Curse The World
Midday, the sun a faint orange hue partially blocked by the clouds. A chill lingered in the air, carried over from the previous winter.
Warming her hands with the bowl of soup she'd kept sheltered since breakfast, snug inside an extra layer of clothing, Achi read off the latest results for this month's mock "Breaching Scenario"; one of several since the beginning of the new year. Three years into their training, Chief Instructor Shadis finally, definitely, to the less than three-hundred trainees left, put all they've learned into one comprehensive test: the Fall of Wall Rose. The scenario involved the three-phase plan that'd been introduced as a countermeasure in case the Colossus and Armored Titan took it down, too.
The plan was simple enough.
First, an advance squad was sent out to combat the Titans that would try to get in, holding them off while the everyone else helped evacuate the residents of the District, or Districts, being attacked. Once the Titans became too overwhelming too hold back or the advanced squad was wiped out and they were in the confines of the District, the second phase was to split up in squads comprised of one or two veteran soldiers and four or five lesser experienced soldiers. From there, these squads would work in tandem with each other to eliminate those Titans. Lastly, in the third phase, after the District was clear, clean-up of casualties and other disease prevention efforts would begin.
For their training scenarios, Shadis told them that it was unlikely they would ever make it the third phase due to the sheer number of Titans that would pour in, but, also that there was no way of knowing what might happen until it did. So, he was having them focus solely on the first two phases. In this month's version, just like the one before it, instead of assigning an instructor to lead them he'd appointed some among the 104th. The results listed each squad and their overall performance. Her eyes were on those at the bottom. Namely, Krista's. For whatever reason, Shadis made her a leader again and the outcome was disastrous: everyone under her command had gotten killed, again. Either she was a horrible leader—which was entirely true—or Ymir'd been right and she was up to something stupid.
"Goddess, my ass."
She remembered the morning she'd woken up after those thugs tried to kidnap them. Krista there crying at her bedside, apologizing for not doing more. For not being the one to suffer a concussion instead. She originally thought the girl was just saying that to make her feel better, but, no. After this, after what Ymir revealed to her, it was clear. She said it to make herself feel more important. She wanted to be a soldier. She wanted to become a symbol. She wanted to be a hero.
Back during their stay in Krolva, she'd visited her grandfather's house. It hadn't been cleaned out since the fall of Wall Maria and she'd spent her time exploring it, reminiscing on waking up frightened, the streets packed with panic-stricken people all clambering for safety further inward. Her grandfather, shuffling inside the room with a plate of cookies. Joining her at the window, scratching his beard and ruffling her hair. Telling her that everything was alright, that they'd go look for her parents when things died down. Distracting her, from the horrors she'd seen, and how in denial she was because of it. A promise.
Achi sucked in her breath.
Remembering the old man and the funny, but, dumb, way he talked recalling the stories he would tell of his time in the military as a member of the Garrison Regiment and how proud he'd been, defending the Walls with those red roses on his vest. He'd volunteered himself for that reclamation expedition they'd done not long after Wall Maria's fall. The mass culling to weed down the number of people within the remaining two Walls. He hadn't come back. Isolde told her it was his final wish for her to live a peaceful existence and being with her at Thorpe was the first step towards such a life. To forget the horrors she had seen that day, and hopefully gain back even a sliver of what she'd lost of her innocence. That he was a symbol to them all of what exemplified the fight for humanity's future against the Titans. But... what good was a symbol, if nobody was there to follow behind it?
She wanted to punch something.
To scream out.
That was when she saw him, the boy from earlier. She recognized him now. He was Fritz, the one Ymir kept a leash on along with Sasha. Her mule. She also noticed mule-boy wasn't alone. That other girl from before was with him—Annie. They appeared to be arguing.
Watching them disappear, Achi wanted to curse the world and everyone in it, but, all she could do was shudder in the cold and cry. Except, she wasn't that scared, wide-eyed little girl she used to be anymore. She'd woken up from her dream, and it was high time Krista did the same.
