Beginings

Six years ago, Ark Maria was lost. Also six years ago, I told the most significant lie I will ever tell. I HATE BEING CALLED ALEX. Alex is not cool AT ALL. Alexander isn't much better. So I decided to change my name to Xander. Yep. It's a badass name. But because of that, every time I meet my councillor in the hallway, she goes "Hi, Alex!" with that ridiculous smile of hers, and I have to explain yet again to everyone in the hall that my name is XANDER AND NOT FREAKING ALEX. Okay... I'm calm now. So anyways, I guess I should explain everything that happened during and after the fall.
I think I was the first one who saw the Titans. And I think I was the first one who screamed‐‐no. I know I was the first one to scream. And because I screamed, Jason turned around to look at me. And because he turned around so quickly, he didn't notice how close he was to the edge of the Ark. And because of that…. Jason… was the first to die.

It didn't really register in my mind what had happened to Jason. I went mute. It was like he just disappeared. One step... Two steps... Three steps... Four... I remember looking over the deck; looking at the deep, blue depths of the ocean. The surface was eerie calm. Where did all the Titans go? Where did… Jason?

You know how in books and movies, everything slows down? What happened after was sort‐of like that, except it was more like the adrenaline rush made me register things one by one in rapid succession. First, I heard the splash of Jason's body shattering the surface... Then the titan that came up and snapped his body in half. Then the screaming after that... The ship rocked aggressively as if a child was trying to get something out of a container. In the case of the ship though, the contents was the inhabitants of Ark Maria... And after that it appeared. Something I never thought I would ever see in my life. Standing before me was a titan. It wasn't just any titan though. This thing... it was MASSIVE! People said that the largest titans out there were less than 15 meters long. No but this... it had to be at least 50 or 60 meters long.

I don't know how I survived. I don't know what happened after that. I might have passed out or maybe I was just in a state of shock. I don't quit remember. But the next thing I remembered was being on a life boat with three other people and Ark Maria sinking behind us. I remember trying to swim back to the ship. I also remember people pulling me back. I remember hating them for days afterward. I remember feeling pathetic as I realized I wanted to live. I was so scared of dying.

So… Damn scared.

Like I mentioned, there were three other people on the boat with us. There was Stacy who was a middle age lady with her daughter named Marley. There was also this guy named Daniel who wore this sweater that was just a bit too large. It looked kinda funny from what I remember. Anyway, from what I also remember, we were on this life boat for about week. All of the days just blended together. Considering that our lifeboat was meant for eight people, we actually had more than enough supplies. There wasn't much talking on the boat. Each one of us stayed in our respective corners. The days dragged by. One morning however, was different. Before I get to that, I should describe the boat a bit. The boat, in shape, was a rectangle with rounded corners. There were four rows of seats on the boat and there was a small box with some food supplies. As I mentioned earlier it had quit the bit of supplies; Matches, 8 small water bottles, 3 cans of soup, 2 cans of fruit, 8 life jackets, 2 large blankets and a medical kit. You would think everything would be alright. You're wrong though.

It was 4 or 5 days after the fall. We had already run out of food, and only had 2 bottles of water left. Stacy and Daniel were having a huge fight about what we were going to do about this. The fight went on for about 3 hours until it happened. The two of them were getting to the point of pushing each other around. Unfortunately Daniel had phished a little too hard and… Stacy had fallen into the water. Since the water here on earth is so cold she had froze to death or drowned to death. I wasn't quite sure what happened first. The strange thing was right after she fell in there was no struggle of trying to escape. Maybe a titan got her and she was eaten. Who knows? Oh god the look on Marley's face when she saw her mother fall into the water. She must have felt like dying inside. I was pretty traumatized after seeing that as well. I tried talking to her the day after but she wouldn't respond.

After the accident Daniel started to act strange. He would pick at his fingers and chew on his bottom lip; sometimes to the point that he would draw blood. Daniel would sit down with his face buried in his knees, rocking himself repeating 'hungry...so hungry' over and over again. 3 days after though was when he did it.

It was maybe 1 or 2 in the morning? We didn't have any track of time so I couldn't tell. I heard the sound ripping. From what I remember I thought that it was either Daniel or Marley just moving around in their sleep. So I went back to bed. That's when I heard it. It was a low growl. I didn't want to know where the noise came from. There was another growl... my heart began to beat rapidly against my chest. It felt as if it would spring out of my chest. No... Not a titan. If it was a titan there would have been movement in the water, plus it would be a lot louder. Turning my head around to see where the sound was coming from, I saw the most gruesome scene I'd thought I would ever see. Daniel was... eating Marley. It was the most gruesome thing I had ever seen. Daniel had torn her throat open, and little bubbles of blood arose. It was then that I came to the horrifying conclusion that Marley was alive. Flesh and blood was spattered everywhere. That night was covered with flesh and blood.

Without realizing, I was screaming. Daniel turned his head around and looked at me with a terrifying glare. The gurgling sound that I hadn't even realised was there stopped. Marley died. Daniel, no, he wasn't Daniel anymore, reached a bloodied hand towards me. No. I didn't want to die yet. I wasn't ready to die yet. The man stepped away from the girl's body and slowly walked up to me. I couldn't move... I was frozen in a state of inactivity. Suddenly, he jumped on top of me, wrapping his fingers around my throat. It was extremely difficult to breathe. Before I knew it, he bit me. I screamed in pain. My whole body wash trembling violently. The feeling of my own blood trickling down my neck was mortifying. But then I felt something. Something deep within my gut had awoken. Suddenly, I jumped into action. I kicked the guy in the crotch making him fall back. Getting up, he tried to pounce on me. Luckily I was fast enough to dodge him.
I didn't have any control over my body. It was as if there was some person controlling my every action. Running to the end of the boat as quick as possible, I opened the supplies box. A weapon, a weapon... where the hell is a weapon was all that was processing in my head. I was in a complete adrenaline rush.
Bingo... there was a knife in the box. It looked more like a knife for spreading jam on a piece of toast but that was good enough. Swiftly grabbing the knife, I stood in position to attack. Fight... Fight... Fight... FIGHT! And with that I ran up to the cannibal and stabbed him. Over and over and over again. I didn't stop. "DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I cried out as I continued to stab him in the chest. Even though he was dead I was afraid that he would come back so kept stabbing. After a good 5 minutes I stopped. Falling back, I dropped the knife. Usually in T.V or in movies the character would really give a crap if he or she had killed someone. This was the complete opposite. There was blood absolutely everywhere. All over the boat... all over the dead bodies... all over me... there was no way in distinguishing whose blood was whose. I had committed a crime... who knew what would happen to me once I'd reach Ark Rose. Finally breaking the silence, a horrifying noise erupted out of my mouth. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks. I held myself, sobbing like a little baby. This had to be a dream I repeated in my mind... First the fall of Ark Maria... and now this... This was absolute hell.

I think a day after the murder was still stuck in the same place a sat the night before. You would think that some ones childhood would be full of laughter, smiles and pure happiness. God how I wish mine was. Coping after the murder was just so horrifying. I started talking to myself at some point. Probably cause there was no one left in my world. One day had felt like a whole entire year.

The second day after I remember tossing the bodies off the boat. As the boat had sailed away from them, I thought there was a titan that jumped out of the water to swallow them. Once again though, I was completely traumatized so my head could have been messing with me. I had sat back down. Wrapping my arms around myself I cried... I cried and cried... I thought the tears would never end. Till this day it's a struggle to deal with. Back to what happened.

Since I hadn't eaten for 4 days now, I was completely starved. When you don't eat for a day it's pretty uncomfortable. Just think about starving for 4 days... 4 DAYS! It hurt. It hurt a lot... since there was no pure water I had to drink water straight from the ocean. Wow it tasted horrible. Plus the water gave me horrible stomach aches. At least the water would let me live for a few more days. Time was ticking. And damn I was running out of time.

I thought about suicide. I thought about jumping into the water to let myself freeze to death or get eaten by a titan. Whatever came first. I really couldn't deal with this. I had lost everything and everyone. There was no hope left in the world for me. The world is cruel... really fucking cruel. There I was. Standing at the edge of the boat I looked down at the water. I could have jumped in. Could have ended all the pain right there. No... My conscious told me to survive. You need to survive. Fight Xander FIGHT! Stepping away from the ledge I fell back. I began to cry again. What was wrong with me? Why are humans so weak? Why am I so... Weak?

It was the sixth day now. My vision was beginning to give up on me. So was my strength... my whole body was giving up...
"Beep... Beep... Beep"

"What the..." I remember there was a beeping thing coming from the box. When I went to open the box I found a radio. Like one of those SOS radios. So picking up the thing I pressed the receiver button.

"May...ay... ay...day... thi...is Vale...a...Gu...i...from...Ti...ta…ia... iv... een... stran... in... t... ean... i need... lp...n... medical... plies...plea...respond..." The radio kept breaking in between the distress call. The voice kept repeating the same message over and over again. Finally... I had some sort of hope. Quickly pressing the talk button I sent a broadcast.

"Hello, this is Xander Jaeger from Ark Maria. I've received you're SOS broadcast." I looked at the radio. There had seemed to be some sort of tracking device on it. It showed the location from where the call was coming from. Luckily the call seemed to be close by. "I've received position of where you're located. I should be able to be there shortly." And with that I ended my broadcast.

"YES! Tha...ou..." I walked over to the engine of the boat. I had changed where it was being sent to. Putting in the coordinates of the other radio I sent the boat into that direction instead of sailing to Ark Rose.

Fifteen minutes had passed and I had reached my destination. There I saw a girl that seemed to be about the same age as I was. "HEY!" I called out. She was wearing a life jacket and there had seemed to be a trail of read water around her. "HEY OVER HERE!" I screamed. Finally I caught her attention and swam to the life boat. I helped her get up. Then I saw a nasty flesh wound on her leg. It looked as if something had scrapped its teeth against her leg. I assumed it was a titan. She was extremely pale from the loss of blood. Her lips looked more of a blue then a pink. She was staring at me though as if I was a titan. Wait... shit I had forgotten about all the blood on me and in the boat. "Shh... it's ok... I won't hurt you..." That seemed to be good enough for her since she had calmed down. I never Really told her what happened. "What's your name?"

"V-Valentina Gucci. You can call me Val though. Don't call me Tina though... I hate it..." Valentina seemed as if she was trying to brighten the mood. Heh to be honest it did.

"Why don't we help you get patched up shall we?"

"S-sure..." Then she had passed out. That seemed to be my queue to patch her up as fast as possible. That's how I met my best friend Val.