[center][h2][color=#FFD967][u]          [b]Tanner Harwell[/b]          [/u]
[color=#FFD967][sup][sup]Current Location: Wall Maria, Shiganshina District[/sup][/sup][/color]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/rX5zgAo.png[/img][/color][/h2][/center]
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/i6fLcHF.png[/img][/center]

Tanner frowned as he watched the scouts passed through the streets. His disappointment wasn't entirely fueled by the numerous protesters that had lined the streets and hurled insults at the devastated Survey Corps. No, Tanner was disappointed that he was unable to spot the woman he had been searching for his entire life. It was a major let down for Tanner, like a child refused by their mother to have another sweet before dinner. Sighing as the last cart passed, Tanner turned away from the crowd with his hands in his pockets. 

[color=#FFD967][i]Next time, surely. She'll have to return someday.[/i][/color] Tanner thought as he walked the various alleys to return back to his family's bookstore. When it came to the mysterious woman, Tanner was rather naive. Everyone knew the dangers of titans. A titan was a monstrous being that had a huge appetite for human flesh, yet Tanner refused to accept the possibilty that a titan had devoured the woman like a polished off chicken leg. The woman's death was simply something Tanner could not fathom, or rather, something he wouldn't dare to believe.

As Tanner rounded a corner, he quickly had to raise his arms to avoid being blinded by sudden brightness. The ground had begun to shake like an earthquake. A sign fell from the hinges that held it as the earth trembled, causing Tanner to dodge the sign or otherwise face the wooden slab crash down on his head. Tanner took a quick glance at the fallen sign, and readied a sigh of relief, yet the voices of many were shouting. The screams of his neighbors telling everyone to run slowly turned into a distorted panic as another crashing, loud noise echoed through the district.

The noise forced Tanner to reflexively seek shelter behind a stack of barrels, and when the rumbling had stopped, Tanner dared a short glimpse around the corner. Houses were gone, fires had been started, blood and corpses were scattered throughout the street. The scene forced the paranoid boy to take a double take. He blinked, and blinked again, yet each time the destruction was always there. In a desperate attempt to retrieve his bearings, Tanner looked at the massive wall that protected the district from humanity's foe: the titans.

His eyes were met with pure destruction. A giant titan, doubtlessly taller than any of the titans Tanner had heard in stories, held onto the top of the wall. Below, where once was a piece of the wall was now a hole that had allowed a flood of titans to enter the district. Tanner stepped back, stunned by the events. [color=#FFD967]"H-Haha, this h-has to be a p-prank, r-right?"[/color] He mumbled with frightened laughter, yet as Tanner watched a man be devoured by a titan, the boy quickly realized that the titans were in fact, real.

As if the titans and bloodshed had stirred fear in his heart, Tanner quickly rushed home to see if his parents were alive. His eyes were met with despair as the bookstore was gone, crushed by a piece of the wall. The old bookstore was no longer a building, but splintered planks and shattered stone. [color=#FFD967]"Mom! Dad! Where are you?"[/color] Tanner called out despite the dangers that were lurking, yet he was only answered with silence. 

He began to dig around in the debris to find his parents when Tanner realized the silence turned into shouting. It was nearby, but the screams weren't his parents. Tanner's eyes darted around the chaos, and he quickly spotted the disturbance. A large titan had a tight grip around a panicking woman, while a young child stood in fear, frozen in place to watch the titan consider her mother a snack. Tanner took a quick glance at his home, and then to the child. [color=#FFD967]"I'm going to hate myself for this."[/color] Tanner gulped, swallowing his fear as he sprinted off towards the child.

Tanner swore he heard the woman shout to him, but his fear had caused his hearing to zone out. Focused on getting the child to safety, he threw himself over a crate and wrapped his arms around the child as Tanner bounced off the ground like a ragdoll. [color=#FFD967]"Don't look back, don't look back..."[/color] Tanner repeated over and over to the young girl as his legs moved as fast as they could to the tune of a bone-crunching chorus behind them. 

Thankfully, being paranoid is sometimes useful. Tanner began to figure out the shortest escape route, using his knowledge of the various streets that guardsmen and scouts often frequented. Sprinting down tight corridors and alleys, the two made their way to the rear of the district, while Tanner muttered his hope that the boats hadn't left or the gate was still open.