"People often forget that nightmares are dreams too. So why, for the love of Rose, could I not wake up from this one?" - Edith M. Brown's Diary, 846

Winter 845
River Esen, Shiganshina District

"...TILL THEN A MAN APRAT FROM GOD! O WRETCHED WAS I...AM I PUNISHED FOR IT? PUNISHED FOR THE JUSTICE OF GOD?" Leave it to the Wallists to continue preaching even when the world has gone to shit. Isaac though through his fear-riddled haze as the preachings were suddenly cut short, the wallist no doubt having been devoured by a Titan.

"HURRY UP! KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE GATE!" called a Garrison soldier as hordes of people fled from the approaching Titans, many being plucked from where they stood and eaten before they could scream "DROP EVERYTHING! FIND THE FERRY NEAREST YOU AND CLIMB ABOARD FOR ALL YOUR WORTH! MOVE IT! THESE THINGS AREN'T GONNA GIVE YOU A HEAD START!"

Upon arriving at the dock, Philip and Isaac pushed their ways through the throngs of people, trying to find their other sister. "PHIL! IZZY!" a voice called, their heads snapped towards the boats where Freya was leaning over the edge of one of the boats, waving her arms in the air.

For once, Isaac was glad for his family's short stature as he and his brother were herded onto the boat, with his sister and her friend in tow. Once on board, they picked their way over to where Freya had been standing, neither letting go the cargo they clutched to their chests.

Freya hardly held back as she leapt at the four of us, trying to hug everyone at once. Isaac wasn't sure what would happen next, left floundering in the wake of this event, he looked to his elder siblings. Freya sat clutching onto Philip who in turn had still not let go of Peggy.

The poor girl was sobbing quietly into his shirt. She was not alone, it was a reunion filled with tears. Something that would soon become very familiar. The gentle chug of the boat's engines filled the heavy silence. When could we wake up from this nightmare?

"So called outlier districts like Shiganshina, jut out like thorns on vital points along Wall Maria. Their basic function is to streamline troop dispersal and keeping security costs down by drawing Titans into specific areas. The calculated design flaw in all outlier districts is that they have only a single gate through which the citizens are able to retreat deeper inward should the need arise"-The Wall & Its Districts, Father E. S. Northgate

Edith looked up from where she had buried her face in her brother's shoulder when the sound of loud thumping footsteps echoed throughout the district. Looking up, she could just see the albino hair of the Titan as it thundered down the street towards that gate that sat on Wall Maria.

She lost sight of it as the boat floated through the gate, but she could still hear it. All at once, it reached a crescendo of noise as an almighty crash was heard through the canon fire and screaming. Edith watched on in horror as she realised what had happened. The Titan had breached Wall Maria. This was not a nightmare, it was real.

"...Bad news travelled like the plague, infecting all and everything it touched. Hours after Shiganshina fell, every man, woman and child knew the unthinkable had come to pass. Maria had fallen. Terror encompassed all" - Edith M. Brown's Diary, 846

The few ferries that made it out of Shiganshina before the Armoured Titan broke through, steadily made their way to the closest dock in Trost. The 500 odd people on board could only watch on in horror was people inside Wall Maria were turned away at the docks, left to fend for themselves against the Titans. Much like they had.

It didn't take long for thoughts to turn to survival. What would they do now? Families had been torn apart, childhoods ripped to pieces. No one made it out from this unscathed. Now it was a waiting game, you just had to wait and see what would happen next.

"In terrified haste, the central government declared the outlying districts a lost cause and decreed all mankind retreat behind Wall Rose. Estimates tell that nearly 10,000 lives were lost to the Titan offensive" -The Fall of Shiganshina, Armin Arlert

Alchemic diagrams flashed before her vision, come and gone too quickly to truly study. She felt like she was falling and flying all at once. The darkness around her was suffocating, pushing down her throat and pulling the breath from her lungs.

Edith gasped, tears streaming down her face as she clawed at her throat, trying to pull some air into her lungs. She clawed and pulled until she felt a hot thick liquid run down her hands. Looking down, she saw her hands were covered in blood. A gurgling sound escaped her torn throat as blood bubbled and spilt on her hands.

A lone figure stood in front of her, blinding white encompassing them like a blanket. Only the figure's mouth was visible, present in a bone-chilling grin. She felt like she was falling. Maybe this was the end? A lone voice wafted her way as her eyes slid shut, "Oh come on, don't you want to know your Truth?"

Edith shot upright, gasping for breath as she clutched onto the front of her sweater. The tolling of the bells brought her back to reality, where Peggy had been trying to get her attention. "-ddie? Eddie? Are you all right?" Peggy asked her, clutching on to her shoulder to steady her friend.

"Yeah, yeah. Just a-a bad dream" Edith yawned as she got her breathing under control, "Where's the others?" she asked looking around at the warehouse they were in.
"Outside, they're handing out food rations near the warehouse" replied Peggy as she stood up and held out her hand to Edith, pulling her up.

"I think this is where they used to store all the dried goods. Now it's where they corral the refugees" explained Peggy, not once letting go of Edith's hand. Edith raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she looked around at the scene before her.

There was a station where Garrison soldiers were handing out rolls of bread to the throngs of people lining up. There was barely any room to move, let alone eat. They were like animals in a pen. "Not exactly a dignified first impression, y'know?" Peggy commented as a skirmish broke out off to the side between to middle-aged men over a roll of bread.

"Look whose awake!" called Isaac as he, Freya and Philip made their way over to the duo still standing under the arches. Each was munching on a tough piece of bread.
"Make it last" warned Freya as she handed Edith a roll and Philip gave one to Peggy, "There's a shortage. They were already dealing with famine before we got here, so it's an ugly situation. That and this far in there's a greater despair between the haves and the have-nots"

The younger two gratefully bit into their tough rolls, ignoring the looks and comments thrown towards them by some of the Garrison soldiers as they childishly used the older siblings as their walls against them.

Winter 845-46
Trost District

"LISTEN UP! ALL ABLE-BODIED REFUGEES WILL BE PUT TO WORK IN THE FIELDS!" called an unknown Garrison soldier from where he stood upon the porch overlooking warehouse courtyard. Low grumbles and groans were heard scattered throughout the crowds, but it was no use.

By the start of the new day, all able-bodied people, young and old were to put to work in the wastelands. Calling them fields was laughable. It was a last ditch effort to raise food from the cold hard ground, many did not make it through the winter.

As the days wore on, the situation seemed to sink in and cement itself into people's minds. Many lost their battle to starvation, sickness, madness, depression. Freya was one of these people. Edith knew that she was trying her best to hide her true feelings from her siblings, to stay strong for them. But the loss of Lewis and Daisy was dragging her down. Working in the fields, on empty stomachs didn't seem to help matters.

Despite this, people held out hope for food to grow from the land. To their horror the cold, hard ground yielded nothing, not even a sprig. And so it was in the following year, that the remaining able-bodied refugees who were old enough to serve in the military were tasked with reclaiming Wall Maria. Everyone knew they were marching to their deaths, but for their children, they would do anything.

On that day, exactly one year after the fall of Wall Maria, Edith joined her siblings and her friend in the march towards death. Of the 250,000 people sent-nearly 20% of the surviving population, not even 200 made it back. While the attempt did nothing to drive the Titans back, it did lessen the effect of famine within the Walls.

The procession of broken bodies who returned to the Walls was significantly less than those who had ventured out. In a rickety wagon, Edith lay bloodied and broken, tears streaming down her face. There were bandages covering the right-hand side of her torso and shoulder, the blood seeping through the hastily applied bandages.

Next to her sat Peggy, the girl broken and battered, her tear-stained eyes locked on the bottom of the wagon, her feet barley touching Edith as the wagon rocked to and fro. She couldn't bare to look at Edith, how could she? She had lost her surrogate siblings to Titans and then Edith had to go and do something so stupid.

Peggy had found her, lying face down on a transmutation circle, the bodies of her siblings strewn about her and her right arm missing. It was only through sheer might that she had been able to bully a medic into helping her friend. They had wanted to leave her for dead. How could Edith do that to her? She had lost so much already, she didn't want to lose anymore.

Edith sat on the steps to the make-shift infirmary in the warehouse they had first arrived in. She fiddled with the lump of metal in her hand, it had been her very first attempt transmuting the metal into an animal, a bird. Edith had given it to Isaac for his birthday that year. She had no idea that he still kept it on him.

"So, what now?" Edith asked, not looking up from the metal in her hand. Peggy clasped her hands together and looked over at her heavily bandaged friend with a sigh, bracing herself for what was to come.
"I've been thinking...about taking up that man in Stohess about his marriage proposal"

"What?" exclaimed Edith as her head snapped up to her, "But you hated the idea of it before! Said he was some creepy old guy!"
"But he's a safe bet. Guy like him? Probably only last a few more years, then his assets are mine. You could come too, he'd be able to help you!"
"What! Are you insane! I told you I don't want to be some caged little housewife! Nor do I want to wait around for some old guy to die!"
"But what you want and what you need are two very different things!"
"And how would you know? I just lost my family and now you're running off to the arms of some deep-pocketed pervert!"
"That's not true!"
"Isn't it?"

"...Is there really nothing I can say to change your mind?"
"Yeah, looks like it"
"You still set on joining the military?"
"Yeah"
"...We'll have to do something about that arm then" Edith managed a smirk in response.