Born to be Dauntless

Chapter 5

It was dead silent during the tour. They took the Dauntless born somewhere else after the jump and explained that they would get a different training. I was amazed by the chasm and the pit. It was beautiful here! The others were still in shock about what happened and did not want to look at me. I think that if I had to jump after them I would have been shaken as well. I mean they had to jump in next to the body they just shared a car with. The tall dirty blond guy who helped us was our instructor. His name was Oliver. He had showed us everything and we ended up at the dinner tables.

I sat next to Oliver and the rest of the transfers were sitting "next" to me. Well, no one sat between us but if they wanted to they could've. Easily.

So far I loved the food choices here. So much meat! I'd gotten a simple hamburger for now.

Oliver gave me a little nudge so I looked at him. When he realized that I had no idea what he was doing he handed me a spoon. What? I'm eating a hamburger... He chuckled at the sight of my confused face and said "look at your reflection."

My eyes looked the same, my hair wasn't that messed up. But when I got to my cheek I noticed that Amity-boy his blood was still on it and had run down a little. I tried to scrape it off but I just smeared it and it got worse.

"Hey." Oliver said "Look at me."

He put his fingers in his mouth and began to wash it off. I would've been grossed out by his spit but a dead guy's blood was on my face. When he was done I muttered "Thanks" and quickly ate the rest of my burger.

After dinner Eric came back to fetch us. We stumbled over the dark uneven ground. I looked at the rest. Wow we really are a sad bunch.

Isabella had changed her name to Isa when she found out that Lisa had changed her name to Liz. Elevator boy was called Mike although I don't know if that is his true name and Candor boy was called Daniel.

Eric stopped in front of a wooden door and folded his arms. We gathered around him. "We take the initiation process very seriously here, so I volunteered to oversee most of your training." He paused looking over our faces

"You have to be in the training room by eight o’clock every day. Training takes place every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you like after six. You will also get some time off between each stage of initiation.”

They have mini vacations here?

“You are only permitted to leave the compound when accompanied by a Dauntless,” Eric added. “Behind this door is the room where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks. You will notice that there are ten beds and only five of you. We counted on more transfers.”

No one spoke, I think they're still in shock.

“In the first stage of initiation, we keep transfers and Dauntless-born initiates separate, but that doesn’t mean you are evaluated separately. At the end of initiation, your rankings will be determined in comparison with the Dauntless-born initiates. And they are better than you are already. So I expect—”

"Rankings?" Isa said.

Eric smiled, and in the blue light, his smile looked wicked, like it was cut into his face with a knife. Something I had seen in my favorite books back at Erudite. The ones with the scary stories.

“Your ranking serves two purposes,” he said. “The first is that it determines the order in which you wil select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available.”

Everyone sighed relieved. Bunch of ... Stupids. Listen to all of it before you judge.

“The second purpose,” he said, “is that only the top ten initiates are made members.”