There's a gasp as we all watch Dex fall, and we rush to the ledge to see where she lands. But she just keeps falling, eventually disappearing in the darkness. Max looks at us impassively, and then he asks casually, "So who's next?"
I know this is some kind of Dauntless test, and whoever is first and last probably will get noticed. So as various people volunteer to go off, I wait until at least half of the group has gone, before volunteering myself.
As I fall, all I can hear is the sound of my own heart and the seconds I'm counting in my head. When I get to six, air in my body is suddenly jolted out of me as I land straight into a net.
I lie there windless for a few moments, trying to catch my breath but then I realise that someone else might jump on top of me and I try to scramble out.
"Hello again," smirks Isaac, reaching out a hand to help me climb out. Even though he scares me, I know that being friends with him is the only way to pretend that I'm not Divergent, and I take his hand.
"Hello to you too," I say back, and he grins. It's probably the most I've ever spoken to him. I look around the room, and see April standing there along with the Abnegation girl from the train and Sam, who's fiddling with his green glasses. April glares at me and I glance away, instead looking around the room, and I see in the darkness, that there are Dauntless standing there as well.
When the last jumper-an Erudite girl who's name I think is Cassie-arrives in the net, a man turns to the rest of us and says, "My name is Amar. I grew up here and passed my training with flying colours. I'll be your training instructor during initiation and will teach you everything you need to know to survive here. Meaning, if you value your life, you will do everything I tell you. Do I make myself clear?"
We all nod, and then April blurts out, "If you were from Dauntless, shouldn't you be training the Dauntless born?"
I gasp, as do some people beside me, as I turn to look at April, surprised that she's asked such a blunt question. But she doesn't seem to care about her reaction, and her steady brown eyes continue to gaze at Amar.
Amar only raises an eyebrow and says casually, "I didn't want to train them. You should be honoured. Now, if you'll follow me to the Pit."
I walk behind in the middle of the group, with Isaac beside me. He leads us to a cavern, where there are rooms built into the rock-for food, clothing and leisure activities and narrow ledges connecting each one. I see Dauntless running along the ledges, without a care in the world.
So this is where they live. Where I will live.
"Wow," I hear April whisper, and I see that she's openly beaming. Sam, Cassie and the Abnegation girl next to her all nod their heads in awe. With a pang, I realise that April's has made a lot more friends far faster than I have. Maybe she'll actually get less noticed than I will.
As if seeing my doubts, Isaac places a hand on my shoulder, "Have you seen anything like this before?" he asks, trying to start a conversation. I just shake my head, mutely.
"Good," says Amar, having clearly overheard Isaac, "Because Dauntless is nothing like the other factions." He lets this sink in, and then says, "Now come with me to the Chasm."
We dutifully follow his along a narrow ledge and he leads us round to the right side of the Pit. He walks towards a railing and as he does, I see that we are above a river. To the left, the water is calm, but to the right, it's wild and thrashes against the rocks.
"The Chasm reminds us that there is a difference between courage and stupidity!" Amar yells over the crashing waves, "Jumping off here would end your life! Never forget it!"
As he leads us away, Isaac asks innocently, "Has anyone been pushed off there?"
Amar stops, and turning round, blinks, surveying Isaac, "No." he says simply, abruptly. And then continues walking.
I'm confused as to why Isaac is even interested in people shoving others into the Chasm, but my thoughts are interrupted by the conversation of April's new friends behind me.
"That's cheerful," Cassie mutters.
"Well, he's got a point," says Sam's nervous familiar voice, "I mean what if people fall into the Chasm and-"
"Sorry, who are you again?" Cassie's says.
I hear the offense in Sam's voice and he replies, "I'm Sam."
"Right," says Cassie, "And that's important to me because...?"
"Can you two shut it?" I hear April cut them off suddenly.
"Wow," says Cassie, sarcasm lacing her voice, "You know for an Amity, you've got so much manners."
"I'm not Amity. I'm Dauntless." she replies, curtly.
Unable to help myself, I smile slightly. Despite being in new territory, April hasn't changed a bit. Then I remember to force my expression into one of blankness, before Isaac or any of the others see that I accidently relaxed my guard.
Amar leads us into a Cafeteria, where numerous Dauntless are all seated around. They are chatting loudly, but when they see us, they stand up and begin to cheer.
"This is where meals are," says Amar loudly, "Have dinner, and afterwards, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping and I'll go through some ground rules."
He leaves us and then we head into the Cafeteria. Isaac spots an empty table and we sit down and begin helping ourselves to food.
For a few minutes we sit in silence, before Isaac asks me, "So why did you join Dauntless?"
Surprised at the directness of his question, I blink and make sure my voice is even before replying, "I got Dauntless."
Isaac shrugs, "Yeah, but you could have stayed in Candor."
I pretend to look surprised, as if that thought had never occurred to me, "I got Dauntless so I chose Dauntless," I say simply.
"Yeah," Isaac says, talking to me as if I'm a toddler, "But you could have..." he waves his hand irritably, evidently realising that there's no point arguing with a simpleton. "Never mind."
I resume eating. A dark-haired Erudite girl sits down at the table next to us, and begins eating what appears to be a well-balanced meal. A sandy-haired Candor boy, who I unfortunately recognise to be Edgar, moves past us looking for a place to sit. As there are no more places left, he surveys the room and I see a glint in his eye as his eyes train on the girl.
I know what's going to happen next. I've seen Edgar do this plenty of times. He's always loved picking on people by catching them unawares. And this Erudite girl is his ideal victim. In the past, I've stood up to Edgar. Not with my fists, of course, but with words. But I can't do this here. The last thing I want to do is get myself noticed.
Just as the girl is lifting her folk to dig into her mashed potatoes, Edgar catches her underneath her arm and shoves her onto the floor. She lands heavily on the floor and her plate goes flying. Edgar sits down at her place with a satisfied smile as she the girl, chagrined and angry, gets back on her feet.
"That's Phoebe," Isaac says unsympathetically, following my gaze, "She always was a wuss." We watch as Phoebe heads over to where Edgar is sitting to get her plate by his feet. As she bends over, however, Edgar shoves her again and this time she falls onto her uneaten food. He laughs as she, clearly crying, looks down at her clothes now smeared with food.
There's a shout and I look over to see another fellow Candor transfer marching over to the table. It's Jo, a black girl who muscly from training at the only gym that exists in Candor every day. Her hands are balled into fists and there's anger glinting in her eyes and she approaches Edgar. She, unlike me, is not afraid of getting noticed to stand up to bullies.
Edgar seems painfully aware of this, and he awkwardly gets to his feet as Jo stops in front of him and despite the fact that they're the same height, he shrinks.
Suddenly, before any verbal or physical fight can break out, Isaac gets to his feet.
"Hey," he says loudly, "Why don't you come and sit with us?" Phoebe starts to make her way towards us, clearly perplexed why someone like Isaac is even offering a seat, but he waves her off irritably, "Not you," he sighs audibly and turns to me, "You're from Candor. What's that boy's name?"
"Edgar?" I say, unable to keep the surprise out of my voice.
"Edgar," Isaac says, and both Jo's and Edgar's heads swivel to look at him. Jo's eyes light on mine, and I see her eyebrow raise at the company I'm keeping. I look down ashamed. "Edgar." Isaac repeats, "Come and sit with us. Brooke here will scoot up."
It's my turn to raise my eyebrow but I obey, and scoot up next to a Dauntless, who's not too happy at the invasion of his personal space.
"Sure," says Edgar, and takes his tray over to our table. Jo turns her attention to Phoebe, and puts an arm around her while she gets her more food.
Edgar sits down next to me and grins at Isaac, "I see you've met my friend Brookie, here," he says. I try not to wince. 'Friend' isn't a word I'd typically use to describe someone I usually avoid on a day-to-day basis.
Isaac outstretches his hand from the opposite side of the table, "I'm Isaac by the way." Edgar nods, shakes his hand and begins digging into some Dauntless cake, smearing chocolate over his hands and face.
Amar re-enters the Cafeteria, his eyes surveying the room, seeming to note the groups we've made ourselves.
"Right," he says, clapping his hands to get our attention, "On with the tour."
We follow him to the training room, a large room with space to practice martial arts as well as targets for real weapon practice. And then to the room where we will be sleeping.
A room with five bunk beds and no personal space.
"You've got ten beds," Cassie remarks, and I notice that there are exactly ten of us in total.
"Around eight to twelve transfers manage to make it to Dauntless," says Amar, "So we usually put ten out but we have others ready just in case. You'll note," he adds, "that this is a communal sleeping space."
There are some groans from some people who hadn't already realised, and I force myself to join in, my groan sounding like a grunt of a pig.
Amar lets us pick our beds. Isaac and Edgar decide to share a bed so I'm left with the Erudite girl Cassie.
"I'm taking top," I say quickly, evoking my status as a bully.
"Fine by me, " she replies, "Just stay out of my way."
I catch Isaac and Edgar watching our exchange, and I make a point to shoulder her, "I'll stay out of your way if you don't snore," I hiss.
Once everyone's done choosing their beds, Amar clears his throat, "Now I'm just going to go over some ground rules. You have to be in the training room every morning for eight o'clock sharp. Is that understood? I don't want anyone coming in late and I don't want anyone to come in still eating breakfast. You need to leave time for that in the mornings. You'll train until six in the evening, with a half-an-hour lunch break in between the morning and afternoon sessions. After six, you'll be free to do what you want for the day.
Another thing: you may only leave the Dauntless compound when accompanied by an adult. We will take days off to go on field trips, but you will not leave the compound unsupervised. Is that clear? Any questions?" We all shake our heads.
Amar takes a deep breath, and then says, "Ok, this next bit is important. There will be three stages of training: physical, emotional and mental. You will be ranked in between each stage so we can chart your progress."
He pauses, as if unsure on how to continue, but then says, "Only initiates ranked in the top ten at the end of initiation will be become Dauntless members."
I gasp. I knew Dauntless was strict but I didn't think it could be this bad. I'm not alone in my shock. Half of our group is in uproar; the other half looks too flustered to speak.
"Enough," Amar shouts, waving his hands, "I know this may be a shock but rules are rules. This is the Dauntless way."
"But we have no chance against the Dauntless born!" Cassie squeals.
"This is totally unfair!" Isaac cries, looking, for the first time since I've met him, scared.
Amar waits patiently for the shouts to die down and then he says, "During the first stage of initiation, you will be trained separately from the Dauntless born and will be ranked separately. The second and third stages cannot be trained for and so you will be on equal footing."
He looks at us, and, after a pause, says, "There's one more thing. After the first stage of initiation, the four initiates that are ranked the lowest in total will be cut and will have to leave the Dauntless compound."
"And go where exactly?" April demands, harshly.
Amar looks at us one by one, meeting us all right in the eye, "They will be Factionless."