“Rotten luck,” Jarratt complained, shivering. “I hate it when it rains at night.”
The party were all in long coats, their heads deep in hoods, but the unpleasant cold seeped in regardless. The rain came down hard enough to sting. The tumultuous noise made it difficult to hear their own voices without standing right next to each other.
Mathias stood squinting into the dark, his back pressed up against the towering fifty-meter wall.
“I don’t know about this…”
They were at the north side of Quinta where the district wall intersected with Wall Maria itself. Towards the gate, the way was littered with the remains of wooden shanties. Charred and black, most had lost all but their skeletal supports. The group had concealed their wagons under some of the few that still retained their original form.
The rain had been falling for quite some time, but the faint tang of charcoal hung in the air. It couldn’t have been long since the fires had gone out.
From place to place, the ground was marked with vast, mortar-shaped cavities, signs of a bombardment. When Mathias had evacuated, the firing hadn’t yet taken place. The shantytown being subjected to such violent shelling could only mean…
The Titans were right here.
Could Rita have survived? She was a Garrison soldier. It would have been her job to engage the Titans. She had gone through plenty of training, and it was hard to imagine that she’d gone down. Yet the Titans were overwhelmingly powerful─and, as the name suggested, overwhelmingly huge.
Mathias cast his mind back to the ones he’d encountered on his journey. The Titan that had clambered onto the roof of the stables only to slide back down hardly seemed to notice losing one of its eyes to Bernhardt’s anchor. And the damage regenerated with alarming speed. Could humans really stand their own against such abominations?
They hadn’t seen any near the district, for now.
“About what?” Jarratt asked.
“This rain. It’s too loud. There could be a Titan nearby and we wouldn’t even hear its footsteps.”
“Don’t assume we’re all halfwits like you,” Klaus scoffed.
“I’d rather not.”
“Say that again?”
“It certainly is coming down.” Bernhardt parted the front of his long coat, put both hands around his waist, and casually strode up to the wall. “It does seem to be easing, but I daresay haste remains the best option.”
He flexed backwards and pulled the triggers on the hilts of both blades, simultaneously firing twin anchors up into the sky. The roar of the downpour muffled the sound of the wires cutting through the air. Even then, they all heard the crunch of the tips impacting the surface of the wall. The wires snapped taut, and Bernhardt’s stance became that of a man on a swing with impossibly long ropes that reached up from either side.
“I’d say we’re lucky,” claimed Jarratt. “The rain’s covering the noise we’re making, too.”
He was probably right. Had the night been clear, they’d have had to hide the wagons farther away. And there was always the chance of someone picking out a call or a shout even if they remained out of sight.
Bernhardt turned and crouched down. “A couple of trips should do it. Who wants to go first?”
Jarratt stepped forward. “If you wouldn’t mind.”
“Yup, yup, me too.” Nikki approached Bernhardt and sprang up. She caught one of the wires in her right hand, fixed her right foot on the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment above Bernhardt’s waistline, and pulled herself up.
Jarratt repeated more or less the same process, only more slowly and without rushing.
They appeared to be standing on Bernhardt’s waist, but their weight was in fact being supported by the wires now implanted in the wall.
Bernhardt, for his part, seemed perfectly relaxed.
“To the heavens, then!”
The mustached ex-MP maneuvered the levers embedded in the hilts of the blades. Compressed gas fired, and the wires began to spool in.
The three figures began a smooth ascent.
They moved more slowly than Mathias had expected. Bernhardt had no doubt adjusted the speed of the rewind mechanism. He kicked off the wall every now and again as they rappelled up into the darkness.
“Impressive…”
“Don’t get your gun wet,” Klaus warned, as unfriendly as ever.
“I won’t.”
After a short while Bernhardt returned alone, looking again like he was sitting on a swing. “I assume you’ve grasped the basics?”
“Yes,” Mathias answered with a firm nod. “Mind if I go first?” he made sure to ask Klaus.
Walking up to Bernhardt, Mathias took hold of one of the wires, put a foot on the equipment, and kicked off the ground to jump up. He wobbled a little but managed to keep his balance. The shotgun strapped to his thigh was a little bit in the way.
“You’re wearing gloves, I take it? Wonderful. Don’t hold on too tight.”
“Huh?”
“Use your head for once,” Klaus muttered, putting his own foot on the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.
“All on board? Okay, here we go.”
As soon as Bernhardt said this the wire in Mathias’ hands began to slide downwards, and downwards again.
“I see…”
Indeed, it would have been obvious if he’d used his head. The wire was being reeled in bit by bit, meaning his hand was moving up towards the anchor. If he tried to hold on without gloves, his skin would tear badly.
“Keep your mouth shut,” advised Bernhardt. “You don’t want to bite your tongue.”
They ascended through the rain. They swung in arcs away from the wall each time Bernhardt kicked off. He was, Mathias realized, taking care that they didn’t collide with the surface. Had it been the middle of the day, and not raining, they probably could have seen off into the far distance. It might have felt as though they were flying.
Instead, either because of the torrential rain or the way it blocked their lines of sight, Mathias had the illusion that he was plunging ever deeper into a vast expanse of water. This despite the fact that it was the other way around and they were soaring upwards.
Weird…
“And here we are. It’s wet and slippery. Watch yourself.”
Mathias swallowed. Right there in front of him was the very upper lip of the wall. The wind was, unsurprisingly, stronger than it had been below. Bernhardt had both feet planted on the wall, keeping them steady, but even then he couldn’t fully dampen their sideways movement. Above them, Nikki was keeping vigilant watch against both stretches. Having already checked the frequency of patrols, and hidden and inaudible in the rain, the truth was that they had no reason to fear being spotted.
Jarratt lowered his huge frame and extended an arm. Mathias took hold and let himself get pulled up. His feet were on the flat surface of the wall before he could even think about the terror of falling. Just like his first time, the wall felt solid and secure and afforded a sense of stability comparable to standing on a stone floor.
Mathias turned to face Quinta. It was still early in the night. Numerous lights were visible towards the center. Didn’t that mean most of the residents were alive and well?
“Phew…”
Jarratt folded his arms and gazed at the town below. “Doesn’t look like they got in.”
Klaus used his own strength to pull himself up. “Which was what we’d heard,” he said.
“But there was always the danger of Titans getting in after the report was sent,” Mathias objected.
“We didn’t need to worry.” Bernhardt reeled in the last stretch of wire and scrambled a little ungraciously up to join them. “We saw people on guard up here. And the gate was shut tight. Neither of which seems appropriate for a town in ruins, hmm?”
“I guess so.”
“We truly are blessed!”