CHAPTER 4 - a burn in my legs

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The hallways in Dauntless look more like caves than hallways. I walk behind Eric towards the training room, neither of us have spoken a word. He stops outside a door pulling keys from his pocket. He pushes the door in and ushers me to follow him in.

The room is full of punching bags and targets and mats and tables full of weapons. "This is the training room then?" I question and he nods his head.
"You'll be starting with the knives tomorrow and it would be deemed unfair if I let you start that" he speaks for the first time since the hall.
"Well then what'll I do?" I question.
"10 laps of the compound"
"Your kidding right?" My eyes widen.
"Your right I'm kidding" I let out a sigh of relief.
"I meant 20 Laps" I just glare at him which he happily returns.

With out further notice Eric takes off sprinting through the doors and I follow closely behind, everyone else still at dinner. We run through the halls of dauntless and by the time we run one lap of the place it has taken 10 minutes of solid sprinting. My legs burn but I refuse to give in.

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"That's 20 stiff your done for the day" he says out of breath and I just stop placing my hands on my knees.
"What Time is it?" I ask in between attempts at breathing.
"9:30" my god it was 6:30 when we started.
"Will I have to train this late every night?" I sigh when he nods.
"Your the one who punched your trainer. Not me. Although it was quiet amusing." My thought returning to Tobias for the first time in a few hours.
"Well I'm guessing he wouldn't have made me run 20 laps of the compound." I cheekily backfire.
"Exactly why I volunteered, he wouldn't have pushed you hard enough." He has a sweat line down the front of his T-shirt and his hair is ruffled.
"You can go now" He says emotionlessly and I just nod.

I make my way out of the training room and slowly back to the dormitory's, or at least I hope I'm heading towards them.
I arrive outside and when I walk in there is barely anyone there. I look over to the beds in the back corner and see Adam, jack, Danny, Jane and Harry.
Adam looks up and our eyes meet. He ushers me over and I walk towards them, falling onto an empty bed.

"God what happened you?" He asks looking at my almost dead figure sprawled on a bed.
"Eric made me run 20 laps of the compound"
"The whole compound?!" Jane is shocked, I nod.
"God Well I was gonna ask if you wanted to get tattooed with us but I mean if your too tired-" Harry starts and my eyes light up.
I've wanted a tattoo since I was a little girl.
"Are you kidding of course I'm coming. I want a tattoo" I say probably to eager.
"God you really are a masochist aren't you?" Adam reuses the word again from the rooftop earlier.
"We're going to the tattoo parlor now so get up" harry offers me a hand as I stand from the bed.

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We arrive outside the tattoo parlor and head inside. One wall is covered in tattoo designs and the other with plenty of tattoo chairs.
We walk straight forward and I see the boy that I'm pretty sure administered my test talking to the lady behind the counter.
"Tori I swear to god it was incredible. She got the most dauntless result ever out of any faction other than dauntless of course! And her being abnegation and all it makes it so confusing." I blush when I realize who he is talking about. All the guys obviously know because they are now staring at me.

"Hey tori!" Adam says awkwardly causing both Zeke and the woman to turn around. Zeke looks at me and I swear I see a small blush cover his cheeks.
"It's you! Oh my god Alexa right?"
"Alex now actually" I correct him. It has to be the 20th time today.
"Well here She is Tori. She did so well it was unbelievable. A 95 percent compatibly to dauntless, have you ever seen anything like that?" The girl, Tori, stares at me in shock.
"That's incredible. Dauntless borns have scored lower than that. Very few score higher. You'll fit in just fine here I'm guessing" she smiles and then looks back at Zeke.
"Well Zeke I have to get back to work, I'm guessing these kids want tattoos?"
"Yes"
"No" everyone says yes except Harry. We turn around.
"Harry your getting one. Come on" I plead and he just shakes his head.

"God you seem like more of a stiff than an erudite" Four appears behind him and I just look to the floor.
"Hey buddy!" Zeke says as he puts an arm around Tobias' back hugging him.
"Alex can I talk to you?" He asks looking me deep in the eyes.
"I'm getting a tattoo. We can talk tomorrow at lunch" I say not looking up from my feet. I see his figure walk out of the shop with Zeke following him and I look back up again.
"A bit of brotherly tension I see" Tori pipes up and I look at her sharply.
"How did you know?"
"Everyone at Dauntless knows about your little scene. Your the talk of the compound" my face drops. I couldn't just blend in.

"I'd like a tattoo please" I say changing the conversation.
"Where would you like it?" She questions as the others file away getting attended to by other artists.
"The back of my neck"
"What would you like?" She seats me in a seat and collects her needles.
"A cross" she raises an eyebrow.

Crosses are from an old religion we learned about from before the war, Christianity. Nowadays crosses symbolize the loss of something, usually a loved one.
"Why on earth do you want a cross?" She asks, more or less asking me who died.
"I want it to remind me that I'm a new me now. The past is behind me" Tori smiles widely.
"I've never thought of it that way" I return her smile.
"This is going to hurt a little just bare with me." She flips my hair out of the way and I feel her needle make contact with my bare skin. My teeth grind together at the sudden sting. After a minute I get used to it and relax a little more in my chair.

"Your a natural" Tori says after about 10 minutes. She wipes my tattoo with an antiseptic wipe and wraps it.
"Should be good by the morning to take off the wrapping and show it off"
I thank her and make my way out to the front where jack, Danny, Jane and Harry are sitting.
"Where's Adam?" I question and no one has to answer me because I see him being chastised by a tattoo artist.

"Adam I go on break for one hour and you go off and get a tattoo of a fucking bottle of gin!What's wrong with you!!" I'm guessing it's his dad, he did say he was a tattoo artist.
"Dad I'm old enough now I can do what I want." Adam reasons with his dad.
"that's going to be stuck on you for the rest of your life, you are an idiot" he seems to be calming down a bit inspecting Adams fresh tattoo.
"I live in the present dad. If I end up regretting it in 20 years, which I won't, I'll get a coverup."

Must be nice to have a dad who cares. I tune out of the conversation and turn my head back to the others to inspect their new tattoos. Jane got a snake behind her ear, Danny got a skull on his lower arm and Jack got a spider on his neck. Harry got nothing.
"Your such a chicken my god" I sigh to him and he just shakes his head.
"We'll get him when he's pissed drunk, he'll say yes then." My eyes widen.
"Drunk?" I ask. In abnegation people don't drink, I heard in erudite and candor legal drinking age is 21 and one doesn't get 'drunk' there.
"Yeah drunk. Legal at 16 here" jack pipes up.
"Didn't stop us at 15 though" Danny smiles.

"Hey guys I'm ready!" Adam pops up behind us and we all stand up and make our way back to the dorm since we get our tattoos free. Some sort of bribery to do well in initiation or something.
Once we get back I strip down to just my underwear and slip under the bedsheets before darkness engulfs me.

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