For a while, the only thing Armin could hear was a soft and persistent beeping. He could feel very little other than a small bed, of which he was laying in. He found himself to be trapped in the world of slumber, half aware as he waited for the day to continue on. Every once and awhile he could hear a door click open, rummaging about, and then the door would close and he would be left in the silence, with nothing but the beeping to accompany him.
The sleep he was encompassed in was heavy, clinging to him and dragging him further down as his consciousness was fought to keep him afloat. He could hear, and he wanted so badly to wake, but he could not. It was as if his eyes were beyond his control, and as if they refused to budge when he tried to open them. In fact, it felt almost as if he needed to wake, but he simply could not.
Armin found it to be aggravating, his struggle to pull himself out of the ocean of black continuing on for what felt like hours upon end, his wandering thoughts threatening to pull him from his steady and unmoving course up and to the light.
He let out a breath, feeling the urge to roll over. It was almost as if it were a slow morning back at home, when he was young. His body didn't want to wake, but he did.
He listened for a little while, feeling confused. What had happened last? All he could recollect was the explosion, and then waking in a lucid state, before suffocating. After that he was pulled from somewhere, and there were many voices. And then he fell into this deep, dreamless sleep.
"Is this the room?" A young woman asked. He could feel his ears perk. He must not have noticed the door opening.
"For…" A few papery sounds followed. "Armin Arlert, correct?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Here you go."
"Thank you."
He waited as he heard some soft footsteps, and a hollow scraping across a tiled floor. He winced subconsciously at the screeching sound. There was a plop, and a sigh.
"Well, it's me again."
He recognized this voice… It was the woman's assistant. The small blonde one who had held the object. The one who had comforted him in his state of hyperventilation, with soft words and even… A hug. He smiled very slightly. He hadn't had a hug in such a long time.
"It's been… Three days now? I think so. Yeah."
A soft chuckle, resounded from his bedside.
"I wish I could sleep as much as you. It's been a long three days. You and your friends scared us really bad. We thought you were dead in there. Like… Kinda like bugs in Amber. That's what Hanji said."
There was a pause.
"This'd better not end up like Jurassic Park with those giants."
He didn't know what Jurassic Park was, but he had a feeling that the giants she were speaking of where the Titans.
"When you wake up, I'll show you." She said. "You probably don't even know what a dinosaur is."
There was a long silence. Armin began to try to open his eyes once more. It was a hard struggle, but it would be worth it. He knew it.
"I hope you wake up soon." She began to say. As she spoke, he began to recall her name. Christa.
He began to crack open his eyes as she spoke.
"I mean, they're starting to think you're in a coma. We're gonna have to put you on a machine. I don't wanna have to pull the plug…" She paused. "You only read about that kinda thing in books. Or you see it in a tragedy."
He peeled open his eyes to see a tiled ceiling. The beeping remained, and he could see lights to his side. Christa gasped.
"Y-you're awake!"
He didn't listen to her for a moment, instead focusing on sitting up. He let out a groan as he struggled, and Christa rushed to the hall. Armin looked down at his hands in disbelief. He was alive. He was alive. A tube erupted from his left arm, but he didn't move to touch it. He was terrified. And… Excited.
He looked to his left, spotting a pole, and a box… And a window.
He stood, gripping the pole. He stumbled, looking down in surprise as he saw it had wheels, but he used it as support to move towards the window. It was bright… But glaring cleared his vision. As he stared out the window, he felt his breath catch in his throat.
Water, grey and blue, stretched as far as his eye could see, grey and golden clouds rolling across stark blue skies. Foam peaked as the waters churned onto a pale, unpopulated shore. It was like nothing he had ever seen. He was so unfamiliar with this, this was something that he had read of in books that claimed to hold fairy tales. It was an ocean.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to sit back down." Armin looked over to see who appeared to be a nurse, Christa hovering over her shoulder nervously.
"I'm sorry." He stated confused. "Where am I?"
"You're in the Hillside Hospital and ER complex."
He furrowed his brow in confusion for a moment, they only mean full word he recognized being 'hospital'."
"W-was I hurt?" He glanced down at himself to see nothing but a patient's uniform. His own clothes were gone. He was barefoot on the cold tiled floor -ice cold, he now realized- and he instinctively curled his toes as he stood, glancing back up at the woman with a look of confusion.
"You were asleep for three days Armin." Christa said softly. "You remember me right?"
He nodded slowly, the blurry images in his mind forming a now clear picture.
"I-I couldn't… I couldn't breathe…" He glanced over his shoulder and back out at the ocean, still gripping onto the pole, water bags swinging haphazardly from the top. He anxiously picked up the tubes on the floor, which were still held deep in his arm by some sort of clear, sticky substance.
"Could you please sit down?" The nurse asked.
He nodded, even the an uneasy feeling was forming in his stomach. He didn't know this woman, much less did he recognize her blue and white uniform, or half of the items laying splayed around the room. He hardly knew Christa. As he seated himself on the bed, and the nurse began what he assumed was a standard procedure -eyes, nose, mouth etc- he found a question bubbling up in his mind.
"Where's Eren?"
There was a pause.
"No one else's woken up yet."
He glanced down at the smooth tiled floor, spotting his feet swinging mere inches above the floor.
"You need to rest."
"I can't!" Armin said softly. "I need to know where everyone is…"
"They're still asleep."
"Then can I go outside?"