If I Was Dauntless Born

Chapter 16- Be Brave, Tris

I was walking around in the pit floor in the morning. I was thinking. What would it have been like if I had chosen differently. I certainly wouldn't be fighting for my life if I chose a different faction.

Today is the first day of fear simulations. I am really nervous. I have no idea what to expect!

All of the initiates sat outside the room. Uriah sat next to me, and Christina sat across from me. I lay my head on Uriah's shoulder.

"What will they be like?" Christina asked nodding to the closed door.

"I don't know. I've never done it before." Uriah answered.

Christina just nodded and looked back to the door.

"Uriah." Four called from the room. Uri squeezed my hand, stood up, and walked into the room. I little while later Four came out and said,

"Tris."

I got up slowly. Christina gave me a nervous smile. As a walked Peter glared at me, but I just kept my gaze on the door. Four led me in and told me to sit in the chair. He began to hook wires up to himself. Then he hooked some up to me. Finally he explained what the serum was going to be doing to me. He pulled a needle from a cabinet. Now, usually I'm not scared of needles, but this one was huge! I gulped and looked away. Then I felt a hard pinch on the side of my neck.

"The serum will take affect in 60 seconds." He said. The he hesitated and added, "Be brave, Tris."

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, the simulation room was gone. I stood in an open field. The air was stale, and the grass was dead. I heard a caw, then something pricked my shoulder.

When I looked up, a giant crow focused it's beady eye on me and dug in its talons into my shoulder. I winced and punched the bird. It didn't budge.

I looked up to the blackening sky. It was filled with rain clouds...except they weren't rain clouds.  They were crows. All of the sudden they swooped down, attacking me. Talons and wings smacked my face and arms. My feet were rooted to the ground.  I couldn't run. I tried hitting them off, but more took their place.

"Help!" I screamed.  "Help!" But nobody was there to help me. Because this is a simulation.

Beaks pecked at my flesh and ripped at my clothes. I couldn't stand the pain. I fall to the ground and wail, "Help!"

"This isn't real." I think. As I lay on the ground, I try to relax each muscle, one at a time until I resign myself to being a pecked carcass. This isn't real. This is a sim. This isn't real. I chant in my head. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes with a gasp, and I am in the simulation room. I put my head in my hands. Someone touches my shoulder. I punch as hard as I can.

"Tris." I shudder. I can still feel the feathers on my arms. Someone grabs my arm and pulls me from the chair.

I turn. "What was that?! How is that supposed to help me overcome cowardice?! That's torture, not teaching!" I yell.

"No one said overcoming cowardice would be easy." Four said, his expression blank.

"In real life I am not getting pecked to death by crows, Four." I spit back. I slump against the wall.

"Tris, how long do you think you were in that simulation?" Four asks.

"I don't know, 30 minutes?"

"Three. That's four times faster than the average." Four says.

I look up in bewilderment.  3 minutes? Four grabs my arm again, leading me out of the door. "How is this supposed to be beneficial?" I ask. I wipe away the tears on my face. I can't believe that I cried in front of Four.