Zhiganshina was certainly only a tiny fraction of its prior bustle and attractiveness. It had once been the glorious home of many a famous human, boasting their array of wealth and surplus of exceptional-ness.
Except, that was three years ago.
Zhiganshina was, or rather, is, a wondrous sight to behold, yet only if you enjoy the sight of dilapidated buildings and bloodstains on sidewalks. All, if not, most, houses and apartment buildings have been empty for a long time. Expensive computers and half-built skyscrapers lay collecting dust and rubble. You'd be an idiot to venture into Zhiganshina by yourself, shielding your eyes against the sun with shades but those in turn obscure your vision to the darker forces lurking in the shadows of the buildings. Saying this, Zhiganshina is a huge magnet for scientists, zoologists and the downright crazy. They're here to study the shadows. The shadows, which are more rightly dubbed 'Titans', came three years ago and to this day they prowl the streets of Zhiganshina from dawn till dusk till dawn. Resembling great bear-like canines, they have filthy, matted fur and blank eyes along with an insatiable taste for human flesh. When they first came, people fled the city so fast that you were lucky to reach the edges in time, before they created a lockdown around the perimeter. Nothing gets in or out without express permission. Lucky for some, indefinitely unlucky for others. Anyone who didn't manage to get out in time, before the lock down, has a plate full of Titans to deal with. Let's say most were forced to bite off more than they could possibly chew.
Routine checks are made to count the amount of survivors inside the abandoned city, but over the years, whoever's managed to survive, have made themselves increasingly difficult to find. If a human can't find them, than they are at least safe from Titans for a little while. Scouters have tried to coax them out with food, because there is a rumour that a mutation spread among them to keep them alive. Rumour has it that they themselves have canine forms. Hard to spot, especially in the dead night.
Three organizations were created to protect the infected cities from the Titans, and to keep them inside. The first, open to anyone with a brave enough heart, is the Vanguard. They are situated all around the cities' perimeters, armed with a manner of weapons. They keep the Titans inside, and the people away. The second is the Military Police – only open to the best and most powerful students of the military, in a rather contradictory fashion. The MP parade around, keeping order in check and crime to a minimum. They are also handed anyone who attempts to infiltrate the human population from inside the infected cities. Who knows what crazy disease or mental illness they're carrying? The last organization, the smallest and most admired, yet most loathed, is the Scouting Legion. A elite collection of the military's absolute best offer up their hearts to venture inside the cities and lead the human race to victory. Their expedition often prove to be unfortunately, far more worthless than of worth. They are led by Commander Erwin. A small team was thrown together to investigate a particular aspect of the titans, and their 15th expedition inside the cities began yesterday evening. Zhiganshina was the target of choice, and the objective was simple enough – bring back a test subject.
The sun was sinking below the horizon, and shadows lengthening as they always did. Winter was a bad time for an expedition, for two reasons. One, it could get freezing and uncomfortable, sometimes messing up the Scouting legion's gear, and two, the days were shorter and darker. Night was a bad time to be outside, even if you were a member of an elite organization and willing to throw away your life. Commander Erwin led his now small team (two lives had been lost yesterday after a surprise influx of rabid Titans larger than dumper trucks, along with several injuries that had been sent back outside the city) to an old warehouse that had the sturdiest looking doors and walls around the immediate area. No survivors or mutants had been spotted inside Zhiganshina throughout the day, and that was probably because they were hiding, and watching. They were far more likely to know more about the titans than the Scouting Legion had found out on their missions. If possible, Erwin would've liked to take home a survivor along with the Titan test subject they planned on hunting down.
The warehouse in question had several ways of entering, and Erwin decided that entered through the back entrance was the best bet. In that way, they would gain the element of surprise to anyone or anything that might be lurking inside – hopefully. The sun had completely sunk beneath the wavering line of the horizon, and they only had moonlight to guide. They would've put up fiery torches, but that was decided against due to it being a stupid idea. Erwin instructed the six other members with him that they would tie up their horses outside, and collect them once they knew the warehouse was safe inside. The horses were their escape route, and too valuable to lose to any mutants scampering around. The warehouse's back entrance was a smaller building, connected with a bricked corridor, finished with a cold, metal door. Erwin swung it open, and the resounding creak echoed through the walls. It was, indeed, much warmer inside than it was outside, and welcoming. Erwin looked around, and jerked his head around when he heard footsteps. Only little ones, clicking and padding metal somewhere. He waited. Suddenly, a yowl rippled through the empty silence, breaking it in half and resonating throughout the building and attached warehouse. It sounded canine, and this put everyone on edge. Hands clasped onto their owners weapons. Erwin stepped back slightly in surprise when something dropped from the ceiling, landing on soft feet and lips drawn back in a snarl. Erwin breathed out a sigh of relief when he realised it was not, in fact, much larger or more dangerous looking than a domestic dog. It looked barely over a year old, as a dog, and it was thin, cream-coloured, and malnourished. Erwin stared straight back at it.
"Get outta here, rat!" Someone shouted at the dog, who shifted its blue gaze to the speaker. Way too fast, a cream blur whipped across Erwin's vision and behind him, throwing itself at the one of the Legion soldiers. By the time Erwin turned around, the dog had leapt away. He turned around to find it again, but this time he was met with a different creature entirely – yet it was without a doubt the same dog. It was a teenager, seemingly absolutely human, with the same malnourished figure and messy blond hair. A dirty face and littering of scars showed several years of street-survival, and darker areas under his eyes indicated at least a week of bad sleep.
"You can't be here," The blond stated simply, although he tried to keep his voice from quivering. The Scouting Legion team stared at the boy, Hanji trying desperately to keep a squeal of scientific excitement from escaping here. It was true! The rumours were true!
"Why's that?" Erwin replied calmly, not wanting to provoke. He was sure that the small mutant had back-up on its way, and that's the reason he had yowled a warning earlier.
"Because it does not belong to you. It's Shifter territory. Their territory," The blond Shifter said simply. Erwin wondered why, seeing as this kid was also a shifter, he had said it was 'their' territory. As though it did not also belong to him.
"I understand. Is there anyone we can talk to, to decide a truce?" Erwin said, he was bargaining. Maybe if he made friends with the Shifter, he could bring some back to outside the city. They were bound to know tonnes of valuable information on the Titans. The blond Shifter looked conflicted, a little, but kept a mostly straight face. He was weighing up the positives against the negatives. He was sure he would get berated for letting a group of outsiders inside the warehouse, but they could prove useful protection and maybe a path out of this hell-hole.
"Fine," The blond came to his conclusion. He shifted back into a canine form, and turned tail down the corridor – assuming the soldiers were following. Erwin led his men behind the dog, who trotted down corridors on light paws until they reached too heavy double doors. He pulled one of the rags tied to the doors handles, not bothering to change forms, and hefted the doors open with a metallic screech. Inside, there were plenty more people, plenty more dogs. Some of them waited by the door, fangs bared and muscles tensed for action. They had been waiting. Evidently, the cream hound on lookout had told them he would lead the outsiders to the warehouse.
"Armin," A brown, wolf-ish looking wolf loped over to the smaller canine. The cream dog, which was called Armin, flattened his ears and bared his teeth in a submissive grin. Erwin recognized the behaviour from the military's hounds back outside the city. Armin's canine form was ashamed. The wolf-ish Shifter, with a coat of brown fur and lively, passionate emerald eyes, nudged the smaller dog with his nose and both wagged their tails. All seemed forgiven. Erwin looked around himself, glaring at the dogs and wolves closing in around him. There was less than he had originally thought, but they were snarling and their bodies shivered in defensive stances. The brown wolf shifted, along with his blond friend, and both became teenagers in front of them. The wolf-boy was taller than Armin, and had the same brown hair and green eyes, but there were absolutely no scars on his body. It was odd – maybe Armin was just not as good a fighter, and caught the brunt of the attacks?
"Who are you? Why'd you come here?" The wolf-shifter asked. He looked angry, but was not making any offensive moves towards the soldiers. A hint of admiration was well hidden beneath the anger and fear.
"My name is Erwin Smith. I lead the Scouting Legion, and we're here on a recon mission to study the Titans," Erwin supplied. The wolf-shifter asked for the others' names, so they were also given. His eyes widened a little when Levi introduced himself and his own Special Ops squad. The boy knew of them, obviously. He asked a few more questions, like what their mission was, whether they'd killed any of the Titans and when they planned on leaving. Armin whispered something, and the wolf-Shifter, who'd introduced himself as Eren Jaeger, whispered back furiously.
"I don't know Armin, isn't it dangerous?" Eren said.
"Think about it Eren, this could be our only chance to get out of here. There's no doubt these people want to learn about the Titans, and we know quite a bit, right?" Armin elaborated. Eren furrowed his eyebrows in thought, and agreed in the end. He told the soldiers that they were permitted to stay, and the rest of the shifters slunk off. Expect one, a pointed eared and curly tailed black dog, wearing a crimson scarf around her neck.
The Shifters – there were about ten of them, kept their distance for the most part. Some of them crept closer to ask questions and to say things to Eren, Mikasa and Armin. The Scouting Legion told the Shifters a little about outside the cities and elaborated further on the subject of their mission, exchanging information about the Shifters. Apparently, they were the only 'pack' in the area, and had only fully formed a year ago. They had lost three members due to starvation and injuries, but had found new ways of obtaining food and water since then. Also, despite the fact there was no strict hierarchy in the pack, their canine tendencies had created a simple system. The Alphas, both of which Mikasa and Eren were parts of, got priority on food to keep up their strength. Alphas were chosen due to their fighting skill and power, so keeping up their strength was at least a little beneficial to the whole pack. The second rung in the hierarchy was the Betas, which got second dibs on food and they were often sent on collection errands and scouting for food. Armin was half Beta, half Omega – his position in the pack had decreased over the last couple of weeks. Omegas got last choice on food and were sent on scouting runs. Despite this, Armin was strategist of the pack, so he was valued fairly highly, in his opinion.
"This place is filthy," Levi didn't particularly appreciate the idea of sleeping in the Shifter warehouse for even just one night. He was surprised that the teens here weren't riddled with disease (this case wasn't really that surprising at all, seeing as Levi's idea of 'clean' was absolutely, impeccably, immaculate. The Shifter warehouse was sanitary enough).
"It's only one night, Levi. We're lucky they didn't kill us or something," Hanji said, and she didn't mind the accommodation one bit, and she found the Shifters, quite frankly, fascinating. She'd love to investigate how such a mutation came about in such a short time, and why these particular kids had contracted the 'infection'. Levi deadpanned and made another snarky remark, and turned away to sleep. He satisfied himself by repeating the fact that they'd be leaving early in the morning to optimise Titan hunting and reduce the length of the mission.
Eren's canine form watched the outsiders with half-lidded eyes. He was not on watch duty tonight, so he was sleeping with the seven other Shifters that also weren't covering the night shift, inside the warehouse. They were huddled together, because the drafty walls of the building weren't that much protection against the freezing winter temperatures outside. Most of the others were asleep already, seeing as it was past midnight. The scouting legion soldiers would probably have left by the time the Shifters awoke the next morning – Eren could not decide whether this was good thing or not. The commander, nor the Lance Corporal, had mentioned any kind of permission that granted the Shifters to leave their current lives. Maybe the Scouting Legion was unaware of how bad the Shifter's situation was. This warehouse was likely to suffer another night-time attack like it had a couple of days ago – Eren had warned the Commander, but the low amount of information was not a good thing. Eren had no idea when or whereabouts in the building the Titans would strike; he just knew he needed to stay prepared. More shifters had been put on tonight's watch.
A yowl rippled through the building, bouncing off the walls metallically. It was a panicked and high-pitched canine shriek. Eren jolted awake at the sound of bending and screaming metal.