Death Wish

Part 4

I woke up to the sound of metal banging against metal. I sat up abruptly as my tired eyes scanned the room for the source of the sound. Through the morning blur I spotted a slim male figure.

"Wake up! Everybody be down in the Pit. Two minutes!" Four ordered, holding a long metal pipe in one hand.

Suddenly people started moving left and right to get ready. I got out of bed brushing my hair with my fingers but then realized it was futile and ended up just putting it up in a messy bun. I straightened out my shirt before running with Rency to the pit.

We found Eric and Four waiting there, both looking equally intimidating. Within minutes, all of the transfers stood in one big group with all eyes on the two male Dauntless

Four stepped up. "There are two stages of training. The first is physical, push your bodies to the breaking point and mastering the methods of combat. The second is mental, again breaking point, you'll face your worst fears and conquer them unless they get you first. You'll be trained separately from the Dauntless born, but you'll be ranked together. After initiations rankings will determine what jobs you move into. Leadership, guarding the fence, or keeping the factions from killing each other" He explained and I listened carefully.

"The Rankings also determine who gets cut" Eric added with his broad tattooed arms across his chest. My eyes darted up curiously, did he just say cuts? A surprised murmur ran through the transfer crowd.

"What do you mean? Cuts?" The male that wolf whistled at me, Frankfurt, asked, sounding just as confused as I was.

"At the end of training, the lowest ranking initiates will be leaving us" Eric said indifferently.

"To do what?" Ryan asked brushing his blond hair out his eyes.

Eric shrugged "There's no going home to your families, so you'd live factionless" he explained and an instant claw of dread ran across my stomach. I didn't doubt my capabilities but it would have been arrogant not to be at least a little worried at the possibility of not being good enough.

"Shouldn't someone have told us before?" Emer asked incredulously and once again Morsov looked like he wished he wasn't related.

"Why? Would you have chosen differently? Out of fear? Well if that's the case, you might as well get out now. If you're really one of us it won't matter to you that you might fail. You chose us, now we get to choose you" Eric explained, making everyone go silent.

"Let's get started shall we?" Four said and walked towards the workout room where a 400 meter distance track sat. In the center there were weights and several sparring mats. "First we will be running a mile. That means four laps," Four added as I filed in with everyone else at the starting line.

There was an awkward moment of silence as we all stood at the track.

"What are you guys waiting for? Run!" Eric ordered and I started out jogging. Two idiot boys, I think one from Abnegation and the other from Erudite, took off sprinting but didn't even manage to make the full lap before slowing down to a snail pace jog. Idiots, I thought as I passed by them. I was maybe fifth from the front as the group began to spread out around the track.

At the front was actually Ryan, and behind him was Frankfurt. Beside me was Morsov, who was wheezing but made no move to slow down, and I think behind me Matius was running with some girl I didn't know.

As we continued running, my chest began to ache and my lungs burned. My calfs were not used to this level of excetion and started to feel heavier and heavier. I felt tempted to stop for a break but one look at Eric's hawk like gaze easily deterred me. Instead I stayed in pace with Morsov who I think was pacing off of me as well.