Chapter 2: Fall of Shiganshina (Part 2)
As Heidi and the other children stared up at the monster peeking over the wall at them in mix of terror and awe, the colossal titan raised his massive foot and delivered an explosive kick that shattered the outer gate with enough force to send out a strong shockwave of wind and debris.
"—!!" the children cried out in alarm as they braced themselves and covered their ears.
"...Hh!?" Heidi gasped as she watched the large chunks of steaming rock fly through they air, crashing into various homes and businesses. One of them even sailed right over their heads.
"T-The wall... It's blown a hole in the wall..." Peter stuttered as he and his friends stood frozen in fear.
CLATTER!
"!?" They all jumped at noise Heidi made emptying out a wheelbarrow that had been left out in front of one of the neighboring houses. "Hey, what are you—"
"Get in!" she told Jacob in a tone that left no room for argument. "Hurry!!"
"What about the geese!?" he asked nervously.
"They'll be fine!!" Heidi said. They were in less danger than they were at the moment. Titans only ate humans!
"Hey, you're not seriously gonna just take that, are you?" Peter asked incredulously as he watched her help her cousin into the barrow. Did she even know who that thing belonged to? "Hey! Where are you going, Tomato-head!!?" he shouted as Heidi started wheeling her cousin away as fast as she could.
"To find our moms!" she shouted back without stopping. "And you'd better do the same! We've gotta get out of here before more titans show up!!"
"Ah!" Peter gasped in realization as people started to scream. "We gotta get the hell outta here!!"
"But over there..." one of the other boys said, too scared to move, as he stared in the direction She was running away in. "The houses over there were crushed by the debris from the wall..."
Heidi panted as she ran she ran through the streets pushing Jacob in the wheelbarrow. It was tough, but easier and faster than carrying him herself or letting him walk on his own. After all, Jacob couldn't run.
'There's still a chance our house is okay!' she thought as they passed the butcher shop they usually sold their geese to, which had been demolished by debris from the wall. 'Mom should be all right, because she was out fitting a client for a dress, but Auntie Lana...'
"Wah!!" Jacob cried out as they passed what was left of a woman who had been destroyed by another piece of debris, feeling sick. Heidi gritted her teeth, keeping her eyes focused on the path ahead of her as she navigated through the panicking mob that was filling the streets. The wheel on the barrow squealed as she turned the corner and screeched to a halt. The two children stared at the scene that greeted them in disbelief, horrified to find that their home had been crushed. "No..." Jacob cried as they stared at the most painful and heart-wrenching sight of all. The head of Jacob's mother and Heidi's aunt, Lana Stark, was peering up at them from the ground with lifeless eyes. Her neck had been broken when the top of their front door's frame slammed down on top of it. "... It's a lie!! My mom... My momma can't be dead!!" he screamed as tears streamed began to stream down their faces.
'This can't be happening...' Heidi thought as she kept holding onto the wheelbarrow, shell-shocked. The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her.
"Heidi!!" Lena Trumbauer yelled, slapping her daughter in the face to snap her out of it.
"!!" Heidi gasped, staring up at her mother with tears in her eyes.
"Pull yourself together!!" Lena said sternly. She was trying to be brave for her daughter and nephew, but there was no hiding the fear in her eyes. "Titans are flooding the town!! We have to go now, or we'll all die!!!" she urged the children, grabbing onto the wheelbarrow's handles from behind Heidi to help her push, turning it back around. "Let's go!! We need to get to the inner gate!!"
Tears continued to stream down Heidi's face as she ran with her mother while poor Jacob sobbed uncontrollably over his mother's death in the wheelbarrow. The ground shook beneath them again. Lena glanced back over her shoulder and gasped in alarm.
"Don't look!!" she shouted as Heidi started to turn her head. "Keep your eyes forward and watch the road! Once you get through the inner gate, head straight for the canal. And no matter what happens... Don't look back."
"... Eh?" Heidi said, surprised when her mother suddenly let go of the handles, and she felt her warmth on her back fade away as the ground shook again. Despite her mother's warning and the feeling of dread creeping over her, Heidi glanced back as she kept running forward. Her eyes widened when she saw that her mother had stopped running and turned around to face the titan chasing them. Lena knew it was suicidal, but she hoped that by sacrificing herself, the children might have a chance to get away. For a moment, time seemed to slow down to Heidi, but even though she could see everything happening clearly, she was powerless to stop it. Before Heidi could even begin to slow down, the titan took hold of her mother. Heidi screamed as tears rolled down her mother's face. "Noooooo!!!"
CRUNCH.
Heidi's heart stopped for beat when the titan bit her mother's head off right in front of her, and something deep inside of her snapped. Heidi's pupil's contracted.
"UAAAAAAH!!!" she roared with anguished fury, launching herself at her mother's murderer as crimson tears formed in her eyes. She leaped high into the air, punching the 5m titan hard enough to break its jaw. The titan dropped her mother's corpse as it stumbled backwards. Heidi landed clumsily on the ground with a thud and a sickening crack, but quickly picked herself up and rushed towards the titan again.
SLASH!
Before she could attack again, the titan was already falling to the ground. A chunk of flesh had been carved from the back of its neck in an instant by the stern-faced man who landed on his feet in front of Heidi. He was wearing the green cloak of the Survey Corps. He thrust out a hand against the charging girl's forehead, holding her back as she tried to push forward with a snarl. His elbow bent. This little girl was abnormally strong, and... were those tears of blood? She didn't seem to care at all that one of her arms was broken. Right now, this girl was more animal than human. She was just a wounded beast lashing out at whatever came near her.
"Hey, brat. You're a hundred years too early to take me on," the dark-haired man stated coolly, though he doubted she could hear him in her current state, delivering a swift punch to her diaphragm to knock the wind out of her.
"...!!" Jacob gasped as her body went limp and collapsed against him. "Y-You... You killed her!!" he cried in alarm, almost numb with shock from seeing his aunt's headless corpse and watching his cousin go crazy.
"Relax. She's just sleeping," the man said unapologetically. If he had left her as she was, she would have gotten herself killed sooner or later.
"Jacob!! Heidi!!" Karl Stark shouted from the rooftop of the neighboring house, panting, as he repelled down to them, embracing his son. "Thank goodness! I've been looking everywhere for..." he trailed off when he noticed how strangely limp and silent Heidi was, and his blood ran cold when he noticed that the headless corpse next to his niece and the Survey Corps member holding her was wearing one of his sister-in-law's favorite dresses. "Is that...?"
"Daddy!!" Jacob cried in relief, throwing his arms around his father's neck. "A titan got Auntie Lena, and... Momma also..." Karl froze when he realized what his hysterical son was trying to say. No... Not his Lana!!! Karl gritted his teeth and held his son tighter.
"Hey!" the Survey Corpsman who had evidently saved the children said firmly, getting his attention. "If you know these kids, then I'll leave them with you," he said, dumping the unconscious Heidi into the wheelbarrow with Jacob. "Get them out of here. I don't have time to babysit," he added, using his 3DMG to hop onto the next roof so he could run off and get back to killing titans. Karl clenched his jaw and let go of his son so he could grab the handles of the wheelbarrow and pushed, making a beeline for the inner gate. At the very least, he needed to save these two, or he would never be able to face their mothers in the next world!
When Heidi regained consciousness, they had already passed through the inner gate and we heading for the canal. She winced at the pain shooting through the fractured bone in her arm.
"Wha... What happened?" she asked, furrowing her brow in confusion. "Where's my mom?" Jacob and her uncle stared at her in astonishment.
"You... You don't remember?" Karl asked. Did she hit her head? How was he supposed to tell her?
"Heidi..." Jacob sniffed, clearing his runny nose. "A-Auntie Lena..."
"Didn't make it," Karl finished grimly, deciding she didn't need to know the gruesome details. "You don't remember because you fell and hit your head when your arm was clipped by a piece of debris. Don't try to think about it now, just focus on surviving and taking care of Jacob. That's what your mother would want." She was better off not knowing. He had heard everything from Jacob. He only wished his son could forget everything, too. Jacob stared up at his father in confusion. Why was he lying? "Hannes!" Karl shouted when he spotted some familiar faces in the crowd it looked like Hannes was taking Eren and Mikasa to the ferries. Judging by the look on the children's faces, they had been through as much trauma as his son and niece. They were just staring off into the distance, shell-shocked. "Perfect timing! Can you make sure these two get on the next boat out of here?"
"Eh!?" Jacob yelled, startled. "You're not coming with us!?" Heidi frowned and bit her lip, afraid they were about to lose the only family they had left.
"I'm sorry..." Karl apologized to them as he scooped up his son, holding him tightly. "But I think it's time I earned my paycheck. There are still other people inside the wall with the titans." He was a soldier. It was his duty to protect the public. And he wanted payback for his family. Hannes gritted his teeth and looked away, ashamed. He wished he had as much courage as his comrade. "Listen, Jacob," Karl whispered in his son's ear so no one else would hear. "A long time ago, Heidi's father told me that if she ever cried tears of blood like that, and she couldn't remember what she had done, it would be dangerous to try to force her. Don't say anything about what really happened to Heidi," he finished urgently before looking at his niece. "Heidi, I know this is sudden, but you have a grandfather living inside Rose Wall, near Dauper Village," he told her, raising his voice so everyone could hear. "You probably don't remember, but you and your mother used to live with him when you were a baby." Before her father died, and Lena moved back to her hometown to be near her own family. "If something happens to me, you need to find him. Take care of Jacob for me," he said, handing his crying son over to Hannes since her arm was broken. They couldn't take the wheelbarrow on the boat, it would take up too much room.
"I will," Heidi promised as hot, clear tears began to stream down her face, washing away the blood stains. "But you have to come back! We'll definitely wait for you, so come as soon as you can!" she said determinedly, clenching her fist.
"Yeah, it's a date," her uncle said with soft smile, ruffling her hair one last time before turning and running off to join the fight.
"Come on," Hannes said. "Let's get you kids on the boat." He needed to hurry up and join Karl and the other soldiers. It was time he earned his paycheck, too. He escorted the four children to the front of the line and had a few words with the soldier in charge of letting people on. The children all looked so pitiful, he couldn't say no. Then Hannes set Jacob down, and Heidi let him lean on her and supported him with her good arm as they carefully made their way up the ramp and onto the boat behind Eren, who was being led by Mikasa.
"This can't be real..." a man whimpered as they made their way through the cowering refugees already aboard, looking for a safe place to sit.
"Please, God... Please, God.. Please, God..." a woman prayed over and over again.
"The boat is filled to capacity!! We're gonna leave now!!" one of the soldiers aboard the boat announced, sending the people still waiting into panic.
"No! Please! At least let our children on!"
Jacob clung to Heidi, burying his face against her shoulder as she wrapped her good arm around him, holding him close, as she squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't bear to look.
"We can't afford anymore, it's dangerous! Close the gate!!"
"What are you talking about? There are still plenty of people left inside!!"
"If this wall is broken, it won't end with just one city overrun by the titans!! Humankind's allotted territory would shrink all the way to the next wall!!"
"There's no point in watching individuals get slaughtered right in front of us!!"
"Close the gate!! Move it!!"
"The titans are literally knocking on our doorstep!!"
"Intercept them!!"
"What is that thing!!? It's completely unaffected by our weapons!!"
CRRACK—BOOM!!
"!?" Heidi opened her eyes again just in time to see a large titan come crashing through the inner gate, creating another huge gap in the wall as their boat traveled down the canal. The titan slid to a stop and exhaled a jet of scalding steam.
"The gate...!!"
"Wall Maria...!"
"They've busted through it...!?"
"This is the end... Humanity is finished... The titans will devour us all..."
Tears streamed down Heidi's face as it hit her that she would never be able to return home. Her mother was gone... her aunt was gone... and her uncle... She tightened her grip on her cousin. No! She didn't want to think about it, but whatever happened... She would definitely protect Jacob! She wasn't losing anyone else!!!
"I will wipe them out!!" Eren said suddenly, causing Heidi and Mikasa to glance at him. Tears flowed from his eyes, and his face was twisted with hate as he stood up, trembling with rage. "I'll erase them from this world... until not a single one remains...!!"
Within hours of the fall of Shiganshina on the south side of Wall Maria, news of the incident had reached every city inside human territory. The same year, the central government made the decision to withdraw all of humanity's domain behind Wall Rose. An estimated 10,000 people were eaten by titans during this time.
—∞—
There was raised a great noise.
The ravens wheeled... the eagle was eager for corpses...
There was clamor on earth as the blue-eyed maiden...
Shed crimson tears... as red as her hair.
