Eighty-seven.
There were eighty-seven people listed in Milan's journal.
Val crossed off eighty-five. The two living people were herself and Zoran, their names unblemished between the hundreds of the previously fallen.
All of them. Dead. Compacted on the forest's clearing, limbs missing and some heads crushed but she counted every single face she could. Recognised every single one even with the injuries that made it difficult to see them completely.
How did none of them escape? If the horses were killed before the people, then that would suggest the titans knew how to stop them from escaping. Even the hut that stored the flight gear and blades was destroyed and not a single part of the equipment was intact, blades or gas canisters alike. No survivors. Only Val and Zoran because of some good timing and dumb luck.
She mulled this over as she sat back with the small group next to the fire. The sun had fallen so the only light they had was the flickering orange from the flames, illuminating each of their faces. Bertolt was huddled in on himself, knees brought up to his chest as he gazed into the flames. It was cold even with the fire, and Val found her skin prickling with goosebumps.
Reiner ran hot, she found out. When a particularly chilly gust of wind brushed past them, she shivered and huddled similarly to Bertolt. She still only had her undershirt on, her thicker long-sleeved shirt still cushioning Zoran's head. All of her clothes in her hut had been ruined, either matted with dirt or ripped to shreds.
When Reiner called her name and she saw him holding out his green cloak, she stared at him. Maybe the day had been too long and she hadn't really spoken to them since counting the dead, but her mind went blank at the gesture.
"Take it," he said, voice slightly muffled from the cloth covering the lower half of his face.
They were close enough that she could reach over without moving from her seated position and take it from him. The fabric was warm in her hands and felt even warmer once she wrapped it around her body. It was more of a blanket than a cloak, only it had a hood.
The cold didn't bother Reiner. She watched him from the corner of her eye for even a hint that he was cold, but there was nothing. He'd kick some ash away every now and then, take a sip of water and bites of rations, but he never shivered or rubbed warmth into his arms. He even had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows like he was immune.
Zoran woke up at one point and she fed him some crackers and water. Though he tried to hide it, the way he pressed his lips together and trembled showed that he was still in pain.
She pulled down her bandana. The smell of burning wood took over the stench of death, but the bandana kept her face warm.
"Where does it hurt the worst?" she asked.
"Shoulder," Zoran answered quietly, breathing heavily. Even with the orange light, he looked pale. "Leg isn't as bad. Back hurts every time I move." She watched him force his eyes open to look at her.
"Do you think you're dying?" she asked. "You look it."
"Might be." His lips cracked into a smile. "Do I still look like a catch?"
"You look constipated," she answered truthfully. The man's eyebrows drew together and he opened his mouth. "You didn't shit yourself, don't worry. You might've pissed but I didn't stop to check. It would've dried by now."
He lifted his good arm to wave it dismissively with a grunt. "Whatever." Laying his head back to the side, his eyes fell shut and he was soon asleep.
"Have you eaten?" Bertolt spoke up quietly.
"Yeah," Val said.
"Not enough," Reiner butted in. "There's gonna be a lot of travelling tomorrow. You'll need the energy."
She lifted her head to meet the blonde's gaze. "So I'll eat tomorrow," she said.
"The Captain won't stop for you if you fall off your horse. Annie won't care either."
"Great." Val smiled passively. "I hope your cloak keeps me warm, then." She wrapped it tighter around herself and buried her nose in the fabric to keep out the cold. Inhaling, she twisted her face. "Smells like shit," she muttered.
Reiner smiled at that, the barest hint of it on his lips. "Yeah. Sorry about that."
Val hummed non-committedly and turned her gaze back to the fire.
They were a strange duo, Reiner and Bertolt. Strange but somehow so perfect it was almost a joke. Reiner with his naturally domineering character, muscular and who Val could only assume was a brawler, and the timid Bertolt who hugged his knees and spoke softly to her, who didn't hesitate to follow Reiner's orders. She recognised the types, grew up with people like them.
Milan would compare them to Val and Zoran, how similar some of their attributes were. The brawn and the brains, so to speak, though Reiner didn't seem like an idiot. Milan saw two kids, one of them wielding a knife and threatening the woman while the other was hiding stolen goods behind his back, and smiled. Not in a condescending way, she wasn't mocking them or amused by them, but endeared. Even at the ages of fifteen and sixteen, Zoran and Val were taller than her and could've easily overpowered her.
But they didn't. Milan offered them a home and they accepted.
She probably would've done the same for Reiner and Bertolt, even with her stipulations about the Survey Corps. Val didn't know why she didn't like the Corps or anything of her experience behind the walls, but she wasn't cold-hearted. She'd help any Corps members if she had to, probably blindfold them then send Val to drop them off hours away so they wouldn't be found. But still, she would help.
Val thought of her cold body just a hundred feet away, ripped in half. Those once warm eyes crinkled by age, cold and grey and unblinking. She deserved to be buried. They all did. Just like the dead Survey Corps members she's seen throughout the years, their decaying corpses would make a graveyard of bones in the forest.
Val perked up when she heard thumping coming from the distance.
"Wait." Reiner held up his hand when she moved to stand. They all listened intently for a stretched moment, all but Zoran who slept blissfully unaware. The thumps weren't loud and separated like a titan's, but quieter and more dense like it was a dozen footsteps at once. "Not titans. Horses."
He was right. There were the glowing lights of torches flickering between trees from a distance and she could see the blurry silhouettes of people on horses. Two, she counted.
"They'll see the fire," Reiner concluded but still stood along with Bertolt.
While they were relaxed, Val felt twitchy. Her shoulders tensed and she felt the weight of her gear, the press of the harnesses against her body, holding it tight, too tightly to her body.
"Do I need to be worried?" she asked, tapping the ball of her foot against the floor.
"Yes," Reiner answered honestly with a nod. "As long as you don't try anything, though, you'll be okay. They're not cruel."
That's fucking reassuring.
Why couldn't it have been Val hurt instead of Zoran, passed out and unknowing? As selfish as it sounds, he was better at this kind of thing than her; dealing with people and not sounding like an asshole. She knew how to draw attention to herself and put on the charm but not in a way that could save their lives.
The blades of her gear would be useless against people with the same ones, especially four trained Survey Corps members, but she had the comforting weight of her knife in her boot. At least she'd be able to catch them off-guard.
A short man with dark hair and another muscular blonde appeared, green cloaks and all.
"Braun, Hoover," the man greeted without emotion. His steely eyes turned to Val and Zoran and his eyebrows raised slightly. "Who the fuck is this?"
Val listened as Reiner explained what happened after they got separated, how they came to find their new guests as if one of them wasn't listening a few feet away. The new blonde woman - Annie, Val guessed - regarded her as she wiped her hair away from her sweaty forehead, lips parted as light breaths escaped her. She broke eye contact to ruffle Bertolt's hair, more to be annoying than endearing if the smirk was anything to go by, and sat on the other end of the same wall as Val.
"We heard shouting and found them," Reiner finished. "There's about a hundred bodies. They're the only survivors, Captain Levi."
Levi? As in Levi Ackerman?
Val should've put two and two together when she first laid eyes on the man. Short, impassive and dark-haired, there were few people like that who had the title of Captain in the Corps. She didn't know the intricacies of the inner-walls or most people in the hierarchy, but everyone knew of Levi Ackerman; the man who went from being infamous in the Underground to the Commander's lapdog in just a couple of months.
"Tch. Explains the smell," Levi observed, looking back into the forest like he could see them. "A village in the butt-fuck of nowhere. Erwin is going to love this."
Annie picked at her nails with a huff. "The Government too, probably." Val could feel her stare burning the side of her face.
Levi hummed and turned his bored eyes to Val who'd been observing him. "What are you looking at, shithead?"
"You're Levi Ackerman."
He scoffed. "You've heard of me then." His steps barely made a sound against the floor as he moved closer to the fire. He stood over the burning wood and despite the soft glow, his eyes were still sharp. "Good. Unless you really are a shithead, then you know if you try to escape I'll snap both of your legs."
Val nodded wordlessly while Bertolt pressed his chin further between his brought-up knees, somehow looking smaller despite being the tallest of all of them.
"Do you know how to kill titans?" Levi continued, unbothered. "Or how to use ODM gear?"
Val felt herself become defensive at the man's words. He didn't sound demeaning but there was something in his tone that made her feel like she should feel embarrassed.
"Yes, I know how to kill titans," she answered, "and I can use the gear just fine." The last thing she wanted to do was admit she didn't know what ODM meant.
"And your friend?" He inclined his head to Zoran. "The fuck happened to him?"
He fell off a branch sounded too dumb and he was attacked by a titan wasn't what technically happened.
"He got hurt," she settled on. "Titans came out of nowhere."
Levi surveyed her for a long moment, determining if she was telling the truth or not. He came to his own conclusion with a hum, though he didn't let it show on his expression.
"It's late," he said to the others. "Get some rest. I'll keep watch for the night. We'll move when the sun rises."
Being the Captain, his word was law right now, and everyone did as he said.
Val shifted so her back was pressed against the corner with Zoran's head by her thighs. She'd lay down and try to sleep but she knew she wouldn't be able to get a wink of rest, not while she was keeping an eye on the Corps while looking out for her friend.
Something in her hand twinged and she grit her teeth to bite back a groan of pain. She'd managed to ignore the ache left by Zoran squeezing her hand up until now and it hurt like a bastard. She pushed her thumb into her palm to ease the feeling and it worked somewhat, but it was still wildly unpleasant. Like something was swelling under her skin, pushing against everything inside.
Levi was sitting on a large branch hanging beneath the wooden floor, examining his blades with his back to the group. For someone so small, she was surprised he didn't react to the cold the way she did. Even Annie who had muscle to keep her temperature warm was blowing air into her palms, rubbing them together as she sat hunched next to the fire. Bertolt had his back pressed against the wall, curled up into a tiny ball as he slept soundly.
Thudding her head against the wall, she stared up into the sky. She could scarcely make out the stars between the overlapping branches and leaves overhead, but some of them twinkled in the deep blue night.
Was the sky the last thing her people saw? Did they die in agony, laid on the forest floor as they stared up at the clouds, or was it quick? Milan liked cloud-watching, pointing out the strange shapes that Val didn't have the creativity to come up with herself. They'd be more visible in the clearing where the trees were more spread out. Where they lay.
Val felt the backs of her eyelids prickle and sniffed, pulling down her bandana to rub at her mouth.
Now isn't the time to fucking cry.
"Are you okay?" Reiner spoke up quietly. He's been watching her, she realised, observing, and she was oddly fine with that fact. She should feel uncomfortable but there was a gentleness to his otherwise heavy-handed self when he regarded her.
"Yeah," she said, darting her eyes away as they flickered with uncertainty. "Are… you?"
His lip twitched into a smile. "Yeah," he answered with a small nod. "You really should sleep. I know I've said this before but you'll need the energy tomorrow. For yourself and Zoran."
Turning her eyes away from him with a huff, she rubbed her thumb over her palm again. The blonde noticed.
"I never asked if you were hurt."
"I'm not," she told him. Sure, her thighs burned and arms ached from having to hold Zoran's weight for hours, but it was bearable. Some scrapes and stiffness that'll heal in a week, probably less. She's always been a fast healer.
"Your hands?"
Keeping her eyes on the ground between her and the fire, she said, "Zoran squeezed it when you reset his shoulder. Nothing's broken."
"It might be sprained." There was a scuffle and Val saw that Reiner shifted closer, lessening the few feet that separated them. He reached for her hands but stopped, lowering his head to look at her underneath the cloak's hood. Their eyes met. "Can I look?"
She wanted to say no. Hell, she was going to tell him to fuck off, but he was right. She needed to save her energy for Zoran tomorrow and whatever future they had behind the walls. He helped Zoran just fine after all.
Val nodded and Reiner closed the gap between them, sitting so close their bodies were almost touching. She wondered how it looked to Levi or Annie, him practically cornering her like this. Though the apparent gentlemen he was, he still kept a respectful distance and touched her carefully when he took hold of her hand.
His hands were larger than hers, fingers longer and thicker; he could probably encompass both of her hands fully with just one of his. She could feel the rough calluses on his fingers where he rolled her knuckle joints carefully between them. His other hand held her wrist, fingers curling up the back of her hand while his thumb rested on her pulse, touch loose so she could pull away at any point.
Moving her eyes up to peek at his face, she saw his eyebrows were furrowed together as he concentrated, lips parted and eyes scanning over her hand as he dug his thumb in small circles to assess the damage. He had a similar expression when he was tending to Zoran.
She couldn't help but enjoy the touches, having his warm body close to hers. Like before, she knew she should feel uncomfortable. She met this man half a day ago but physical touch wasn't regular for her. Cold hands checking her without regard by Nima when she was hurt, a hand on a shoulder from Milan when she did a good job, or a rare hug initiated by Zoran when he was being touchy-feely. Val liked being touched but she didn't like that she liked it, and him being careful felt… nice.
His thumb moved lower and she gasped sharply when it hit exactly where it hurt, above the heel of her palm.
"Is that- uh-" He looked up and realised how close he'd leaned in, promptly flushing red. The tips of their noses were almost touching and he could feel light puffs of breaths against his cheek. He audibly swallowed as he shifted back, letting go of her hand but still keeping his hold around her wrist without realising. "Does- Is that where it hurts?"
"Yes. That does is where it hurts," she answered with a slight smile. "Please, look again?"
Reiner went to do exactly that right away, embarrassed that he stuttered. He even lifted her hand back up to further inspect it, only pausing when she breathed out a laugh. She was making fun of him.
To his relief, she didn't tease him for the blunder. "What's the damage, then?"
"A, uh, it looks- feels like a damaged tendon," Reiner explained, grateful he could look back at her hand instead of her eyes. "Nothing too serious. Just a few days of healing, I think. I'm not an expert at this but I've had the same thing before."
"Okay." Val nodded slowly. "Are you a doctor or something?"
"No, nothing like that," he explained with a head shake. "Everyone had to take a medical course during training. The others are a lot better at this than me."
"Well," she shrugged, "you clearly have more of a knack for it than me."
Reiner smiled again. It was a contrast from the man when she first met him; his unyielding words and hard gaze that let her know he would fight her if he had to, to the man who offered to relieve a bit of pain she felt.
"I'll wrap it up tomorrow," he said. "I'll look for more bandages before we set off."
"Okay." Val hoped he could hear the thankfulness in her voice. "You're still…" She lifted her hand to show him the grip he still had around her wrist.
"Oh." Dropping her hand, he went red again but didn't choke on his words this time. Val bit her lips to hide her amused smile. "Sorry."
"Looks like you could use some sleep too," Val commented. "It'll be a long journey for all of us."
Reiner nodded and said nothing else. He moved back to his original spot and laid on his back, one arm pillowing his head while the other rested over his stomach.
Val pressed herself further into the corner and wrapped the cloak tighter around her body, pulling her bandana back over her nose, legs still stretched out. Having to sit with them pressed to her body, even if it preserved body warmth, wasn't worth the cramps she'd get in the morning.
She looked up and saw that Annie was watching her. Val met her gaze head-on and for a stretched moment, they simply stared at each other. Not a word nor a shift in expression passed between them. It wasn't until Annie trailed her eyes over Val's body that she felt herself breathe, but even then she felt frozen by the woman's eyes.
Annie let out a quiet hum and resumed staring into the fire, presumably finding whatever she was looking for, and Val relaxed. She pulled the hood further over her face and closed her eyes.