Stand by Me (AOT)

Chapter 2: The fall of shiganshina

Author's P.O.V.

Harper was sprawled out on her bed snoring loudly when her brother walked in her room to wake her. "Harper" he whispered shaking her lightly, but it didn't work. "Harper" he whisper-shouted shaking her harder then the last time. She started to mumble something in her sleep, and tossed and turned. Ryan realized she was having a nightmare and yelled "Harper!!! Wake up!!!" She woke up screaming "MOM!!!" and her arms were flying in all different directions smacking Ryan in the face. Snapping out of her trance she saw Ryan clutching his eye in pain. " Oh god did I smack you?!" she said reaching out to his hand pulling it off his eye. She gasped seeing that below his eye was a huge red bump that was swelling . " I'm sooooo sorry, I didn't mean to!!!" Harper said looking terrified at what she had done." calm down I'm fine." He said still clutching his eye in pain ( she was strong for a 10 year old girl). " You should stand back next time, I usually wake up from a nightmare." " Hehe right...Oh yeah I almost forgot the reason I woke you up!" he said with a cheesy grin on his face. "Happy Birthday!!!" He said handing Harper a small box still having the forced smile on his face. "Ohh...thanks. She said in a fake happy tone." "What's wrong?" Ryan said with a concerned look on his face. "well...it's just that...MY BIRTHDAY WAS LIKE 3 MONTHS AGO!!!!!" She said throwing her hands up in the air." Shoot, I knew you were to smart to forget your birthday" he said. "It doesn't take a genius, but who cares about that you have to tell me what's going on" she said crossing her arms with an annoyed look on her face. " Well...your real birthday was really boring, and the only reason it was boring was, because I was saving up for a really nice present" he pointed to the box she was holding. Her face softened "sorry I was just a little annoyed that you would forget the date of my birthday, but you didn't have to get me another present." , but secretly Harper was exited because her original birthday presents were a let down. Ryan motioned her to open the gift " Well,Open it already!" " Okay, okay I'm opening it."She opened the small box eagerly, and gasped, Inside the box was a golden heart locket necklace and inside was a picture of her and Him. Ryan looked scared and said "What's wrong! Do you not like it!" Harper stared at at him with wide eyes giving him a look that said 'are you kidding me'. She sighed at her brothers ignorance "Your right Ryan I don't like...I LOVE IT!!!!!!!" she then jumped onto him and tackled him into bear hug almost choking him. "C-can't...breath." he managed to get out. "whoops sorry i just LOVE it so much, thank you." happy tears started to form in her eyes when Ryan said "Are you cr-", but he was cut off by her yelling "NO!"as she whipped the tears away. He looked at her raising an eyebrow " Yeah right, but besides that I have something else planned." he said starting to get up from seated position on the bed. " Oh no you don't " Harper said pulling him back down onto the bed. " I am planning something for you, just give me a half hour", and before Ryan could respond she was out of her room running around the house. After the half hour Harper was in a light pink shirt with a bright red bow sewn on the front and a cream colored knee lenght skirt, in front of her brother wearing a proud smile. "Okay so here's the plan. First we're going to hike to an area I've picked out, and when we get there we can have a picnic!" She stood there fiddling with her hands and looking at her feet waiting for her brothers approval," so what do you think?" "Sounds good, and it's really nice of you to plan something so thoughtful"Ryan said giving a her a warm smile. Harper let out a small sigh of relief and jumped to her feet "well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!!"

------------------TIme skip to the picnic area-----------------

After about a half hour of hiking Harper and Ryan reached a small meadow." This place looks familiar..." Ryan said squinting from the sun beating down on them. " You could say that." Harper said giving him a small smile with a distant and sad look in her eyes." For my fifth birthday mom and dad took us here to have a picnic, and I loved it. When I take walks I usually go here, it feels peaceful and it brings back memories. I wanted to keep it to myself to be my own little world, but I felt so selfish, so I wanted to bring back this memory to you."Tears started to form in her eyes as she recalled the memories of her parents death. "Thank you Harper...for this beautiful place, but I think you should be the one to keep this place to yourself...I don't mind"Ryan said in a soft voice. "R-really?! Thank you so much, but at least let us have the picnic."" Yeah, this place should be a happy not sad." They set up a small checkered blanket in the shade of a Cherry tree, for awhile they just sat and ate in silence, but they started to be more social after a few minutes. Ryan was about to ask Harper how her nightmares were going, when they herd a giant "THUMP". "What the heck was that!" Harper asked looking around confused, but Ryan stayed silent a look of terror in his eyes. He started to mumble " nononono NO!!!!!! WHY NOW, WHY HERE!!!!"Harper stared at him startled, because he was usually so calm. "Ryan what's wrong?" she said backing alway slightly."HARPER GET OVER HERE WE HAVE TO RUN!"he reached out his hand wanting her to take it, but Harper just stared at him frightened."Ryan what's going on? your scaring me." "PLEASE LISTEN TO ME WE HAVE TO RUN" before she could say anything he lunged at her throwing her over his back (which was hard since he only had one arm). " H-hey what are you doing! Put me down!" Harper pounded his back telling him to put her down, but he didn't listen so she gave up after five minutes of screaming. Tears streamed down her face 'what was going on' she kept thinking she was so scared because Ryan didn't act like this. When she managed to conceal her cries she said "Ryan I'm scared, w-what's going on." He tried to calm himself down to explain, but he could only manage a whisper. " Their coming..." "Who's coming Ryan?" Harper tried to say in a comforting voice, since he seemed so distressed. " The T-t-titans" which took a lot of effort, just the word scared him. Harper then fully understood now why he was so scared. When he was in the Survey Corps he saw many of his close friends gruesomely ripped apart an devoured, and on top of that his arm was chomped off by one. After what felt like hours of silence (which was really only fifteen minutes) Ryan spoke up. "We have to get to town at least, then we can worry about the rest. They've probably set up boats to take us out of here, but we're going to have to hurry." Harper only nodded in agreement, afraid of what the future held. When they reached their town it looked as if it was from some kind of hellish nightmare. Houses were destroyed and in pieces, some still containingc crushed families. Others that had survived the debris crushing people were running for their lives screaming, most being ripped apart and eaten . But the worst part was the smiling beasts, they wore dumb expressions as they devoured people as if it were nothing taking people's lives. Harper whimpered in fear trying to keep calm as people screamed around her, and then she looked up to see something smiling at her reaching out to grab her and Ryan. Before she could react she was thrown harshly across the ground which twisted her ankle, but the next thing she saw she couldn't comprehend. Her beloved brother was lifted off the ground up to the titan's dreaded fangs, before it sunk it's teeth into the upper half of him he screamed for her to "GO!" as he choked out one last "I love you ..."Harper stood there in aw then looked up at the Titan, her eyes filled with hatred ,the one thing she still had left to love was just taking from her by that 'thing'. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs to give him back, but she knew he would never be in her life again. So she ran not wanting Ryan's death to be in vain, after weaving through what felt like hundreds of people (some not alive)Harper reached the boats. She limped through people crying and yelling in agony as her ankle throbbed in pain, but she didn't care anymore she just needed to get to safety , still not wanting Ryan's sacrifice to be in vain. As she reached the floor of the boat she snapped back to reality from her trance, then it all hit her a wave of emotion making her small cries turn into loud sobs. She went near the corner of the boat placing herself on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth.

Armin's P.O.V.
I searched the crowd of people hoping to see my friends faces, luckily I did and I was about to call out to them ,but my grandfather stopped me. "You should give them sometime, they look like they've been through a lot."I looked closer and noticed what he meant. As they were waiting on line they just stared blankly ahead, a lifeless look in their eyes (Mikasa's more then usual). I nodded at my grandfather seeing what he meant, not a big surprise though. So many people had lost loved ones, but one girl stood out to me. In the corner of the boat was a girl about my age, rocking back and forth clutching her knees to her chest mumbling something that sounded like a name. She had nobody near her that looked like family, she had no one not even a friend and it scared me. unlike Eren and Mikasa who had each other to comfort, she had no one. I looked away trying to forget the disturbing thought, and soon did when my friends were on the boat fully drawing my attention away from the girl

----------------authors-note-----------------

Omfg that took FOREVER it took me like three days because I was super busy. I needed to get some actual F***ING sleep because it's about 2:00 am!!! But really, I hoped you liked this chapter because I put a lot of effort into this. So...BYE!!!