From Marley, with Love.

Chapter 77: Guzzle Bucket

"Rosanna? Hey, Rosie?" Pieck said, sitting opposite the zoned-out Rosanna, gently shaking and patting her shoulders. "Earth to Rosie..."

Rosanna blinked her eyes rapidly, closing her dry mouth and looking around her.

"Oh, thank god, you were starting to freak me out..." Pieck said.

"What happened? Where are we?" Rosanna asked, looking up at a small grove of trees.

"We are outside of the walls, the titans are still leaving the island, and you were staring right into the sun..."

"Staring?"
"Yes, you woke up, sat up, and just stared at the sky."

"Well, that's not good..." Rosanna chuckled.

"You tell me..." Pieck replied, sitting down next to her friend.

There was silence.

"Where is the general?" Rosanna asked, taking her blanket and draping it around Pieck's shoulders.

"Getting water."

"How much time passed since we fled?"

"Like three hours. We need to keep a low profile, Yeagerists are all over the island..." Pieck added.

"I know...I had the pleasure to run into many of them."

Pieck looked at Rosanna's raw, red hands and the black, blue, and green bruises on her neck, arms, and upper chest.

"They did a number on you..." Pieck asked, her grey eyes filling with concern.

"They didn't torture me... they just threw me into an airship.... Plus, Zeke tried to slice me to pieces."

Pieck sighed and put her head on her friend's shoulder, wrapping the blanket around the both of them.

Rosanna put her arm around Pieck's shoulder, smiling mildly and sadly.

"I am sorry..." Rosanna whispered.

Pieck looked up, slightly confused.

"We as adults should've made different choices, so you, Reiner, Annie, and all the others could have lived normal lives..." Rosanna confessed.

"You were also just a kid... you had to move within the system to survive."

Rosanna nodded, agreeing with Pieck's notion.

"Still, I had different opportunities. I wasn't a young child; I could've gotten married at one point. I could've left with my family to the south..."

"And then what?!" Pieck protested.

Rosanna leaned back.

"You would've been smushed, like all those people on that continent! Without being able to save your family!"

Rosanna dropped her head... clutching her hands together.

"Of course... I forgot about that..."

There was an icy silence.

"As I said many times before... we need you..." Pieck said, putting her arm around Rosanna's shoulder.

"And I am glad you never got married to Oscar. You wouldn't have been able to move away from this danger."

Rosanna hummed, shifting under her blanket. There was a rustling from the bushes and general Magath stepped out, dragging along a sloshing bucket of water.

"Water..." he said, putting the bucket down and throwing the two young women cups.

Rosanna immediately filled up her cup, gulping it down like a madman before diving back in for a second cup.