Warning! This chapter contains field surgery where someone is actually cut open and operated on. I avoid any indepth descriptions but if you feel as if that would make you uncomfortable then I suggest you skip the first part of this chapter. The sequence will end after these markings ****.
Chapter 13: The Uprising Part 3: Collapse
"Is she going to die?" asks Armin, eyes filled with emotion.
"Not if I can help it," replies Hange. She's bending over Mikasa, who is still managing to breathe sporadically. "Oh no," murmurs Hange as she undoes Mikasa's shirt to examine the wound.
"What?" I ask. I'm trying to stay calm, but seeing one of my oldest friends bleeding to death isn't exactly a calming experience.
"She suffered severe damage to her intestinal organs; there's a lot of internal bleeding."
"Is there anything you can do?" asks Armin.
"I'm not actually medical specialist," explains the Captain, "We had a medic assigned to us of course Arnold Hunt, but he was killed at the start of the battle. If we were in an actually surgery I'd still have decent enough chances to save her but out here." Hange shakes her head, "I've got no way of performing effective surgery on her."
"Does that mean?"
"Not necessarily. I can still try but I'm not making any promises." She stands up and looks at the assembled soldiers. "I need some of you to start a fire so we can boil some water. I'll also need some of you to rip portions of your clothing off for bandages, so make sure they're clean parts. Also, is anyone's got any alcohol on them we need it now." One of the men looks a little sheepish and takes out a flask. "Oh thank God!" exclaims Hange, "I needed something to knock her out with and this should be perfect. I'll overlook the fact that it's against regulations to have it on you just this once all right?" The man nods and hurries off to help search for firewood.
Hange turns to face me and Armin. "All right, we don't have any sort of surgical tools out here so we're going to have to improvise. We already have excellent cutting blades so that takes away the need for a scalpel, but I'm going to need a clean work space if you can find one and well as something to act as a needle and thread. Go, move!" She turns away and bends back over Mikasa, looking more closely at the open wound.
"I'll handle the needle and thread," says Armin, "You go find somewhere clean we can put her. Also, the First Captain will probably need water so I suggest you keep your eyes open for a water source as well."
"Yes sir," I acknowledge before dashing off.
"I thought I told you not to call me sir!" I hear Armin exclaim from behind me. I shake my head with a sigh and run on.
Two minutes later and I'm back. "Captain Hange," I gasp, "there's a small fresh water spring surrounded by stone only a few minutes from here. There's a good smooth piece of rock we can lay her on just next to it."
"Perfect," says Hange. "Jean, Ymir, how's that stretcher coming?"
"We're ready now," announces Jean. He and Ymir have improvised a stretcher by tying four jackets to a pair of long branches by their sleeves. They hastily carry it over and set it down next to Mikasa. Jean's emotion is so evident on his face it looks like he's on the verge of tears. I'd always thought it a little bit ironic that while Jean was the one who loved Mikasa, Mikasa only cared about someone who'd never even given her a romantic eye.
"Okay then, Matthias take her legs," instructs Hange, "Jean her arms. Ymir, I want you to try and keep her middle as steady as possible; the last thing we need is for that bullet to be moved around more than it needs to be." I nod and move around to grasp Mikasa by the ankles. Jean very carefully takes her wrists and Ymir slips her hand underneath her back and waist. "Three, two, one up," orders the Captain. We lift Mikasa in a single clean motion and set her down again on the improvised stretcher. She lets out a slight groan of pain as we move her, but nothing more.
"All right then, Jean and Ymir you're stretcher bearers. Matthias I want you to run on ahead of us and try to scrub that rock you told us about. Get it as clean as you can."
"Yes sir," I say and set off at a run, careful not to run so fast as to leave the others behind. It takes longer to reach the spring than it did for me on my own since I was able to run faster, so two minutes later Mikasa is set down on the now sparkling stone. Her face looks frighteningly pale to my eyes, and her chest is only rising and falling very slightly.
"They should be finished with the fire by now," says Hange turning to us. "Go and get your bottles filled with boiled water and get back her as fast as you can. We all nod and sprint off. We meet Armin on the way back, carrying a bundle of some kind. There isn't time to see what he's improvising for thread though. We find that Historia and Sasha have already started boiling the water inside their own flasks, and we quickly exchange bottles once they're done.
Just before we leave I look up to see a group of horsemen heading our way. They're enshrouded in green cloaks and my heart leaps as I realise that they're Scouts. We don't have time to stay and great them though, instead we sprint back towards the spring where Hange is waiting. When we get there Jean immediately turns pale and looks away. Ymir grimaces and I find myself transfixed, but not in a good way.
Hange is bending over the now senseless Mikasa, blood all over her hands. She's made a straight cut down Mikasa's stomach and is now carefully trying to push aside her innards to reach the bullet. She doesn't look up as we arrive. Then her hands close around something she gingerly withdraws her hand. Clutched in her fingers is a small dark ball of metal, covered in clots of blood. The Captain sets it down and then turns back to the grisly visage. I can see that her face is full of concentration, but it also has a white tinge in it I'm not used to.
'I never thought she'd have a problem cutting someone open. Perhaps humans are different from titans, or perhaps it's the stress of the moment.' Either way Hange looks decidedly uncomfortable. I feel even worse myself as I kneel down beside her. "I-is there anything I can do?" I manage to ask.
Hange looks up at me surprised. "Just be ready to hand me things as I ask for them," she says, her voice a little shaky. "You two leave the water here and go get some more!" she tells Jean and Ymir, who look only too happy to leave.
It's just then that I remember Armin. I look around the spring to see him sitting with his back to the operation and his head in his hands. I open my mouth to say something but Hange cuts me off, "don't lose focus on the task at hand. He'll be fine, now pay attention." I nod.
"Shard," orders Hange, holding out her hand expectantly. Confused I look over the array of improvised bits and pieces. Seeing a thin broken sliver of metal I pick it up and hand it to her. "Our Corporal's idea for a needle," she explains. I can't bring myself to look directly at the surgery as Hange pinches and pokes at Mikasa's organs. "Thread." "Shard again." "Thread again." "Shard for the last time." "Thread to finish it off."
Hange finally draws the flesh back together again with the final strands of cotton, drawn I suppose from Armin's shirt. She then finishes off wrapping several lengths of improvised bandage around Mikasa's waist. "There," sighs Hange, "I cleaned up everything on my way out and now she's been put back together again. I just hope it holds long enough."
"So, she's going to live?" I ask.
"Maybe," says Hange, biting her lip. "I can't promise you anything though."
A day later and I'm slumped in a wooden chair around a table. A small amount of light filters in through the single window in the next room, but apart from that the room is dim. Captain Hange sits at the head of the table with her head in her hands, while Levi leans against the wall. His face is shrouded by the lack of light and this gives him a particularly menacing look. Armin, Historia, Victor and another Scout by the name of Harold who's acting as Captain of the 4th company are all seated around the table.
"First Captain Hange?" prompts Victor. Hange lets out a groan and raises her head to face the rest of us.
"As of now it's Commander Hange, Captain Victor," she says gloomily, putting particular emphasis on the words commander and captain.
"Sir?" asks Victor in surprise.
"Major-General Erwin Smith has been arrested for treason against the crown."
We all stare at her in a stunned silence. "W-Why?" I ask.
"Because our enemies have total control over this stupid situation that's why!" snaps Hange. She sighs and her voice returns to its normal level. "All we know is that he's currently being held and that the entirety of the Survey Corps has been officially disbanded. As of now all members of the Scouts who do not report into high command for processing within the next two days are to be considered enemies of the crown."
"Well then," grunts Levi, "this should give you the perfect opportunity to play at outlaws in the forest then shouldn't it."
"That's no way to talk to your superior Levi," says Hange in a board voice.
"So what do we do now?" asks Harold.
"I don't know. We've lost Eren and half of the Regiment is already custody. I can't see any way of getting out of this mess now."
"That's not true," pipes up Armin. "We still have Matthias and Historia. We can still try to fight this."
"I guess that's what the Commander would want us to do isn't it? All right then," Hange pushes herself to her feet, "from this moment forward all members of the Survey Corps who do not wish to turn their back on Humanity are now traitors to the crown. We are starting a coup."
There's silence for a few moments then, "so, how do we do that?" asks Victor.
"IIIIII'm not sure," admits Hange. "First things first, we need to try and find out where they've taken Eren. Does anyone remember anything that might be useful to us in that department?"
"Actually, I think I might," I say. "The scarred man in the long coat said that they were take him to the Fox's Head. I don't know what that means though."
"It's a tavern," says Levi suddenly. "It's in the undercity of Karanese District."
We all look at him in surprise. "How do you know that?" asks Hange.
"Because it's where Bruce Yeager and I used to conduct business from."
"Yeager?!" gasps Armin.
"Yes. I don't know what relation he is to Eren, if indeed he's related to him at all."
"When you say conduct business..." says Hange, with a circular motion of her hand.
Levi sighs. "I mean it was back in the days before I joined the military. Bruce, Isobel, Markus and I were some of the best thugs for hire around about that time. Clients would meet us there and tell us what they wanted done. If they wanted something stolen I was their man, Bruce liked to take care of the rubbing out jobs though. He used to laugh when I refused to do them, called me soft. One day I decided that I'd show him and get in on the latest murder job.
"It was a little higher rate than usual and the client was one rich son of bitch. The job was pretty simple: there was a rising star in the Scout Regiment who was causing too much unrest. We were supposed to shut him up. The client was very particular about how it was done, not such a strange thing our line of work. He wanted it to be done outside of the Walls so it looked like he was eaten by a titan. That meant we needed to enlist and do the job from the inside.
"Normally that kind of thing would take three years of training, but our client pulled some strings and got us in within a year. Of course for a standard job Bruce and I wouldn't have spent a whole year preparing. It was the money; it was ten times better than anything we'd been offered before. If we pulled this one off we'd be rich enough to spend the rest of our lives without lifting a finger. Bruce wanted it because it was more money, I wanted it because it would allow me to get the hell out of that shit hole. It's kind of weird I guess but all I wanted at that point was to be able to find some nice remote spot and spend the rest of my life away from conflict.
"Once we were in the rest of the job seemed simple. We'd both excelled during training so much that we got assigned to the target's personal squad for the next recon mission. We ended up separated from the group and everything was in place to carry out the last part of the mission. Bruce said he'd do it if I didn't have the guts. I told him to shut up and get out of the way. But when the time came, when I was holding the blade against his throat," Levi lets out a sigh, "I couldn't kill Erwin."
"Erwin!" everyone exclaims all at once.
"Yes. Erwin was the target; he'd been making too much noise so some fat pig up at the capital wanted him dead. He'd been rattling on so much about the future Humanity and a soldier's duty that in the end he won me around without even realising he needed to. Bruce told me get of the way and let him finish the job, but I wouldn't let him. We fought in and I gave three presents to remember me by." Levi runs his hand down the side of his face. "I beat him, and I knew right then and there I should kill him. It was what ought to be done, it would be justice for all the blood he had on his hands. But I couldn't even kill him."
The Captain shakes his head. "I hesitated and he stuck me, clean through my right leg. It hasn't been the same since then actually." I flash back to Levi's bad landing during the fight with the Female Titan and the damage to his leg. "He ran off into the wilderness and I never saw him again until today. Part of me hoped he'd died out there, even though I never believed it."
"It sounds like this Bruce Yeager is working for Riess then," says Hange. "And if he is going back to that old hangout of yours, perhaps we can find some answers there."
"That isn't everything though," says Armin. Everyone turns to look at. "You see, I studied the old language for a little while when I was in training, and I recognise the word riess. It means giant."
"Armin," I say, my voice very heavy, "what exactly are you saying?"
"I don't know yet, but I'm beginning to fear for Eren's continued safety. You told us that Reiner and Bertolt said that whoever you were being taken too would probably kill Eren."
"Do you think this Riess character is the one pulling all the strings? The one those two were taking them to?" asks Victor.
"Not as such. Rob Riess couldn't have been the one they were taking them to because from what we can tell he's here inside the Walls. I think there may be a partnership of some kind between an entity outside of the Walls and Riess. It seems like a bit of stretch I know, but when you think about it it does make sense. The factions within the Walls have all been moving towards the same goal that our enemy outside of the Walls has: the acquisition of Eren, Matthias and now Historia. The fact that they both seem to have the same goals and that Rod Riess seems to have been directly affected by the actions of Eren and Matthias's fathers several years ago doesn't seem to me to be a coincidence. I believe that if Riess is not our enemy, then he's being directly controlled by the one who is."
"So what exactly are you saying we should do?" asks Hange.
"We have to find out who Riess is. We need to know what his motives are and why he has such power over the government. We'd need someone from the inside to give us answers for that."
"We can try going through the Wall Cult first. Pastor Nick wouldn't give us anything direct before, but I may be able to at least give me a hint now that things have changed so much. At any rate it's a starting point."
"We should also find some way of going after Riess directly. Perhaps we could try to infiltrate his household, or at least have him shadowed."
"Are we also going to go down to the undercity?" asks Levi.
"Yes of course. I'll put your squad on that Levi; not only have you guys proved to be very capable in a crisis but Matthias and Historia are actually less vulnerable down there. People keep themselves to themselves and aren't likely to be willing to do those up on top any favours."
"Maybe, but they could be bought without too much trouble," cautions Levi.
"That maybe is better than the garantee we have up here. Everyone in every city and town up here is on the lookout for all of you. I want somewhere they can't find you."
"All right then. In the long run what's our overall goal?"
"Either prove our innocence or, depose the king."
"Depose the king!" I splutter. "We can't do that; the nation would fall into anarchy."
"That's why we need to try and keep to Option A if we can." Hange lets out a sigh, stretches then yawns. "Well then, I guess it's time to begin our little uprising."