Attack on Titan: Trost is Burning

Morning began as usual. The market hummed with life, vendors displayed their wares, and carts rattled over the cobblestones. Somewhere on the Wall, the Garrison was changing the guard. Somewhere in the barracks, soldiers were eating breakfast. An ordinary morning. There had been hundreds of them. Thousands.

And then, the earth shuddered. Not violently—just a tremor, as if something heavy had fallen in the distance. People exchanged glances, but no one screamed. They were used to it. Wall Maria fell five years ago, but Rose—Rose still stands. It has always stood.

Then, the ground shook again. Harder this time. Dust cascaded from the walls. Somewhere, a woman screamed. And then came a dull, low sound, like something tearing its way up from beneath the earth. A crack. Wall Rose—there, to the southeast—had fractured.

A pillar of dust rose into the sky. You could hear the screams of the people. You could see the Garrison soldiers racing toward the gates. And then, the first shadows—massive, humanoid—appeared in the breach.

Titans. Here. In Trost.

The market exploded into panic. People scrambled in every direction. Carts overturned, goods scattered across the street. Someone fell and was trampled. Someone screamed a child's name. Someone else just stood there, staring at the approaching shadows. Nearby, just a few steps away, a little girl—about ten years old, wearing a flour-stained apron—stood weeping. She had lost her mother. She was looking at you.

— Where's Mama? Have you seen my mama?

Behind you, somewhere in an alleyway, an old man's voice cries out:

— Help! Somebody! I can't walk!

And from the south, near the gates where smoke was already billowing—where a fire had broken out—a roar echoed. Deep, guttural. Along with the screams of soldiers and a crashing sound, as if something gargantuan were smashing through houses.

A Garrison soldier practically slams into you. He's wearing his ODM gear and uniform, but he doesn't look like a protector of the city right now; he is terrified, barely holding himself together through sheer hysteria.

— Why are you just standing there?! Do you have no regard for your life?! Move, damn it, run!