Chapter Thirty Five

Mikasa POV

Mikasa had been slow getting out of the house. She had not been her usually graceful self in her worry over Eren and Armin, and had slammed into a table coming up the stairs from the basement. Limping slightly, she had managed to get out of the front door. Standing on the front porch, she couldn't figure out where they had all run off too. Panic flooded thought her, coursing through her veins thicker than blood. Her brothers were out here, and they were in danger and she couldn't find them.

She took several deep breaths and tried to think. Polyver Square was north of here, so she had to go left. Taking off down the road, she tried to keep her breathing steady. If she gave into the blind panic that had settled just out of view, she would never find the boys…or Annie. As much as the blonde irritated her, she could see that Annie was good for Armin, and did not want anything bad to happen to her.

Mikasa couldn't believe how fast Eren and Armin were running. She'd always been faster than the two of them…probably combined. She guessed that they had both given in to the blind panic though, Eren to get to his mom, and Armin to get to Eren.

The teenager heard the shriek long before she ever looked up. She was flung to the side as the bomb exploded, barely cushioning her head as she was slammed into a wall. "Ow." She moaned, sitting on the ground, ears ringing. She blinked several times, dust drifting into her eyes. They began to water from the smoke and dust and she quickly wiped them, clambering to her feet. It was already hard enough to see, she did not need tears obscuring her vision. Blinking again, she looked around her. There was smoke rising in a great plume from the next street over where the bomb had hit.

She gave her head a quick shake. The others wouldn't have been on that street. They may not have even felt the explosion. So she had to keep moving. She took a step to try and run, and felt a stabbing pain shoot up from her ankle. "Ah!" She cried out, falling to her knee as her leg gave out from under her. Running was out of the question, but she had to keep moving. Climbing back to her feet, the teenager began to limp down the street as fast as she could, sticking close to the buildings so as to avoid making a target of herself to some bored pilot who was not content to the possibility of destroying life.

The world felt like it had fallen into hell. Maybe this WAS hell. Mikasa didn't know. All across the city, she could hear the shrieks of the bombs falling and the booming of the explosions. The tearing apart of buildings as stone was blasted to pieces and metal rent in half. On occasion, she could even hear the shrieking of some unfortunate person, though they were soon drowned out. She barely even recognized the street she was on anymore, even though she'd been down it dozens of times. The only thing keeping her from falling into the chaos as well and letting the panic back is was the thought of finding the boys. She had to find them. Find the boys. Find the boys. Find the boys. It beat like a drum in time to her limping. Find the boys, find the boys. She even began to mutter it. "Find the boys. Find the boys." Find the-She heard the shriek of the bomb falling, and had the sense to duck against a building. She covered her ears as it ripped down the whole street. Mikasa curled into a ball to shield herself from debris. The whole world seemed to shake and her ears were really ringing. This was madness. Complete and utter madness. Why was she out here? This was suicide. Surely, she'd be killed if she didn't go inside and take cover. She should just go back to Mrs. Patts house and wait it out. Her ears were shrieking. She couldn't even hear herself breathing. Mikasa clamped her hands over her ears. Make it stop. Make it stop. She was sure she was going to go crazy if the noise in her ears didn't stop.

It felt like eternity before she could finally hear outside noise again. She clumsily climbed to her feet and looked around. Smoke drifted heavily through the air. Letting out a cough, she peered through it and saw a road sign that was somehow still standing. Washington Street. She was stunned. She'd run/limped almost 15 blocks. It hadn't seemed like it.

The teen snapped back to reality as another bomb hit the ground a few streets over. It was dangerous out here and she had to find the boys. She set off down the street, still limping. Adrenaline was clearly the only thing keeping her going at this point. She had made it about 50 feet when she heard the wailing.

"No, no, no! Please! Please come back to me!" Mikasa felt a jolt of fear go through her. The voice almost sounded like Annie. She began to move fast, eyes squinting as she tried to see through the smoke. The words of the person had died out, and became one continuous sound of distress and sorrow.

A breeze blew down the street and Mikasa stopped moving as the smoke drifted away. "No." She said quietly, "No, no, no." One of her worst nightmares was in front of her. Annie was kneeling on the ground, cradling a blonde body that could only be Armin. Her own body began to move of its own accord, because she felt frozen inside. "Armin." She whispered, falling to her knees opposite Annie. Annie didn't even seem to register that someone else was there until Mikasa reached out to touch him.

"Don't touch him!" The blonde shrieked, shoving Mikasa's hand away.

Mikasa did not feel like she was in control of her body. It felt like someone else had taken over as her hand rose up and slapped Annie across the face with a resounding crack. "You don't get to tell me what to do. He was my friend first."

"Yeah, well where were you when he wanted to die?" Annie hissed out.

"Where were you?" Mikasa snapped back with just as much malice. Though venom coursed through her veins, she very gently reached out and closed Armin's eyes. She took a deep breath, though her breath seemed to catch part way as tears pricked at her eyes. Armin, though only a few months younger, was like her baby brother. He couldn't be gone. Sweet, kind caring Armin couldn't be gone. Smart, sarcastic, charismatic Armin could not be dead. It didn't feel possible.

It was the screeching of a bomb a couple of streets over that brought Mikasa back to her senses. "Annie, we have to get off the street."

"No! I won't leave him."

"Annie-" Mikasa was losing her patience and her usually very well controlled temper. Part of her felt like she should just leave the girl behind. But Armin would not want that, so Mikasa rose to her feet and seized a hold of Annie's arm and pulled. "Let's go!"

"Get off of me!" Annie shrieked, trying to pull away, and batting at Mikasa's arm.

Mikasa drew back her arm and slapped Annie again, even harder this time. "Listen,

stupid. Do you think Armin would want this? You sitting in the street and being blown up? You think he'd want you to join him? Now let's go!" Mikasa gave a great heave, and pulled Annie like three feet before the blonde began to struggle, clinging to Armin like a ship wreck victim clings to a piece of driftwood.

"No!" She shrieked. "No, we can't just leave him lying in the street like a piece of trash!"

"We also can't haul him into a bomb shelter! Annie, I know you love him, but carrying him along with us will kill us too."

"I don't mean carry him all the way to a bomb shelter! I just don't want to leave him in the street to get run over by a truck."

Mikasa let out a sigh. She was obviously not going to win this battle, and to be completely honest, wasn't sure if she wanted to. "Grab his feet."

Annie looked up at her, clearly confused. "What?"

"Grab. His. Feet. We're going to carry him to that alley over there."

"You want to leave him in an alley?"

"Oh for fuck's sake! What would you like to do? Carry him all the way to his house? Perhaps even bury him yourself next to his family? We're in the middle of a bombing! That alley is probably the safest for him, because he won't get run over by a truck, or picked up to go to the identification centers, heaped with all of the other dead bodies. We will come find him after it's done bombing."

Tears began to fall down Annie's face as they remained quiet for a moment. "Do you think Eren's okay?" She slumped, defeated.

"That stubborn idiot is fine."

Annie looked up at Mikasa as she climbed to her feet, a sudden fury in her eyes. "He won't be when I find him. His stupidity killed Armin." Her voice cracked as she gently bent and grabbed Armin's legs, leaving Mikasa to scramble to get his upper body.

Mikasa swallowed hard, tears burning at her own eyes as they struggled their way over to the alley. As much as it broke her heart to admit, Annie was right. Eren's stupidity HAD caused Armin's death…and it would destroy him when he found out.

/This is it guys. Over a year of work is finally complete and it feels very strange to have finished it. But I am glad that I have it done. And do not worry. I have a couple ideas for a sequel swirling around in my head. Thank you guys for reading and stay tuned for a sequel

story./

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