LIfe's Too Short

Chapter 19

Petra sighed at all the heavy crates containing 3DMG and horse gear among other things, such as cloaks and jackets, etc. They reminded her of her trainee days with Sara.

"Alright, let's start moving these crates!" Katherine said to her team. She had gotten the clipboard containing all the transfer information from an acquaintance from the Survey Corps named Eric. He had taken a second look at her face but then shook his head and handed her the info.

They trainees with her all nodded and starting grouping up into pairs of two and taking each crate. Fortunately, Lisa was in her group and they moved the crates together. Petra could have managed herself, but she had to pretend she was weaker than she actually was.

After all the crates were moved, her team all sat down against the wall, panting and sweating.

Some tiny fragment of Petra thought that Levi would just magically appear out of nowhere, but that thought was crushed when she realized that the vice-captain rarely, almost never, took care of supply transport. That was for other squad leaders and their subordinates to do.

Katherine let her team rest for ten minutes before the next load of supplies came for them. This was going to be a blast, these were for the tent supplies, chock full of metal beams, bars, table pieces, and many more unbearably hefty items.

Lisa offered to wrap the hands of those who had cut or blistered their hands on the heavy and splintery crates after they were done.

There was one girl in particular, whose palm had a large gash running through it, bleeding heavily. She couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen, and she was sobbing, wincing in pain as Lisa disinfected the cut. The sight saddened Petra, she herself wincing.

Katherine walked up to her after Lisa went to treat others. She sat down next to the girl.

"How's your hand?" she asked.

The girl looked up at her with crystal-blue eyes, her nose red from crying.

"Well," she began to say. "It hurts..."

Katherine looked down at it in pity, half-dried blood staining through the bandages.

"We've only got one more load to go, so you don't have to help lift if you don't want to," she said.

The girl smiled slightly.

"Thank you so much."

"Don't worry about it."

She gained dirty looks from some of the people in her group, while others looked down at the girl in pity.

Petra glared back at them fiercely.

"Let's get back to work!" she announced. "We've got one load left!"

The following week marked the quarter-point of their training, which varied from three years to three and a half. During Petra's first year, it was three and a half, since there were a lot of drop outs and slackers slowing down the process. It wasn't like when Wall Maria fell and humanity had taken the Survey Corps more seriously, let alone the military altogether. Most of the trainees simply enlisted for a chance to get a ticket to the interior. But not Petra. She wanted to make a difference, one way or another.

During this time, trainees were allowed to visit their families (assuming they had any) for one week.

"Are you going to visit your family?" Katherine asked Lisa during dinner.

She looked up, her brown eyes meeting Katherine's green ones.

"I was thinking about it, but I decided not to," she said, her voice somewhat quieter than usual.