Shining Waves

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"What's that stuff?" Armin asked pulling his horse to a stop and pointing at the ground. Matthew paused and went over to were Armin was and looked at what he was pointing at. The nation laughed and dismounted his horse. He picked up the object and brushed the dirt off it.

"This is a cell phone, an older one though." Canada said holding it up. It was rusty and had a few dents.

"Not surprised that thing survived." Prussia said. "Those kind vere almost indestructible."

"That's a cell phone?" Krista asked surprised. "It's so small!"

"This is a bigger one. They got thinner over the years." Canada said.

"That's the thing that lets you talk to people without being next to them?" Armin said with an inquisitive look in his eyes. Matthew passed the phone over to him. He turned it over in his hands looking at every detail. "Why are there numbers?"

"Jou'd put a series of numbers into the phone and it vould call someone. Each series of numbers belonged to a different person." Prussia explained. "Jou need somebody's number to call them."

"That must have been annoying, having to remember all those numbers." Jean said scratching his head.

"The phone saved the numbers. We didn't have to remember them." The blond explained. The phone had made it around to all the scouts and back to Matthew. He put it into his saddle bag and climbed back onto Spitfire and they started off again.

"How far are we going?" Mikasa asked.

"Not too much farther, a few more kilometres north them we'll head back east." The Canadian said.

After about another hour of traveling, Canada spotted a few rusted metal I beams sticking up out of the forest floor. Matthew knew that they were close to what used to be Vancouver. Another few steps and the horses hooves started to click on concrete and forest opened up to decayed moss covered buildings. Nature had taken over the skyscrapers and cars. The wind had died down enough that it wasn't picking up the sea water anymore and there were a few clear patches in the sky.

"Was this a city?" Eren asked looking up at the moss covered buildings. There were birds and animals living among the ruins. They could also hear the groaning and stomping of titans in the distance.

"It used to be." The Canadian said continuing down the street. He didn't want to stay around here too long, something felt off. He knew that they couldn't travel too much farther before it was dark; they planned on stopping soon. They went for a couple more blocks before turning east.

The scouts traveled inland for a few kilometres before finding a nice building that was still almost fully intact. The only things that were missing were windows that had most likely been blown out by wind and a door that had just eroded away. It looked like it used to be a store. They made camp inside the building. It was the perfect size for them. They left the horses to wander around outside.

"Jou okay?" Prussia asked Canada quietly as they unpacked. The younger scouts had gone to explore the upper floors.

The blond had spaced out and jumped at the sound of Gilbert's voice. "What?" He asked. Prussia repeated the question. "I'm fine. Somethings off though, I'm not sure what. It's probably nothing."

"If jou say so. Is it a titan?" Gilbert asked and Matthew shrugged. The younger scouts came back down the stairs talking among themselves.

"We can get up to the roof by those stairs. It's perfect for night watch." Eren said jumping off the last stair. The other scouts walked down normally.

"Good. Ve'll have supper up there." Gilbert said gathering up their cooking supplies.

"I'll find some rocks and wood." Krista said heading for the door.

"I'll go with you." Canada said moving to follow the blonde. Mikasa and Jean jumped to help as well while the others followed Gilbert upstairs. Finding rocks was easy among the moss, but it was harder to find logs. It took them a little while, but they were able to scrounge up enough.

The scouts went back to the building and started to set up the fire pit. The food was prepared and ready to cook when they had finished setting up the fire pit. Matthew cooked while Gilbert told the trainees stories and explained more about how cell phones worked.

"Supper!" The nation called getting everyone's attention. He served everyone before serving himself. They ate quietly and when they were finished Jean spoke up.

"Can you sum up all of human history in five words?" Jean asked setting his plate down.

"We fucked up, really bad." Canada said biting his lip.

Jean raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"We were messing up the planet with all our technology. A lot of them released gases that harmed the environment. If humans had kept going the way they were, our planet wouldn't be able to support life." Canada shrugged.

"Humans really screwed up the planet. Vith out us it vould have been a lot better off." Prussia said.

"In all honesty, without the titans, humans would have probably killed themselves by global warming or each other with wars." The blond said. "In a way, they saved humanity"

"That's a weird thing to say." Sasha said furrowing her eyebrows.

"It is." Matthew mumbled. He'd never actually thought about it that way.

"Without humans would you still be around?" Eren asked.

Gilbert shrugged. "Vho knows? Ve don't really know vhy vere here in the first place. None of us know if our existence revolves around just humans."

"Are you born like a human?" Mikasa asked.

"No, we just show up. We do age to a certain point though. We don't have biological parents; we do have adopted families though. None of us are related by blood." Canada said.

"How old are you guys exactly?" Connie asked.

"I'm around nine hundred? I think." The Canadian said quickly doing some math in his head.

"You're old!" Sasha said surprised. Matthew laughed at the expression on her face. "You said you were old, but I didn't think that old."

"He's older than me." Canada said sticking a finger in Prussia's direction.

"Yup, by a couple hundred years." Gilbert snickered. "Ve're as old as dirt."

"No, China was as old as dirt. He was over a couple thousand years old when I was little!" Matthew said with a laugh.

AN: Sorry for the later post. I am currently drowning in the Starsky and Hutch fandom.