Resurgent: A Divergent Story//editing

Chapter 22

- Al -

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Once the choosing ceremony is over, Amar takes the nine initiates, me, Hector, Jo, Claire, Tommy, Jenna, a boy from candor, a boy from erudite, and a girl from erudite, to the train. Surprisingly, James and Angie both transfered to candor, leaving their families in tears.

We climb up the columns to the train, and wait for about a minute. I look at Jenna, and she is standing alone, with a huge smile on her face. I go over to talk to her, but the noise of the train stops me. Once the train turns the corner, we all start to run.

Everyone but Jenna is in the train, and the platform is about to end. I reach my hand out, and pull Jenna in.

"Thanks Al." she says. I introduce Jenna to Jo and Claire. Then, we talk to the erudite girl, Maci. She tells us how her, and her twin brother, Jordan, had to get get out of erudite.

Then Amar whistles, and he says, "Hey, get ready, we are almost at the compound."

"Whose that?" Maci asks, "He's hot."

I roll my eyes, "That's Amar, my brother." Maci's face drops, and we all start laughing.

"We are here!" Amar yells.

I go to the back of the train car, and say, "C'mon guys!" Then I sprint, and jump off the train and land almost perfectly on the roof. When I stand up, I see that everyone is on the roof.

We follow Amar to the four people we see standing on the edge if the building. Dad, Tori, Uriah, and Ethan stand there. When my eyes meet Dad's, he smiles. Tori does the same, and relief fills Uriah's eyes when he sees Hector, but Ethan scans the crowd for his son, and I can see the heartbreak in his eyes when he doesn't see James standing in the crowd.

Amar whispers to Dad, probably telling about my mishap at the ceremony, because Dad starts to laugh when he looks at me. Ethan asks Amar something, and he shakes his head.

Then, Dad says, "Hey everyone. I'm Four, the main leader at dauntless, this is Ethan, and this is Tori, the other leaders. This is Uriah, he will be helping me observe the initiation. There is one way into the compound from here, you have to jump." People start to whisper, and the Dad says, "Who will jump first?"

No one says anything for a minute, then I say, "Me." everyone stared at me, and Dad smiles.

"Like mother, like daughter," he says, and I roll my eyes.

I stand on the edge, and I look down. There is a hole in the pavement below, but it seems bottomless.

"Today, Al." Ethan says.

I clear my mind, and all I do is jump. Time seems to stop as I fall to the ground. Before I know it, I am in the net at the bottom of the hole. I grab the hand that is reaching to pull me out, and I see my mom's face.

"First Jumper, AL!" she yells, and people cheer. She pulls me into a hug. "I'm so glad you are here," she says, "Did anyone transfer?"

"James and Angie both went to candor." I say.

She nods her head as a flash of grey falls into the net. Mom the helps Jenna out of the net.

Once everyone is down here, Mom says, "I'm Tris. I usually work in the tattoo parlor, but during initiation, I will be your instructor. Because there are only nine of you, I will be training all of you together. Any questions?"

"How old are you?" The candor boy asks.

"I'm thirty five." Mom says.

"There will be another instructor with me, but he will be here tomorrow," she says, and she turns around, "Follow me."

She leads us towards the pit, and then talks about it, but I don't listen. I stand there, just spacing out. I look around, and all the dauntless born are doing the same thing I am, just staring out into space.

"Okay," Mom says, and we follow her back to the initiates living quarters. "This is where you will be staying for the next ten weeks."

"Boys or girls?" Jenna asks.

"Both," Mom says, and Tommy and the candor boy both get huge grins on their faces.

"Wait 'til you see the bathrooms," Mom says.

We walk into the bathrooms, and there are showers and toilets, but no dividers. The boys' grins grow and the Mom realizes. "Same reaction every year," she says, "Be in the pit in five minutes. There are clothes for all of you to change into."

As soon as she leaves, the candor boy says, "Who else thinks Tris is hot?"

Hector walks over to him, whispers something in his ear, then nods his head to me.

"Like mother, like daughter." He says, while staring at me as I take off my shirt to change into the clothes left for the initiates. Tommy looks over at me and whistles. I roll my eyes, and see he recieves a death stare from Hector. I wink at Tommy, which makes Hector even more mad.

Once we are all changed, the transfers have to burn their clothes, to show that they have left their old faction, and are dauntless now. Jenna doesn't think twice, as she tosses her grey bundle of abnegation clothes into the fire. Jordan and Maci take a little longer than Jenna, and the candor boy puts his clothes in piece by piece.

The candor boy walks over to me and says, "So, Ali, is it?"

"Just Al." I say back.

"Well, just Al," he says, recieving a laugh from me, "I'm Kevin."

Kevin and I talk until my mom comes back. Our converstion is mainly small talk, like about life here at dauntless.

When my mom comes back, she explains the training process, she says, "There are two parts of initiation. The first part is physical, push your bodies to the breaking point. The next part is mental, experience your worst fears and conquer them. You will be ranked based on how well you do in the stages. These rankings will determine which jobs you will enter after initiation."

"The rankings also determine who will get cut," Ethan says, as he walks over to the group with my dad and Tori.

"Cut?" Someone asks from behind me.

"No," Dad says, "We will not cut anyone because there is ten spots for dauntless initiates, and there are only nine of you."

"Fine, but at the final rankings, if your on the bottom," Ethan says, "Let's just say you wish you were cut."

I look from Hector, to Jo, to Kevin, and then, to the rest of the initiates. Who will be at the bottom? I pray, if I make it that far, it won't be me.

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AN:

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