Chapter Five: The Expedition of the Districts

Cackling.

That's what I heard that morning as I tried to catch up on my forty-eight hours of sleep in the comfortable bed of my new quarters. The heavy footfalls of people began to disturb me to the point that I could claim to hear them coming through the door, breaking my sleep.

"Do you think it's a good thing to wake her up?"

"We have no other choice." A manly voice replied. "Captain Rivaille and Commander Chris have instructed us to wake you up for breakfast." He added. "In two hours we have to leave for the mission."

The only thing I could wonder was why someone would talk so much at the crack of dawn? I had a great desire to sleep for five years straight, but they wouldn't let me. Sleeping was one of my great weaknesses.

"Try shaking it." He suggested the presence of a female voice. I wrinkled my forehead, believing it was just a bad nightmare. I lifted the covers up to my neck, sinking my face into the pillow and moaned moans.

"Did you hear her?" The manly, agitated voice asked. "She moved and moaned. Now she's killing us!"

"Of course she moved, Alois: she's still alive!"

Why is Alois in my room?

"Try to wake her up calmly. Surely she won't attack you like she did all the times with Edward. No wonder he no longer takes responsibility for waking her up."

In short, I had a bad habit of staying awake even for a whole week, however, when I closed my eyes it was difficult to bring me back to life. From what I had gathered in the few times I had slapped Edward in his sleep in my first year as a recruit, the poor guy wanted no more of it. As far as he was concerned, I could stay quietly in bed lounging or croaking.

Perspectives that made no difference.

"What if he slapped me?" Alois whispered.

"In that case, I will try to remove you from his clutches."

I blinked, sensing that they were heavier than usual. First I observed the wall on which the bed rested. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alois's anxious face and Alexandra's serious one. I looked up when she felt my shoulder move, almost as if she was afraid to make a misstep.

"Guys..." I muttered in a voice weighed down by sleep, staring with lazy eyes at an indefinite fixed point.

When they say calm is the virtue of the strong.

The two let out a slight cry of surprise and quickly turned around. "General Schwarz, 'morning!" They pronounced in unison, causing me to snort faintly. "Captain Rivaille and Commander Chris instructed us to come and wake you up to have breakfast in the common room. It was the commander's order," Alois mechanically explained, while I mentally cursed at those two. "Please, don't kill us....." he whispered quietly and I yawned, bringing a hand to my mouth.

I turned my head in their direction and sat down, pulling up my arms and stretching my aching bones.

"Why did you keep mumbling? With all that mumbling you equally woke me up." I said this without using any kind of tone, crinkling one eye, while with my other hand I held the sheet tightly to my chest.

Alexandra gave a sigh of relief. "Forgive me General, but you are not a very sociable person early in the morning."

"Yes, Edward told us about all the times he tried to wake her up and she played with it. That's why Alexandra and I were undecided about what to do."

"For Edward, any excuse was good to get on my nerves," I shook the blankets off my legs and placed my feet on the icy floor "And anyway, in any case, I would never have allowed myself to slap you, without a good reason. With Edward, it was and is an outburst." I emphasized amusedly, causing a smile to appear on his lips. I got out of bed, massaging the back of my head.

Suddenly their faces turned red. Tremendously red.

"What? You can go now. See you in the common room." I dismissed them, lazily pointing to the door.

Alois gasped like a little fish out of water and looked away abruptly. Alexandra pointed hesitantly. "General, she... She is not wearing pants." I swallowed the lump in my throat and opened my eyes wide, letting them reach my bare legs and the skimpy panties in the middle of my buttocks.

By instinct I covered myself by tightening my legs, and before I could grab them by the lapels and impart punishment, they ran like thunderbolts out of the room, exclaiming a, "Excuse us, General!" As I looked around embarrassed, searching for my pants so I could cover myself.

They had seen me half-naked.

The morning had not started in the best way. Certainly fifty percent of the blame was mine; I should not have fallen asleep in that state. If something had happened and I would not have had time to put on my pants? Surely I would have hesitated to give answers to my superiors.

I crossed the threshold of the entrance, and lo and behold, my ears became one with my vision, muffling and blurring. The pain in my head and the itch in the back of my neck disturbed me, as if they were warning me of what was going to happen soon: catastrophe, I supposed. I looked around me, observing the tables crowded with recruits eating breakfast: those who were eating and those who preferred to talk while avoiding giving themselves a demeanor. I wondered how they could get all that energy early in the morning.

I rushed to the table with the leftover food. I chose to drink a cup of coffee without sugar and eat a flatbread, avoiding disgusting my stomach with sweet things. I hated gorging on food, but to keep my strength up I absolutely needed it like water.

"Kesey! Hey, Kesey!" From a distance, I saw Siena waving a small hand in the air to be noticed and pointed to the seat next to her at the top table. Sighing deeply, I nodded to her, extending a tugged smile.

Had I mentioned that I detested cheerful people early in the morning? Besides, what did they have to smile about so much?

It was morning.

I pulled up to the table and noticed out of the corner of my eye those on my team. Edward had just sat at the table with a pained expression on his face, a remnant of the lecture he had given the night before, drinking from the steel cup; Isak was staring dejectedly out the window; Alois and Alexandra, on the other hand, were silent and staring into space.

"Can you explain to me why you are so taciturn? It's not like you." Edward affirmed, placing his glass on the table. Alois and Alexandra continued to stare at an undefined point in front of them, ignoring it. "Isak, man," he called back to the boy with a gentle nudge to his side, and the latter turned his head, watching him annoyed " Help me. Alois and Alexandra seem to have seen a ghost."

Isak turned his gaze first to Edward and then to the latter, sighing. "It was your idea to send them to the General's room. It was your job. Surely you must have kicked and slapped them, like in the good old days." He smiled mischievously and raised an eyebrow, bringing his glass to his lips.

Alois lifted his gaze to Isak and swallowed, "Worse..." He muttered, resting his eyes on me. At that point he turned redder than ever and shifted his gaze as if he were burning.

Alexandra looked around. "The General was only wearing ... underwear." She revealed this in a perceptible whisper, sending my ears perking.

Isak spit the milk into Alois's face, who remained impassive, and Edward looked at them as if they had three heads. "What?" they exclaimed in unison.

I turned red and quickly positioned myself at the table next to Sienna, to avoid my companions' eyes meeting mine. I placed my coffee cup on the coffee table and tucked a strand of raven hair behind my ear. "You are not a morning person, Kesey. I had to send soldiers from your squad to get you out of bed." Chris spoke, drinking his tea, along with Rivaille.

I gave him a dirty look, and Sienna looked at me thoughtfully. "Mind your own fucking business next time, Chris." I grunted, drowning my embarrassment in coffee.

Chris smiled guiltily and shrugged his shoulders. "You're also in a bad mood. Did something happen?" He pointed out, throwing gasoline on the fire.

"It's nothing..." I replied.

Rivaille took the cup from the rim and cast a quick glance toward me before drowning in his tea. I coughed.

"Kesey..." Rivaille called to me, continuing to observe my shirt carefully. I frowned and lowered my gaze, trying to figure out what was wrong. He sighed deeply, irritated. "The shirt." He mimicked with his lips, shifting his eyes from mine to my chest.

"Could you also tell me in words what the fuck you want first thing in the morning?!" I exclaimed annoyed by his mysterious behavior. Chris chuckled under his mustache and Siena blinked with a strange light in her eyes.

Rivaille narrowed his eyes, pondering with all his might not to answer me in the same tone I had used against him. "The buttons on your shirt are closed inside out."

I violently caught my lower lip between my teeth and turned my gaze to Siena. "You kept your gaze fixed on me because you noticed. Didn't you?"

A mischievous smile crossed Siena's face, and she returned her focus to her teacup as if nothing had happened. Rivaille cast a glance at Siena and I turned with my torso, unfastening the first four buttons and quickly re buttoning them before anyone pointed out anything else uncomfortable.

As soon as I turned around, Rivaille's piercing, unquestioning eyes settled on my chest, tearing me to the bone marrow. I thought that I was not so indifferent to him after all.

The mission was about to begin, and we were all standing in front of the big gate of the District 16 Barrier, riding our horses. My team, as in any expedition, was buzzing, and Edward, unlike the others, seemed more determined, despite having a superfluous bruise on his abdomen. I wished I could have gotten inside his head to understand what he was thinking.

Chris had reiterated to me several times that Rivaille's team would be in charge of Edmund's protection and that I would be scattered around the perimeter of the area with my teammates to guard the territory. We were not to do anything different than usual, however, at the thought that Rivaille would have to take care of Edmund's protection, I felt a certain amount of envy.

At first I hesitated, not agreeing with the choice, but Edmund's almost unintelligible expression had calmed my simmering spirits. I thought he was not enjoying himself either.

After all, he had lost so many comrades, but that had not diminished his vengeful spirit; if anything, it had amplified it.

Commander Chris was explaining how the Reconnaissance Army of both Divisions would adopt the long-distance patrol formation, in which soldiers would spread out over a wide area and communicate by firing smoke grenade in case of the presence of behemoths, to alert the nearest group and avoid them, but without attacking.

I was not agitated, although the itch on the back of my neck continued to bother me. I lowered my gaze to the hands clasped in my horse's reins. Sometimes I reflected on the fact that perhaps they could never be afraid in their lives, all the times we mounted them and left the Districts. I was certain that they, too, did not fare well.

Horses sensed the mood of their master, and if the latter was agitated or frightened, they too would begin to be affected, even becoming agitated and afraid.

"Little girl." I raised my head abruptly and turned my gaze to my right, to Rivaille.

"Remember your promise... Don't die."

At that moment I smiled. "Don't die either."

I murmured between my lips, noticing his eyes pointing to the latter.

I longed to seal that promise with a kiss that would be envied by the most envious lovers. But that did not happen, either on one side or the other.

"The gates are about to open. Get ready, soldiers!" Shouted Chris, breaking what little contact we had made, throwing us one last look that was unparalleled.

The gates of District 16 were raised by the soldiers of the Gendarmerie Corps, and once Chris shouted at the top of his lungs the go and the green-colored flare went off in the sky to announce that the mission had begun, we all rode through the exit on our horses to head in the direction of the plan devised by the Commander.

The mission was progressing well. So far none of us had yet caught a glimpse of the giants. I continued the ride, staying ahead of my team, while Chris and Rivaille's two groups were positioned diagonally, so as to escape any sudden attacks by the colossi. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Isak flanking me.

"General!" He called me back, forcing me to turn my head toward him. "Alexandra and I were thinking of splitting with the First Division to provide our help should things go bad."

I sighed, tightening the straps. These were not Chris's orders. "All right, but you have to be careful." I thundered sternly, even though I knew that that rebuke said so grudgingly stemmed from frustration and fear of losing my comrades.

Isak gave me a smirk, before inciting Alexandra to follow him and shouting at the top of her lungs, "See you in an hour!"

I turned to Edward and Alois who looked at me seriously, as concerned as I was about Isak and Alexandra. The other soldiers, also members of the Second Division, lined up beside me. I hoped that Rivaille, Edmund and the others were also okay.

Suddenly, the rocket launched into the sky turned red. The muscles in my face became tense, angry and furious. The titans were approaching. "Edward! Alois! You know the commander's plan," I shouted for the other soldiers to hear me as well. "The others split into two groups and spread out along the perimeter. Be careful: I don't want any dead!"

"Yes, ma'am!" They all answered in chorus and split into the groups that had already formed. I turned toward Alois and Edward.

"You two," I said with authority, turning my gaze in front of me, "will come with me!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The beating of my heart against my rib cage, accompanied by the horse's hooves pounding hard on the ground. I had to keep my wits about me, hurrying to act strategically as quickly as possible. The giants were approaching, but the two soldiers with the horse had already begun to wield their weapons to bring them down. Everything happened in a second, when a second flare darkened the sky.

"General! The rocket that emanated detected an abnormal monster." Alois was nervous and emitted a cracked voice. I gritted my teeth and let go of the horse's straps, taking the rocket from the knapsack suspended from the saddle and loading it with the same color as the one that had been thrown; I then turned the weapon to the sky, plugging my ear and firing. Anyone in my surroundings would have noticed the trail of color.

"Alois, this is no time to panic, do I make myself clear?" I shouted in an authoritative tone, getting a determined but at the same time uncertain look from him. There was no need for such oppression. I grabbed the straps again, taking back the reins of my horse. "Let's move!" I ordered, slapping the animal's right buttock to urge him to speed up the ride.

During that indefinite time, the back of my neck did not stop itching.

I don't know how much time had passed, but the situation had further deteriorated. The abnormal monster we had to worry about from the beginning was female. It had exterminated most of the soldiers, whose corpses were spotted along the way.

Alois and Edward continued to keep pace and try, as much as possible, not to attack. The female-looking behemoth had appeared to our right, running at great speed. The soldiers who had lost their lives to assault him, the latter had managed to withstand the blows of the weapons, mostly by dodging them. He was no ordinary colossus. He was as consensual as Edmund.

"We must prepare for a possible confrontation. Get ready to draw your swords!" I ordered decisively. I drew my sword from inside the two-dimensional device until I saw a group of people a little further away from us, who had only one horse at their disposal. "What the hell are they doing?" I blurted out, cursing mentally. "Come on! Let's go!" I made my horse change its trajectory so that the boys would follow me, heading toward the group that had fallen behind. In my heart I hoped that no one was seriously injured.

Once I got closer, I saw the terrified expressions of the three boys, whom I recognized as soon as they reached the camp. They were the new recruits of the Recognition Army. "Hey, guys... " we dismounted from the horse and rested our weapons inside the device " Are you okay? Are you by any chance injured?" I asked, trying to compose myself.

It flashed in my mind as to where Isak and Alexandra might have ended up.

I was worried.

"Are you General Schwarz?" One of the boys asked, sitting on the lawn with an intimidated expression. He was the boy who had attended Edmund's trial.

I bent down on my knees and put my hand on his shoulder. "Call me Kesey," I suggested. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"General, I think Peter is not able to speak right now," another of the group intervened, advancing. I shifted my gaze from Peter, the boy sitting on the ground, to the boy with thick red hair.

"Who would you be?"

"Cadet Ethan Martin, ma'am," he mimicked the military salute. I gave him a nod of assent. I could trust them; they were not dangerous nor did they want to set a trap.

"What happened, Martin?" the boy sighed. "Peter fell off his horse and suffered a head injury from the blow he took, so I bothered to give him aid. He is in stable condition."

"Good intervention!" I nodded. I looked around. "...Rather, the rest of the soldiers who came in the direction of your deployment?" Ethan lowered his head and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"We don't know." He answered, instead of his comrade, a boy with dark brown hair tied in a tail. I closed my eyes and took a big breath, running a hand through my hair and tossing it back.

"Are you sure?" I attempted. "My men were supposed to be there. Two of them had come this way to-"

"I'm sorry, general," replied the boy whose name I did not know. "But no one ever came. If anyone had come, we would have called for help."

I bit my lip. I looked at the boy, who remained staring at the void in front of him. I noticed that his arm was bleeding and hurried to slip off his jacket.

You must not lose your temper, Kesey. You will see that they will be fine. You must have confidence in them.

"What are you doing, general?!" Alois asked, as I unbuttoned my white shirt.

"What is your name?" I ignored my subordinate, turning to the one whose name I did not know.

The boy looked at me with shining eyes. "Noah, ma'am. Noah Williams."

I guessed that the bandages had run out and unfortunately I had no more with me. I slipped off my shirt, staying in my top, trying to mask my embarrassment with an impassive expression. The eyes of those present began to strike fear into me, but the adrenaline in my system encouraged my courage, more than I had thought.

I approached Noah, who blushed, and ignored Alois's calls. "You're bleeding," I said and rolled his shirt around his arm, "you're out of girdles and we don't have any more with us, so I'll stop the bleeding with this." I pulled it into a tight knot, applying gentle pressure to knot it tightly. Noah let out a slight moan of pain from the pressure applied.

"I thank you." Noah whispered. I nodded.

I looked at Peter. "Can you get up?"

Peter was red in the face. "Yes, yes, ma'am!"

"Alois, take Ethan with you." I ordered, but the latter raised his eyes in embarrassment. He nodded. I then looked at Edward, "You need not take anyone with you, as there is an extra horse available-I will take Peter to make sure he does not faint." I approached the latter and lifted him up slowly, making him wrap his arm around my neck.

"General!" Edward called back to me.

"What?"

"The jacket," he handed me the jacket I had left on the floor. I gave a small smile and thanked him with a nod of my chin.

"We need to leave," I said, approaching my horse and giving Peter a hand to get on.

That done, I grabbed my jacket and put it on, trying to cover a good portion of my chest. I adjusted the brown hooks of the harness around my breasts and abdomen, then climbed onto my horse.

"Peter, are you all right?" The boy nodded and encircled my hips with his trepidatious hands. With a flick of the strap on the horse's buttock, we set off again for the ride.

A third black-colored glow caught my attention. The female-looking behemoth was swift and proceeded as if it had a specific goal to achieve. My fears began to clash with doubts at the mere thought that Edmund was in danger, along with everyone else. I could not even feel the cold beating on my skin, so much so that the situation we were in provided all the adrenaline we needed. Out of the corner of my eye I watched the boy behind me carefully, making sure he was okay.

"Peter, are you okay? Try not to close your eyes."

"Don't worry, general." He replied and then added, "The female-featured behemoth is moving in the direction of Edmund and the stragglers. I don't know why, but it didn't devour any of our soldiers, it simply killed them." I had heard a lot about him: little physicality, but an excellent strategist's mind. "I think the colossus knows well who to target. I bet his target is Edmund.

"Thank you for exchanging your guesses with me. Your help is very valuable at this time." He gave a faint smile. " Let's reach the forest: we would have a better chance of exploiting the Device."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath our feet began to vibrate, and I instinctively looked to my left, seeing the female-looking behemoth heading toward the forest. I widened my eyes as I saw two people using the Device attaching themselves to the solidity of the behemoth to try to knock it down.

Titanium cunningly covered the base of the neck so as not to be cut at its weakest point, the collar.

A familiar attachment caught my attention. Isak and Alexandra were fighting the behemoth as long as they could keep it occupied and prevent it from entering the woods. Chris's plan was working, but the lives of my companions were at risk.

I shouted their names at the top of my lungs, feeling fear take over my every action. I spurred my horse to run faster so as to catch up with them. I was almost there. I had almost caught up with them. However, something went wrong. The behemoth grabbed Isak with his own hand, clutching his weak body. My eyes went wide.

Isak's gray eyes, covered with tears, stared at me one last time with a frank smile, curving his pouty lips. I dismounted from the horse with a jerk and tried to set up my Device, but the ropes got stuck. I was gripped by total panic and screamed at the monster to leave it.

Alexandra threw herself at the behemoth with all the fury she had. The behemoth, however, inflicted a blow so hard that it knocked her to the ground. My breath came short and I trembled.

"Alexandra! Isak!" Alois shouted, running toward him.

"No! No, Alois!" I screamed, or at least that was what I thought I was doing.

Everything was proceeding in slow motion. My legs moved until I could reach my companions. Edward also ran toward them. When he noticed Alexandra's lifeless body on the ground, he could no longer say a word. I was sure I could not even breathe.

I took the swords from inside the Device and raised my head toward the colossus. Isak's body was crushed by the inside of his hand, and spatters of his blood reached my face. Alois and Edward tried to hit him, but to no avail.

Move legs! Move!

I felt I was about to lose consciousness. I thought I was going to collapse to the ground at any moment; Alexandra raised a trembling hand, as if stuck, and I rushed toward her with a jerk. Warm tears streamed down my cheeks. She gave me a smile, a weak smile that had nothing to do with the girl I had known for so long. She was sunny. Even too much so. Sometimes I thought her so annoying, but at the same time she could cheer me up with her cheerfulness.

"General..."

"Alexandra, don't breathe a word..." Please.

"It was an... honor...to fight by your side." I gritted my teeth to the point of breaking them and my knees dropped to the ground, taking her head and resting it on my legs.

"Alexandra, you are not going to die. Please don't say these things. We still have many missions to do together.... Please." I shouted. Alexandra smiled and I instinctively squeezed her bloodstained hand. "Don't die." I kept repeating in a broken voice, clutching her to me.

"Please t-tell my father that I fought as he taught me, giving my best to become what I have become. Also tell her that I love him and that it is not his fault. I chose to become a soldier to work alongside him," she coughed. I lifted her head. "She... She has been like a sister to me, General Schwarz." She coughed blood and I tried to hold her head up.

"That's enough Alexandra! You will tell her these things to your father!" I blurted out in frustration, but she continued to smile and turn her gaze skyward. "Alexandra!" I called her back alarmed, shaking her slightly.

"Don't you find the sky seen from down here looks very different?" Her neck arched slightly to the side and the light of her gaze disappeared. I squinted my eyes.

"Alexandra?" I tugged at her. "Alexandra answer me! Alexandra! Please answer me!" I shouted heavily, clutching her to my chest.

On my hands was the blood of each of them.

"Alois!" Edward let a cry escape, and I looked up at the behemoth who held half of Alois's body in his mouth. His heterochromatic eyes stopped on me and he mimicked a "Thank you" with his lips. The being snapped in two before my eyes.

"Alois!!!" At the top of my voice I screamed.

Edward was wounded on the ground and I rushed from Alexandra's lifeless body, reaching for him. When I saw Alois's severed head and the behemoth fleeing into the woods, I gasped. I trembled like a frightened and helpless child. Alois's magical eyes were dull, dull, like everything about him.

The small group of new recruits joined us and looked at the immensity of my comrades' corpses, devoured. Noah brought his hand to his mouth, holding back a retch of vomit.

I fell backward, feeling dizzy.

"Alois... Alexandra... Isak." I heard the words whispered faintly by Edward, who lay on the grass on his stomach, holding his hand over his reported wound.

My vision was blurred and my mind clouded. My comrades were all dead.

"General, are you all right?" Ethan asked worriedly, supporting Edward with his hand on the reported wound. I alternated my gaze between him and Peter and that of Noah, who looked at me in shock.

I looked at my hands, stained with Alexandra's blood, and examined my cheeks, also stained with Isak's blood.

My companions had died from my own hesitation.

I screamed until I lost my own voice in the direction of the sky.

They were all dead.