Chapter 29: Ymir's Past
Everything around was white. Sterile halls smelling of bleach and other chemicals worked like a maze around the complex. Metal doors and large tinted windows covered both sides of each hallway. Each door of the lab housed a different experiment.
The scientists were busy at work, on what the brunette had no idea, but they were always rushing around. Each door was locked and could only be accessed with a clearance card that most scientists had clipped to their lab coats.
Other than the occasional scuffle of feet moving on tile, no sound was heard. The small girl would walk the halls every day, trying to regain strength and also to catch a peak at what they were doing. She was never lucky enough to see what was behind the tinted windows and heavy doors, though.
"Ymir, what are you doing?" Her mother asked one morning.
The little girl turned to her mother with innocent curiosity and only asked, "What is behind those doors, mama?"
Her mother, clad in a white lab coat, paled at the child's inquiries. Curiosity was a deadly thing, especially in a lab as dangerous as this one.
She gripped her daughters thin shoulders and squeezed tightly. "You must never go into those rooms. Do you understand, Ymir?!"
"What's in there though?"
"Monsters." And that was that.
Children were curious creatures, but they were also fearful. There was nothing they feared more than the monsters they thought lurked in their closets and under their beds. Too scared to argue, the brunette nodded and went back to her room.
Machines and wires hung around the room and pill bottles lay scattered on the nightstand. Ymir was sick. She had terminal cancer, but instead of going to a hospital for treatment, she took her daughter to her lab. "Only they can cure you" her mother assured.
And they did cure her. Her normal dizzy spells and weak legs disappeared, replaced with a strong, healthy body. Their methods were not orthodox and often left the child feeling ill after treatments, but she was getting better.
The treatments used to be daily, but, as she got better, they started spreading out the treatments. Now she only had a weekly injection and a few pills she was to take daily. Looking at her now, with her tan, freckled skin and bright eyes, no one would be able to tell she had cancer.
"Have you taken your medicine today, sweetie?" A young woman asks when she walks into the room.
The staff had watched the young girl grown up in their lab and had taken a liking to her. Her bright smile would always improve even the grumpiest of scientist's days. The young woman currently in her room was her nurse of sorts.
Ymir nodded at the woman and spoke in quiet whispers, "Jazzy, Mama is mad at me 'cuz I want to see what's in the rooms."
The nurse, Jazzy, pales and a slight tremor goes down her spine. She didn't have the clearance to enter the rooms, but she had an idea what was behind them. Some times she would walk past a door as it was closing and hear terrified and pained screams.
"I doubt she's mad, sweetheart. She just doesn't want you distracting the other scientists. They're really busy and you don't want them to hurt themselves, do you?"
"No, ma'am."
The girl was always raised to be polite and considerate, so she didn't like the idea that her presence could harm someone. She was very curious, but she knew it wasn't her business to pry. Jazzy smiled at the young girl's furrowed brows and ruffled her dark brown hair.
"Don't worry about it, hun. Why don't you stay in here and read for a bit, hmm?"
Ymir nods and grins at the kind woman. She was a scientist, but she didn't work in the labs like the others. She would sometimes go to the child's room after completing her tasks and read to Ymir. It's hard to make friends in a lab, but Ymir had stolen the hearts of many.
After her blonde hair disappeared out the door, Ymir went to the window sill to read. An older scientist has always made a habit of bringing a few books over when he'd visit. She was young, only seven, but she was smart and loved to read anything her hands could find.
Later that night, her mother returned to their room, face drawn and bleached of color. Ymir ran up and hugged her tired-looking mother.
"Are you okay mama?"
The woman smiles at the younger version of herself and kneels in front of her. She was one of the brightest scientists in her field and her daughter shared that brightness.
"Baby, Mama has to go help some people at another lab. I should only be gone for a few days, so you better be on your best behavior." Her voice started strict, but cracked near the end.
For the first time since her daddy died, Ymir saw her mother cry. She was a very smart girl, but she just didn't understand why her mom was so upset. This wasn't the first time the child had been left for a few days while her mom was away.
"I love you, my little Miri."
The woman embraces her child as if it will be for the last time. Confused, Ymir hugs her shaking mother and pats her back awkwardly.
"Love you too, mama. Don't cry."
Ymir's mother pulls away and wipes her tears with a small smile. Then, she packs some bags, with the help of her daughter, and leaves with another heartfelt "I love you". Ymir didn't understand why this goodbye felt different, but she would.
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The little brunette that used to walk the halls with a bright smile now sulked solemnly instead. Those few days became a week and then the week became months. Soon years had passed by and her mother had never returned.
She quit waiting hopefully for her mother to return to her. At first she didn't understand, but she later realized why that farewell was different. Her mother had abandoned her, left her to the care of the scientists she once trusted.
Those scientists would tell her nothing of her mother's location, until she eventually quit asking. Even Jazzy, her closest friend, refused to answer anything regarding her mom. Now her once-pure heart was tainted with hatred and loathing for the woman who'd raised her.
No longer did Ymir believe in monsters. For monsters were children's stories and she wasn't a child anymore. A sixteen year old shouldn't believe in fairytales or monsters under her bed.
So, she waited for the perfect moment. She was curious, but it was really spite that fueled her actions. Her mother had told her to never go into the rooms, so she would do just that. Her mother couldn't catch her, because she had left her alone.
As a scientist was walking past her, lab coat swaying with each step, she snatched the ID card from its clip. Her sticky fingers let her steal the clearance card without suspicion, the scientist disappearing around the corner.
Before they could realize it was missing, she rushed to the door and swiped the laminated card. The lock clicked, a green light flashed on the door, and then it opened. She stepped in quickly and shut the door behind her, closing herself in darkness.
There was no light in the room and no sound. It made her mind bleet with panic and fear, but she forced it down.
Monsters aren't real. Monsters aren't real.
How wrong she was to believe that. Every legend and myth had to come from somewhere, so why should monsters be any different? But she chose to ignore the warning alarms blaring in her head.
Ymir felt along the dark wall until she felt the bump of a light switch. Flicking it on, she let her eyes adjust to the bright lights assaulting her. She hadn't really been paying attention to other senses when in the dark, but now the smell had reached her.
She gagged on the strong smell, a mix between sickly sweet and rotten. It was like someone left their lunch in here for weeks, letting it mold and permeate it's stench throughout the room, and then spraying a fruity perfume to try to cover the offensive smell.
The heavy smell was muffled by her shirt, but her eyes still watered beneath her closed lids. Ymir stood in the silent room until her eyes and nose had adjusted to the changes. Her hand covered her mouth at what she saw.
Ymir was standing in a lab that matched the sterile white halls she'd walked so many times. But this room was lined with metal cages, thick bars caging in each pale body. Every cell had a person lying in it, some bloody and all of them covered in black marks.
They all laid on the dirty concrete floor, motionless with only shallow breathing letting her know that they were alive. She looked around the room quickly, trying to find a way to let them out. She had never known what her mom did and now...
Her mom was a virologist that spent most of her time trying to make vaccines for the sick. But this was sick. Ymir finally understood why everyone was so secretive about the labs. These were live test subjects.
Finally, her eyes landed on a large computer monitor in the farthest corner from the cages. She sat in the chair and set to work, her nimble fingers running quickly over the keys with small clicks. Red and blue lettering scrolled across the otherwise black screen and then there was an audible creak.
It echoed across the room as every cage swung open on its own. The bodies started to stir on the ground, some stumbling shakily while others just laid there and groaned in pain. Ymir rushed over to one of the stumbling patients to see if she needed help.
The patient was an older woman, pale as snow, with blood staining the shirt covering her lower stomach. She looked thin and frail, but as Ymir approached, she straightened and sniffed the air. The lady turned her sights on the now frozen brunette and snarls.
Ymir took in the scene, shocked at the behavior of the once-immobilized individuals. All of them were now lumbering towards her, but she couldn't move. Black veins slithered under their skin, shirts not being able to hide the growing marks.
A blaring alarm sounds from the hall, making the patients pause in their pursuit. The large door behind Ymir bursts open and scientists start screaming. The patients turn their sights to the panicked crowd and then all hell breaks loose.
Some scientists outright flee, but others weren't so lucky. The patients lunged and tackled the lab coats, biting and clawing at them like wild animals. Ymir, still frozen, doesn't notice the older woman, that she had initially tried to help, approaching her.
The brunette turns in time to be tackled to the ground and straddled by lady. She screams when the woman bites into her right shoulder, ripping a chunk of flesh and chewing happily. The once-white room running red with the blood of the patients' victims.
Another patient finishes his meal and tries to approach Ymir, but the woman growls and snaps her teeth aggressively. The brunette is blinking at the scene, consciousness fading and shoulder spreading icy fire through her.
How was she to believe what she was witnessing and experiencing? They were monsters and monsters were only children's stories. A scream leaves the thrashing brunette as the woman digs her fingers into her ribs, leaving bloody gouges.
The other patients, also done with their meals, started stumbling into the halls following the distant screams of the fleeing scientists. Some of the injured scientists had started twitching as black veins crawled up their torso and arms.
Ymir took this all in with a numb detachment, cold seeping into her shivering form. The victims of the bloodshed started stumbling until they too left the room. Only Ymir remained, bleeding out onto the shiny white floor.. Alone.
Outside, scientists continued to scramble to the only exit in the large building. They weren't in the right state of mind to realize that the test subjects would follow. They only cared for their own survival, leaving the large double doors open behind them.
Those test subjects would follow and they would infect anyone unlucky enough to cross their destructive paths. This was only the start of the chaos to come. A chaos that came to pass because of a too curious brunette with a kind heart.
Some scientists had, smartly, waited for the chaos to calm before leaving their quarters. They didn't know what was going on, but the screams and bloody trails was enough to tell them it wasn't good. Most of them left the facility to make sure their family and friends were safe, but a few stayed behind.
One of the people who had stayed was Jazzy. The blonde nurse had tracked the blood back, hoping that Ymir had been one to flee. She made it to the room and fell to her knees, bile rising up her throat.
Ruby streaks stained the white floors along with bits and pieces of flesh. It was a war zone, but the blonde didn't know the cause. She rushed inside when she saw the familiar head of dark brown hair.
Ymir was still and pale, so different from her usually tan skin. The nurse felt for a pulse and jerked away at the chill radiating from the girl. It was the chill of death—of a corpse—she realized.
Black marks were traveling up the girl's neck and stopped right under her closed eyes. Her shoulder was torn and she had bloody claw marks down her sides, but both had stopped bleeding. It gave Jazzy hope that maybe Ymir was just unconscious.
While the nurse fretted over her unconscious body, Ymir was being assaulted with an onslaught of strange thoughts and wants. It felt like she was sleep walking. She could see when she opened her eyes, but her body moved of its own accord.
Jazzy was smiling in relief and asking her questions, but it fell on deaf ears. The mumbled nonsense made no sense and meant nothing to the hungry monster lurking under Ymir's skin.
Ymir wasted no time in ripping into Jazzy's neck, even as she screamed in her head at hurting the kind woman. She just couldn't seem to stop, feasting on the woman's flesh with groans of satisfaction.
The woman's screams had cut off awhile ago and her body had tumbled to the floor, Ymir following. Even after she had her fill, the brunette still felt hunger gnawing at her gut angrily. She felt no pain from her injuries and only left the room, leaving the blonde behind.
Her mind had gone utterly silent and all of the fight had left her, much to the monster's relief. Ymir left the building as the sun was setting and started walking in no particular direction.
The days passed similarly. Shambling in a direction and attacking anything in her way. Most of her victims had seen her bloody clothes and stumbling steps and wanted to help, while others had ran. It was still in the early stages so many weren't aware of the patients who escaped.
But Ymir wasn't a mindless monster like the others. She could think and she could feel and it hurt. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't take control of her body. So she walked and infected and fed her endless hunger.
The sun rose and fell; stars twinkle in the night sky, days and weeks passed in similar fashion. The pale brunette finally stumbled and didn't get back up. A tremor went through her body and she stilled, lying face up in the grass.
The sun made her tan face look like it was glowing, making her freckles look like golden-brown stars. Black veins fell from her neck and slithered back down her torso, fading and eventually disappearing altogether.
At the same time, a few blocks from the downed brunette, was a short blonde running from a small herd. Her pale legs barely kept under her and her arms pumped to get her as far from them as she could. She would've kept running, but she saw someone in the grass.
The blonde girl turned the other over, searching for the reason for her unconsciousness. Ymir's clothes were in tatters and barely covered her feminine curves. Though her remaining clothes were covered in blood, she didn't seem to be injured.
The blonde shook the other frantically, trying to wake her before the herd caught up. Finally, chestnut eyes opened and blinked up at the blonde from her resting place on her lap. Ymir was aware for the first time in a long time.
This blonde angel has saved her and now she was awake. Groans and snarls started filling the air and Ymir tensed at the familiar sounds. She couldn't remember everything, but she would remember those sounds anywhere. She had made similar sounds not even a day ago.
"We need to leave. Can you stand?" The angel asked in a soft voice.
Ymir stood on shaky legs, still in a daze and confused at how she could think for herself again.
"Are you an angel?" The blonde's laugh was a lively tinkling sound like ringing bells and the brunette found that she liked it.
"No, I'm Historia. And you are?"
"Y-Ymir."
Historia smiled at the brunette and wrapped an arm around her bare, slim waist. Together they left the monsters and Ymir wasn't alone anymore. They traveled and eventually found a settlement where they'd later meet their friends and comrades.
Ymir never forgot the angel that saved her from her monsters. And that is why she fights. She fights for her pure blonde angel that continued to give her the strength to keep going. An unspoken bond and promise to survive for each other written in the blood they shed for the other.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
rythebiguy
rythebiguy This chapter is going to be a flashback written in third person. I honestly want to try my luck at third person writing.
Give me feedback on this sorry attempt and enjoy! Every comment is appreciated, so I can improve my writing.
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