Chapter 28: New world

Armin has seen many things in his young life. He lived with his grandfather, met bullies and a best friend, learned about the world he lived in and the world he shouldn't know anything about. He had read books about the outside world, about flaming water and frozen earth he wants to see one day. He wants to see the sea with salt water, he wants to go outside, yes but he never really thought about what this means. His parents never came back from their try to go outside. The only one that can go out are the soldiers and they have to fight against titans every minute out there. Titans like the ones that broke through the gate.

He had been visiting Mikasa, his only friend as the titans came. They were fast. One second the giant titan looks above the wall and the next there is a big whole. Both Armin and Mikasa ran to her house, getting her mother but as they arrive a titan stands right next to them. Her mother ran out of the house while they stared at the ugly face of the titan, she picked up both and tried to run. Another titan came from the other side and the only way was back into the house. She through the door close and hurried the children down the basement stairs. There was no way to go further but he told them to stay their until she tells them to come out and closes the door behind them. It didn't take long for the noise of titan step and crushing house to tell them that they were prisoner in this hole. They didn't try the door until both were sure it was night and all sounds of giant feet on the ground had stilled.

They couldn't open the door and after a whole day Armin found himself accepting that they will die down here. There was no way someone would come look for them. Even if someone would miss them, they wouldn't know where to look and he doubt that the army will use soldiers for some rescue mission finding missing children that are most likely eaten by now. First, he thought getting eaten would be the worse death but dying down there on the stair of an old basement without light and the slow death of thirst sounds like the worst thing that could happen. The only good thing he could find is that Mikasa was with him. That might sound selfish, he could wish for her to be safe but he prefers to die with her by his side.

Mikasa and Armin were well aware when the new day started. They sound of titans walking around the city woke them and never really stopped until later the day. After an increased activity there was only silence until they hurt the debris above their head move. The first thought was that a titan had finally found them and would dig them out to eat them but the voice of a young man that followed a polite knocking on the door was a surprise.

"I´m here to help you, be careful when I open the door." A soldier in the green cloak of the Survey Corps waits for them, blue sky and sunlight greets them. Something Armin feared to never see again. As both of them are out of the basement and had introduce themselves Eren, the soldier leads them through the streets. The titans have destroyed most of their home but he tries not to think about all the people that had lived in these houses. He doesn't want to think about the red puddles on the ground, what they mean. So Armin concentrates on something else, this something is Eren, he looks far too young to be a soldier. He looks younger then Armin and he looks young for his 12 years. The soldier answers their question with smiles and no worries. Not like he wouldn't care that people died here more like he is just happy to have found them. Living in the moment, his grandfather had told it once. The people who can say in one moment without worrying about the future or regretting the past. The soldier, Eren is a person like that.

Eren introduces them to another soldier and Armin recognizes Captain Levi, humanities strongest soldier. They talk only shortly before Eren pulls them over to a woman with messy brownish/reddish hair who really looked like she is crazy, at least her eyes. Eren´s warning does nothing to let him relax but what really stops his thought is the nickname the soldier, Hanji gives the soldier. Little titan, petting his hair as if he is a child, not a follow soldier and running over to the commandant that Armin identified as Erwin Smith. Another famous soldier, how had Mikasa and him ended up between these people, he ask himself quietly while Hanji starts to check them out for injuries and gave them some water to drink.

The cold water feels like heaven and Armin nearly misses as the commander gives new orders and everyone starts moving. Only Commander Smith and Hanji stayed with them. The other soldiers make their way to the hole in the gate while Eren and Captain Levi go into a different direction. Armin´s eyes follow them. He is still in some kind of shock but he heard their words, listening their plans and all sound so very wrong. Mikasa is next to him following their saviours movement as Hanji´s head is between them. "What you are going to see will shake the understanding of your world. It has to remain a secret." Confused Armin wants to ask what secret but a sudden lightning and a new titan appearing stops every word he has tried to form in his mouth.

They just got away why is there another titan in the city? The Survey Corps doesn't seem to mind and understanding comes to Armin. He watches a titan, a titan the Survey Corps controls lifting up a heavy rock, as big as the gasping hole in the wall. He sees Captain Levi walking in front of the titan, talking to him, no weapons in his hands. Armin watches as the other soldiers fight outside the wall and prevent other titans to enter and he hears the words again.

Little titan

I need you to pick it up and carry it to the gate to close up the wall.

"Eren is a titan." Whispered words only heard by Mikasa and Hanji. The first stares at him before letting her eyes return to the titan, who carries his heavy load while steam evaporates around him, the second one nods.

"That´s right. He is what we call a titan-shifter and he helps us on our mission. No solider had died this time around, after we all had been able to scale up our skilled with him helping us train and outside the wall protecting us. Don't be afraid of him. He doesn't say it out loud but your fear or hate would hurt him more than any blade can ever do." Armin listens to surprisingly quiet words. He had thought of Hanji of a loud person and after her questionable first impression Erens words made him grinch but this is different. The person next to him is worried that two children would hurt her friend.

"We don't fear him." It´s Mikasa who is still watching the titan with wide eyes. "He is different. He is like the sunshine on a cold day bringing you warmth you didn't know you needed. You can see it in his eyes. He is someone who prefers to get hurt then hurting others. He is a protector."

A hurtful stink in Armins heart reminded him that Mikasa had seen real monsters before that day. Had seen true evil and the worst of mankind. No titan would ever be able to do what these humans did to her and her family and she is right. The titan-shifter who is closing up the wall is their saviour not a monster. Armin might be a child but he can see the difference between human and monsters. Not all humans are good, some are monsters as some titans are more human and good than a person could ever be.

"Good. Then let's get up the wall, we will spend the night up their before we find out what is going on, inside. The way until we reach Wall Rose is long." Hanji takes them up the wall and for the first time in their young life they see something outside the wall, a world beyond the stones and shadows.