Eren tripped over his own feet and fell to the floor as Ymir and him passed other guards in an attempt to continue his sick act. Ymir leaned over Eren and yanked him up to his feet, then dragged him along by his elbow harshly. The guards barely spared them a second glance and Eren held back a smirk since that would kill the act. When they made it to Eren's cell and Ymir made sure no one was around, she let go of his forearm. Eren slowly stepped into his prison cell, his frown deepining the closer to the middle he got. Behind him the cell door slam shut and jingling keys were lifted to lock it. Eren remained staring ahead at the white wall even as he heard Ymir begin to walk away.
Suddenly, however, he was reminded of something that has been bothering him since he had awoken here. He spun around and threw himself foward, fingers wrapping around cold steel pipes that sent a shiver down his spine. «Ymir!», he called out. She turned around and raised an eyebrow at him in a silent gesture to continue. «You know Huey,» he stated more than asked. She's a guard, he's a guard; they had to know each other. «Who's Huey?,» she asked, nose scrunched up in question.
«He is-he's from the lower district,» he stuttered, trying to say what he wanted to truly say, but he was never good at forming sentences or questions for that matter. «Hm?..» she hummed, confusion clear on her face. «But he's a guard now?», he tried to say, but it come out as a question instead of a statement. Ymir's face went from realization to fear to impassive in a matter of seconds. «Eren, I'm warning you, don't mess with this. Once you escape, don't look back,» she heavily emphased her last words before leaving a very baffled Eren behind. «What the fuck.,» he said under his breath.
Eren wanted to shout after her, yell her name until she had no choice but to return. However, there was no point because it wouldn't be her that would come face Eren, instead it would be one of the other guards. One of the guards that seemed to be incapable of emotions. One of the guards that apperantly were people from taken from the lower district. Eren groaned loudly and let his head drop which resulted in it banging agaisnt the pipes. Although it hurt, he did not remove his head. He felt his energy drain away, leaving a seemingly empty shell behind. It reminded him of his first day here, wanting to move, but finding himself unable to.
As Eren moaned and groaned about this weird phenomena, everything went pitch black, and he felt a sudden surge of adrenaline. He threw his head up in surprise, hands tightening around the steel he was previously gripping weakly. From far away, he heard orders being shouted and the pounding of guard's boots against concrete, in which echoed throughout the hallway of prison cells, following shortly after. «What's going on?», he yelled, which unsurprinsingly received no answer.
«Are you sure that they wont be able to just turn it back on?», Levi asked and Armin nodded meekly. «I only brought us a few seconds, but it's better than nothing,» Armin replied quickly and began to head in the direction of Colton Jackson, where Colton Jikken-shitsu was located. Armin rolled his eyes at the remembrance of the labotory's name. His dad had a thing for Japanese, that being the reason he choose Henkō as Levi's false name. «I think we have to split up, it's the only way we'll be able to do this," said Armin. Levi and Mikasa glanced at each other unsure of the idea, but agreed that there was very limited time. "Who goes where?", Mikasa asked. Armin spun around and met eyes with Mikasa. "You're not doing well. You stick with Levi and head for the Armory, I'll go to the lab," he ordered. Mikasa shook her head, "No, you aren't going alone," she protested.
"We don't have a choice," Armin said firmly. "You stick with Mikasa, I'll go on my own," Levi opined. Armin turned to glare at Levi with icy blue eyes. "We've been over this, I know where everything is. It will be quicker and we're already losing enough time as it is with this petty debate. Why can't you guys just trust me?", he argued. "We do trust you," Mikasa said quickly. "Good, then there's nothing more to talk about," Armin stated and begun to head towards the lab. Seeing that they weren't going to be able to convince Armin, Mikasa and Levi went in the direction of the Armory.
"This isn't going to end well," said Levi as they walked on. "When it involves Eren and Armin, it never does," retorted Mikasa. Levi lightly smirked at her obvious tease. "I've never quite caught your name," Levi indirectly asked. "You've caught it, just never bothered to learn it," Mikasa commented, but didn't sound bitter like Levi thought she would. "It's Mikasa," she added. Levi looked at Mikasa for a split second and then nodded. They continued on in silence that was only accompanied by the chirping crickets and distant shouting, assumably coming from guards and soldiers. Their only source of light belonged to the moon's glowing form that cast a weak light, but just enough to be able to get where they had to. After all, this is the way they are used to getting around at night.
By the time they reached the Armory, the voices seemed to be getting louder. "I reckon we only have a couple of minutes before they reach this building," Levi said. "Then let's hurry," Mikasa responded while upping her speed. She grimaced at the flash of pain coming from her calf, but ignored it. The door of this building was locked as well, Levi found out as he gave the door handle a twist. "Armin said we had to force our way in," Mikasa reminded Levi. "Never hurts to try," Levi said as he stepped back and readied himself to bust through the door. With one solid hit, Levi immediately knew that something was off. "I think the door is blocked from inside," Levi noted.
"There must be another way in," Mikasa said threw gritted teeth, hand twitching with desire to be wrapped around her pounding calf. Levi noticed, but decided to pretend not to. "Windows?", Mikasa added. Levi nodded and checked around the building quickly. Once he came back around he shook his head no. They stood staring at the impenetrable armory for a couple of seconds, unsure on what there next move would be. Marching footsteps grew louder and louder, but all they could do was stare at the building. Mikasa looked in the direction of the nearing, most likely soldiers, and confusion grew on her face. Levi followed her gaze and realized why she was so perplexed. There were beams of light tearing through the darkness that seemed to be moving around like mad, searching more like.
"Those are flashlights. There are like our gas lamps except more effective and efficient. We should move, we'll be easily spotted by those," Levi informed. "But what about-," Mikasa went to say, but cut herself off when she realized the beams of light were nearly upon them. "Guess we have no choice but to abort for now," Levi said as he descended into the forest beside the armory, not too far in as if to not have the building in sight, but just enough to avoid being seen. Mikasa was barely a foot behind.
Mikasa's assumption was right, dozens of soldiers piled up in front of the armory's entrance with flashlights. Some had cocky grins while others had frowns evident on their face. "Dude I went on reserve for a reason," one said as he fluctuated his flashlight, its white brightness piercing through obscurity."Shut up, Filep," said another. Filep grumbled and stretched his neck, his hand rubbing circles to ease the tightness he felt. His eyes darted over at Levi's and Mikasa's hiding spot and narrowed his eyes. Mikasa ducked her and Levi's head in when his flashlight was shone their way. The light remained fixed in their direction and Levi cursed under his breath. "What is it Filep?", one soldier asked. "Nothin'. Just thought I saw somethin'," responded Filep. There was a loud clank and then the flashlight was pulled away from the thick tree they were ducked behind. As Mikasa and Levi hesitantly pecked out, they witnessed the soldier's shuffling into the armory. "Wasn't the door blocked?", Mikasa asked in a whisper as she glanced over at Levi. "It was," Levi muttered.
The two remained hidden behind one of the trees, swatting insects away, and trying to stay as quiet as possible. Mikasa refrained from panting as the heat surrounding her injured calf grew more intense. She settled for gritting her teeth instead. Levi took a gander at Mikasa and knew they had to get this over with as soon as possible. Once the soldiers began to march out with assault riffles leaning against their shoulders, Mikasa and Levi armed themselves. They knew it was a bad idea to charge the soldiers, especially since the men were now well equipped, but they prepared for anything that might happen. To their luck, the men were still unaware of their presence, however, the last man to exit the building locked the entrance. Another loud clank rang out and Levi assumed it was blocked from inside once again.
As the soldiers disappeared from sight, Levi and Mikasa neared the armory again. Levi noticed from their hiding spot that the roof of this building was flat. In the lower district some houses had holes on the roof. Levi highly doubted that was the case here being that this was the higher up district. Though it may be a long shot, he was willing to try anything at this point.
He stared up at it, calculating his and Mikasa's height versus the armory's. It being a tall one floor building, Mikasa would only be able to reach the edge with her hands if Levi gave her a lift. "If I give you a bust, will you be able to pull yourself up onto the roof?", Levi asked, eyes still locked on to the edge of the building. "Yeah," Mikasa breathed out. Levi hesitated when he noticed how weak her voice sounded, but they already missed their golden chance and had to take the next best thing or settle for nothing. Levi leaned on the splotchy peach wall and cupped his hands together similar to how he did for Armin earlier. Mikasa braced her hands on Levi's shoulders and used her good leg, placing her left foot on top of Levi's hands. With ease, Levi raised his hands to chest height, but Mikasa's fingertips were only able to graze the lining of the roof. "Sorry," she said through grinding teeth as she stepped up on his shoulder with her wounded leg and was finally able to get a grip.
He withheld his irritability at having a dirty boot on his shoulder. Instead he focused on staying still until Mikasa was off his shoulder and on the building's top. "Tell me what you see," he ordered. There was a long silence and Levi had to repeat himself. "A way in," was the reply followed by the sound of shattering glass. "Windows on the roof?", he questioned aloud. No one responded meaning Mikasa was already in. A loud clank was heard for a third time today and the door swung open to reveal a very pale looking Mikasa. Her leg was much redder than he remembered it being. It must have been the fall into the building from the roof.
"You look like shit. Are you okay?", Levi hesitantly asked knowing what she was going to respond with. "Yes, I'm fine," and there it was. "Look give me the bag, I'll do the rest," he commanded, hand held out in front of him. "Look, I'm-," she went to say, but Levi cut her off with "If you say that you're fine one more time I'm gonna knock you out myself because apparently that's the only way you'll give yourself a break." Mikasa glared at him for a split second, then sighed and reached for the bag tied to the side of her pants. She held it out unwillingly and Levi took it from her cold looking hands. "Sit and rest," he ordered her as he entered the armory.
Levi started with one of the rooms nearest to him, which was to the right. Inside there were walls littered with gun racks that were void of the guns themselves. He searched inside the cabinets beneath the racks, but to no avail. Even all the ammunition was gone. He left the room and searched the one opposite to it, but it was left barren as well. Levi sighed in frustration, but continued his hunt. Exiting the room he was last in, he saw a door left closed, unlike the rest, in the far end of the building. He opened the door and soon came to the conclusion this must be the extra storage room. A few guns were missing, but there were more than plenty for the taking. The gun racks were littered with assault riffles varying from Colt M16A4 to G36C rifles. There were snipers, such as Springfield M1903 and AX50. Beneath the assault rifles and sniper riffles there were pistols and revolvers, which had models like M1911, Deagle, and Colt Python. Levi quickly got to it, stuffing the bag full of guns. After, he tore open the drawers and tossed in as much ammunition for the guns as possible.
Levi ran back to Mikasa wanting to get the hell out of this place already. However, Mikasa looked awful. She was a horrifying shade of white that made her almost blend into the walls behind her. Her breathing looked labored, as if she was struggling to get oxygen into her body. "Shit," Levi muttered, setting aside the bag on the floor. He neared her and observed her calf. It was bleeding pretty heavily, the red thick blood running down her leg and into her boot. Levi grimaced as he removed the sleeve Armin tied around the calf. Levi barely observed the wound, feeling nausea simply from the suffocating smell of iron. Instead he scanned around to see if maybe there was anything that could stop the bleeding, but using the logic that they were in an armory, of course there wasn't. The only thing Levi could do was replace Armin's soaked sleeve with one of his. Levi took off his jacket and cut off it's sleeve with a knife since it was thicker than Armin's long sleeve shirt. He wrapped it tightly around the wound and put the jacket back on with annoyance at having to have destroyed his favorite jacket.
"Common, let's go," he said as he lifted her arm and brought it over his shoulder, then heaved her up from the box she was sitting on. Promptly, he picked up the bag and headed for the exit.
They were greeted by the cold air of the outside and Mikasa shivered. Levi tried to up his speed, but he could only go so fast carrying a bag loaded with guns, as well as basically carrying an 150 pound girl. He went in the west direction as Armin told him to do. However, that meant going into the forest once again. Unlike the even ground they were previously on, the forest's floor was littered with tree roots and logs made of fallen trees. This made it more difficult to maneuver around, especially when Mikasa kept tripping over said obstacles. "Common," Levi grunted as he brought Mikasa to her feet after she fell over and unto the dry dirt beneath them. "Try-yin'," she panted out as she leaned heavily on him. A loud cracking sound slightly startled Levi, but he figured it must be the one of the noises forest make. He began to move in a steady pace after he got a better grip on Mikasa. The leaves whistled a tone as wind rustled through them. In other circumstances this would be considered peaceful, but the deeper into the forests, the darker it got. Glowering trees blocked the faint glow of the moon and the leaves just seemed to be singing and dancing in mock.
Levi could barely see a thing. It was to the point that they would crash into branches emerging from the trees that would cause small cuts on both of them. They stumbled often due to the tree roots. If anyone caught sight of them, they would probably run in fear assuming they were the flesh craving monster from the campfire story "Ringo". The webs created by spiders enveloping them had become like a blanket at this point by the sheer amount they had run into. Levi, who had always imagined natures such as this, could never imagine how annoying it could be despite its beauty.
Levi hadn't been able to see the flowing water until his foot sunk deep into it. The frigid water hit him instantly and he felt a chill run throughout his entire body. The worse of it, however, was the smell. He's surprised he hadn't caught it earlier, but the odor coming for the body of water was bad enough to bring an elephant to it's knees. Levi's face scrunched up in disgust and his fingers twitched, wanting to do something, anything about the horrid smell, but instead concentrated on keeping Mikasa upright and lifting the bag a little higher. He stepped out of the river of sorts and followed it's flow. "I-it sme-ells," said Mikasa and Levi couldn't agree more. He would cover his nose, if he could.
The water continued on until they reached a tall wall. Levi felt relief as he realized that they made it. The only problem now was that Levi finally understood what Armin meant by "You're not gonna like it, but it's the quickest way out so keep it as a last option." Fuck Armin and this situation. Levi stared, or more like glared, at the round metal hole in the wall. Water arched downwards and fell into a river below creating a man made shit waterfall, literally. The exit just had to be a sewer dump. "This is gonna suck," Levi said more to himself than to Mikasa.
He set down Mikasa first and she gasps as she was dumped waist deep into cold waste. Levi tied the open bag with one of Mikasa's hair ties. He then set down the bag of guns in the hole as well without letting go of it. He soon followed, settling in between the bag and Mikasa, and gritted his teeth at not only the icy water, but in abhorrence to the situation as well. "I'm going to fucking kill Armin," he swore.
Levi wrapped his arm around Mikasa and pushed off the edge. Together they plummeted into the river of dump below. Levi nearly lost hold of the bag, but held on tightly. He hoped the water wouldn't mess the guns up. However, the majority were military guns, it was possible that they would be fine.
Levi emerged from beneath the water and scanned the surface until he caught sight of Mikasa who was struggling to keep herself afloat. Swiftly, Levi swam to the edge and dropped off the guns, then went back for a sinking Mikasa just in time to pull her back up to the surface. He placed both of her arms around his neck, her body leaning on his back, and swam back to the shore. After pulling both Mikasa and himself out of the murky water, Levi took a second to breathe. "This is too much shit for one day," he muttered as he swept a hand through his hair. He observed Mikasa, who was sprawled out on the ground beside him. The rise to the fall of her belly took a second too many. Her eyes were closed and her face was flushed. The wound had bled through his jacket's sleeve. It was most likely loosened in the hectic escape. Apparently there was no time for rest, he had to get moving, or Mikasa would bleed out. He pulled Mikasa to him, first re-tightening the sleeve, and then laid her out on his back. Once he had her in a comfortable possition, he stood keeping her in place with one arm beneath her and a bag of weapons in his other hand.
They landed on the outskirts of Area 23. Levi wrinkled his nose, no wonder this district always has an awful odor. They weren't that far from Disno, hopefully doctor Henji was awake or he'd just have to wake her up with their stink. In fact, they might just wake up the whole lower district. Levi looked up at from where they had came from. He hoped Armin would be able to make it out before the main power source was turned back on. However, Levi couldn't tell from his position. Maybe the lights had been already turned back on, maybe Armin already made his escape, Levi wouldn't know. With a sigh, he began walking towards Disno.
Author's note: Hello my friends, can you believe I've finally updated. This is exactly what I do to my Animal Crossing game. I am probably the worst major in existance. Anyways, I'd like to point out a couple of things. I know a sewer system doesn't work the way I wrote it, but this is how it works in my story; the sewer system is all underground until it reaches deep into the forest, then it sort of pumps the waste to the surface to form a river where the water is then dumped to Area 23. The dump is not filtered therefore the smell. I don't know if this makes sense. I am not very knowledge on this topic, but just pretend it does.
Second, forest is the lower district do not exist. There are patches of trees where could be considered a small forest, but are not. This is why Levi being described as of never being inside one before.
Lastly, I want to discuss the campfire story "Ringo". "Ringo" is the story of a man that is skinless and stumbles through the streets at night. Since he has no skin he wishes no one had skin, so if he catches you alone, he'll eat your flesh and leave you for dead...basically.