Drown [Eric Coulter] Divergent

Part IV

IV

  "It's all I wanted
It's all I could see
You can watch me bleed
Daylight comes and washes over me"

"Bleed" -The Smashing Pumpkins

            That evening, in the mess hall, Jenner happily slid himself along the silver bench that Harper and many others were propped up on. In front of them was the heaping mass of food that everyone was hungrily diving into. Harper didn't feel like eating, but she managed to get some soup down. Her nerves were shot, and it was only the first day. The presence of a friend enlightened her a bit, and even just his action of dramatically sliding into the table beside her made her crack a smile. "So, how was your first day?"

Harper placed a small portion of bread between her pink lips. She gave him a half-smile, modest.

"Ah, that bad." He nodded, stacking his plate. "We heard, you know, what happened."

"All of you?" Harper breathed out an exasperated sigh. "Everyone knows?"

"Nah, I heard Carson talking to Xander -our trainer- about how she witnessed some initiate standing up to Eric, and that it was what this place needed," he said, digging into a chicken thigh. "I guessed it was you, Spitfire."

Harper couldn't help but smile; she had been right about Carson being on the right side. Now she wondered if the woman had any idea of what was going on between Erudite and Dauntless, and if maybe somehow she could talk to her, to get some help with this mess she was in. It was too soon to say, but she would try to keep an eye on Carson, try to listen in on what she said to the other trainers, the other Dauntless members. If there were enough people who suspected this conspiracy, something could be done. Harper suddenly felt as though this weight wasn't entirely on her shoulders, and that was her first fatal mistake.

The next week seemed to fly by, and while Harper had prepared for such intense training, she was still feeling sore each night when she went to bed. This was mostly due to the fact she pushing herself to the extremes of what she was capable of not only to be the top of the scoring board, but because she needed to physically wear herself down to the point where she could sleep through the night without her thoughts keeping her awake until the wee hours. The group of initiates that she was training with was about fifteen people, the rest were Dauntless born, and they were coming along quicker than Eric and Carson expected. The leader of Dauntless was spending more time with the initiates than the Dauntless-born, and Harper couldn't help but wonder why.

Carson waited until everyone was standing in a quiet grouping, and she smiled at them with her bright red lips. Though she was an amazing fighter, as she had shown throughout the last few days, she liked to keep herself a stunning sight with accents of make up and her hair perfect each morning. She had no visible tattoos like the rest of the higher-ups seemed to. 

"Initiates, you've come a long way at a faster rate than I expected. Today we start pairing up for fighting, I will go against each one of you over the course of the week in order to pick apart your fighting skills and perfect them. Remember, we are the security of the factions, and they expect the best trained combatants that we can offer. Those of you who lack the fighting skills, well, there is not a lot of work for you without it."

The initiates were split into two groups, everyone facing another person, the person they were going to be sparring with. In the last week they had learned some basic skills, using pads to punch the other person's hand. Most of it was getting the feel of the movements, coordination, and for the person with the pads it was about learning not to flinch when someone threw their entire body weight at you in a full force punch. Now they were not using pads, but learning maneuvering techniques as well. If someone got hit now, it wouldn't be softened by a pad. Harper was facing a red-haired girl with sharp cheek bones, she was tiny, but Harper didn't think this was a disadvantage for the girl. Before she got started, however, Carson put her hand upon Harper's shoulder.