The heat was unbearable. The scorching blast of steam came out of nowhere so suddenly and pushed Connie and the others off the edge of the wall. Instincts kicking in, they used their harnesses to latch on right before an ear splitting explosion reverberated deep within them.
"What the hell was that?!" Connie yelled out, but he didn't have to wait long to find out the answer. He looked down and saw that the barricades that were just at the foot of the wall moments ago were now crushed to bits. But that seemed to be the least of the problems, because not only were the barricades destroyed but where the gate was supposed to be was now replaced but a huge gaping hole.
"BREACH! The wall's been breached!" Samuel was yelling now too. Sasha and Thomas were also staring at the hole with terrified faces. They were all stunned.
"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Connie vaguely heard Eren shouting to his left. He looked up and saw that a giant skinless hand was now gripping the top of the wall where they were standing just a few seconds ago—the titan was still there. "It's the Colossal Titan! Now's our chance! Everyone prepare to fight!" Eren pulled himself back up and brought out his blades.
But he was the only one who did so. Connie couldn't stop staring. What was wrong with him? He couldn't move, he couldn't act. The only thing on his mind was the terrifying face he saw up there and the hand it belonged to. How were they supposed to fight that? The wall was about a few meters thick and the colossal titan was holding onto it as if it was just a small fence. Connie didn't know how long he hung there before Thomas' voice snapped him back to reality.
"Connie! Hey are you okay?!" He looked over to his blonde friend and took a deep breath. He had to pull himself together. "Y-yeah! Sorry!"
Thomas nodded and faced up, he looked just as terrified as he was. "We have to go help Eren! Let's go!" He pulled up reluctantly with Connie following his tail. He was about to pull out his blades but by the time they got to top, the titan was gone. Did Eren manage to kill it? He looked around for his friend and finally noticed the destruction of the place. The same place they were standing on just minutes ago was destroyed and not a single cannon was in sight.
"Eren what happened?! Did you get it?!" Connie saw Thomas looking down on the other side of the wall and followed. Eren was hanging on his harness looking at the hole with a bewildered face.
"N-No! It disappeared before I even got close!" he yelled back before pulling himself up. By now Sasha and Thomas were there as well, looking at Eren and trying to comprehend what he just said. What did he mean it disappeared? How can something as big as that disappear? "It's just like five years ago, the same thing happened back at Wall Maria. At the time no one really noticed 'cause all the titans came pouring in almost immediately. But now—"
"Look alive cadets!" The five of them faced the source of the voice and saw that a number of soldiers were starting to arrive at the scene. "Operation colossal titan response is now in full effect! Report back to HQ immediately, the advanced team will handle things here."
"Sir!"
They made their way through Trost, jumping and grappling from roof to roof and they weren't the only ones. A bunch of other soldiers were all doing the same thing going in every direction all at once. Everyone had somewhere to be and something to do, they'd been preparing for this event for years now. Even before they graduated, the whole district already underwent mass evacuation drills for the civilians. Soldiers deployed here knew what to do when the wall was compromised, everyone taking the event at Shiganshina five years ago as a hard lesson. Even the 104th training corps participated in one of the simulation exercises here should this day come. Leaping across the the roofs, they could already hear the emergency bells and see people leaving their homes and rushing towards the safety of the inner gate. The whole city was ready for this day. Connie had no right to be afraid.
He was so ashamed of himself for freezing back there at the wall earlier. Who'd have thought that the very first titan he would have the pleasure of seeing would be the colossal. 'I wouldn't be surprised if you froze on the spot if you see one for the first time,' Reiner's voice said from the back of his mind, making him frown. Memories from that day at the stable all those years ago were suddenly coming out. Great, just what he needed.
They arrived at the headquarters and were met by a scurry of bodies. The air was alive with frantic energy and everyone was moving. Heading over to the supply rooms to suit up, running to the courtyard to form a squad, deploying away from HQ to help assist in the evacuation. Everybody had somewhere to be and it was an organized mess.
"I'm heading over to the commander's office to report what we've seen at the wall," Eren said before leaving them.
"We should re-fill our gas. I have a feeling we're going to need it in the next few hours," Samuel suggested. Everyone agreed and they all headed for the supply room. Upon reaching the place, they were met with a surprised shout from Hannah.
"Guys!" She came running to them and gave a sigh of relief. She had already put on her ODM gear and was talking with Krista and Ymir before she noticed them, the other two girls following behind as she approached. "We heard what happened. And I remembered you were deployed on the wall earlier and I thought—" Unable to even finish, it was obvious how sick with worry she'd been.
"We're fine Hannah. Just a little shaken up…" Samuel consoled her.
"So is it true? Was it really the colossal titan?" Krista also looked like she had been worrying about them.
"Yeah." Connie answered, "We saw it with our own eyes. Eren's at the commander's office now giving a report."
If Hannah looked worried before it was nothing compared to the face she made now. "I can't believe it. I heard the advanced team were already at the scene. Are they really going to fight that thing by themselves?"
It was Thomas who answered her, "No, actually. Moments after the colossal titan appeared it just...vanished. It's not there anymore."
"What do you mean it vanished?" Ymir frowned, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"It just did. I'm not really sure what happened. Eren was the only one who got close enough and—"
"Attention Cadets! The commander will be briefing everyone in five minutes! Finish gearing up and proceed to the courtyard stat!" One of the soldiers announced before running off.
Everyone was on the move again and those already geared were now walking out of the supply room. "I got a bad feeling about this," Sasha said, and if she felt something off then there really must be something off. "I think we should re-fuel now guys."
They split off from Hannah, Krista, and Ymir who went off to the courtyard while they busied themselves with their gas, telling them that they'll catch up afterwards. Eren joined them a few minutes later to re-fuel as well but he was awfully quiet. His grim face confirmed it, whatever the commander was going to brief them about wasn't good news.
They finished filling up their gas tanks and proceeded to the courtyard, a large open space in the middle of the headquarters that was usually used for mass briefings and announcements. Just last night, this was where the 104th training corps commenced their graduation ceremony. Not even 24 hours later, they were all back here along with their fellow soldiers to receive the bad news.
The advanced team had fallen. Of the thirty two soldiers deployed to prevent the titans from entering the breach, only a handful came back looking a little worse for wear. The southern gate of Trost was now gone to the titans, who were entering the city in masses as they speak.
"Your mission now is to exterminate the titans until the city's evacuation is complete!" The commander shouted to the mass of soldiers in front of him. "You will go with your squad and make sure that not a single titan will cross over towards the northern half of the city! Now stay alert because the Armored Titan could appear in any minute and if it does, the northern gate will also be history! Fight with everything you've got soldiers! Now Go!"
"SIR!"
Everyone was suddenly bustling, going off with their respective squads and flying off the headquarters to their posts around the city. This was it. This was really happening. Connie was deployed to be on the middle guard with Krista and Ymir, their location to be near the city center. He was running off to where they were when he suddenly bumped into a thick wall of muscle running towards the opposite direction. Connie didn't have to look up to see who it was, knowing all too well whose body structure it belonged to. As expected, he was met with none other than a scowling Reiner.
"Sorry," they both said at the same time, making the situation even more unpleasant. They stood there in hesitation for a few seconds before Reiner started walking past him, ignoring him again.
"Reiner wait," Connie called back. He turned around and saw the blonde stop in his tracks but still hasn't turned to face him. That was a good a sign as any to keep talking. "I know I'm probably the last person you want to be speaking with right now but…" He bit his lip, not really sure where he was going with this. "I just wanted to say, be careful out there."
They stood there for a moment, Reiner with his back turned and Connie waiting for him to respond. He suddenly had a worrisome thought that this may very well be the last time they see each other if anything went wrong. Knowing Reiner's skills, he was probably deployed to be on the vanguard, nearest the breach where the titans were pouring in. He didn't want their last conversation to be like this and he wanted to say more but In the end, all he got was a curt nod before the blonde briskly walked away.
"Connie what the hell are you doing? Let's go!" He heard Ymir's annoyed voice and sighed before facing the other way to run to his friends, silently muttering under his breath his last message for Reiner.
"Be safe."
The three of them arrived at their post in just a few minutes. This side of town was mostly empty by now. No civilians in sight and even better, no titans. They advanced towards the south, their orders were to keep the titans from crossing into their territory, and so far all was peaceful. They kept at it, jumping from roof to roof steadily heading south and still not a single titan in sight. Where were they? Connie assumed they would've at least seen one by now. He was starting to think that maybe the situation wasn't really as bad as they thought it to be.
An hour passed before they saw their first titan. They were darting through the south-eastern side of Trost when Krista heard squelching sounds nearby. It was a 5-meter titan, chewing away the remains of an unlucky soldier down on the streets. It was too busy eating to notice their arrival, which was a good thing because Krista suddenly fell on her knees at the horrible scene in front of them. Connie wasn't any better too, but compared to the colossal titan, this one was puny.
"You two stay back. I got this." Ymir pulled out her blades and without hesitation, she darted towards the titan in one swift motion—making a deep, clean slice on the nape. The titan fell before it even knew what happened, with Ymir landing on the roof above it. That was amazing. Come to think of it, Connie has never seen Ymir fight before back at training camp. The way she handled herself and her courage was—
"CONNIE! KRISTA! BEHIND YOU!"
He barely had time to react when a large shadow suddenly cast over them. He turned around to see a large hand raising and was about smash them. Krista was still down, and Ymir was too far away to reach them in time. The titan was bringing its hand down now with surprising speed and just before it hit them, Connie swooped his blades in an upward crescent effectively cutting off the fingers of the giant, making it miss its targets. It was suddenly raining blood but Connie had no time to pay attention to any of it. In the next instant, he grabbed Krista by the waist and flew away towards the other roof—while at the same time, Ymir managed to reach their new attacker and latched her hooks onto the titan's torso, using its body as an axis to swing herself towards the back for her to deliver the killing blow. Damn was she good.
Connie brought Krista down when he was sure they were safe and was about to check her for injuries when Ymir was suddenly with them and pushed him out of the way to check on the blonde herself.
"Are you okay?! Are you hurt?! Krista snap out of it!" Ymir was shaking their smaller friend by the shoulders trying to get a response. Looking at them, Connie was suddenly reminded of Reiner and how he used to treat him the same way. He smiled, appreciating the fact that Ymir cared just as much for Krista as he did, and probably even more.
"I-I'm fine Ymir. I'm sorry" Krista breathed out, finally pulling herself together. "It's just…" She swallowed, hesitating a glance towards the fallen soldier on the ground.
"Stop being a sissy and look alive goddammit!" Ymir scolded, earning an ashamed look from Krista. "If you're going to wallow on every death we see out here then you better just say goodbye to the world right now!" If that didn't remind Connie of Reiner then he didn't know what would.
"I-I'm sorry…" Krisa whispered, she was actually starting to cry. Ymir sighed and stood up, her expression softening.
"Just don't let it happen again. You have to be strong. This won't be the only dead person you'll see today so take a hard long look. You better get used to it." She turned around to face Connie and continued, "Nice job back there shorty. You may not be so stupid after all."
"Umm...thanks?" Connie replied, unsure whether what she said was an insult or a compliment.
Ymir went to the edge of the roof to scout the area so Connie busied himself with wiping his blade with a rag. The titan's blood was steaming right off of it, and he was sure he probably had some on himself by now too. He looked over to Krista, who was now approaching him after getting up and wiping her face.
"Thanks Connie, for saving me," she said, smiling warmly.
"No problem, gotta have each other's backs right?" Connie answered back with a grin.
They pressed on south-eastwardly. They were already starting to see titans here and there since their initial sighting, and Ymir was skillfully killing them off one by one with Connie assisting her. They went on like that for a while, dashing through one roof at a time—going with the unspoken agreement that Ymir be the one to attack while Connie stood guard with Krista. Lucky for them, they only crossed paths with at least one titan at a time, making their mode of attack that much easier.
Connie got his first kill when two eight meter titans appeared ahead of them. It was too dangerous for Ymir to handle both at the same time and with Krista's persuasion, she managed to agree to let Connie leave her side so they could attack simultaneously. Together, they killed the two without a hitch and managed to return to Krista's spot in no time at all. It wasn't as hard as Connie originally thought, combining his prowess with the ODM gear and some strength to his blades, it felt just like their training back at the camp when they were taking down dummies.
"Don't let it get to your head shorty." Ymir warned him afterwards. "We were lucky those two were slow. Not every titan is going to give you the luxury of a clean cut at the nape so don't get cocky."
It was starting to get dark, but by no means was the sun setting. It was as if the sky was having some inner turmoil on whether to bring down the rain or not, and finally settling on dark rolling clouds. Regardless, the weather didn't affect their situation in any way. Ymir was right in what she said earlier, for death was around them. It was starting to be commonplace to see spattered blood here and there and the occasional bodies—or rather, body parts—left by the titans.
They've been at it for hours now. Connie was beginning to wonder how much longer they had to stay out there. They were told that they only had to hold on until the evacuation was done and after that, they'd hear the second emergency bell signalling their retreat. But the bell never rang, which was strange because even during the city-wide drills they held in the past, it never took this long to evacuate everyone out of Trost. More titans are just going to keep coming in from the south and at the rate they're going, it was only a matter of time before there were more titans than the number of living soldiers could handle. What was taking so long? Did something happen at the northern gate? Don't tell me the armored titan arrived and destroyed Wall Rose too.
"Guys look!" Krista yelled to get their attention. They were heading back to the central road when she pointed to the west where a single person was lying on one of the roofs.
"It's probably just a body Krista." Connie answered her grimly. Seeing dismembered limbs was one thing, but he really didn't want to see a full dead body and risk recognizing the corpse in the process.
"Guys I think it's Armin! Hey Armin!" Before Ymir and Connie could do anything else, Krista was already bounding to their friend. Shit!
"Krista wait!"
But she didn't listen. They arrived at the roof moments after her to see that she was right, Armin was lying down unconscious. He looked alright too, at least there didn't seem to be any blood on him. Looking closer, Connie could see that he was even breathing.
"Hey Armin. Armin you there?" Connie got down on his knees shaking his friend awake. "Armin wake up, say something!"
After a while, the blonde opened his blue eyes and groggily tried to take in his surroundings. Looking directly past Connie as if he couldn't see him. "There we go. Are you alright? What are you doing here all by yourself? Where's your squad?"
Suddenly, Armin's eyes grew wide and he screamed at the top of his lungs, startling the three of them. "AAHH! YOU WORTHLESS!—WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DIE!"
"H-hey! Take it easy man, what happened?" Armin was starting to cry and Connie had a feeling he wasn't going to like what the blonde was going to say.
"Just let it go Connie." Ymir said, looking down on the two of them. "It's obvious what happened isn't it? His entire squad was wiped out, leaving him here all alone to pee himself."
Connie frowned at her jab but ignored it. "That doesn't make any sense. If titans wiped his team out then why didn't they eat Armin too?...and Eren was supposed to be with him so..."
"Who knows, maybe they thought he was actually dead or something. If it came right down to it, that's the real mystery isn't it? Eren and the others busting their asses off and the only one to survive is this guy."
No. It couldn't be. "Alright that does it you heartless bitch!—"
"Both of you stop it right now!" Krista held her arms up and stood between her two squadmates. "We're all just tired and at the edge of our tethers here so calm down. We have to pull it together."
"Well look at you!" Ymir put her arm around her and smiled, "Keeping the peace and all that! You're really gonna have to marry me someday!"
Connie scoffed and muttered to himself, "Yeah well she better learn to keep that mouth shut when she does."
"What's that shorty? You sayin' something?"
"Nothing!"
Ignoring her bickering friends, Krista got out of Ymir's hold and bent down next to their friend. "C'mon Armin, can you get up? It's not safe here, we have to move."
Krista managed to help him up and when they were sure he was alright, they started advancing again. They kept at it for a few minutes, moving steadily towards the center road with Ymir leading and Connie taking up the rear. He was still a little bothered by all this. There was no way in hell that Eren would leave Armin alone like that, unless…
Connie pushed the thought away. This was Eren they were talking about. He was fifth of the class! If Connie had survived this long out here then he had no doubt about Eren's chances. It just couldn't be true. They were just together this morning at the walls, worrying about Sasha's stolen meat slab and talking about joining the scout regiment together. He just couldn't be gone.
He was too busy pondering and staring at the back of Armin's head when he realized that Ymir had stopped moving and landed on one the edge of a roof. "Hey, why are we stopping? The central road is still a few kilometers ahead."
Ymir looked back at them with a blank stare, her face revealing nothing. "We've got company."