She said that he was overreacting, and to be perfectly honest, he probably was, but that didn't change the fact that she had deliberately gone out of her way to hide the fact she was in a relationship with him to others, and that hurt him, so he wasn't prepared to forgive her just yet.
She had begged him to just talk to her before he and some of the Scouts were deployed to an outpost in Wall Rose, but he gave her the silent treatment, a payback of sorts for the times she had been angry at him, now she would know what it felt like to have him angry at her.
Him and some other recruits from the 104th had been stationed here since the expedition a few days ago, and it was by far the most boring experience of his life, and he wasn't the only one that had been feeling the boredom, with two recruits he remembered from Trost, Sasha and Connie especially suffering from the boredom.
They had them stationed in the middle of nowhere on standby, dressed in plainclothes, they weren't allowed to wear their uniforms at all, which would have been a massive problem for Lukas had they not let him wear his boots with his plain clothes because they were "comfy", because trying to explain why you had a gun tucked in the back of your trousers was definitely not something he wanted to do.
What's more was that their superiors were all armed to the teeth, two squads of Scouts led by Section Commander Mike Zacharius. It was definitely out of character for the Scouts, because Titans didn't wander inside the walls, well mindless ones certainly didn't.
"You know, my village happens just a little bit south of where we are now." Connie told the others who were sat at his table. Reiner and Bertholdt were playing chess, Krista and the girl Ymir were talking, Sasha and ,Connie both had their heads resting in their hands, while Lukas was reading a book.
"Where I'm from is pretty close too." Sasha added in, just as bored as Connie.
"Why can't I go see my people?" Connie sighed. "Maybe I'll just sneak out after dark."
"My people told me not to bother coming back home until I'm normal, so, there's that." Sasha said.
"Hmm, well folks where I grew up always tried to tell me I was too puny to be a soldier." Connie smirked. "No question I had the brains for it, I was top ten in my class actually, somebody's gonna be eating their words, and that's a promise."
"Connie." Reiner interrupted. "I'll help you if you really wanna go."
"Yeah?" Connie looked around to Reiner. "Why would you?"
"Doesn't this feel a bit strange?" He asked back. "We're on standby in our plainclothes, they won't let us wear our uniforms, can't even train." He walked over to the window, his eyes narrowing at the soldiers below. "What's even more suspicious is that our superiors are armed to the teeth. We're inside the Wall, not the front lines, so who exactly are we fighting?"
"Huh? I dunno man, maybe they're just worried about bears?" Connie suggested.
"Sure... bears..." Sasha trailed off.
"All you need for bears are guns." Reiner sat back down.
"Reiner, stop freaking them out." Lukas spoke, not looking up from his book.
Slowly, Sasha set her head onto the table not knowing what to do from the boredom, then, she felt it, small tremors, and she shot up like a cat out of water. "Uh guys, I think I'm hearing footsteps."
"Knock it off Sasha." Reiner told her off. "So what, you're trying to tell us Titans are here? Come on, that would only be possible if Wall Rose had fallen."
Lukas put his book down, and just like Sasha had, he put his ear to the table, and right enough, he could hear and feel the tremors. Reiner and Bertholdt were here, and Annie couldn't break the walls, so that meant... Zeke was here.
"Look! I'm not pulling your leg, I hear something!" Sasha shouted out, positive about what she had just heard.
"I feel it too." Lukas came to Sasha's defence.
Just then, one of their superiors, Nanaba landed at the window, opening it to speak to them. "Is everyone here?"
"What is it Nanaba?" Krista was the first to ask.
"We've got company." Nanaba informed them. "Approximately five hundred metres to the south and closing, Titans headed this way." Everyone in the room gasped. "There's no time to suit up in your ODM gear, I want everyone on a horse stat. Evacuate every home and settlement in the area." She ordered them. "Get to it!"
"The south... but that's..." Connie trailed off.
"Do we know if the walls really been breached?" Reiner hissed at Bertholdt.
"Ride! I'm sorry but lunch will have to wait!" Nanaba said as she shot off to another rooftop.
Within the next two minutes, all the recruits had led the horses out and had them saddled up and ready to ride, and accompanied by some armed Scouts, they rode like hell out the outpost to warn the nearby settlements.
They were led by Section Commander Mike Zacharias, who was also giving them orders. "The second the Titans reach the woods we split up!" He ordered. "I want four separate teams, recruits and soldiers alike in each unit! When I give the signal, we'll scatter in different directions simultaneously. Get the word out to civilians. Do not engage the enemy!"
"Which one of you is most familiar with the area?" Mike asked afterwards.
"Me Sir!" Sasha raised her hand while riding her horse. "My hometown is just to the north of here." She told him. "I know this region like the back of my hand. Connie too, go on tell him."
Connie didn't respond, prompting a response from Sasha. "What's wrong?"
"My village is to the south." Connie said. "That's where the Titans are coming from." He pointed out. "I can lead you to nearby settlements." He told the Section Commander. "But afterwards, let me go home, please?"
"Very well." Mike allowed his request. "Guide the southern team and then go to your village."
"Yes Sir!"
"I'll come with you." Reiner offered, riding up alongside him.
"What?" Connie asked in disbelief. "No, you're crazy, they'll be everywhere!"
"You think I care?" Reiner asked him. "I was gonna help you get home anyway, wasn't I? What about you?" He turned to ask Bertholdt. "You coming?"
"Of course." Berthold replied after a few moments. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
"As you have guessed, today marks the darkest day in humanity's history." Nanaba stated to the recruits, a grim tone to her voice. "Look sharp! If ever we needed to give our all that time is now. Don't lose heart!"
"They've reached the woods!" A scout called out. "The enemy is on top of us!"
"Scatter now!" Mike yelled. "Ride for everything you're worth!" He roared as the Scouts and cadets all split up into four teams to warn the towns and villages about the incoming Titan threat. However as they began to split, the Titans turned and started sprinting at them, coming at them at full speed rather than the walking pace they had just been doing.
"No, they're coming at us full tilt." Mike was shocked at the sudden change in speed, he knew something needed to be done about this.
"Holy shit!" Connie swore, he hadn't seen a Titan have a turn of speed like that without prompt.
"Gelgar!" Mike yelled at the top of his lungs, turning his horse to face the incoming Titans as he charged straight towards them. "Take charge of the southern team!" He ordered.
Sir?" Gelgar asked confused at first. "Uh, understood." He also realised what needed to be done, that Mike needed to buy them all the time he could.
"Tell me he's not using himself as bait?" Lynne asked.
"I'll go with him, I can help." Another Scout offered to help the Section Commander.
"Stay where you are." Gelgar ordered. "We can't spare anymore soldiers." He told him. "Give him some credit, that man's skills are second only to Captain Levi." Gelgar told them. "He'll survive, count on it!"
It had been more than ten hours since the Titans had first been sighted inside Wall Rose, and they had been going non stop all day riding to towns and settlements, evacuating them before the Titans could arrive and catch them by surprise.
For now, dusk had came and went, the only light they had was the torches that were being held up for some sort of light. Lukas was with Nanaba, Henning, Krista and Ymir, and despite his lack of talk during the whole day, he had been a very keen listener, especially when Krista mentioned something about her family, and that annoyed him even more, because it was more and more obvious that she was more than a simple cadet, yet he still couldn't place her, no matter how hard he tried to remember where he'd recognised her from.
However, the range on the torches was very minimal, and they were looking for the hole in the wall that the Titans would've came through, so that left four terrified soldiers worried that a Titan may jump out at them from the darkness, while Lukas was slightly less concerned with Titans coming from the wall side, because they would've known if the wall was really open, the others just didn't know why.
Suddenly, the five of them spotted flames coming in the distance, and as they closed in, they were joined by the other team consisting of Gelgar, Lynn, Reiner, Bertholdt and Connie, scouring the area for any signs of a breach in the wall.
"So, you followed the Wall here, I take it?" Gelgar chose to break the uncomfortable silence between them.
"That's right." Nanaba confirmed. "I assume you found the breach then?"
Gelgar's eyes widened. "Huh?"
"We didn't see any irregularities along the western route." She explained to him. "Surely you must have seen something in the east."
"No. The wall's perfectly intact."
Both groups of soldiers stared at each other, three had a good idea of what had happened, but the rest were clueless, and not finding a breach made it even more confusing and terrifying as to what happened.
"Well, maybe we just overlooked it?" Lynne suggested, but she didn't sound very confident.
"Not likely." Henning countered with. "A hole big enough for Titans to get through? No way."
"I suggest we have another pass then." Gelgar said, wanting this hole situation to be resolved as quick as possible.
"That goes without saying." Nanaba responded. "Trouble is our horses are on the verge of collapse, and so are we. If only we had more light."
As if by some miracle, her prayers were answered as the clouds cleared and the moonlight shone through onto the ground, lighting up the whole area for them to be able to see a lot more.
"Hey, what's that?" Gelgar's eyes were drawn to a building in the distance.
In the distance were the ruins of an old castle, with the most prominent features being the two towers, one taller than the other with a bridge connecting the two, it seemed to be the last remnants of a very ancient stone building.
The walls to the place were broken and practically rubble anyway, but the group slowly moved towards the castle, just wanting to be done with this day.
Inside the castle was just as old and decrepit as the outside, it did little to provide in the ways of comfort for the current occupants of the castle. The floor was dusty, cold and the air smelt of mould, they should've counted themselves lucky nobody had a coughing fit once they were inside.
Though someone had been here recently, there was cloth, food and drink lying about the place, but it was chalked up to being bandits that had been using the old castle as a hideout.
Once Gelgar had returned from one of the other rooms with a bottle of what looked like wine, he ordered the recruits to get some rest, they were to be ready to leave four hours shy of daybreak.
Krista had asked about what would happen if it turned out there wasn't a breach in the wall, and that question left everyone stumped to be honest, they had no idea how to respond to that.
"It's our job to find out." Gelgar responded, walking up the stairs that led to the roof. "Starting tomorrow."
Krista sighed. "I'm just saying. The situation isn't good, sure, but is it as bad as we think? You never know, right? That's all."
"She's right." Henning agreed. "We haven't seen that many Titans. I mean, for them to have busted through the Wall anyway."
"Only within the initial sighting." Nanaba said, mulling it over. "A relatively modest handful."
Ymir then decided to change the subject. "Connie, what about your village?"
"Totally destroyed." He replied. "It was crushed to tinder and bits of rubble."
Ymir let out a sad sigh, something unusual for her. "I'm... I'm sorry."
"Nobody got devoured though." Connie assured. "Looked like they all got out, so there's a silver lining at least."
"I thought you said it was destroyed." Ymir pointed out, confused by that seemingly contradictory statement.
"Well, the houses and stuff were, but the people themselves must've all escaped. I mean, they had to have. The thing is, we didn't see any blood anywhere. Not so much as one drop. That's the only possible explanation." He turned to face the ground as his mind drifted back to that moment. "Still though, there's something I can't get out of my head. There was a Titan on top of our house just lying there staring at me. It couldn't move on its own, thank God. But I just... I have no idea why, but it reminded me of my mom. Am I crazy?"
"Connie." Reiner interrupted, almost annoyed with that statement. "What did I tell you? It was your imagina-"
"Are you serious?" All eyes went to Ymir who burst out laughing at how ludicrous that statement sounded. "You actually think your mom might be a Titan? Oh, honey, as itty-bitty as you are, please!"
Connie stared at her wide eyed, a silence befalling him, he had no idea what to say or how to react to what Ymir was saying.
"We all knew you were dumb as a bag of rocks, but whoa, man. This takes it to a whole other level!"
"Ha hah, have your fun." he growled over her laughter. "Guess I was kinda asking for it."
"Don't stop there," Ymir continued to mock him. "If mother darling's a Titan, it's only logical to assume dear old daddy is, too. Basic biology. Think about it. How else-"
"Okay, I get it," Connie snapped, glaring daggers at her. "Just shut up already!"
"Lock in down, you two." Nanaba ordered, she had enough of their bullshit. "This is hardly the time for this nonsense. Get some sleep, all of you."
Doing as they were told, they each went to their sheets in silence, each of them trying to find some way to sleep despite all their worries they were having.
After about two hours, which was hardly any sleep for some like Connie, who couldn't shake what Ymir had said to him, but for others like Bertholdt, they found it easy to fall asleep with how tired they were.
"Everyone wake up!" Lynne shouted down the stairs, getting everyone awake. "Get to the tower immediately!"
Once they were up the tower, and they looked down below, there were Titans crawling everywhere, coming out of the forest, the direction that the wall was in.
"I couldn't see them in the dark." Lynne explained, her nervousness very apparent. "But with the moonlight-"
"How can they move?" Gelgar asked, as horrified as the others were. "This shouldn't be happening. The sun went down hours ago!"
"Uh guys." Connie got their attention. "What the hell is that?"
All eyes were now focused on a huge Titan, seventeen metres tall at least, covered in fur and arms that reached unnaturally all the way down its legs. It was huge, and it was there, lumbering around like a giant ape.
"It's gotta be a Titan." Connie stated, panic starting to increase within him. "But have you ever seen one that big? Look at it! It's more like some kind of beast. How do we-"
His eyes were drawn to his friends, Reiner and Bertholdt, who looked just as terrified, if not even more so than he did.
The Beast Titan then shifted course, now heading for the wall. "Wait, is it-" Connie's pupils shrank when he realized where it was going. "It's heading straight for the Wall."
They were all so caught up in staring at the Beast like Titan that it wasn't until a fifteen metre Titan crashed into the tower, causing the tower to shake violently, that they took note of the other Titans once again, and unfortunately for Lukas, who was standing right at the edge of the stairs, his foot slipped and he fell forwards, the side of his head hitting the battlements before he could catch himself.
"Hey, hey, back off!" Gelgar shouted angrily and fearfully down at the Titans. "Don't come up here. Don't you have anything better to do? Bother someone else! I should be drinking right now, damn it." Finally, he drew his swords. "You're standing between me and a tankard of ale. I've earned the right to get trashed!"
"Rookies, stay where you are." Nanaba ordered as she and the others stood on the edge of the tower. "We've got this. Let the ODM gear do what it was designed for." Drawing her swords with the others, she gave let out a loud cry. "Attack!"
The four armed Scouts jumped off the tower with a battle cry, all ready to kill as many Titans as they could.