The Divergent Maze Part 3
Tris
Four walked into the Dauntless dorm room carrying a steel pipe in his hand. He used the pipe to bang on the stair railing, waking up everyone sleeping in the room. “Get up. No breakfast today. We’re starting training first thing this morning. Training room in 15. Got it? Dismissed.” Four left the room after giving his orders.Tris threw a pillow onto Christina’s bunk fully waking her up.“Hey watch it stiff.” Christina said with a laugh. Tris smiled back. She wondered would everyone always think of her as just a 'stiff’ forever? The rest of the imitates dragged their bodies into the training room, still tired from the night before.
“The object of today’s training is knife throwing. I explained the rules about the rankings board already, no need to waste more breath. Stand at your mark. Four will show you an example of how to angle and throw a knife into your target.” Eric instructed. Four demonstrated for the class. Each initiate lined up at a starting line across from a cardboard version of a human body with a circle penciled in around the heart area. They were given a set of 4 knives. Tris took her first shot. She made it right in the circle. Same for her next 3 tries. Four looked at her with a slight smile which he quickly hid. Will on the other hand, missed every single shot. One knife hit the target and bounced back into the range. “That was pathetic. Go get it.” Eric said.
“N–now? While every one is still throwing?” Will stammered.
“Are you afraid?” Eric asked, without an ounce of sympathy in his voice.
“Of getting stabbed by an airborne knife? Yeah.” Will replied.
“Everybody stop!” Eric shouted, and the initiates ceased throwing. “Stand in front of the target.”
“Come on ma—” Thomas started, but Teresa held him back, pulling his arm. Eric didn’t even register that Thomas had spoke out. He kept his gaze fixated on Will. Will walked slowly and nervously towards the cardboard target.
“Four, gimme a hand here.” Four walked over, expressionless. “You’re gonna stand there while he throws those knifes. And if I see you flinch, you’re out.” Tris tensed up. Oh no, not Will. He can’t do it. I have to do something. She thought to herself. “One thing that you will learn here is that orders are not optional.” Eric finished. Four gathered four knives and stood in front of Will. As Four stood ready to throw a firm voice behind him spoke up saying, “STOP! Anybody can stand in front of a target. It doesn’t prove anything.” It was Tris. "Then it should be easy for you to take his place. Same rules apply.“ Eric confirmed.
Tris walked over and switched places with Will. She gave a slight nod to Four to let him know he should continue. She looked into his eyes from across the range. Even though they were emotionless, she tried to remember the eyes she met with the first time she saw him, after jumping off the roof of the Dauntless compound. The first throw hit the wood part of the target, close to Tris’ thigh. She didn’t even look. "Oh, come on Four.” Eric said mocking Four’s low throw, not knowing it was purposeful. The second throw hit the wood part of the target again, but in align with Tris’ face. “You can get closer than that.” Eric taunted. All Four wanted to do was stop. Keeping his cover Four said with a smirk, “You want me to give her a little trim?” “Yeah. Maybe just a little off the top.” Eric replied. The third throw hit the target this time, right above Tris’ head. Tris took a deep breath in. The fourth throw was right next to her head, nicking part of her ear, making it bleed.
“Points for bravery, stiff.” There’s that name again. Tris thought. “But not as many as you just lost for opening your mouth. . . Now watch yourself. We train soldiers not rebels.” Eric responded.
“Alright meet back by the wrestling mat in two minutes. Go.” Four announced.
Tris marched past Four on her way to the wrestling mat. “You alright?” Four asked, genuinely meaning it. “You cut me.” Tris responded.
“I meant to.”
“You think he was gonna let you off without a scratch? You’d still be standing there if I hadn’t hit you.”
“So am I supposed to thank you?” Tris asked with an eyebrow raised.
“You supposed to be smart. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have.” That was his last comment. He turned and left.
What does that even mean? Does he care about me or something?
Tris walked away, put her knives back into the utility closet, and headed to the wrestling mat. She stood next to Thomas and whispered 'hi’ to him, nudging his arm. Other than Christina, Tris felt that Thomas might be her only friend.
“Christina. Molly. On the mat.” Eric ordered. Christina and Molly warred against each other on the mat. When Christina couldn’t take it any more she pleaded with Eric to let her stop. “I can’t do it anymore. I give up I give up.” She said. Eric lifted Christina off the mat. Handed her a towel to wipe the blood from under her nose. He placed his hand on her lower back as a support as he walked her over in the direction of the infirmary. “Follow me initiates.” he said. Tris thought this was weird, why would the whole group need to come to the nurse? Eric almost looked human for a second as he tenderly guided Christina through the Dauntless halls. The dauntless compound had water that ran through it. When the group reached chasm, they organized them selves single file so that they would fit on the bridge that was above the chasm.
“You feelin’ a little better?” Eric asked Christina.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She responded with a smile, still shocked that Eric seemed to have a heart.
“Good.” He responded. Just that quickly Eric pushed Christina off the side of the bridge and caught her by her left wrist. “Grab the rail. Or don’t” He said with a shrug.
Tris looked back at Thomas who once again was ready to get involved in the issue. Tris was mortified, but she signalled Thomas with her eyes not to act. Christina struggled as her feet dangled over the bottomless chasm.
“You got three options. Hang there and I’ll forget your cowardice. Fall and die. Or give up. But if you give up you’re out.”
Christina struggled some more. Condensation from the moisture of the chasm below her, dripped from the wire cables above. Her fingers started to slip. Tris couldn’t watch. She wanted to help, but she had pushed her luck with Eric enough for one day.
“Come on Chris.” Tris tried to reassure her friend. Eric shot her a deadly look for speaking out loud again. Great. After what felt like a lifetime, Eric shouted, “Time!” and Tris and Thomas ran to Christina’s aid. She fell into Thomas’ arms panting and struggling for air as she hysterically cried.
“Oh please don’t be dramatic.” Eric said. “Dauntless never give up.” With that, he turned and left the group.
After dropping Christina off at the infirmary, Thomas, Tris and Teresa went to check the scoreboard to see where they ranked after their two days of training. Teresa and Thomas both made it over the red line, along with Minho, Peter, Frypan, Molly, and Winston. Tris held her head low as she saw the names Newt and Tris below the red line.
“When I get my hands on Eric…Tris you deserve to be up here. You had frickin’ knives thrown at your head and you didn’t move a muscle. If that’s not dauntless I don’t know what is.” Thomas said grumbling.
Teresa touched his arm trying to calm him down. Tris noticed this. “Don’t be a slinthead Thomas. Remember, we’re here to pass and lay low.” Teresa said. “Look, I’m sorry Tris. You should have been up there with us. Newt too.”
Tris looked at the ground and then pretended to tie and untie her shoes as she tried to come up with a response. She couldn’t. She left the Thomas and Teresa near the rankings board and walked back to her dorm. Thomas tried to go after her, but Teresa told him it she might want some alone time right now. Thomas fought her on it, but then came to see her point of view. Sitting on Tris’ bed was Peter, looking sly as normal.
“What the heck do you want?”
“I’m just here to congratulate you stiff.” he said with a laugh.
“Shut your hole.” Minho defended from across the room.
“What? You’re famous now.” Peter continued. “I mean not because of the thing with Eric. But, Hey. You’re in the news. Yeah, listen. 'The recent transfers of Beatrice and Caleb Prior, children of Andrew Prior, call into question the soundness of abnegation’s teachings and values. What prompted them to leave? Perhaps the answer lies in the corrupted ideal of an entire faction. The theft of resources, the general incompetence, the abuse of their children…’” Peter read from the newsletter.
“So, did they beat you? Like Marcus Eaton’s kid?”
“They didn’t beat anyone. They’re good people.” Tris said, biting down tears.
“Right. And that’s why you left?–'Cause they’re 'such good people’?” Peter said using his finger’s as quotation marks to mock Tris.
“Alright that’s it, I said shut up. ” Minho sprung from his beat and punched Peter in the face.
“Okay, okay, aight aight, I’m done, chill.” Peter said as he held his mouth.
Minho put his arm around Tris, nodded for his friends to come with and stormed out the dorms.
“Sorry, I lost my temper. He’s such a jerk.” Minho said.
“No, no. That’s okay. Thank you actually.” Tris responded. Minho nodded with a 'no problem’.
The group turned the corner and Will spotted something weird approaching them. A group of people dressed in blue started walking towards the group. It was Erudite. Leading the group was Jeanine Matthews. “What is she doing here? Why is Erudite at dauntless?” Will asked under his breath. As soon as the group of Erudite was about to pass Tris and her friends they stopped.
“You were Andrew Prior’s daughter right? Beatrice?”
She remembered my name? How?? What’s up with that…Tris thought to herself.
“It’s just 'Tris’ now.” she managed to get out.
“Ha. Tris, I like that.” Jeanine responded. She then lifted back the collar of Tris’ shirt to reveal her tattoo. “You made an impressive choice, Tris, despite your parents. And your test result.” This troubled Tris.
Uh oh, does she know it was inconclusive??
“I’m glad you were smart enough to know your own mind. Let me know if you ever need anything.”
Thomas
“Oh good, the outsiders are here as well. How are you guys accommodating here at Dauntless?” Jeanine asked Thomas and the former gladers. The gladers looked around awkwardly as they scrambled for words.
“Uh, we’re fine. We like our faction, having chose it or not. We appreciate the uh, opportunity we’ve been given to do some good.” Thomas said as he spat out the words.
“Excellent. You should be grateful. We rescued you from the maze trials, and given your dauntless aptitude we believe that you are a perfect fit here. I am pleased that it has been successful.” Jeanine said and then walked off.
The eyes of Tris, Al, Christina, and Will all turned to Thomas and the former gladers. They heard what Jeanine said about the 'maze trials’.
“Does someone care to explain?” Tris asked.
“T–Tris it’s really complicated.”
“Oh please. Need I say again I’m candor at heart. What are 'maze trials’?”
“Shh guys alright we’ll explain, just not here, let’s go back to the recreation center, we’ll grab a drink and a snack and then we will tell you everything.”
The group walked down to the recreational area of the Dauntless Compound near the tattoo parlor. Thomas looked around at the dark space lit only with red LED, as he racked his brain on how to explain where they had come from to his new friends.
“Hey shank, here’s a table.” Minho said as he gestured to a circular metal table close to the bar towards the back of the bar. The rest of the group filed into the seats at the table and a waiter approached them.
“I’m Connor, I ain’t no servant but I’ll be bringing you y'alls drinks tonight so what y'all want?” A dark skinned girl, arms covered in tattoos, asked popping her gum as she talked.
Thomas looked at the rest of the group asking the same question with his eyes.
“Nice to meet you Connor,” Frypan said stuttering at her beauty. “Uh, We’ll take root beers all around.” He said as he looked her up and down. Connor noticed him checking her out, leaned in close to him and whispered, “Comin’ right up.” and walked away.
Minho nudged him in the arm, “I see you Fry, ain’t even been here a minute and you tryna get 'em.” Frypan shugged with a cocky laugh, “What can I say, I got skills not even a maze can strip from me.”
Thomas tensed up again as Frypan said the word maze. “AHEM! There’s that word again. What flipping maze dudes???” Christina said in a yelling whisper and scooting her chair more towards the table.
Thomas looked down at his hands as all the eyes shifted to him. Why do I always have to be the one to explain everything. Mid thought Teresa whispered to Thomas so that no one could hear, “It’s gonna be fine we were invited to be here remember.” She squeezed his hand.
Thomas cleared his throat as the eyes of everyone around him peered with anticipation.
“So there’s this organization, I guess it could be compared to whom ever runs the government here. They are called WICKED. That means World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department. According to them, in the outside world massive solar flares raged on the planet. Millions died due to the excessive heat, fires, and radiation. Then, because of the decreasing amounts of resources, a virus was released as a means of population control. They created was far more dangerous than they had expected. First it breaks down your body, and then it attacks the mind. It can effect everyone, everyone except us, we are immune. WICKED was so desperate for a cure, and here’s where we come in.”
“In order to determine what makes us different from the rest of humanity. WICKED organized a series of tests that would push our minds so that they could study what enables us to survive. The first part of this was the Maze Trials.” Minho chimed in.
“Yeah… basically we were trapped in the center of this huger than life maze. We called our little center The Glade. It was where we lived. Our only out was to get through that bloody maze. We tried everything, and nothing worked, that’s until this guy showed up.” Newt said and pointed to Thomas.
“This maze was located underneath the headquarters of WICKED, so they could see everything that went on, and they could analyze our brain activity and responses to different obstacles that they threw at us. In the maze they even had these robotic monstrous creatures that would roam the maze at night. We called them Grievers. We were safe as long as we never found ourselves in the maze after dark. ” Minho added.
“Every month WICKED would send a new boy, along with some supplies to the Glade to see how each person would alter or effect the experiment. When I was sent up I immediately started running out because I was so scared. I had no memory of what had happened to me, I couldn’t even remember my own name. Long story short, I couldn’t just stay there in this Glade without knowing why or who put us here. So I joined some of the runners. The runners were a few of us who went out to run the maze during the day and try to map it out. The maze doors opened every morning so we would head out to run, and we had to be back before the maze doors closed at night. The only issue, the maze pattern changed every single night. Then, and you must think I’m making this up at this point, another unpredictable variable was thrown a—” Thomas started, and was cut off by Christina.
“Hold Hold Hold Hold up! There’s something more? That’s somethin’ else dude. Keep goin though, this is some serious stuff.”
Thomas let out a light chuckle as he looked at the expressions of the non-gladers, shocked, curious, and confused. “ Anyway, the unknown variable was that of Teresa. In this glade of only boys, seeing a girl be sent to us in the box was something rare. And she seemed to know me already. Later we pieced together with our fragmented memories that we once used to be apart of them, apart of WICKED. And they sent us in, fully wiping our memories so they could test how we would adapt. A lot of things went down, and we lost some of our friends of the glade. But for us, the only way we could stop this constant loss was to get out. So one night we did, we fought our way past the grievers and escaped the maze. Then we were rescued, and brought here. I hope that catches you guys up a bit.” Thomas said with a shrug.
A heavy silence floated over the table and everyone was stiff. The non-gladers tried to process what they had just heard, and the others awkwardly waited to see the reactions of their truth being let out to other people. Connor walked over and thumped the tray of drinks on the table, interrupting the silence. Frypan cleared his throat, “Uh, yeah thanks Connor, uh, we appreciate it.”
“No prob, y'all holler if you need anything else, you know my name, now don’t wear it out.” The gang nodded, and Connor walked away. Thomas passed the rest of the drinks to the people at the table still waiting for any words or reaction to all he just uncovered.
Tris
What does one even do with all of that. A maze? Trials? Viruses? Another organization? Confirmation that there is actually an outside world beyond the walls of Chicago? WICKED?
It was all too much for Tris but she knew that she had to say something. She could see the worried look on Thomas’ face as none in the rest of their party had uttered a word.
“Well, I guess we all come with something. And hey, don’t feel too out of place here. We are more alike than you might realize. I mean, you all had this trial, this experiment. Here we have this training. We train to see who is cut out to protect the city. You guys were studied to see why you guys were 'cut out’ survive. A–And think, remember our aptitude tests guys?” Tris said as she motioned to the group. “They are pushing our minds and bodies to the breaking point so that we can be better equipped to survive the outside world if our city was attacked. Your city, the world you knew Thomas, was attacked, by virus, by natural disaster, and by man. I–I think, I think, our leaders to some extent are all working for the same goal and don’t even know it.”
The more Tris spoke, the more everything started making sense to her, the more connections she made, the closer she felt to Thomas and his friends.
“Actually, that makes sense.” Will said. “In centuries no one has gone beyond our walls. In all the time that you were in your maze no one ever left. And no one ever came in here. It’s all too similar too coincidental. My theory is that Erudite kept tabs on WICKED possibly having knowledge of your trials, recognized your dauntless ways, and saw the perfect opportunity for more soldiers.
Wait, so if these kids were never tested and WICKED just made them appear dauntless because of their trials. Is it possible that they are divergent too? This troubled Tris, but she kept her thoughts to herself.
"Well I’ll be, it’s a bloody conspiracy.” Newt said with a laugh. “But hey, the drinks are good, theres clean water and a bed, and we don’t have to grow our own food.”
“I’ll cheers to that.” Winston chimed in, also trying to lighten the mood. The rest of the group clinked their bottles and for the rest of the evening it was pretty enjoyable.
——————–
Today was the day Tris had to fight Peter. She rubbed the scab of where Four had previously cut her ear, sighed, and hopped out of bed. She got on her uniform and headed into the pit. Some trainees were already stationed around the mat ready to watch. Tris felt failure creeping up behind her and her palms began to sweat. How could she take Peter? He hated her guts. Four walked into the training room, and up to Tris and pulled her aside firmly grabbing her arm. “What.” Tris said as she tried to get her arm loose, but Four was stronger.
“Remember what I said about attack?” Tris shook her head.
“First punch, right to the throat, and you watch him. He steps before he punches. Alright?”
Tris nodded.
There he goes again, helping me. He’s so tough all the time but, I don’t know, I think he cares about me… Knock it off Tris. Focus. He’s your instructor. Listen to what he said. 'He steps before he punches. He steps before he punches.’









