"Please Don't Go."(Levi X reader)

Chapter Five (revised)

"Fuck! It's so cold!" Ingrid shouted, shivering. It's been half a year since we've started our rigorous training. Everyone had a set in stone schedule. ODM Training, classroom work, Endurance training, and hand-to-hand combat. With the winter snow coming in strong we've had daily runs in place of ODM training. Trees are weaker in the winter. When the spring comes around I believe we start training with horses.

I nodded my head in agreement adjusting the heavy bag on my back. I felt a chill run up my spine. I pulled my hood further over my head and fixed my mask over my nose. I shoved my gloved hands further into the down jacket trying to stimulate any warmth. A huge gust of cool, wind blew. Ingrid was right; it's freezing.

"I've never heard you swear." I mumbled through the mask, tugging at the fur lining the hood. I look over at Ingrid her blonde hair falling onto her shoulders. Ingrid looked up, pulling her back down and smiling.

"I do it every once in a while, if it gets the point across." She noted. Ingrid and I have gotten a little closer. The more I got to know her, the more she reminded me of my younger sister. Ingrid acted like a weird coping mechanism. She helped me sort-of come to terms with my sister's death. She and I walked next to each other. It was bitter cold and the snow was deep. I shifted my gaze upward to the sky. I had been staring at the white, powdery snow for far too long. The sun was setting insinuating that it was going to get even colder. Although the dreadful cold was killing us, Ingrid and I kept pushing on.

"Get the map from my bag real quick." I instructed, "We can't waste any time stopping. If the temperature drops anymore and we are stuck out here we could get frostbite or hypothermia."

Ingrid didn't argue and stepped behind me to grab the map from my bag. She handed it over to me. I unrolled the map and looked down, keeping on pace. I analyzed the map trying to draw landmarks from the map and the woods around me. I groaned.

"Fuck."

Ingrid glanced at me, her eyes twinkling in concern. "Everything okay?" Her tone was serious.

"Ingrid, how long have we been walking?" I started chewing on the inside of my cheek. We had been walking for what seemed like two hours. The instructors said that it would take two hours to get to the camp.

"I think two hours. We have been traveling slow." She mentioned.

I sniffled, taking the handkerchief from my pocket and whipped my nose. My teeth started uncontrollably chattering. "You think people would have passed us by now. We were one of the first groups to leave base."

"So we are lost..?" Ingrid said, biting her lip. I just nodded my head trying to keep as level-minded as possible. Panicking would only make matters worse, but I could already sense the fear bubbling from Ingrid.

"I don't mean to put it so bluntly but we are. We can't afford to waste time. If we are stranded outside in the dark we will possibly die. No need to fret because we should be able to retrace our footsteps because there is no storm. The wind is tame--for now--so as long as we go back we will find a landmark." I tried to reason. The plan was faulty and needed to be polished but it was all we had in the unfamiliar forest littered in snow. Pivoting on my heel in a complete 180 I started following my footsteps. I kept staring at the map trying to see where we could've taken a wrong turn.

After about twenty minutes, Ingrid and I had emerged from the steep hill. I scanned the area, occasionally glancing from the map. The area was familiar, but was still unrecognized from the map. I looked at the ground, noticing our tracks and kept following them.

Eventually Ingrid and I had walked to a clearing in the woods. I looked down at my map to see if I could make connections to my setting. To our luck, the clearing was clearly marked right in the center of the map. That meant that we had to be close to the trail.