[center][h1]Trost - HQ[/h1]
[@HecateProxy][@Poi][@Wolverbells][@SheriffLlama][@LordVoldemort][@Solace][@LetMeDoStuff][@FrostedCaramel]
[h2][color=7ea7d8]Lauren Jones[/color][/h2][/center]

[color=7ea7d8][i]What the hell is happening?[/i][/color]

[color=Gray]Mere moments before Lauren had been watching the Titans swarm around HQ, planning on how best to break through their nightmarish ranks.  Every desperate scheme, every foolhardy tactic she could come up with would result in the deaths of many of the cadets, if not all but she could see no way.  Luring the Titans away had seemed the only viable option but that would mean sacrificing some of their already low numbers and she could never condone such an action in the first place.  Chewing her lip, she glared at the building as if it itself purposefully blocked their path to safety.  Then the Mysterious Titan had appeared, smashing its way through the ranks of Titans with a fierceness that seemed alien in the indifferent monster race.

More and more soldiers were arriving to their position, almost all of them cadets she recognised from the last three years; all with the pale and drawn faces of those who had been preparing for a battle all their life and had finally unearthed its horrors and found they were utterly unprepared for it.  She could see figures on other buildings around them, drawn to the light of the flare she had fired into the overcast sky and the last hope it proffered.  Mora, Tanner and another girl were on one rooftop nearby and upon spotting them she felt some of the tension in her body fall away, the pent up fear she had been holding at bay lessening but only slightly.  For now she had to focus on the task at hand, those around her were looking to her to take charge as the one who had launched the flare, as one of the few surviving squad captains.

Finding Helen and Emil still alive had wiped away some of her unease at command; her squad had fared no worse than some and far better than most.  The hug from the short boy had surprised her, his temperament usually so taciturn and removed.  If not for the blinding pain that shot through her body from her chest, she might have been more moved by his action.

[color=7ea7d8]"Emil, I'm wounded."[/color] She grunted, loosening his grip a little and returning the gesture lightly.  [color=7ea7d8]"I'm glad to see you're alive.  I'd thought that... maybe, even with my stupid attack... no one would make it.  I shouldn't have worried though, with you there."[/color] Her gaze moved to Helen, no words able to fulfil the relief she felt at seeing the girl still alive, the validation of her actions she so sorely needed.  For her part, the younger girl seemed equally lost for words so Lauren merely nodded, trying to convey her understanding, trying not to focus on the fact that two of their squad were conspicuously missing.  Part of her wanted to ask but by the pale looks on their faces she could conclude what happened, the details could wait for another day when she was ready for them.  She squeezed Helen's shoulder before limping towards the wall and pointing towards HQ and raising her voice as much as she could without gasping with pain.

[color=7ea7d8]"Storm in now, we won't have a second chance! Stay clear of that Titan and break through the windows, assemble in the armoury once you're in and try to find any survivors inside!  Don't stop until you're inside!"[/color]  She turned to Conor and he picked her up, launching them both off the tower and towards HQ.  Titans were converging on the building from streets around them, catching up to the fleeing soldiers now that the defensive line was completely broken but for now their way was open.  The Mysterious Titan knelt down before HQ, watching them but making no move to intervene.  It was an Abnormal but unlike any they had ever been taught of.  A Titan that fought other Titans, that had no taste for humans?  She pushed the buzzing thoughts from her mind, there was no time to guess at what it all meant; for now they just had to focus on surviving.

She braced as they smashed through a window, Conor managing to stay upright as they entered what looked to be the junior officer's ward on the second floor.  The room was empty, too close to where the Titans had been clawing at the building's walls to be safe for any trapped inside, but the doors to the hallway were wide open.  Lauren let herself down from Conor and moved to the door, turning into the corridor.  Her foot splashed in something on the floor and she stopped short at the grisly sight which greeted her.

Soldiers lay strewn across the floor, their corpses still leaking their lifeblood slowly into one pool on the floor.  Many lay headless, their decapitated limb having rolled a few feet down the hall while others still wore their heads, barely in many cases, but deep gashes in their chests or bloody holes in their uniforms showing the cause of their death.  Red splashes scored the stone walls, already turning dark and crusty. 

[color=7ea7d8][i]What happened here?[/i][/color]

Swallowing the horror that was rising in her throat, she drew her blades and signalled for the soldiers to follow her before starting to walk through the corpse strewn fortress.

[hr]

The Armoury was largely empty of bodies although half a dozen still lay in bloody pools in various areas of the large, open room.  There were no outside windows into the Armour making it relatively safe from Titans with only a lift operated by a pulley system giving access to the equipment room below where they needed to go to refill their gas canisters.  Others had made it there ahead of Lauren and her group, slowed by their leader's stumbling and wavering gait as they threaded their way through the death soaked halls.  They had crept around corners, always expecting for a Titan to leap out at them but the hallways were too cramped for the creatures to enter, raising the question of what had happened to the soldiers but for a while it would have to go unanswered.

Having found a group of survivors cowering in a locked office, Lauren's team had found out that Titans had breached HQ itself and, worst of all, were in the very room they needed to go before escaping.  When asked about the corpses in the halls the survivors had just shaken their heads, telling how they had barricaded themselves in when they had heard someone screaming about Titans breaking in.  At length, they had convinced the group to follow them to the Armoury to explain the situation to the other soldiers congregating there.

Lauren sheathed her weapons and took a seat, slowly, on a crate and sighed as the pent up tenseness washed out of her.  Every muscle ached and her head pounded with the effort of staying awake, the pain in her side dulling dangerously to lull her into a false sense of security while blood still oozed from the wound she had yet to look at.  What had first seemed like just cracked ribs was clearly worse than she had suspected and her strength was gone; only her sheer stubbornness not to be a burden on the others kept her standing.

[color=7ea7d8][i]There's an infirmary here.  Down there.[/i][/color]

Her eyes drifted down the Armoury's walls towards the door she'd need to get to and she groaned inwardly.  Sitting down had been a mistake.  She called to one of the younger cadets who had followed her and they rushed over, despite their obvious exhaustion.  All around them the survivors were collapsing to the ground, letting the strain of their battles show both emotionally and physically.  Some cried, head bowed and drawing their knees up to hide their faces, others merely sat and checked their equipment grimly.  She could see lucky partners who had both survived clinging to one another, desperate not to be parted again lest the little fortune they had be taken from them.  Was that how she felt?  Pleased to see Mora alive, and now at least out of imminent danger, she had still felt more fear than before knowing that they were both in danger but their relationship had never been clarified, never been certain.  

Pangs of jealousy struck her, followed by guilt at feeling such a selfish emotion during that time, why could she not just be happy for those who had the smallest happiness to cling onto?  She told herself that she needed Mora right then to look at her wounds, not just because she felt weak and vulnerable. There were no other medics beside herself amongst the survivors in the room, that she knew of, and Olivia had been recalled back North, her orders mixed up with Jade's, leaving Mora as the only cadet Lauren knew to have some experience with first aid, even if it was only helping her on the odd occasion.  

[color=7ea7d8]"Can you find Mora for me? I need her, for the infirmary."[/color] The cadet nodded, glancing down at the red stain that had spread across Lauren's shirt and down her right trouser leg, and rushed off through the survivors to carry out Lauren's request.  She watched the cadet go, spotting a familiar small girl in the crowd and waved to her with a faint smile.  If she had the energy she might have rushed up to hug Jade, so great was the relief she felt at seeing her.  She spotted others in the crowd: Reese and Grant were with Jade and seemed to be okay, she could see Tanner but frowned when she spotted the large absence near her, the awkward secret which everyone knew of.  Where had Gabriel gone?

She closed her eyes, shutting out the fear that flooded her chest and moaning as a bout of faintness washed across her.  She looked down at the hand she had been holding her side with, stained red with her own blood, and looked back up at the crowd, setting her jaw against the pain and the tendrils of rest that threatened to claw her into darkness.  She wasn't bleeding heavily but she was a steady rate and there had been no time to see to the injury, she hadn't even noticed it until after Mora had left, masked as it was by her jacket until the stain had spread across her shirt.  As much pain as there was all around her, she was in no position to help others and had to focus on keeping herself alive.  They were safe for now, it was up to the others to work out the next step. There was no more strength left within her.[/color]