Okay: I promise, this is the last chapter before Ren and Akiko finally meet the scout regiment! I'm sorry it took so long...I'm not the most concise writer, and I will try to work on that so you guys don't get bored. But I thought that these first six chapters were kinda important to set everything up. Hopefully I haven't lost too many of you.

Anyway-Enjoy!

It had been two days.

Ren wasn't sure how much longer she and Akiko would last if they stayed put.

Smoke hung, dark and heavy, around the field. The air was dense with the acrid stench of smoke and blood and burning plastic, and the new but oddly recognizable scent of dead bodies, sour with spilled bodily fluids. The cabin had plenty of provisions they could use…but it wasn't starvation that worried Ren.

Sparks caught on patches of dried grass, and great mounds of mangled metal jutted from the smooth landscape. The crackle of electrical fires, where the plane's internal wiring shorted out, seemed to punctuate the silence—devoid of the moans, sobs and panicked conversations that had been some minor comfort during the first night.

Ren couldn't see much through the smoke, but she didn't need a visual to know that all of the survivors—the meager ten or so that had lived—were dead. Gone. Eaten.

Grotesque figures, ungainly and disproportionate. Freezing, debilitating terror when the first woman screamed…scooped up in a giant, babyish hand, raised to a mouth too wide, with too many teeth…

Ren blinked, clearing the tears that blurred her vision at the memories. It was almost by chance that Ren had seen them first, rising on the horizon like manifest terror with the dawn. She and Akiko had managed to escape and hide in the nose of the plane.

But they could come back for us at any time…

At the thought, a thrill of overpowering fear ran through Ren's body, and she shook her head violently. If she thought about those things, every inch the giants from her nightmares, she would lose her nerve. She would break down, and they would both die.

Crouching in the nose of the plane, Ren and Akiko made preparations. With the leftover first aid supplies, Ren managed to wrap Akiko's head injury, thankful that her own wounds were superficial and had already stopped bleeding. She vividly remembered Akiko's reaction to the sight of her steaming blood when the girl first woke up, and even now she seemed to edge away from Ren ever so slightly.

So she set Akiko to scrambling about the destroyed cabin for supplies—extra clothes, flashlights, any food or snacks or drinkable liquid. Let the girl think, a while, on her own while Ren checked the cockpit.

The pilots were exactly as they had landed. One had blood pooling from his ears, an odd dent in his head where it had rammed against the console. The other was bent at an odd angle, neck clearly snapped.

Ren grimaced, and retched at the sharp smell of decay, thick in the island's humid climate. Yet, determinedly, she went through pockets and jackets, eyes screwed narrow in disgust as she gingerly moved gray, death-chilled hands. It was worth the trouble when she discovered two swiss army knives and a flashlight keychain. Nevertheless, Ren's eyes were wide and glassy, her heart beat fast and hard, and her hands trembled.

She'd never seen death until the last 36 hours. Never even knew anyone that died…and yet, in the meager course of a couple days, she'd seen people blown apart, their limbs scattered and their flesh charred; she'd seen people writhe in pain, knowing their injuries would kill them slowly; she'd watched people get crushed, too shocked to even get out of the way…and she'd seen people swallowed.

"Ren, will this bag work?" Akiko's voice pulled Ren from her grotesque memories, and she realized she had been sitting, frozen, in the entrance to the cockpit, eyes glazed over with horror. She turned back towards the cabin to find Akiko holding up her findings, and offered a firm nod. Focus!

"That's great, Akiko," she said and offered a shaky smile. The girl had managed to find both a backpack and a satchel—neither of great quality, but they would work in a pinch. emOr a crisis/em, Ren amended bitterly, and climbed back toward Akiko to help her pack the bags. While they worked, Ren allowed her gaze to flicker regularly to one of the plane's windows, facing directly up into the sky.

She wanted them moving by dark.

When they were finished, the sun had only just crept toward the horizon, blue-purple clouds stretched across the sky and the shadows began to lengthen. If Ren had to guess, she'd say it was probably near to 4 o'clock, and there was little else to do in the way of preparation.

It was time for them to go.

She pilfered fresh, unbloodied clothes from abandoned suitcases—cargo pants, a tank top, a jacket for herself; t-shirt, jeans, a hoodie for Akiko. Sturdy shoes for both. It was a shame they couldn't find hiking boots that fit, but tennis shoes would have to work.

Ren slung the satchel over her shoulder and helped Akiko into the backpack. She fought to contain her irritation when the girl flinched at her touch, dark eyes resting for only a moment on a long, scabbed-over gash on Ren's right arm. emWe're going to have to get past this/em, she thought. They couldn't be effective or focus on survival if the girl was stuck on Ren's abnormal blood.

Ren quickly assessed Akiko as the girl hurriedly averted her dark gaze. She was holding up well—pale, clearly still shaken, but a determined line to her mouth. For the umpteenth time, Ren was grateful she had been unconscious for the first, terrible attack. Even the vague thought made Ren's blood run cold and her stomach curdle. She guessed if steaming blood was the worst Akiko had seen thus far, her luck wasn't something Ren would complain about.

"Where will we go?" Akiko asked quietly. Ren placed her hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "But there have to be other people on this island. We'll find them, and then maybe we can get help." It was a weak plan, Ren knew. There was no guarantee that anything other than those horrendous giants existed on the island. But they eat people. Ren's hand subconsciously tightened on Akiko's shoulder as her gaze settled, scarred and almost wild with purpose, on the horizon. That means they have to have a supply of humans...

"What about…those things? Whatever killed everyone else…" It was as though Akiko had read her mind, and Ren followed her gaze toward the field of crushed, dismembered bodies, all the more surreal in the long late-afternoon shadows. Akiko's voice held a tremor, and her eyes appeared glassy. She hadn't seen the giants…but she'd seen the aftermath. Perhaps the mystery was worse, left entirely to the girl's imagination.

"I don't think they'll come back yet," Ren bluffed, injecting as much confidence into her voice as possible. "There were a lot of people gathered here—maybe that's what caught their attention. I don't know if they'll go after just two of us."

"Okay," Akiko didn't sound convinced. But a small frown puckered her brow, and she clenched her jaw. Ren smiled softly at the girl's pluck, and had a flare of hope that they could survive this…which reminded her.

"Ah, here," she said and pulled one of the pilots' knives from the pocket of her filched leather jacket. She pushed it into Akiko's clammy hand. "It doesn't seem like much, but it could save your life. Weak points are here," she twisted Akiko's hand to point the knife at her own kidney, "here," the space between her ribs, just beneath her breastbone, "here," the exposed side of her neck.

"I don't—" Akiko started, her hand shaking slightly, but Ren shook her head. Hopefully, the girl wouldn't need to use this information. But it was always better to know and not need, than to need and not know.

"Always go for the eyes if you can, and if someone catches you, stab here," Ren pinched the flesh between Akiko's forefinger and thumb. "When you stab someone, use both hands—one around the hilt, one pushing from behind. You're small, so you'll need to use your whole body force for impact."

Akiko absorbed the knowledge in wide-eyed silence, with nods that hovered between vigorous and panicked. Ren wracked her brain for any other useful information.

"It would help if she had even the slightest clue what those nightmarish creatures were, or what else they could expect to find on this God-forsaken island…

"I don't know if any of this will help…" Akiko mumbled bitterly, scowling at the knife in her hand.

"It might," Ren argued. "Those things were big, but they seemed fundamentally human. If you stab one in the eye, it might drop you." Mortified, she heard a tremor of fear in her own voice. Akiko looked up, hearing it too, and Ren cleared her throat.

"Alright," she said, and pulled out a flashlight. She grabbed Akiko's non-knife hand firmly in her own, noticing that both were over-warm and sticky. "Let's go."

ΩΩ

It had been two days.

In that time, they had already lost ten more men, along with their horses, and Levi was less sure than ever that the exhibition extension was worth it.

He leaned, irritated, against a scraggly tree while the troops watered the horses, stretched their legs and numbly chewed thick, tasteless army rations. His fingers danced restlessly against the immaculate, polished silver of his gear, steely eyes ruthlessly scanned the horizon for any sign of further trouble. These damn aliens better be worth it, he thought, gaze resting for only a moment on the covered wagon of corpses.

"Yo," a cheery voice interrupted. Levi turned to scowl at Hange as she danced toward him, as obnoxiously excited as ever. "I'm your relief."

"Hm," Levi huffed, pushing off the tree. "All yours, shit-glasses," he grumbled. Hange merely smiled wider.

"Oh? Someone's in a bad mood," she hummed. Levi's face remained impassive.

"This damn extension better be fucking worth it," he said by way of explanation. Hange's smile dampened, and she looked toward the horizon. Levi followed her gaze, eyes resting on the black smudge against the sky, where the pillar of smoke had dissipated into wispy smears.

"I have a feeling it will be," she said, with an unusual note of seriousness. Her eyes were unreadable behind the reflection of her lenses, and Levi afforded the smoke one last scowl before turning away.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue as he walked towards where the ash-blond youth from before pulled his horse's reigns. "Worth it to you means hell for the rest of us," he muttered. Hange stifled a giggle. He wasn't wrong.

"Captain!" Levi had one foot in his stirrups when Petra jogged up to him. He didn't bother getting down, merely shot her a look over his shoulder.

"Petra," he intoned. Her green peridot eyes were wide, the slight sheen of sweat on her brow. If he recalled correctly, she'd been at a nearby spring with Mike, filling canteens. If she'd run all the way back… "What happened?"

"Titans," she breathed heavily. "Two abnormals! They walked right by us!" Her words came fast and loud, in between gulps of air. Petra was one of the best runners on Levi's squad, and he knew her breathless state was more a product of fear than physical exertion. He raised a hand.

"Calm down, Petra," he commanded sternly. She shut her mouth, forcing breath through her nose, but her eyes remained wide. "They walked past you?"

"Yes, sir."

"How far away?"

"No more than twenty meters, sir."

"Are you sure they saw you?" Petra nodded vehemently, and Levi's scowl deepened. It wasn't the most unusual thing for titans to ignore one or two people—and he knew Petra had been with Mike, alone. But the past cases of such an occurrence all had the same prerequisite: something else had caught the titans' attention. Something more valuable than just one or two humans.

"Captain…what do you think they're after?" Petra's voice had smoothed out, her breathing even, and her eyes were serious. She'd come to the same conclusion he had. Levi narrowed his gaze and hoisted his body onto his horse.

"I don't know," he said. "Whatever it is, we damn well better get there first." Petra nodded sharply, but Levi had already trotted his horse through the remaining troops to where Erwin stood beside his own chestnut stallion. The blond commander read his corporal's face instantly, and his blue eyes sparkled.

"What happened, Levi?" he asked immediately once Levi's dark gray mare had slowed to a walk.

"Titans," Levi answered. "Two, both abnormal. It seems they passed twenty meters from Petra and Mike, with a clear view. Bastards didn't give a shit." Erwin narrowed his eyes. That Levi had lapsed into the crass language of his thug past indicated the captain's irritation and stress, despite the man's stoney expression.

"Something else must have caught their eyes," he said. Levi nodded. Erwin sighed. "Let's move. If they're after something, it just means we were right, and this is worth checking out."

"We should be there in another couple hours," Levi said by way of agreement. It only took them ten minutes to mobilize, and Erwin pushed his exhausted, frazzled troops faster than he knew was kind. Their discomfort, like the lives of their comrades, was well worth whatever awaited behind that thick fog of smoke.

He hoped.

Oh no-titans headed Ren's way! How will she manage? Will the Scouts make it in time to help? What on earth will Ren and Akiko make of the humans of Paradis-especially Humanity's Strongest shrimp? Haha-keep reading to find out!

To my lovely reviewers-/strongstrongGuest, XxInfatuationNotLovexX and Jayla Fire Gal, thanks for the encouragement!

It definitely helps to know at least some of you have read and liked what I have so far. Don't hesitate to let me know if I lose your interest; I am always looking for constructive criticism, and would love the opportunity to improve my writing.

TTFN! See you in Chapter 7 :)