The man and the bus disappear and I'm suddenly left standing in an empty field. The skies open and rain begins to fall, quickly drenching the my clothes. I shiver and wrap my arms around as I walk forward cautiously, my shoes sticking in the mud.
Suddenly, a hand grabs me from behind. I try to scream but another hand presses against my mouth. Struggling, I look down and see my attacker's feet next to mine. Judging by the shoe size, whoever is attacking me is huge, and I stamp down on their brown shoes.
The person curses, and I grab the hand that's covering my mouth and push it off me. Turning round to face my attacker, I see that I was right- they are literally a giant. They're burly and their glare sends literally shivers down my spine. They lunge forward at me again, and I feel adrenaline course through me as my instincts take over.
I pommel their chest whilst attempting to give them an uppercut to his jaw but they're simply too big. They looks at me, impassive, and just grabs the cuff of my shirt and shove me into the mud...
...I awake, and gasping, I find that I'm back in the aptitude test room. I do a double-take, making sure that I'm not still in the simulation, but as I look around, I see the Abnegation woman, Natalie, sitting in her chair.
She's studying me carefully.
"So, what did I get?" I ask, casually, trying to break the silence, and then I'm hit with one of my worries, "I didn't get Factionless, did I?"
Natalie smiles reassuringly, "No," but the smile doesn't reach her eyes. She takes a deep breath, and says "I'm going to go through all the aspects of the aptitude test so you understand how we get the results."
I blink, startled that she's not going to tell my result outright, "Ok," I agree hesitantly.
"Ok," Natalie begins, "So first of all, you have to choose between the knife and the cheese. The cheese would have got you an Amity result, but as you chose the knife, I could cut off Amity as an option."
I nod, relief instantly flowing through me. My family would have been furious if I'd got Amity.
"Next, we have the dog," Natalie continues, "Instead of using the knife, you instead crouched down when faced with the dog, which would suggest Erudite."
"So, I got Erudite?" I cut in. Erudite's not too bad. It's not an amazing result like Candor, or even Dauntless which Candors have a healthy respect for, but at least it's not a result that would bring instant disgrace like Abnegation or Amity. Erudite's neutral.
"Yes and no," Natalie answers.
"But..." I protest, confused.
Natalie holds up a hand, placatingly, "I understand that this is frustrating for you, but I promise you, everything will be explained." I nod. Natalie continues, "Next, the girl was introduced. The fact that you didn't try to save her crossed off Abnegation."
"But if I'd thrown the knife at the dog, I could have hit the girl," I defensively.
"Therefore, it was perfectly logically not to do anything," Natalie smiles, "Then there was the man on the bus. You didn't tell him anything so I'm afraid that crossed off Candor." She looks at my sympathetically. I just nod. I knew Candor wasn't an option when I heard I'd got Erudite. What confuses me is that Natalie didn't announce that I got Erudite immediately.
"Now, under normal circumstances," Natalie continues, "The simulation would end there. Or it would end even before you had the man on the bus. However, there was just one more thing I needed to check. Even though you didn't fight the dog with the knife, I still couldn't cross Dauntless off the list so I had to devise another test,"
"The field," I echo.
"The field," Natalie confirms, "Sorry about that one. But I had to devise a scenario where I could be 100% certain what you got. The only options you had was to fight, reason with your attacker, or not react at all. You chose to fight, which means..."
"I got Dauntless," I whisper, realisation hitting me, "But, hang on, you said I got Erudite too. That's impossible."
"Not impossible," Natalie corrects, "Just rare-or at least it's supposed to be rare. This year's been a bit of a shock."
"So there's more people like me?" I ask, my head still spinning.
"Yes," Natalie says, "You are called 'Divergents'. But you can't tell anyone about this. Getting inconclusive results is dangerous."
"Dangerous?" I repeat, my curiosity getting the better of my fear, "Why?"
"Because you break the system," Natalie says simply.
There's a knock on the door, and Natalie looks up calmly as another Abnegation woman enters.
"We've got another one," she says somewhat breathlessly, "The girl I just had? It's her brother this time. Is it even possible to have two in one family?" Then she spots me and her eyes widen, looking scared, startled, "Uh...I just mean that someone else has been sick," she lies.
"It's ok," Natalie reassures her, "Brooke knows what's going on," She turns to look at me, "I've just got to deal with this situation. I'll be back in a minute."
I nod numbly, as the two women exit the room. Just before the door shuts, I hear the other one say to Natalie, "This is a really stressful year..."
Dauntless and Erudite. Divergent. Up until now, my worst fear was not getting Candor, or not getting a faction at all. It never crossed my mind that it was even possible to get more than one result. Divergents are spoken about in Candor, but, of course, we always assumed that they were myths. Something just to scare us into staying Candor.
It's scary. The idea that I can be killed just for being who I am. But it's also a relief to know that I'm not the only one. Somewhere along this corridor, in one of the other rooms, is a boy, who is probably feeling the same fear that I am.
Dauntless and Erudite. The two words whirl around in my head. Two factions. I wonder how many factions someone can get. Is it possible to get three? Four? Maybe even all five?
The door opens again and Natalie re-enters the room.
"Sorry about that," she says apologetically, "The poor boy is scared out of his wits. How are you feeling?"
"I think I'm too shocked to feel anything at the moment," I sigh.
Natalie nods, "Yes, that's too be expected." She walks over to her machine, "Now the Choosing Ceremony is up to you, but I strongly advise against choosing anything other than Abnegation. In Candor and Erudite, you'd be discovered immediately and the Dauntless and Amity initiation is risky. What should I put down? Candor because you're Candor-born or Abnegation?"
The thoughts whirl. The Choosing Ceremony. Of course, tomorrow I must choose. Candor won't be an option. Natalie spoke the truth there. I've seen enough Candor Initiations to know how the truth will always be forced out of you.
"Wait a minute," I ask, a thought occurring to me, "Divergents usually go to Abnegation?"
"Of course," Natalie says, surprised.
"But you said earlier that there's a lot of Divergents this year. Won't anyone get suspicious?" I ask.
"Well, yes," admits Natalie, "Erudite are beginning to suspect that we're up to something. But it's the safest option."
"But if the Erudite find out, then it won't be safe," I retort.
"But Brooke," Natalie protests, "Abnegation is the only place safe for Divergents."
I shake my head, "I don't want to risk going to Abnegation."
"But then where will you go?" Natalie asks softly.
I look at her, decidedly, "Put me down for Dauntless."
Natalie shakes her head, "Dauntless Initiation isn't the safest..."
"I will choose Dauntless tomorrow," I say, my voice before more sure as I become more confident with my choice, "So it makes sense for me to get Dauntless in my Aptitude test."
"And what will happen when they discover that you're too clever for them?"
"They won't. I will act stupid. No Dauntless know me personally. The only people who would see that I'm acting are my Candor friends, and I'm pretty sure they're Candor through-and-through. No one will know that I'm Divergent."
Natalie fingers hover over the keyboard, listening. Finally she says quietly, "And you're happy living a lie for the rest of your life?"
I shake my head, "No I'm not happy about it. But I'd rather live a lie for the rest of my life than be dead."
Natalie hesitates, and types the word 'Dauntless' into the machine. She looks at the word for a few seconds as if tempted to delete it, but then she presses the Enter key. And it's done. I officially got Dauntless in my Aptitude test.
She looks up at me and offers me a slight smile, "You don't have to go back into the Cafeteria if you don't want to. I can say that the liquid made you sick."
"Do you send every Divergent home early due to 'sickness'?" I ask.
Natalie's somewhat embarrassed smile gives her away.
"I'm taking that as a yes," I say, "My answer is no. I'm fine going back into the Cafeteria."
The last part was a lie. I'm not happy going back into the Cafeteria at all, where I know for certain that my friends will probe me for questions. But as I place my hand on the door handle, I find that it's my only option. It's either that or draw even more attention to myself.
I give Natalie one last smile as I exit the room, and try to walk as nonchalantly as I can over to my friends. As I do, I see the Abnegation woman from earlier talking to April, and a girl who, despite the longer hair and slightly taller height, looks just like her. I hear the words 'your brother' and 'felt sick'.
I know that the Erudite within me wants to move closer, to eavesdrop, to satisfy my curiosity, but I force myself to carefully wipe that piece of information from my mind. Because I don't want to know if River Meadows is Divergent or not.
The more I know, the more at danger I am.
I am Dauntless now. Just Dauntless. And if I have to crush the Erudite inside me to survive, then I will. I am not Erudite. I have no curiosity, no longing to read books-all those wonderful books in the school library still waiting for me to read them...
No. Tomorrow I will choose Dauntless. And I must do whatever it takes to survive.