Attack on Fortress

Chapter 13: Timeless Dreams

Eren felt sick.

He felt like he was tumbling in the air. So fast he couldn't take a breath. He couldn't open his mouth to howl. Too disorientated to feel anything remotely pass his neck down. He wanted to flail his arms and kick his legs just to feel anything. There was no wind whipping his body or surface that his phantom limbs could touch. It felt like he was falling and drowning at the same time. Lights and blurred images flashed before his eyes. Was this what people mean when you see your life flash before your eyes? Full of disorientating views and flashing lights?

His ears started to rumble- or pick up the noises of a rumble. It was deafening. He tried to cover his ears but, again, he couldn't feel his limbs. He 'felt' they were there but they did nothing. Like phantoms. It seemed like an age before the rumbling slowed and Eren felt something else. Heat. Hot burning heat. Blistering hot, yet it did not hurt him. Images brighter and clearer came into view. Smudges of red, fire, and stone. A muddle of limbs stretched before him, trying to crush little beings. He felt his limbs again but it was on and off. It was all based on the visions. When a hand or leg within one was turned into a spray of red gore, he lost that feeling in his own respective limb or body part. He lost vision constantly when a figure in red kept attacking the vision. No... they were attacking an eye. My eye.

"You have all this power son, and this is the ending you chose? Losin' to yourself? Y'all a bigger fool than ya thought boy"

A thick accented voice rumbled in his ear. A southern tick reminiscent of the country folk south in Wall Rose. Eren knew that voice. He couldn't recall where or why he knew it, but his gut did. The tingle in his spine and at the back of his head did. They sparked an inner wrath deep in his very being. For some reason, he utterly despised that voice. That and many others that crept around him.

"Now then. Let us practice medicine..."

"Lookie here guys! Dumbass alert!"

"You should be ashamed to be called a soldier! In my platoon, we ate boys like you for breakfast. Literally!"

"I have no words for cowards like you"

"Start prayin' boy!"

"I should've blown your head off when I got the chance"

"Go back to Middle-Earth, elfish-looking beast!"

"The government doesn't tell you this, but you can legally take ducks that are in any public bodies of water home with you? It's true! I've got a whole flock at home!"

"Aye! I've got a turd breachin' out! Christ! It can give the Nessy a run for 'er money!"

Each sentence brought a wave of nausea and rage. Eren felt a deep bestial pit within him wanting to tear their throats out. To rip them piece by piece until nothing was left. Just scattered bones and rinds of flesh to turn to dust in the harsh winds of time. Yet something clearer held it at bay. Something more rational. The random voices became sharper and more coherent. "Pluggin' up the Wall for starters."

"Explain."

A different voice. Familiar but in a formal way. One that inspired Eren and forced him to respect it. "You can build that many?"

"An hour, give or take the supplies I can get my hands on. I can make a defence line that can run the Dakota River and back."

"So you're useful, but your men?"

Flashes burned into Eren's mind. Red mixed with bright flames, crimson blood, and heckling laughter. The images of men in red were chaos personified. Nine of them, Eren recalled. How can nine men be capable of so much misery and destruction? How? "Many of my men speculate that you and your men can create Titans. Coincidently, young Yeager over there can transform into one just after being kidnapped by you lot."