Damage & Decay

Chapter 33

Part Three: Lost Girls

"Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only one second without hope."

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They came down another slope and there, nestled between a long tumble of boulders left over from a glacier thousands of years ago, was a stream that glimmered like a blue ribbon through the forest. They dismounted and led the horses as they followed a crooked path that kept trees between them and whoever might be down there--bounty hunters or zoms. Chief clearly did not want to go that way and tugged on the reins; Apache looked equally nervous.

Armin picked up some loose bits of dirt and leaf debris and threw it into the air, watching where the wind took it. "Wind's blowing toward us. If we stay on this side of the creek, we should be okay. But we'll need to keep our voices low."

The path along the creek had once been a scenic country road, and it was wide enough for them to walk side-by-side, leading the horses.

"Armin?"

"Yeah."

"We're going to find her, aren't we?"

"Mikasa? I--"

"No," Eren said, "Nix. We're going to find her, right?"

"We're going to try."

"That's not good enough, man. We've got  to find her. She's lost everything. Everyone. We can't . . . abandon her."

"We won't."

"Swear it."

Armin looked at him.

"Swear that no matter what happens, we'll find her. That we'll never stop looking for her."

In another place, under the circumstances, what Armin did next might have seemed silly or corny,  but out here in the Ruins it had a strange sense of grandeur, perhaps of nobility. Armin placed his hand over his heart.

Eren nodded.

They walked on, entering the thickest part of the forest that ran alongside the creek. Under the roof of leaves the air was cooler, but it was as damp as a cave. There were so many songbirds singing in the branches that it was impossible to pick out a particular voice.

Half a mile in, Armin knelt and ran his fingers over the damp grass. "Got you, you bastard!"

"What is it?"

"Footprints. Big, have to be Charlie's. Grass hasn't even had time to unbend all the way."

"How long?"

"Half and hour. We're close now, kiddo. Time to move quick and quiet."

"The horses make a lot of noise."

"I know, but it's what we have, so we'll need to be twice as vigilant."

They remounted, and Armin led the way down the grassy lane. The soft green of the grass as it ran along the glistening blue water, and the constant birdsong all around them, gave the moment a fairy tale feeling that Eren found hard to shake. It was unreal, even surreal in its gentle, unhurried beauty. So at odds with everything that was real in their immediate world of hurt and harm and hurry.

"Armin? About Gameland. Do you know for sure that they rebuilt it?"

"Not firsthand, but from people whose word I believe. People who said that Mikasa's been there. Even if we don't find it today, I'll keep looking for it."