854
A cold shiver traveling down her spine woke her up; a sensation she hadn't felt in a long time. Stretching her eyelids until the crusts of dried-up tears on her lashes crumbled, she opened her eyes for the first time after having closed them after what seemed like an eternity.
She moved her arm and immediately stopped when she came to a sudden realisation. She could move.
She turned her head and as her sight became adjusted to the twilight, she realised she was no longer laying on her back. She was laying on her side; naked and emaciated, but alive. The woman brought her hands to her sight of vision and her shoulders shook with the tearless sobs that overwhelmed her.
She was human again.
She crawled on her limbs, as she wasn't strong enough to stand. For now, she had to survive. Clothes and food were the first things she needed to acquire.
The last thing she could remember before she found herself in this state, was the earth-shattering march of titans that came from the inner wall. They were as big as the one that had taken down wall Maria eight years ago, but mindless instead of intelligent. Thousands of them lined up, crushing everything in their path. She was spared, as the titans walked far enough from each other to leave some space.
She shook her head. It was like that very last memory was the end of a ridiculous nightmare. She dragged herself to what used to be her bedroom and to her surprise, there still was clothing in one of the closets. Even though she knew this was her home, it would never feel that way again. Only the ground level had a few walls left standing and the wooden floor had been overgrown with moss. She had stopped shivering and realised it was not even that cold. Her bare skin just had not been able to sense anything the last four years.
With all her strength, she sat upright against the wall and tried to twist her limbs into the pieces of clothing. Parts had been eaten away by moths, but it was all she had. Her stomach angrily growled. She got back on her knees and crawled to the hatchway in the kitchen. Her husband had always ridiculed her for storing a large number of canned goods in case of an emergency. Now, she thanked herself for pushing through his stubbornness.
After a meal of two cans of cold beans in tomato sauce, she found the coordination and power to finally stand upright, albeit by holding onto the wall. The next step would be the town's well, which should still be intact.
Memories of that fateful day in the year 850 slowly crept into her mind, speeding up her heartbeat with every scene that played behind her eyes. She remembered seeing two boys that morning she hadn't seen before. They resembled two of her son's friends so much, she had considered walking up to them. But she had deemed it impossible. Her son was in the army and she hadn't seen him for a long time. Though he sent her letters, describing his friends and adventures in detail.
There was something unnerving about the atmosphere that day, she remembered. The animals had acted erratically and the birds had fallen silent. The last thing she remembered was the thick, white smog that drifted through the streets, the bright flashes and explosions. And the screams. The guttural, last cries that had left the villager's throats before everything went silent. Slowly, one by one, the villagers had stood up, getting accustomed to their new, monstrous bodies. But she couldn't. Her legs and arms were too weak to move. Powerless, she saw the last monster leave town. Despite its appearance, he could have been no one else but her husband. She had cried silent tears. Only her heart could weep, as her body and mind remained motionless.
She couldn't talk, let alone scream for help.
Although she had never seen one, she knew for certain that the villagers, herself included, had turned into titans. Giant, mindless creatures who longed for nothing but human meat. She didn't know why she had kept a little part of her consciousness and why her fate had to be so cruel to make her unable to move.
However, she knew something the rest of the world didn't. Humans turned into titans when exposed to a certain type of gas. Without this knowledge, her husband and everyone else would be killed by the scouting corps. The division her son was part of. The thought of her little boy unknowingly slaughtering his own father made her sick.
Hours passed, filled with silence and occasional screams from humans who had fallen victim to the new monsters. If there was anything left of her vocal cords, they would be hoarse by now. Her attempts to scream were all for naught. Although she had figured out how to let air pass through her throat, creating meaningless groans.
The bushes rustled along the treeline, revealing several riders and horses. They were probably unfortunate passerby's and she wished with all her might that she could warn them of the lingering danger. Even though she could only see them upside-down. She recognised someone. A blond, broadly shouldered young man resembled one of the boys she had seen earlier that day. He was followed by a tall and slender guy with black hair, completing the duo. A smaller rider passed them, hastily making his way through the streets he knew too well. His horse skillfully sped around the corners.
''Mom! Dad!'' he yelled, and her mind went blank.
It was her son.
His horse came to a rearing halt when he came face to face with her.
''T-this is... my home,'' he said to himself in a shaking voice.
The soldiers screamed at him to stay back before realising the titan before them posed no threat.
They searched every street and home but found no survivors. She heard them discuss the lack of corpses and opted for the possibility of the entire town evacuating, in which her son seemed to find hope.
If only she could tell them.
She watched her son in despair as he mounted his horse to leave, spurred on by his friends who urged him to travel further to find survivors.
She wanted to scream at him, yell, hold him in her arms, tell him everything would be fine. With all her might she inhaled as deeply as she could.
''Wel...come-'' the groans from her air pipe formed barely audible words, ''..home...''
Her son's head slowly turned towards her. His jaw trembled. ''Mom?'' he whispered.
A spark of hope lit inside her, only just for a little moment. The blond man from earlier grabbed her son by the shoulder and urged him to leave.
''B-but Reiner, that titan talked to me, I think it might be my...''
''Stop your rambling, Connie!'' the soldier firmly stated, ''we have to continue our mission right now. Lives depend on it!''
Reluctantly he had turned around and spurred on his horse. Cantering into the forest. The only hope she had, had vanished in the distance.
After that, every day had been the same, aside from the passing seasons. She had seen the leaves die and turn green again four times, meaning that at least four years must have passed. Animals would come and go, inhabiting the ruins of what were the town's homes.
There was nothing she could do but lay on her back, occasionally swinging her trapped and underdeveloped arms and legs. She could not sleep, nor feel hunger or thirst. Her hope had already perished with her son leaving her sight.
All she could do was wait for a soldier to end her out of fear. Or mercy.
Weeks had passed and she found herself able to run now. She had packed food and supplies. She couldn't stay around, knowing the other people of her town had probably turned back to humans as well. With the threat of titans now gone, she dared to venture out, using one of the horses of the herd that had kept roaming around. She took along a second one, just to be sure. If she would encounter other humans, they might not have been as lucky as she had been.
Even though she remembered the paths of the forest like the back of her hand, they were hard to recognise because of the overgrowing weeds. Just a little further and she would reach the end of the forest. Wall Rose would soon rise up before her. The endless wall she had despised all her life. The wall with a taxed entrance to the other side, preventing them from fair trade with the other side.
She trotted through the last bushes, exiting the treeline and letting her eyes get used to the bright morning light.
Her jaw fell open at the impossible sensation. Morninglight met her from the far horizon. She had never felt it before, as the 50 meters high walls would always cast a shadow until noon.
She instantly realised; the wall was gone.
Overwhelmed, she let go of the reins. She had unknowingly already taken her first breaths in freedom. A world freed from the terror reign of titans.
For days she rode around but never found a living soul aside from the animals that had taken over. She wondered if it would be a better choice to travel north, up to the royal capital, in order to enlarge the chance of finding other humans. It wasn't easy to travel by horse, as the giant footsteps of the titans littered the landscape like craters. Many ground vegetation had burned because of the heat from the steam the titans generated within their bodies.
Traveling south meant fewer resources and a lesser chance of finding humans. Still, she kept going, as if an unheard voice drew her to the unknown lands beyond the walls. With the disappearance of Wall Rose, it was safe to assume the other walls had fallen too. She wanted to keep hope, but so far, every town had been deserted and in ruins.
It was on a sunny afternoon that she let her horses drink in a newly found well in what seemed like the remains of a small, deserted town. She must have been close to where Wall Maria used to be, as she had never been this far south in her life. Soon, she would know what the world looked like beyond the last wall. The world her son had ventured into countless times while titans still roamed it.
She swung her leg over her saddle and let herself sink to the ground, her weak ankles still protested at the landing. She tied her horses to a fence and unpacked her bottles to fill them with water.
Just as she lifted the bucket and wanted to pour the first bottle, she spotted movement from the corner of her eye.
From the doorstep of one of the collapsed buildings, something crawled outside. Her first thought was that it must be an animal, until she spotted the rags around its body.
''Could you please help me?'' a raspy, weak voice sounded.
The almost faded spark of hope in her heart flared up.
She wasn't alone.