Do you have to go?

Chapter 10

I went into active labor around noon the next day. This time, it was noticeably different, and I knew the baby was coming. I was hoping this wouldn't have happened until after Porco had returned, but it's too late. Our baby is coming whether I would like for it to or not. Mrs. Galliard rushed to call the midwives to help. After an hour or so, the Galliard's home was full of Midwives in their bonnets, all coaching me. 

"Make sure you're breathing." 

"You're not dilated enough.

My lower half felt like it was starting to burn up. Tight, sharp pains ran through my lower abdomen throughout my body. I was sweating, nauseous, and weak all at the same time. At one point, I was hunched over the side of my bed with my face in a trashcan; I felt the pain would make me vomit. 

"Are you sure? Do you think that is wise?" I heard Mrs. Galliard's concerned voice in the corner as she spoke to the head midwife. The midwife glanced at me indifferently, but Mrs. Galliard's hands were to her mouth as she looked over at me with a worried expression.

"What? What are you sure about?" I ask. "What could you have to say about me without me knowing?"

"No-Nothing, dear. Well...not nothing. We may need to go to the hospital. You seem to be in a bad state, and we don't know if-" 

Suddenly the world stopped. My room transformed from my dark stone-walled chamber into a dark blue sky. The midwives around me disappeared. I was paralyzed, but the pain stopped as well. The bed beneath me disappeared; instead, I was lying on soft white sand. Mrs. Galliard's face was frozen in shock and horror as she looked up at the sky, her hands on her mouth. I drew my eyes upward to the bright white electric branches that seemed to stem from an almost treelike center about a mile away. 

A loud man's voice booms over all of us:

"To all subjects of Ymir. My name is Eren Yeager. I'm using the power of the Founding Titan to address all of Ymir's subjects. The hardening of all walls present on Paradis has come undone, and all titans entrapped within them have started marching. I aim to protect the people of Paradis, where I was born and raised. However, the world wishes for the destruction of the people of Paradis. The hatred swelling up for so long will certainly not end until not just the Paradisians but all of Ymir's subjects have been eliminated. I reject that wish. The wall titans shall trample all Earth outside this island underfoot until all life has been exterminated from this world."

I blinked, and once again, I was back in my room. The pain in my lower half began again, and Mrs. Galliad fell to her knees. She seemed to be screaming silently.

"What is wrong with you, woman? You've experienced birth before. This is nothing new!" exclaims one of the midwives. She tries to lift Mrs. Galliard to her feet but she pushes her off. 

"We need to get out of here!" she shouts. "We must get out of the internment zone; warn everyone!"

"DARLING! ISLA!" Mr. Galliard came bursting into the room. 

"Sir! You cannot be in here!" shouts the midwife. 

"We are going! We need to leave!" he pushes a midwife out of his way as he crosses the room. He picks me up, and my body screams. Every touch on my body is tender. My back aches.

I let out a grunt as he lifts me to bring me downstairs.

"I know, darling. I am so sorry, but we need to go. If what you just experienced is the same as I did, you know that the Devils are coming for us, and we must leave."

The midwives yell after us. "SHE IS IN ACTIVE LABOR, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU MUST PUT HER BACK, OR YOU RISK THE BABY!" 

"WE RISK EVERYTHING IF WE STAY! YOU MUST COME TOO!" Mr. Galliard yells back. The same fire in his tone that his son has. He brings me outside and tells Mrs. Galliard to sit with me on the steps as he gets the wheelchair. I look around the street and hear the same chaos that was the night the Devils invaded. People sprint towards the fences of the internment zone. Women are holding their babies; men are carrying the elderly. I look across the street at a woman tripping over a branch under the sidewalk, and the swarm behind her pays no mind as they continue. Her screams quickly go out.

"Here!" Mr. Galliard returns with the wheelchair. "Oh my god!" His eyes widen as he sees all the people doing the same thing. 

"AGHHHH!" I scream as another contraction hits. The pain is blinding and makes my ears ring. Ringing that drowns out the screams just past the porch. Mr. Galliard snaps out of it and leans down to help me to the wheelchair. 

"Darling," he turns to Mrs. Galliard. "Can you keep up?" 

"Y-yes, of course," she replies. Her eyes are wide and focused on the crowd. I've never seen so many people running to the same place.

"Okay, good," he grabs her hand and kisses it before giving her a soft smile. "Hold onto my jacket. Let's go!" 

He drives me into the crowd. I held my breath as if I was diving underwater. The sheer number of people running almost seemed to mesh into an ocean of people—a human storm with waves crashing in front of me. But Mr. Galliard kept going. I closed my eyes as I saw people fall in front of my wheelchair, but Mr. Galliard did not hesitate. He kept going until we met the gates. I squeezed them shut and held onto the arms of the chair with such a grip my fingertips went numb—the magnitude of fear that I was experiencing distracted from the labor pain in my groin. 

We finally reached the gate; what took about 5 minutes felt like 5 hours when you were running over screaming people. I finally opened my eyes and turned behind me. Mrs. Galliard was still with us, panting, and her hair had fallen out of her bun and now fell around her shoulders, but she was still here. She places a hand on my shoulder to show me that she is okay. Mr. Galliard looks forward at the crowd yelling in front of us. 

"Let us in!" "We all saw it!" "We do not have time for this!" people scream at the Marleyan guards that will not open the gates for us. I see a familiar man step up out of the crowd. Mr. Leonhart.

"How do we know you are not lying just to escape the interment zone?" a guard snarls at Mr. Leonhart. 

"How could we all be in on it?" Leonhart shouts back. "We all saw it!" 

"Get back!" The guard shouts, "Enough of this! Get on your knees!" He points his gun at Leonhart's head. His face looks defeated. He cannot convince the guards. The crowd erupts in protest as the guard prepares to execute him in front of us. But suddenly, his eyes change. His defeated look turns to anger as he turns around quickly to disarm the guard. 

The crowd takes its chance, charging the other guards as Leonhart takes his gun. "Come, everyone! To the train!" He shouts for us to board the cargo train outside the internment zone. I remember seeing Porco return from the Mideast with the other candidates there. Him coming out of the train with the one blonde candidate over his shoulders. The playful laugh he had when he seemingly teased the teenager. A single tear falls from my eye as Mr. Galliard helps me up to the same cart that Porco had ridden in. 

"Please, she's in labor!" I hear Mrs. Galliard shout at people to help us in. 

"Here, Isla," Mr. Galliard takes off his jacket and places it on the ground for me to sit on. 

"I'm a nurse! I can help!" "Me too." "I'm a midwife." Several Eldian women rush toward me to help. As the women come to assist me, measuring my dilation and trying to keep me calm, I glance over to Mr. Galliard as he speaks to Mr. Leonhart and other men.

"Where should we go?"

"As far as the tracks go. With any luck we can outrun the Rumbling?"

"Do you think we have a chance?"

"Well. We have to try."