~from (y/n)'s POV~

"What-" You tried to speak but found your throat sore. You touched your throat gently, and the boy nodded to show that he understood.

"It's okay. Don't talk yet. We're going to get you charged up a bit, okay?"

You blinked, confused, and his eyes widened slowly.

"Wait, you don't know?"

You shook your head slightly from side to side.

"Well-" He cut off, looking unsure. "He'll explain it to you later."

You wanted to protest and ask for answers now, but your throat was still too sore.

"Has she woken up yet?" someone yelled.

"Yeah, but her throat's sore, so I don't want her to talk just yet."

"That's what she gets for jumping into an electric field."

Oh, yeah. That's what happened...Looking back, you had to agree that it hadn't been your brightest decision.

Another face appeared above you. "Well, it doesn't look like she's in shock."

"That's good."

"I guess." The face disappeared, but you heard him shouting a few seconds later from farther away. "She's at fifteen percent. She should be fine to talk by twenty."

Twenty percent of what? My cell phone battery? But that doesn't make sense...I don't understand...

The remaining boy smiled apologetically at you. "Sorry, but try to be patient. You'll be able to ask some questions in a few minutes..." He paused and mumbled, "Though I don't know how much we'll be able to answer..."

Is he saying that they don't know, or that they won't tell me? Are they trapped here like me, or are they the ones who powered up the fence to lock us in?

The real question, though, was nagging at the edges of your mind. Can I trust them?

A few minutes later, the kinder boy nodded at you. "I think you should be fine to talk now..."

You cleared your throat, finding it miraculously soothed. "Um..." You had so many questions warring for your attention. Who are you? Who is he? What's happening? How do we leave? Can we leave? Why is this happening? But for the time being, all you could do was stare into this stranger's green eyes.

He seemed to understand your hesitance, and he smiled amicably. "I'm Eren, by the way, and the guy charging your cell phone is Levi."

At your lost look, he bit his lip. "The whole cell phone thing...well, I'm going to let Levi explain that to you in a second. For now, could you tell us what your name is?"

You hesitated. Should I trust a stranger? And yet, he may have saved my life. "(Y/n)-"

"(F/n) (L/n)," the second boy, Levi, called out, jogging over.

Hearing your name on someone else's tongue stopped you for a second, and you just blinked in surprise, taking in the appearance of the second boy, who was a bit shorter than the first and probably a good deal shorter than you as well, but you'd always been tall. That was part of the reason you liked your boyfriend so much, because he was about the same height as you and your height wasn't so awkward next to him.

"It was on her phone," he answered succinctly, predicting your confusion. He turned to you, glaring.

"Jumping into an electric field? Are you suicidal? Your cell phone could have died!"

Either he's more of a white girl than he looks, or this has something to do with whatever Eren was talking about earlier. I'm better on the latter...he doesn't seem like a Starbucks guy. "It was an accident..."

He sighed through his teeth. "Just don't do it again unless you really want to fry your battery."

Your eyebrow raised of its own accord. "Do you want to explain this whole cell phone thing?"

Levi stared at you for a long second before shaking his head. "We assumed that you'd figured it out, but I suppose you wouldn't be trying to short-circuit your cell phone if you were able to figure it out."

That was an insult in there, right? Smooth, shorty.

Wisely, you kept from saying anything offensive.

"Don't ask for the why, but here's what we know: your cell phone's battery is somehow linked to your lifespan."

It took a few seconds for that strange announcement to settle in. "...Wait, what?"

Eren took out his phone and showed you his screen, revealing that he had 87% battery.

Levi showed you his, which had 78% battery.

Then he showed you yours, which had 21% battery.

"The less battery you have, the less life you have. Right now, you should be feeling fatigued moreso than
Eren or me because we have higher charges. The one upside to this is that you can recharge any time, but we only have one charger between the three of us, so we'll have to rotate to stay alive."

You hesitated to voice any questions and sat up instead, swallowing. "So...we're stuck here?"

Levi nodded. "It looks that way, unless you want to try breaking through the electric field again." He glared at you as though to remind you how poorly that choice had turned out the first few times.

You held your hands up defensively. "I'll stay away from the wall, okay?"

Levi crossed his arms before nodding. "Make sure that you do. You were lucky this time, but if you drops your cell phone in water-"

Eren tapped Levi's shoulder as a signal to stop talking, but it was too late. You were already curious.

"If you drop it in water, then what?"

Levi glared at Eren before continuing on. "You die along with your phone."

You laughed nervously. "You can't be serious..." When they didn't join in, you trailed off. "Well, it's not like you guys have proof, right? This can't be real..."

"We do have proof," Levi bit out. "Someone already dropped their phone into a puddle."

Your blood ran cold. "Wait, you're saying there was someone else?"

Levi scowled painfully. "My cousin, Hanji."

You hesitated to ask the question. "...and she's-"

"Dead."