Author's note: Hey there! Thanks for stopping by and deciding to give my story a try :). This is an Attack on Titan fic using characters from the anime/manga, but is set in the world of the novel "Bird Box" by Josh Mallerman. Thus: Bird Box AU. I'm setting myself a deadline for each chapter and will try to update at the beginning of each month. I'll try my best to stick to that.

The sentences in Italics and between quotation marks are for Levi's thoughts. Those only in italics are also his thoughts but its someone else's voice if that makes any sense.

Before you start, please keep in mind that although this story leans more towards psychological horror/thriller than a full blown slasher, this story does contain a little bit of blood every once and a while (since...you know, its set in a world where people are going crazy and killing each other?). It also contains foul language (Levi, anyone?), and lots and lots of character death (though I'm sure us AOT fans have gotten used to that already?).

If you're alright with all that, awesome!

Continue to chapter 1. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of its characters. I also don't own the amazing novel Bird Box (but I do have a copy of it which I keep by my bed and read over again every two days or so).

Chapter 1

Levi saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He shut it tightly, hoping beyond hope that it was just a passing tree branch or a retarded bird flying too close to the ground. His other eye instinctively squinted, allowing only a fine line of vision to remain among the surrounding blindness.

He wished he could use his hands to shield his peripheral vision, and further diminish the chances of seeing one of the things they were running from. But he couldn't. Both his hands were occupied, firmly gripping two tiny wrists as he dashed through the woods.

There were only three of them left after what had happened at the house. Levi, the boy, and his sister. Both children were six years old, both children were blindfolded, both children -and himself- were soaked in blood from head to toe.

The three had been running for hours. At least, that's what his body kept telling him -the ache in his calves, the tightening of his chest with every breath, the burning thirst. Every single fiber seemed to be pleading him to stop. But they couldn't stop. Not now.

Perhaps not ever.

Levi mostly worried about the children. He wondered how they were holding out as he dragged them against the cutting winter air, through the slush of mud and leaves. He knew they were far beyond tired. They had reached the point where even the adrenaline that had exploded through all their bodies after what happened back the house couldn't keep them from stumbling every few seconds. Yet while the children had long stopped running, Levi's feet still pounded the ground as he raced between the trees. It was a lot of effort to both continue running with so little rest, and pull the weights of two other humans –no matter how little. Levi felt like he was dragging two sand stuffed rag dolls along with him.

But that was alright, he kept telling himself over and over again.

As long as they were still moving, everything was alright.

It didn't matter if all three of them were contributing to their motion or if he had to heave their weights by himself.

"My eyes burn," The girl sobbed. "I want to take it off."

"Do NOT take the blind fold off, girl," Levi snapped. The faint panting he heard in his voice angered him. It reminded him of how human his body was. How weak. He turned his frustration to the girl. "Maybe your eyes wouldn't burn if you stopped crying."

"I want to go back…why can't we go back?" She whimpered, "I want to go back to the house."

Levi didn't answer. He just kept dragging them forward.
Just keep moving and everything will be fine…

The problem was, he wasn't sure even he could keep going. His own body was beginning to warn him. Levi's legs quivered with exhaustion at times, the muscles in them twitching like the walls of a building about to collapse. The weight of the two children, dangling pendulums from each of his arms, certainly wasn't helping. The signs his body was sending frightened him. They formed a voice that told him he had to do something unspeakable. It told him they had to stop.

Then there was the girl's incessant whining…
Why couldn't she be like the boy? Sullen, quiet, and unlike his usual loud and defiant self? Part of him pitied her. She was just a kid. She was scared, he knew that. Still, for some strange reason, her voice pulled at whatever was left of his mind in different directions. It made him want to snatch the blindfolds off both the children's eyes, open his own eyes wide, and go searching for the thing that made people go insane for seemingly no reason.
'No. No. No. No. No. You're just tired. Very tired. Tired enough to be thinking about killing yourself and the two people you've been protecting for the past year.'
Just keep moving.
The tiredness will go away.
The girl will eventually shut up.
Everything will be alright.
Just keep moving.

"Where are we going anyway?" The boy mumbled.

'So much for sullen and quiet…'

"You'll know when we get there." Levi said.

"You mean you'll know when we get there, right?"

"I swear," Levi drew in a breath, "One more word out of either of you, and I will dump both of your sorry asses here and walk away."

"We can make it on our own, old man," The boy retorted, "We always have, even before meeting you."

"I don't want to be left alone," The girl's grip tightened around Levi's jacket sleeve "I want to go back to the house."

"Then shut up, and keep moving."

"I never said I didn't want to be left alone," The boy began.

"What the fuck did I just say?" Levi panted "Shut up, and keep moving you lazy, ungrateful slo-"

A scream sounded from a direction Levi couldn't make out. The fear he had been trying to numb for the past year all came bubbling up through his throat like blood. He shut both his eyes and froze, the sudden halt lurching both children forward. The girl shrieked as Levi pulled them both back by their arms, her voice mixed with another scream that sounded higher pitched…closer. Levi crouched down, pressing a hand against each child's shoulder telling them to follow suit.

"What was that?" The girl whimpered.

"Shhh!" Levi snapped.

He wished he knew what it was. The complete blindness was certainly not appreciated. Levi could barely see anything before, yet there was something about his eyes being open that gave him a false sense of security, of power. As though the simple fact he could see -no matter how little- was a weapon, something he could use against this terrifying new world. He didn't want to have to rely on his other senses. They were more easily morphed by fear, unreliable.

'You could always open your eyes. Open them and see everything crystal clear. You could even come across one of the creatures and look at them too, boy won't that
be fun?'
Levi shook his head. Sight was not an option, and whatever couldn't be used was to be dropped at once and replaced with an alternative. There wasn't any time to whine.

Listen. Focus all your attention on what your ears 'see'. Listen.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence -only broken by the girl's shaky breaths, and their three hearts thundering in unison- another scream ripped through the air. It sounded like a woman. An insane woman screaming at the sky. Red flashed through Levi's mind. For a change, it wasn't the red of blood. Not the kind dripping from necks twisted at horrifying angles, or that wrapping the person like ribbons as rope cut through flesh and bone. It was an orange red. That of fire, a woman's hair. He couldn't remember her name in his current state, but what he did remember was not seeing her body with the others'. She probably hadn't seen his or the children's bodies. She probably knew they were alive and was out to put an end to that.

Get up. You've stopped moving for too long. Just get up and start running again.

Every fiber in Levi's body begged him to ignore that voice. He did. Not for rest, but simply for the fact that, if that psycho bitch was still alive, he didn't want to end up running in her direction. Blind. He didn't want to run straight to the edge of her axe, or knife, or gun, or fingers, blind.
Still maybe he was being paranoid. If she had survive the incident at the house, chances were she had still seen one of the creatures and was now wandering the woods a madwoman digging her own eyes out-

Another scream sounded. Levi dropped his hand from the boy's shoulder to his boot. He felt for the handle of the knife he had pulled out of Mike's neck before they left the house. It was there, tucked in the tight outer pocket, probably still caked with Mike's blood.
Could he do it? Could he stab her enough times to take her down? Would his arms listen to him when he told them to pull out the knife and plunge it in again?

'Of course you can kill her. You killed three men twice her size. Don't you start acting all humane now. If you don't kill her, she'll kill you and the brats'
You've been down for five minutes, Levi. Five. You have to get up now and switch direction. Whenever you hear a voice, just switch direction. Don't stop.
Levi shook the other voice from his head, and tried to focus on the screaming creature.

"It's a fox," The boy said so suddenly that Levi's shoulder twitched.

"What?" Levi whispered, barely loud enough for himself to hear.

"It's just a fox. I know. Hannes used to take me hunting. They scream like that," The boy's voice was monotone but confident "Hannes said they screamed like women."

"And how did 'Hannes' know it wasn't an actual woman screaming?" Levi hissed.
Whatever it was screamed again. It was shriller. More importantly, it sounded louder, like the thing was standing a few feet away from them. Levi tightened his grip around the knife's handle.

"You can hear the whine at the end," The boy replied, "It just sounds like a woman screaming when you're scared. If you're calm you can hear the whine come out at the end."

Push the fear back down. Don't let it play with your senses. Listen.

There was another scream. It wasn't coming from behind them. He thought he heard it coming from a spot in front of where they were crouching. Somewhere to their left?
Just get up, Levi. For God's sake! It's been seven minutes now!

Another scream hit his ears, but it sounded farther, and it was mixed with the furious crunching of leaves as the thing moved. Levi brought the knife up, holding the arm carrying it in midair and pointing its tip towards where he though the sounds were centered. He wrapped his other arm around the children to make sure neither of them would get separated from him.

The screaming stopped, though the rattling of the leaves didn't.

Back and forth. Back and forth. Closer then farther. Closer then farther. It was a never ending loop, like it was jumping back and forth, unsure whether or not to attack.

"Can you hear it? It's growling like a puppy!" The boy said, seemingly excited that he got it right all along "Levi can you hear it?"

"Shut up and let me listen!"

Levi could certainly hear it growling. It just doesn't sound like any dog growling he had ever heard. It sounded more like gargling, a man chocking on his life after getting stabbed in the throat.

Like Mike.

"It sounds scary," The girl tugged on Levi's shirt, and sniffled, "I want to go back to the house."

Levi tightened his grip around the two children and tried to clear his mind, silence the thoughts in his head that were getting far too loud for his liking. The growling had stopped, but the rattling of the leaves seemed to have gotten louder thought not closer. Every tendon in Levi's body tensed as his brain scrambled for an explanation to the sounds his ears were delivering. The thing hissed every once and a while, then the crunching rattling sound continued, sounding even more furious than ever before.

What was it doing? Was it circling them? No, the sound was stuck at the same spot. He couldn't just take random action without having a plan. He couldn't make a plan without knowing exactly what that thing was up to.

'Erwin would've known what to do. He would've been out of here in ten minutes tops.'

Levi swallowed. This wasn't the time to grieve. It certainly wasn't the time to try to be fucking inspired by a dead man. He needed to act, right now. No matter what that thing was, or what it was doing, Levi would lunge at it and stab it until he thought it was dead.

The boy struggled in his grip a bit, his small arms sliding under the one Levi had wrapped around him and his sister.

"Stop squirming, boy!" Levi hissed.

"It's chewing its own leg off," The boy muttered, his voice dripping with both surprise and horror "The fox is chewing its leg off."

"How the fuck would you know that?" Levi snapped "Did 'Hannes' teach you what a fox chewing its leg off sound like?"

"I can see it…It's chewing its leg off."

See? How can the boy SEE?!

Levi reached his other hand towards the boy's face. After much resistance he managed to touch the boy's eyelids. They didn't even flutter, remaining defiantly and widely…apart.

"What's that?" the boy said, and Levi heard the whole world shatter.

He didn't feel himself fumble and readjust the boy's blindfold, holding him tightly by the back of it. He didn't hear himself screaming at the girl to grab onto his jacket and start running because both his hands were full. He didn't see the fox cut off the leg it was chewing on and move on to another.

All Levi felt was air, as sharp as a thousand knives, cut through his face as he began to run with renowned vigor. The 'fox' screamed after them, releasing a sound so harrow Levi knew he'd be hearing it in his nightmares for the next couple of weeks.

That's what happens when you stop. Erwin's voice sounded through his ears. That's why you should keep going no matter what.

Thanks so much for reading! All types of comments and reviews are welcome.

This chapter is pretty short because it's kind of an intro. The second chapter will be a lot longer, and I'll probably upload it sometime next week (Would have uploaded it sooner but I have an awesome exam this Sunday. Ain't Medical School fun?). So...till the next week!

Also, I'd like to thank my beta IirieCadence who helped me tidy up a couple of disastrous sentences lol.