Fear

Chapter 2: The Wall

Grisha Jeager was no where to be found.

The town's doctor had seemingly disappeared with no trace. Carla Jeager, his wife, said that he had left not even ten minutes ago, yet she doesn't know where exactly he went. The only helpful information she has was that he was heading inward, towards the captial. So that only left us one choice-

To go inwards- to wall Rose in an attempt to catch up-

"Ouch!"

It all happened in a span of a few seconds. After bumping into Michael's back, Gabriel had hit the ground- barely managing to clutch his leather-bound journal to his chest. Unfortunately, his stick of coal wasn't as fortunate. He had ended up smashing it into smithereens.

"I told you, Gabe, you've gotta look where you're going. Seriously, save the journaling for when you're sitting down." Michael pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, before shaking his head, "Now, put your journal away so we can pick up the pace. If we don't speed up I doubt we'll have any chance of catching up to Dr. Jeager."

"I can't help it, Mike. What if I forget something?" Gabriel's brows furrow as he stuffs his journal into his satchel.

"You're hopeless, Gabe. Why would you need to document something like this. A few years from now you'll see that it doesn't even matter. You'll look back and think about how over-dramatic you are and how everything worked out fine." Michael shakes his head, digging into his pocket for a hanky. "You're lucky I keep an extra hanky on hand- I usually save them for damsels in distress. Of course you're not a cute girl, but I guess you're close enough to a damsel."

"Tch." Gabriel clicks his tongue, but takes the cloth none the less. "Why didn't we just ask the garrison to send for Dr. Jeager? It probably would've been a lot faster, and less likely to fail."

"Ha! Like who? Hannes. I bet you they're all drunk off their asses. They probably can't even walk in a straight line, much less be able to find the town's doctor." Michael scoffs. As far as he's concerned the Garrison is the biggest waste of time and money within the walls. They could be sending these people and the money to the Scouting Regiment, even the military police would probably be better. Not that Michael has ever seen the Military Police, but they can't be worse than the Garrison right?

"Fine, I get it. Let's just get moving."

The twins continue on in silence, their shoes crunching the gravel under their feet. Michael takes in the normality of it all. He easily recognizes many of the people milling about- Their family's bakery is the only one in Shiganshina, and possibly the most popular bakery in Wall Maria. Well... it would be if people felt like traveling out to the border towns more often. He easily recognizes the various people littered about. Mr. Grey that runs the butcher shop- he enjoys 1pain au chocolat. Mrs. Fischer that teaches the school children after coming back from her family home in Wall Rose- she always buys blueberry muffins on Monday mornings before school starts. And Mrs. Braun- her son joined the Survey corps straight out of the training corps. Both particularly enjoy snickerdoodle cookies. The woman is very sweet, if not a little overbearing, it just seems today she is incredibly somber- wandering the roads with a green lump of cloth clutched to her chest.

"Hey, Mrs. Bra-" A large crackle of thunder shakes the ground, making him stumble, his glasses hitting the ground.

"That's odd." Gabriel looks up at the sky. Perfectly clear, with only a few clouds. "It doesn't look like a storm."

"Hm." Michael counts himself lucky that his eyesight isn't too bad, easily finding his glasses and putting them back on. "Maybe there's storm clouds over that way?..."

The red-head picks himself off the ground, and clicks his tongue. Now his hands are dirty, he just washed them before they left, not to mention Gabriel still has his spare hanky. Speaking of...

"Is something wrong? You've been awfully quiet?" Gabriel doesn't say a word, only staring off in the distance, "Hey what are you-"

Michael's breath catches in his throat. A cold feeling of shock traveling down his spine. He never thought he'd see one so soon... He thought he'd have more time. He thought he'd have 3 years of training to prepare for this. His legs feel like lead, pinning him to the ground.

'Is this how I'll die?'