The People You Meet in the Afterlife

Something Familiar

The forest had always been scary for the young girl. She never really went into the woods with out her oldest brother, but he had been gone for a while now. Her other brother wouldn't go with her, and would just call her a baby.

Now she was all alone. She wasn't sure how she even got here.

One minute she was outside hanging up laundry. She looked to see a strange mist floating through the village like a fog. Her mother rushed out.

"Hold your breath!" She yelled out.

When she felt like she was going to pass out she heard a terrible sound that sounded like a bear roaring.

All around her bright flashes of light nearly blinded her. When she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by titans.

The girl began crying for her mother and father. Her brother was no where to be found.

Suddenly she was being lifted off the ground, and then everything went black. When she opened her eyes, she was staring at a canopy of trees. The fog was gone and the air clear.

For a while she sat frozen with fear, the tall trees looming over her were a frightening site.

"Mom....dad?!?" She got to her feet. She looked a the sun as it was still rising. Her village was West so she followed the sun.

"Martin?!? "Is anybody here?!?"

She got no answer.

After what felt like forever of walking, she sat down, her feet hurting, thirsty, and hungry. She pulled her knees to her and began to cry.

"Somebody...help me!!" She sobbed.

Through her sobs she didn't hear the horse approaching.

"Are you new around here?"

She looked up to see a teenage girl with black pig tails getting off her horse.

"I can't find my mom or dad...I think something bad happened to my village" she said through her sobs.

"Hey it's ok, I'm here to help sweetheart" putting her arms around the crying child.

"I just wanna go home" she wailed. "I wanna find my brother"

"Well first thing let's start with names...I'm Mina Carolina"

"My name is Sunny" she said sniffling. "Do you know where Ragako village is?"

Mina furrowed her brow. She had heard that village name before, but she couldn't quite remember where.

"Can you get me home?"

Mina looked at Sunny, her eyes wet with tears.

"I-I don't..."

Mina wasn't sure what to say. This was one of her first times dealing with a new arrival. She was trying to remember everything Isabel had taught her, but she wasn't expecting a child. Especially one who didn't know she was dead.

"How about I take you back to my town, get you some clean clothes, and I bet your hungry too"

The girl nodded wiping her eyes.

Mina helped the girl on to her horse, and soon enough she had drifted off to sleep.

****************************************************
The town was handling a handful of new arrivals.

"Those sick b*stards" Franz muttered to Marco as the new people straggled into town. Some making their way in their one, other being brought in by scouts.

Marco noticed that Tom Ksaver was missing.

"Coward" he thought.

He has watched in disgust and as Zeke and the Cart Titan that he was riding poisoned a villages of innocent people. All for some "experiment".

"Shame Tom isn't here to see his protégée's handiwork" Isabel said bitterly. "These people weren't soldiers or military, they were civilians"

"It doesn't matter to them. We're all devils, our lives are worthless." Marco said.

"But Tom, Zeke...their Eldian's too, and they do this to their own people" Isabel said.

"It doesn't matter to them." Franz chimed in.

"Look alive guys" Eld said coming up
behind them and letting out a laugh.

The three of them gave Eld a look.

"What I thought that was kinda funny, what's the point of being dead if you can't have any fun with it."

"We were just having a serious conversation, but I'll give it to ya." Marco said, he had really grown to like Eld.

"Thank you Marco, anyways I think the last of them are coming in." He said turning his attention to the forest edge.

They all felt a sense of dread and sadness as Mina came riding in with a young girl on her horse.

"She can't be more than what...seven?"
Eld asked.

"I hate it when kids show up" Marco muttered. "I'll take this one."

Marco walked to meet Mina at the water trough.

"Who's this?"

Mina gently handed the sleeping child to Marco.

"Says her name is Sunny, I didn't get her last name, she was really distraught when I found her. I...I don't think she knows Marco."

Marco let out a sigh. "A lot of kids don't seem to know at first."

But Marco was almost sure he had heard the name before.

"She needs a bath, and food" Mina said getting off her horse.

"Right, we'll take her Petra and Oluo's" Marco said.

The two began heading towards their home.

"Did she say where she was from?" He said quietly, trying not to wake her.

"Rakago village"

Marco stopped in his tracks.

"Mina are you sure that's where she said she was from"

Mina nodded. "Yeah, I've heard that name before"

"So have I" he looked down, and began to see the resemblance.

"Do you remember a cadet in our class...Connie Springer, he saluted wrong during the opening ceremony"

"Oh yeah, the he's always hanging around Sasha"

"Well...this is his little sister"