Eclipse hadn't expected so many people to survive. each pod had 4 flares, and he was the only one to think to use them. now, he stood with two other former crew members of the fallen Aurora: Delta, and Arthur. Delta had experience as a medic, and Arthur was a marine biologist.
and a third person had come with the use of the third flare- only, this one didn't get to introduce himself. he was practically washed up. he climbed onto the pod and collapsed there face down. Delta had moved to grab him. it was only then that Eclipse had noticed that he was badly hurt, and bleeding profusely. upon further inspection, Eclipse realized that this person was tiny, no larger than a child. he needed a haircut, and he was too thin for it to be healthy.
once Eclipse finished making a list of the man's most visible problems, he made a face, and turned away to let Delta work on tending to his wounds. he hoped the newcomer was of some use to them. as cold as it would be to leave him to die, they couldn't really afford to have just an extra mouth to feed.
"Arthur. stop panicking. what were we talking about before...he showed up-?"
Arthur was staring at the figure below them with worry when Eclipse snapped him out of it. he forced himself to look away. "right, u-uhhm...we need shelter asap. a place to sleep, and a storage place, and a place for everything we need to survive below the waves."
"hm...alright, everyone pass me whatever materials you have."
Delta took off his bag and tossed it over, not wanting to pause what he was doing. Arthur took his bag off and took out some supplies. Eclipse glared at it. "that's it??"
Arthur shrugged. "yep."
Eclipse let out a groan. "alright- you guys just stay here. I'm going to go down and get supplies and start working on getting us a place to stay set up."
Arthur gave him a thumbs up, and he dove off into the blue.
Arthur knelt down by Delta, scanning the new face. pale, with dark shadows under his eyes, but pretty, almost. he looked peaceful and friendly.
"...he's gonna be okay, right?"
"well...whatever attacked him got him good." Delta started. "then he was heavily exerting himself. short answer? I'm not sure yet. only time will tell if he's lost too much blood or not."
Arthur nodded slowly. he didn't even know the stranger yet, but something told him that it would be wrong for him to die. maybe it was how young he looked. maybe it was just the fact that Arthur didn't want ANYONE to die.
he'd been devastated to realize that everyone on the Aurora was gone. some of those people he'd considered friends, or at least acquaintances. he'd been terrified to think he was all alone. so it was beyond a relief when he'd seen Eclipse's flare going off, and heard his whistle. Delta had been with him already.
with so many survivors, he almost had a little hope for other members of the crew.
while he waited, he decided to set off one of his own flares.
~
Creator and Revolver were struggling. they were bickering over priorities. Revolver said shelter and supplies were more important, while Creator said that they had the pods, but they needed food to live. they weren't getting anywhere with it.
Creator was the one who noticed the bright flashing light in the distance. abruptly, he stopped arguing and said "what's that-??"
Revolver huffed and looked off into the distance. his eyes widened. he recognized it immediately. "it's a flare-!! that means there are others!"
something they were both able to agree on was that if there were more survivors, they needed to team up. they weren't really getting anywhere on their own anyway.
they both dove into the water and headed for the pod with the flare on it.
Creator was the better swimmer, and he got there first. he noticed right away that there was quite a bit of blood in the water, dripping off of one side of the pod. someone must be hurt. he reached up, and heard a voice say "Arthur, go help whoever that is."
he saw a face pop over the side. it was a young man, who looked friendly and a bit nervous. this must be Arthur. "need a hand?" he said.
Creator nodded. "I'm not alone. Revolver should be along soon. my name's Creator."
"interesting name, nice to meet you, Creator!" Arthur chirped, as he took hold of Creator's arms and slowly hoisted him from the water to the pod.
there were two other people there. one was a small man with light hair and darker skin, who looked thoughtful, but worried and stressed. and he was treating the other, who was the source of the blood. this one could have been mistaken for a kid. he was deathly pale, and Creator wondered just how much blood he'd lost.
he didn't think about it long. Revolver was surfacing now, Arthur helping him up.
the dark skinned man didn't look up from what he was doing, but did ask "are either of them hurt?"
"I don't think so." Arthur looked at Revolver and Creator, and they confirmed. they were both fine, thank goodness.
"...what attacked him?" Creator pointed at the unconscious man. he was very glad that neither he nor Revolver had been attacked.
"we don't know." Delta responded. he was wrapping up what he was doing, finally.
"yeah, he just crawled up here and blacked out." Arthur shrugged, trying to act as though he wasn't bothered as much as he was.
they had all survived a ship crashing, and going up in flames. they had all lived up to this point. something taking someone's life so soon, after everything that had happened...well it just wouldn't be fair. Arthur didn't like the reminder that they were in uncharted territory, and hated thinking about the possibility that if this young man could die so soon...then they were all goodness knows how long away from sharing his fate. he could tell by the look on the other's faces that they were thinking similar thoughts.
the nameless man was their wake up call. their sign that they were all living on borrowed time. and it was beyond scary.
