Not Just A Titan On Their Side

Chapter 2

"Okay, seriously though, can we go and look for a dead body?"

"What the hell Jake?!"

I stared at my friend with wide eyes, staring at him as if he had three heads. "You know what I mean" he waved me off, picking up more fallen branches from off of the ground.

"I know what you mean Jake, but to put it that way" I grumbled, hoisting more wood into the basket strapped onto my back. "And why do we have to pick up the pieces from the ground? First off, I thought we weren't allowed on the ground, since titans and all? And second, I really think it could be useful to us, and besides, they're cool" he shrugged his shoulders, tightening the straps on his shoulders.

I stopped and took in the sight of my friend. He was tall and muscled from all the tree climbing and jumping we had to do all our lives. He wore faded jean shorts that reached just past his mid thigh and a dirt stained faded blue t-shirt sat tightly against his chest. He also wore his black hooded cloak today, since there was a bit of a drizzle. The cloak itself had multiple small tears and holes, but it was the best we had, and we weren't complaining.

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me, his hand coming up to wipe the short strands of his hair out of his face. "What?" he asked, turning to face me and blinking twice as water dribbled into his eyes.

"It's just weird... how we're so used to death out here" I said softly, not wanting to wrench open old scars. He shook his head and gave me a forced smile, "Well what did you expect? We live among giants that have a bloodlust for humans, I think we're supposed to expect a few deaths" he laughed dryly, bending down and harshly picking up a stack of wood.

I bit my lip a bit guiltily, suddenly feeling like I shouldn't have used the words I just said. There used to be more of us, we weren't the only teens in the past.

"Hey, why don't we go check out the sight where we saw the fight yesterday?"

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"I'm having second thoughts on this"

Jake stared wide eyed at the terrain in front of us, his hand clutched tightly on the branch next to his body. My eyes swept over the open and flat landscape, looking for any signs of danger, or in this case, titans.

It was hard to see even a couple of hundred meters in front of us, and we only saw that far thanks to the constant flashes of lightning in the sky. Everything was dark and the rain only came down harder on us, the water droplets feeling like hail battering down and bruising our skin.

We were back to the edge of the forest, the bodies of the people still in sight, but the titan was nowhere to be seen. They could have killed him and he would have vanished into thin air like any cut down titan, or they could have fled and left the bodies of their teammates as the titan was distracted form eating them.

"Stop whining, you're the one who wanted to do this in the first place! And besides, we've probably caught a cold by now, so I'm not going back without finding something that was worth getting sick over" I grumbled, pulling my own faded grey hood closer over my head.

We were both soaked to the core, our clothes soaked through as well as our shoes which were making squelching noises as we walked. We had our weapons with us, the same ones we picked up from the dead bodies of earlier findings.

They were swords, but they acted and were made a bit differently. For one, the handles could get knew blades and had triggers to shoot out the wires from the machines. We had to cut off the wires and all, but the swords were still pretty useful, and really sharp.

"Maybe we should come back when the rain lets up" Jake said nervously, scratching the back of his head as his eyes darted around frantically, even squinting every now and then when he thought he saw something.