Rescue and Salvation
After I rescued Val, it didn't feel so bad anymore. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I didn't find her. But, as I said, she is one of my best friends now, and life without her would be a lot harder–it also means that I would have to put up with Jesse alone, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Honestly though, Val could be extremely funny and naive sometimes, like when she had to go piss on the boat. God, that was funny.
"Ugh Xander, what do I do?"
"I don't know!" I said, after finally calming down from a maniacal laughing spree, "Maybe, you could just piss of the side of the boat… or something"
"If you haven't realized... I'M A GIRL! I CAN'T DO THAT!" she glared daggers at me. "Besides," she added, "I don't need to 'piss', I need to pee." It was my turn to look astonished.
"Uh, question,"
"What?"
"Did you live on a stranded island or something? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that 'piss' has the same dictionary definition as 'pee'. "
"Well…"
"Huh. I guess you really don't know." There weren't a lot of things that surprised me back then, but this certainly did. I mean, what ten-year-olds didn't know what piss was? Hell, I knew when I was seven. I peered at her face, which was starting to grow as red as a tomato. Really innocent ones, I decided.
But, as much as I found the situation hilarious, who knew that complaining people would be so funny, it was a sort-of serious problem, and one that I decidedly solved upon glancing at some emergency supplies in the corner. I quickly walked over, and rummaged through them.
"What are you doing?" Val asked me. She seemed confused by my actions.
"Solving our problem," I answer, and lifting a blanket, I found a red bucket that laid there. Bingo! The people who packed these boats were thorough.
"Oi, Val, catch!" I threw the bucket at her. Luckily she caught it. If she hadn't then it would have fell into the ocean.
"What am I supposed to do with a bucket?!" Her initial surprised soon ended when she spied the words 'EMERGENCY RELIEF BUCKET' printed on the side in capital white lettering.
"W-Wait WHAT!" Val's face once again became flustered. I swear to god that she had turned pink in the face more than 10 times in the past 10 minutes. "You really think I'm gonna pee in this?"
"It's the only way Val... unless you're able to hold it in for who knows how long." I said, holding back a snicker, "Oh come on! Stop giving me that look." However funny this was, I really hadn't wanted to deal with Valentina complaining because she pissed her pants. "Come on Val!"
"UGH FINE! J-Just don't look okay? This is already super embarrassing."
"Haha. Fine, fine. I wasn't planning on watching anywa-"
"XANDER!" And the way she yelled my name, along with that face? Priceless. Absolutely priceless. And, being the respectful person I was (still am, to tell you the truth), I turned around and walked to the other end of the boat. I had to bite my lip the whole time she peed, because the bucket made the sound of her peeing two times as loud. I swear to god if her 'relief break' had lasted any longer, I would have bitten through my lip. Fortunately, I never did find out, because the ungentlemanly gentleman I was (still am, to tell you the truth), a huge laugh erupted through my mouth. As a reward I had gotten something (I later found out that it was a water bottle) and the words "XANDER SHUT UP!" thrown at my head. (Apparently, words could be thrown too). That just made it even funnier.
When Val was finally done she called me over.
"Now what?"
"Now~, you throw your piss into the ocean, dummy."
"But..," she hesitated.
"But, what?"
"W-what if the titans smell it and find us?" fear was plastered onto the girl's face.
"Are you serious? That's not going to happen..," I was prepared to laugh it off, but I found that she was being serious.
"No, they can, I read somewhere that they can, and that they could follow scents and that they could find us and that they…," she rambled off a few more mumbled words.
"No, they won't! Geez, stop being so paranoid!" but seeing that she was still a bit out of it I add, "Hey, it'll be fine, okay?"
"B-but..."
"Val... I promise you they won't show up. If you want I can dump it into the water for you." I offered. She nodded. Val passed me the bucket. I noticed that her hands were shaking. Taking the bucket from her, I quickly poured the urine into the sea.
"There," I said, turning around to face Val, who was still shaking, "All done. And we're not dead!" I added as a joke. But then, I realised there was nothing to joke about. Yes, we're not dead. But we could die tomorrow or the day after. That was the cruel world we lived in. However, I was determined to make Val feel better, so I sat down next to her and held her. It was the first time that I realised I was taller than her.
"Sh. It's going to be alright. Okay? I promise-" I lifted her chin up so she would look at me, "-trust me." I looked at her eyes, which were brimming. Finally she broke into tears. Her ugly sobs were muffled into my shoulder. I clutched her tightly. It was then I realised that Val was really scared of them. I mean, everyone is, but she really was scared. I started to cry as well. I didn't even know why. Now, I think that it was simply because the world I lived in. I was able to stand strong for a while, but little by little, my barriers tore down, and the world caught up to me. Even now, I think that some part of me is still on my knees, unable to stand again.
A couple days had passed after Val and I had a meltdown. That day I wasn't really in a good mood. Everything made me either upset or pissed off. I had ignored Val for most of the day. She tried to talk to me ask what was wrong but I didn't reply. I wasn't even sure why I was upset anyways. It was just another complication of world catching, though I didn't realise it. Finally, the sun set, and I just couldn't hold it in anymore. All my emotions broke free and I sat there with sobs running through my body.
X-Xander? You… Okay?" Val's words were bit slurry. I replied with a sob. She crawled in front of me. Warm tears streamed down my cheeks. "Xander, what's wrong? You've been upset all day." Val placed a hand against my cheek. Her callused thumb rubbed away the tear. "Please..."
I didn't answer, and Val didn't try to push the subject any further. It took about an hour for me to calm down.
"Do you want to talk about it now?"
"N-No"
"Well, whenever you're ready to talk about it I'm here, okay?" Nodding in response, I laid down. Falling asleep an old memory came back to me.
"Alexander! Dinner's ready!" My mother yelled, her voice ringing. I could always hear my mom no matter where I was in district A-39. I ran into the suite my family shared. We were better off than some of the other kids I knew. The smell of roasted potatoes danced in my nose. My mom was the best cook I had ever known. I walked to the table where dinner was waiting for me. Sitting down, I gave my dinner another quick sniff. Roasted potatoes, ribs and salad! My dad worked in the agriculture department, so we always had relatively good food, but we didn't get ribs or potatoes often. Grabbing my fork I took a piece of potato. Finally taking a bite and explosion of flavours erupted. Taking more bites of my dinner, I started to choke.
"Alexander, slow down when you're eating. I don't want you to die because you choked on a piece of potato." Mom laughed at me.
"Sorry mom. It's just soooo good!" I whined.
"I'm happy you like it Alexander." She turned around and when back to the kitchen. Smiling for no reason I continued to eat my dinner.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
A continual beeping sound woke me the next morning.
"Nff... Where's that coming from?" I groaned. Rubbing my eyes, I turned my head to face Val. Val was sound asleep. How did she sleep through that? I got up and shook her aggressively she woke up too. "Do you hear that, Val?"
"Y-ya... what is it?" she accompanied that with a giant yawn
"I dunno. Help me look for it?"
"Sure" It didn't take long to find the source, which was the S.O.S. radio that got Val's signal. I was surprised to not have recognised it.
"How would there people sending signals still? It's been ages since the fall. "
"I'm not sure…,"I pondered. After a few moments of silence-
"Well are you going to answer it?"
"Oh! Yeah, of course." Grabbing the radio I pressed the receive button. "H-Hello?"
After a few moments of static, we heard someone speak to us. Well, not directly.
"Hey! Mike! Get up! Get Up! They got the call the call! God…WILL YOU GET UP!" We were slightly stunned by this, but I assumed that the 'they' she (at least, I think it was a she), were us, so I kept listening. Another voice joined the fray.
"Well, it was about time-"The man yawned "- Hanji, I don't know how you can be so energetic in the morning…." I assumed that this was Mike, and the previous person was Hanji.
"Ahem. Hello? I mean, Hello. This is Zoe Hanji from Ark Rose. Do you read? I REPEAT! Gosh I've never done this before! I mean I REPEAT! DO YOU READ." The last bit was said so loud that I jumped and Val slightly backed away.
"Um. Yeah? I mean…Hello?"
"Oh God. It's a kid." This was Mike. "Oi! Ackerman! We've got ourselves a kid."
Val giggled next to me. I had to admit, this was funny.
"Well, actually," she corrected, "two kids."
"Well, gosh," Hanji was back, and in the background Mike was yelling at someone called Ackerman to 'get down here'. It seems like this 'Ackerman' finally came, because we were introduced to a new voice.
"What's with all this fray? And Zoe, STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! DON'T TOUCH THAT STUFF" Static came back and a moment later, the new voice mike called 'Ackerman"
"Hello, this is Saiki Ackerman of Ark Rose. We found a life jacket which was presumably thrown aboard imprinted with this serial number. May I ask who I am speaking to?"
"Uh. Hi. My name is Xander Jeager. A-and I'm with-"
"Valentina Gucci" Val said after.
"Yeah, and we're um, well, I am a survivor from Ark Maria"
"And I'm from an authorized INA boat, called Titania, which sank a couple of weeks ago." There was a certain sort-of stunned silence.
"…you survived on your own all this time? The fall was nearly a month ago!"
"Y-yeah"
"Okay, the S.O.S. radio is on a sort-of of stand, right?"
"Y-yeah."
"Do you see a box next to it?"
"Uh-huh."
"Open it" I did.
"Now, in the box, there's four guns, right?"
"Y-yeah." He seemed to sense my discomfort, and he added-
"Don't worry, they're not real guns, they send flares" Relieved, I nodded but I realised that he couldn't see me, and I hurriedly said,
"Yeah."
"The first on from the left is black, it's used for titan sightings. The second one is red, that's for emergencies. The next one is yellow. That's the one you need. Just take it out and shoot it into the sky."
"Okay..?"
"Normally, we would find you by GPS, but the battery in your lifeboat probably ran out."
Okay. I can do this. Slowly, I raised my hand and pointed the gun to the sky.
BANG!
A yellow flare trailed up. I returned the gun to its case and waited for what seemed like an eternity.
"We have received your signal. Expect us in the next 24 hours."
Yes. YES. YES! I was so overwhelmed I couldn't say anything, so Val replied for me.
"Thank you! Thank you so so so much!" Valentina shouted in glee.
"You are very welcome, Valentina. Oh, and Xander?" Hanji said.
"Y-yeah?"
"That was perfect."