Wall Maria and the Skeletons in Her Closet

This is where this story begins to take a dark turn. Content warning for suicide and graphic descriptions of death.

Reader Discretion is advised.

Two Months into Wall Maria


This time, Morrigan's journey was not quite as straight and narrow. She wanted to learn about who these people were, and what better way than going through their stuff?
She zigzagged across the trail greatly, sometimes by ten or so miles, running across villages and small towns.

All of which were desecrated. Titans still meander through them as though they owned the properties in which they destroyed.

She hid in cellars most days- blocking them off and marking them with blood to block her own scent so she could sleep in semi-peace, at least for a little while. The titans ignored the horse wholly if she wasn't near her thankfully.
There was a stretch of seven days at one point where she could not leave her hiding spot, the rain coming down so viciously, the clouds so dense that only the most abnormal of titans were active, making traveling a downright stupid thing to do, even she could see that; though she felt antsy within the confines of the building. The home had a stable though-and the horse was fine throughout.

It was strange, the way the dust made itself right at home among what used to be peoples' livelihoods. Even stranger still was how unfamiliar she was with most of what she saw. She knew the names and descriptions of many, many things, and her mother did her best to draw diagrams and teach her, wanting her to be prepared for when they did inevitably go searching for the walls…'though we were supposed to be together…' but honestly… Morrigan wasn't taught what curtains were. Door knobs were a struggle upon first encounter, she wasn't even going to lie about that one.

She picked up and set down plates, vases, pencils, and books! Oh the books! This house had so many she almost seriously considered extending her stay, but thought better of it. All of these things were sitting there, abandoned and perhaps forgotten. Probably missed.

Morrigans' fingers run through the layer of grime over everything with little care for things being gross. She was caked in blood quite literally 24/7 and has spent almost 17 years shitting in the woods, things having only layers of dust on them was actually… the cleanest she'd seen anything, really.

She touched these things, whispering what they were to herself, in bewilderment at actually finally having actual physical objects to the words her mother had taught her; and for the first time since she had started this godforsaken journey;, she allowed herself to feel…. Excitement. Giddy, even with the anticipation, both from sheer curiosity, and a desperate voice in her head that nagged every so often; whispering that if the next set of walls were untouched, she would finally have someone to talk to again aside from a horse and the corpses she came across.

One thing she hadn't come to expect , were how many people she found who hadn't fallen to the titans; but to their own hands. Dozens of homes she had walked into, the first of which even, she had entered and upon doing so had been slapped in the face with the stench of death. It rank so badly she had to run out and vomit until there was nothing but stomach acid left, and then having to bury the evidence of doing such not just to hide her shame- but her scent as well.

A family, three children and a mother it seemed. They all sat upon the couch with the tops of their heads blown off, and laying behind them was a man in the same state; a shotgun beside him. At first this had troubled her greatly, scaring her and keeping her on the move for days; but as she found more and more cases; she started to piece together just what had happened.

This wall was the largest of the three; with the largest surface area and therefore likely the highest populations of people. Not everyone would be able to retreat behind the safety of Wall Rose; and they knew that. They knew that so they took matters into their own hands; ending it then and there.
.

This world was far sadder than her mother had warned her.

And far bigger, it seemed.

She was in no rush, so she did what she could for these people left behind by their own. Just like her mother. She covered them with blankets where she could; and buried any child she found, something in her heart aching with every small grave she dug. She dug, and dug, counting twenty six graves and a hundred people dead not by titans… but themselves.

And as she got deeper into the walls, she began to see signs of struggle that weren't new...but more recent.

Carts turned over, blood still evident on the dark dirt path, and she felt a harrowing chill come over her as she began to walk through what even she could identify as a massacre.

There were rotting body parts strewn for miles, the smell blocked by a foxtail she wore as a scarf, though it still made her gag. Titans wandered about a few miles off, paying her no mind as her horse picked its way through the morbid maze.

"This has to be… hundreds of thousands of people." She whispered, blinking slowly as she came to that realization. The gore lasted for miles in either direction, a point coming to where it was all she could see in any direction. Her horses' hooves were forced to step on stray hands and jaws, detached from their bodies, partial remains as far as the eye could see like someones' morbid idea of an obstacle course.

The last town she had passed was miles back; and she couldn't see one near from atop the hill she and her horse stood upon; and as she paid closer attention; she noticed that any of the carts that were still standing- and most that weren't, were pointed towards her. The horses carcasses heading away from Wall Rose rather than towards it.

'Did…. did they send these people out here to die? To take back the wall? What kind of idiots would do that?' She thought upon continuing her way across the battlefield, eyes scanning for anything to clue her in on what truly happened. But she knew she was right.

Most people wore what she assumed were civilian clothes, only occasionally did she see a winged patch or tan jacket; though the further she got the more respect she gained for the people who did choose to venture outside the safety of their burrows. She collected every name and military patch she saw, and any identifying artifacts of clothing off of civilians she could- stuffing them into her saddle bags. These were people who chose to fight rather than lie down and die. She just hoped that she wasn't stepping over the last vestiges of humanity, and that these people had families for her to return these to things to.

The carnage lasted for a day or so, but it slowly began to spread out as the titans did as well, though she was soon forced to travel exclusively by night as their populations picked back up; though it made her nervous she understood what it meant; for the beasts quite obviously were drawn to human populations like moths to a flame.

And it was when Morrigan finally breached the top of a tall hill; the horses' sides heaving as she slowed it to a trot; she was confronted with what she had spent the last year hunting for; her height on the hill allowing her to peek over the walls and see orange, flickering lights behind them

Trost.