The Transfer: A Divergent Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

strike me as someone who’s ready to fight, that’s all.”
    The train thunders toward us, and the Dauntless start piling on. Tori runs toward the edge, and I follow her, copying her stance and her movements as she prepares to jump. She grabs a handle at the edge of the door and swings herself inside, so I do the same thing, fumbling at first for my grip and then yanking myself in.
    But I’m unprepared for the turning of the train, and I stumble, smacking my face against the metal wall. I grab my aching nose.
    “Smooth,” one of the Dauntless inside says. He’s younger than Tori, with dark skin and an easy smile.
    “Finesse is for Erudite show-offs,” Tori says. “He made it on the train, Amar, that’s what counts.”
    “He’s supposed to be in the other car, though. With the other initiates,” Amar says. He eyes me, but not theway the Erudite transfer did a few minutes ago. He seems more curious than anything else, like I’m an oddity he needs to examine carefully in order to understand it. “If he’s friends with you, I guess it’s okay. What’s your name, Stiff?”
    The name is in my mouth the second he asks me the question, and I am about to answer like I always do, that I am Tobias Eaton. It should be natural, but in that moment I can’t bear to say my name out loud, not here, among the people I hoped would be my new friends, my new family. I can’t—I won’t —be Marcus Eaton’s son anymore.
    “You can call me ‘Stiff’ for all I care,” I say, trying out the cutting Dauntless banter I’ve only listened to across hallways and classrooms until now. Wind rushes into the train car as it picks up speed, and it’s loud , roaring in my ears.
    Tori gives me a strange look, and for a moment I am afraid that she’s going to tell Amar my name, which I’m sure she remembers from my aptitude test. But she just nods a little, and relieved, I turn toward the open doorway, my hand still on the handle.
    It never occurred to me before that I could refuse to give my name, or that I could give a false one, construct a new identity for myself. I’m free here, free tosnap at people and free to refuse them and free even to lie.
    I see the street between the wooden beams that support the train tracks, just a story beneath us. But up ahead, the old tracks give way to new ones, and the platforms go higher, wrapping around the roofs of buildings. The climb happens gradually, so I wouldn’t have noticed it was happening if I hadn’t been staring at the ground as we traveled farther and farther away from it, farther and farther into the sky.
    Fear makes my legs go weak, so I back away from the doorway and sink into a crouch by one wall as I wait to get to wherever we’re going.
    I am still in that position—crouched by the wall, my head in my hands—when Amar nudges me with his foot.
    “Get up, Stiff,” he says, not unkindly. “It’s almost time to jump.”
    “Jump?” I say.
    “Yeah.” He smirks. “This train stops for no one.”
    I press myself up. The fabric I wrapped around my hand is soaked through with red. Tori stands right behind me and pushes me toward the doorway.
    “Let the initiate off first!” she shouts.
    “What are you doing?” I demand, scowling at her.
    “I’m doing you a favor!” she answers, and she shoves me toward the opening again. The other Dauntless step back for me, each one of them grinning like I’m a meal. I shuffle toward the edge, grabbing the handle so hard the tips of my fingers start to go numb. I see where I’m supposed to jump—up ahead, the tracks hug the roof of a building and then turn. The gap looks small from here, but as the train gets closer, it seems larger and larger, and my imminent death seems more and more likely.
    My entire body shakes as the Dauntless in the cars ahead of us make the jump. None of them miss the roof, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be the first. I pry my fingers from the handle and stare at the rooftop and push off as hard as