Mask-An Attack on Titan Fan Fiction

Chapter Twenty-Six

My horse was restless. Destrier was nickering and moving his head, trying to ward off a bothersome fly. His anxiousness was starting to rub off on me.

The day was sunny, though the Wall cast a considerable shadow over the assembled troops on horseback around me. Commander Erwin Smith was shouting orders towards the front, while one of our commanders relayed the orders to us. As I stared around at the sea of faces, I could see similar expressions of anxiety. 

"Thirty seconds till the gate opens!"

This is happening. This is actually happening.

"Show me what you can do!"

There was a cry of assent, which I joined. My shouts only caused the adrenaline coursing through my veins to move faster.

"OPEN THE GATE!" Erwin Smith yelled.

The gate began its grinding progress upward. The second it was open completely, Commander Smith screamed the order to advance, and we started forward. As I passed under the gaping archway, my last thought inside the Walls flashed desperately through my mind.

I don't want to die.

Hardly thirty seconds outside of the Wall, we encountered a ten-meter class Titan. As we passed a street, I caught a glimpse of two Survey Corps members in battle with it. The commander of our unit shouted at us to keep moving, pushing us onward. I ripped my gaze away from the skirmish and tried to block out the noises ringing in my ears.

We rode for about twenty minutes before reaching the open territory. We assumed our full formation.

En, Nori, and I split from the group, positioning ourselves in the spot we had been shown numerous times on various diagrams. We were one of the groups in charge of relaying messages to the other units of the vanguard.

We rode in determined, tense silence. Every movement in the trees caused my heart to jump; each bird's takeoff gave me a miniature heart attack. The longer we rode, the tighter the paranoia stretched, tantalizing us.

A column of red smoke was fired into the air. I was so tense that I actually gave a small shout of terror.

"Titans have been sighted," Nori commented, his face fixed straight ahead, "En, fire the round."

En nodded, jaw clenched, and grabbed the small smoke pistol. He inserted the cannister into the barrel, raised the gun above his head, and fired. A red plume of smoke vaulted into the air.

I looked behind us a few minutes later, and saw the streaks of red painting the sky. A green plume launched into the air.

"The Commander has spotted the round," I informed En and Nori.

The formation began shifting.

The tension was becoming unbearable. We hadn't yet had any trouble from Titans, which I supposed was a good thing. However, the possibility that a Titan could pop up at any moment was the most tantalizingly terrifying thing yet.

"Black round spotted towards the right!" Nori shouted above the thundering of the horse's hooves, "An aberrant has been spotted!"

En swore. "Let's just hope someone takes care of it before we have to."

A second black flare was shot into the air minutes later.

En swore again. "Keep going. Keep going," he seemed to be telling himself.
Nori began muttering to himself as well. Instead of giving himself a pep talk like En, Nori seemed to be reassuring himself by reciting every textbook we had ever studied during training.