulls me into the darkness.

I wake up and I'm sitting in a chair inside what appears to be a glass box. I try to stand but get yanked back into the chair. I look down and see my feet chained to the chair and pull on my arms to find them the same way. I can feel my heart start to speed up as I try to get the chains off. I pull, but it's no use, I'm trapped. I continue to struggle against the chains trying to somehow get free. No matter how hard I try it won't budge. Suddenly a thought hit me.

'This isn't real.'

I pulled one more time on the chains and they snapped freeing my hands and feet. I stood up and went over to one of the glass walls surrounding me and placed my hand to it causing it to shatter.

I sat up quickly and gasped for air. I rubbed my wrists to relieve the pain from the chains and tried catching my breath. That startle you get waking up from a nightmare, this is worse. There was still the lingering pain of the chains scraping against my skin and my heart was pounding in my chest. Out of nowhere I feel a hand on my shoulder and I jump swinging and making contact with skin. I look up to see Four holding his jaw and Eric silently chuckling.

"Ok, that didn't hurt at all." For says sarcastically. I roll my eyes in response and push myself up from the chair.

"Can I go now?" I ask crossing my arms. "I kinda got somewhere to be after this." I groan. I want to be out of Four's space as quick as possible.