As Eren was running among the trees, little drops of rain started falling to the ground all around him. The usually mushy soil soaked even more as water formed small puddles here and there. The mud and wet pieces of grass stuck to his feet, but he didn't care. Right now, he had to ensure the safety of their camp.
Inside the grove, the kids were running around in panic. Trying to desperately grab whatever possessions they could possibly have here, they completely disregarded the safety of the group.
As Eren jumped into the middle, he raised his conch, in hopes of getting their attention.
This time, however, no one even noticed that he was standing there. So much for being a chief…
"Eren!" He suddenly heard from behind.
As the dark-haired boy turned around, small form of Mikasa impacted with him, embracing him in a hug.
"Oh Eren!" She wailed, holding on to him as if her life depended on it "I was so worried! Where were you?"
"I was by myself" he responded, trying to collect his thoughts.
All of this looked like a horror scene. Their group was scattered all around the grove and none of them thought even for a minute that maybe, the shelters they've been building for the last three days could come in handy. Instead, they were trying to grab hold of some worthless possessions, even arguing over coconut halves.
"EVERYONE!" Eren yelled, enraged by their thoughtlessness "STOP! LISTEN TO ME!"
His outburst managed to break through the increasingly loud sounds of the storm and the children stopped in their tracks. For whatever reason, Mikasa clung to him even more.
"YOU'RE NOT THINKING RIGHT NOW!" He continued, trying to keep his menacing tone "A STORM HAS COME! DO YOU THINK THOSE HUTS WERE MADE FOR NO REASON?!"
This seemed to have brought them out of their craze and slowly, they came together, surrounding him and Mikasa.
"…Nine…Ten…Eleven…" He counted silently, trying to determine whether anyone was missing "…Plus me and Mikasa… That's thirteen…"
Thirteen… That meant that two of them weren't in the grove. As he looked over the faces in an attempt to remember everyone that were part of the group, he finally understood who exactly was gone.
"Marcel and Jean…" Eren mumbled "CAN SOMEONE TELL MY WHERE MARCEL AND JEAN ARE?!"
Reiner slowly walked over to him.
"Jean left earlier, said he was tired from yesterday" he explained "when the clouds started covering the sky, Marcel noticed that the two of you were gone. He said he would go look for Jean first…"
So, Marcel was playing the good guy, huh? Eren didn't know if he was angry that the boy left the group or not. With Marcel around, they would organize much faster given that the chief was absent, but that could potentially solidify his position as Eren's rival. And rivalry for the chiefdom, was not something that sounded good to Eren. Nevertheless, he still needed to go after him.
"Where did they go?" The dark-haired boy asked.
Reiner brought a hand to his chin, trying to remember the exact details.
"Jean was pretty upset with everything" he spoke "he was headed towards the other side of the island."
And the other side of the island was barely explored. While the place they were in was pretty flat and the shore was a long beach, the other side was much more elevated.
"The girls go with Mikasa!" Eren exclaimed, before turning around "the boys, with Armin! Get in the huts and stay inside!"
His two friends simply looked at him before rounding everyone up and leading them away to their respective shelters. Soon, the young chief was standing alone in the rain that was gradually getting heavier and heavier.
'Off I go' he thought to himself, before bolting towards the direction that he believed he would find the missing boys in.
Navigating around the jungle during a storm turned out to be a hassle as the roots of the tropical trees got slippery and the bedding got a lot mushier.
Just as he took hold of a nearby branch, his foot slipped, and the young chief fell into the mud.
"Son of a…" Eren swore, looking around, desperately trying to find something that he could hold on to.
All of a sudden, he noticed something weird on a bough of the tree that he fell by.
On the bark, a letter 'M' with a pointing arrow was carved.
"So, Marcel was here…" he mumbled, before picking himself up and striding forward with newfound determination.
After a long trek through the jungle, the terrain got a lot rockier. Unfortunately, the storm only unveiled more and more, with the pouring rain starting to restrict the boy's movement. The thunders were booming all around Eren and at one time, he could swear that the island had been struck by a lightning.
"MARCEL!" He yelled, trying to get a clue on where in the world the other boys were "JEAN!"
For a good moment, the only sound he could hear was rain and the distant thunders. After listening in for a few seconds, he could finally identify a yell, somewhere in the distance.
"…HERE…!"
Not willing to waste a single second, Eren bolted right towards the source of the sound.
As he passed the boulders, He saw a large cliff over a cove. Right at the edge, he could see the crouching form of Marcel.
"OVER HERE!" The other boy yelled, motioning for him to come closer.
"What's going on?!" Eren asked, as he crouched next to Marcel.
Instead of talking, the brown-haired boy pointed his hand downwards.
Over the cove, an unmoving body of Jean was dangling from some vines.
"Is he…?"
"…Alive?" Marcel finished "yes, I think so. He was hanging out here before…"
"What happened?" Eren asked, seeing a large cut on the dangling boy's head.
"He heard the thunder and slipped" the other boy explained, looking down "thankfully, there are a lot of trees here…"
Eren wasn't stupid. The whole situation looked extremely suspicious. He couldn't see Marcel's face when he was saying that, but he was sure that the boy was lying…
But he had no proof. Marcel didn't really strike him as a trustworthy person, but he didn't seem to have anything against Jean either. Besides, right now he really needed his help…
"…Ugh…" The duo suddenly heard the dangling boy groan in pain.
"Jean?!"
"…wha…What's going on…?" The stunned boy spoke groggily.
Suddenly, he noticed that he was hanging down from a cliff.
"Aaah!" He yelled as another thunder struck somewhere on the island.
"Relax Jean!" Eren shouted, before grabbing the vines that were holding one of the boy's legs.
As the duo helped each other with pulling Jean up, the dark-haired boy looked closer at Marcel. The boy was clearly troubled by something, that much he could see, despite the darkness and the rain.
"Oh, thank you!" Jean exclaimed as he finally grabbed onto the edge of the cliff and pulled himself up.
"How did you end up there?" Eren asked, while breathing hard from all the effort.
"Ugh…" Jean groaned, not caring enough to even answer the question "…my head…it hurts like hell…"
"Hey!" The young chief exclaimed, exasperated "do you remember how exactly you ended up there?"
"I've already told you" Marcel spoke in annoyance "he tripped down."
In that moment, only the sounds of the storm could be heard on the tall cliff.
"Yeah..." Jean spoke after a few seconds "I think that's what happened…"
But there was no confidence in the boy's voice. Eren looked away, defeated. Jean must've hit his head too hard.
As the young chief was sitting on the grass, Marcel tended to the other boy's wounds.
He couldn't have been the one behind this, could he? Under those circumstances, Jean could easily become a scapegoat for their group. No one would care for his demise all that much, given that he managed to generate so much animosity towards himself in such a short window of time.
Nevertheless, this was no time to be thinking about all that nonsense. Right now, they needed to reach the camp before it got even darker.
The storm raged over the island in darkness, with clouds shrouding any source of light that could possibly bring hope to those, who were simply trying to survive…