Cornered

The Storm

"Yes, thank you Krista." Mikasa could smell dinner cooking and couldn't wait to get some food. She knelt next to Levi pleased to see that he was still sleeping though it was lighter now. It was nice to see his face relaxed. He looked so peaceful she didn't really want to disturb him. She glanced around to see that the watch had changed while she was asleep. Eren and Armin were on watch while Jean, Reiner, and Bertholt slept. She smiled when she saw that Connie was still asleep, but was happy to see that Sasha had taken time to rest as well. Glancing over toward the small campfire she saw that the meal was almost ready. She gently placed a hand on Levi's uninjured shoulder. His eyes slowly blinked open, then shifted to look at her.

"Come have some dinner." she said. He blinked for a few more moments before inhaling deeply and sitting up. Mikasa carefully lead him over to one of the campfires. He took a bowl of soup and woodenly began eating it. Mikasa watched him carefully, looking for any indication that he was going to fall asleep.

"How do you feel?" she asked. He glanced up at her.

"Like I still need to sleep for another twelve hours." Mikasa nodded.

"What are your orders?" Levi turned his head and stared listlessly into the distance. He glanced up at the sky and looked around at the whole camp slowly, clearly trying to order his thoughts.

"It looks like it's going to rain. We should stay here and rest. Douse the fires once the meal is over. Maintain a watch through the night and keep an eye out for our party of riders. We'll move out in the morning, provided the rain isn't too bad." Mikasa nodded. She continued to watch Levi as she ate her own dinner. He only managed to get down a few bites of bread before he started nodding. Gently she took the bread and his bowl away, placing the one in the other. Then she pulled him up. Jean saw her and came over to help her led Levi back to his sleeping bag. Mikasa nodded her thanks before they both returned to the fires to finish their meals.

Mikasa organized the watches putting herself on first watch, with Jean, and two other members of the Survey Corps. She ordered everyone else to bed. There was a slight pause before the members of the 104th followed her orders and the rest of the Survey Corps followed suit. Mikasa was grateful that her fellow trainees trusted her enough to follow her lead even though she hadn't been placed in command. She made sure they always had someone up high to watch the road below and see if their deception was discovered. She let Armin take a turn watching over Levi as he slept then traded places with him at the end of first watch. As Jean was passing her to go to sleep she pulled him aside.

"If anything happens on fourth watch wake me instead of Levi." Jean nodded. Mikasa made sure she said the same thing to Reiner who had been assigned to third watch and he also agreed. Thankfully she wasn't awakened until breakfast. Levi was up and looked much improved from the previous days. He nodded a greeting to Mikasa as she came to join him. She condensed the reports she had received from those on watch to bring him up to speed. They were in a bit of a tricky situation; the morning had brought rain with it. Mikasa was grateful it hadn't rained all night but by the time they were finishing with breakfast it had turned into quite a downpour.

The Survey Corps was well trained and immediately had shelters up for the horses. They set up the covers on the wagons, and stretched tarps over spots of ground for setting up tents to sleep in. Levi motioned for Mikasa to come and join him in one of the wagons. She followed him over to it.

"What is it?"

"We need to talk tactics." He said.

"Then we'll need Armin." Levi raised his eyebrows fractionally, but didn't argue with her. She went to find her friend. He was with Eren and they were both helping to set up the tarps and make sure the horses were taken care off.

"Eren, Armin, follow me." They did Armin meekly, Eren with a questioning expression.

"What's going on?" Eren asked.

"Captain Levi wants to talk to us." Mikasa wouldn't say anymore until they were in the wagon. Levi had pulled out a map of the area and was examining it, his left arm resting in a sling to avoid strain to his shoulder. Mikasa entered confidently and Eren followed her example, Armin hesitated for a moment but after seeing his friends weren't shooed away he entered as well.

"It seems like we've lost our pursuers for now. If they're following us mostly by word of mouth we'll need to go around the next few towns. The sooner we can lose them for good the better. Unfortunately traveling in this rain will leave a very clear trail that even their novice of a tracker could follow. Hopefully we'll be able to leave soon. I don't like sitting here this close to them knowing that they're out looking for us." Armin looked at the map.

"Maybe we don't need to go around." Levi looked up at him questioningly. "Well, we threw them by leaving a false trail in the forest, perhaps we can throw them even more by splitting into two groups and heading in two different directions to meet up later." Armin pointed along two roads on the map that had a few small towns along their length, but headed in two completely different directions. Then he indicated a point where they could meet equidistant from the two roads and away from civilization "Then we would avoid towns until we felt like we were a safe distance away." Levi nodded considering.

"It's not a bad plan. It would still require speed, but it would definitely confuse them, especially if they tried back tracking to find out which way we went. They could spend weeks trying to cover all the ground in between those towns. Where would you recommend we head after that?" Armin considered what he knew about the skill of their tracker and the way they were trying to hunt them. Then he looked over the map. Finally he pointed at a large hill that was not quite a mountain but surrounded by forest. It rested just west of the northern road that he had suggested as one of the routes they could take.

"If they're likely to be here trying to find us they might try heading in three directions to accomplish that, east, north, or somewhere in the middle. They'll probably think our ultimate goal is somewhere in that direction so they won't think we'd be likely to circle back and stop. This hill is high enough it will give us a good vantage point to see if we're wrong and they're onto us, giving us enough time to move and possibly lose them again if we need to." Levi nodded once more.

"And which group would you send Jeager in?" Eren looked up in surprise at the mention of his name. Armin pointed to the eastern route.

"This one. He'd be less likely to encounter the enemy since they will probably follow the northern group. Once we meet up here, then we'll want to cut back and cross the road not traveling near any towns to give away our position. Traveling at night might be best to avoid being seen as well." Levi thought about what Armin had said.

"What about putting him in the northern group and having them head to the hill immediately so that he'd be safe?" Armin shook his head.

"It would work if we weren't being so closely followed and were just laying the false trails as a precaution. Since we do know that we are being followed it's too likely that his group could be caught in an ambush and the rest of the company wouldn't know until it was too late. Then we would be trying to catch them."

"Do you really suspect there's an ambush waiting?" Armin shrugged.

"I'm just going off of what could be waiting. It's not so far-fetched, we don't know what kind of resources our pursuers have. Maybe they'll also hire a more skilled tracker and catch up to us on the hill. In which case it will be better to have Eren close so you know he's safe." Levi nodded again, while Eren glowered.

"You make a good argument. Let's work on splitting up the groups and as soon as it's safe, sending them off. I'll need some more time to think about who I want in each group and who will lead the second group. Thank you for your input," he said looking at both Mikasa and Armin. They nodded and saluted before leaving. Eren stayed seated and Mikasa tried to pull him up but he resisted.

"Do you really feel I'm so helpless?" he asked anger simmering under the surface. Levi shook his head.

"No I don't think you're helpless at all. It's my job to keep you safe and I feel like you are safest as a figure in the crowd. I'm sorry if that is difficult for you to handle but it is the best I can do." Levi looked up from the maps and met Eren's gaze. "Do you really want to argue with me about it?" Eren shook his head and stood to leave. Levi's gaze followed him until he was gone.