As we all walked back to the train, I grinned as I saw all the people still cheering.
"I can't believe I missed it!" Will says again, shaking his head.
"You were performing the very important job of staying out of our way," says Sarai, beaming.
Al groans. "Why did I have to be on the other team?"
"Because life's not fair, Albert. And the world is conspiring against you," says Will. "Hey, can I see the flag again?"
"So you climbed the Ferris wheel, huh," says Uriah. He stumbles behind me. Marlene, the girl with the flirty smile, follows him.
"Yes," I say.
"Pretty smart of you. Like...Erudite smart," Marlene says. "I'm Marlene."
"Quinn," I say. "And I was an erudite born."
"Then maybe that's where I was getting that from. And yeah, I know who you are," she says. "The first jumper tends to stick in your head."
"Anyway, Quinn come with us!" Uriah smiles.
"Where are yous going?" I question.
"Shortcut back!" They both smile, "A little initiation ritual, dauntless style." Uriah hints.
Looking over my shoulder, I look to see Four pretending like he wasn't listening to our conversation. His nosiness makes me want to take this shortcut back.
"Sure!" I smile back as we ran past Four.
"Let's go," one of the members says as a group of us follow them. I stay close behind Uriah as I pass into darkness and my toe hits a step. I catch myself before falling forward and start to climb.
"Back staircase," Uriah says, almost mumbling. "Usually locked."
I nod, though he can't see me, and climb until all the steps are gone. By then, a door at the top of the staircase is open, letting in the nightlight.
I exhale out as I look over the wall among many others. The view of the city appears before my eyes, my previous home was submerged in there somewhere, but I couldn't find it. Not even if I tried. For the first time in my life, I could see how the city was, at night, in the peace and quiet.
"Wow." I managed to release.
I began to think about how Parker would feel if he saw this view, but I knew that he would rather be in them buildings than see them. I look down to the streets. We were very high, higher than what I had assumed.
I see Uriah leading the ziplines as he helps each person get up and strapped in. Everyone cheering for every person that gets up.
"Hang tight!"
"Fly baby!"
I hear the laughs from the people on the ziplines from a far and I examine what is going on.
"You're up!" Uriah smiles at me.
"Alright! Do it Quinn!" I hear will chant out.
"Come on girl!"
I look to Uriah's hand and grabbed onto it where the other guys helped me up the wall and buckled me in the zipline.
"Don't forget to pull the brake at the bottom!" The boy to my right informed me.
"Okay!"
"You ready?" He asks me.
"Harness is good." The other boy tells us.
They swing me back and forth before releasing me so that I glided in the air.
I screamed as I heard the cheers from the others.
The overwhelming feelings from the past few days nearly vanished from my thoughts.
I feel like I am without substance, without weight. Ahead of me the marsh looks huge, its patches of brown spreading farther than I can see, even up this high. The air is so cold and so fast that it hurts my face. I pick up speed and a shout of exhilaration rises within me, stopped only by the wind that fills my mouth the second my lips part.
Held secure by the straps, I throw my arms out to the side and imagine that I am flying. I plunge toward the street, which is cracked and patchy and follows perfectly the curve of the marsh. I can imagine, up here, how the marsh looked when it was full of water, like liquid steel as it reflected the color of the sky.
My heart beats so hard it hurts, and I can't scream and I can't breathe, but I also feel everything, every vein and every fiber, every bone and every nerve, all awake and buzzing in my body as if charged with electricity. I am pure adrenaline.
I flew past all the various buildings, some through, some against. However, the pure freedom soon faded as I was about to clash near an electricity wiring, I gently got caught against in it, which sent me flying down. I let out a slight scream. Hitting another wiring it brought me back to my original horizontal position and just as I thought the stress was over, I was heading straight first near the departure.
The ground grows and bulges beneath me, and I can see the tiny people standing on the pavement below. I should scream, like any rational human being would, but when I open my mouth again, I just crow with joy. I yell louder, and the figures on the ground pump their fists and yell back, but they are so far away I can barely hear them.
I look down and the ground smears beneath me, all gray and white and black, glass and pavement and steel. Tendrils of wind, soft as hair, wrap around my fingers and push my arms back. I try to pull my arms to my chest again, but I am not strong enough. The ground grows bigger and bigger.
I don't slow down for another minute at least but sail parallel to the ground, like a bird.
The echoing screams grow and finally I hear the people telling me to pull.
"Pull!"
"Pull the brake!"
Looking back behind me, I tried reaching for the brake but it kept sliding out of my hand, but eventually I caught it and used all my strength to get it to stop as quick as possible.
Facing back to the front of me I was left with the question of whether I was going to survive this or am I going to plummet straight into the wall.
Just a couple inches away from the wall is where I stopped. Holding a hand out to stop from any further moving I finally relaxed.
I heard cheers from the others below me to which I returned with laughing.
Going back into the pit alongside Uriah's hand over my shoulder and Sarai and Will next to me. We followed the crowd.
"That was amazing!" I smile at Uriah.
"Quinn." Four calls from a distance.
He jumps down from where he was standing with the other leaders and walks to me.
"I'll see you in a minute." I look over to Will, Sarai and Uriah who had taken their arm off me.
"Hey." he begins.
"Hey." I awkwardly say looking around me before looking at him.
Judging by the bottle in his hand and the brightness of his face, he's intoxicated, or on his way there. I had begun to think of Four as rigid, like a soldier, and forgot that he's also still a teenager.
"You look different." His words, normally crisp, are now sluggish.
"So do you," I furrow my brows at him. And he does—he looks more relaxed, younger. "What are you doing?"
"Flirting with death," he replies with a laugh. "Drinking near the chasm. Probably not a good idea."
"No, it isn't." I'm not sure I like Four this way. There's something unsettling about it.
"Didn't know you had a tattoo," he says, looking at my collarbone.
He sips the bottle. His breath smells thick and sharp. Like the factionless man's breath.
He glances over his shoulder at his friends, who are carrying on without him, unlike mine who are waiting at a distance. He adds, "I'd ask you to hang out with us, but you're not supposed to see me this way."
I am tempted to ask him why he wants me to hang out with him, but I suspect the answer has something to do with the bottle in his hand.
"What way?" I ask. "Drunk?"
"Yeah...well, no." His voice softens. "Real, I guess."
"Well, I'll pretend I didn't."
"Nice of you." He puts his lips next to my ear and says, "You look good, Quinn."
His words surprise me, and my heart leaps. I wish it didn't, because judging by the way his eyes slide over mine, he has no idea what he's saying. I laugh. "Do me a favour and stay away from the chasm, okay?"
"Of course." He winks at me. Just before I walk away, he grabs me by the arm.
"Oh! I forgot to say. Congratulations." He looks at me.
Can he stop looking at me?
"Thanks." I remain a straight face. I think out of anything I don't like relaxed Four.
"You know, I wanted to say that you were good tonight. You were brave." He paused.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." I smirk. I might as well get the compliments while they last.
He looks over to see Will and Uriah glaring at him.
"Anyway, you should get back to your friends." He nods.
"Okay." I nod back before I walk back to Uriah and the rest.
"What was that about?" Will asked me.
"I have no idea."