Disclaimer: I don't own SnK. I do own my original ideas in this story.

Warning of suicide at the end of chapter.

Alert: There may be spoilers in story and/or author's notes from this point on. This warning won't appear again.

~ To Hell In a Handbasket ~

If one were to come across the orderly town by chance on any ordinary day, it would seem peaceful enough to the casual observer. Just like any town, people rushed to and fro through the streets, going about their daily lives in a hurried bustle, tunnel vision focused solely on the tasks that lay ahead. Lulled into a form of contented resignation at the routine of repeating the same old tasks over and again, convinced of the security of the future ahead.

This, in spite the walls that hemmed the settlement on all sides. Of course, those that dwelled within had heard the horror stories of the titans, but despite being separated from them by only a few metres of wall width, most had never seen such monsters for themselves.

On an ordinary day, one would be able to see and hear the lively hub of the marketplace, with vendors haggling loudly with customers, and children's squeals carrying through the air. The low hum of conversation echoing through the streets full of people. The raucous laughter of the Stationery guards on gate duty, losing sobriety far too early in the day.

However, today was most definitely not an ordinary day. In fact, there hadn't been a real ordinary day for weeks now. Many doubted that there would be an ordinary day ever again.

Well, it was more or less impossible for humans to remain unfazed upon discovering that their impenetrable stronghold had, ironically enough, been breached, and by titans, nonetheless.

Tension now ran thick enough in the air that you could almost cut it with a knife. Anxious whispers, sobbing, and wailing were frequent sounds throughout the town; and people staggered, lost, through the streets with hollowed out expressions, quickly losing faith, and sanity, as time passed with no sign of rescue.

It hadn't started out at this level of severity though. Like all things, the response to the invasion had progressed in stages.

A little over a fortnight ago...

On that day, people had been wandering through the street, wrapped up to protect against the chill in the air. Children were scolded by mothers for not 'rugging up' warmly, as fathers laughed merrily by the fireplace. There hadn't been a single warning of the chaos to come.

The first hint that something was wrong was the thundering of many hooves in the distance. Members of the Stationery guard atop the Wall, thinking strangely of such a sight, paused in their work to watch the large group of horsemen quickly approach the district from within Wall Maria. They were riding their mounts hard, occasionally throwing glances over their shoulders. With the way they acted, one would think the devil himself was on their heels.

Without slowing a fraction, a pair peeled away from the group and tore through the open gate, heading directly towards the headquarters of the stationary guard. People followed in their wake, confused; it wasn't an odd occurrence for the guard corps of other districts to show up from time to time, but there were some rather stated differences this time. First of which being the fact that only a few of the large group entered into the district, while the rest kept racing passed. And they never usually had such an intense aura of alertness and fear about them.

Less than ten minutes had lapsed before the messengers reappeared in the streets, followed by the major of the town. Large crowds of people had amassed during that time and were waiting anxiously for what news would be brought to them. Now that the bystanders had a chance to actually observe the faces of the visitors, they could see grim lines etched around their mouths and foreheads, and their eyes were shadowed with despondence.

The mayor, now joined by the superiors of their own district's Stationary guard, stepped forward to address the crowd. He, too, bore the same expression.

"Everyone! There is grave news I must impart to you! The titans have breached Shiganshina District and Wall Maria!" His voice broke from the force of his words, but he was quick to continue.

"Do not panic! Whatever you do! But quickly gather your family and flee to the Karanese District; don't waste time gathering material possessions! Make haste!" His demeanor branded him a hypocrite; waves of fear rolled off him and he visibly shook where he stood.

The crowds stared at him in a stunned state.

"What?"

"He's kidding, right?"

"That's…not possible."

The listeners murmured amongst themselves in disbelief, until one of the messengers, lowering the water skin from which he had been urgently drinking for at least a minute straight, levelled a hard stare at the mob and sneered at them.

"Well, it's your call. Most of the titans are headin' this way, and they're comin' fast; if you don't leave now, you may never be able to." With that, he and his companion spurred their mounts to move out, breaking through the crowd of people, and following in the wake of their comrades.

For a length of time, everyone stared at the place where the messengers had been, completely shell-shocked. And then, all at once, as if following an invisible and inaudible cue, mass panic broke out. People screamed as they forced their way through the crowd to get to their homes or to leave the district. Any that weren't strong enough, fast enough, or lucky enough, were severely injured or even killed in the following stampede.

Thousands of people quickly began pouring out into the span of land between Wall Maria and Wall Rose. Some had horse-drawn carts, or unyoked horses, and were able to quickly pull ahead of the mob, but most were on foot, running with desperation. Those with a clearer head waited for the boats to be loaded. As it was, they were already way over capacity.

The boats began to set out, and when surveying those still being loaded, considering that more than two-thirds of the town had yet to evacuate, there was clearly no way they would be able to transport everyone. Those who were fitter and stronger easily fought their way into various modes of transport; while those who were young, old, ill, weak, or with families, were highly disadvantaged. Despite this, they made their best efforts to leave the district.

The group hadn't even left sight of the district when the first titans appeared on the horizon. They were running. Limbs flailing and head lolling, they tore at an ungodly speed towards those stranded in the open. Those still within the district, which accounted for now less than two-thirds of the town, looked on in horror as the titans easily caught up to the majority of those who had set out, snatching them up easily and tearing them limb from limb.

They just kept coming, pouring across the land like an infestation of mutant vermin. Everyone on foot became easy prey to their gaping maws; the larger among their number even tried to grab some of the boats out of the river. They unfortunately succeeded in some cases. Only those people travelling on horseback were able to escape.

Those left behind at the gate could only watch, frozen, mouths agape in abject horror. Somewhere above, a shout jostled some back to awareness. The stationary guards swarmed, racing about the gate; the titans were now heading directly for them.

"Stand clear! Dropping the gate in 5…4…"

Titans were stumbling closer, smiling in that horribly macabre way of theirs. Bloodstained lips and teeth were visible from here.

"3…2…"

The voice calling from the wall was tainted in urgency. Enlarged arms were reaching out now, trying to risk snatching a cookie from the jar before the lid was replaced.

"1! Now!"

The heavyweight gate slammed down into its cradle with a resonating boom, kicking up dust around the legs of those still locked in place, watching images their mind kept replaying over and again before their eyes.

Someone moved among the crowd, tilting their head upwards jerkily to look at the guards hanging from the wall above them via grapples and lines from their 3D manoeuvre gear. The shaky voice broke the silence of those within the safety of the gate, just loud enough to be audible over the screaming outside the wall.

"S-so…what…what are we going to do… now?"

Others also turned their faces upwards to the soldiers; they were the experts when it came to titan matters. One of them, a middle aged man with horror etched into his face, turned to meet their eyes.

"… How they hell are we supposed to know?"

It turned out that the mayor had been among the first to flee the district, and many influential businessmen and superior officers among the stationary guard had run too. The citizens scoffed in derision at the news, so much for their steadfast authority figures. However, despite the losses, everyone recovered at a surprisingly fast rate.

'It's gonna be alright,' and 'We can do this,' and 'Help will definitely come from the inner walls;' such things were repeated with religious fervour in public addresses, on the street, and in the home. People stepped into authority roles, comforting the public; humans united in an attempt to last out the wait.

It only took a week. The first incident happened in the middle of a surprisingly hushed marketplace. A fight had erupted as a result of a man attempting to steal something from a vendor. In the midst of the heated argument following, the thief had cried out in a loud, ringing voice that, disturbingly, harboured a strain of insanity not far below the surface.

"What does it matter if I steal this bread? What does it matter if I kill someone? If we all kill each other? No one is coming to save us anyway!"

If it was quiet before, you could have heard a pin drop now. Men set their mouths stoically, and mothers quickly herded their children home. Not a word was spoken of the incident; but no one forgot. After this, crime rates began to rise as people started breaking down and losing all hope. But the final blow came one day during an address...

He had stood there before them, the second one to lead them since the breach; the first had stepped down, being under too much pressure. He stood there calmly, eyes roving over the crowds. People relaxed at this; if their leader was calm, things were fine, right? No, not right at all.

He stepped forwards and, with a small smile, began to speak. "Friends, I am aware that some of you are still naively holding onto the hope of rescue. However, that is not to happen. We have been condemned to die, here, at the hands of the titans." With that, he raised the arm he had been covering within his cloak, bringing the previously concealed gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

That had been the final blow. Panic had again set in; people began plundering, raping and killing more outright, and many were also committing suicide themselves. The district became a living hell on earth. Most of the stationary guard passed the time drinking themselves stupid on top of the wall, staring down at the titans trying to claw their way in.

The intensity of the mass panic eventually ran its course, leaving behind hollowed shells of creatures once known as humans; there was now about a half of the population left alive. Most of those left were 'useless', the old, weak, and young, many of the capable humans had already killed each other off earlier.

They now lived every day in a daze of dread, waiting for the titans to get in. Or for the food to run out. It would be a close call as to which happened first.

A/N: Back again already! In this story, I made a few assumptions based on the SnK manga. The following is a list:

-The fall of the wall happened in autumn. In the majority of chapter one, you see almost all characters within the district wearing lightweight long clothes, presumably to keep the cool wind away. Also, pages 19-21 show Eren and Mikasa collecting firewood (not necessarily only for cold weather, but still), and the tree that Eren was sitting under has a lot of leaves swirling around in the wind. There are no flowers in the grass, either. So my best educated guess is that is autumn, and my story says its mid-way.

-I assumed that the titans flowed through both breaches at a high speed and began to flow up the East side of Wall Rose. This story is set in the District on the extreme east of Wall Maria, east of Karanese. I am assuming that the district was left untouched by the titans, but they arrived too quickly for the civilians to evacuate to safety.

-All districts off Wall Maria are left nameless except Shiganshina; I will be attempting to avoid naming this one.

-The scouting legion. I don't know where the heck they were during all of this; I'm assuming that they didn't have time to clean up, they just evacuated with everyone else. Actually, they probably evacuated the inhabitants of Wall Maria, like they did to Wall Rose with the supposed second 'breach'. All I know for certain is that they had not long returned from an expedition at that time.

If anyone can give concrete info that contradicts this list, I will change things. This story will possibly deviate from the canon universe slightly in future chapters, depending on whether or not new developments can be worked into the existing storyline.

Hope you enjoy~ Reviews will help me gauge how well this story is being accepted :)