Lost Boys

Chapter 4: It's a Hard Knock Life

"Reiner!" Annie yelled, rising to her feet on the large tree branch. The armor titan slumped over, his body disappearing behind the tree trunk as he fell, but Annie had already seen most of his armor had broken to bits in the fight with the abnormal titan. Bertholdt turning away, head in his hands. She knew that he couldn't stand to see Reiner get eaten and knew he also couldn't do anything. If Bertholdt transforms, he kills me, Annie thought. It's all down to me now.

She hoped the abnormal titan would turn away from Reiner after he went down, hoped that it would shift its focus back to her, that her scream may still have held its attention. But instead the titan bore down on where the armored titan had fallen. Other titans poured into the forest, a few crowded around their tree and some other ones turned towards her, and as Annie looked up, she could see a few dozen more on their way in. She starred at the trunk of the tree; picturing Reiner's defenseless body sprawled out on the other side. The abnormal titan would be almost upon it now. He risked his life to save mine, Annie thought. She knew what she had to do.

"Bertholdt!" she barked. "I'm going down to protect, Reiner. I'll punch a tree if I need back up. That's the signal for you to transform and help me clear them out."

"Are you mad?" Bertholdt's eyes shot up. "You're going down there? You won't be able to save Reiner. You'd just be giving up your own life! Can you even transform again?"

Annie laughed. "There's only one way to find out."

She leapt off the branch, bit her hand in mind air. The explosive transformation drowned out Bertholdt's panicked cry. Her titan legs hit the ground moving, and in a second the female titan was upon the abnormal titan. It had turned to face her, and as the steam cleared from its face, she could see blood too. Titan's don't bleed, Annie thought with horror. Am I too late?

Annie narrowed her eyes at the titan and swung hardened fist into bloody mouth of the abnormal titan. It landed flat on its back wriggling on the ground with its face caved in. She stomped her foot onto its neck, hoping to crush its nape from the other side, but the titan grabbed her leg, locking her in place. Titan footsteps were closing in on her from all sides.

She tried to shake her leg free but couldn't. Annie felt a short titan grabbing on to her other leg and she kicked it away. She glanced around her and saw three more titans were closing in fast. If only I had a weapon of some kind, a big stick or rock... Annie thought. Her mind went to the Warhammer titan's ability making his own weapons. She let the armor on her fists crack away and replaced it with long blades extending from between her fingers.

Annie sliced through one of the abnormal titan's arms with the blades on her left hand and stabbed out the eyes of an approaching titan with her right hand. She kicked away the abnormal titan who flipped over onto its stomach and slashed the nape of its neck to bits with two rapid swipes of her claw-like blades. She dove in between two more titans, cutting their legs out from under them as she did to reach the body of the armored titan. Please Reiner... Annie thought. Please be alive!

As she lifted Reiner's smoldering titan body, more blood dripped out of the steaming whole in his neck. Through the steam she saw Reiner's human body, or what was left of it. The head and shoulder had been bitten off, leaving her starring at a mangled ribcage. The armored titan dropped out of her hand and her mouth hung open. A heavyset titan stood in front of her with buck teeth, by the time Annie snapped back to reality, the titan dove on top of her knocking her onto the forest floor. Her head was pinned against a tree, and more titans were piling on top of her. The abnormal titan had fully evaporated but the other three titans she stabbed were picking themselves up.

Annie slammed her head into the tree behind her. I need your help, Bert. She drove her blades into the stomach of the titan that pinned her down, ripping it open. She wriggled a little bit more room for herself and hit the back of her head against the tree again, louder this time. She hardened the nape of her neck and kept sticking her blades into the titans on top of her, but as more titans arrived, she couldn't hardly move, and the world had gone dark.