**written by: blueTshirts**

12:04 AM

To be fair, I haven't held a shotgun in quite a while. It makes me kinda nervous, I don't want to be the one to screw up and get someone hurt. On top of that, I'm the only one with a gun between me, Reiner, Sasha, and Connie. The pressure is on me to protect everyone.

Let's just hope we don't run into the psycho.

As I'm sitting on the floor against the kitchen island fiddling with the gun, I glance over at Sasha, Connie and Reiner all in the living room hunched behind the couch. I can barely hear their whispers, but I notice the obvious fear in Sasha's eyes and the determination in Reiners. He is trying to talk them through the plan another time, just to make sure that we can get this right and so I don't have to use a gun.

Jean and Marco are closer to me as they're sitting against the kitchen cabinets next to the back sliding door. The pair say nothing, except hold each other's hands and watch the trio in the living room along with me.

Sasha and Connie probably have the best bet out of any of us, even the ones that are staying in the cabin. All they have to do is get to the car and speed like hell off the Jaeger property, the rest of us have to do the dirty work. But I can't blame them for being terrified, we're all terrified.

I notice Reiner's head poke over the back of the couch at me. He gives a subtle smile. It makes my stomach churn.

They're ready.

I take a moment to breathe and then scoot myself across the cabin floor to get to the front door. Unfortunately, the front door doesn't have nearly as many windows as the back door. The only windows I have to check if the coast is clear are little half foot tiles on either side of the hard wooden door. Plus, with the electricity still out, there's no porch light. The killer could be hiding right behind the door for all I know.

Reiner, Sasha, and Connie come up from the living room with their heads low and crouch behind me. Reiner rests his hand on my back softly, his thumb brushes over my spine to try and give me some sense of calm. It doesn't work. I know Reiner, he's just as terrified as everyone else, if not more so.

"Can't see much," I whisper so low that I almost can't hear myself. Reiner nods and lowers his head to Sasha.

"Wait until I've waved at you to come out," he says. Sasha doesn't argue, but I can hear her breath as she fails to remain level headed. I don't blame her, I don't blame anyone, I'm astounded that I'm as calm as I am. I don't think the reality of the situation has really hit me yet.

I take another look outside. Darkness. The faint reflections of moonlight off car hoods is all I have to give me an idea of what we're running into. I sigh in frustration.

I give Reiner a look. He knows that this is shit. We're about to be blind dogs running into the sea and expecting a shark to not be around. Stupid. Of course Reiner had to sign up for this part. His recklessness is disguised as confidence and born from constant uncertainty. I knew Reiner was going to jump at the first moment to become a walking target. In his head, he can pretend that he's doing it for his friends, for their greater safety, he can die for them and earn an honorable death. But behind all that is a hidden relief that maybe someone else can pull the trigger on him rather than him doing it himself.

How the hell am I supposed to get through to him?

The answer is: I can't. So all that's left for me to do is protect my boyfriend from himself. In this case, that means going into the middle of the woods at the dead of night to become bait for a murderer. You do what you can for the people you love, I guess.

"Let's go," I mumble to him. He nods looking back at Jean and Marco to make sure they're paying attention for our sign. As if they wouldn't be.

Sasha squirms in front of me to grab the doorknob, unlock it, twist it impossibly slow and open the door for us. When the door opens just a crack, I feel a breeze of cold air escape into the cabin. Maybe it's running from the killer too.

I stand just as Reiner does. He goes to place his body in front of mine to exit first but I stick my foot out before he can. Idiot. He gives me a leveling look, I give it back.

Without any time to argue, I push in front of my boyfriend and step out onto the porch, shotgun ready. I pause for a moment and squint at the surrounding land to see any misplaced shadows. I don't see anything, but it would be pretty stupid if the killer was just loitering around the cars waiting for us.

A thought runs through my head to check the back seats of the cars before we get into them.

I take another step forward. My shoulders tense as the cold night wraps up my body. Reiner's inches behind me with his hand on the small of my back. Then, without any sign of anxiety or care, Reiner steps around and in front of me to start down the couple of steps off the porch.

"Fuck," I breathe. I follow after him.

Reiner, pretending to be careful of his surroundings and wareful of a possible killer lurking around, peers around the side of the cabin. Wind ruffles his coat and blows my hair into my eyes. I step up to Reiner and look down the sides of the building just like he did. My eyes linger on the fake skeletons in the porch and in the front lawn, the Halloween decorations don't seem so innocent now.

I take a step further to walk carefully down half the gravel pathway to make sure the coast is clear for Sasha and Connie. Lightning bugs flicker in and out of the darkness,

leaves ruffle through the long blades of grass, and a wind chime clinks softly together behind us.

Nothing moves beyond the darkness, not yet at least. I figure it's the best we have. I look at Reiner who's made it to my side, we exchange simultaneous shrugs. Reiner waves a hand back at the front door. Sasha and Connie join us on the gravel pathway much quieter and slower then Reiner and I were. I guess it's best for the pair that's the most noisy to play bait after all.

Reiner pats Connie's shoulder, I give a lingering look at Sasha. The two cling to each other. Both plainly display faces full of uncertainty, but they power through it. I believe in them. We've already said our goodbye's, I know that they'll do everything they can to bring us back some help.

I just hope the rest of us don't fuck it up in the process.

Reiner and I head to my car as Connie and Sasha head to theirs. They stay as low to the ground as they can as they weave between the cars. My stomach lurches when I remember that we should look in the backseat. I forgot to tell them. I hope there aren't any surprises for them.

Surprisingly, I don't feel afraid. The killer hasn't shown his face yet and if he does, he'll get it blown away. I don't care what Armin says. That guy killed Historia, he deserves whatever's coming to him.

I make sure to continue to keep an eye out as we come up to my car. But my throat closes up as soon as I see it.

My truck hugs the ground having dropped a few inches in height. The tires. They're all slashed and my truck sits on useless silver rims. We're supposed to make a distraction for the killer and then go pick up Jean, Marco, and Ymir. How are we supposed to drive around rough, unpaved terrain without tires?

Reiner and I freeze as we look at each other. The sense of peace I had breaks as fear cripples my confidence.

Reiner reaches out and grabs my arm, I stumble towards him. "He's onto us, he's probably watching right now."

My breath hitches and I make a feverish look over my shoulder as my vision starts to tunnel.

"What do we do?" I whisper feeling naked all the sudden.

"At least his attention is still on us, that was the point right? We just have to make sure Horse Face and Freckles have time to get to the Love Barn," Reiner says, barely any fear crosses his features.

"What about-?"

Reiner and I both freeze when we hear a car start and a horrible screeching sound like metal scraping on rock.

As if on instinct, we bolt it towards Sasha and Connie's car. There's no way that the killer wasn't listening. He knows we're out here. My ribs feel like they're rattling with the pounding of my heart. I don't care how loud my feet are as they hit the ground and I don't worry about my breathing coming out in gasping breaths.

We skid to a halt in front of the jeep, all four of its tires slashed like ours. Connie is frozen in the driver's seat with his eyes wide, and his face dark. Both of his hands clench the steering wheel with a white knuckle grip. Sasha sits in the passenger seat with a hand covering her mouth and tears welling in her eyes. They know we're fucked.

I watch Reiner bounce on the balls of his feet for a moment like he's hyping himself up for a race, and then break it to Connie's side of the car. I watch him rip open the door press a button on the inside of the car.

A sudden alarm squeals from the car in loud blaring bursts. I flinch back at the headlights as they flash at me in the middle of the dark. I want to scream at Reiner and slap him for being so clumsy but I remain still in panic.

Reiner proceeds to yank Connie out of the car by his shirt, and pull him around the front towards me. Sasha is quick to scramble out of the car and meet the three of us in the strobing spotlight.

"Go back to the house," Reiner says to the pair loud enough to hear over the alarms. Connie snaps out of his haze and starts shaking his head wildly.

"No way we're leaving you guys," Connie says louder, the fear making his way to his voice. Sasha looks up at me with such a terrified look on her face that it makes me want to cry with her.

"Don't be a fucking idiot-"

"What the fuck about you-?"

"Do you want to fucking die-"

I ignore the two bickering and lunge forward to grab Sasha's hand. We only have one choice at this point.

The killer knew we'd try to go for our cars. All the tires are slashed. There's no way for us to escape or to call for help. The killer is smart. It's almost like he's playing a game with us. He must be watching, there is no way that he isn't. He knows we're at the cars. If we escape back into the house that would only lead to luring him inside to more people, and also leave Jean and Marco alone in the woods.

So with no refuge inside the cabin and no escape in our cars the last option that's left is to run.

With Sasha's hand in mine I tell the fighting idiots as calm as I can, "Run."

I turn and start pulling Sasha towards the woods past the side of the cabin. She doesn't pull away and runs with me willingly. Reiner and Connie follow without an argument, it's not like I gave them the option to.

We don't have time to play hero or victim. We don't have time for petty arguments. We don't have time to fuck up. We have to be smart and be quick or we're dead. And I refuse to see any more of my friends die.

We run towards the line of trees. I make a careful look to my side where I know Marco and Jean have probably already run towards the barn. We just need to lead the killer on a wild goose chase until he can't find any of us.

God I hope this works.

Once we break through the treeline and into the woods, it's harder to run as fast. Darkness envelops us and we can barely see our own feet. Sasha maintains her grip on my hand and I hear Connie cursing to himself behind us.

Only a few yards into the woods does Reiner reach out and grab my bicep and bring us to a slamming halt.

"What the fuck are you doing-" he begins.

I stop him before he can start up with his shit again.

"Don't fucking try that right now. Don't be an idiot and act like you can take this guy on your own. We have to stick together," I say with my heavy breathing making each of my words more difficult to say. Connie reaches out and grabs Sasha. She lets go of my hand and clings to Connie.

Reiner glares at me with his jaw clenched. Telling him he's wrong isn't going to help. Telling him he's stupid for acting this way isn't going to help either. I need him to trust me.

"We need you Reiner. You're acting like you can handle this on your own and you'll be the hero, but I know that you know that's not true and that you think this is a suicide mission. You're ready to fucking get killed-" I choke on my own words. I know Reiner's been having an awful time lately, a really hard fucking time but there's nothing I can do about it. I know that he thinks he's a burden to everyone around him, even me. I can't imagine how he could think that way, because I would die if anything happened to him. I need him more than he needs me.

I grab his jacket collar. "You can't die on me, okay? I need you. I need you so fucking bad and if you get killed for being reckless, then I have no idea what I'm going to do. Please, stay with me."

I'm crying, I know that. But there's no use in focusing on that. I'm exhausted, terrified, and damn near to going insane if my boyfriend pulls another trick that's going to get him killed.

"Please," I say again.

Reiner breaks his act and leans forwards to let out a shaky breath into my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he says.

"Don't be, I love you, but we have to go, okay?" I say pressing a kiss into his sweaty hair.

He nods. And we're off again. We pull out a couple of phone flashlights and continue in a misdirectional run through the woods. None of us know where we're going. Hopefully we'll end up at the barn but there's no way to tell.

I hear Sasha crying softly behind me. It breaks my heart. She doesn't deserve this, Connie doesn't deserve this. None of them deserve this. This was all just supposed to be a fun weekend.

We all freeze at the crystal clear sound of a rifle firing in the distance. Icicles spike from my feet all the way to my head. It almost makes me light headed. A gunshot. Close enough that the echoing sound reverberates off the trees around us.

The rifle. Marco had it when we left.

"Is that-?" Sasha starts but Reiner shushes her.

Voices. Yelling.

The four of us try to quiet our own breathing to listen to the woods. To the voices in the distance. We wait. None of us say but we're all waiting for either more gunshots or final screams.

What if we failed? We had one job and that was to distract the killer long enough for Jean and Marco to find Ymir and make it to the Barn. But what if the killer's already gotten to them? What if they're already dead?

I feel my knees wobble and my throat thicken with tears.

"Lets keep going, those shots weren't far, we should be close," Reiner says. I nod, although unsure of myself. Reiner runs his hand down my arm and leans down to try and catch my eyes. "They need us, right?"

I look at him for a moment, then back at Sasha and Connie. Sasha looks like shit. Connie clings to her with the same fear that I feel.

They need us. We're here to protect each other. We can do this.

I nod at Reiner. "Let's go."