Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen Flying Over the Swamp

At noon, it was lunch time. I was sitting alone in an unfamiliar corridor.Came here because I needed to escape that suffocating dormitory.If I brought all my bedding here, I might never have to go back there again.Maybe it's a hallucination, but I always think there's a bloody smell wafting in there, even though I've wiped the ground until my hands are sore, and someone spilled bleach on it this morning. I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling deeply moved.Volunteering to mop floors when others wouldn't, was the kind of thing my mother would do.If I can't be with her, the least I can do is act like her sometimes.

I heard someone approaching, the sound of footsteps echoing on the stone floor, and I quickly looked down at my shoes.A week ago, I swapped my gray sneakers for black sneakers and put the gray shoes in a drawer.I'm reluctant to throw them away, even though I know it's silly to have feelings for an old pair of sneakers, as if they could take me home. "Tracey?" I was startled, and when I looked up, it was Uriah standing in front of me.He waved at the freshmen of the faction who were walking together, and they all exchanged glances in agreement before moving on. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Last night was tough." "Yeah, I've heard about Edward." Ulea glanced forward, and the freshmen of our faction drifted away, turned around the corner, and disappeared from our sight.He grinned, "Do you want to get out of here?" "What?" I asked puzzled, "Where are you going?" "Small test 'ritual,'" he said. "Come on, we've got to hurry before we catch them." I quickly considered my options, either sit here or leave the Dauntless base with them. I stood up and trotted along with Uriah to catch up with the freshman team of our faction.

"They usually only let freshmen who have brothers and sisters from the Dauntless Sect, but they probably won't notice you. Just pretend to be one of us." "What the hell are we going to do?" "Do something dangerous," he said.What I can only describe as "dauntless fanaticism" flashed into his eyes.But I don't flinch — I might have flinched if I was the same person I was a few weeks ago — and today I meet his gaze as if it were contagious.Excitement replaced the dull feeling in my heart.After catching up with the freshmen in our school, we slowed down.

"How do you get in with a zombie?" asked a boy with a metal ring between his nostrils. "She just saw that guy's eye was stabbed yesterday, Gabe," Uriah pleaded for me, "tell her to relax and leave her alone, okay?" Gabe shrugged, turned and walked away, as acquiescence, the others didn't say anything when they saw this, and of course a few people looked at me sideways, as if they were sizing me up.You must know that the freshmen of this school are like a pack of dogs. If I behave in the wrong way, they will definitely not let me go with them.But luckily, I'm safe for now.

We turned another corner, and a group of Dauntless stood at the end of the next hallway.There are simply too many of them, and it is impossible for all of them to be related to the freshmen of the faction.But I still see some similar faces. "Let's go," said a Dreadnought, turning and stepping through a dark door.The others followed him, we followed the others, and went in.I followed closely behind Ulea, submerged in the darkness, and suddenly kicked up a step with my toes, almost tripping, I hurriedly stood still, and began to climb up. "The back stairs," Uriah muttered, "are usually locked."

I nodded, though he couldn't see me at all, and kept climbing until there were no more steps left.At the end of the stairs, a door was open, and sunlight streamed in through it.We came out through the door and stood a few hundred meters from the glass building above the base pit, which was very close to the train tracks. I feel like I've done this a thousand times—heard the train whistle again, felt the ground tremble under my feet, saw the locomotive's lights flashing.I cracked my knuckles, bent over, bent my knees and stood on tiptoes, ready to jump. Everyone divided into small groups and ran along the side of the car. Wave after wave, fearless people and new students poured into the car like waves.Uriah got into the car before me.There were countless people pushing me forward behind me, and there was no chance of any mistakes. I jumped sideways, grabbed the handle on one side of the carriage tightly, and dragged myself in. Ulea hurriedly grabbed my shoulders to stabilize me.

The train began to accelerate, and Uriah and I sat down leaning against the carriage. I yelled in the wind, "Where are we going?" Ulea shrugged: "This Zeke didn't say anything." "Who's Zeke?" "My brother." He pointed to the other side of the carriage, where there was a boy sitting at the door of the carriage, his feet dangling outside the carriage.He was very thin and small, and he didn't look like Uriah in any way, except for the same skin color. "You won't know, then there will be no surprises!" A girl on the left shouted suddenly, holding out her hand to me, "Hello, my name is Sanna."

I stretched out my hand, but I just shook it "superficially", and then let it go quickly.It seems that my handshaking skills still need to be improved, and I always feel that it is very strange to hold the hand of a stranger. "My name is..." I was about to say. "I know who you are, you are a zombie, the fourth child mentioned you to me," she said. I silently prayed that my face wouldn't blush too much. "Oh? What did he say?" She giggled: "He said you were a zombie, by the way, why ask this?" "Since the mentor talked about me, of course I want to know what he said." I replied calmly, hoping the lie would be convincing. "He didn't come, did he?"

"No, he never participated in this." Sanna replied, "It may have lost its appeal to him. For him, it's nothing to be afraid of, understand?" He won't come.I suddenly felt discouraged, like a loose balloon, but I tried my best to pretend nothing was wrong and nodded.Of course I know that Fourth is not a coward, but I also know that there is at least one thing that scares him: height.Whatever we do must involve climbing, which is what he is trying to avoid.He shunned any "working at heights".There was such awe in Sanna's voice when she mentioned the fourth that I concluded she didn't know anything about it.

"Do you know him well?" I was so curious, always have been. "Everyone knows the fourth child." She said playfully, "We are freshmen in the same year. I also want to thank him, because I am not good at fighting, so thanks to him teaching me every night while others are asleep, otherwise I would definitely I can't pass." She scratched the back of her head, her expression suddenly became serious, "He is really nice." She got up and walked behind the group of people sitting at the door of the carriage, her serious expression disappeared after a while.But I was still flustered by her words, partly confused by the saying "good old four", partly wanted to punch her for no reason. "Jump!" Sanna shouted.The train hadn't slowed down yet, but she jumped out in one go.The other members followed her, a chain of black-clad, tattooed men not much older than me who jumped down.I'm standing next to Uriah at the door, the train going faster than I've ever jumped, but I can't back down in front of so many people.So, I jumped down, hit the ground heavily, and staggered forward a few steps before barely standing still. Uriah and I trotted along with the freshmen of the faction to catch up with the main force, and they didn't even look at me. I ran and looked around.The central building is behind us, silhouetted against the white clouds in the sky, but the dilapidated buildings around it are dim and silent, a bluffing silence.That means we must be north of the bridge, in the so-called Abandoned City. Turning the corner, we spread out and walked down Michigan Avenue.Michigan Avenue is very different on the south bridge and the north bridge: the south bridge is busy, the streets are full of people, and here it is empty. As soon as I glanced up at the buildings around me, I knew where I was going: the abandoned Hancock Building—a black columnar building with criss-crossing beams, the tallest building north of the bridge. But what are we here for?Climbing stairs? As the target drew nearer, the Dauntless began to run.They elbowed each other and squeezed through doors at the base of the building.One of the doors had broken glass, leaving only the frame of the so-called door.I didn't have to push the door anymore, I just walked through the frame, followed other members through a gloomy and dark entrance, and the broken glass under my feet creaked and creaked. I thought I would go up the stairs, but everyone stopped in front of the elevator. "Is the elevator still working?" I asked Uriah in a low voice. "Of course I can," Zeke rolled his eyes. "You think I'm stupid enough not to turn on the emergency generator sooner?" "Yeah," Uriah said, "I really think so." Zeke glared at him, tucked his head under his arm with one arm, and rubbed his knuckles against it.Although Zeke is shorter than Uriah, he is stronger than him, at least he is much faster than him.Uriah slapped his side with the palm of his hand before he let go. I burst out laughing when I saw Uriah's messy hair.Then the elevator doors opened and we squeezed in, the intrepids in one elevator and the freshmen in the other.A girl with a shaved head stepped on my toes when I entered, no apology.I grabbed my foot and flinched in pain, thinking whether to kick her calf.Uriah stared at her own reflection on the elevator door, patting his hair repeatedly. "What floor is it?" the bald girl asked. "One hundred floors." I replied without hesitation. "How can someone like you know?" "Lynne, don't be like this, be polite." Ulea said. "We and the Dauntless came to a 100-story abandoned building, and we could figure out with our toes that we were going to the top floor," I retorted, "Why can't you even guess this?" She didn't say a word, but pressed the button of the next hundred floors with her thumb. The elevator went up rapidly. I felt my internal organs keep falling, and my eardrums swelled. I hurriedly grabbed the handrail beside the elevator and watched the numbers go up.We passed through the twentieth floor, the thirtieth floor, and Uriah finally got her hair done.Fifty, sixty, my toes don't seem to hurt so much.Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, the elevator stopped on the hundredth floor.Thankfully I didn't climb the stairs. "How can we climb to the roof from here..." Uriah's voice became weaker and weaker. A gust of wind blows, and the hair flies around my face.There was a hole in the ceiling on the top floor, and Zeke found an aluminum ladder and put it on the edge of the hole, and began to climb up.The ladder swayed and creaked under his feet, but he still whistled and climbed up calmly.When he reached the top of the building, he turned around and held the ladder for the next person to climb up. I have some doubts that this is a suicide mission disguised as a game. It's not the first time I've had this doubt since choosing Dauntless. I climbed up behind Uriah, which reminded me of the day when I climbed the Ferris wheel, the fourth child followed me, and remembered how his slender hands supported my buttocks, how to save me from falling off the Ferris wheel Wheel of bad luck.Then, I almost missed.It's stupid to think about things like this at this moment! I bit my lip and climbed to the top, standing on top of the Hancock Building. The wind was too strong to hear or feel anything else. I had to lean against Uriah to keep from being blown over by the wind.At first, all I could see was the swamp, big patches of brown, everywhere, to the horizon, lifeless.In the other direction is the city center, which is in many ways as dead as a swamp, with frontiers we don't know. Ulea suddenly pointed at something, and I followed his finger to see that a steel wire rope as thick as my wrist was tied to the top of a tall tower on the top of the building. the weight of a person.Zeke grabbed one and neatly tied it to the pulley of the wire rope. I looked all the way down the wire rope, across a large group of buildings, and along the Lakeside Avenue, not knowing where it ended.But one thing is clear, as long as I slide all the way down the wire rope, the answer will be revealed naturally. We have to slide down from a height of more than 300 meters on a black hanging net hanging on a steel wire rope. "Oh my God," Uriah exclaimed. I can only nod my head in agreement. Sanna was the first to get into the hanging net.She twisted forward on her stomach until most of her body was in.Chikla pulled a suspender around her shoulders, lower back, and thighs.When everything was ready, Qi pulled the hanging net, dragged Sanna to the edge of the roof, and then counted down from five: "Five, four, three, two, one." Sanna raised her thumb as a signal, and he stepped forward Pushing, she slid into empty nothingness. Seeing Sanna rushing from a steep slope to the ground, head in front and feet behind, Lynn gasped.I squeezed past her, trying to get a better look.I saw Sanna staying firmly in the hanging net, slipping further and further, becoming a black spot above Lakeside Avenue. Dauntless members cheered and pumped their fists, then formed a file, and some pushed others away to get a good position.Somehow, I found myself the first freshman in line, just ahead of Uriah.In front of me, there were only seven people in total. Even so, there is still a voice in my heart complaining: what!Have to wait for seven more people before it's my turn?It was a strange feeling of fear mixed with longing, and it was the first time I had experienced it until now. The next Dreadnought was a young-looking boy with shoulder-length hair. Instead of getting down on the ground, he jumped in face-up and back-down.He spread his arms wide as Zeke pushed him out along the wire. None of the Dreadnoughts looked scared, they acted like they'd done it a thousand times, and maybe they did.But when I look back at the freshmen, even though they are talking excitedly, most of them look either pale or anxious.From panic to joy, what is the process of change from a new student to a full-time member?Or are they simply hiding their fears deeper? There are three people left in front of me.Another hanging net was hung, and a fearless man entered feet first, arms folded over his chest.There are two people left!A tall, thick-bodied boy jumped up and down like a little boy and climbed into the hanging net.Chic pulls the strap tighter, pushes it down, and he disappears with a high-pitched scream, making the girl in front of me laugh.There is one more person! She hopped into the net on one foot, face down, keeping her hands outstretched while Zeke helped her tighten the straps. ...and then, it was my turn. I trembled as Zeke hung the net on the wire rope.I want to climb in, but here comes the trouble, my hands are shaking too much. "Don't worry," Zeke whispered in my ear.As he spoke he took my arm and helped me into the net face down. With the braces tight around my midriff, Zeke pushed me aside as I looked down at the steel girders of the Hancock Building, the black windows, and all the way to the cracked pavement.I'd have to be an idiot to do this - an idiot who "enjoys" the feeling of my heart pounding against my chest and my palms filled with sweat. "Zombie, are you ready?" Zeke lowered his head and smiled at me, "I have to say, I'm really impressed that you don't cry or make noise or scream." "I told you earlier," Uriah joked, "she's utterly and completely fearless, so hurry up and push." "Be careful, buddy, or you won't be fastening your straps for a while," Zeke patted his knee, "and then, smack..." "Yeah, yeah, and then our mother steamed you alive," Uriah said. Hearing him mention "Mom" and their whole family made my heart ache, as if someone had poked a hole in it with a needle. "Unless she finds out. You fell 'unnoticed'." Zeke tugged at the pulley attached to the wire rope.It was strong, which was lucky, because if it snapped, I would have died instantly.He looked down at me again and yelled, "Get ready, get in, get out..." He let go of the hanging net before finishing the word "departure".In that moment, I forgot about him, I forgot Uriah, I forgot my family, I forgot all the glitches that could have killed me.As I dived to the ground, I heard the sound of metal rubbing against each other, and the wind was so strong it blew my tears out and back. I feel light and weightless.The swamp before me was enormous, a brown expanse that stretched so far out of sight that I couldn't see its edge even from this height.The wind was so strong and so cold that it hurt my face.Under the influence of gravity and acceleration, the pulley above my head was getting faster and faster, and there was a surge of excitement in my heart. I wanted to scream to my heart's content, but I stopped when I opened my mouth because the strong wind blocked my mouth. With the harness securely strapped in, I spread my arms and imagined I was flying.I dived down to the street below, a cracked and mended street that snaked down the curve of the swamp.Looking down from here, I can imagine the vast ocean of the swamp, and if it reflects the color of the sky, it should look like a kind of liquid metal. My heart was beating wildly to a dull ache.I can't scream, I can't breathe, but I can still feel everything, every vein, every fiber, every bone, every nerve, waking up, buzzing in my body like electrified, soaring Full of adrenaline. The earth stretched and heaved below, and I could see tiny figures standing on the pavement below.I should have screamed, like any sane person would, but when I opened my mouth again, it was a cry of excitement.I cheered loudly, and the people on the ground happily punched each other and roared in response to me.But I was so far away from them that I could only hear vague voices. I looked down, and the ground became blurred, gray and black, glass and road mixed with steel bars.The surrounding wind is as soft as hair, wrapping around my fingers and pulling my arms back.I tried to bring my hands back to my chest, but I was still not strong enough to withstand the force of the wind.The ground is getting closer and closer, and it is becoming clearer. For almost a minute, my speed has not slowed down, but my body glides parallel to the ground, like a bird. When the speed slowed down, I ran my fingers through my hair, and the wind "combed" them all into knots.I was dangling on a wire rope six meters above the ground, a height that seems nothing now.I reached behind my back, trying to undo the straps that bound me.My fingers were shaking, but I undid them anyway.A group of Dreadnoughts stood below, grabbing each other's arms and forming a web of "human flesh" beneath me. If I want to go down, I must believe that the "human flesh net" below can catch me, and I must also accept that they are my companions, and I am one of them, which requires more courage than sliding down the ropeway. I writhed forward and fell, hitting their arms hard.Their wrist bones and forearms supported my back, and many hands grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet.I couldn't tell which hands were holding me and which were not, but I saw grinning faces and heard laughing voices. "How do you feel?" Sanna patted me on the shoulder. "Hmm..." All the members stared at me.They, like me, have withstood the impact of the wind, their eyes are full of adrenaline-induced ecstasy, and their hair is askew.Only then did I understand why my father said the Dauntless were a bunch of lunatics, they were indeed too wild.He could not comprehend the kind of friendship that was formed only after a life-threatening adventure. "When will you do it again?" I smiled, showing my teeth.They laughed, and I laughed too.I think of the moment when the disinterested climbed the stairs together, our feet finding the same tune, all the same.It's a completely different situation here, we're all different, but in a way we're all one. I looked in the direction of the Hancock Building, which was so far away from where I was standing that I couldn't see the people on the roof at all. "Look, he's coming!" someone shouted, pointing behind me.I looked in the direction of my finger, and a small black dot quickly slid over the wire rope.A few seconds later, I heard a horrible scream. "I bet he'll cry." "Zek's brother will cry? Impossible! If Zeke hears this, he won't beat him." "His arms are flailing." "He meows like a strangled cat," I blurted out.Everyone laughed again after hearing this.But I felt a little guilty for making fun of Uriah when he couldn't hear him.But even if he were here, I would say the same thing.I hope so. Ulea finally stopped, and I followed the "big troop" to pick him up. Everyone lined up under him and set up the same "meat net".Sanna's hand was caught at my elbow, and I grabbed the other arm—not sure whose, too many folded arms—and I looked up at her. "I dare say, everyone will never call you 'zombie' again," Sanna nodded meaningfully, "Tracey." When I walked into the restaurant that night, I still smelled of the wind.The moment I entered, I stood among a large group of Dreadnoughts and felt like I was already one of them.Then Sanna waved at me, and the crowd parted, and I walked over to the table where Christina, Will, and Al were sitting, and they stared at me dumbfounded. I just realized that when Uriah asked me to go on an adventure, I didn't think about them at all.In a way, seeing them in shock was satisfying.But also don't want them to be mad at me. "Where have you been?" Christina asked with a look of astonishment on her face. "What are you doing with them?" "Uriah. Do you remember, the freshman from our faction who was in the same capture-the-flag team as us?" I explained. "He asked someone to let me go when he was out with some Dauntless. There They didn't really welcome me, and a girl named Lynne stepped on me." "They might not have welcomed you back then," Will said softly, "but they seem to like you now." "Maybe." Regarding this, I couldn't deny it, "Anyway, I finally came back alive." Hope they don't tell me I'm lying, but I doubt they will.On the way back to my dorm, I caught myself in a windowpane: cheeks and eyes glowing, hair tangled, looking as if I had just been bathed by supernatural forces. "Oh, you didn't see, Christina almost punched a learned guy." Al said eagerly, and I was counting on him to break the tense atmosphere, "Just now a learned guy came over and asked us From the perspective of the altruistic leader, Christina told him he had much more important things to do." "Christina is absolutely right," Will added, "but the kid is still mad, he really messed with the wrong person." "Big mistake." I nodded.If my smile was just right, maybe it would make them forget about the jealousy, the hurt, and the feeling I don't know how to describe brewing in Christina's eyes. "That's right." She finally said, "When you go out to have fun, I have to do this kind of drudgery for you to maintain the old faction and eliminate faction conflicts..." "Come on, you know you like it," Will said, nudging her elbow lightly. "If you don't tell me the whole story, then I will. He was standing in the… ..." Will devoted himself to telling his story, and I nodded my head frequently as if I was listening, but my mind was full of the view from the top of the Hancock Building, as if seeing the swamp turning into a lake, recovering the prosperity of the past.I look past Will and down on the Dauntless, watching with admiration as they flip morsels of food at each other with their forks. This was the first time I really aspired to be one of them. That means, in the test of the next level, I must survive.