I'm sitting in a room. Judging by the walls, I'm in Abnegation. At least, I'm in what my brain thinks Abnegation looks like. I'm on my own. There's no people. No bed. No games or music. Nothing. Everything's so silent. 

I sigh and stand up and walk about the room for a bit. The quiet feels so oppressive, like there's an expectation that's something's going to happen. Only it never does. 

I sigh again. This is dull. "Alright Amar," I shout, "I'm coming out of the simulation now!" And I will myself to wake up. 

The first thing I see when I come out of the simulation is Amar's angry face. 

"Do you know how long you were in the simulation that time?" he hisses. 

I sit on the chair with my arms folded. "No. But I know you're going to tell me."

"One minute!" Amar shouts, "One minute, Dex! "

I shrug, "If you expect me to spend longer than a minute in a simulation where there's nothing exciting going on, you better prepare to be disappointed. What was the point of that simulation anyway?"

Amar stares at me, "The point? That's one of your fears!"

"What?" I retort, "An empty room?"

Amar raises his eyebrows. He sighs and then asks quietly, "Were you scared?"

"I-" I begin. I'm about to say that I wasn't scared, but now I realise that I was in fact, terrified. It felt like the silence was watching me. "Yes." I admit, quietly. 

"You see?" says Amar. Something's irritating him and he begins to pace about the room. 

"But why?"

Amar shrugs, "Fears in the simulation room are sometimes symbolic. This one means that you Dex absolutely hate boredom. And it seems that you also have a disdain for peace and quiet. Rather fitting, I think." His voice sounds cutting. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask. 

"Oh, I don't know," Amar says, rounding on me, "You're brash, loud and you don't seem to even care about other people!"

"That's-" I'm about to protest, and then I realise that he's speaking the truth. I'm not quiet, yes. And yes, my friends and other people aren't at the top of my list. But I can't help but feel a sense of injustice at what he's said. "Is this about my simulation time?" I ask angrily. 

"Yes, it's about your time!" Amar splutters, "You were on three minutes yesterday and now you're on one! If they didn't notice before, they'll definitely notice now. It's like you've set off a firework telling everyone that you're Divergent!" 

"It'd be really helpful if you actually told me you 'they' are," I retort bitterly, "Then I might have a better chance of surviving." I make my move towards the door. 

"This isn't just about you, you know!" He shouts, as I lay my hand on the door handle, "This is about the other Divergents. If they know there's at least one Divergent, they might try and kill the others too!"

I remove my hand from the door handle and whirl round to face. "Other Divergents?" I say, whilst he stands there shocked. "You didn't tell me there were others!" I accuse. 

He looks flustered, "Yes I did. Yesterday. You just weren't listening!"

"Who are they?"

"I can't tell you." He's recovered some of his composure now, "You'll just blurt out their names the moment someone asks you." I glare at him, and then he adds, somewhat patronisingly, "And anyway, I thought you said there was only one April Dexter Meadows."

"There is." I frown. I hadn't even considered that there might be other Divergents here in Dauntless. They're probably living a lie to protect themselves. Exactly what I didn't want to do. I'm about to leave the room again, before I remember something. "You said you wanted to help me, right?"

"Right." Amar looks a bit relieved. 

"Then tell me who I'm supposed to stay away from. Tell me who's after me. You can at least trust me with that, can't you?"

Amar looks down at the floor, thinking, as if the answer lies there, and then he raises his eyes to meet mine. His brown eyes are open, yet serious. "Isaac," he says at last, "Stay away from Isaac."

I scoff, "I already knew Isaac was bad news," and I place my hand on the door handle. 

"Wait Initiate." Amar says, reverting back to Dauntless-Instructor mode. I freeze in place, and then he says, more informally, "Dex, together we can fix this. You know that, right? If we work together, then we can raise your time average."

"I don't do 'working together'." I reply stiffly. 

He looks at me, but it's one of more sympathy mixed with exasperation than anger, "Dex, why don't you want me to help you?"

I glare at him, "Why do you want to help me?" I open the door, and slam it behind me as I leave the room. 

People used to offer me help all the time in Amity. Because if you live in Amity, other factions assume you are weak. Assume you are a pansy cake. I've always done things without dependence on others. To be different from the other Amity children. I even did some things without River, and when we did do things together, it was mainly him following me. 

I head into the Cafeteria where I know my friends are sitting.

"Hey Dex," Sam waves, as I sit down, "You're out quick. What was your simulation like?"

"A room full of boring things with nothing to do."

Amy raises an eyebrow, "That doesn't sound scary."

"I guess it would be for a thrill-seeker like Dex," Sam laughs, "Right?"

"Yeah," I grin, "A boring life is no life at all." 

"Explains why you chose Dauntless then," Jo smiles. 

"What was your simulation like, Sam?" Plato asks, wincing slightly as he leans across to get some food. He's apparently fully healed after his stay in the hospital wing, but it still hurts him when he has to stretch. 

"Wolves," Sam grimaces, "A whole pack of them." Jo pats his arm sympathetically. 

"Yeah, I've never liked dogs," Amy says, "I suppose wolves are a whole lot worse."

"We had them all the time in Candor," Jo says, "Dogs I mean, not wolves."

"Yeah, we guessed," I smile, "We had dogs in Amity, but I think the Aptitude test changed things for me." I shudder remembering my knife sliding into the growling dog's body. 

"Oh, man," says Sam, "I hated that." 

"Yeah." We all chime in agreement. At least, everyone except for Plato. 

Sam and Jo both glance at him and exchange a look. 

"Plato..." Jo begins, sounding unsure, "You didn't have the dog in the Aptitude test?"

"No, I did," says Plato, his voice sounding somewhat strained. He reaches over to get some more food, even though his plate his full, and winces. 

"Then what?" asks Sam, "You killed it, didn't you?"

"No," says Plato, his eyes focussed on his plate, "No, I-I didn't kill it."

I frown, "What did you go instead then?"

Plato glances up at me and stares at me, as if he's trying to convey something to me. Whatever it is, I don't pick up on it. He glances at the others, who are looking at him. "Well, I sort of backed away from it," he says. Jo and Sam exchange another glance. Plato seems to see it, and then adds quickly, "And then the girl arrived. And I threw myself in between the girl and the dog."

Jo and Sam relax somewhat-Plato must be telling the truth. My eyes narrow, "So you got Dauntless?"

Plato sends me another significant look, but I just shake my head, confused. The others just stare at us, not quite sure what's going on. Plato flushes and says, "No, uh, I got Abnegation."

"Abnegation?" Sam repeats in surprise. 

"Yep." Plato says. There's a pause. 

"Huh," says Sam, "I guess that explains why you threw yourself in front of that knife for me."

"Yeah," says Plato, seeming a bit more at ease now. 

"Well," Sam, says a bit awkwardly, "You know, I never thanked you for that. So, thank you." 

"No problem," Plato says, beginning to eat. 

Amy glances at him, "But if you got Abnegation, why didn't you go to Abnegation?" There's hurt in her voice. 

Plato looks at her, "I wanted to," he says softly, "Believe me, I did. But I'm from Erudite. And when I got up on that platform, I stood over the Abnegation bowl, I could see the looks the Erudite were giving the Abnegation. And I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"Why," Amy asks, sounding angry now, "Because you were worried the Erudite would be ashamed of you?"

"No, no," Plato says, trying to placate it, "That's not it at all! The truth is, I didn't want the Erudite blaming the Abnegation for corrupting me or influencing me or whatever when I was in the Aptitude test. So I went for the next best thing."

I scoff, "Dauntless isn't the closest faction to Abnegation! If you wanted the next best thing, you should've gone for Amity!" 

"Yeah," Sam agrees, " I can see you doing well in Amity."

Plato glances at both of us, an ironic smile on his face, "You'd be surprised."