[center][h2][color=9e0b0f]Emil Burton[/color][/h2][/center]
[center] Wall Maria, Shiganshina District[/center][center]-----[/center]

All of Emil's life he had wanted nothing more than to be able to escape to the inner sanctum of his mind. To be able to drown out the bothersome people and disregard the pains of life with nothing but his mind as his weapon. Never would he had imagined he had wished for the wrong thing. 

He was a prisoner in his own body, surrounded by the black. His body numb and his hearing muffled, distant. There were what sounded like screams, like desperate calls for something. What they said or where they were, he couldn't quite tell. What he could tell, was that something was horribly wrong. He remained trapped in his body for what felt like hours. The distant, muffled screams gaining clarity with every passing moment, the words becoming slightly more recognizable although still as alien as a new language to Emil. The darkness remained as well, there was no letting up in the black that was his mind, the inner sanctum was impenetrable, he screamed and screamed trying to break himself free of whatever it was that kept him confined but it was a fruitless effort. There was simply no way out. He closed his useless eyes, or at least he thought he did, and resigned to his fate, whatever exactly it was.

Then he blinked. A flash of light and scenery he couldn't quite make out. He blinked again, the same blindingly painful rush of light, the same scenery. He sat bolt upright, his eyes fully open now, all around him there were the sounds of pandemonium, of chaos. But there wasn't much going on where he was, [i][color=9e0b0f]'What in the world is happening...?'[/color][/i]. He reached a hand up to his head were there was a dull ache, once he connected his hand to the spot he was hit with a searing pain, he pulled his hand away from his head only to be staring at what he could only comprehend as his hand, caked in crimson. [color=9e0b0f]"Blood..."[/color] he said aloud, the confusion evident in his voice, in the way his train of thought trailed off at the end of the word.

He took a moment to look around once more, he was on an empty street. There was rubble and debris strewn about haphazardly, as if a barrage of cannons had struck the area.

He hoisted himself up on a knee before standing up, his entire body screaming in protest as he did. He was in pain everywhere and he couldn't quite remember why. [color=9e0b0f]"What is going on?"[/color] he said aloud as he stared at the roofs above. Then it hit him, he began to remember something, a massive being towering above the wall. A thunderous boom as the being destroyed the wall, sending a massive shockwave and debris off to devastate Shiganshina. He remembered watching from the roof above as debris rained down on the city, indiscriminately leveling houses and markets, churches and people. Leaving massive plumes of dust and debris wherever they struck, [color=9e0b0f][i]'Some of the pieces must have been larger than houses...'[/i][/color] he thought in disbelief as the memories came rushing back. Then one had struck his building, sending him tumbling through the air and to the street below.

He gave his fist a tight clench before beginning to walk toward the light and the noise of chaos. [color=9e0b0f]"If the wall has been destroyed then..."[/color] Emil cut his words short as a squad of Garrison soldiers hissed by over head, moving in the same direction as him. He paused, trying to figure out if he should be heading in the same direction as them, or trying to get out of the district, [color=9e0b0f][i]'Is that the same direction as them?'[/i][/color] he thought before stumbling down the road following the now gone squad of soldiers.

Rounding a corner and entering the light of day Emil was struck with a sight that would never leave him. The four man squad that had only just shot by him was engaged with three massive figures, [color=9e0b0f]"Titans..."[/color] he said in awe under his breath. He watched as the Garrison soldiers circled around the group of  10 meter tall titans attempting to get to an angle that they could take them down. As he watched a fourth titan appeared, smaller than the other three leaped from another road catching one of the soldiers unaware. Emil couldn't help but watch as the man was torn in half by the titans massive jaws, his upper body connecting with the ground in a sickening smack.

The other three soldiers tried to readjust to their new found foe, speeding away in separate directions , but it wasn't enough. The slight distraction that their allies death had warranted was enough to spell doom for two more of the soldiers. One was caught by on of the original ten meter tall titans, like a bug in a hand he was crushed to death before being eaten. The other soldier had his wire stepped on in what could only have been described as bad luck, sending the man pivoting over the tops of the titans and, with double the speed as he had going up, directly into ground with a single solid thud.

The final member of the team did seem to be lucky though, Pulling away from the grasp of one of the titans just in time before quickly pulling back down the street the way that him and his squad had originally come, back towards Emil. 

Emil stood in the road, watching in disbelief as human beings were eaten just blocks away. Torn apart and feasted upon by titans. He had the urge to vomit, but found that nothing came up when he finally did wretch. As he tried to throw up there was a hissing sound and the reeling of a wire followed by the skidding landing of the lone survivor of the squad up ahead.

[b]"Kid! Kid look at me! I need you to look at me!"[/b] the Garrison soldier yelled, now shaking Emil at his shoulders. Emil looked up, tears welling in his eyes and spit from his attempted vomiting dripping off the corner of his mouth. The soldier didn't care, his eyes were wide with fear, frantic animalistic fear, and yet somehow he had decided to stop for the kid in the middle of the road rather than continue to safety alone. [b]"Hold on tight kid we're getting out of here!"[/b] he yelled to Emil before scooping him up in his arms.

In a flash they were airborne, heading down the road and toward what Emil was sure was the exit from Shiganshina into the open land between it and Wall Rose. The sound was deafening, the wind whirring by and the sound of the constant stream of gas leaving the soldiers equipment. There was a brief moment of weightlessness as the soldier disconnected his wires from their anchor points and fell beneath a bridge connecting two buildings together before he shot his wires once more and they were off again.

Emil stayed quiet, watching as the true carnage of what had happened simply whizzed past him. Destroyed homes and buildings were everywhere, there was blood and bits of meat strewn around every corner they passed, and above it all there was the constant sight of titans lumbering between buildings on either side of them. 

[b]"Hold on tight kid, you definitely don't want to get dropped now!"[/b] the soldier yelled as the swung around the corner of a building, now traveling parallel to Wall Maria. The soldier fired his wires at the wall, pulling them up the side of in a bone crushingly tight arc. Emil tried to keep his eyes open as they rose high above Shiganshina, high into the sky were he could watch the fires in the city rage, and even the titans were a small after thought. But he wasn't able to against the crushing force of the soldiers speed combined with their climb.

He awoke in a bout of curses and screaming, the ground beneath him was cold and hard, and most of all it was unsafe. He had to get moving, get somewhere that the titans couldn't reach. 

"Kid! Stop it!" came the voice of the soldier who had taken him earlier.

Emil shook his head, his vision blurred by tears and his voice cracking as he screamed, [color=9e0b0f]"We've got to get out of here! We have to get somewhere safe!"[/color]

The soldier hoisted Emil to his feet and wiped the tears from his eyes, [b]"We are kid, we are."[/b] he said, the relief in the mans voice so apparent that Emil himself found his fit of terror creeping back down his throat. He looked around him and in every direction the sky and the land stretched, the very ground he stood upon was grey and strange, like the walls he had grown up surrounded by. There were more soldiers here too, wounded being tended to and others simply staring down in disbelief. He edged forward toward a group that was look down at something. 

He inched toward the edge of the ground, and found himself look some fifty meters to the ground, toward Shiganshina and the destruction below. He felt sick, his head spun as he stared at the city in ruins. His legs gave out and he fell to his knees, staring in disbelief at what was once his home.