Red – Chapter 3
The next events all happened in what seems to be hours, yet only a few seconds.
A large bang.
The elevator flying off the wall.
The whistle of 3DMG wires.
A shockwave of dust and rock flying through town.
His name being called.
"Gary! Are you alright?" Garrus' vision cleared up, letting him realize both him and Paul were standing at a rooftop of a house. His mind was still blank, trying to regain focus and sense. Clearing up further, Garrus can see a large, sharp boulder protruding into the neighboring home. He looked down before wishing he never did.
It was pure carnage. Rocks and debris of all sizes were scattered on the road, some crashed into houses and a few crushing a group of unlucky bystanders. People were running in all directions, screaming in panic and fear. A young child holding a doll tries to stir the arm of an unconscious man who looked like her father, the upper portion of his body being the only thing visible from under a bloodied boulder.
"Paul…" His consciousness and control came back, followed by feelings of awareness and dread.
"What happened?"
Paul had an uncharacteristically fearful frown on his face, looking around before laying eyes on the gate of Shiganshina. Or what used to be the gate. Paul's eyes grew in horror, his face darkening at the sight.
"Garrus… The gate… it's destroyed." Garrus heard the few the words that came out of his friend, but he wanted to believe he heard wrong. He looked to the gate to prove to himself that his friend lied. He was wrong. He pressed harder into his denial as he shut his eyes hard, thinking he was just imagining everything. That he hit his head too hard on the elevator when an earthquake hit.
Silence only persisted between the two soldiers, disturbed by a scream from a person down below.
"The Titans are inside!"
By survival instinct, Garrus opened his eyes, confirming the nightmarish revelation. Out of the many horrors that poured inside the district, one figure stood out, coming dangerously near them. A deformed figure around 12 meters tall with dastardly long arms was walking closer every second. To see their faces, looking up in hunger, from the top of the wall was one experience. To witness their hellish smiles from the ground was an entirely different and horrific story. An inhumane number of white, ivory teeth revealed themselves from inside the empty grin of the approaching titan. It's long, large strands of blond hair covered one part of its face, the other half having a lifeless, blood red eye that stared down a on the people in the street.
It bended forward, taking a poor soul in its left hand. The man struggled and screamed like a baby as he was brought closer and closer to the titans face. The monster opened its large mouth to reveal even more teeth with more of them being molars than canines, ensuring a painful, crushing death. The large hand brought the crying man's head to the right side of the titans face, inserting his entire chest area inside its mouth. The man's screaming became louder and louder until the sickening crunch of teeth and bone. Silence only followed the man's corpse, his cries gone quiet.
Paul and Garrus just stared despairingly at what they witnessed. The screaming and shouting of the crowds down below grew faint as their minds bored the face of that titan into their memories. A horrifying realization went through Garrus as he realized that he was… relieved. Relieved that it was the man who was eaten and not him. It made the young soldier feel less like a human and more like an animal, one who escapes the jaws of their predators though the loss of another life.
Any thoughts denial have left him already, only pure acceptance of the facts remaining. The Wall was breached. The Titans are inside. In Shiganshina, his hometown.
Where his family lived.
The moment that thought reached his brain, Garrus swiftly turned towards the direction of his house and launched himself into the air with his 3DMG. Paul's shouts became whispers lost in the sea of screams as he kept zoomed past the tall bell towers towards a residential section by the wall, disturbingly close to the gate.
The neighborhood was in ruin. A few houses were completely wrecked by large pieces of broken stone. The few people who remained were digging through the rubble, trying to find buried members of their families. Two people in particular caught his eye. A black-haired man with large gloves, lifting pieces of fallen wood from their damaged house, and a brown-haired woman who tried pushing away what debris she can from a collapsed doorway while shouting at the ruins.
"Venus?! Venus, where are you?!"
The young soldier swooped down to his parents, running up to them at the last few feet. His mother turned around, tears visible from her eyes. Not ones full of joy, but filled with fear.
"Mom, what happened?!" Garrus questioned as held his mom by the shoulders.
"Your sister is still inside the house! Your father was in the forge while I was in the garden when it started raining debris. The doorway into the house has collapsed, but it still looks like some of the interior stands." Garrus' father grunted as he lifted the last columns out, taking what moments he can to breathe.
"Garrus… get in… help me find… your sister." Garrus wasted no time helping his dad up and both of them rushing into the house. Part of the kitchen remained intact, and there inside lay Venus, frighteningly still whilst buried under a fallen wooden support with a pieces of broken stone around her. The men approached her, their worst thoughts instantly dissipating after seeing her chest rise and fall slowly. She was just unconscious, a red and purple bruise found on her forehead.
Garrus slowly pulled the support off Venus while their father carried her up in his arms. They both ran towards the exit as the building rumbled, distant footsteps becoming louder. Both men came back to the scared mother, her worried features added with relief for a while after seeing her daughter. Worry came back once again when she saw the large bruise on her head. His father stepped closer to his wife, attempting to calm her down.
"She might have suffered a concussion, but more than likely it was caused by some falling debris from the ceiling than the wooden support. She'll be fine." The woman's concerned lessen as she was reassured of Venus' condition. She turned back to Garrus with a dreaded expression.
"Garrus, we have to get Matthias from the Tagapa's house. They came here to pick him for a playdate with a few of his friends. We have to get to him now! Before they c- "
Her cry for help was interrupted by a scream as the enormous head of a 7 meter tall titan emerged from behind the roofs. Two garrison soldiers landed on the rooftops, their weapons visibly shaking in their hands as the titan revealed a third soldier in its arms, struggling to cut off its fingers with the shortened blade in her free arm. At the appearance of the situation, she won't live long.
Garrus was filled with shock and terror. The titans had reached this far already? It won't be long until they reach the inner gate. If that gate closes before his family gets in, there won't be any hope for all of them.
He turned to both parents, his face darkening in fear as he took hold of his sword handles, finger itchy on the wire triggers.
"You three must get to the inner gate immediately and take a boat going to Trost. I will meet you all with Matthias either at the boarding or at Trost itself. You must not remain here before the gate closes! I can climb the wall with my equipment, but not you…"
His mother appeared conflicted, not comfortable with the thought of leaving both her boys. His father however, though appearing shaken, looked at his eldest right in the eyes and approached him.
"Be careful. The Titans have most probably reached the place since it's much closer to the gate." Garrus could only nod before he threw his arms around both his parents.
"I love you both. I will do my best to bring Matthias back, even if it means my death."
"Do not say that. No matter what happens, come back to us." His mother squeezed him back tightly,
"We love you to. May God and all his angels keep you both safe." The older man, both his arms carrying his daughter, only laid his head on his son's shoulder.
Garrus pulled away, giving a final nod as he pulled two blades from his gears. Both sides of the family parted and ran in opposite directions, Garrus immediately shooting up into the air as he shot his cables at a nearby tower. Using all the gas he can to move swiftly through, he can only get glimpses of the surrounding chaos.
Some streets were totally abandoned, only fires and smoke arose from the area. A few were still filled with people, either those completely lost or trying to search for family like he was. He landed on the rooftop of a U-shaped building with an alley at the bottom. He only took a small glance down and immediately tried to pull away from disgust and disturbance. But he just continued watching, what he has seen would remain with him for the rest of his life.
A small 3 meter titan was sitting down, chewing on waist of a young shopkeeper. Her face appeared as if she was screaming, yet no sound was coming out. Her dead eyes revealed so much terror, a haunting image cemented into his memory. It was if she was eaten alive which, horrifyingly, was the most likely scenario. One of her arms was a few feet from the dining demon, with a foot sticking out from the side of the titan's mouth.
He was at a perfect angle to jump down and slice the nape of the foul monster, yet his body remained frozen. His mind brought images that paralyzed him to the core. It was the same sight he was seeing in front of him, but the girl's vendor dress was replaced with the uniform of a garrison soldier. Her long, hazel hair turned black and instantly shorter like a boy's. The feminine features of her face changed into the very face of Garrus himself.
He can't move towards it, no matter how much he tried. His blades remained still, sweat dripping down the handles. The titan noticed a shadow in front of him by the roof and by the time it started to turn its bloodied head, the owner of the shadow was gone.
Garrus was trying to forget the memory. He was zooming past building after building trying to drown it out. He desperately attempted to replace the trauma with his personal mission to find his brother. He never noticed the tears of fear that have been going down his cheek, adrenaline blocking all feelings of depression. A structure of rubble greeted him as he approached the street corner, the remnants of the Tagapa household.
They were friends of the family, starting off as business partners with the Gatlings purchasing their furniture from time to time while the Tagapas hired his dad to repair tools and metal parts. Both families grew really close, often leading him to being teased as having a close relationship with the Tagapa's eldest daughter and his childhood friend, Shiu.
A house where he spent a good portion of his youth was now a pile of broken stone and wood. He ran towards the houses, hoping to find any sign of his brother in the rubble. He only found the hand of the household's matriarch, Mrs. Tagapa, who he thought was buried in the ground. But under closer look, blood flowed from the open end of the attached arm.
It was bitten off.
"Matthias! Matthias, where are you!" He was getting desperate. They titans have already gone through here. There was no possible way a 4 year old could hide well enough from these horrors. He continued to run across the street, approaching a sharp corner on the road.
"Matthias! Matthias answer me! Matthia- " A turn on the corner brought a sight that brought him to his knees.
A towering 14 meter titan stood only a short distance away. It had a disgustingly thin stomach that stretched with the outlines of human bodies, some with arms appearing like they struggled for their finals breaths, being eaten whole. Its face had a disturbingly round mouth, filled with an alternating mixture of gigantic molars and canines. Its eyes were excruciatingly small, black beads like an animal's. One of its sharp nailed hands hanged at its side, blood all over the tips of the fingers. In the other hand…
A small boy struggled to free himself, squirming in between the titan's two fingers.
Garrus' mind was in so much conflict. Fear was trying to eat its way down his spine, attempting to paralyze him again. His anger and desire to protect his brother brought his hands up to aim the 3DMG cables somewhere to launch him into the titan. The only thing left in his control were his eyes and his mouth.
"MATTHIAS! HOLD ON!"
The young boy stopped squirming for a while as he dangled above the titan's wide mouth. He looked around before looking down to see a young soldier that was his brother, looking at him with his blades drawn. His relaxed face from before was twisted in such fear and rage, something he did not recognize until he saw familiar, teary eyes. Matthias opened his mouth, a small and gentle voice that can still be heard from 15 meters in the air.
"Gary?"
The next events all happened in what seems to be hours, yet only a few seconds.
A small boy disappearing into a giant maw of teeth.
The sound of bone and flesh crunching.
Blood dripping down the titan's chin
Red filling the foggy vision of the young soldier.
A scream of agony and depression.
The muffled shout of his name being called out.
Blackening light that filled his world.
Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin. (duh)