You sat there, disoriented. What now? Your horse ran away, you have no bomb to use against the female titan and you're barely conscious. What good would you be if you went inside the forest and took on the female titan as you are now?
"Hey, Clare." You mumbled, gaining her attention. "We packed numbing pills, right?"
"Sorry Johnson, we're not allowed to just take—"
"Give me." You growled at her, taking her aback. They already injected you with an energy boost shot, but with this much pain, you couldn't think straight.
You had an inkling any more dosage and uncertain combinations would kill you, but the gravity of the consequences have not yet kicked in.
"You know what morphine does to you—"
"Damn it Clare, just give it to me." You couldn't wait for her anymore and helped yourself through the boxes of syringes, with labels and color codes to indicate the contents of the syringe.
Without hesitation, you grabbed at least a couple of them, shook your gear to check and refill your gas range, and took off, taking one of the cart's horses with you.
"Phoebe, you shouldn't go inside! We have an order to stay away from the forest!" You heard Nanaba's nagging one last time, before you kicked the side of the horse and hurried off inside. Now that's what you call trees. As soon as the canopy covered you, there was this instant coolness in the air you can only feel in the early hours of the morning.
It was comparably darker inside too.
Wait, Nanaba?
"Johnson, wait!" What the hell? Your neck snapped almost immediately, your eyes widened upon realizing that Nanaba followed you inside. For fuck's sake, did Clara rat you out? To Nanaba no less? You groaned in frustration, riding faster, thinking that the speed and utter hopelessness will make her give up and hopefully report back instead .
Instead, she challenged you to a race.
"Johnson!" The trotting of horses behind you only got louder, indicating how close she was.
"Johnson we shouldn't be here!" Nanaba exclaimed. "Johnson! The order is to stay around the forest!" And it was nice of her to assume you're not doing this on purpose.
"Phoebe! I'm your senior and you'll listen—"
"Leave!" You abruptly pulling the reins, forcefully swerving the horse's neck and colliding with her horse. The neighs were the last thing that registered in your ears before the crash in the ground, with your groan in the background. The wind felt damp in your face, then a second later, the sensation of slimy, rough patch of moss rubbed into your cheek. Mud tasted like chalk and bitter, wild greens when you kissed the moistened ground. You expected pain in the extremes— you knew it was coming, but it surprisingly did not hurt as much.
Your senses were perfectly working— too perfect you thought you're high with a new drug.
Just what is this feeling? It's empowering.
You can feel the scarlet seeping from your bandages— hyper aware that your head injury must've reopened and you're in the verge of losing blood but the interesting part was, you can't feel any pain. You could feel the scalp and strands of hair in the bind of the bandage but it wasn't painful, at least, not entirely.
But now is not the time to be curious, Febe! A pregnant woman just fell from the horse!
Almost by instinct, you looked up, only to meet Nanaba's laid back, almost sleepy, hooded eyes with her hand stretched out. It took you a couple minutes to realize she knew what she was doing while you didn't, being the only reason that she survived a horse accident unscathed.
You heard her gear wheezed, a soft thump of her footsteps tickled your hearing.
"Wow," She stared at you with a suppressed smile, "Three years in the training corps and this is all you've got?" She chuckled, finally letting the humor she allegedly found.
"I'm not much in the brawn aspect, as you can see."
"You're aware of what you just—"
"I am," You dusted the stains in your bum, your sight straight on to her. "And you can punish me later," You paused, "If I'm still around."
"If you come with me now, I'm not going tell anyone and Clara didn't see anything." She looked at you dead in the eye, giving you a last chance to this best and final offer of safety. Heaven knows you wanted to go back to her and rest in the branches of the trees...
"I want to," You mumbled, giving her same intense stare. "But I still have something to do."
"I can't leave you here—"
"And I can't leave Petra alone—"
"Levi is with her, Phoebe. That man has balls to take accountability. He can protect her."
"I'm not underestimating Sir Levi or Petra, Nanaba." You stressed.
"Then why are—"
"Because—!" You stopped yourself before you could say more than what is necessary. You breathed out, composing another way of approaching things rather than telling a blatant lie. "Because we saw an abnormal. An intelligent abnormal."
You lost her, with that worry all over her face.
"Look," You struggled to not slur your words, sighing a great deal to stabilize the dull pounding of your head and that fast heartbeat, making you gasp for air.
"Normally, an abnormal eats and vomits the bodies right? This one bites them but don't eat them, she knows basic human movements— Clare saw it." Her expression turned from worry to utter horror.
"She took the cables and spinned it. No abnormal does that."
"Levi can protect his squad—"
"No, he can't." You dared cut your superior, "With Eren and whatever they're up to inside, I don't think he can. A-and— and..."
"And?" She soothed your back when the air was suddenly cut off, swirling your red, grainy vision. There was sudden weakness in your knees, you had to kneel, your palm felt tremors from the ground.
Followed by the wheezing of gears, and soldiers' distant suicidal cries.
She's here, and you're out of time.
"Get on the horse," You exhorted, hurriedly climbing one yourself. "Run— run!"
Your mind raced with thoughts. When is the best moment to show up? Your mind ran over the sequence of events that will take place in a short few moments. She's running in her titan form now, then she'll get caught up in Hange's traps, then Annie will escape after she cries for back-up and then...
"We need to catch up with Erwin!" Nanaba said loudly, "He needs to know what's coming for them!"
If you did that, you'll have just the right time to tell the commander that the female titan can harden her hands and nape, especially the ability to call and order other titans around.
But Erwin will be suspicious of your identity and you might never have the chance to go home.
So which one is it?
"Nanaba!" She looked at you at once. "How's your shooting?"
"Wha- of course, throwing gear hooks need precision!"
"Perfect!" You kicked the horse, now running in overdrive. "Keep up Nanaba! We need to reach Erwin before Levi Squad!"
"Why?!" You briefly glanced at her, and there was obvious discomfort in the way she rode the horse.
"How far before we reach the middle of the forest, do you know?!"
"About 10!"
"Switch to gear?!" She shook her head to wipe the concern in your face.
"I'm okay!" Nanaba looked back and you looked where she looked, the wheezing of gears were louder now, and so were the stomps of huge feet. And in the middle of the trail...
"Is that...?" Nanaba's expression was taken over by horror so visible her shoulders tensed and raised, her muscles rigid in fear.
"Johnson, on three we ride at three o'clock! We should go off trail! This is too dangerous!" You gave her a nod of approval, kicking the horse in the side and swerving the reins to the florous part of the forest, the shrubs and low branches of trees whipping your face.
But Nanaba kept her eyes forward. Darkened and focused, the will to live through this hell burned alive. She hunched over her horse, her legs tight with visible anxiety, the grip in the leather reins turned her fists gray and blue.
"Why did you ask if I can shoot?" Nanaba spoke in a quiet, careful tone. You were in parallel with each other now, horses speed decreased but in par.
"I thought you could aim at the neck!"
"With an arrow? That's your plan?"
"No!" You spouted within milliseconds, "I thought you could do that with a gas tank!" Nanaba glanced at you in disbelief.
"Hear me out, alright?" You appealed, "We could attach a hook beside a tampered tank, aim at her neck and let the her steam trigger the tank and—"
"The gas explodes!" Nanaba finished your sentence for you. "What the hell— that's brilliant!" Nanaba flashed a wide grin. "But why the neck? Why not the nape?"
"Because if she's like Eren, whoever is inside should have some information the corps can use, right? We need them alive!" Nanaba's nods started slowly, to convincingly fast.
"So, how do we do it if we're running away? We don't have extra gears!"
"Use my gear! I'll use my horse, you fire from this side!" You tossed her your reins, and began tying the cable and the tank together.
Realizing what it meant, Nanaba's eyes widened in alarm.
LEVI ACKERMAN
"So, how do we do it if we're running away? We don't have extra gears!"
"Use my gear! I'll use my horse, you fire from this side!"
"Are you insane?! If you lose even one side of your gear outside the walls— you're as good as dead!"
I thought my ears failed me when I fired the sound flare, because I swear I heard Phoebe's voice right after I flicked the trigger. Maybe I am losing it, considering this chase is putting everyone on edge.
"What are your jobs? Do they involve getting overwhelmed by fickle emotions?" I briefly looked back, not believing that I have to remind them yet again.
"That shouldn't be the case, isn't it? We're here to make sure he's not getting a single scratch on him, even if it costs us our lives." I whipped the reins and looked ahead.
"So we'll flee, got that?"
Yeager kid had a talent of commentating what was happening behind our backs, as if we couldn't hear every wheezing of their gears, croaks and battle cries which abruptly stop followed by a loud thud of their bodies stamped in a nearby tree.
"Another person died!" The kid bellowed, gritting my teeth when he said the rest of his litany.
"We might've been able to save him! There's one more fighting! If we go now, we can make it—"
"Eren! Face forward and keep going!" Petra exclaimed desperately.
"Are you telling me to turn a blind eye?! You want me to run, leaving a comrade to die?!"
"YES, THAT'S RIGHT! OBEY THE CAPTAIN'S ORDER!"
Hange told us one time of a legend about the trees, that they grow to be this big because the dead soldier's blood in the trees want their comrades to stand a chance fighting off the titans. These heights give the soldiers a place to maneuver, and yet we can't do a single thing for them.
Not when they're alive, and even more so when dead.
"What are you trying to do, Eren?!" Petra called him out, snapping me from my thoughts. I briefly turned to my shoulder, and I swear I saw two figures riding alongside us, caped in green cloaks. Were the soldiers not allowed inside the forest?
Erwin and the others should've reached the end by now, and if those aren't them, then it's safe to assume two things:
Two soldiers broke the order; or
There are traitors crawling in the Survey corps, as Hange said. Looks like there are more than one we'd have to catch at the end of this expedition.
I kept them in my periphery. In the layers of noise I can make out shouted conversations between... women.
Women. I gritted my teeth. That pitch and feisty, know-it-all manner of talking can only belong to someone I know. Funny, if a soldier would break the chain of command, there's at least one female person I know who will.
Phoebe Johnson.
So, is Phoebe a traitor?