Wall – Chapter 2
"I just don't understand what went wrong."
"You tried to court two girls. At once. While they were both there. At hearing distance."
"So that they would know that I'm free if the other is busy! Why is that a problem?"
Garrus sighed in defeat, walking alongside a red-faced Paul towards the Shiganshina barracks. It wasn't that his friend was blushing, but rather the painful marks of two different slaps on each cheek.
"You know, some girls appreciate the thought of being the sole focus of one guy." Garrus' mother was one who taught him that. When you court a woman, do it wholeheartedly. It opens up her eyes to who you can truly be. At least that is what she said.
"I wasn't really courting them. I was asking if I could know them better." Paul continued to rub one his cheeks. He swore a while back that the red-headed one had metal for bones in her hands.
"Some families would already consider that as courting." Garrus looked down on the ground, kicking around a rock he found a few meters back.
Paul suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking at up with a hand holding his chin. Garrus then suddenly halted as well, but with a face of mock horror. The flirt only did that expression when something horrible was about to happen.
He was thinking.
"What sick idea is going through your mind this time?" Paul was a smart guy. Just not intelligent. That means he comes with brilliants thoughts, but doesn't stop to think if he should do it or not. His "thinking face" turned to small smirk as he looked back down again to Garrus and continued walking.
"What? Is it a sin if I use this gifted brain of mine?"
"With your character, yes."
"Aw. Don't be so hard on me. I would never do anything too foolish." Garrus stopped to stare at him blankly.
"We both have different standards for foolishness, apparently." Paul shrugged in an apathetic way while still holding that stupid smirk.
"My point is that I haven't thought of anything that would put you in trouble now. At least from my perspective." Garrus felt conflicted about that statement. He didn't know if he should be relieved or worried.
"So what did you think about?"
"Since the time you rescued me from the hot-headed boyfriend of that vendor girl 3 years back and started our awesome friendship, I never noticed you have an attraction for anyone! And that's kind of impossible for guys our age." Garrus gave a snort.
"Who says I haven't?" By the time the words left his lips, Garrus realized he said the wrong thing at the wrong time for second time this day. Paul looked back with a large grin on his face.
Oh no, not this conversation again.
"No way! Really? You have to reveal to me who it is, man! You know all of my girls!" Garrus couldn't help but bring a palm to his face.
"First off, your girls? Really? Second, I know them due to either accident, saving you in the process, or unwillingly learn about it from you." Paul continued to look at him with a dumb looking grin. It almost as if every word he said flew right past his friend's ears.
"You're stalling!"
"Paul, I just go out of this conversation with parents. I am not repeating it with you."
"See? You can easily tell your mom and dad. Why have a hard time telling me who your attraction is?"
"Who says I have one?" Paul gave a snort at this statement.
"Please. The way you defended yourself a few seconds ago means that there is someone. So who is it? Agatha?" Referring to their sweet but odd female cadet friend who had similar hair-color to Garrus.
"I think of her as a sister."
"What about Corrine?" Garrus gave a questioning look.
"Who is that?"
"Oh. Never mind. You better not like Paula."
"Paul, I have not even met your twin sister."
"But I always describe her amazingly to you. Who wouldn't fall for my descriptions about her?"
"Why would I be attracted to simple words about a girl I never met?
"Who knows? Maybe that's how you are. What about Francesca?"
"She likes you. Not me." Paul raised an eyebrow at this statement. Garrus responded with a dead-panned look. "It was obvious to the whole southern training corps." His friend was surprised, dropping his jaw.
"You only tell me this now? What a waste! She's stationed up north, Gary. The complete opposite side of human territory." Garrus just continued to stare blankly. He cannot believe what he was hearing.
"You know, for someone who is addicted to romance, you are a pretty stupid on application." Paul merely shrugged once again.
"Perhaps I was blinded by someone else at the time. Poor Franky. She had great cooking too." Garrus resisted the urge to say that she was attracted to his friend since he caught her from falling during the first time they balanced on the 3DMG harnesses. Talk about irony. Paul continued his interrogation.
"So do you like her?"
"No, I do not."
"… You don't play for the other team, right?"
Garrus raised an eyebrow on his statement before actually realizing what it means.
"No! Why would you think that?!"
"That just confirmed that there is a girl who caught your eye, isn't there?" And that confirmed Garrus mindset about Paul. He was not intelligent, but he was definitely smart.
"Eh. I give. If you haven't guessed already, yes there is. I just don't find it significant at the moment." The duo can already see the bell tower connected to the barracks proper. It was not as magnificent or massive as the large forts in the districts of Wall Rose, but it still gave the aura of a military institute.
"A fellow trainee of ours in the 99th?" Paul opened his bag while walking to take a folder with his orders details. Garrus was also doing the same.
"Yes, she is." Before the interrogation could continue any longer, they had made their way to the front gate of the barracks, much to Garrus' relief and Paul's annoyance. As they entered together, they saw a few other soldiers, who also looked like new assignments such as them, around the small courtyard, either talking amongst each other or sitting on the grass.
The duo must have arrived on time as the door to the commander's office opened to reveal a female officer, a couple of years older than Garrus and Paul, holding a clipboard walking towards the garrison soldiers in the courtyard. All the transferees, including the two 99th graduates, formed a line where each one was side by side with another and held their right fist to their chest, the standard salute to the king.
The officer had her blonde hair tied into a bun, her green eyes covered by both glasses and boredom. She walks up to the newly formed line and talks in an apathetic voice.
"At ease. I am Lieutenant Alawak, a logistics officer for the Shiganshina garrison. Form a line by the table near the CO's office." At her command, the transferees formed another line, this time with one behind the other, giving their assignment details to the officer.
Each soldier had their name and assignment read out loud before the lieutenant pointed them to their assigned barracks and giving them a paper slip, most likely containing which squad or team they are assigned to. Garrus was ahead of Paul in the line, his turn next after the soldier in front of him, who was designated as a gate guard, turned to bring his belongings to his assigned bunkroom.
Garrus handed his details to Alawak, who took the folder much more calmly than he expected and skimmed through the files.
"Private Gatling, Garrus. 99th training squad graduate. Assigned to the Shiganshina as a cannonade. Abilities are cannon aiming and repair. So you are also a mechanic?" Garrus gave a small cough before answering. It was almost as if his answer caught in his throat.
"I have basic knowledge in forging and tool repair, contributing to such recommendation, ma'am." The lieutenant looked again at the file, still retaining her emotionless expression.
"I said at ease, private. You're not in boot camp anymore. Relax a bit. You will be assigned to bunk in room F. Though I understand you have family here, you will sleep and eat breakfast and dinner here in the barracks for 6 days a week. Further details regarding you visiting your family will be discussed later. Do I make myself clear, Gatling?" Garrus relaxed his shoulders a bit and his face a lot, but still his straight posture remained.
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am." The lieutenant then formed a small smile from the straight line she would call her mouth, inwardly surprising Garrus.
"Don't fear though. There aren't that many restrictions. You'll get to see them majority of the time, if you wish. The Captain's not a tough nut to crack." Garrus sighed, a bit in relief on the news.
"Thank You, ma'am." Alawak then returned to her stoic face, passing him back his file and his giving him his assignment slip.
"Report to your team leader on the wall immediately after placing your belongings in your room and equipping your 3DMG. Dismissed." Garrus left the line, turning his back to see Paul about to go through the same thing. He took a look at his slip and found out he was assigned to cannon squad 6. He laid his bag on the ground before sitting next to it, reading through the rest of the assignment details. He was to be the mechanic and substitute gunner in the squad of five members, his team leader being a corporeal with the name Barnse.
He was just about to his bunk room when Paul catched up to him.
"Man, that woman looks like her face never moves." Garrus felt a little good inside knowing that was not true about the lieutenant.
"But you know what?" Garrus then turned to his friend, half-wondering what he was about to say and half-expecting it was something about Alawak.
"What?"
"I'm pretty sure the lieutenant is hot with her hair down." Garrus sighed again. But of course. Was anything new?
"Anyway, I got room F and cannon squad 7. You?"
"Same room but I got cannon squad 6."
"Great! We'll be bunk buddies again!"
"I have been stuck in a cabin for 4 years with you and I'm about to go through it again. How is that great?" Both friends shared a laugh. Inside, however, Garrus was relieved that he is staying with his friend once again. Paul really knew how to make a situation light hearted and was a person who supported you to the end, despite his misadventures with women.
"Because you will be helpless without me."
"I'll be helpless because I won't need help without you around. I'm the one saving your butt most of the time."
"And for that, I am forever grateful yet never in your debt."
Arrival into the bunkroom F was uneventful. No one was inside, with almost all the residents on duty. An empty 3DMG rack, with the exception of 2 reserved for them, supported this fact. 6 wooden-framed double bunk beds were inside, the farthest one to the left being beside 2 empty trunks. Garrus claimed the bottom bed while Paul conquered the top after a short battle of rock-paper-scissors. The pair unpacked their extra uniforms and personal belongings into their respective trunks and attached their 3DMG to the straps of their uniform before heading out to an unoccupied wall elevator a few meters from the barracks.
"You know, technically we can scale up the wall faster with our maneuver gear, right?" Paul said as he stepped on to the elevator first before Garrus closed the its gate and signaled to the operator on the ground to start the lift.
"Protocol is protocol. Besides, using 3DMG to scale this thing would be a pain for my thighs, chest, arms… basically our whole body. And I don't want that." The sun began to set down as the elevator climbed up. They were still less than halfway through reaching the top, and bored silence once again appeared to have dominated their trip. Once again, Paul gave a similar stupid smirk, turning to Garrus as he sat down on the elevator floor.
"So… back to our previous topic." Garrus sighed in annoyance "Who is it?"
"I told you it doesn't matter to me anymore."
"Why? Isn't the thought of being together with someone for the rest of your life appealing to you? With the exception of me, of course. I'll be stuck with you until the day I die."
"Not to mention she was a fellow cadet. Did you not feel that connection, bonded through training together? Maybe she's waiting for you to sweep her off her feet? Preferably not from the danger of a titan of course."
"That may be more than likely to happen if I joined her. And that's one reason I did not give priority to that thought."
"So what if she was stationed at a different district? You look like a guy who can wait. One day, you'll find her, spin her around after the reunion hug, then before you know it I'll be your best man at the al- "
"She joined the scouting legion."
Silence once again filled the elevator. Paul's dumbstruck face soon turned into an expression of slight empathy. Though Garrus kept his stoic, blank face, sadness flashed in his eyes for a few seconds before turning away to stare at the sky.
A flock of birds fly right above them at such a height that the wall's existence did not matter to them. Garrus knew in his heart that he was not the only human to envy these simple but free creatures. Free from the stress of human society, free from the confinements of the security and the cage of mankind, free from the threat and horror of the titans, free to go wherever they want, whenever they want.
"I saw her in birds like those. Every time we were together and when we spoke. She always went on about the wonders of nature beyond the farthest horizons seen from the tallest point in the walls. Cliffs of ice in lands that have been frozen for centuries, kilometers upon kilometers of mountains that dwarf even the sheer size of Wall Maria, an endless lake of water that kissed the sun and the moon as they rise and set. She was like one of those birds, just born as a human, a caged and cornered creature than a freed creation of flight."
He turned back to his friend, a morose smile on his face.
"I wanted to spark that connection we had. I even wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. But I can't do that to her. She already gets so much crap in her life just because she wants to go outside, even more for wanting to join the scouting legion. From her parents, From her neighbors, from her friends, even from some our fellow cadets. If I had said anything that reveals to her my desire for her to stay with me, it would be as if I would be giving her another reason to stay in the walls. I would be like another chain that holds her down."
The birds fly over them, heading towards the horizon. Free. Unbound. Unchained.
"I can't do that to her. It's unfair. As much as I would like to see the world beyond, with her even, I made a promise to my family. So I did what I had done during our selection ceremony. When she turned to me on whether she should join the legion or not, I gave her a pat on the shoulder, telling her to give them hell for me. And that was the last time I saw her. Even if she died at the hands of the titans, I personally think that would be a better way to go than for her to live a life of regret."
Paul was still sitting on the elevator floor, listening intently to his friend. He knew Garrus was a true poet at heart, but he rarely allowed his thoughts to become words for his own reasons. But when they did, people who were with him would drop everything they were holding and received his song. He gave a low whistle after taking it all in.
"Wow. That's something else, Gary. Talk about sacrifice." Garrus sat on the floor across his friend, his sad expression turned into a slightly pleased smile. It was good he finally got that though off his chest."
And Paul, to fulfill his role as the joker of their friendship, turned his solemn face upside down into a grin.
"Still. Its your loss and a waste for her, man. With your way to play with words, you would have definitely changed her mind to explore a life with you. A life with me would be something she should consider though." Garrus gave an annoyed sighed, but then still smiled at his friend's way to lighten the atmosphere, an ability contrasting his own.
"So will you still tell me who it is or-" Their conversation was cut short by a sudden noise and rattling of the lift. Paul lost his balance and fell on the floor of the lift while Garrus grabbed on to the metal column in the elevator's corner. The lift stopped moving, allowing both of them to regain their footing. It also stopped climbing, with them being only a few meters from the top of the wall.
Garrus tried to find the source of the disturbance, Paul joining him after a few seconds. Clouds of steam rose from the other side of Wall Maria. It was much different than from the steam they know that comes from boilers or kettles. It was much more thick and carried what appeared to be embers, almost looking similar to...
Titan vapor. They seen it before. After a cannon demonstration performed during their cadet days revealed a direct hit to a titan, similar columns of smoke rose from it as it regenerated, but not at this magnitude.
The next sight was something of a different magnitude that brought shock, awe, and dread to both the cannoneers in the elevator. Large fingers of revealed muscle held onto the walls, pulling up a gigantic head that was almost as big as a regular titan itself, also almost pure muscles with barely any skin covering it. Its black eyes looking down onto the town below, just staring at everyone letting off massive towers of steam.
All thoughts that had arose from Garrus' revelation a few seconds ago disappeared in an instant. The great sights beyond the walls, the free flying birds, the girl in his mind, all wiped out in a single moment and was replaced with the truth. The ominous truth embedded into the minds of all humans which has been buried under decades of safety. The horrifying truth that all started ever since humanity lived in the walls, away from the danger the truth warns them about. The truth that resurfaced to remind them that they, humans, lived in fear of the titans, cursed to stay in these walls. Forever.
Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin. (duh)