The titans kept on coming.
Isanna latched a hook on a tall bricked tower and shot past behind a 10-meter class titan that had a soldier in its grasp, as she slashed its nape along the way. Clicking her handgrip, she whirled around and grabbed the Scout by the back of his jacket and flung him to a nearby roof.
The soldier landed on the roof with a grunt, his body rolling but fortunately not falling off the house.
"Be more alert," Isanna commanded as she dropped on the rooftop near the soldier. After ensuring the man had no injuries, she turned around and zipped away, a distant mutter of gratitude from the soldier reached her ears but she didn't look back at him.
The raven scanned the ruins of the southern city of Wall Maria as she flew. It was sheer destruction; towers of buildings were crumbled down across the streets, bloodied human corpses laid around leaving a rancid effluvium permeating and mixing with the air - it was hell aboveground.
Isanna could make out Levi and a good number of veteran Scouts in the near distance. She directed her route towards where her comrades were and joined the battle.
"This is it - this is where I die, and this is where I make my last stand for humanity. Isa, Levi, please tell Erwin I'm sorry for stealing his hair gel last week! And tell Mike I may or may not have broken his razor while trying to groom Mhile! But to my defense, he was squirming so much - look, he even scratched my cheek! If you survive this, you need to file his nails! Lastly, I want you to know that I love you all so m-"
"OH MY GOD! Shut up, Hanji!"
"I thought you're an atheist!"
Whipping her head to give the younger woman a glare, Isanna flipped her body to avoid a titan's grasp before she zoomed behind it and cut through the flesh of its nape, steaming titan blood splattering around. After hooking a line on a tall building and suspending her figure for a short break, she returned her attention to the brunette, who had also just killed a titan.
"This is no time for dramatics!" yelled Isanna through the air, "I swear to the walls, Hanji, you'll get yourself killed if you goof around!"
Hanji released a small squeal as she leaped off the roof of a house and flew away with her maneuvering gear. "Eek! Isa's mad!"
Shaking her head, Isanna narrowed her eyes at the brunette's flying figure. She was astounded how the woman could still be so jubilant despite their situation.
Isanna surveyed her surroundings, seeing the number of Scouts battling titans, and frowned when she realized something. The girl turned to Levi, who was not that far from her currently suspended form.
"160 cm! Where's Mike?"
Levi snapped his head to look at her with a sharp glare. Just like Isanna, he had his form suspended on the side of a tall building, with a leg resting on its wall.
"Big talk coming from someone who's taller by only five centimeters."
"I'm still taller by five whole centimeters!" Isanna yelled back, "now where's Mike?"
Levi clicked his tongue. "He went back to headquarters to get that damn ugly cat." Talk about priorities. Humanity's third wall of protection had just been broken down, and one of their strongest soldiers thought it'd be for humanity's best interest to save one cat.
At the information, Isanna blinked a few times at the raven shorty, disbelief painting her expression. Mike had went back for Mhile? That was ridiculous, but it was something she didn't have a hard time picturing, since Mike was the most attached to the cat out of them all.
The girl shook her head and redirected her attention back to her surroundings. Thinking about Mike would only get her nowhere - she knew he was more than capable of taking care of himself, so she needed to focus on killing as much titans as she could and give time for other districts to evacuate to Wall Rose.
•
The sky had already faded into a dim color of twilight when Isanna and the rest had received orders from a messenger soldier who had been sent by Erwin. They were told that they had bought enough time and were now tasked to ride to the outer districts of Wall Maria and assist in evacuation.
Her muscles had been aching sore after soaring with her 3DM gear nonstop, but Isanna forced herself to push through the exhaustion knowing that there were still countless of villages in the western, eastern, and northern parts of Wall Maria.
Hanji had been assigned to the western districts, Levi and Mike (who had joined them much later) was to stay in the southern and continue fighting off the oncoming barrage of titans with a few Scouts once sunrise came, while Isanna headed to the eastern villages.
"I don't want to see anyone slacking off!" Isanna bellowed an order, briefly peering over her shoulder to glance at the formation of Garrison soldiers riding their respective horses behind her while holding fire torches to provide them with light; she was tasked to lead them to the eastern districts. "Once we get to the city, separate into five teams and assist the civilians per street! And make it snappy!"
After hearing choruses of affirmation, the raven woman looked back ahead of her and could see an array of buildings and houses of the main eastern city coming into view. In just a few minutes, the Garrison soldiers who were temporarily under her command divided into 5 teams and ran off to different streets to assist in the evacuation.
Isanna rode on her mare through the disordered crowds that were practically stampeding through the streets. Fearful jitters ran across the horde, tightly clasping on their valuables with pale faces while Garrison soldiers led them to the ferries in the harbor and some into large wagons. Even though only fire torches lighted the city, Isanna could very well make out faces that were filled with horror and despair at the prospect that titans had breached through Wall Maria.
Everybody knew that soon, all of the territory behind their outermost wall would be packed with titans.
Occasional cries of infants would buzz the tense atmosphere, some adults were visibly shaking with silent tears, and Garrison soldiers would hastily try to calm down the panicked crowd to no avail - because if colossal monsters were on their way to trample your home, there was no way you were going to 'calmly remain in a single line'.
Pressing her lips together in a tight line, Isanna tightened her fists around her reigns as she watched the civilians march through the streets with sunken shoulders.
She could feel their hopelessness.
Leading her mare through the winding crowd by the side of the street, Isanna's horse slowly trotted down the cobblestone as she kept a careful gaze on the people.
A distant blubbering wail reached her ears, causing the raven woman to pause. Sitting up erectly, Isanna squinted her eyes down the street of people and looked for the source of the noise, but she frowned when she couldn't pinpoint it with her eyes.
Isanna quickly unmounted off from her horse and forced her way through the people, ignoring the sharp looks and curses that came her way until she eventually reached the area farther back into the street where there were lesser people.
And there she saw it.
Just by the side of the street, wrapped in a dirty white cloth, was a crying infant.
Crouching beside it, Isanna tenderly lifted the infant in her arms and scanned it for any injuries - none. That was a relief. She raised her head and looked around her, hoping to see its parent or guardian, but everybody was so fixated on evacuating that they barely noticed a wailing child that had been left on the side of a city street.
This baby had been obviously abandoned.
Isanna frowned and looked back at the crying infant in her arms. She guessed it was still around less than a year old; it had faded dark hair and a striking pair of blue eyes, but she couldn't identify whether it was a boy or girl yet, and nor did she have the time to.
Standing up, the girl decided to keep watch over it and send the baby to an emergency evacuation warehouse inside Wall Rose. She returned to her horse in a light jog and made sure the baby was comfortable enough in her hold.
•
Isanna had accompanied a line of wagons that were carrying the evacuees to Karanes district, the eastern outer city in Wall Rose.
It was already midnight by then, and the peaceful slumbering citizens who resided in Karanes were woken up by the shouts of soldiers and the grinding rattle of the outer gate being lifted up, allowing the residents from Wall Maria inside.
Isanna led her mare and followed the Garrison soldiers as they reached a large evacuation warehouse. She was about to unmount herself when her eyes landed on the long line of refugees wearily entering the warehouse after hours of riding across the grassy fields.
Just one warehouse wasn't enough for all these people.
It was then did it dawn on Isanna that following the fall of Wall Maria, their already-limited resources and space would be expended for the refugees.
Cries of children and infants rang across the night sky that was dressed in night clouds, void of stars and moon, as if the sky itself was mourning with humanity's loss.
Isanna stared at the children that were led inside the warehouse. Those children were no doubt going to be sent to the farmlands and work their lives off to make up for their dwindling resources, sowing and reaping harvests under harsh weathers and working under the unicorn idiots.
At the thought of the Military Police, a rage of constrained fury welled inside her. While the meager amount of Scouts and the entirety of the Garrison were bravely in the front lines, fending off titans while rushing off to evacuate civilians at the same time, those idiots were lazing around behind the interior of Wall Sina, completely oblivious to the hell that was erupting. The girl just knew that even if news reached them, they wouldn't lift a finger.
Some trained soldiers they were.
Isanna was snapped out of her bubbling anger when she heard a cooing blubber, only then remembering that she was carrying a baby.
Wait..
She lowered her gaze and saw the baby peering at her with wide doe eyes, puny hands stretched in an attempt to touch Isanna's face.
The baby was.. smiling at her.
As Isanna stared at the infant in her arms, she momentarily forgot about the hell that was unleashing its rage on humanity, and was brought back to a time when her world had just consisted of herself and her mother, living their days in poverty, but with peace.
Beautiful, the girl thought with a small smile, touching the tip of her own finger on the baby's small soft hand.
It was so tiny, so innocent, so pure. A large distinctiveness from this cruel and tainted world.
The idea of leaving this infant in a place full of struggling labors was a thought Isanna didn't want to happen. She herself had went through the same sufferings, and there was no need for a pure soul to go through the same.
After reaching a decision, the girl tucked the infant closer to her hold and directed her mare away from the warehouse, trotting towards the military barracks stationed inside Karanes.
Isanna wondered how Erwin and the rest would react when they see a kid crawling down the hallways of their new headquarters.