"Everyone!" Eren exclaimed, gathering attention of the kids laying peacefully in the shade of the trees "this is definitely an island!"
"He's telling the truth…" the grumpy voice belonging to Marcel affirmed those words.
Murmurs of consternation spread among the group. Armin worriedly looked towards the conch that laid beside him.
Suddenly, the shell has been grabbed by someone else.
"Oh, that's just great" the freckled female known as Ymir spoke, while playing with the conch in her hands "how about that lookout you said you'd do."
"I haven't seen any traces of other humans" Eren explained, watching warily as Ymir tossed the precious shell up and caught it while still in the air with her other hand.
"No settlements, no harbours" Marcel continued "this is a desert island…"
"Well, not anymore I guess" the freckled female added, before handing the conch over to Eren "come on, chief, tell us what to do."
A tint of red overwhelmed his cheeks as the boy looked towards the grinning Ymir. He nervously tried to avoid her playful glare.
"First, we need fresh water" he said.
"Isn't there water in the ocean?" Connie asked lazily.
"Are you daft?" Jean asked with annoyance "it's salt water, you can't drink it, you'll get sick."
"So maybe we should just take the salt out of water" the shorter boy proposed "this way we'll have both water and salt for later…"
"You really are stupid, aren't you?" Ymir asked, grinning from ear to ear.
"Hey!"
"We should look for a brook" Armin spoke, before taking the conch from Eren "any still water from a pond is no good either…"
"Why so?" Sasha asked.
"You'll get sick if you drink still water too" Mina explained "boys in my village would drink from a lake and then, they all had…"
The girl fell silent as the tint of pink glazed over her cheeks in embarrassment. The little crowd laughed at that, given the obvious conclusion to that story.
"Alright, everyone" Eren exclaimed, taking the conch once again "let's split up and go look for a stream or a waterfall."
"Let's go!"
"Yeah, let's look for water!"
Boys and girls stood up from the ground left and right. But before they left, there was something else for Eren to say.
"Wait!" He exclaimed, stopping them just as they were about to go for their search "while you're at it, you should look out for any potential supplies too."
"Supplies?"
"A good part of the plane fell onto this island" Eren elaborated "there is a chance that there were crates filled with goods in the cargo deck."
"But the plane fell into the ocean…" the dark-haired girl from Marcel's group expressed.
"We were hit before that" the young chief continued "maybe there are still some supplies that we can use, here."
That was an important thing that he had almost missed. Thankfully, it came to his mind, before they departed.
"Alright."
"Understood, chief."
"Let's go now."
"We should meet here at noon" Armin added, looking towards Eren.
The young chief only nodded and motioned for the children to depart on this new, small adventure.
With a sense of pride, Eren watched them divide themselves into groups and go. Somehow, he was able to bring them together and give them a little hope for the future.
Just as he was about to leave himself, he spotted that the quiet, blonde girl from his initial group was still laying under a tree.
"Hey!" Eren spoke, trying to get her attention.
He didn't get any answer from her, so he walked over to the tree she was procrastinating under.
"I didn't catch your name before" he said, looking into her blue eyes.
"It doesn't matter" she replied simply.
Eren sighed at that. Even the inactive blonde from Marcel's group went with the rest, so why did this girl decide to stay.
"You voted for me, haven't you?" He asked, trying to understand her logic.
"I have" she replied, this time looking directly at him.
"So" Eren continued, his patience running out "why don't you go and look for water. You'll need it too."
"We're all going to die anyway…"
The resignation in her tone, was the thing that struck him. She really didn't believe in the rescue, nor did she consider even trying to fight for any kind of future here.
"As long as we keep moving forward, we're not going to die" Eren stated, straightening himself up "we're out in the wild. Here we need to fight and fight and fight again, to live another day."
The small girl sat up to look at him.
"Do you want to die?" He asked her.
"I don't know…"
"Forget about everything else" Eren pressed on "about other people, things and stuff. Think about yourself, for a moment. Do you really want to die?!"
Silence fell between the two. The boy took a deep breath and turned around.
"Historia…"
"Huh" he exclaimed, before looking back towards the girl.
"That's… that's my name" she stuttered, as she was slowly standing up "Historia…"
"Cool" Eren responded, before walking away to search for water.
"Wait!" Historia yelled as she ran after him.
Somehow, they ended up going together. Well, more like, she was just following him. During their trek through the jungle, she would tell him all about her childhood, much to his annoyance.
"I was born a bastard child of a local lord" she explained as he helped her up, onto a rock "they forbade me from using my real name… I was known as Krista… That's why…"
"Listen" Eren interjected suddenly "nobody here even knows you. Just be yourself, okay? Whatever they made you do in the past doesn't really matter."
"Oh…"
But he could see that the girl grew a small smile on her face.
Now he was the flustered one. He basically told her to shut up, but her beautiful smile made him want to listen to her more and more.
'Ugh' he thought, trying to listen to the sounds around them 'get a hold of yourself…'
Suddenly, he heard a weird noise. Almost like…
"There's a waterfall somewhere around here" he exclaimed, trying to pinpoint where exactly was the sound coming from.
Historia focused for a moment as well, before widening her eyes and looking at him in surprise.
"You're right" she spoke "I can hear it too…"
"Let's split up" Eren said "you go left, I go right…"
Hesitantly, she complied and the two went their separate ways in search for water.
This terrain looked a bit different to what you'd regularly find in a jungle. The trees were dense here as well, but the rocks were almost completely covering the ground which steadily got steeper as he walked uphill.
"You hear me?!" He yelled, while looking around for the source of the sound.
"Yeah!" He faintly heard Historia's yell from behind the thick line of stones and vegetation.
"Just shout if you find something!"
Suddenly, he saw a weird shape.
Between rocks, there was something unnaturally rectangular, almost like.
'A case' Eren thought, walking over to the spot it was laying in.
Indeed, this was your regular case, covered in brown leather and with a small lock. Thankfully, it wasn't closed.
'It must've fallen from the plane' he said in his mind, before opening the coffer.
His heart stopped that instant, for a good moment.
Inside the case, on a silky red material, laid a loaded revolver.
Eren knew how useful and dangerous this item could be. His father owned one and he would often demonstrate to him the proper use of such weapon. When handled the right way, it could be deadly…
What should he do with it? Should he tell others about his find? Or maybe, he should keep it to himself…
They were all kids. They would no question try using it as soon as they laid their eyes on the gun. No. He had to hide it somewhere…
"Eren!" He suddenly heard Historia's voice "I found the waterfall! Where are you?!"
The boy hastily dug through the rocks and placed the case in the small cavity he had made.
'It's for the better' he thought as he covered it with the excess rocks.
"I hear you!" Eren shouted back as he stood up from the ground "where are you?!"