"Gabi, I told you already. You're staying here."
"Come on, I want to help!"
Not even the apocalypse could keep Gabi from complaining of boredom. Of course, she had to sit in a crowded tent with their relatives who by goddamn fate survived who were tired, angry, despairing, and screaming for an exit from being guarded by Marley's barebone yet highly suspicious military whose eyes pried their every step and breath, anticipating the fruition of supposed devilish conspiracy.
Apparently Gabi wasn't sleeping as soundly as she had been recently as Reiner prepared to head out for the morning, his first mission venturing outside since the death of Eren Jaeger. This wasn't an expedition he wanted her tagging along with no matter how well-trained she had been since she was five years old to take out a moving target.
"Only the two of us know how to aim and fire properly and I've never missed a shot," she continued, "The birds are going to get too fat to fly away if we keep talking."
"Don't we want them that way so we can get more to eat?"
"Yeah, but we don't have time for that," she blushed at her contradiction.
It was too early for bickering. Caving to the girl was easier and a way to keep the rest of their family from waking. Hunger made them especially ornery. Fort rations and parachuted deliveries didn't sustain them. They craved real meat, freshly killed from butchers, or for now, hunters.
Gabi buttoned her oversized donated coat and obediently trailed behind Reiner, mindful of the early morning clamor around the slumbering camp. Young children and babies fussed and cried as their mothers lit fires to boil water free of contamination. A few people sat around, mumbling about the latest rumors of just how many people were gone, flattened, crushed to death.
What a miserable sight.
There wasn't much else to do. How were they supposed to simply talk about anything else? It was that, or sleep. If you were lucky, you might get a dream. If a higher power existed, you might get a good dream if you were without blame. But if you were guilty, more screams and punishment from the spirits of countless lives trampled upon or bitten into, betrayed by their own kindred.
Reiner tugged his sleeves down and buttoned the ends together. He didn't want Gabi to inquire about the test. She didn't know that it was not a voluntary test he and the other Shifters took. She'd be scared even if he personally appreciated the depths carved into him. Not just for the fact it would mean she wouldn't have to carry his burden. No battle should leave one unscarred and blissfully forgetful of one's actions.
A Marleyan guard stood alert at the exterior of the makeshift gate. Funny as hell that they would think that pathetic barrier would be able to hold back the Eldians if they rushed simultaneously. Not that anybody was in the mood to form a rebellion in their current state. Where would they go? All that was out there was desolate land sculpted over night by the monsters unleashed from mere man's paradise.
"Vice Captain- or should I say Captain Braun," the guard greeted, noting the hunting rifle Reiner strapped behind his shoulders. Emergency supplies from the nearest standing city, granted to the Alliance as a privilege for their actions, a symbolic gesture that there would be some equal footing between races in the camp, at least for the good Eldians who proved themselves.
"Clearance for hunting?"
"Clearance granted. Hey, taking the little tyke with you?"
Gabi pouted. "Hey! I just turned thirteen! And I helped stop the Rumbling too!"
She looked younger than that. Too little food and overwhelming stress had caused her to lose weight at an unhealthy rate. Not that anybody looked any better than her. Mud caked, blood stained, emaciated. Likewise, most of the men in the camp had scraggly beards that made them look older than they were.
"Yes, she's coming with but will follow me at all times." Reiner eyed her, never wanting that kid to be out of his reach again. She shuffled her feet to stand tall behind her older cousin. Quite a mouthy rebel she had become to their oppressors, also boasting in her achievement in saving the refugees at the Fort. She was talking about it like she had won a foot race when they were being interviewed weeks back. The guard snorted and signaled another guard outside the gate to unlock it.
"Watch yourselves out there. All kinds of beasts could have become displaced from their homes. Wouldn't be an honorable death to be eaten alive."
Honorable death. What an oxymoron. What a moron who needed to keep his mouth shut.
Ahead of them was a distance patched with dry grass that should have been replenished from winter. But an idyllic springtime was not what they got. The dirt was tainted with dust and ash dyed dark red. Their boots and pants would never be unstained again.
Neither would their hands.
It took days of improvised testing on Reiner and the other former possessors of the Titan Shifters alone to convince the Marleyan military to prove that their powers were gone. Most of it involved knives cutting their arms and hands just enough to avoid any arteries to attempt to invoke a reaction to heal. They had to beg them to spare Falco the worst of it, and he only received a few cuts on his palms. Poor kid was with his family somewhere in the scattered camp, grieving his loss of his beloved brother.
He couldn't blame Marley for being frightened. Nothing could have prepared them for everything to vanish alongside their nation. Human lives were much more personal, but to lose their damnation converted to salvation they had obtained several decades back which they could be otherwise using to rebuild the world? At this point, they couldn't tell what was worse: the potential to let Eldians who may have been keeping their powers hidden to live without restraints, or the potential that power source was gone forever.
No regeneration, no strength, no second chances.
I'm not the Armored Titan anymore.
He didn't have two years left before his power expired, not a ticking bomb left in him, closer to explosion with every heartbeat. However, without a countdown to a set date and time, who knew how much life he had left in him?
"I'm going to get the biggest bird I can," Gabi declared. "Do you think there are any ostriches alive out here? It'll feed us for weeks."
"Try for one day at a time first."
"Come on. The training program instructors let me peek at your unit's training scores to set an example to us. My marks in sharpshooting are higher than yours were when you were my age. I'm still under Bertholdt Hoover's score though."
"I'm not doubting that, Gabi. I'm doubting that we'll hunt anything that big," Reiner replied, not wanting to think about the man who had fallen for his personal actions. Would have been nice to see him once more back there when the curse vanished on this side. To see him on that other ambiguous side without any life or death would have been nice too.
"Then what do you think the biggest animal out there is now? Did the ocean animals all die because of the Titans? That means whales would be dead. Are elephants and hippos dead too?"
He sighed. Why did she have to be so emotionally attached to wildlife she'd never care for before right now? "I don't know. What matters right now is if we have food."
Food that the military would try to steal from the Eldians if they were in a bad mood today for petty shit. Give it to a stray wild dog more worthy to live than a failed Warrior.
The camp behind them shrank into the distance. No rickety tent roof could shelter them from exposure to the elements out here until they returned successful. Not even the temptation of freedom from containment could hinder their mission, or perhaps a fate better than being made into a mindless monster would take them. No, he wasn't going to let Gabi starve...or the other family members.
Sure, his mother needed him, but what did he need of her? He spent half of his childhood away from her to fulfill her own fantastical desires which he siphoned into his own to be big and strong and loved. He wanted to forget that embrace. It seemed too alluring, sweetly sugarcoated, far too comforting for what she had done to him.
"Stop, stop!" Reiner flinched at the voice. "There's a rock here! Let's look under it!" Gabi tugged on him. She knelt down and flipped the rock which had laid undisturbed in nature for millennia until an Eldian child needed nourishment. Little lifeforms wriggled from their concealment as she grabbed for them. Thankfully, Gabi was not the type of girl who screeched at the sight of insects or worms; she wasn't allowed to do so when off the battlefield since scorpions were a regular sight to behold or she would otherwise be punished for causing a ruckus. She plucked them from the dirt like flowers. "We can save these for later or use them as bait!" She showed off a few fat earthworms and a many-legged insect before stuffing them into her coat pocket which had a button.
He tried an approving smile. "Good thinking." They continued their march to the endless horizon. Nothing animal would want to approach the camp other than some small birds looking for crumbs.
Maybe it had been a good idea to bring her after all. She didn't need to hear about destroyed civilizations and political ramifications about them as people. Too much resistance from the most thoroughly conditioned in the camp to consider living like a full citizen. Or perhaps that was just their family's tent. They were too scared to try anything to raise suspicion.
The landscape illuminated more brightly as the sun rose higher. The hues of crimson remained in the soil and flimsy grasses without the dawn sky. Yet the world was dim from the dust and ashes. Gabi coughed behind him. The sound rattled through her whole body.
"You're not getting sick, are you?"
"No. It's just the dust. I promise. I've only been sick once in my life- when you were away on your mission-, and I know what that feels like. Why? Are you getting sick?" Gabi blinked with concern.
"I- well- no, Gabi. I'm doing fine right now. But you need to be careful around me. Do you remember the tests that we decided to take to help the Marleyan military since the rest of the unit and I were once Titan Shifters?"
"Yeah?"
"You know we can't turn into Titans anymore since we have no power after that thing was killed. It won't feed off of us so we won't… expire that way. But if we got sick before, our bodies would be able to heal themselves if we willed it. And now, we can't. We have to rely on vaccines like everybody else. And those are in short supply right now with medicine, so if you start feeling sick, let me know so we can distance. Okay?"
She nodded. Good enough for her. She didn't need to know about the numerous tests that his unit went through as children. Injected with poison, forced to swallow liquids, limbs sawed off without anesthetic. All to prove that they truly loved Marley and their families they fought for. And if Marley wanted to do further tests with these on them and the other Eldians? The Titan serum tests done on a selected few were horrifying enough-
No, he wasn't going to let that happen. He was the shield only for her sake. He would-
Hell, never mind. No more parasitic attachment, no more power. Damnation rang a bell for him regardless.
"How much farther?" she huffed.
"Gabi, are you sure you're okay? Here, see that lone tree? Let's stop there. If nothing else, we can gather any insects that live there." He put his arm around her and guided her forward. Too much exertion on a starving girl took its toll.
Had this been a normal springtime, the tree would have sprouted new leaves and provided shade for the warmer days. Instead, it was barren. Maybe it would never produce fruit or leaves again. The nearby rocks could yield more worms, on the other hand.
Reiner motioned Gabi to sit and wrapped her in his coat. He removed the hunting rifle from his shoulders and sat next to her. He hadn't realized just how a lack of food had been wrecking his body as well, though he'd been in pretty bad shape for some time. What would it have mattered if he was going to be eaten up by the next Candidate regardless? Survival of the fittest.
Weak little Eldians were some of that thing's favorite life forms to make a host out of, apparently. Suckering off the maladies inflicted on them, it wanted to keep living on and on until either it ran out of them or if the host had no more strength to take it. Turned out even fucking Eren succombed to the latter. Reiner hadn't. Was it too vain to boast such an achievement with the way things were now?
The eerie stillness in the environment amplified the noises of the morning. A few birds circled above out of aim, searching for their own meals. With any luck, they'd get to share with them. And then they'd keep on living.
Nature was alluring out here. No Eldian kid got to experience it within Liberio growing up, so no wonder Gabi was so fascinated by the outdoors. Closest thing to wildlife in Liberio were rodents and pigeons, sometimes a stray gull passing by, and stray animals treated with more affection than the people by the Marleyan guards. Paradis was beautiful when one got past the part of having to kill every person there by having a new person entirely emerge within, suckering off your memories, twisting them into something that was like every damn thing humanity ever accomplished: a lie. Draining oneself until only a husk of flesh, a meatshield remained.
Out here, who cared? No human intervention, no rules here. Animals didn't have to keep eating and breeding unless they had the instinct in them. If they lost it, they could lay down and die. Find a hole and simply stop it all while listening to the calm around them-
"Hey, who's-?"
Gabi flinched and clung to Reiner. It took an instant for Reiner to react and point the rifle toward the source of the voice. He was as equally startled as they were by the looks on his slightly dirty face.
"Oh, you two."
"And here, Gabi, is the majestic maned wildebeest. The most fearsome of the land animals on the Marleyan continent."
Jean rolled his eyes. Gabi giggled. His ashen hair had grown unruly along with his goatee. "I didn't know you were coming. I've been here since before sunrise. No luck yet."
"Now you've got some competition."
Jean snorted. That wasn't supposed to be a joke. He was being completely serious. That hothead knew what he wanted, and if he saw a bird or a gazelle, he was going to fight them for it. Yet they couldn't move away, or Gabi would grow wearier. Her brown eyes grew wider, realizing the same thing. Fortunately, Jean took notice and knelt down to Gabi's level.
"Hey, don't worry, we'll get you something- the first thing we shoot. I haven't got anything yet, but I've got a pretty good aim."
A good aim, precise enough to take out Titans, Eren, and other grown men and women, though maybe that was before she learned the truth in a difficult way. Reiner had only learned that one of his old fellow soldiers, Sasha Braus, had been killed by Gabi herself the night of the Liberio raid while they rested up around the campfire before their suicide mission to save the world. It was nice of Jean and Connie to be merciful to her for her ignorance, and she deserved that.
Would Sasha have been the same? Gabi had explained in her questioning that the Braus family had sheltered the kids when they escaped confinement, forgiving her when her sin was confessed, acknowledging where she was from and what a bloody war and propaganda had done to her in this world.
He had been raised in the same militaristic jungle, but self-flagellating hadn't been enough for the others. He couldn't blame them for their anger. He lived among them as a friend, a role model, a brotherly figure. What they perceived him to be. What he had perceived himself to be to atone for the problems he'd caused. Like a hunter in camouflage who pretended to be part of the prey's natural environment until he betrayed them. Except he had come to realize he was part of them, one and the same with them as an Eldian. And it had only been a matter of time before they tried to bring him down, for the Warriors were not the mightiest of the hunters that they were led to believe.
And to now be face-to-face in a struggle for basic survival once more, maybe it had been a fine idea to bring Gabi as a trump card. Not even Jean could bring himself to let a youngling of his kind suffer- though he'd been so close back on the island.
"Gabi, you stay here and rest some more. Go look for more stones to flip when you're better, and maybe we can use the worms if we have no luck." Reiner patted her on the shoulder. She snuggled up to the tree contently as he left her to walk with Jean to his hunting spot.
"Worms, eh? Are you hoping to get a sparrow with that? May as well fry them and save the trouble."
"Just let her help somehow," Reiner insisted firmly.
Jean's hunting spot was littered with dead branches and grasses, his source of camouflage. In the dirt, odd shapes and letters that had been drawn with a stick took up space. Reiner hoped that he wouldn't ruin Jean's artistic masterpiece by taking his place next to him on top of them. He didn't seem too upset about that. Another thing clearly haunted him, something he knew better to steer away from at this point from bringing up to Reiner; he'd already paid with a good beating. Just had to create some small talk to rip the tension apart.
"Hear anything new from the brass?" Jean asked.
"Just a few more reports from Marley's formerly occupied territories and commonwealths. They're trying to burn any remains possible to stop disease from spreading. Assessing what land is still tillable or usable for livestock too."
"No shit. Wonder what Hizuru is going to do next: ally with us here or join with Paradis. Depends on who has more resources of interest." Jean sighed. "If Mikasa had stayed behind with us, they'd be scurrying into Marleyan territory like rats."
"Don't forget they allied with you as Karl Fritz' old friends. They're better off sucking Jaegerist tits for iceburst stones than running back to get one woman. That would motivate half the camp to rise up to rebel anyways."
Jean scowled. He was not thrilled to have his missing comrade referred to as "one woman".
The others were going to need a little more work in learning global politics and relations since the world was a little bigger and a lot smaller than what they were accustomed to. Ambiguous memories from former Shifters didn't always tell the whole story. Hell, even he only got bits and pieces of moments from whoever he had gotten the power from and his predecessors, seconds of fighting and people without names who were close to them.
The land illuminated as the sky turned to a friendly shade of blue under smoky haziness that extended to the horizon. All so familiar but so distant and unclear, perhaps an omen of the future to come.
Jean stroked his mangy hair back from his eyes. He'd grown a lot since they'd joined the Scouts, no longer a lanky sheltered kid without any ambition to venture into the outside world away from comfort. His form had become stronger and finely shaped by rigorous training. Yet his maturity had not taken away his impulsive hot head to jump into action at the first offensive strike to quickly act.
It was no wonder back there seven years ago in Trost that everyone gathered around him in the crisis as they were consumed by fear and Titans to lead the way. After all, that guy he always hung out with encouraged him for the better. Why couldn't it have been that way before their betrayal of trust, where everyone looked up to him instead? It wouldn't have hurt them as much.
It made him the better person, didn't it?
Bertholdt's screams echoed as they fled, unable to go back.
Falco had been whisked away behind his back as he failed to stop Eren. They were going to partake in that gross ritual once more.
What a dumbass. Of course not. He couldn't let himself get too attracted to a handsome man like Jean. Unfortunately, he was stuck at his side for his cousin's sake. He had to act normally without referencing their profane history while she rested in the background.
"Do you need Gabi's hairband?"
Jean rolled his eyes unamused. "No, just some damn scissors. Do they want us to get lice?"
"We can check the next shipment if it includes vinegar. That does the trick easily."
Alright, no more joking. Better to stick to serious topics. "Your captain doing any better?"
"In what way? They've drained the infection from his internal bleeding. He's sitting up and talking more, but his leg is a bust, and he's rather weak from a lack of proper eating. Armin said they're thinking of transferring him to a standing Marleyan hospital for better treatment- if the joke of a government determines that treating him- an Ackerman- isn't a threat to anybody. Royal blood ties, you know. Seriously, how could you guys live like that? If I spent one day growing up in Liberio, I'd-" he cut himself off. Just what was he hoping to do with this inadequate attempt at guilt tripping? "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you concerned about him?"
"Gabi just wanted to know. She did get his help back there and hasn't been informed since her mother dragged her from the medical tent. Rest of the family is wary of you guys since you could be carrying something."
"Right. I see. I wonder how Connie's doing. He's been there since last night quarantined. Jean paused. "See, he was going to come with me– us, today, but you see, he's got a parasitic infection."
"Wonderful. What kind?"
"Intestinal. Felt something on his ass yesterday afternoon and flipped when he pulled it out. It was almost funny to watch, but he was so freaked out he drew the attention of the Marleyan guards, and now they want him away in case he spreads them."
Reiner wanted to laugh. Of course that bumbling, lovable idiot got infected with a parasite. He was always forgetting to wash produce properly or completely boil water back in Scout training days, and Sasha would have to set him straight before he got anybody else sick from his carelessness.
"I'm shocked he didn't try to stick a hot blade up his ass to kill it."
"Nah, he'd probably set his asshole on fire." Jean clearly pretended to be concentrating on something in the distance as he aimed his rifle at the invisible target.
Shit, why did he keep slipping up? They weren't supposed to be friends or comrades making stupid jokes from their training days. He scanned the environment. Some small birds pecked at the ground and hopped around. What a shame they didn't have any animal traps with them. A bullet would probably obliterate the birds, leaving nothing but a pile of feathers behind.
He looked behind at the tree. His coat had been abandoned by Gabi as she searched the ground for any large rocks that tiny critters could be hiding under. Her face twisted in obvious disappointment upon flipping one over.
"Reiner! I can't find anything!" she shouted at them. The flock of birds fluttered off. Jean muttered something under his breath. Not that they would be able to make a meal out of those, but her noisemaking could have driven off any potential prey in hiding.
"Gabi, come sit over here," Reiner motioned. "You can keep watch." She obeyed without hesitation, although she stopped to grab Reiner's dirtied coat from the tree stump.
"You're going to get cold without this. And then you'll get sick from being too cold, and then-"
"Thanks," he interrupted. And then he'd return to the earth to be eaten by worms. Earthworms or intestinal worms, it didn't matter. And soon everybody else would die of starvation because he didn't do enough to save them because of his weakness, and then everybody would forget him and that this all ever happened. No more curses either, so no more memories to pass on. "Try to keep quiet. You scared some birds off a minute ago."
"What? I'm sorry. Maybe I can use the bugs I found earlier to bring them back." She unfastened her pocket button to make an offering for her mistake.
"It's okay, Gabi," Jean assured, hiding his frustration. "You've never been hunting before. Just keep an eye out for your target."
"I got top marks for sharpshooting in my class. It'll be easy. Hey… is shooting animals like shooting… people?" she hesitated and shuffled her feet. She was met with wide-eyed horror from Jean. He struggled for a response.
"Ani-animals don't know what guns are. They know what people are, but when they get hit with a bullet or an arrow, they don't know what hits them. They die quickly. Something out there would otherwise get them, like a wolf or uh…." He pleaded with Reiner to help without a word.
"Gabi, don't worry about the animals. They won't bite back just because we kill a member of the flock or the herd. Even if a kid kills them."
Oh shit.
If there had been an early morning spring chill earlier, this was now a winter wind brewing around them, freezing their blood. The scent of blood from afar proliferated through the polluted air, nature both appeasing and punishing the self-appointed divine devils for their lusting and selfishness.
"Uh, yes. No need to worry about anything coming to snatch you up at night. They'll move on." Jean's hands gripped the rifle's stock so tightly that it could have snapped.
"Gabi, sit at my side," Reiner directed the weary girl to the left. He couldn't quite trust Jean and this little passive-aggressive game he was playing. He could come at him and leave him a bloody pulp for the raptors if he wished, but he'd do the same to Jean if Gabi was touched. Damn it, he'd better just be ill-tempered because he was starving like them. It was a waiting game. Forget him promising to give what he shot to Gabi. He'd let him have first dibs on whatever he killed so he'd be on his way and they wouldn't have to blaspheme his sacred space with their presence.
Jean was back at decorating the soil with holes and lines he etched with a stick. His latest artistic work which Reiner caught glimpses of was a childish rendition of a bird, a worm, and something that looked like a person. Funny it was how all three of those would ultimately consume each other in various stages of life, only to repeat it again and again.
"Reiner," Gabi whispered and nudged him as if there were a lurking predator in the region. "Did you know Sasha- the girl that I killed?"
Oh boy. What did she want to know? "Yes, I did. When I first went there, we trained in the same class and graduated in the top ten together."
"She must have been pretty strong then. What would she think of me? Would she hate me and try to haunt me? Her dad didn't think she would. He forgave me even though all of us have a devil inside. Her sister Kaya did too before we left."
Would she hate her? Another Braun who attacked her- and this time succeeded? Yet she cried tears of anguish when her squad blew him to bits, thinking he had been obliterated to dust. He wasn't truly a devil to them. He had to die though.
"Well… she had her ways she was set in. Very defensive of her food, never wanting to waste it. We'd caused a land shortage after we attacked, and since her family lived in the forest, that had to be converted to farmland, so she wasn't very easy to approach at first because of her disdain for all the new people that had to be fed off their territory. But she taught us a lot about the forest and hunting. Marley didn't know much about the interior of the Walls, so it was a learning experience for us three inside them."
Gabi nodded. "Sure. I learned a lot too. She must not have known much about Marley or anywhere else, just like I didn't know that the devils there are really people."
"I don't think she'd hate you. Her parents obviously taught her well."
"They did," a voice butted in. Shit, Jean was listening in. "They didn't even need to live alongside city people or mainlanders for several years to understand that we are people too, just trying to live."
"Hey, calm down." Reiner's hand clenched up a fistful of dirt in contrast to his steadfast reminder of their unspoken truce. Jean grimaced.
"How can I be, Reiner? With only four of my squad accounted for? With my parents on the island unsure of where I am or if I'm alive? Or if they're alive?" His rifle dropped to the ground with a clink.
"Watch it," he warned."
"I am. Do you think I want to misfire on purpose and leave you out here and prove the military's suspicions correct about us islanders?"
That was a throbbing sting that would never go away. Gabi flinched in concern and huddled up. Maybe it was a wise idea to move to another spot. Jean was getting far too testy for her. It didn't help that some dark shadows shaded them overhead, an ominous symbol. Screeching cries echoed around them. All three looked to the sky.
Wait. Those were shadows from birds- carrion birds. Maybe they brought death with them wherever they went, but if they acted quick, the birds would be the ones to die today, not them. All quarreling had to halt as the two got into position. Gabi frantically dug into her pocket and catapulted the doomed worms to nature's battlefield. She couldn't have been so naive to think that birds which feasted upon cadavers would take them, but she was just as desperate to get out of here as he was.
Now they had to wait without making a sound, perhaps play dead. Easy as hell even if not the real thing. Though maybe these birds did like live flesh to peck at, digging into it rapidly and tearing the skin off with their talons and-
"Hey, Reiner," Gabi whispered, "Let me shoot."
"You're watching. Nothing more."
"You look too tense after your fight. I don't want you to miss or we won't eat tonight."
"Fine. You're under me the whole time though, or your skinny ass will go flying."
"Hey!"
"Quiet. Down." Jean gritted his teeth. "It's okay, Gabi. You're getting whatever we shoot first. Remember?"
Reiner covered her back with one arm like a mother hen protected its chicks. She scanned her surroundings and positioned herself comfortably with the rifle. It wasn't the largest weapon she'd ever handled, but the size of it next to her was a bit intimidating. She looked at Reiner, making sure her hands were off the loaded trigger first.
One accidental shot, and there was no coming back.
The small flock of carrion birds landed, screeching to declare this land their own. They looked like vultures based on their haggard faces and slouching postures. Maybe they weren't ostriches, but they'd provide enough for the whole family for a day or two.
They flopped over on the barren land to get some morning sunlight on their backs. Then, they had to start preening each other, oblivious to the predators in the thinly veiled barrier of brush meters away. Or maybe they did smell them, mistaking them for dead but needing to bathe before feasting.
It was just another day of freedom for them, aware of the morbid ways of nature around them but ignorant enough to assume that surely nothing would happen to them as their top predators laid in anticipation of the kill. Just like that day.
But their kind would have no resolve to fight back, would they? No, how damn stupud. They would just eat the remains of their own kind and live for themselves.
There were so many pools of blood puddling around him. Animal blood, human blood, devil blood too. All mingling together to create a crimson cesspool that would be consumed by the worms, and then the earth, the fate of all things. But he was above that, he-
"Reiner?"
He stopped the great devil Eren for humanity's sake, for their own sake so that this curse would cease. Didn't he get what he wanted for his family? No more Titan powers, no more inheritance by sacrifice, no more-
"Reiner!" Gabi hoarsely whispered. "Can I shoot?"
Shit, shit. The lights came back on. He had to focus. He had to fight to survive. The girl was intent on it too. Her brown eyes glowed with determination to make him proud, to prove herself worthy of it.
The girl concentrated hard at the feathery forms. Her nerves and excitement pulsated through her body. At least that's what Reiner thought until he realized that she had tears in her eyes. Her hands trembled on the rifle's stock. She choked out a sob.
A larger vulture preened the back of a younger vulture. The others frolicked around and flapped their wings free of dust. Their lives were about to be changed.
"Reiner… I can't…"
Is shooting animals… like shooting people?
Marco's screams echoed.
"Gabi?" Jean asked in concern. Then, urgently, "Reiner, is she going to-"
Without hesitation and hiding her further under his wing, Reiner took control of the rifle. There was no time to think. He couldn't think in this dark crimson pooling around him. It was his duty to kill or be killed. He pulled the trigger. Gabi quivered underneath him. Time seemed to stop, only filled with gunshots from Jean's rifle.
Black feathery forms shuddered for the last time while a few of the others took off to save their own asses. It was so quick. They hadn't known what was coming for them, right?
Jean turned to them. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"
"Yeah… just got a bit panicked at our only opportunity."
"I was asking Gabi."
"Yeah," she piped up, echoing her older cousin. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm going to get my worms. I want to go back to the camp."
"Forget about them. We have meat. Go wait under the tree while we get it." The two young men stood up and swiftly retreated to the death site. They had killed three vultures in total, two adults and one younger one.
Their beady eyes' life force had drained from them. The only part of them that stirred were their feathers in the light breeze. Even so, their long talons and beaks were intimidating to look at.
"Here. This should be enough for all your relatives."
"No, take one of the grown ones back for your squad. Then we don't need to go out here again for a while. Take this as a gesture of thanks for restraining yourself in front of Gabi."
Jean snorted. "Thanks. I'll make sure to gut and cook it thoroughly so we don't get another parasite. Maybe it's carrying something like that centipede creature. Don't want to become a mindless Titan again."
The scars on his arms started burning fiery hot.
"Right. Let's go." Reiner picked up his birds and motioned to Gabi, but she was slouched over, weary from this mission. He entrusted his to Jean and picked her up, which she did not protest. They marched back without exchanging one word.
…
That evening, families- and those left without who had to rely on others- gathered around their fire pits with boiling pots of water. Some had only half fresh vegetables, others had small fowl or rodents, and a few had meat from the hunting grounds outside the camp if privileged enough. A few passerbys grumbled about the unfairness of this yet knew to pay heed to a family with Warriors- especially one who had saved their lives.
"Mom, I didn't even fire the rifle. I just watched." Gabi rolled her eyes. Her parents were not thrilled that she had snuck away, even if she was with her reliable older cousin the whole time.
"Dear, Reiner told us you got scared and started crying," her mother, Reiner's Aunt Tina, reprimanded sternly. She placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"Reiner!" Gabi exclaimed. She blushed and pouted. "I just got nervous. Jean was watching me."
"Exactly," Uncle Giuseppe said, "That young man could have hurt you or killed you for those birds if he decided to. Reiner lived with those… island devils. He knows how to handle them if they step out of line. Don't you, nephew?"
Reiner didn't look up. He was cutting up a potato with a pathetic knife meant for spreading butter. Hell, he could get a whole rifle, but a sharpened knife was too much to ask for?
"He's not a devil, Dad. He's just mad and hungry right now. You saw him when he brought us the meat. He misses his family on the island. Isn't that what's wrong, Reiner?"
He was not in the mood to cover for anyone who was only partially telling the truth or confirming either hypothesis, unless he wanted to have their minds spiral further out of control at the lies splayed before them. He carefully dropped a wedge of potato into the boiling water. His mother looked at him as she tended the bird meat.
"This will do for now. It's the best privilege we can have that Marley can offer us." Karina sighed softly. "I wonder what they'll do to make sure we're recognized as Eldians next. They're letting that little group walk among us now without anything on them to identify them among us."
The second and third wedge splashed harder than Reiner intended. His other younger cousin, Martino, returned from taking the skin and guts from the bird out to bury them. His parents welcomed him back. At least they were soft spoken and usually had little to contribute to the conversation since they were in complete agreement with the rest of the family.
Except when those long thin worms slipped and wriggled out from the pile of bird guts were they quiet. Reiner had to throw the damn creatures into the blazing fire of hell before them. Couldn't risk them climbing into an open wound or orifice and taking control of their bodies.
"Just let me do something useful, please," Gabi begged. "Isn't there anything I can do? I don't want them to forget about what we did to save everybody. Training is the only thing I have left."
Training that would have gotten her killed in thirteen short years. Training that would have given her a sickening parasite that wanted to control all life just to survive.
"Gabi, listen to your parents this time. You don't need to do anything to prove yourself. The islanders and I will take care of anything that comes up."
Gabi's parents nodded their heads in agreement. "Be careful, Reiner. Who knows who else could be covering up their intentions among us? The fact that there's an Ackerman tents down is dangerous to us. They're loyal to the royal bloods and Fritz."
"Dad! He can barely move!"
"We'll let Marley question him, dear," Aunt Tina interjected. "We're not good enough to figure that out."
They were trapped in a box even in the vast wilderness. They needed to clear their heads of their gross ideas of the world and themselves. But what could he do to make it happen? He was still shielding some of the truth from them, as was the military.
"Fine. I'm hungry." The poor girl really needed food.
"Here, I think the bird is well cooked and without any worms," said Karina. "If not, we'll become monsters again."
"Gabi, go first," Reiner pushed Gabi harder than he wished upon hearing that. Sure, letting the girl try the questionable food first. But what else could he do to guarantee her survival? It would be too greedy of him to get anything for what he had done to everyone.
Family dinner was awkward as usual, Reiner having to bite his tongue upon his uncle's ramblings about the island and his ideas about how to get on Marley's good side. Almost every adult was unanimous, yet his mother's eyes, the same as his, seemed rather downcast about something. Was she sad? Guilty? Pitiful? Gabi was conflicted as they spoke, not wanting to annoy them but feeling the same way as he did. No surprise Martino didn't have any mutual feelings with the two Warriors as one Braun kid who didn't have to go to war as a child.
There was nothing else to do after scraping the dishes and soaking them in leftover water. The night settled in, and the weary voices around them grew exhausted save for a few babies wailing and adults mourning the world and the state of themselves. There was only one place left to go for any chance at peace while staying alive, and that was to sleep.
…
It ate him from the inside, latched onto him and unwilling to let its grip go, digging deeper and deeper into him. He wanted to rip himself open and chop the fucker to death. But he couldn't. The horror and power of it inside him made him stronger.
He trudged on in the rugged land turned mass gravesite for humanity. Carcasses laid strewn about- animal and human bones mingled together. The only living things in sight were the birds… and the worms. The worms were monstrous in size, even worse than the snakes that lurked in the deserts and forests. They siphoned the meat off of the bones.
In front of him stood a figure with long hair. It was a familiar face but not a friendly one. Then from behind him approached a small girl with blonde hair and empty eyes. They were motionless and emotionless.
He had a chance to fight them. He had to protect, defend the people he despised and loved. Even if he died, he'd go down with them.
Before he could wound himself, a long white creature emerged from the background and constricted itself around Eren Jaeger and Ymir Fritz, consuming them. Then it reached for Reiner. His organs were crushed. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't scream.
He fell into a state of deep darkness. He was unaware of when he landed, but a slimy sensation went across his skin- or what was left of it as it was bitten off. He was being ripped apart from inside out and inside until almost nothing was left of him.
Then from his spine came the worst shooting pain he had ever experienced. A long white creature burst out of him and joined himself to the other creature, perhaps ready to procreate, to begin this cycle once more while moving on to the next place to consume what was there.
And that was when Reiner woke up in a sweat despite the chilled night, and he felt ill. Miraculously, he awoke not a soul as he rushed out and retched outside the tent, throwing up that dead, innocent bird he slaughtered. His throat burned from bile and heavy breathing, trying to forget that dream he'd been cursed with from the higher power that may have existed. At least he couldn't see any real worms in front of him.
"Reiner?" Gabi trundled out sleepily from the tent. "Eww. Didn't Aunt Karina cook dinner well enough? Are you getting sick?" Her voice accelerated into panic. She rushed to hold him.
Shit, a better meal hadn't helped her sleep any more soundly. He had to compose himself. What kind of answer could he ass up to calm her down?
"No…. Just the meat. Not used to it. Quality is different from the butcher meat we had in Liberio from raised livestock."
"Are you sure? I think there's a guard watching us over there. We could have him get you looked at. What if you got sick from those tests you did?" She pointed at the bandages hanging out from the sleeves.
"No, I'm sure. They took blood. I'm not infected with a sickness or a parasite."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"If you're lying, Aunt Karina is going to get upset."
"I'm not, mom."
Gabi frowned at him. "Okay, okay. Can we go back to sleep now? I'm getting cold out here." Gabi stuffed her hands into her pocket then gasped in surprise. "Huh, how did this get left in here?" She showed off a poor little ground worm that likely wanted to go back underground to the dirt.
Whatever there was that ruled over the world from beyond loved to play sick jokes. Reiner made her toss it onto the ground to consume whatever he had puked up. Maybe it wouldn't clean it up by morning, but all things were doomed to be consumed by something else in life, as it had been since nature came about, by either prey, hunters, or parasites.
