Awakened

Chapter 21.5

Armin had been riding for hours towards a village he he had never seen. He wondered if Mikasa was okay. Once he was summoned to come on the urgent mission Erwin set out, he had quickly learned that Mikasa and her squad were summoned as well.

Yet, they never showed up.

It didn't take a genius to figure out they had abandoned the mission, off to go do whatever Mikasa had in mind. Hange had guessed that Mikasa and her Squad went to find Tauriel, if she was even alive, that is.

Erwin was incredibly angry at Mikasa's actions, but by then she was already too far too catch up and they were heading the adjacent direction.

They went on their mission to visit the neighboring village at the large gate of the wall.

When they had finally reached there, his butt was so numb he couldn't feel it.

The village was next to the gate, not in front of it like his old home where the gate opened to their streets.

The team of Scouts, made up of Hange, Levi, Erwin, Ash, and Armin, trotted along the wall and entered the village. The gate seemed well intact, and didn't show any signs of tampering.

The village was silent as they entered, and Armin found it strange that where he would normally see citizens tending to their crops or farm animals there were none.

Not a single person was outside.

"Its too quiet," Erwin spoke.

"Ill check out the houses," Levi said, getting off his horse. "Hopefully they're hiding inside and they're not dead."

Armin choked at the bluntness of the Captain, but Levi walked on as if what he said was nothing.

The Scout knocked twice, and waited a few moment. When no one answered, Levi tried the knob on the door, and it opened without a hassle.

"Who leaves their door unlocked?" Ash asked.

"Dead people," Hange answered, already assuming the fate of the villagers who lived here.

Levi came out, shaking his head.

"You're never going to believe this."

"What is it?" Erwin asked.

"They're sleeping," Levi answered, walking back towards them. "That whole family in there is knocked out. I even tried shaking them. They're completely out."

"Are you sure they're not dead?" Hange asked, but she got off as well, curious to see.

Levi nodded. "Check the other houses as well. I bet the whole village is in the same state."

They all got off, and followed what he said. House after house, Armin found the same result.

Sleeping villagers.

Some were laying on their kitchen table. Others were on the ground. A few were already in bed, as if they were taking a mid-afternoon nap. Several, and Armin found this the most odd, were on the ground the moment he entered the house. Those villagers often blocked the entrance, and Armin had the skeptical idea that someone dragged them in their house and was too lazy to actually put them further in.

"This makes no sense," Erwin said, coming outside after seeing Levi's statement himself. "How could they all be sleeping at the same time?"

"Not to mention that some of them actually looked like they were in the middle of doing something before they went to sleep. I can't tell you the amount of houses I went in where the people in it were midway eating. Their faces were in their food. Its disgusting," Levi added, scrunching his nose.