Attack on Titan: Survival and Dedication - Male Reader

PART THREE

Blood rushed to her ears and each beat of her heart became apparent to Alessandra. The shock trooper moved the way they looked, like death. Silent and creeping with a rifle contorted by war.
  The lifeless gaze within its gas mask destroyed any reserves for silence, not that it mattered anymore.
  She gasped, both for a need for air and as a sound of utter terror. The eery silence was finally broken and it all began to unfold.
  A string of foreign language came from above, sounding alert and angered. The soldier stood closer, revealing the dark brown of his fatigues. He asked his partner a question and he answered.
  The man reached down to grip the metal cot before ripping it away and shining his light over Alessandra. The torch was weak but hid the surprise and disgust contorting his olive face.
  She looked to the shock trooper, pleading with her silent and frightful gaze. In that split second, the trooper responded by raising their rifle and killing the soldier furthest from them with a well-placed shot to the chest.
  The shot left her ears ringing, leaving the passionate scream underneath the gas mask a faint background noise.
  With a bayonet raised, they charged, crossing the distance between them unflinching and blazingly fast, even as a bullet snapped by their head or their target gave a panicked scream.
  The trooper prepared themself, bringing their blade in from a low angle to avoid outstretched hands. Then, just before piercing cloth and flesh, brought it up to gouge deep into the man's lungs.
  With a burst of great strength the trooper brought the man to the ground, pinning him to the floorboards underneath. There they held a moment of near-silence where the menacing gas mask muffled their labored breaths and the bayonet ceased any effort of breathing or uttering a curse.
  The trooper looked down at the foreign soldier and he looked back. It was a brief pause where Alessandra actually considered the trooper's humanity or perhaps hesitance. Then, shattering everything she believed in and felt, the trooper pulled their bayonet free and brought it down once more.
  The blade erupted from the back of the man's skull, and just as fast as it entered it exited, opening a ravine of blood from underneath his jaw and parietal bone.
  The sight before her and the growing puddle of blood put Alessandra in a daze. The cold display of power made reality an afterthought, a dimmed play her mind could barely comprehend.
  "—up!" A hand gripped her arm tightly, bringing a whimper of pain and fear from her mouth. She shook within the trooper's hand, scared not only of their situation but her savior.
  "I said get up!" The trooper told her like she was a soldier and them a general.
  On shaky legs, she stood. Her head immediately spun and her vision blacked as blood rushed to her head. Her breaths became gasps before weightlessness took hold.
  "Watch it!" The trooper said, holding her up with an arm underneath her armpits. "Breathe, damnit!"
  The trooper remained, holding her close until her legs steadied and her hands were firm. By then her heart came to a jog and the sound of the world returned.
  "Can you stand??" The trooper asked, snaking their arm away.
  "I-I can, yes." Alessandra huffed and backpedaled until her heel touched the corpse of one of her colleagues.
  "Thank you!" She found herself saying. It slipped with ease like it was an obligation instead of politeness or instinct.
  "Right..." The trooper sighed. "Wait here."
  With their equipment rattling and clothes rustling, they marched out to the trench where the smell of decay only intensified.
  Alessandra waited, never moving. Her mind uttered terrifying things, whispering doubts of the enemy's deaths or that this was even real to begin with.
  A hand on her shoulder made her flinch and the lifeless shine of round lenses nearly made her scream. But as the seconds ticked by, she came back to the horrid reality they were trapped in.
  "They're scouts." The trooper said, taking their hand away to rifle through their belongings. "Come here."
  A frown began to settle on the nurse's face as the ringing from the gunshot subsided. She blinked in surprise when the muffled voice became more and more familiar.
  "Here." The trooper took one of the man's many pouches and tossed it to her for her to hold it close.
  "Yvonne...?" Alessandra murmured.
  The trooper gave a brief pause to turn back, acknowledging her name. The revelation somehow made everything, her fear, hopelessness, and hunger, disappear.
  When Yvonne stood with the man's rifle in hand, she was engulfed in warmth. A hug is what it was, and it felt just as foreign as the soldier she'd slain mere moments ago.
  "Thank you!" She heard Alessandra hiss into her shoulder.
  Yvonne froze for however long her nurse remained. She scanned the dirt walls beyond her and listened for anything that wasn't the sound of clothes rubbing over each other.
  "We... we need to leave." Yvonne said as she took hold of Alessandra's curled arm and pulled.
  There was a flash, a pang, of discouragement in Alessandra's dark brown eyes. It could have easily just been a crack in the security Yvonne unknowingly offered, or genuine sadness from her indifference to such affection. In the end, it left little to no impression on the trooper.
  "You... you know where to go?" Alessandra asked, scared to even hear her response.
  "Maybe." Yvonne sighed and pulled away from her warmth. "Here."
  She handed her the dead man's rifle. The weight and new sensation brought Alessandra to a long pause.
  "Do you know how to shoot?" Yvonne asked while disrobing the soldier she had shot.
  "U-um, yes."
  "Okay, then grab all of their ammo."
  "What are you doing?" Alessandra had to ask. She hoped she wasn't planning what she thought she was.
  "Never mind that." Yvonne chastised. "Hurry!"
  Her stern voice had her moving. She collected two bandoliers of ammunition and a few pouches of supplies. Most of which were canned goods, two water bladders, and only the most basic medical supplies.
  "There, put it on." Yvonne tossed a pile of clothes and a pair of boots on a nearby crate and returned to the corpse. The outfit was stained with blood over the right breast pocket but was otherwise fine with only a light dusting of dried mud over the knees and sleeves.
  Alessandra did as she was told. She couldn't imagine herself navigating this land in a long skirt anyway.
  Privacy seemed to be more of a luxury at this point. Which didn't seem to be a problem for either of them. Yvonne stood by the exit, only looking back to check on her before turning back to the dark and still trenches.
  Dawning the dead's clothes felt wrong. The smell of cigarettes and soap held a story, a beginning and end that wasn't hers. The very idea made her envision a life, a family, and friends. Scenarios and ideas that could have been ripped away in just a matter of seconds.
  Yvonne noticed her distant gaze and brought her back with her hands on her leather bandolier.
  "Look at me." The trooper gave her a good shake, making her heart jump and her hands clench with a tingly reaction. "You shoot when I shoot, you run when I run. Understood?"
  "I-I understand." Alessandra nodded. Her breath hitched and shook with anxiety and rising nerves when she tightened her belts and loops. There wasn't a pause of celebration or rest like she had hoped. They were leaving and Yvonne was taking her into the closest thing to hell itself.
  After so many days of fighting, nonstop ear-ringing moments, and earth-shattering explosions, Alessandra would finally be leaving. True, it wasn't the departure she had been hoping for, but it was one nonetheless.
  They huddled close to the exit, hugging its wooden arch that began to crack and rot before them. After a moment of waiting, Alessandra felt Yvonne reach back and tap her arm.
  She moved with a certain savagery, an uncaring but menacing stride. Her rifle was at the ready and her shovel, a bladed tool and weapon, hung on her hip, bouncing with each fearless bound in her long strides.
  Alessandra only noticed until now that Yvonne had to have been at least half a head taller than her. It wasn't much, yes, but that made her almost as tall as most men.
  Her thoughtful pause came to an end when she followed. Her posture was much more closed with a smaller figure to boot. She handled her weapon with experience Yvonne eclipsed and walked with a polar opposite stature put under her large boots.
  They came to a sharp bend in the trench. The idea of an ambush didn't escape them, but the faint light coming from up ahead was
tantalizing.
  Yvonne hugged the wall and gave a quick peek. Alessandra huddled closer, forgetting the weapon in her hands.
  "Let's go." The trooper sighed. The whistling breath was almost disappointing in tone, or perhaps tired. It was hard to tell despite the many days they had spent together.
  Their approach was slow, near-silent. Yvonne had her weapon raised as they approached the coming day while Alessandra didn't trust herself enough to aim with her so close.
  With one foot in front of the other, they came to the end, allowing the afternoon sun to greet their cold, weary bodies.
  The world felt unnaturally still. There wasn't a lick of wind to touch her face, nor a chirp of a bird or insect. It was as if the world itself had ended.
  Alessandra allowed herself a moment to breathe the fresh air and feel the cold embrace of a coming winter. She could have stood there forever if not for Yvonne yanking her to the side.
  Voices came from up ahead, too close to turn around or jump the surrounding sandbags. With only the cover of a collapsed tunnel, they waited.
  Yvonne raised a finger to where her lips would be, silencing the nurse's growing breaths filled with fear.
  They stood deathly still as the foreign soldiers crept closer and closer. There was caution in their voices as they approached, seemingly aware of their comrades' silence.
  They asked one another a question they couldn't answer. When a moment of silence was laid over them, they moved.
  Alessandra's eyes widened in shock as one of the men sauntered past. There was annoyance in his voice like he was dealing with children instead of the idea of enemy soldiers.
  They waited another moment. Each second felt like a few and the minute as a whole a lifetime. Alessandra wanted to ask why they weren't running, why they didn't use this moment to cross the enemy line. Then came a loud and terrifying answer.
  A dull but solid pop echoed over No Man's Land, then screams of agonizing pain.
  The foreigners erupted in shouted orders and beckoning calls. A few more soldiers ran past, coming to their comrades' aid.
  "Go!" Yvonne hissed and took off running.
  Was it a stroke of luck? An answered prayer? Alessandra didn't know it but Yvonne had planted a grenade under the dead man they had looted.
  Alessandra gave chase without a thought of how loud they were. All that seemed to matter now was building as much distance as possible.
  They turned again and continued along the main line, running as fast as Alessandra could for as long as she could.
  Their throats burned and muscles protested, but the more the voices faded the further they pushed themselves. With a titanic effort, they were far from earshot.
  "W-wait." Alessandra gasped while collapsing to her knees.
  "Come on." Yvonne pulled her up and offered her water bladder. "Here..."
  She sipped the cold, sweet water with an unrestrained gusto. If not for the trooper she would have squeezed the leather dry.
  "Okay." Yvonne looked both ways and nodded. "Ready?"
  "Wait." Alessandra coughed and nearly hurled. "Please..."
  "Catch your breath." Yvonne told her before taking a sip of the water herself.
  It had to have been twenty seconds before she took her arm and continued running. Her silence didn't assure her and only made her run faster.