Chapter 36 - Kill or Be Killed

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Levi

The hiss of gas and the slither of ODM cables filled Levi's ears as he zipped through the narrow alleyways of Trost. Sweat beaded his brow as he tucked and rolled, relying on his catlike reflexes to see him safely through the urban forest in one piece while Kenny taunted and chased him. As he swung between two houses he felt a bullet glance off his head, but pure adrenaline masked any pain he might've felt. He daren't stop or slow down once, even as blood began dripping into his eyes. As he cart-wheeled over a wagon, he caught sight of a saloon up ahead. It would be the perfect place to hide and decide what to do next. He shot a hook into the dark interior, hoping that he hadn't just impaled someone, and blasted in through the slatted wooden doors seconds later, landing smoothly on the bar in a crouching position.
"It's Levi! Of the Scouts!" one of the customers exclaimed, failing to notice as the contents of his sandwich slid into his lap.
Levi remained where he was for a moment, analysing his surroundings and keeping an eye on the door as he thought.
Shit... If this keeps up I'm going to lose Anya, our squad, Eren, and Historia too...
He reached up to assess the wound on his head and tsked when he saw the blood that came away on his fingers, at last beginning to feel the accompanying pain. He froze when he heard Kenny right outside. The bastard had managed to follow him after all.
"Ain't that the damnedest thing?! I smell a filthy rat coming from this bar... Come out, you little rodent..." he jibed in his Underground twang.
He burst into the saloon seconds after Levi had ducked behind the bar.
"FOUND YA! The law has come to exterminate the vermin! BANG, BANG!"
Levi tensed, willing the patrons to keep their mouths shut, though...how much longer could he let this go on for? Anya and the others were still out there fighting to survive. Better Kenny was in there with him rather than off hunting them.
"The hell?!" Kenny exclaimed. "Ain't you here?!"
Levi grit his teeth and leant his head back against the hard wood of the bar from where he sat on the floor.
"Right here, Kenny. It's been a while. Never thought you'd still be alive. What happened to slaughtering the Military Police? Now you're one of them?"
"Adults do plenty of things a kid like you can't understand," Kenny bit back. "Oops, my bad. You're just so tiny, it's hard to believe you're older now. I been looking forward to seeing you in action. Never thought all those tricks I taught you would be helping you out like this. Didn't I ever tell you what happens to a cornered rat? No matter which way you try to run, you'll get blasted from above." He paused, and Levi braced himself. "Hey, Levi..."
Moments later, a chair was lobbed over the bar. Bottle after bottle came crashing down in front of where Levi sat, splashing him with alcohol as he shielded his eyes from the shards.
"There's gotta be a reason you became a Scout, and I think I know what it is," Kenny continued. "We had no choice but to survive in that garbage dump. It took all we had each day to keep livin'. And when we found out how big the world really was, you can bet it hurt like hell. But something saved us. We'd found something we wanted to do. It's that simple. It's simple, but the fact is, the only thing that made our lives fulfilling was finding hobbies."
"Hobbies?" Levi asked, reaching up and carefully rotating an intact bottle on the shelf above so as to see Kenny's reflection. "So is blowing the heads off my team another hobby of yours?"
"Yup. To achieve my grand goals, I'll kill as much as I have to. You're no different; you kill when it benefits you, too."
Levi readied the shotgun that the saloon owner kept hidden under the bar. It was now or never.
"Yeah," he agreed.
Watching the reflection in the bottle, he whacked the gun up onto the counter behind him and pulled the trigger, blasting Kenny out of the saloon. He landed on his back with a dull thud, temporarily out cold, and Levi knew that he didn't have a moment to spare. He thrust the gun at the bartender, who took it with shaking hands, and jumped up onto the counter again.
"Thanks, old man."
As he raced along the bar he plucked up a chair and hurled it out of a side window, knowing that there would be others waiting outside. Sure enough, someone reduced it to nothing but splinters before it hit the ground. Levi flew out after it and shot one of his ODM hooks straight into the throat of his would-be killer. Others opened fire on him without mercy, and so he dragged the gurgling man along with him, using him as a shield as he ran up the next roof like the filthy rodent he supposed he was.

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