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When she was a little girl, Zofia Reitsch heard all kinds of stories from her odd rambling neighbor who explained the world outside of the Internment Zone to her and the neighboring children through tall tales. Nothing rule breaking, but those little subtleties which unadulterated young ears would pick up about the place they lived in were not always looked fondly upon by their parents who would tell them to hush and not discuss these stories where a guard could hear them.
He claimed he was an adventurer before his Eldian blood was discovered, traversing deserts and rainforests, mountains and plains. Sadly, when he was having a routine blood test- which were becoming more accurate by the day- he was found to have a small amount of blood of a Subject of Ymir. If he wasn’t careful, he could have turned into a monster and killed everyone where he traveled. So he was made into a cage bound pet by Marley, he had explained. It was much better than being sent to heaven across the sea or being made into fodder in war.
Zofia liked to visit him. Her father had been killed in an offsite mining accident when she was just a baby, so it was only her and her mother in this apartment. He was like a dad to her who taught her everything she wanted to know about the world, able to answer every question.
And then there was the ocean. She thought she had learned everything about it from the books approved by the Marleyan government in the training program: what it was, how many there were, what lived there, why she shouldn’t swim too far into it- not that Eldians were allowed to swim in it unless under special circumstances-, and how Marley controlled the waters. Yet they never discussed why the sea was so salty.
“Oh, Zofia darlin’. The sea is salty because I, an Eldian devil, pissed in it when I worked the docks as a fisherman when Marley first tamed me. Blessed be the great empire by the sea for not cuttin’ my dearest treasure away from me for that! And because we Eldians ruined the world, Marley is doin’ her best to fix it now! You’re in that trainin’ program, aren’t ya? One day when yer a big girl, the water will be all fresh again when you’re done atoning for my weak bladder!”
She had giggled at the interjection of his bodily humor. As she grew older and into the perfect candidate to inherit one of the Nine Titans, she had learned that the ocean’s salt did not come from devil’s urine but rather from rocks eroded by rain which rushed from the rivers. Still, there was plenty of reason to wonder if the Eldian Empire of old had contributed to too many misplaced rocks or the complete deforestation of Marley’s sacred lands.
Perhaps that was the point her neighbor was making. The ocean was never going to lose its saltiness as Eldians were never going to lose their status as the scapegoats for everything wrong with the world. But Zofia wasn’t upset or afraid. If that was true, there was not a reason to feel that way if they were never going to escape or make progress. Marleyans were allowed to drink bitter wine to drown out their sorrows, so she could use the bitter situations she lived in to make jokes out of them.
But this time around, she was having trouble coming up with something to soothe herself. She had been on the battlefield and seen many deaths in the Mideast War, yet nothing stung her so close as the death of two of her fellow candidates in training. Worst of all, they were far from their hometown across the Eldian piss-filled sea on the devil’s island. Zofia hoped that the devils who truly deserved every hardship here for what they had done to them got a good mouthful of the salty water that splashed on the shore. She didn’t care if it was rocks or not that flavored it. Enough sea life lived there to do the trick.
Udo Boch was huddled in the bed opposite of her. He had run out of tears to cry. Good thing too, because then his vision would be even blurrier thanks to his glasses with cracked lenses from the island devils’ soldiers beating him up on the zeppelin after they got captured. It had been about a month, but he still had traces of an ugly bruise on his cheek.
“Zofia?”
It had been a whole three days since they last had a conversation. Another day and she would have thought he was a corpse for a cellmate. He usually had one emotional outburst per day prior to this about the state of Eldians in the world. This had done him in hard.
“What?”
“They’re not going to come rescue us, are they?”
“As soon as they capture a pair of Titans with unlimited power, they will.”
Who knew that War Chief Zeke had a secret to hide from them? Not only did he have valuable royal blood, he had dealings with the devils here, in particular the one named Eren Jaeger. Something about a secret plan which neither Zofia nor Udo had any desire to inquire about, neither because they wanted to nor because they were able to.
If there were a small chance Marley would muster up resources solely to rescue their two surviving Warrior candidates, passing along this information would be their best chance at being the new successors to Vice Captain Braun and Officer Finger. After all, Zeke had gained favors because of his brave act of betraying his own Restorationist parents as a child, as Marleyan propagated through Eldian households in hopes of recruiting brave soldiers in exchange for food or greater rewards. But because a royal blooded Titan and a person holding the mythical Coordinate in his body were on this island, they would probably have the power to do whatever they wished before the brass could lift a finger.
“Without Zeke on Marley’s side, the strength of our Armor, our Cart, and our Jaws combined couldn’t take down the Titans they have here!” Udo reiterated her point. He flopped over. “And forget the Titans. The people here have much more advanced weaponry than we could have imagined. Did Zeke supply those to them too? And how the hell can they fly? We’ve only had our first functioning aircraft made in the last forty years! How did Captain Braun survive this place?”
“His constant screaming gave the devils headaches and they left him alone.” There was good old Udo. Zofia rubbed her temples. This time around, she didn’t find his exclamations funny.
“He wouldn’t do that. He’s so brave and strong. He should have been able to get the Founder, but if he couldn’t then with the Colossal and the Female at his side, we’re doomed without-”
“Hush.” Zofia got up from her bed and poked Udo in the lips with her finger. He sighed. This new reality was not settling with her well either. She sat next to him. He’d lived in another internment zone in the Mideast for half of his short life before his family was granted a slot in the training program for exemplary behavior when he was six years old. Where he was from, Eldians couldn’t even hold jobs or earn wages in their own camps, so being sold into slavery was a common fate.
She couldn’t understand why this young boy with an odd accent was so happy to be in Liberio. He was happy his big sister wouldn’t have to be “cleansed” and ready to go to “a rich master’s house”. He wanted her to stay in his family, and she had been so close to this foreign process until they received a visit from the zone’s foreign affairs consulate to inform them that they had received the honor.
Zofia’s neighbor had explained that in some places, Eldians were put into a special kind of slavery, but first, they had to get “fixed” so their seed wouldn’t spread.
“What kind of seeds do we have that the non-Eldians hate?” Zofia was scared what would happen if she accidentally ate some seeds in the apples she had.
“Oh, don’t be worryin’ about that. Here in Liberio, Marley can’t get ‘nuff of our seeds. It’s like a forbidd’n treat for ‘em.”
If Udo lost control of the situation, he always feared the worst. He didn’t want to go back to living off of scraps in the desert. He had to overthink every scenario, even if it was the most logical and truthful one to be acknowledged, such as the situation the two were in at the moment.
“I’m sorry, Zof. Are they going to count our failure to stop Eren Jaeger against us? I don’t want anything to happen to my family.”
“We were captured and brought to the devil’s paradise. Could they consider an even worse punishment than that?”
“That’s not helping!”
“Did you see the way you fired at the enemies in the zeppelin? That woman’s body was a bloody mess! I think you shot some fingers clean off of the one man with the light blond hair too. Grazed the red haired one in the butt too. If you can’t get a clean shot under pressure, do you think you’ll get a Titan?”
“But I killed and wounded the people they’ve trained us to kill! Isn’t that what really counts?”
“What if there were other captured Marleyans in there and you hit one? They’re the only people that count! Not us! No matter what we do!”
She shouldn’t have cared if he called the island devils people. Who around here was listening to them other than the stationed guard outside the cell? But she wanted her mom. Was she alive? She must have been seated in the back of the festival. How far could rubble travel? It got far enough to crush Gabi’s body. Only her left leg and a severed arm with her armband still attached stuck out under the boulder.
There was a tradition somewhere in the world her neighbor told her about where a rabbit’s foot would be used for good luck. If she were lucky, perhaps her mother’s hand or foot would be found. Then she’d still “be with her” or something. And the Vice Captain could take Gabi’s arm. That would comfort him.
“Well they didn’t quite expect this attack, did they? How could I have known that Zeke wasn’t really easily captured and that he’s a trickster devil on par with these people?”
“Because… because….” Zofia slumped over and whimpered. “I don’t know. I’m tired. I want to go home.”
The bed became lighter. She would have tried to stop him if she had the strength inside. Udo walked to the cell door and peered through the bars. “Excuse me, sir? Can we have some water please?”
“Don’t drink too much. You only get to relieve yourself three times per day.”
The guard was kind enough to pass the pitcher under the slot to them. Udo said his thanks and let Zofia have a long sip. “I don’t like seeing you like this. You’re always so calm.”
“It must be the shock wearing off.”
“I don’t think mine ever has.”
“It would shock me more if it did.”
“Zofia. Please. You don’t need to make a joke out of everything bad that happens.” Udo took a long drink himself. “Do you think Colt and Vice Captain Braun are able to laugh this off? Or Pieck and Porco?”
All of the Warrior Unit save for Colt had been called away before Willy Tybur’s presentation about the island began, something that called their attention. Maybe if Pieck or Porco had stayed behind, they would have been able to transform swiftly and carry them all to safety. Reiner and Falco hadn’t been there. Falco had been talking about a man he’d been visiting in the hospital who wanted to see Reiner that afternoon. Whatever the topic, they had been right where Eren Jaeger, the face and embodiment of the devils here, emerged from hiding. Reiner was fast, but not fast enough to save Falco from being burned and sent flying through the air to land in the panicked crowd. Both his arms were unaccounted for.
Colt denied it was him as he shielded Udo and Zofia from the crowd. But reality set in fast, and an older brother toppled over screaming. Nothing could console him. Zofia had to drag Udo away before he copied Colt’s fit of rage and distraught, and they quickly came across a supply vehicle handing out rifles to anybody with combat experience, and candidates in training were not excused. The island devils were zipping left and right, so this made aiming even harder.
Udo swore he could see someone who looked like War Chief Zeke being dragged into a dark zeppelin overhead after a dark haired soldier threw a bomb near them that detonated into a cloud of thick smoke. With a mighty cry, he charged forth following the craft’s path. Zofia went after him. He was going to do something idiotic.
He shot down an enemy soldier on the rope and inched his way up the rope. She made her way after him, ready to fire to save her friend from certain death. There was no way he could defeat all of them on his own. And then….
Being sent to the devil’s island, called Paradis, where they were being treated rather mercifully thanks to a one-eyed commander and the blond man with missing fingers who stopped a whole squad of theirs from pummeling them to squished fruit but not exactly thrilling their captors either to have two enemy children among them, was quite humorous in a dark way. Still, Zofia would not trust them or call them people. Did they intend to keep them in this cell, even tinier than their internment zone, until they rotted like vegetables?
“No. They wouldn’t. If we hadn’t found a way to distract Vice Captain Braun to focus on Eren instead of where we were sitting, he would have had no will to fight.”
“Yeah. Look, when I was little in my old internment zone, I thought it was completely normal to send children off to slavery and ‘cleanse’ us when we reached a certain age to not have babies. I was sad when my sister was nearing the age to do that, but I accepted it. But one day, when we learned about Liberio opening its doors for a select few families from outside zones, I laughed. Eldians could hold jobs? And some could leave their zone with special permission and return to their families at the end of the day? It sounded like a fairytale. I mean, it’s still horrible how we’re treated around the world, but when I learned my normal was not another normal, it made things very unamusing.”
Zofia sighed. “I wish you had been able to meet my neighbor. You and him would like to talk about the world I never got to see.”
“I’d like to as well. I’ve traveled enough to see more places than you. Seems like tall tales to me.”
“Yeah, I know. I think that’s why he told them to me to see how stupid they were when I grew up.”
Outside, the sun was setting into a horizon filled with trees. The children grew weary and got their fill of dinner slid under the door. It wasn’t any worse than what they would eat at home, yet it was in a larger quantity than anticipated. The guard also slipped under an extra two blankets for warmth. Zofia knew devils could pretend to be the sweetest things and that she shouldn’t trust them, but she didn’t think he was doing this to groom her into anything. He didn’t praise them or take pretentious pity on them for being little soldiers forced into war. He didn’t threaten them with punishment for Udo’s outbursts or reward them for their manners when they requested water. He was neutral, just doing his duty. Sadly, that meant that they could not make friends with him to make him side with them and let them out.
“Hey, Zof?” Udo whispered. “We need a way out.”
She nibbled on the warm bread. “But I was just getting comfortable.”
“Well I’m sorry for wanting to prove my loyalty to Marley.”
Did he not pick up her sarcasm? “Uh, yeah. So do I. Where exactly do we go?”
“Uh,” he hummed. “We just need… um….” He tapped his wooden fork against the plate several times. His strokes got harder and faster. Then, he threw it across the cell and exhaled heavily. “Nowhere. We have nothing to work off of. We’d stick out like donkeys in a horse race if we tried to blend into the crowd here.” He glugged down more water from the pitcher.
If by any chance Udo got to grow up, Zofia thought he would take after Colt and develop a stress drinking habit, except it would be with alcohol. For now, he wouldn’t be passing out with killer headaches. He’d just be clearing his kidneys and pissing like the horses or donkeys.
Then, Zofia smirked.
“Hey, let me have some too. I’ve got an idea.”
“What?”
She whispered her escape plan. Udo cringed in disgust and muttered something in a Mideast language. “Really? You’re not going to make me do that to him!” He turned a hot shade of red on his cheeks.
“The ocean already tainted them with devil’s piss when they attacked our home. What’s a little more?”
…
Zofia curled up on her bed and screamed the most animalistic scream she could muster up. It was almost unnatural for her to put on such a turbulent act of emotion. But it was necessary for her since Udo was the emotionally volatile one whose expressions were familiar to the guard there. However, Udo was doing almost no better in masking his anxiety about what was to come as he pleaded through the cell doors.
“Oh please! Help! I think the food made her sick! She’s in so much pain! I’m so sorry but he needs a doctor!”
The guard came swiftly and unlocked the door, frowning at the miserable state of the girl. He knelt over to see her face to face.
“What’s wrong?” He touched her shoulder. She cried out.
“My stomach. It feels like it’s going to… to explode… like I’m… full of piss!”
And with a battle cry of a true Warrior, Udo launched a surprise attack with the water pitcher over the guard’s head. He gasped aloud as he was soaked and made a gagging noise. In those few seconds, Udo put him in a chokehold and held him as tightly as his small body could until the guard got one arm on him. Udo began to lose his grip. Then, seeing her comrade in a panic, Zofia dropped her act and punched the guard in the nose, throat, and the jaw. He stopped struggling.
Udo bashed his foot down on him a few more times until he started wheezing. His glasses almost came loose from his face. Zofia slipped the key out of the unconscious guard’s pocket. “Come on!” She had to guide him by the hand.
They dashed out and locked the cell door, dropping the key nearby. They ran through a few hallways before finding the main door to the tower and ran toward the horizon as far as they could see. Udo cursed in his language. Zofia wished she knew that language, but she muttered a few nasty words in her only tongue she knew. They had to flee to a place they did not know existed yet.
…
Neither of the children were able to find a spot to rest until later that night. They had to keep on guard without knowing if anybody would try to track down two young prisoners of war. That didn’t stop Udo from soaking his hands and face in the river they settled next to by the hollowed out log they took refuge in.
“Gross. Gross. Gross! Holding that pitcher better not have made me sick! It’s not like we can get a doctor here!”
“I bet a fish just took a shit where you’re washing your face.”
“ZOF!” Udo splashed a handful of water at Zofia. She chuckled for the first time in over a month. And then he did too. Here they were on the devil’s island, enemy soldiers who outsmarted a guard with their own bodily fluids while knowing that there was little hope of rescue and victory from Marley’s end. Was this their fate, to hide in a forest without supplies on hand for the rest of their lives while failing their mission to atone for her neighbor contaminating the sea and her people for ruining the rest of the world? If so, there was nothing to do but laugh at their situation.
She handed back Udo’s vision’s lifeline to him. “I’m sorry for making you do all the dirty work, Udo.”
“It’s okay. The people here probably hate me enough already if they know what I did on the zeppelin. My hands are a blood and piss-soaked nightmare. Marley would probably like it though, wouldn’t they? One less body behind the Walls to worry about exterminating.” His face twisted into a sarcastic smile and he spread his arms. “Oh to be an Eldian, damned if we do something, damned if we don’t.”
“Yeah.”
Zofia sat on a rock and watched the river flow away. They were in need of a real plan. They couldn’t rely on the War Chief to help them unlike the last time he was here to rescue Vice Captain Braun and the fallen Bertholdt Hoover. As amused and impressed by the use of their bodily fluids to take down an authority figure he’d be, there was no way they would associate with him for fear of being accused of treason. She remembered that there was a tall Marleyan woman on the zeppelin that night of the attack who had on a fake beard. She must have been allies with the devils here.
Allies? Is that how this sheltered island got the weapons they did and an aircraft? There was a port on the island too they saw when they landed here, so therefore, ships must transport some of the supplies here.
The river did not stop to admire Zofia’s thought process, but she did remember her survival training about how rivers eventually lead to the ocean.
“Udo, you rest first. We’re going to follow the river tomorrow. Sneaking on a ship is our best option. I don’t know where it will go, but I think the dockworkers in another nation will take pity on two survivors of the attack on Liberio. If Willy Tybur was right, they’ll weep for our displacement caused by Eren Jaeger. We can’t be as bad as the island devils here, right?”
Udo sat next to her. “I guess if you can get us back home alive, anything is possible. We have to be careful to avoid any villages along the way though. ‘Marleyan devils? Shoot them!’” Udo gestured his hands to imitate a firing gun. “Countryside people are rather happy to pull the trigger at anything.”
“Please stop calling them people. Or next we’ll be calling them friends.”
Udo sighed. “Gabi would agree with you.”
“She would. Falco would be lured by them like a ghoul would lure a child. Wasn’t enough to stop him at home.”
The two sat silently before Udo excused himself to rest. Zofia checked on him a few minutes later, and he was sound asleep on the pile of leaves they gathered. Excitement always got the better of him. Zofia gazed at the moon, the only physical source of light around her.
Her neighbor once told her that the moon was made of cheese. He recounted to her the time he tried to take a bite of it in a pond he stopped at on one of his travels.
“Moon cheese tastes so good it’s best taken with a good sip o’ water, or so I was told. All I could taste was bitter water, and I was spittin’ it out faster than I could drink it. Moon cheese is so good even the moon stays up in the sky so nobody can have it. Silly ol’ moon just loves playin’ tricks on people.”
Everybody wanted to believe the things they heard that sounded too abnormal to be true. The oceans were salty because of Eldians. The Eldian devils here were really Eldians like them. Eldians could be free if only young children would take up the dirty work, shorten their lives, and kill all the island devils. But there was no point in mourning this. It would get them nowhere. All you could do sometimes was have a good laugh about it.
Zofia threw a pebble toward the moon’s reflection. It wasn’t as if they could fly themselves out of here. But part of her clung onto the hope that this part of her life, too abnormal for herself to believe to be true, could be recounted by herself to her mother and her neighbor. All she’d have to do was make sure that they got across the sea tainted by Eldian piss.