Chapter Two
"So… did any of you remember to smuggle food from the inn?"
"Sasha how can you even think of food at a time like this? We're all in-"
"I swear, Jean, if you knee me in the pants one more time-"
"Damn it Eren I'm sorry! It's kind of crowded in here, and I'm trying to give Mikasa her space. She's the one stuck against the side! She might get splinters."
Mikasa immediately felt around for Sasha's arm, and shifted closer to her. She wasn't the one who needed space, but Armin did. He's always been slightly claustrophobic, and lying down beside them under the rough blanket that had been thrown over the cart, he was probably in worse condition. He hadn't spoken a word through the trip.
"Why does Krista get to ride in the front with Levi, anyway?" Jean's whispering went on.
"Because she's the youngest-looking one of all of us, and the Corporal plans to pass her off as his daughter if we get stopped by the civilians," Armin finally spoke up. "There isn't any more space back here anyway so it was either her or Armin". His voice was slightly shaky and Mikasa felt bad for him, but they couldn't move too much without being discovered.
The clattering of horse hoofs on the cobblestone below was a steady constant that rattled on their every nerve. It had been almost four hours since they'd left the inn, and they hadn't left wall Sina. Their disguises meant they had to travel at the speed of an average civilian, and though Levi sat cursing under his breath at the front of the cart, hood pulled over his face in the sweltering heat, they couldn't go any faster.
Eventually, Mikasa found herself lulled to sleep. It was dark, and the night had fallen like a stone. They'd left the inn in the late evening, and now there was no longer anyone else out in the streets apart from them in their rattling horse-drawn cart. Sasha had already fallen asleep beside her, so she didn't resist the tiredness when it came, brought on by the dim pulsing left in her finger. She rested her head against the inside wall of the cart and slept to the fading sounds of Eren and Jean's arguing.
The next time she opened her eyes, their setting had changed completely and the rough sheets had been thrown off, allowing early morning light to stream in. Krista was gently shaking her awake. She sat up drowsily and looked around, noting that Eren and Sasha were waking up beside her.
"We're in wall Rose, I got us out of Sina with permission from Pixis. This is one of the villages that were destroyed by the titans a while ago. There aren't any people here and the military has already come to salvage the goods, but they usually aren't very thorough." Levi's dry voice informed them. "We'll rest here for a while."
The streets around were empty and ruined with debris and as she climbed out of the cart, Mikasa could almost smell the tangible leftovers of destruction. "Come on, Eren," she reached behind and tugged at her brother, who was barely conscious. "Wake up and get out."
"Yeah, I'm coming," he swung his leg out and fell flat on his face to the sound of Jean's laughter.
"Quiet, brats," Levi barked. He pointed at each of them. "Sasha, Jean, go with Armin to see if there are any supplies still left in the buildings. Krista and Eren, stay here with the horses. Mikasa, let me take a look at your hand."
"If there's three bites of food anywhere in the village, Sasha will find it," Jean grumbled as he followed her into one of the semi-collapsed buildings with Armin trailing behind.
After they'd left, Mikasa held out her hand, looking at her nail properly for the first time. The tip of her pinky finger now ended in pinkish flesh still stained with remnants of blood. It sent pain down her arm every time she flexed her hand.
Levi grabbed her hand and turned it over, pulling a thin sheet of bandages from the pocket of his uniform-coat. Without looking up at her, he wrapped it tightly around her finger, securing it with a knot that made her finger go numb.
"It won't grow back," he told her in his no-nonsense way. "But it'll stop hurting, and you don't look like a person too worried about what's unseemly. Do you know how to bandage?"
Mikasa nodded briefly. She'd grown up with Eren, after all.
"Good. Re-bandage this every morning, and keep it clean. Clean, get it? I don't care if we all die of fucking thirst; you're going to find clean water to wash it in. If you get some sort of shitty infection you'll only spread it to the rest of us."
"Yes, Corporal."
"Then you'll be fine," he said gruffly, releasing her hand. "Go help those idiots before they get buried in the debris."
As she left, Mikasa wondered why he was so uncharacteristically nice. Then she realized that he probably felt guilty for not arriving earlier.
They remained in Connie's home village until nightfall, scrounging up a small pile of food and rope and leftover metal to melt. After they'd scoured every inch of the village, they sat near the cart, packing them into the bags Levi had brought with him. Sasha spent two hours nibbling on a single dinner roll from their supplies, after she was told that they were rationing, and that it was the only one she'd get.
"Don't feel too bad for her," Jean explained to Krista. "She's never actually full."
"She'd better learn to be," Levi growled. "We have one more restock at the cottage she mentioned, and then we're heading straight out of the walls. And we need to get there at exactly one in the morning."
Eren blinked. "One in the morning? Why? Would it be better to start in the evening so the titans don't have the sunlight on their side?"
"We don't want any civilians seeing us carting the horses over, brat. It's the darkest hour of night." Levi stood up and brushed off his pants. "But that's true as well. We're going to spent an entire day on top of the walls and climb down the other side in the evening. And look, they're here." He squinted into the distance.
Mikasa looked up from her rations in the direction he was pointing, and managed to make out the faint outline of horses. She finished the rest in one gulp and walked to stand near him. "Corporal, that is-"
"Our supplier," he finished.
Eren looked over her shoulder. "Hey, is that Commander Pixis? Awesome, he's convenient."
"Only you'd ever call the Commander of the Garrison 'convenient'," Jean remarked.
The figure entered the sloping village in the distance, and they watched as he made his way slowly up the streets, followed by exactly seven horses that trailed after him like obedient dogs. In a matter of minutes, he reached them and swung off his horse. "Levi, glad to see you made it out of Sina without trouble."
"It was because of your plants, Commander," he acknowledged. "But why did you come here yourself? Couldn't you send someone from the Garrison? People will talk if they see the Commander of the Garrison walking through the sketchier parts of Wall Rose."
The older man rubbed his head tiredly. "Hmm, some of the members of the Garrison are too law-abiding for their own good." He paused. "I had a soldier named Hannes who would always volunteer for these things. He was a fine man and a great loss." He shot a brief glance toward Eren, who was clenching his teeth.
"Is that… food?" Sasha interrupted, drooling at the packages the other horses were carrying.
Pixis shook his head. "Food is too hard to smuggle out. Those are extra blades, which will be much more useful to your continued existence." She visibly drooped.
"Forget the shitty food, brat," Levi told her. "Commander Pixis, you should head back quickly. If you travel in the dark they won't catch you. Presumably."
He tilted his head. "Of course. This is all the fun an old man like me gets, I suppose. Give the titans hell, Levi."
"I'll make them shit out of their non-existent assholes," he promised.
"So. I ask Levi to provide me with backup, and I get… you." Within her hotel room in central, Zoe Hanji crossed her arms and frowned. She cast a long look at the younger boy standing before her.
Connie blinked. "Um, do you know why I was asked to come here? Cause I certainly don't. He just left me a note telling me to get my ass over here unless I wanted it set on fire. And it looks like everyone else disappeared, so…"
Hanji sighed. This was troublesome. She'd hoped to get Jean or Armin at the very least, because they both knew how to keep their mouths shut. But this kid seemed to be pretty talkative, and that wouldn't work at all for what she had planned.
"You're going to be working under me for a while," she explained. "You see, since the Central Military Police killed Pastor Nick, we've starting noticing a lot of things that just don't add up. And I suggested that we just lay low for a while and guard out backs before they get stabbed, but Levi doesn't like sitting on his butt, so Erwin gave them the OK to head off on their own while hiding their tracks."
Connie's jaw dropped. "Head where?!"
"To wall Maria. Where else, the dry cleaners?"
"They can't do that, there are titans in Wall Maria!"
"But they're all prepared to fight them as they come, and Commander Pixis is smuggling them horses for their journey as we speak," Hanji told him. "It's kind of all-or-nothing, but I trust Levi to keep Eren safe. And if he ever slips, Mikasa's with them."
"And they just left me behind?!" he flailed. "What am I supposed to do here in Central? There aren't any damn titans to kill here!"
"You'd be surprised," she said quietly.
He took a while to process that thought, feeling a familiar sense of dread. The possibility wasn't entirely absurd, since they'd already seen it happen with Reiner and Bertholt and Ymir. Humanity had only ever collectively cowered in fear before the Colossal and Armored Titans, but there were also those like Ymir whose secret had never come to light. They'd already been driven far, almost reified in the stump that was their commander's arm, and they couldn't afford to take any more lethal hits from their own side.
Finally, Hanji took pity on him. "Listen, I asked to get someone on his team because I can't do everything here by myself, and you guys are the only ones that know the truth about Krista so it had to be one of you. Our job is to going to keep the Military off their backs and do some recon while we're at it."
Connie frowned. "We're going to spy on the Military?"
"Yep. You'd better be quiet as a mouse, kid. If we mess up, it'll be Erwin's head under the block, and losing his arm was bad enough already." With that, she reached into the drawer beside the bed, drawing out a folded square of green cloth. "And take off that coat of yours, I've got something to replace it with. For now."
He eyes the embroidered cloth apprehensively. "I can't wear that. That's the MP uniform. I don't want a goddamn unicorn on my back."
She shrugged and threw it to him. "Get used to it, because that's where we're going to be until they get back from Wall Maria."
"We're… going to join the Military Police? But how?"
"Erwin decided to make a donation for the cause. We were the donation," she explained airily. "And we'd better be a good donation or we'll get kicked back out. This is the only way we can stay out of Scouting duty while we work."
Connie looked down at the MP uniform in his arms.
With a sigh, he reached up to remove the Wings of Freedom.
I've noticed that Levi is a lot more vulgar in the manga than he is in the anime. But maybe that's just because of the subs. My Japanese isn't good enough to tell, so I'll write him as he is in the English version of the manga.
Review? I'm aware that its still early in the plot, but feedback helps either way.