Choices

Chapter 33

     "Long time no see," Annie spoke. Her face was in the shadows, the torches that lit the dungeon were behind her.
     "Yeah, two years," Eren replied, finally eating after nearly four days. 
     "Why don't you just break out? You have super human power," Annie asked.
     "What's the point of that? I'd just be executed if they caught me," Eren muttered.
     "Don't get caught," Annie replied.
     "Easier said than done,"
     "Anyone can escape the MPs they have no experience," Annie told him.
     "Is that so?" Eren's voice was filled with humorous curiosity.
     "Yeah, some of them have trouble strapping on their ODM gear," Annie said, her voice still monotonuous.
     "Seriously?" Eren was amazed. "We have to take apart the cable retracters and put them back together in three minutes," Eren complained.
     "It would an MP three hours," she replied.
     "Is this my only meal?" Eren asked.
     "For the day,"
     ''What time is it?
     "It's four in the evening," Annie informed.
     "Alright," he sighed. "Thanks," he said sincerely.
     She walked out without a word. He went to the bed he was chained to and layed down in it. He sank into the soft amazingness under him, covering himself with the blanket that he was warming up with his body heat. He felt full for the first time in days. He fell into a comfortable deep sleep...
     "Eren!" A voice whispered loudly. He was stirred from his sleep.
     "Huh?" He sat up, the cold chains shifting around his wrists.
     "Eren, it's me, Hanji," she whispered. Hanji lit the torch. Light flooded the room.
     "You bitch! You're gonna get me executed!" He roared suddenly, fully awake. Eren ripped his arm forward, he felt the chain almost snap. He toned it down slightly. "I'll kill you," he whispered back.
     "I know a way to get Annie to admit she's a Titan," Hanji whispered back as she limped toward the cell door.
     "How?" He asked.
     "Erwin is getting you pardoned as we speak, but the MPs want you to stay in their custody for a while," he could hear the smile in her voice.
     "So?" Eren said sharply. "So what if I stay in the Utopia District?" Eren was pissed.
     "You spend time with her, get closer to her, and then take the chance when you see it to get her to admit it," she explained.
     "Will I still be in the cell?" He asked.
     "Hell no, you'll be hanging around with MPs in their barracks and out doing patrols out in the streets with them," she explained more.
     "Why?" He wondered.
     "The MPs want to make an example of you, the Survey Corps and the MPs hate eachother, they think you won't know anything about gear, fighting, manoeuvering etc,"
     "I see, I'll do what I can," he told her with confidence. "But I still hate you," he finished.
     "I'm the one that got hurt!" She argued.
     "You're the one that got me locked in a dungeon,"
     "For hurting me,"
     "Whatever," Eren grumbled, knowing he was losing the argument.
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     "Come on, freak," Nile Dok ordered as he roughly unchained Eren and shoved him out of the dungeon.
     "What the hell?!" Eren questioned as he felt the sharp ODM blade poke him in the back.
     "I said move!" Roard Nile's voice. The roar was nearly as loud as Erwin's.
     "Tell me where I'm going!" Eren argued back.
     "The ODM armoury now move you worthless piece of horseshit!"
     "That's all I needed to know!"
     Eren walked the whole way to the armoury. A blade poking his back the whole way. The HQ for the MPs was massive, at least five times the size of the Survey Corps. HQ. The MPs had literally thousands of members. That was obvious when he passed through the barracks. The rooms were hundreds of feet long and filled with bunks. The outnumbered the Survey Corps.
      The Survey Corps. Had a few hundred. Maybe. But that was because at least half of their forces were killed or wounded.
     "Here it is," Nile announced, finally sheathing the bladde he had stabbed into Eren's back.
     "It's massive," Eren gasped with child like wonder.
     "Yes it is," Nile said dismissively. They walked through the maze of ODM gear.
      Eren had never seen anything like it. There were so many blade boxes, so many cores, so many gas tanks. It was unreal. He had seen different ODM designs with pistols instead of blades. Admittedly, those ones scared him. There were blades that were taller than him on racks.
      "Clean every set of ODM gear in that pile. And if it's unorganized then reorganize them," Nile shoved him roughly.
      "I'll assign you a guard, when you're done report to Marlo. He'll be in the courtyard." And Nile was gone.
     Eren had a lot of cleaning and oiling to do. He pulled a crate up and got to work. He started with the retracting drums and moved onto to the inner blade boxes. His guard showed up a few minutes before he finished the retracting drums. Then he moved onto the the handles that held the blades. His guard's name was Hitch, a cute petite blonde. She noticed that he was a fast cleaner. She leaned on a wooden beam with her blade in front of her like a cane with a bored look on her face.
    "How do you clean them so fast?" She asked. He laughed.
    "I was recruited into the Survey Corps early, so I spent my fist six months using horseshit as a pillow and doing laundrey, cleaning gear is part of laundry." He told her.
    "Huh, how'd you get recruited early?" She asked him.
    "I was top in my class and caught the attention of the three branches, so they chose me, in which I chose the Survey Corps." He explained.
     "Oh," was all that she replied with. "Think you could help me with my gear?" She asked hesitantly.
     "Sure, I'll show you the innards of ODM gear," he laughed.
     And so he showed her. She pulled a crate up next to his and watched over his shoulder as he sprayed oil onto the drum and started scraping with a wire brush. He worked harder on it than most. Then he moved on to the handle. It was sticky and the triggers got stuck a lot.
     "What the hell is the matter with this thing?" He asked her in amazement, and disgust.
     "Oh uh, Marlo spilled some beer on it while we were on patrol a while back," she laughed.
     "If you went against a Titan with your gear in this condition you wouldn't make it,"
     She went pale.
     "Exactly," he answered her silence.
     "Always keep your gear in working condition, if not you're gonna die,"
       She helped him clean the rest of the gear.
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