Over The Wall
"Rotten luck," Jarratt complained, shivering. "I hate it when it rains at night."
Mathias stood squinting into the dark, his back pressed up against the towering fifty-meter wall. "I don't know about this..."
He, Jarratt, and the others were all in long coats, their heads deep in hoods, but the unpleasant cold seeped regardless. The rain came down hard enough to sting, and its tumultuous noise made it difficult hear their own voices without having to stand right next to one another.
They were at the north side of Quinta where the District wall intersected with Wall Maria itself and towards the gate the way was littered with the remains of wooden shanties. Charred black, most had been burnt down to their skeletal supports, forcing them to spend extra time searching for suitable shelter, both from the elements and the Titans.
The rain had been falling for quite some time, but the faint tang of charcoal hung in the air. It was weeks since Quinta had been cut off. The fires should have expired long ago, but the smell was fresh by days, at least, and it'd taken them around three or so to reach Quinta, so Mathias couldn't help but wonder what was going on behind its walls. If Rita was safe.
Looking out from place to place, the ground was marked with vast, mortar-shaped cavities, signs of a bombardment. The shantytown being subjected to such violent shelling could only mean the Titans had been right here, not far from where he stood. Luckily they couldn't during the night.
Rita could've been fighting them, right here. She was a Garrison soldier, after all. It would have been her job to engage the Titans. She'd gone through plenty of training, and it was hard to imagine that she'd go down. Yet the Titans were overwhelmingly powerful and overwhelmingly huge. It was easier to think that she survived. Put his mind at ease, until he learned the truth, as his mind was thrown back to the ones encountered on his journey. The Titan on the stable roof, hardly seeming to notice losing one of its eyes to Bernhardt's anchor. And a new eye growing in the vacant bloody hole shortly thereafter at an alarming rate. Could humans really stand their own against such abominations? He certainly hoped that Rita could, otherwise...
He shook his mind free of the harrowing thought.
Rita was alive.
And that was all there was to it.
"About what?" he heard Jarratt ask, speaking of his earlier musing aloud.
Mathias peered at him hunched behind Nikki, who was making faces at her reflection in a puddle. How she could even see clearly, let alone herself, eluded him. "This rain. It's too loud. There could be a Titan nearby and we wouldn't even hear its footsteps."
"Don't assume we're all halfwits like you," Klaus scoffed.
"I'd rather not."
"... Say that again?"
"It certainly is coming down." Bernhardt parted the front of his long coat, put both hands around his waist, and casually strode out into it, inspecting the height of the wall, all but ignoring it. "It does seem to be easing, but I daresay haste remains the best option available to us."
He flexed backwards and pulled the triggers on the hilts of both blades, simultaneously firing twin anchors up into the sky. The roar of the downpour muffled the sound of the wires cutting through the air. Even then, they all heard the crunch of the tips impacting the surface of the wall as the wires snapped shut and Bernhardt's stance became that of a man on a swing with impossibly long ropes that reached up from either side.
"I'd say we're lucky," claimed Jarratt. "The rain's covering the noise we're making, too."
Mathias held out his hand, feeling the rain on his palm. Though he couldn't tell, Bernhardt was the most experienced out of them, and had lived the longest. And Jarratt was probably right, too. Had the night been clear, they'd have had to hide the horses farthar away, back under the canopy of the closest forest. Walking that distance would've been torture, and there was always the chance of someone picking out a call or a shout even if they managed to remain out of sight trying to cross the vast land between here and there on foot. Not to mention, the Titans...
He shuttered just thinking about being caught in the open, nowhere to go, by those things. It made his blood run colder than the rain.
Bernhardt turned and crouched down. "A couple of trips should do it. Who wants to go first?"
Jarratt began to step forward. "If you wouldn't mind—"
"Oh! Me!" Nikki sprang up, hitting Jarratt beneath the chin with her head, and already caught one of the wires in her right hand, fixed her right foot on the Vertical Maneuvering Gear above Bernhardt's waistline, and pulled herself up, in the time Jarratt recovered from being stunned and staggered.
Rubbing his chin and popping his jaw, Jarratt more or less repeated the same process, only more slowly and without rushing. Perhaps a bit irritated, as well, but Mathias wasn't sure because he was still smiling despite Nikki's harmful enthusiasm—of which Mathias could attest to on multiple occassions by now—and made him the hardest out of the outlaws to read. He hadn't learned much about him the night before they set off, only just knowing that the man had once been a butcher because of those cows. In fact, none of them, save for Nikki, had revealed much about their pasts to him, yet they seemed to know all about his, or at least who he was through his father's reputation which was still more than he knew of them all the same. It was yet another reason he didn't want to be involved with such shady individuals any longer than necessary and was relieved their time together would come to an end sooner rather than later. As long as they made it to his family's mansion unimpeded, anyhow.
Whatever happened, they still had yet to climb up the wall as Jarratt and Nikki appeared to be standing on Bernhardt's waist, but their weight was in fact being supported by the wires.
Bernhardt, for his part, seemed perfectly relaxed.
"To the heavens, then!" he cried.
The mustached ex-soldier maneuvered the levers embedded in the hilts of the blades. Compressed gas fired, and the wires began to spool in and the three of them began a smooth ascent, though more slowly than Mathias had expected.
Bernhardt had no doubt adjusted the speed of the rewind mechanism in some way. How? Mathias knew he wasn't the person to ask. The result? Well.
"Impressive..." Mathias said, watching the old man kick off the wall every now and again effortlessly as they rappalled steadily up into the darkness until he no longer saw them, dark figures against darker clouds, and it were only he and Klaus left.
"Don't get your gun wet," Klaus warned. Unfriendly as ever.
"I won't."
After a while Bernhardt returned alone, looking again like he was sitting on a swing. "I assume you've grasped the basics, lads?"
"Yes," Mathias answered with a firm nod.
Klaus only snorted.
Making sure to ask if he may go first, Mathias walked up to Bernhardt, took hold of one of the wires, put a foot on the equipment, and kicked off the ground to jump up. The shotgun strapped to his hip was a bit in the way and he wobbled a little but managed to keep his balance.
"You're wearing gloves, I take it? Wonderful. Don't hold on too tight."
"Huh?"
"Use you head for once," Klaus muttered, putting his own foot on the Vertical Maneuvering Gear.
"All on board? Okay, here we go, lads!"
As soon as Bernhardt said this the wire in Mathias' hands began to slide downwards, and downwards again.
Indeed, it would have been obvious if he'd used his head. The wire was being reeled in bit by bit, meaning his hand was moving up towards the anchor. If he tried to hold on without gloves, his skin would tear badly.
"Keep your mouths closed. You don't want to bite your tongue!"
They ascended through the rain, swinging in arcs away from the wall each time Bernhardt kicked off. He was, Mathias also realized, taking care that they didn't collide with the surface. Had it been the middle of the day, and not raining, they probably could have seen off into the far distance. It might have felt as though they were flying. Instead, either because of the torrential rain or the way it blocked their sights, Mathias had the illusion that he was plunging ever deeper into a vast expanse of water. This despite the fact that it was the other way around and they were soaring upwards.
It was a strange experience.
"And here we are. It's wet and slippery. Watch yourselves!"
Mathias swallowed. Right there in front of him was the very upper lip of the wall. The wind was, unsurprisingly, stronger than it had been below. Bernhardt had both feet planted on the wall, keeping them steady, but even then he couldn't fully dampen their sideways movement. Above them, Nikki was keeping vigilant watch against both stretches. Having already checked the frequency of patrols, and hidden and inaudible in the rain, the truth was that they had no reason to fear being spotted.
Jarratt lowered his huge frame and extended an arm. Mathias took it and let himself get pulled up. His feet were on the flat surface of the wall before he could even think about the terror of falling. Just like his first time, the wall felt solid and secure and afforded a sense of stability comparable to standing on a stone floor.
Mathias turned to face Quinta. It was still early in the night. Numerous lights were visible towards the center.
... Didn't that mean most of the residents were alive and well?
His heart skipped a beat.
Rita.
Jarratt folded his arms and gazed at the town below beside him. "Doesn't look they got in."
Klaus had used his own strength to pull himself up. "Which was what he heard," he said.
"But there was always the danger of Titans getting in after the report was sent," Mathias objected.
"We needn't worry." Bernhardt reeled in the last stretch of wire and scrambled a little ungraciously up to join them. "We saw people on guard up here. And the gate was shut tight. Neither of which seems appropriate for a town in ruins, hmm?"
"I guess so."
"We are truly blessed!" he exclaimed, hitting all three of them lightly across the backs.
Bernhardt tugged the anchors free and pulled those in too. He then strode across the wall and twirled around so his back faced inside. Next, in a manner that was disarmingly casual and left no time for intervention, he threw himself backwards into the air.
"... What the—?!"
Immediately there was the hard crack of anchors being driven into the wall's surface. Mathias charged over to see Bernhardt hanging on tightened wires, about a meter down, arms stretched out but his body securely attached to the wall.
"Who wants the tour first?"
"You shouldn't frighten us like that! I thought you'd fallen!"
"Ah. My apologies, lad!"
Mathias realized Bernhardt and the others were watching him with grins on their faces. They were, all of them, of dubious moral character and jerks to boot.
He turned red hot, but sighed, his sudden rush of anger cooled off by the now freezing rain. "I'll go first, if that's fine."
"Hoo...?" Bernhardt teased him with a smile made of curled mustache. "No rush. Your sweetheart is all cooped up inside the wall. She won't be going anywhere."
"... Can we just go?"
Mathias crouched. He turned his back on Quinta and got down onto his stomach, then carefully began to lower his legs. His toes found Bernhardt's shoulder. Making sure his chest was flat on the wall, he let his legs reach even farther. Finally the soles of his feet landed on the surface of the Vertical Maneuvering Gear and he started to transfer his weight, letting it take the strain. At the same time he groped for and found the wire, taking tight hold of it.
"Expertly done!"
"Could you just... stay quiet?"
Fortunately, not all of Mathias' anger had been washed away, and it was quickly taking precedence over his awareness of height and any fear.
And, at last, did they start their descent.
