Eyes Open | AruAni | Attack on Titan Hunger Games |

9

The fall of the night covered the forest grounds in thick fog. It crept into the cave and prickled our eyes. It stung. The air was dense and you could barely see what was in front of you. Especially outside. The forest was covered in dancing white fog. For some reason it contained the scent of smoke but none of us questioned it. We had a fire lit in the cave so that's where the smoke came from. 

Eren was awake by now. He felt slightly better and was able to eat. He had lowered his fever and wasn't as warm. But he was still slightly under the weather. 

"I think our best bet would be to go out and look for some food." - Armin spoke. - "If we get cornered in here we're dead. Now, I'm not expecting you guys to rely on someone like me for orders but-" 

Mikasa interrupted Armin with a nod. - "You're right." 

A look of surprise was painted across the blondes face. Like he wasn't expecting her to agree with him. 

"I'll help Eren move around." - She added. 

Bertholdt put out the fire and while the rest of us collected our belongings. 

"I'll go first." - The tall, timid, green-eyed man suggested, scratching the back of his neck. - "Just to make sure it's safe." 

No one seemed to protest against it so Bertholdt crawled out of the cave. Barely 10 seconds had past since he crawled out into the forest when we heard a cannon shot. I put an arm in front of Armin, protectively standing in case someone ambushed us. Bertholdt was dead. Whoever was out there had killed him. Armin shot me a very panicked look. He was shaking, terrified. 

"I- I'm ok!" - Bertholdt's voice called out from outside. He was alive! Relief flooded over all of us. For now, we were safe. - "But you guys may wanna come out here..." - his tone of voice was shaky, panicked. He sounded frightened. 

We shot each other a look of determination before we crawled out of the cave. Outside, the skies were an orangy-yellow. The midnight blue was hidden in the night. And from the cliff our cave was in, a burning fire was creeping up on us. That explained why our eyes burned from the fog. It was never fog. It was smoke. The arena was on fire. 

"Everyone make for the lake from earlier!" - Armin shouted, his voice breaking mid sentence. 

Without a second thought we took off running towards the lake we were at earlier. We didn't realize how far we had actually walked from it. The smoke covered our paths and clouded our vision. The fire danced toward us in lightning speed. We didn't say a word to each other. We just ran down the hill as fast as we could. The smoke clogged our throats up, making us cough from time to time. Mikasa made sure Eren was catching up but he was slightly behind. The fire was right at our tails. It followed like a lost child. It was set to kill someone and judging by the cannon shot from earlier, it was working. This wasn't just any regular fire. It was set in the arena by the game makers. It was a trap and we were just under it. 

A loud thump on the ground alarmed all of us. 

"Mikasa!" - Eren cried out. 

The raven-haired girl stopped running and looked back at the teenager on the ground. The fire was just barely above him. Mikasa ran back to him and held him close to her chest.

"I-..." - Eren's voice broke. - "I can't keep going!"

"Come on. I'll carry you." - Mikasa was determined to get him out of here. 

"That'll only drag you down. I don't want both of us to end up dead." 

Mikasa never let go of Eren. She stared into his eyes as he sat up straight to look at her. - "What are you doing?" - He asked. - "Get out of here!"