Roads Untraveled

Chapter 2: Missing

"So do you guys think the Captain is okay?" Gunter asked concerned, breaking the others from their worry induced state. Having finaly spoken the exact words on everybody's minds. No one wanted to think about it, but with every passing moment it became more likely that the captain wasn't coming back. The situation had them all rattled. After all he was no ordinary soldier. He was humanities strongest soldier, a beacon of hope in an otherwise dark room. And the absnce of the man had not gone unnoticed. Teories on what might of happened were already flying around. Everyone dreaded the thought of his possible demise.

"I'm sure he's fine." Petra insured him. He's the Captain. He has fought plenty of titans. He's fine.." Although she was trying to be hopeful, Petra couldn't help but doubt her own words. The chances of anyone surviving, even the captain, this long alone is slim. "Do you think something happened to him? I mean he's been gone quite some time now."

The latino man looked down at his hands in thought. "I don't really know. I mean..." He groaned and laid his head in his head. The blond woman placed a hand on his shoulder simpiteticly."I'm trying not to think about it, but its hard. Is it strange that even though the man is probaly the most unsocialable being on the planet, I still think of him as a friend?"

He looked up to meet two sparkling brown eyes. Petra smiled. I'f it makes you feel better. I think of the captain as a friend too. I mean we've all known him for quite a vew years now. Not. Nearly as long as the Commander but long enough. We've lived together, fought together even cleaned together in Levi's case."

He snikkered at that. The man's obsesive behavior towards cleaning was plainly obvious to everyone who knew him. And the team often joked about it when he wasn't around. She continued. "It's only natural for us to start to feel like friends and I think, in the deepest darkest corners of his mind he thinks so too."

He smiled weakly and quickly added. "I'm still worried about him though."

Petra was about to reply when Oluo's obnoxuios voice interupted her. "Geez you guys are being so melodramatic."

"Oh Shut up Oluo!" Petra snapped. "Some people actully care about the captain here, unlike you." She was not going to take this shit from him. He can pretend to be the Captain all he wants, but not now. Not when Captain Levi was still out there, possibly hurt, injured, or worse. She expected another snarky comment, but instead Oluo's face turned from his usual smug expression to a worried one as he dropped his act. He knew she was right. This was no time to be messing about. He sighed and sat down next to the angry blond. "Look. I'm worried too, but I have faith that where ever the Captain is he's got it under control. No one can take down that short little bastard. Especially the Titans. He'd just slip right through their fingers."

His fellow colleges couldn't help but snort at that. "Better not let the Captain hear you say that." Gunter joked.

"My point is. If the captain couldn't make it to old age, what chance do we have?" Oluo stood up looking at his colleges. "I can't let myself believe that he's dead. We can't be thinking about this right now. Having a clouded mind is not going to help the situation. We have to stay focused at the task at hand. Until then we have to stay sharp, after that we can worry all we want. We're not out of the woods yet." And with that he left to tend to his horse.

Even though Oluo's head was sometimes bigger than his brain, he really made sense some times. After a long silence, pondering the dark haired man's words, Gunter sighed. "You know he's right. Worrying about the Captain now is going to help no one. We have to focus on the mission on hand, to prevent any more casualties."

The blond woman nodded, understanding his reasoning. Her worry had begun to subside for the time being."If anything worrying would get us killed. We should trust the Captain." He stood up and walked over to the direction Hange and Eld stood, busy tending to the wounded. She brushed herself off and left to find something to do. The captain's fine. They just have to have faith.