The Infected - Hanji Zoe

Chapter 8

Return Of The King

For a second, you can't believe what you're seeing: the dark circles underneath Moblit's eyes nearly look like makeup and he's several pounds thinner. His hair is messy and you can distinguish a few spiderwebs stuck to his locks.

He raises the blood covered spear on his hand, aiming directly at your head. His pupils dilate as he stares at you, an angry expression on his face. "I'm fucking sick of hallucinations!"

"Wait, Moblit! I'm real!" You exclaim, dodging the swing of his spear. It almost cuts through your arm but thankfully Erwin is fast enough to move you just barely out of his reach.

Hanji stands still, not being able to move an inch of her body and you realize that she's in a state of shock. It took you nearly a month to help her move on from his death, only for him to appear before you not too long after she accepted his fate.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" He screams from the top of his lungs and you fear he has just drawn the attention of every undead in a five mile radius.

Hanji's hands shake and she desperately but silently gasps for air. Tears stream down her face, clearing a path amongst the dirt on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry." She whispers, her voice fighting to make its way out. "Moblit, I am so sorry."

He stops moving, slowly bringing his hand down. "Hallucinations never apologize."

For the first time, a comforting silence fills the atmosphere and, as he takes a few steps closer to her, you place your hand on the grip of your gun, ready to take him down if he proposes any danger to your beloved.

"Hanji? Is it really you?" He asks, finally letting go of the wooden spear in his hand and tightly gripping her arms.

She nods and neither of them move after that so you decide to take the first step and rush to him. He shifts his hand and extends one of his arms to you so you happily wrap your own arms around him and Hanji, pulling the two of them to a tight embrace.

"I thought you were dead." You whisper, your forehead meeting theirs in the middle and his grip around you thightens.

"Until a few seconds ago, I thought I was too." He says and you finally feel as the other two people in the room join the hug, Levi doesn't even seem to mind the smell coming from Moblit and you can see a few happy tears in his eyes.

"Fuck, I've never been so happy to smell something so bad." Levi says, earning a round of laughter and thus breaking any tension left in the air.

Hanji's hands tremble as she places them on his face, fully engraving his features in her mind, hoping that, if this is a dream, she won't wake up.

It's not until he coughs blood that you all let him go. As Moblit nearly faints, Erwin wraps his arm around his waist, propping his body up while carrying him towards an empty security chair.

You can hear dragged footsteps a few isles to the left and emotionally prepare yourself for the putrid smell of decomposing flesh.

The zombified corpse of a security guard appears from around the corner and you notice his arm is missing as well as the hole in his chest as if someone had tried to kill him before or at least slow him down.

Before you have time to draw your gun, Moblit has already picked up his spear and impaled its head. He doesn't even bat an eyelash and there is absolutely no light in his eyes up until the moment he looks at the four of you.

Speechless, you stare at him with a smile on your face, proud of him but sadness also settles in once you realize that he is only able to defend you like this because he had to fend for himself for so long.