Attack On Titan - Within The Walls

The Hunters - Within The Walls (9)

Armin Arlert

Male Group, 09-08-2020

To my surprise Eren and Levi made it back from outside Wall Sina. They got back sometime this night and we had to rush both of them to the hospital. Levi's leg was cut open to the bone and it's a wonder that he didn't bleed out. He also strained his leg too much, we had to force him to stay in bed so he wouldn't bruise it even more.

Eren on the other side looked a lot worse. Levi told us that he tried fighting a Titan, but he wasn't by far strong enough. The Titan slammed him against the wall once and Eren was knocked out for the rest of the day. He was lucky that Levi had a blade left, because otherwise he would've killed both of them.

I'm now walking towards the little building that we use for hospital with Connie, Marco, Reiner and Bertholdt. We're meeting Levi and Eren there, because weirdly enough we decided that we should give Eren ODM gear and the possibility to help Levi to search for a way out. We thought it only would be fair, he did save Levi's life after all.

I follow Reiner as he opens the door of the hospital building. Eren is lying in the sleeping bag, next to Eren Levi's sitting on a wooden box. He looks up when we come in.

"What did the others say?" Levi asks. He's talking about what we need to do with Eren, if we should punish him for going outside or just give him his ODM gear.

"Most of them said that we shouldn't punish him, because if he didn't go outside you would be dead," Reiner tells Levi. "But some of them didn't agree; Floch for example didn't even agree to giving hem ODM gear."

"I think we should listen to the majority," Connie defends Eren.

"Connie's right," Marco agrees. "Eren deserves it."

Just when I want to agree with Marco and Connie, I hear someone groaning. It's Eren, he's waking up after being unconscious for the last few hours. He slowly opens his eyes.

"W-where am I?" he quietly asks.

Levi looks at him and we're all focused on Levi. He's the one to tell Eren about the ODM gear and the important role he's going to have.

"Eren," Levi says, trying to get Eren's attention.

"Yes?" Eren replies and he turns his head to Levi.

"You did a good job out there."

A compliment? From Levi!?

"That's why, even though you have shit your pants," Levi jokes. "We decided to give you ODM gear."

Eren frowns at Levi. "What does that mean?"

"That means that you're allowed to go outside the walls," Levi explains. "You can help me find a way out."

I see happiness in Eren's eyes, this is what he wanted from day one.

"Yes!" Eren happily shrieks.

Levi carefully gets up from the box he was sitting on and limps towards the door. "Don't get too happy, yet," he says while opening the door. "You first need training on how to kill a Titan."

After that, not waiting for an answer, Levi walks outside. Reiner, Marco and Connie follow him and I'm left alone with Eren. I take a seat on the box next to Eren's bed. I look at my hands.

"I'm happy for you," I say and I glance at Eren.

"Thanks," he answers.

We both stay quiet for a few seconds and I feel quite uneasy.

"Do you have any memories from outside of the walls?" Eren asks.

I look up and shrug.

"Yes, but I don't know if they're real," I answer.

I had many dreams of the outsides when I just got here. I've never known if they are real, because it looked like it never could be true.

"What did you see?" Eren wants to know.

"I saw this giant body of water that covers around seventy per cent of the planet's surface," I say and I remember how happy the memory dreams made me. "It's all saltwater, weird right?"

Eren nods.

"It sounds amazing," Eren says. "Do you know how it's called?"

"The ocean," I say and a smile appears on my face when I think of the glittering blue water.

"The ocean," Eren repeats. "We should go see it when we get out of here."