A/N: This story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world.
This chapter contains bad language, blood and violent acts.
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The cool and moist morning air was being greeted with the first signs of the rising sun. Levi leaned his back against the gray minivan as he waited for his last team members to appear. Gunther, Oluo, Eld, Reiner and Annie were already there, doing the final preparations before they were going to leave. Erwin was also there. He stood between the two cars, looking at the long road ahead of him.
Levi's thoughts were interrupted by the approaching voices of the last members of the team. "Tch, damn brats, always making us wait all day." Levi straightened his back.
Mikasa, Jean and Eren arrived at the spot, putting their few personal things at the back of the dark green Mazda. The trunk slammed close with a soft thud and then the team gathered together in the space between the cars.
"I wish you all good luck." Erwin said, looking at each person in turns. "I hope to see you all back here soon, with Hanji."
Everyone was quiet, silently nodding and looking at each other.
"Lets go." Levi said after a few moments, and they all started to scatter around.
"Who's driving?" Jean asked as he walked towards the smaller Mazda and looked at the keys on the hood.
"I hope for everyone's sake, that not you." Eren mocked him for his previous actions behind the wheel, as he stepped inside the minivan.
"Come and say that to my face, Jaeger!" Jean hissed and yanked his angrily shaking hand to point the ground in front of him.
"I'm driving." Eld said as he walked past Jean and took the keys from the hood. He dropped in the driver's seat, while Annie sat in the back-seat behind him.
Annie, Eld and Jean placed themselves in the Mazda, while Mikasa, Eren, Gunther, Oluo and Reiner stuffed themselves on the minivan. Levi was quietly making his way to the car. He opened the door and was about to step in, when Erwin called his name, making him freeze his movements.
"Don't worry about (Name), I'll look after her." Erwin said, revealing that he had noticed there was something going on between Levi and you.
Levi stayed still for a few more moments, letting Erwin's words sink into his head, before he sat in the car and closed the door. "Let's go." Levi pointed his words to Eld, who then started the car.
Erwin stood on his spot, watching the two cars slowly gaining their speed on the silent road, approaching the curve in the distance and disappearing behind the trees.
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The both cars had stopped on the road next to each other.
"What do we do now?" Jean asked from the front seat, looking at the dead men scattered widely around the road not so far from them.
"Do we kill them?" Gunther asked from the driver's seat, resting his elbow over the opened window.
"Let's try not to waste our bullets with these bastards." Levi said and crammed himself into the gap between the front seats. "We'll drive forward slowly, hoping that they don't show any interest to the cars. We attack only if we have no other choice, understood?" he said loudly towards the opened car window next to Jean, so that the people in the second car could hear him too.
Gunther nodded in his vehicle and rolled the window close, driving ahead again. They started moving forward slow and steady, sitting on their seats in silence and holding their weapons ready.
"Don't you dare look at me like that, bitch." Jean hissed quietly at the dead woman on the road, who had turned her body towards the car as they came closer.
"Shut up." Eld whispered behind the wheel, looking forward and trying to focus on driving around the dead people on the road.
"They're looking at us" Annie stated quietly from her seat as she looked outside of her window, seeing the dead people turning their heads towards the moving vehicles among them.
"We're fine." Levi assured, looking towards the minivan, which was driving on the road a little further from them.
A couple of dead men moved closer to the road, being curious about the minivan. One of them bumped his body against the side of the car as his staggering steps took him too close. Levi watched through the windshield how the people moved restlessly in the minivan, as they were trying to see where the dead man had disappeared. He had fallen to the ground on his back.
"You disgusting thing." Eld muttered and turned the steering-wheel on the right, in order to go around the abandoned car blocking the lane they were driving on.
The car moved closer to the man on the ground. Seeing no other option, Eld slowly and surely drove over it. The car made slight ups and downs, with a disgusting crunching sound being heard from below when the dead man's bones crushed under the car's weight. The choking growls of the dead man caused the other ones suddenly get more and more interested about the moving objects. The woman, who they had already passed them, suddenly appeared back at the window next to Annie's and bumped her body loudly against the car.
Annie backed away from the window with a gasp, but recovered soon from the sudden scare and pointed her gun towards the glass. The woman opened her mouth and made a screeching breath against the window, scratching the glass with her dirty nails as she followed the slowly moving car. The other infected soon followed her growling and started speeding up their way towards the cars.
"We need to move." Levi said sharply, glaring at the disgusting looking woman behind the window.
Another dead person bumped loudly against the window next to Jean, making him almost jump in the air since he was focused on looking at the back-seat.
"S-Shit." Jean's voice hitched as he looked at the rotting man with wide eyes.
The man smashed his hand against the glass loudly. Levi looked at the car ahead of them. It was also having a couple of dead men around it.
"We have to go, now!" Levi repeated himself loudly, looking around the car.
Eld started pressing the gas pedal with short but strong stomps, causing the car engine growl a bit louder each time they inched forward, trying to urge the first car to hustle.
--------in the minivan--------
Eren, Mikasa and Reiner turned around in the back-seats once they heard the odd roars behind them.
"What the hell is he doing?" Eren frowned as he looked at Jean, who was waving his hands forward and clearly yelling something, but they couldn't hear him. "Should we go faster?" Eren reasoned from his gestures and turned to look at Gunther who was driving the car.
"I'm trying..." Gunther said through his teeth as he was maneuvering between the abandoned cars and pushing their way through the dead people on the road.
"There's more of them!" Oluo informed, pointing at the forest on their front right.
More dead people were approaching the road from between the trees. A lot more.
With a frustrated groan, Gunter squeezed his hands tighter around the steering wheel. "Fuck this, hold on!" he hit the gas pedal.
The car accelerated, making the passengers get yanked against their seats. The three dead men not far ahead bumped against the hood. Two of them fell on the ground and got crushed under the wheels, while the third one rolled over the hood and fell on the ground with a loud thud. The car finally stopped bouncing, as they drove over the bodies.
Reiner was holding his head, which he had hit on the ceiling. Mikasa, who was sitting in the middle, was squeezing her nails on the front seats, trying to remain balance, while Eren was pressing himself against the corner of his seat and looking terrified.
"Drive drive drive!!" Oluo screamed when a group of dead people suddenly started running to the road.
-------in the mazda-------
The car in front of them suddenly accelerated. They watched the three dead men being hit by the car.
"Finally!" Eld said, pressed the gas pedal and drove over the already crushed bodies on the road. They passed the abandoned car on their right, and now that they had their sight cleared, they also saw the large pack of growling people who had appeared from the forest.
"So that's what got them to hurry." Jean squeaked and he reached his hand to hold on the grab handle above his door as the car kept accelerating to keep up with the minivan.
"Don't stop! Whatever comes to the road, don't stop!" Levi instructed as he prepared himself for the possible impacts.
"Trust me, that's the last thing I'd do." Eld yelled as he looked at the road with wide eyes.
Annie took a hold on the driver's seat in front of her and leaned her other arm against the back seat, looking at the approaching dead people in terror. The crowd of dead people reached the side of the road and they didn't hesitate to run towards the fast moving vehicles, even if it most certainly meant their deaths. The minivan was first to get hit by the group. The car made some swerves, trying to avoid being damaged and it managed to slip past most of them.
Everyone in the second car prepared themselves as it was their turn to come face to face with the threat. Eld tried to guide the car, not wanting to hit them, but it was impossible. The car was making fierce movements from side to side as the dead ones crashed themselves violently against both sides of the car. The most impact was coming from their right. The glass on Jean's window was taking lot of hits and it had cracked. The windows were being painted in blood as the people's flesh was getting torn by the harsh hits. Another crack appeared on Jean's window as it was once again being hit by a heavy person.
"This won't hold for much longer!" Jean yelled in terror.
Eld glanced at the damaged glass, trying to figure out how to get them out of this situation. He looked around the road, trying to see a gap to squeeze through, but there wasn't any. He looked at his left, making a decision. The car made a violent turn on the left, off the road. The soft soil and downwards supporting hill was making the steering difficult. The car took rapid turns from side to side, but still remaining the speed. Everyone was holding on to whatever they could.
They managed to fool the dead people by their change of course, leaving most of them behind on the road. Once Eld saw that the biggest crowd was behind them, he tried to get the car back on the road. The wheels were pretty much spinning empty rounds against the soft ground when he tried to get the car up the hill. Eventually, the car made it back to the road and they spotted a single dead person wandering in the middle of the road. With another violent press on the gas pedal, the dead man rolled on the hood, over the windshield, flying over the roof and meeting the road again with a displeasing sound. A couple of correcting moves after the hit, and the ride was straight and steady again.
The minivan was moving not too far ahead of them. The dead people were left behind. Everyone was breathing heavy, still holding tightly on their support. Annie looked over her shoulder to see the dead people getting further and further away from them. She let out a big sigh and let go of the front seat, dropping her body against her seat. Levi tried to calm his breath. He looked at Annie, who had her eyes close, wiping her hands over her head in relief. Then he focused on Eld, who was holding his hands tightly against the steering wheel and kept staring forward.
Levi gave him a pat on a shoulder. "Good job, Eld." Levi said, before he let go of the front seat which he was holding on to, and leaned his back against his seat.
"Yeah... Awesome driving." Jean breathed from his seat, staring blankly into the distance, trying to recover from the nightmare they had just survived.
The minivan had slowed down and they reached their way next to them. Gunther rolled down his window and gestured Jean to do the same. With shaking hands, Jean rolled the window down, which made some cracking noises on its way down. The cold breeze filled the car as the window was fully open.
"Are you guys OK?" Gunther yelled through the air.
Jean lifted up his thumb.
"Good. You had some wild looking ride, you wanna stop somewhere to catch a breath?" Gunther yelled again.
"No!" Levi yelled as he reached himself closer to the window. "Let's keep going. We can rest when we get to the supply-house. We should be there in about 15 minutes if we keep the speed up."
"Alright!" Gunther nodded and rolled up his window.
"...That's if we don't run into another carnival of horror." Jean muttered from his seat.
"Tch, shut up and focus getting your shit together. There's a lot more for us to worry about than some rotting sleepwalkers." Levi said and dropped himself back on his seat.
Levi's heart was still pounding in his chest and he tried to calm his breath. He looked out of his window and just then, they drove past the familiar looking farm house, where everything had changed. His eyes followed the house until it disappeared into the distance behind them. He closed his eyes, thinking about you.
---------------- Home -----------------
The sunlight irritated your eyes. You slowly blinked, squinting at the window with frowned brows. You slowly stretched your tired limbs over the bed, placing an arm back against the mattress. The arm slid around the empty place next to you, and your eyes suddenly shot wide open. You quickly pulled up to a sitting position.
"Levi?" you scanned the room.
He wasn't here. You turned your head back to the window, looking at the sun that had appeared from the horizon. With a loud gasp of realization, you stormed off the bed. The blanket fell off your body and you realized you were naked. You quickly stomped around the room, trying to find your clothes.
You managed to pull a t-shirt over your head, when your heard the door opening.
"Levi?" your voice was full of hope as you turned around, but it wasn't Levi.
It was Mike. He looked at you suspiciously, holding his right hand behind his back. "I heard noises." he said, staring at you.
"Noises? Uh-huh, well, all is fine. I was just looking for --"
You suddenly remembered you were only wearing a shirt, and you pulled the fabric down to cover your thighs. Mike eased up after you had spoken, and released his hand around the gun he was hiding behind his back. Levi had asked him to stay by his door after he leaves, trusting him to take care of things if the virus kills you during your sleep.
Mike realized you might want to have some privacy and he turned around to leave the room. You had started pulling your jeans up, when you saw him turn around.
"Wait. Where's Levi?" you puffed as you struggled with your jeans.
Mike carefully looked over his shoulder, making sure that you were dressed, before he turned around again. "He left with the others about 20 minutes ago."
You stared at him with your mouth open.
You kept standing on the spot for a few more seconds, before his words finally hit you. You quickly stormed towards the door and Mike stepped aside, making you room to run past him to the hallway.
You didn't stop. Your heart was pounding, your breathing was shattered. You ran down the stairs, floor after floor, through the hallway until you reached the lobby area. Couple of people were having breakfast in the canteen, Erwin sitting among them. He saw your running figure flash towards the front doors.
"(Name!)" Erwin yelled after you, but you were already outside.
You ran to the big gate, trying to pull the heavy doors open, but they were closed securely. Tears burning your eyes, your ran to the wooden stairs near the gate that led to a small walking space at the top of the fence. You made it on top of the stairs, receiving a few confused looks from the two men who stood there watching over the area. You leaned on the edge, looking at the empty and silent road in front of you, crying.