Dauntless- A fanfic of Divergent

Chapter 3- First Jumper

My heart is pounding as the train comes into view. I know Dauntless initiation will be hard, because I know how it was designed. It was my mother’s brain child after all. And I had access to all of that information. I think I have a good chance. I may not be the best physical specimen, but I can throw a punch, and I’m smart. My thoughts are interrupted by sudden movement around me. The Dauntless are piling into the train. The members go first. After some of them have cleared out, those of us in different colors begin to jog. We are already moving as one.

I am one of the last to board the initiate car, Dauntless born and transfers. I grab the handle and lunch myself forward, into the car. I stumble, almost falling backwards out of the train, but a strong hard grasps my arm, catching my. I am breathing heavy with the exertion, and my cheeks are red as I look up at the person. I am struck again by a lack of breath. He is taller than me, wearing black clothes. “Thanks.” I get out as his hazel eyes smile at me. He grins slightly. “Anytime. Cal, right? You made quite the entrance.” I look out the at the city flashing by outside. “You could say that.” He is somewhat entrancing, smooth in a way. Olive skin, dark hair, sharp cheekbones. “Zeke!” a higher voice says from near the back of the car. A girl about my height with long black hair bounces toward us, pushing her way through people like nothing. “Who’s this?” she asks, slightly out of breath still. Her eyebrows are arched high over her brown eyes, and she tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear as she looks at him expectantly. “This is Cal. The one from Erudite.” He replies. I take a bit of offense at that, but I blink and shake it off. “Shauna. Dauntless born.” She says, holding out her hand. “By the way, how did you get Cal from Catherine?” Zeke adds as I shake Shauna’s hand. I smile “Oh, um…” I try to come up with a good reason other than it was the name of one of my favorite book characters, because that’s way to nerdy. “Well, Catherine obviously wasn’t working, Cat and Katie are to Amity, so Cal seemed perfect.” Shauna eyes me a little funny. I didn’t really realize how weird my name was. “Pretty smart.” She says, in a teasing tone. I look at her exasperated already. “Ok, bring out the Erudite jokes.” I say, throwing my hands up. She laughs. “You were asking for it!” I smile. It feels natural here. Everyone is unrestrained, and I am fitting in, I think. Zeke looks at something in the distance. “Here comes the roof.” He says mysteriously. My eyes widen “What roof?” He gets a mischievous look in his eyes. “The compound roof that we jump onto and then right off of again.” As he finishes the sentence, the roof comes into view. I stare at it, my eyebrows raised in shock. He grins, and as the roof nears, he says “Welcome to Dauntless.” and jumps out of the train.

I look at Shauna. She smiles, grabs my arm, and practically drags me out of the car. I scream like a strangled cat as we sail over the gap between the roof and the tracks. My feet connect with the concrete hard and a jarring shudder runs up my legs. I grip Shauna’s arm and stumble forward a few steps. I laugh nervously, realizing that I’m still alive, and on my feet for that matter, but then a massive force knocks into me from behind, pushing me and Shauna to the ground. The wind goes out of me, and I peel my face off of the cement. Shauna is already up and facing the culprit. I turn and see a large boy from Candor. Shauna doesn’t seem intimidated by this, but I shrink back a little bit. “Watch it, dumb a$$!” she yells at him. His face contorts in anger, and I grab her arm and pull her away from the boy. “Let’s go.” I say quietly. I’d rather not have the only friend I’ve made here get her face smashed in. The boy stands there, staring daggers.

As we walk toward the instructors, one of them begins to talk. “Welcome initiates. This is the roof of the Dauntless compound. Enjoy the scenery.” He says sarcastically. He is tall and bald, probably around 40. His head is covered in tattoos. “I’m Cunningham. I’ll be one of your trainers. This is Natalie. She will be instructing the Dauntless born initiates.” My heart sinks at this. We will be split up, and the only two friends I’ve made will be in the other group. Natalie gives us an evil smile. She has short red hair, and I’m suddenly glad she isn’t my instructor. “By the way, this is Four and Kathy. They will be doing the primary instructing, as they will be taking over full time next year. You are to show them the upmost respect and maybe even more than you give us.” He continues. “There will be three stages of training- one physical, one emotional, and one mental. You will be split for the first stage, but recombined for the last two.” At least it’ll only be a few weeks that I’m separate from Zeke and Shauna. “And at the end, 10 of you will be made members.” I freeze. Only 10? “That’s not fair! We have to go against all of them?” a girl from Candor says loudly, gesturing at all of the Dauntless born. I agree, but don’t dare speak up. Four cocks his head to the side. He steps toward her. “You came here. If you didn’t want to work, then why did you choose us? If you don’t think its fair, then you can leave right now.” He says strongly. Well, that’s a warm welcome. She shuts her mouth after that. “Now, who wants to jump first?” Cunningham says. “Jump?! Off the building?” a boy from Amity says, the only one here. Natalie speaks up “Yeah. You choose us to be brave, did you think it would be easy?” They are just full of rainbows and sunshine, huh? I bite my lip. I’m not as scared as him, at least. “I will.” I say nervously. I have to prove that I belong here. He points at a place. “Go on then.” I step forward. I look down, taking a deep breath. My heart is pounding, because who in their right mind would jump off a building? “Calculating the distance to the bottom?” someone cat calls. I turn around, seeing the boy from Candor laughing. I glare at him, and step backwards off the building.

Air rushes by me as I plummet towards the ground. I refuse to scream, so a half strangled squeal comes out instead. My heart beats against my ribcage as I fall. A hard surface catches me off guard. I lay there on my back, gasping. Wait why am I not dead? I look at the surface. A net. I laugh a bit. Of course there’s a net. I get my bearings and begin to crawl towards the edge. I jump onto the ground. A loud cheer almost knocks me over. All of the Dauntless are assembled around the net, I’m not sure how I didn’t notice them before. “First jumper!” echos through the crowd. I smile, my cheeks red with excitement. “Name?” a heavily pierced lady asks me. “Cal.” I say, out of breath, but confident. A thud makes me turn, and a widely grinning Zeke pops up from the net. More cheers sound as I laugh at his boyishly excited face. My heart is leaping with joy, because this is where I belong.