Amped

Finally, we're here. Levi thought seeing the cabin in the distance. He had been running all night and half of it he spent carrying Clementine. She couldn't keep it with how fast he was going for long and he didn't know where to go so he saw fit to carry her until they arrived.

It was now daylight but early from what he could tell. They reached the front door and he let Clementine off his back before they went in.

Immediately, Carlos turned on them in surprise, getting up from the table he was seated at. "Luke's not with you? They've been gone for hours."

"They must've came looking for us?" Levi asked, crossing his arms.

"Damn they must've missed you." Confusion set on his face. "Where's Pete? Wasn't he with you guys?"

"Pete got bite." Clementine blurted, not wanting to keep it from them.

"You serious?" Rebecca asked, surprised. "What the fuck? Where's Alvin?!"

"How did he get bit?" Carlos asked. "What happened out there?"

"Those damn Lurkers snuck up on us while we were upstream looking at some suspicion dead bodies and one of them caught him on his foot before we escaped." Levi explained. "We found this thing to hide in and he helped us escape after distracting him."

"Shit!" Carlos muttered lowly, taking a walk around the kitchen to clear his anger.

"Carlos, let's go." Rebecca said, walking toward the door.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"We're going after them. My husband is out there with those creeps." She narrowed her eyes at him. "GET. THE. GUNS."

Carlos thought for a second before going out of the room and then coming back in with two guns. Handing one to Rebecca he turned to Levi. "Can you stay here and watch the girls?"

"Alright." Levi grunted and they rushed out of the house, closing the door behind him. He looked down at the girl as she walked to where another who had been hiding came down the stairs. He remembered her as the one the doctor had told to cover her ears. After that he pretty much forgot about them.

"Hey, you're back. But where are the others? They went to find you and I heard something about guns." Sarah said to Clementine as she walked into the living room.

Levi let the girls talk, taking a look around the kitchen before grimacing in disgust. He picked up on dirty dishes, everything he had already stated, but to his surprise, literally everything in that room needed dusting, especially that damn light.

He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, the grimace on his face not letting up. I might have to protects these guys but I'll put them through hell for this.

XxX

No later than 30 minutes later and a knock could be heard at the door. Levi paused, in the middle of strapping on another glove that he happened to find, looking out the entrance to the kitchen and into the Living Room. Immediately, he was suspicious.

Hmm, I assume they would have a key. "Is that them?" He asked Clementine and Sarah but saw the look on the latter's face.

He turned back to put down his cleaning tools as Clementine went to try and lock the door only for a man to open it.

He seemed pleasant enough on the surface, but it wasn't until Levi caught a glance of him that he knew something was up. The fuck's up with that guy?

"I'm surprised I've never seen you before." He pointed out of the house, down the road. "I have a group that lives a little down the road."

"Ok." Clementine said slowly, untrustingly.

His eyes scanned the room behind her briefly. "How are you doing? You all alone in there?"

Clementine glanced away from him but he saw it, something she was unaware of. "No, I'm not alone."

His face changed a small bit. "Mind if I come in?" He pushed the door opened and pushed past Clementine only to meet a hand that smashed into his face, clinging onto it and sending him back against the front door.

Levi glared at the man under his hand, using his other to grip his hand closest to the gun he saw strapped against his waist. Clementine had stumbled back, not even realizing just how close Levi was. She was still thinking he had been in the kitchen.

"You got it backwards, shitface. When you ask a question you wait for a fucking answer."

The man struggled viciously, trying to break Levi's grip but it soon proved useless, his size hiding the fact that he was so strong.

Clementine turn and ran, grabbing Sarah who had been hiding behind the wall just out of sight from the doorway and lead her upstairs. "Come on, Sarah! You have to hide!"

"Sarah?" The man muttered, catching a glimpse of the girl. He turned his attention to Levi. "Who the hell are you?"

Levi used more of his strength, the wood door was beginning to crack and the man felt like his head was going to get crushed. "I'm the one who's asking questions here! Got it?"

"Ok." He strained out.

"First, I heard you mutter that girls' name. Are you apart of this group or what?"

The man chuckled despite the pain he was in. "You really have no idea who these people are, do you?"

Levi snarled. "Answer my damn question. Now!"

"These people... they're my people that got lost. I'm just trying to retrieve them and, help them."

Levi couldn't help his suspicion. It was a gut instinct and he always trusted his gut. It had gotten him through his life relatively unscathed.

He increased his grip on the man's arm, hard enough for the bone to almost crack and he screamed out. "I hope that you aren't lying to me. Just so you know I can get real creative when I'm looking for answers."

"Ok, ok. I'm here to bring them back to where they belong." He gasped out in pain.

"What's your name?"

"It's George."

Levi pulled him off the door and smashed him to the wall beside it, using his free hand to open the door. "I'm going to let your right arm go. Slowly reach for the entire holster, unhook it, and let it fall on the ground. You try anything and I'll bash your fucking skull in."

He groaned but complied, following the task in seconds and once the gun hit the ground, Levi kicked it back into the living room before lifting the larger man off the ground and launching him off the porch onto the hard ground.

"Never come back." Levi said, holding the door. "If you do, I'll kill you." He slams the door shut, immediately walking into the living room and picks up the gun, inspecting it. Six bullets, huh.

He had a long range weapon now. He wondered if that man was Carver these people spoke of. He could've captured the man but it would've been much more safe to let him go for now, in case any of the others got anxious and made a mistake. Guns would've been around for Carver to grab and that wouldn't have ended good. The man struck Levi as very smart and savvy.

Hearing noise from above, he looks over, seeing Clementine rushing down the stares followed by a much slower Sarah. "What's going on? Is that man gone?"

"He recognized her." He pointed at Sarah. "Do you know who that man is?"

She nods, body fidgeting violently as if the man were still here. Levi could admit that he didn't like the sight of this if this was the world she was living in. She would not survive long like that.

"T-that's Carver."

Levi clicked his teeth. "Knew it."

"What did you do to him?" Clementine asked.

"I let him go after taking his gun." He lifts it up so they can both see it before he begins strapping it to him.

"If you suspected he was Carver, why did you let him go?"

Levi was impressed with how she thought. The two girls were clearly much different in mindset and strength despite being similar in age. "Something he said stuck out to me. He told you he had a group, something I think he didn't have a reason to tell you, a kid who should be no threat to him. Especially since he had a weapon."

"So you used information against him?" Clementine asked. "But I still don't see why-"

"If he brings his group back with him, we can be prepared to fight more than one person. If I would've captured him then he could've easily told his group that if he wasn't back in a certain time to come attack and then we all would've been screwed." Levi finally finished strapping the gun to his waist.

"I guess you're right." Clementine sighed. "But we have to find the others. They knew him already so they'll know what to do more than us." She started into the kitchen to try and go to the door.

"We can't go outside." Sarah protested.

They didn't have to as the door opened, revealing everyone who had left to search for them.

"Clem?" Pete says in surprise.

"Levi, Clem. You guys know where Pete is. Come on let's go." Luke said, walking into the room, relieved to see them.

"Carver was here." Sarah let out.

Several eyes nailed her.

"You can't be serious. Sarah, what happened?" Carlos said, bending down in front of his daughter.

"He opened the door when I walked to it and let himself in before he dealt with him. I took her upstairs." Clementine answered, gesturing to Levi.

"Levi, what happened with Carver?" Luke asked.

"The asshole forced himself in so I rammed into him and drove his head into the door. I questioned him, took his gun, and sent him on his way. Threatened him to never come back too."

"Wait," Rebecca says. "So you knew he was Carver and you let him go?"

The whole room stared at him. All wanting to know why.

Levi choose to be blunt honest. "I might have not been with any of you long, but I can tell your just a bunch of normal people. None of you are prepared for someone as smart and vicious as Carver. I see why your running from him. He'll eat you all alive."

"What's your point!" Rebecca yelled.

Levi glared at her, shutting her mouth. "My point is that I don't trust a single one of you not to do anything rash or stupid. If Carver would've managed to get one of your guns, in this confined space, he would've done a lot of damage, even if he was given 3 short seconds."

"You're a soldier, right? You don't think tying him up would've been better?" Alvin asked.

"You don't think I thought about that?" Levi said, crossing his arms. "Other than the fact that I don't know if you have something to tie him up with, he said he had a group with him. I took precautions against him because of that reason. If he told his group to come looking for him if he weren't back in a certain amount of time, you could've been ambushed on your way back here."

"He's right." Carlos said. "Plus, we have nothing to tie him up with anyway. Regardless, we need to get out of here and head north. Now that Carver knows we're here it's not safe."

"Yea, ok. Pack it up everyone. We're moving." Luke said.

Levi turns to go out of the kitchen before a hand lands on his shoulder. He turns, finding it to be Alvin.

"I trust you now. I want to thank you for all that you've done." Levi nods, muttering a welcome. "Follow me. I have something to show you."

Levi did just that, moving upstairs into a room he hadn't been in. Inside it already, Carlos was grabbing all his things he could carry and he figured this was where his medical supplies were kept. He was unsure of what exactly he needed to see until he saw something stick out in the very corner of the room.

My gear! It was ODM gear, looking in perfect condition. He stalked to it and bent down, inspecting it more carefully and making sure he had gas in it. The gas was almost full, which was a relief to him. If he used it sparingly, it would definitely last more than a couple of days.

"We found it with you but didn't know what it was and didn't trust you with it." Alvin explained.

"Yes. I thank you for keeping my daughter safe, Levi."

"No problem." He grabs the gear and began putting it on him as Alvin left to get his thinks and Carlos finished grabbing his. Now this will make things a bit easier for me.

XxX

The walk through the forest was longer than the first time for Levi as last time he had ran instead. They hadn't seen any walkers through the entire journey and part of Levi wanted to test out his gear on one just a little bit. He wouldn't waste too much gas on them but it would be better to make sure any part of the gear wasn't faulty now than later.

He could tell the two young girls of the group were wondering what he was wearing and even the adults wondered what it was supposed to do, but none of them asked him.

Isn't like they would understand anyway.

He had to move his gun to right in front of him so that his gear wouldn't get in the way of it and he would be able to pull it out in any situation that could arise.

"We're here." Clementine announced loud enough for him to hear and indeed they were. He recognized the area even if he didn't spend too long in it.

"Alright everyone. Let's look for any sign of Pete."

Levi was very quick to spot him but he wasn't the only one. Nick saw it too and both of them converged on it at once, everyone else still in their own spots

The sight was gruesome. The man once known as Pete was replaced by a corpse. Shot in the skull with rotten skin and dead eyes. Levi could tell he was gone before he even touched him.

"He's been dead for 30 minutes. Maybe a little bit more." Levi announced normally. This was normal for him. In the Survey Corps, out on expeditions, he had seen more then his fair share and despite Levi depicting him as a comrade, he didn't react to his death outwardly like Nick was.

Luke had seemed to noticed and jogged over before what he saw nearly took his breath away. "Oh, fuck! Pete!"

Carlos heard him and turned around. "Where is he?"

"Everyone shut up!" Levi said, shushing the group all at once. He had not looked away from the body since he first laid eyes on it. Something about it didn't feel right to him. He finally found it though.

"Bullet holes?" Carlos seemed to notice too after staring at it for a bit.

It only confirmed Levi's suspicion. "I knew it." He stood to his feet. "He turned into a damn Walker and someone shot him. If they were with Carver then we have to move." A bullet hole like this makes me think they have us outgunned. Not good.

Considering the group as a whole, Levi speculated that the only ones who would be of help in a fight were Luke, Nick, and Clementine. Luke seemed very reliable and able to keep calm despite a dire situation. Nick was emotionally unstable but he was a good shot. Pete had taught him and Levi would trust the man to get the job done, especially if his buddies lives' were on the line. But, more than anyone, it was Clementine who had really gained his attention. Despite being young, she was a reliable shot, with a good head on her shoulders, and probably more reliable than anyone else on the team. Levi would definitely have added her to his team if she had proper training on using ODM gear, which he had no doubt she could master.

Carlos was a good doctor and a valuable team member as he would assume a lot of them weren't around. Supplies would definitely be needed though.

But the others were... dead weight.

Regardless of the fact, he would keep his promise to Pete and get them North. Then he would find his own way back home.

"Let's get out of here." He said. "We don't know where his camp is. And from the looks of it, whoever killed him was a damn good shot." Too bad it would all end if Levi ever caught the son of a bitch.

"He's right. Let's go." Luke said.

"Don't look, Sarah." Carlos told his daughter, guiding her gently away from the body.

Nick hadn't looked away from the body, a deep regret and sorrow filled his eyes. He was griping his gun tightly, it was like he was squeezing it.

Levi sighed, the memory of the man he respected the absolute most filling his thoughts. To the point where he could no longer think of anything else.

"Don't regret what you did, Nick."

That must've come out of nowhere, as the entire group stared at him as if they hadn't expected him to even speak.

But Levi knew that look in Nick's eyes all to well. It had been the same look in his own eyes when he found his ones he considered his family, Isabel and Farlan, dead by the enemy of humanity. The Titans. He blamed himself, begging to know why he was still alive, and regretted ever even accepting the letter from that man so, so long ago.

It wasn't until Erwin spoke with him that he decided to dedicate himself to humanity. To never regret his decisions.

"No one knows the outcome of a decision made in a limited time like that. No one has the foreknowledge that something like this will happen. There's no way you could've known."

Levi looked at the man as he began to tear up, his body trembling and shaking as if cold. Levi grabbed his shoulders, forcing the man to look at him.

"Don't regret your actions. You know Pete loved you, and he knew you loved him back, despite what you said. Don't let this incident hold you back and dull your senses for the next decisions you have to make. It will either get you killed, or the rest of your people. You can only learn how to avoid these mistakes."

There was complete silence after that, they all just stared at Levi like he was some type of oddity.

"Wow," Alvin breath out in amazement. "I didn't expect words like those to come out of you, Levi. That I can admit."

Levi turned away from the group. "It's something I had to learn as well."

Clementine's eyes widened when he said that. Those small words hit her deep, because she could feel it was a lesson learned through pain.

"Let's move. The killer might still be around here somewhere. Everyone keep an eye out."

XxX

It had been five days later.

The group trekked through the unforgiving wilderness, following Luke who was good at directions and had a readable map on him as well. Levi had to let him lead, considering he didn't know anything about the locations they had been traveling through.

But they had finally made it to a bridge, close in the distance. Clementine looked through binoculars and told them all the surroundings that were around them, as well as telling them the bridge appeared to be passable.

"That's fine then." Levi said with crossed arms.

"Alright let's get a move on." He raised his head at the quickly darkening sky filled with clouds. "It's getting dark."

"No, not all at once." Luke said, walking in the middle of the entire group. "If we all go and there's some kind of trap, it will affect us all. I think Me, Levi, and Clem should go."

"Wait," Rebecca interrupted. "I get you two but what about Clementine. She's just a little girl."

"You haven't seen her in action. That was when, uh, me and Pete found her." It seemed even mentioning his name out a damper on the mood. It wasn't as if it were good anyways.

"No, we'll all go." Levi said decisively. "Just stay behind me. I want to test my gear on these fuckers. I've been hauling it around all this time, I want to at least make sure it worked."

It had gas, but if he had been in an accident that required him to be bandaged, then what's to say his gear didn't suffer any damage as well? It would be safe for him to test it on the creatures rather than test it by himself and waste precious gas. Once he ran out, that was the end of the road.

"Speaking of your gear," Alvin said, leaning off a rock to the side. "What does it do? For the life of me, I can't figure it out."

Levi was half listening, eyes silently scanning the bridge, and spotting several vantage points where he would be able to lead the entire group from above. As well as protect them.

"I'll show you."

XxX

They walked up toward the bridge, and stopped when the spotted two walkers; one small that has used to be a child and another adult one.

Levi smirked a bit. Perfect. He held out a hand, a signal that stopped the group from following him. His vision scanned the entire bridge as the group behind him made small conversation as to the reason for why they stopped. They only saw the two distracted walkers; easy to take out. But they weren't looking as far as Levi was; their vision weren't as sharp as his and Levi could tell none of them weren't as observant as well.

Three more walkers were hidden behind the debris on the bridge. They weren't hidden well enough to actually have gotten away from his vision but he supposed they weren't really hiding in the first place. Just waiting.

"Stay here. There's five lurkers on this bridge, and I want to be the one to cut them down." He missed the looks of confusion as he reached for the hand grips and reached in to the box holding his blades. The hilt attached to them and he pulled them out, aware of the strange looks he was getting.

Luke voiced his thoughts, tilting his head in confusion. "Swords? That's all?"

Just watch. Levi squeezed the triggers and instantly a hook shoot out and hooked to the lower parts of the bridge. The sound seemed to gain the walkers attention. They turned sharply despite their deformed bodies and began to stagger toward the group.

Some of them paled behind him.

"What the hell? He missed?" Alvin took Rebecca's hand and took a step back.

Carlos guided his daughter behind his back and slowly backed up as well, never taking his eyes off Levi. He was going to see what he was about to do.

Levi flicked his wrist, turning the blade in his hand to his specialized style. He bent lower to the ground and readied his legs for the beating they were about to receive from the sheer speed of his gear.

The bigger walker was about 13 meters away from him when Levi triggered the gas mechanism and shot off the ground like a bullet. A second later he was back on the ground and the walkers' heads were sliced open, rolling on the ground.

Levi looked at his blades. He felt that it wasn't clean enough. His body was still a bit stiff and he had been carrying the gear for days. Regardless the job was done.

The cabin group looked on in pure shock, their faces doing nothing but showing it. Not a single one of them could believe what they just saw.

"Did he just... fly?" Pete asked, showing emotion for the first time in days.

None of the others apart of his could speak at the moment.

"I've never seen anything like that." Clementine muttered, eyeing the gear whilst still in shock of seeing it in action. If we had that thing back when I was with Lee... she bit her lip. Not even in her thoughts would she say that.

Levi turned to them, not surprised to see their looks but not wanting to talk about them. They had to get a move on. "Come on and get across the bridge. I'll cover you from above." He attached his hooks up to the tallest part of the bridge and reeled himself up with a blast of gas.

Seconds later, Luke was the first to snap out of the spell that had all been under. He walked forward, waving his hand. "Come on, guys. I know that was something but we gotta cross this bridge before the sun comes down."

That seemed to snap them all out of the daze and the moved forward as a group, sticking close together and watched in awe as Levi shot around the bridge, cutting the walkers down that were in the way.

All was well until Sara and Carlos stepped on a certain part of the ragged bridge and the ground beneath them broke. The both yelled out in terror, but Carlos was able to grab his daughter with one hand and catch a metal bar with his other, saving them from falling in the deep water below.

Sara was still screaming in terror, her eyes clenched shut tightly and fresh tears falling from her face.

"Oh, no! Fuck!" Nick yelled, the whole group rushing to the new hole in the ground where the two were hanging. He looked down at Carlos, particularly what he was gripping on. It wouldn't last long. "He's gonna fall! It won't hold for long! We gotta do something!"

Luke looked around the bridge in a rapid fashion. "We gotta try to find something he can grab ahold to so we can pull them up!"

"That won't work!" Rebecca interrupted, falling into a panic. "How's he gonna hold on to it without letting go of what he's already holding on to?! He's gonna fall, Luke!"

Luke gripped his hair in frustration tightly. "Fuck man! Fuck!"

A whoosh of air silenced the panicking group.

"Chill out." Levi said launching himself off the side of the bridge. "I'll get them both."

He swung underneath bridge and went to work trying to grab them both and get them out of harms way.

Above the ground, a gun was aimed at the group.

"Hey!" A man yelled, gaining their attention. "What the hell is going on here!" He had just seen a man flying through the air as if he were some type of superhero.

Luke put his arms out to try and calm the man waving the gun. "Hey, man, calm down. You don't have to aim it at us."

Nick wasn't for it, aiming his own rifle back at the man. "Put your gun down!" He yelled.

That proved to be a mistake. The man aimed his rifle at Nick specifically and it was like they were having a standoff of sorts.

"Nick!" Luke whispered yelled. "Put the fucking gun down, dude!"

"I got this!" His hand began slowly squeezing the trigger. "I'll shoot his fucking head off!"

The man also began squeezing the trigger. Now it was a split second away before someone would undoubtedly get shot.

Levi shot over the bridge, dropping the father and daughter duo before unsheathing his blades and full sprinting the man about to shoot his gun. He switched his aim to Levi as he crossed the distance rapidly.

"Everyone, get down!" He ordered, voice echoing through the air.

The man became spooked then, and fired a shot at Levi. Levi dodged to the side and shot a hook to one of the many vantage points on the bridge behind the man. He leaped forward and his gas carried him the rest of the way toward the man.

Levi sliced the man in half and landed as the remains fell to the ground with a squishy thud.

"W-what the fuck..." Rebecca covered her mouth, the rest of what she had eaten threatening to escape her.

Everyone else had recoiled as well. Sure they had liked walkers but that had just been a human that was sliced in half.

Levi walked over to the top half of the corpse and caused the entire group to turn away as he stabbed the corpse in the head.

"Hey," he called to the group. When they turned, he tossed the man's gun at Clementine who had caught it but stumbled because of how heavy it was. "We'll need that. The rest of you come on, and be careful."

The rest of the way across the bridge was uneventful and soon they saw a small shack in the distance.

Once they made it to the place, Rebecca needed to stop as the exhaustion of walking while pregnant and all the events that just transpired truly tired her now. The group as a whole needed a break and Levi allowed it, deciding he was going to check out the shack anyway. It might have some supplies in here.

"If you're checking out this place, mind if I come with you?" Clementine asked him.

Levi nodded. "Step back then. I'll kick it down."

She nodded and quickly did as he said. Levi focused on the door before moving fast and pushing his leg out. The door smashed off its hinges and dust filled his vision. He waved it away in disgust.

Ugh. Another dusty ass place. Wonder if anyone has heard of a damn broom.

"There's some empty cans of food." Clementine said after walking in and taking a look around. "Hopefully there's more we can find." She bent down and tried opening the chest, only to find it locked after a brief struggle with it.

"Damn thing got a lock on it. Let's see if we can find a key or something to break it with."

She nodded. "Yea. I don't think my hammer's gonna do it."

They took a bit of time searching around the room until Clementine found a combat knife ina a sheath on the dresser.

"We might be able to use this." She said, picking it up and walking over to the chest.

It took a bit of strength but she got it open and Levi let out a breath of annoyance. It was nothing but two cans of food and a couple of books.

"Junk, huh." Just like everything else that was in the place. At least in his opinion.

"It's not junk." Clementine said. "That man that you had to kill probably lived here. So his stuff isn't junk."

Levi crossed his arms, giving her a sideways glare. "I hope you aren't telling me that I could've handled that in another way."

She shook her head in a no, which surprised the soldier. "No. He had a gun on him and he shot at you. It was best if he was dead, that's not what I was trying to say."

"Then what we're you trying to say?"

"That his stuff isn't just junk." She looked straight up at him unfearfully. "So don't call it that."

Levi smirked, almost wanting to laugh. This kid...

"Fine, brat. His stuff isn't junk. Now let's get out of here. We've wasted enough time as it is." Saying that, the Ackerman walked out of the room and Clementine followed.

Sorry for the abrupt cut off but I decided to wait for the other stuff to happen next chapter. I feel like it'll be better then here. Anyway, tell me what you think and I'll see you guys on the next one.