M O O N D R I P
This starts a day before the Colossal Titan takes down Wall Maria. Our protagonist, Samantha Fraen, is off on an expedition outside of the walls after graduating and joining the Survey Corps.
Yesterday...
"Captain! At this rate, the Titans are... everyone is going to--"
"Shut up Sam! Captain knows what he is doing! Trust him!"
"Levi-senpai..."
But does he really? No, I must trust my comrades no matter what.
I continue riding on horseback.
"Sam! Look out!" A man shouts behind me. I look behind me to see a titan's hand reaching forward. I get pulled off my horse and onto another one. Levi's spare horse. An arm falls onto the ground beside me. I scoop it up. Moses's arm. My brother's. I rip the insignia of the Survey Corps of the sleeve and hold it in a fist. Moses was dead because of me. What would mom think?
Today, late afternoon...
"That's all that's left?"
"Didn't they leave with more?"
"This is what happens when pride takes you outside the walls."
"Moses! Moses! Where is Moses? I can't find my son!"
I turn to face the distressed woman. I look at the wad of bloody cloth in my small arms.
Moses...
"This is all that we could salvage," I say, handing her the cloth. Inside, there lay the arm of a young man. The arm of a man I had known since birth. My twin brother. I start to tear up.
She unwraps it and sees the arm, quickly covering it back up. She then embraces it.
"Was he useful to mankind? Tell me my son helped bring mankind a step closer to beating the titans!" she said, crying.
"Of course!" He pauses, "no... During this mission, we... No, even after all our missions, we still haven't made any progress! I'm a failure. I've just gotten soldiers killed left and right. And we haven't learned anything useful about the titans!"
We ride away, murmurs behind us about what captain said.
I gently stroke the neck of the horse I am riding. I decided to call him Bean. Tears stream down my face.
"Moses..."
We arrived at HQ. Dust had settled over the place. It seemed almost deserted.
"How many did we lose out there?" a voice mumbled.
"Exactly 180... 20 survivors..." I say bitterly. How could we lose that many in 5 days...?
"I think that was a rhetorical question Sam."
I pulled a badge out of my pocket. Embroidered upon it was the Survey Corps insignia. I had ripped it off the shoulder of Moses' arm. I begin to cry.
"You alright Sam?"
"Yeah. Don't worry Levi-senpai, I am a freshly graduated 15 year old from the cadet core and I only just watched my twin brother and many other comrades get eaten by freaking titans. I'm definitely not facing any sort of terror or trauma."
Levi stares at me calmly. His expression was impossible to read, but that isn't abnormal for him.
"You are really bad at hiding your emotions. What do you plan on doing with that?" He asks, pointing to the crest, "I mean, it was Moses', right?"
"Who knows? Maybe I'll sew it on to something, maybe I'll burn it," I reply to him.
"Way to prove my point."
Captain Erwin walks into the room, and everyone looks up and salutes.
"At ease soldiers."
"Did Commander give you a hard time, Captain?" Levi asks him.
"He did complain about this and that, but the conversation ended pretty quickly."
"That could be good or bad," I say.
"True, but at this point, all we can do is hope for the best."
The next few minutes were peaceful. I had just finished sewing my brother's badge onto my pack. I put on my 3D Maneuver Gear.
I go outside and instantly hear a crash behind me. I turn to see a muscular head staring over Wall Maria.
The head of a giant titan.
"What the heck?"
I climb onto the roof of my home. Titans are flooding into the gates, and civilians are running away for their dear lives.
I see one of the older scouts running with two children. One of the children was staring back at a titan.
A Scout jumped next to me.
"You're in the Survey Corps, correct? We need reinforcements!"
"Right away sir!"
I activate my 3D Maneuver Gear and go to HQ as fast as I can. As soon as I arrive, I burst through the door.
"Wall Maria has been breached! The Scouts are going down one by one!"
Everyone stares at me like they don't believe me.
"You heard her! Get moving!" Levi says. His voice had a spark of fear.
Hardly anyone puts on their gear and grabs blades, but the seven who do look terrified. I fill my gas tanks and grab blades as well.
"You must have seen. What broke the wall, Sam?" Zoe asks me.
"Tell us, Sam." Levi says.
"It was a giant titan."
Zoe squeals.
"An abnormal?"
"It had intelligence it seems. It could see over the wall and had hardly any skin."
Levi stared at me like he had just seen a ghost. Zoe squeals again. How is she excited?
"You tell the Scouts to evacuate the civilians, then come help us with that titan."
"It disappeared, Levi."
Levi sighs in relief, "thank goodness. Let's go. We have to stop these titans."
"Agreed."
We arrive back to my town. There was blood and body parts everywhere. Titans were heading toward the port. Hundreds of civilians are there.
"The boats are full!"
"Please, allow our children to get aboard!"
"We can't. I am really sorry ma'am."
I swing over to them, cutting down multiple titans.
"I'll take as many small children as I can carry over the wall. That way we can save many more lives."
"Thank you miss. Thank you so much!"
Five children. That is all I could carry. Two babies, three younger ones, and a older girl.
"Hold on little ones. We are going straight over."
I shot out the ropes on my gear and pressed the gas as much as I could. I got to the top of the wall.
"You stay here and watch them four. I am going to get more," I tell the older girl. She nods.
I look over to Zoe, who was sitting on the top of the wall.
"Can you watch them?"
"Yeah. You do what you need to do."
"Thanks Zoe."
I jump back down the wall, and take more children. Mostly younger ones. Levi came up to the wall.
"We can't stop them anymore--" he stops and looks at the children, "did you... save them?"
I nod, "I am going to grab a few more. I want to save as many as possible."
"Sam! Don't go ba--"
"I need to do this Levi! Don't stop me!"
I leap down the wall once more. Only three more. Only three. I quickly grab them and go up. I am almost there when I run out of gas. I stand on the side of the wall hopelessly.
"Zoe! Levi! Can you hear me?"
"Sam!" someone shouts back. It's Zoe, "Levi took the other children down to the other side!"
"Can you grab these three Zoe? I am out of gas!"
One of the kids start to cry.
"Yeah, I'll get them," Zoe says, leaping down. She grabs the three children, "I'll come back for you."
"Don't worry. I'll find a way up."
"If you insist..." Zoe says, going back up.
There are screams of terror beneath me. I look down to see a titan reaching down to grab someone.
"Hey idiot!" I shout. I catch the titan's attention. It walks to the wall and tries to reach me. Luckily it was only a five-meter class.
"Sam! You down there?" It was Levi's voice.
"I am! There is a titan down here trying to get the civilians! I have it distracted for now!"
Levi jumps down and slices the titan's nape. One meter in width and 10 centimeters in length. He then shoots himself back up, grabbing my arm on the way. I was back to the top of the wall. He punches me in the face and grabs the front of my shirt.
"You're way to reckless! You are going to get yourself killed!"
"I am sorry Levi. I really am. I just wanted to protect the people of this town..."
He lets out a sigh and lets go of me. I look down the edge of the wall, watching the people get eaten by titans. But that's when when the worst thing possible happened. An explosion, coming from the inner gate. They had broken through wall Maria. I sat down on the wall to restock my gas tanks, and then went to fight the titans.
Present day...
I slipped off the roof of a house with my lunch in my hands in front of the three kids who were eating bread. I look at them for a while, and jump down in front of them. The blond haired boy notices me first.
"Hey, weren't you the one who saved all the children who couldn't get onto boats?" He asks.
"Yeah. I couldn't bear to see all those kids suffer at the hands of titans, they have a life to live," I say, "anyway, you can have this. Split it with each other,"
I hold out my lunch. The three children stare at me.
"B-but we can't accept this," the blond haired boy says.
"Don't worry about it. I am a strong soldier, missing my meal won't do much," I say, saluting.
"Aren't you the girl always by the valley?" The girl asks me, gently taking the bag.
"I always went there with my brother, Moses, when we were kids. It's sort of my relax place."
"You have a brother?"
"Yeah I-- I did. He is dead now. He saved me from a titan's grasp..." I start to get teary, "I am sorry. Everything has been happening so fast."
The other boy looks up at me, "you're in the Survey Corps you said? Does that mean you know Captain Levi?"
I think for a moment. I guess I have never heard him get called 'Captain,' but I guess I always called him Senpai, "Yeah, I'm Sam Fraen. Levi and I, we are on the same squad. He is pretty amazing. Hey kid, do you want to join the Survey Corps?"
"Yeah. Once I come of age, I am going to apply for the Cadets," he pauses, "How old are you miss?"
"I am 15. I just recently graduated, from the top ten too."
Eren looks at me, amazed.
"Well, I better be getting back to my post. Cya kids, stay out of trouble."
I flop down onto my bed in HQ after a long day of . I now live in the HQ due to the fact that I lived in the Shiganshina District. I could no longer return home. I pick up my bag and stare at the Survey Corps insignia that I sewed onto it. I grab the badge and rip it off.
Staring at the badge in my palm made me want to cry. I grab a spare nail off my dresser and pin the badge to the wall of my room.
One year later...
I noticed how I had begun to grow lonely without my brother. I hardly smiled very much anymore. Because of this, I decided that I shouldn't throw solitude into my path. I asked Commander Erwin if I could view the trainees that were to graduate at the end of the year and I wondered if Zoe would like to come along.
"Zoe," I shout to her, "I was planning on going to the Cadet grounds to watch next year's members. You want to come with?"
"Hmm? I am actually kind of busy," she says with a sigh, "we captured two titans and are experimenting with them."
"Oh," I say, "I would love to help you, but I'd probably end up accidentally killing them in the process."
She laughs a little, "You've always been good with fighting and killing titans. I don't think you could try to do what we are doing."
"Yeah."
I guess I am going there alone after all.
"You know, Sam, you could always ask Levi to join you."
"Nah, he is probably busy with the other squads and his underlings," I say.
"Oh yeah, haha."
"Well, cya Zoe."
"Bye Sam!"
I run off in the direction of the stables. When I get there, I poke around for my horse. I soon find him.
"Hey Bean. How are you today?"
The horse turns to my voice and walks over to me.
"You wanna go for a ride buddy? We're gonna visit the Cadets."
I put on his reins and mount his saddle.
"Let's go Bean."
I had just about reached the training grounds. I could already hear yells in the distance. Then, I got flung off of Bean's back. He had tripped over a hole in the ground. Pain was blasting into my lower leg.
"Come here Bean, it's all right," I call out to the frightened horse. He looks over in my direction and trots over. I grab his reins and climb back on to his saddle. We proceed to the training grounds.
I arrive at the training grounds. Forgetting about my leg, I jump own from Bean's back. Pain springs into my leg again. I grab the saddle on Bean's back to catch my balance. |
