Chapter 4: Are We There Yet?

Thousands of miles to the North East in the desert that separated Amestris from Xing, a small group of weary travelers were heading south. They were all on horses and surrounded a group of supply wagons filled with containers of food and water for then and their animals. They wore light civilian clothes but based on the weapons and gear they stored in a couple of the wagons they were anything but normal travelers. They were soldiers. The only other indication of who they were was that over their clothes they all wore identical ponchos, green with hoods covering their heads to keep of the heat, on the back was a sigil of a pair of wings. They were in a small formation with their leader up font and his second in command staying shortly behind. From there the rest were spread out in pairs around their supplies to offer maximum coverage. The reason they were heading south was that they were hunting.

The second in command looked up at the sky to track where they sun was. She lowered her hood and whipped the sweat from her brow and removed her glasses to give them a quick run on her shirt. She grabbed her canteen, opened it and took a swig. Once she replaced the cap she gave a loud sigh looking up at her commander. "Levi! I think we should send out a couple scouts and try to find a rock formation to make camp."

Levi did not answer for a couple minutes. He thought over their situation. They had been traveling for a couple months and never seemed to get any closer to reaching the remaining titans that they had driven out of their land. Right before they had entered the desert they were able to replenish their food and water but that had been a couple weeks ago. It was hot and he knew the horses would need rest. Finally he replied with our turning around, "We'll go on a little longer, then we'll rest Captain Hanji."

"But Captain we've been going since morning, the horses and the children need to rest to recover their strength", retorted Hanji. By now she had rode up and was riding next to him. She was about to further her argument but Levi turned to her and gave her a look.

"I know the horses are tired, as for the others…they knew what they were signing up for. I asked for volunteers and they all stepped forward. It's hard on all of us dammit but we need to keep going. Just a couple more hours."

Hanji turned around and looked at the others. They were all still in formation and on their horses. That was at least good but she could see that the heat was getting to them and the horses. But she knew that there was no swaying Levi. "Alright." She finally said. "Do we even know if they went this way Sir?"

"No." admitted Levi, he continued on with; "But since we started after them they have kept a straight line heading in this direction. So there is no evidence that they would change course." However Levi knew that there was a possibility that they had. He had been instructed to travel for six months and if they had not found and destroyed the titans then they were to return home. In total their expedition was to take at most a year give a month or two. If any longer they were presumed dead. There would be no search party, they would have empty coffins buried with their names on the tombstones. That was the reality of the situation. It was why Levi was pressing them so much. Too many people had died because of the titans and he did not want any more fall. Levi raised his hand up to his shirt pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He did not look at it but just held it in his hand. It was the only thing he had left of his elite squad. A simple note written by Petra wishing him a "Happy Birthday" and signed by all of them. He placed it back into his pocket and looked behind him. This was his squad now and they were just as good as he ever had.

Towards the back of the formation Jean Kirstein took a long draft from his canteen. "My God it's hot. Are we ever going to get out of this damn desert?"

Armin looked over at him and said; "I am sure we will soon. This desert cannot be so large that it never ends." He looked around at his fellow squad mates. Sasha was nibbling on some dread. He didn't blame her, she had had the second to last watch so she ended up sleeping through breakfast. Her partner was Historia who was just staring ahead of them. Eren and Connie were riding the wagons with their own horses in tow. Mikasa was by herself on the right flank but she was busy sharpening her blades. She had complained that the sand storm they got stuck in the other week had dulled her blades. As Armin watched them all he started chuckling.

Jean looked at him and said; "What's so funny? Has the heat finally made you lose it?"

"What? No...no." laughed Armin, "I just couldn't help but think back to when we were still in training and had to do those land navigation exercises. Like the one when Historia got abducted and we had to save her."

"That was a life time ago", said Jean looking down at the ground. "Before we knew about everything, about who Historia was, what was going on in the government, titan shifters...I actually miss those days."

Armin looked over a Jean and shook his head; "Those were some simpler days, but at the time we did not know what we were actually dealing with. But it has not been so bad recently. We drove the titans out and away from our society and are not hunting them down." Armin looked up at the sky and smiled; "We're actually making a better tomorrow." Jean sighed and took another sip of water. Yea I guess you are right.

Up ahead on the horizon a rock feature emerged. Levi was quick to spot it and turned around in his saddle. He said that it was the place where they would make camp for the day. He then turned to Mikasa and ordered her to go on ahead and scout it out.

"Yes, Sir!" Mikasa said. She sheathed her blades and spurred her horse onwards. As she galloped away she checked to make sure she had signal flares. Green meant it was safe, red meant it was not. As she got closer she realized it was larger than they had thought. She opened her saddlebag and pulled out her spy glass. She reigned her horse up till it was at a slow pace and looked through her spy glass. Mikasa scanned the base noting no movement or any object that appeared human made or otherwise. She scanned upwards noting that the rock feature looked secure with no threat of any objects falling. Once she was back to looking around the base for a good camp site she saw that it was riddled with a few caves and a couple overhangs. "Well, it looks clear enough" she said to herself. She placed her spy glass back in her bag, grabbed her flare gun and fired a green flare into the sky.

Back at the group Sasha was looking through her spy glass, as she saw the green glare against the sky she lowered her spy glass. "Sir, Mikasa has signaled that it is clear."

"Good", said Levi; "Alright head out, let's get there are first secure and water the horses. Then we will set about camp." Momentarily they rode up and met with Mikasa. She rode up to meet Levi. Once they were next to each other Levi asked what she had seen.

"Sir, the rock feature appears to be sold and secure enough to where no objects might fall on our camp. There is a rock out crop that is about 10 meters up and accessible via what looks like a natural ramp and provides good cover over the surrounding areas", she reported. Mikasa concluded with; "However, there are a couple caves that we must scout out and secure. As for that it looks fine."

Levi thought about it for a second then made the decision that Mikasa's report was acceptable enough. He motioned them forward and it was not long before they reached the raised out cropping. When they got off their horses he turned to Eren and Jean and ordered them to scout out the first of the two caves. He then ordered Sasha and Mikasa to scout out the second. As for Hanji and Historia they were to secure the horses with Armin. Afterwards he wanted Historia to start on watch as he, Armin, and Hanji went over the maps they had roughly created and devise their next plan of action for tomorrow. He then asked if there were any complaints, Eren and Jean looked at each other but made no comment. "Good", Levi said. With that they broke off into their teams and began there tasks.