Krolva District, Wall Rose

'Prepare to die kid!' the man lifted the gun he held,

Alto scrambled out of the way as he fired, before bumping into someone.

"Alto what's wrong?" Alto looked up, and looked at Gertrude, headless.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Alto screamed, only to get hit by a pillow.

"Keep it down. It's past midnight Chris." grumbled the orphan who threw the pillow.

"Right... sorry." Alto, for the past two years after the breach of Wall Maria, has been going by the name Christopher Holt.

Alto turned over, 'I'm turning 12 today... that means I can go into the military.' He closed his eyes, to sleep peacefully one last time.

Some time later.

"You are now officially members of the 104th Cadet Corps! Unfortunately for you, I, Keith Shadis, will be in charge! I'm not here to give you a warm welcome! All of you are now livestock waiting to be eaten by the Titans!"

'Not me.' Alto thought smugly.

"You're worse than livestock! At least livestock have some use! For the next three years I'll be training you useless shits! I'll teach you how to fight titans! When you face a titan in three years, will you just be food? Or will you become a glorious wall to protect these walls?! Or a mighty champion of mankind to destroy these titans!?"

Shadis continued on like this for several more minutes before beginning to single out cadets.

"Hey kid!" Shadis called out to a blonde haired boy in the front.

"Yes?!" The boy saluted.

"Who are you?!"

"I'm Armin Arlert! From Shiganshima!"

'Shiganshima? Isn't that where the Colossal broke through?' Alto thought

If Shadis knew that he didn't show it, "That so? A name fit for a retard! Your parents name you that?!"

"My grandfather!"

"Why are you here Arlert?!"

"To contribute to humanities victory!"

"How admirable! You'll make great titan feed! ABOUT FACE!" Shadis grabbed Armin's head, and turned him around. He continued walking, before stopping in front of another poor cadet.

"And who the hell are you?!" He asked the cadet.

"Sir! I'm Thomas Wagner from Trost! Sir!"

"I can't hear you!" Shadis roared

The abuse continued, Cadet after Cadet was brutally assaulted by words. Alto stared straight ahead, awaiting his share of verbal abuse.

"Who the hell are you?!" Shadis looked at another cadet.

"Jean Kirstein from Trost sir!"

"What are you here for?!" Shadis roared

He paused, then said, "To join the Military Police Brigade and reside in the Inner District sir."

Alto coughed, "Coward." He said under his breath.

Shadis snapped "YOU!"

'Fuck.' Alto groaned mentally

"ARE YOU SICK!?"

"No sir!"

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU COUGH CADET?!"

"I felt something in my throat sir!"

"Listen here." Shadis walked up to Alto. "In this camp, you play by my rules. You don't eat, shit, sleep, or breathe, much less cough, without my explicit permission. Got that?"

"Yes sir!"

"Name asswipe!"

"Christopher Holt!"

Shadis gave off a 'hmph' and turned to abuse another cadet.

"Next! You there! Who the hell are you?!"

"Connie Springer from Ragako! In Wall Rose's Southern District!" Then he proceeded to screw up royally, and did the salute wrong.

Shadis grabbed both sides of Connie's head and lifted him up. "Listen up Connie Springer. This is one of the first things you were taught: this salute means you're offering your heart to the king! Is your heart on the right side shithead!"

CRUNCH!

Everyone froze.

CRUNCH!

'Please tell me I'm not hearing this...' Alto groaned

CRUNCH!

'Someone is actually..." He turned around 'Eating a potato?!'

Everyone looked at the girl in wonder

'We have our first casualty and we haven't even started training...' Alto sighed. Shadis stared at the girl, Alto wondered if he was planning how to get away with murder. Shadis dropped Connie.

"Hey. You. What are you doing?" Shadis asked, the girl looked to the side, averting his gaze.

"YOU! IM TALKING TO YOU! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" Shadis flashed over to the girl. The girl swallowed, and saluted.

"Sasha Blouse from Dauper in Wall Rose's Southern District!"

"Sasha Blouse... what the fuck are you holding in your right hand?"

"A steamed potato sir! I came across it in the kitchen, so I picked it up!"

'I'm just counting the deaths at this point.' Alto thought.

"You mean you stole it?" Shadis asked. He paused, then said, "Why... why are you eating a potato right now?"

"I wanted to eat it while it was still warm. So I figured it was now or never sir."

"No..." Shadis, for once, seemed legitimately baffled at the fact that Sasha was eating a potato.

'Then again, so is everyone else here.' Alto thought

"I don't get it. Why are you eating a potato?"

"Are you asking why people eat potatoes in general sir?"

'This girl may as well blow her own brains out!' Alto's jaw dropped, the question was tantamount to calling the Instructor stupid to his face.

The girl, either nice beyond belief, or trying to buy her way out of her final moments, reluctantly said, "Here, have half sir."

The instructor, still confused, picked it up, "Half?" He said, like no one had ever offered him food. The girl then smiled.

Later that day

"Hey look! Potato girl is still running!" Connie called.

"Wow... she's been at it for five hours now. Her reaction to being told to run until sundown was nothing compared to when she was being told she was getting no food." said Eren

"Dauper is a small village of hunters up in the mountains right?"

Eren turned, "What's that?" He looked toward a wagon.

"Dropouts." Said Mina. "They requested a transfer to the reclaimed lands."

"Already? It's only the first day." Armin said

"Thats just how it is." Eren shrugged "The weak have no choice but to leave. They'd prefer picking up rocks and pulling weeds."

"That reminds me. We never heard where you're from Eren." Alto said, turning to him.

"I'm from Shiganshima. Same as him." Eren patted Armin.

"Then you were there on that day too? Did you see it? The Colossal Titan?!" Connie asked excitedly.

"Y-yeah..."

Dinner

"Titan's aren't that big of a deal. Once we master operating the Three Dimensional Omni Directional Mobility Gear they'll be no match for us!" Eren said, taking a bite out of his bread.

Alto ate quietly at the corner of the room. Listening but not speaking.

"We'll finally have the chance to become soldiers. I'll join the Recon Corps and purge the world of Titans! I'll exterminate the-"

"Dude are you fucking nuts?" Alto looked,

'Right... ' Alto rolled his eyes,

"Did you just say you wanted to join the Recon Corps?"

"Damn straight. And you're planning to join the MPs and take it easy?"

"I'm just an honest fellow. I think it's preferable to acting tough when you're actually scared shitless." Jean said

Eren stood, "Got something to say?"

"H-hey stop it!" someone called

"Oh? I wasn't really.." Jean stood as well, and walked to Eren, for a good few seconds, Alto thought one of them was about to throw a punch.

Ring! Ring! Ring! The bell tolled.

Jean sighed, "My bad. I wasn't trying to judge how you think. Lets just let it go." He stuck his hand out.

Eren shook it, "Same here. I overreacted." Eren turned and walked away.

'Thank god... no fight.' Alto quietly blew on his food before finishing it and walking outside

Outside

Sasha finally dropped after running all day long.

'So... tired.' She thought weakly, then a smell wafted to her nose, and a single thought filled her mind

'FOOD!' With a seemingly inhuman strength she snatched the food out of Krista's hands.

"That's all I could save you but you should drink some water first..." Krista held up a bottle of water.

"God! Are you god?!" Sasha asked deliriously.

Krista stammered, unsure how to reply,

"Hey. What are you doing?" Out of the shadows, came Alto.

Historia and Sasha gasped, Sasha quickly devoured her bread before collapsing.

"You!" Alto hissed, "What are you doing here Krista! Or should I say Historia Reiss?!"