𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙰𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙴𝙲𝚁𝙴𝚃𝚂

8

The day when they had planned to go to the surface had come quickly. Y/N had been busy with getting everything in order and taking over her uncle's business (who had suddenly fallen incredibly ill and that's why she was taking over), that she barely had time to realize how quickly that day was here. Thankfully, all of her uncle's clients bought her story about him getting sick or at least didn't doubt it enough to make a fuss over it. They still got what they wanted, so they were happy.

Y/N had started going through the books that her uncle had, cleaning out the house, only keeping necessary things in it and taking notes about everything new she was reading, while at the same time continuing to teach Levi how to read and practice with the ODM gear, so they could easily get to the surface and move around there. Y/N felt like she could barely get any time to relax, but she didn't mind. She'd soon be able to go to the surface and see everything for herself.

And now the time was finally here. Levi, Isabel and Farlan had picked her up in the middle of the night and they had made their way through several caves and narrow tunnels and now they were finally at the surface. They were all wearing long, dark cloaks, hoods pulled down over their faces, so people wouldn't see them as well. Y/N was sure that they would be much more suspicious with those cloaks, since they would have definitely made quite the impression underground.

But up here on the surface there was almost no one around. There were patrols from the military police, and the odd person heading home through the streets, but apart from that it was eerily quiet. Y/N was glad it was like that, because it gave her enough time to actually appreciate things - the stars up above, the smell of fresh air, the way everything looked so wide and open... it was almost a little scary.

And that was just from her standing in the street - they were planning to go up on top of the buildings soon to get closer to one of the churches, so they could sneak in and spy on the clergy - see where they kept their supplies, where they kept their books, how securely they were locked away, how well guarded they were and whether there was any way around all that for the four of them.

Y/N already felt like she was going to burst from seeing all of this open space, but Isabel had assured her that she hadn't even seen the best part yet. Being up here was incredible. She couldn't ever remember feeling so free and unrestrained. It felt like the streets here were going on forever, like she could just go and walk away from everything, but obviously that wasn't an option.

If they were caught by the MP up here they'd go to jail or they'd be shot and even if they didn't get caught, they'd soon hit one of the walls and those were basically impossible to scale undetected. That's at least what everyone said. And then they'd have more walls to scale and even if they got out of the whole thing there was an entire world full of Titans out there, waiting to eat them alive. It wasn't worth it. But just seeing the surface world like this... it felt amazing.

"Come on, Y/N. Get ready to go up." Levi said and nudged her. They had been waiting around a corner for an MP patrol to pass and it seemed like now was the time to get moving. Y/N nodded and got ready to use her ODM gear to catapult herself up onto the roof that Levi had pointed out earlier.

"Right. On the count of three, we move up there and then immediately onto the church tower on the other side of the street. Don't bump into each other and make as little noise as possible and hide inside the bell tower as soon as you can. Alright?" Levi told them. There were nods from everyone. He looked around the corner one last time to make sure everything was clear, before counting down.

"Okay... one... two... three!" he said. Y/N barely noticed what she was doing, all she heard was the zipping noise of the ODM gear, as they moved through the air. Landing silently was a challenge, but somehow they managed to land with a more or less quiet thud, before turning around and heading up to the bell tower. If anyone had heard them, they would be hidden from sight by the time they looked out of their windows.

Y/N wished that she had a little more time to take a look at the city from so high up, but she did catch a glance of the walls. They looked massive and intimidating and she was glad that she wasn't anywhere close to them, if they were already intimidating from so far away. At the same time there was a certain curiosity inside her as to what was beyond those walls... whether the oceans actually existed, the deserts, all the things that were described in some of the books she had read.

Once she had landed on the belltower she quickly climbed in through the windows. Looking down was making her feel dizzy. The tower was so tall and if she made one wrong step she'd fall down and probably be dead immediately. But they somehow had to climb down there without making much noise at all and it was a daunting task to say the least. Even Farlan and Isabel seemed a little taken aback by it. But Levi didn't seem to care much - then again, he was indifferent to basically anything.

"Right, I'll go ahead and you follow me. Don't make any noise. We'll be in the main part of the church and there shouldn't be anyone awake at this time... We'll need to find out whether anyone is guarding the church and where they store their supplies and books." Levi told them, before carefully climbing down, ODM gear at the ready, in case he needed it. Y/N took a deep breath and followed him, careful not to make any mistakes or any missteps. Her heart was beating fast in her chest.

She had wanted to get close to some of the secrets the clergy were hiding for so, so long. This might just be her chance. Her chance to get closer to the truth, to knowing what was going on around her, what was going on in the surface world and possibly even beyond the walls. She wanted to know everything. Every little thing she could. Everything about their history, about the Titans, what they were, where they came from, how the world beyond the walls looked, whether there were any people out there maybe, anything at all. She could feel the blood rushing through her veins as they descended further, getting ever closer to learning what might be going on in this world. Y/N could barely believe that she might even manage to get a hold of the books her parents died for. It seemed so surreal that that might be happening and yet here she was. Getting ready to take back whatever knowledge she could.