He needed to run fast. But he couldn’t trip. If he fell, even just once, he didn’t think he could stand up again.
Gabriele was moving easily through the trees. His legs stayed clear of swollen roots, fallen trunks, and jutting rocks. He could have been running on a paved road in the middle of the day.
There was a sound like a cannon booming.
The ground shook, throwing Mathias into the air a fraction. He lurched forwards and almost toppled. Regaining his balance at the last moment, he grabbed his windmilling bag with both hands and turned to look back.
“It’s coming!”
The Titan was crawling on all fours. The crashing noise had been from its hands pounding into the ground. Its huge face, looming higher than their heads, still looked sunken in sorrow. Its brow furrowed, its teeth clamped together, it looked like it was ready to burst into tears.
Why it didn’t chase them on its feet was anyone’s guess. There was no point in trying to divine the reason behind an aberrant Titan’s behavior. All that could be said for sure was that it wanted to eat them alive.
It kept coming, its hands and knees causing the earth to shake. It was moving notably faster than Mathias or Gabriele. Yet it was, of course, much larger, and the woods were quite dense here. Time and time again the trees frustrated the Titan’s progress, the countless trunks acting as obstacles.
Its arms shooting between trees and snatching at Mathias and Gabriele, its face ever sorrowful, the Titan looked like a prisoner appealing for mercy through the bars of a cell.
In truth, Mathias and Gabriele were the ones who could use some mercy.
“Focus, damn it!” Gabriele yelled. “Gun! You’ve got a gun, right? Use it!”
Mathias remembered with a start. The accursed shotgun. The root evil. What a bitter irony that he was now dependent on it for his life. He felt around his right thigh.
No good. He wasn’t going to make it in time. He’d be Titan feed before he could pull it free and fire.
He kicked the ground as hard as he could, leaping to the left. An oversized jaw shot past the spot he’d been in only a moment earlier. Rows of teeth came together with a bone-rattling snap.
Then came the impact─the Titan’s shoulder had knocked him into the air.
“Hey?!”
The pain registered at the same moment as Gabriele’s call.
There was a second rush of pain. He’d come down and hit the earth hard. The moment he realized he was about to pass out, he experienced a sudden jolt of clarity.
I keep my eyes open or I die.
There was a tree next to him. He used the bark for support and pulled himself upright.
He felt lighter.
Why?
“Uh oh…” The bag with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment was gone. The belt had snapped, either when he’d been thrown into the air or when he’d landed. “Where is it?!”
He quickly scanned the area around him. His vision was gradually clearing.
“There!”
Part of the bag was poking from the undergrowth. Even at a glance he could see it was covered in dirt. He prayed the contents were intact.
He summoned all his speed to race to it.
“Above you!”
Mathias looked up in response to the warning.
The Titan’s face was coming in. The gigantic mouth opened, ready to bite at him from diagonally above.
“I can’t…” die yet.
But his legs wouldn’t listen, neither halting nor swerving from their course.
He swallowed. His upper body felt like it might work.
The Titan was farther away than the last time.
Mathias’ right hand fumbled around his thigh and pulled the shotgun free. He used his left hand to set the mechanism, readying it to fire, then brought the same hand up to steady the barrel.
His whole body registered the heat of the Titan’s breath. It was strangely odorless. If anything it smelled like nature, verdant, like the grass and trees of the forest.
Mathias angled his arm upwards.
He took aim at the deep end of the cavernous opening and pulled the trigger.
There was a spark as the gunpowder detonated and cast the area in momentary daylight. Countless pellets fired from the weapon. With the recoil, it felt as though Mathias’ whole arm had exploded.
Overwhelmed by the discharge of sound and the sudden flash, this time his eyes did go dark, and his ears silent.
He staggered backwards, dropped the weapon, and tumbled onto his backside.
Gradually, his vision and hearing returned. An image began to form under the moonlight.
The skin on the Titan’s face was torn to shreds. Chunks of flesh, spattered everywhere, gushed hot steam. Without so much as moaning, the Titan ducked its vaporous head and slowly shook it side to side.
“The river!”
Gabriele was shouting. His voice sounded awfully distant. Mathias couldn’t decide if Gabriele was genuinely far away or if it was the ringing in his ears.
“The river…”
“It’s close by, I can hear it! Jump in before it gets you. You can use it to get away!”
“Ah…”
It was difficult to picture a Titan wading into water. And if the current was fast enough, the river would carry him free in no time.
“This way!”
“Okay.”
Mathias managed to get to his feet. He was surprised to note that his right arm wasn’t broken. Everything seemed to be working. He could flex his fingers without difficulty.
He began to move in the direction of Gabriele’s voice, but turned sharply around to snatch up the bag that had fallen to the ground.
The Titan continued to shake its head. The motion was slower now, less conspicuous. The steam was beginning to dissipate, too. Eyes and a nose were already coming into view. The creature’s lips, decimated just moments earlier, were also regaining their shine and suppleness.
Titans possessed extraordinary powers of regeneration.
Mathias began to run again.
The sound of his own breathing grated on him. The explosive sound of the shotgun still rang in his ears. But despite this he could make out the faint sound of running water. He had to be moving in the right direction.
He pushed his way through a leafy patch of thin branches.
The dark fell abruptly away. Mathias wondered if there had been another explosion. A silent explosion.
But no─he’d simply come out into the open.
A broad stream flowed in front of him. A tributary, he supposed, of the great river that connected the districts, it had to be thirty meters wide.