This is totally un-beta'd and there may be mistakes. I'll fix them at some point. Also, I have no idea how fast i'll update. Reviews will probably motivate me though so y'know, review please~

Warnings for this chapter: angst, dead people(zombies), vaguely mentioned bad things happening to our lovely Eren, light drinking?, ptsd-ish, tattoos?

Also, in this story, Levi and Erwin remember their past lives but Eren(or anyone else for that matter) does not. Yet.

Enjoy!

~X~

It was just your average fucking day, y'know, dead body parts everywhere, mutilated corpses wandering around eating people, kids almost dying from stupidity. Y'know, just a normal day. At least for Eren it was, because this was his twisted broken life, and this was the zombie apocalypse.

If he's honest with himself, helping those kids was a ridiculous notion. They'd just get themselves killed, they'd get him killed. He knows. That's the way it works. If he tries to do something good it will always-always-come back to bite him in the ass. And kids are stupid. They don't know how this world burns. Even before the 'zombie apocalypse', as Eren calls it, he had been a survivor. He knew how to fight, knew how to kill in order to stay alive. He grew up on the streets, did stupid shit, made bad decisions, and he would say he regrets it except now the things he learned in his past life are the only reason he's alive today. And that's the difference between himself and the little shits that are currently sitting in front of him. He knows how to survive, they don't.

He'd been sitting in the convenience which had been his little hideout for the past few weeks eating what was probably a rotten apple and a stale piece of bread-easily the best lunch he'd had in a while-when he happened to look out the blocked out window to see a horde passing by. They were moving faster than your random zombie did. Those freaks only moved fast for one reason. Food. Which means either he had been made and needed to move right the fuck now or someone else had. But they were moving in his direction and that was weird because there was no way the walkers could smell him through the wall. He hadn't made any sound to draw them in and he wasn't at all visible, he knew because he had made sure when he chose the place. He wouldn't still be here otherwise.

But they were persistently moving towards him, so he chanced a glance out the window. At first the brunette saw nothing but then, on the ground, he noticed a few small bodies. They couldn't be older than fifteen, maybe sixteen, and they hadn't been there when he had last looked. This was perplexing because he was living in a rundown part of town in one of the largest cities on the planet. Anyone who had lived here before was either dead or a walker. He hadn't seen another living breathing person in over two months. Surely if kids had been staying around here he would have noticed, would have heard the screams when they were eaten outside his front door?

But then he saw a hand twitch. He saw a pair of slate grey eyes glance up at him and then close just as quickly as they had been opened.

They were alive.

Were those idiots really trying to play dead to escape zombies? Because he couldn't believe anyone was that honestly stupid.

But fuck, because Eren couldn't sit there and watch people die when he could help save them, not when they might be the only living people he may ever see again in his shitty little life. Even if they were filthy stupid brats. So he grabbed his bow and sprinted out the entrance of his little hideout and grabbed two of the little shits, quickly hissing 'Move', and ran. Hopefully the third was following him, there wasn't time to check. When he had safely gotten them back into the convenience store he could finally breath. He had sustained minor injuries when the brunette kid tripped, leaving a gash running down his back and effectively destroying his favorite and only shirt. But thankfully no one had been bit and he was now standing, panting slightly, and glaring at the three brats which he had shoved against the wall lined with drink cases, watching as they stared right back at him.

He thought he maybe recognized the one with black hair and an uppercut but he couldn't remember and it didn't really matter. What mattered was, at that very moment, he had an injury to attend to. So he flung off his shirt and turned around to grab a bandage, and that was one of the kids screamed.

He twisted back around so fast his neck nearly snapped, and had his bow ready and waiting to fire, but there were no walkers in sight and everything seemed calm.

"What the fuck, kid?"

The black-haired one and the blonde were staring at the their third with just as much questioning in their eyes as Eren felt. And then the dumb brat opened his mouth and gasped out a pathetic sounding, "Y-you're...you're..."

Which effectively pissed Eren off just the tiniest bit.

"I'm?" He grumbled out probably a little too harshly.

The kid pointed shakily at him before shoving a hand over his mouth and making a dash for the door yet again. And seriously, what the fuck? He had just saved this kid from the horde of walkers wandering around right outside the door and the kid wanted to throw himself right back into the metaphorical fire? He said as much, wondering what the younger was trying to accomplish and the kid managed to squeak out a quiet, "You'll kill me if you find out," while still desperately trying to get out of the jammed door.

Which honestly, Eren found to be quite perplexing. He had just done the exact opposite, hadn't he? What reason could the younger possibly have for this train of thought? But then Eren realized that if that brat managed to actually get the door open he would end up exposing all of them. The brunette would lose the only safe place he had managed to find since the disease had broken out, even before that really. It had been an excruciatingly long time since he had been able to sleep without wondering if he would be attacked before waking up. And he was not about to let that small measure of safety be stolen from him, even if he had to kill someone whom he had just rescued barely a minute ago.

Thinking this, he decided to raise his bow and tell the kid exactly what he was thinking.

"I will kill you before I let you open that door. I suggest you sit the fuck back down and calmly think about what you're tryin ta do right now. You go outside and you aren't the only one who's dead."

And finally, that got the kid to sit back down, but he was still having what appeared to be a panic attack in what the brunette considered to be his home so he figured he should probably do something about it. Looking over to the two other people in the room he noticed them staring at him. The raven with the uppercut looked like he was dissecting him and honestly that was a little unnerving, but he was incredibly beautiful and if Eren didn't have other problems at the moment he could easily find himself getting lost in the ravenette's penetrating gaze. Now that he thought about it, the blonde wasn't half bad either. For starters, the blonde appeared stronger, more muscled, than the brunette and he was strikingly handsome, with a strong jawbone and piercing blue eyes. His arms looked like they were capable of devouring him...or maybe shielding him, protecting him from the world. And now that the brunette got a good look at him, the guy was actually pretty tall, bigger than him even, and maybe Eren had been wrong about the age of the three people he had saved. He figured he might as well ask since he'd probably be living with them for a while.

Upon being asked the raven simply raised a delicate eyebrow at him, so Eren looked to the blonde who thankfully answered for the lot of them.

"I'm nineteen and he's eighteen. We just met the guy over there recently so we aren't entirely sure about him."

After seeing my slight shock at their ages-particularly the raven's, he looked much younger-the blonde spoke up again.

"Levi's older than he looks. He's just vertically challenged," he said, receiving a glare and a 'fuck you' in return.

The raven was named Levi? That seemed oddly familiar but maybe he was just thinking of the jean brand. Speaking of which, he looked down at his dark jeans and peered at the brand name before letting out a small snort of amusement.

"I'm wearing you right now," he said to the kid, who actually wasn't a kid now that he thought about it. The brunette was only a few years older him, being twenty-three. After getting a barely noticeable twitch of lips from the one named Levi he went ahead and asked the blonde what his name was, finding out it was Erwin. Looking around he managed to find the fourth person in the room hiding behind a row of snack food. Leaning down he asked him his name, to which the kid replied in a trembling voice that it was Marco.

"Well Marco, either shut the fuck up with your annoying whimpering and deal with it or tell me what exactly your problem is before you shit yourself, because really, there is no way I'm about to clean up that disgusting mess."

To which the younger brunette replied, "You're a...a...um," the kid gulped before continuing, "A Dead Fox. I saw the tattoo when you took your shirt off."

And damn it all, if his past didn't have a funny way of catching up with him. Eren sighed and stood up, glancing back at the Erwin and Levi who were looking at him somewhat questioningly, before walking over to one of the long turned off fridges, reaching in, and promptly drinking an entire can of beer before crunching it and throwing it in the garbage. Well, that helped a little bit, Eren mused to himself. Beer had never been his thing, however, even thinking about alcohol usually made him cringe, and he was already starting to feel a little off. He tended to associate alcohol with pain. But in this situation, anything was a help really. He figured shit was probably about to hit the fan, might as well numb himself a little, right? Or at least that was his train of thought before he downed the can. Honestly, he was already regretting it. Thankfully at least the only one in the room who seemed to know what those two little words meant was Marco and hopefully it stayed that way.

He walked back over to the kid and crouched down before addressing him.

"Look, kid, I'm not about to kill you just because of that. I don't just run around murdering people so get over this whole fear issue you've got goin on. Maybe your mommy told you to stay away from the trash like me, or to be afraid because we just run around killing and destroying and whatever, and that we're cold hearted evil monsters but really, I-"

"It's not that!"

"...Oh? Then what?"

At this the kid paused, taking deep breaths and staring at the ground like the devil himself was about to crawl right out of it. The elder of the two gave him a moment to collect his sanity, looking at Marco questioningly. He was honestly starting to get a little annoyed with this one. All he seemed to be able to do was whimper and cry and tremble in the corner. Maybe when the disease broke out he lost his mind or something? Not everyone can handle over seventy percent of the population being wiped out and seeing their loved ones walk around eating other humans, he supposed. It was only natural that some people would flip out.

He looked over at the other two after a long pause, waiting for the kid to gather himself, and tried to gain some information. If the kid had gone insane he really didn't want to become his keeper. He had enough baggage on his own, he didn't need anyone else's. So he asked the other two if Marco had always been like this or if it was a recent development, hoping it was just a recent occurrence and wasn't the norm for the younger brunette. The blonde answered that he had seemed fine, or as fine as someone can be in a time like this, before Eren had helped them. Which was both reassuring and a little worrisome. If that was the case then had Eren been the cause?

The brunette looked back at the kid and watched him tremble for a moment, looking conflicted with himself, before he finally took a shaky breath and spoke up.

"I...I'm a Broken Crow," he said and lifted the sleeve on his left arm to show Eren the tattoo.

The elder brunette stared for a moment, forcibly thrown back into the mindset he had before the walkers, before the death and the loss and the apocalypse. He clenched his jaw, his fist tightening where his hand was still perched on his knee from trying to hold his balance as he knelt down to talk to the kid.

Had this been just a few years ago he would have shot him on the spot, no questions asked. It was the rule, a law he had been forced to abide by. He would have ended this poor child's life for a reason as simple as it meant his own survival in a world which Eren had long grown to know was cruel and cold. This world was dark and dangerous and twisted. Eren felt sick to his stomach remembering the things he had done, would have done to Marco, to anyone from a rival gang. He had hated it, had hated the life he had been forced into. He would have killed himself long ago if his survival instinct hadn't been quite so strong. The brunette had never wanted to be what he had become. He didn't want to be like that now, or ever again for that matter. He nearly had a panic attack every time his thoughts drifted to the past, he wasn't sure he could endure much more before breaking-he was already cracked, he knew.

Wrenching himself out of his thoughts before he embarrassed himself by breaking down with an audience, he let out a bitter laugh and stood up. Inadvertently scaring the younger brunette shitless. Which reminded Eren, "If you shit on my floor I'll rip your guts out. Otherwise...well," he trailed off as he walked over to the pile of his stuff.

He had made a decision. Unzipping his bag and he pulled out his bolo knife, looking at it for a second before artfully flipping it around in his hand. He took his shirt off and turned his back to the three people in the room before twisting his arm around. The brunette didn't have to look to know where the tattoo was, he remembered getting it. He remembered the feeling of the needle repeatedly stabbing his side, running over his ribs, leaving black ink curling gracefully up his left flank. Closing his eyes and tightening his grip on the blade, Eren quickly drew the weapon up and then, as all eyes in the room were riveted to his body, swiped the knife straight down, effectively crossing out the tattoo and leaving a gash running down his side and dripping blood onto the floor.

There was a silence for a few moments as Eren stood staring the wall, his back turned. No one could see his face, so he let a tear quietly escape as he swallowed heavily. He had just crossed out a large portion if his life. He had caused so much pain, had felt so much pain in return. He had done things to survive...things had been done to him. This game of survival truly was a dark one. A shaky gasp tore itself out of his mouth as he remembered the night the elder gang members had held him down and tattooed him against his will. He remembered them drugging him, tying him down, taking off his clothes inch by inch, touching…

He was gratefully snapped out of the devastating flashback when he heard someone standing up. He glanced over his shoulder, jaw clenched, eyes guarded, to see Levi and Erwin staring him, to see Marco staring at the floor. Eren took a breath and turned around holding the knife out to the younger brunette.

"This is a new world kid. We aren't who we used to be, those laws don't apply anymore," then quieter, "this is our second chance."

The two shared a heated glance, equally tense and relieved, before the younger reached out, took the knife, and sliced through the words tattooed on his own arm.

And then, for the first time in a very long time, Eren smiled a small but very genuine smile.