An eerie silence fell upon the five young adults in the abandoned run-down gas station. [Name] had her gun pointed at a blonde haired boy - she had actually thought he was a girl at first glance - and her knife was threatening to press against the other male stranger's throat. She had his head trapped in her arm brace and the knife was only an inch away from piercing his tan skin. While the other boy simply put his hands up in surrender as [Name] pointed the loaded gun at him.

Levi had both of his swords in an 'x' position around an black haired girl's throat, and was giving her a death glare because she had a sharp knife barely pressing against his stomach. In the middle of the store, there was a really injured male squirming around. It was obvious he was the one who knocked over the shelves and caused all the noise. He was coughing up blood, and his skin was sickly pale - like that one woman that [Name] and Levi had saw in the Survey Corps building.

"L-Look guys, we d-don't want any trouble!" The blonde one said nervously while closing his eyes shut. [Name] could see the sweat stains starting to form on his shirt.

"Levi, what do you think?" [Name] asked, not moving her eyes away from the blonde man. Levi's eyes narrowed at the girl in front of him, "Not sure."

"Our friend is seriously hurt! We have to help him! Let up go!" The brunette shouted at [Name] and started squirming in her arm. [Name] glared at him and tightened her grip. "Stop struggling," She growled while moving the knife closer to the boy's neck. His sea green eyes looked up at the [h/c] haired girl with a glare. "What's wrong with you?! I need to help him!" He shouted at her. [Name] really wanted to allow him to help his friend - but she didn't know these people. They had weapons and she didn't know if they were a threat or not. [Name] glanced over at Levi - asking for his opinion - and he came her a curt nod. She sighed and loosened her arm, allowing him to run over to his friend.

The boy crouched down next to the man on the floor. It looked as if he were having a seizure, and he was still coughing up a lot of blood. [Name] looked over the man on the floor, he had short blonde hair with sideburns - but the rest of his face was covered in his own blood.

"Thomas, stay with me!" The brunette said, his eyes filled with worry. He held onto his friend's - Thomas - blood covered hand. [Name] could have sworn she was a tear fall down from the brunette's face. Even she was slightly concerned. It was strange. Did this man have epilepsy? If he did - wouldn't it be white foam coming out of his mouth, and not blood?

"What's wrong with him? Does he have epilepsy?" [Name] asked, not bothering to move towards the two. The brunette shook his head. "No. He doesn't have any health problems. I don't know what's wrong," He explained. Suddenly, the man stopped all at once. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, making it so all you saw was white. The three strangers gasped, and the brunette's mouth fell open. He frowned then put two of his fingers against Thomas' throat; checking for a pulse.

The brunette slowly took his fingers off then let his hands fall at his sides. "He's gone," He said sadly while looking down at the blood covered tiled floor.

"Eren, it's o-okay," said the blonde that [Name] had her gun pointed at.

"No it's not Armin! Because of these people, we didn't get to save him in time!" The brunette - Eren - shouted angrily. Levi turned his gaze to Eren and glared at him.

"From what I can tell, he was like that before we showed up. And if your friend wouldn't have made such loud noise, we probably wouldn't have had to do this," Levi said coldly, yet calmly. Eren opened his mouth to say something, but a inhuman growl came from Thomas' dead body. Everyone's eyes flickered over to the dead body with curiosity.

"Eren.. I thought you said he was dead," said the girl. Her voice was calm, yet at the same time serious. Eren blinked and stared at the now silent body. "I did. He is. I don't know what that was," Eren said. His voice sounded surprised and shocked. Quickly, Thomas sat up and latched his hands onto Eren's plaid shirt. Eren gasped and tried to pry the cold hands off. Thomas was drooling a mixture of drool and blood - just like the other things had when [Name] came in contact with Them.

"Move!" [Name] shouted, pushing Eren out of the way then stabbing Thomas right in the skull. Thomas' body was once again limp and not moving. All three strangers stared at her in shock.

"W-what just happened?" The blonde, Armin, asked staring in disbelief.

"Looks like your friend turned into one of Them," Levi explained, finally removing his swords from the black haired female. Eren frowned, "What do you mean 'turned into one of Them'?!"

Levi sighed with annoyance, "Isn't it obvious? Or do I have to spell it out, brat?" The girl that stood behind him glared daggers into his back, but it seemed the Levi didn't notice. Or he just didn't care. Either one would be believable.

Eren stayed silent, which caused Levi to groaned inwardly. "He turned into one of the things that have been, oh I don't know, eating people?" Levi said, the sarcasm basically dripping off of his words. Before Eren could speak, [Name] opened her mouth.

"Do you know what happened to him? That could be the reason," [Name] asked. She herself was curious. This way she could avoid becoming one of them like Terra did. Eren shook his head, not knowing if anything had happened.

"I saw one of those things bite him when we were escaping.." Armin said quietly with his head down. "B-But I didn't think much of it!" He said right after and lifted his head up quickly.

"It must be the bite then," Levi said. "W-Wait! You can't be positive that's it!" Eren argued.

"It's most likely. The things bite into someone and whatever made them that way goes into the person. Then the person dies and comes back as one of them. It makes sense if you think about it," [Name] said while tapping her chin. It did make sense, it would explain why the zombies wanted to eat them so much. To spread their disease and eat at the same time.

"It does make sense, Eren." Armin agreed with a sigh.

"Armin, you're the one of the smartest people in our college! Do you really think that's what's happening?" Eren asked. Armin nodded. "Just think about it. Thomas got bit, then died, and came back as one of Them. We just saw it with our eyes. If that wasn't the case, then why are we all still alive?" Armin asked. Eren looked down, not knowing the answer himself.

"I guess it's possible. But why is this happening? How did it even start in the first place?" Eren asked looking up from the ground.

"No one knows. But it's obvious things aren't going to go back to normal. You guys from Washington?" [Name] asked, looking back and forth from the three survivors. They all nodded.

"Yeah, it's like hell up there. We were planning on going to California and find a safe place," Armin explained.

"Might as well get that plan out of your head. It's just as bad down there. We just came from Los Angeles," Levi stated crossing his arms.

"Is it like this everywhere?" [Name] asked, even though she knew none of them knew the answer to that. They all stayed silent.

"Well I'm Eren, and these two are Armin and Mikasa," Eren said, pointing at the other two people. [Name] nodded, "I'm [Name] and this is Levi. Sorry for.. well doing what we did. At first we thought you guys were zombies."

"Zombies?" Mikasa asked raising an eyebrow. [Name] scratched the back of her neck, "Heh, yeah. I kind of just started calling them that."

"Well I like it," Eren piped up. "Is it just you three?" Levi asked. They all nodded. "There were others of us. Mina and Samuel, but we lost them while escaping from our college," Armin explained with a sigh, "is it just you two?"

[Name] shook her head, "No. We have two others guarding our van up on the road. We were planning on getting away from California, but it seems like Washington is also infected."

"Can we come with you?" Mikasa suddenly asked, her expression not changing. "Mikasa! You can't just ask them that! We just met them!" Eren scolded. "I don't care. They seem like they can be trusted, and I'm sure they have supplies," Mikasa said blandly.

"No."

"Yes."

[Name] and Levi glared at each other. "We're not taking in anymore idiots," Levi said coldly. "Their not idiots. Plus, look at those two large bags over there. I'm sure they're full of stuff," [Name] stated pointing at the bags. Armin nodded in agreement, "They do. It's all we could collect from our college and this place."

"See?" [Name] challenged. Levi shut his eyes and mental rolled them and groaned inwardly. "Fine. But don't expect me to be nice about it." [Name] smiled, "Don't worry, you're never that nice anyways."

Levi opened his eyes and glared at her. [Name] put her arms up in defense, "Sorry, but you know it's true."

At moments like this, Levi actually wished he never saved her.