The refugee camp outside Trost was a sprawling mess of tents and makeshift shelters.
Hundreds of canvas structures stretched across what used to be farmland, with narrow dirt paths winding between them. Cook fires sent smoke into the evening sky, and the constant buzz of voices—people asking about missing family, kids crying, adults arguing over supplies—filled the air with barely controlled chaos.
Jack stood at the camp entrance with his three companions, looking at what would be their new home. After two days crammed onto boats and another day filling out forms at Trost's headquarters, they'd finally been given a place to stay. The word "temporary" was written on every piece of paper they'd been handed, but nobody seemed to know what temporary actually meant.
"Block C, tent forty-seven," Jack read from the crumpled slip of paper. "That's us."
The tent was tiny—barely big enough for four sleeping rolls and whatever stuff they could carry. Which wasn't much. Jack had grabbed a few things from Henrik's bakery before they ran, but the others had nothing except the clothes they wore.
"Home sweet home," Jack said, trying to sound upbeat as he dropped his bag in the corner. "It's not great, but it's better than sleeping outside."
The three kids stood at the tent opening looking completely lost. Over the past few days, Jack had figured out their weird kind of shock. They'd do what you told them to do, eat when you gave them food, answer if you asked them something—but they couldn't seem to make any decisions on their own.
"Bertholdt, you take that corner," Jack said, pointing to the spot farthest from the door. The smaller boy seemed to feel safer when he wasn't near where people could come in. "Annie, you go next to him. Reiner, you're between them and me."
It was a setup Jack had worked out by watching them. Reiner felt better when he could protect the other two, and Annie needed space but also needed to feel safe. Bertholdt just needed to be as far from strangers as possible.
They put down their bedrolls without talking, moving like they were sleepwalking.
"I'm gonna go see about getting us some food," Jack said. "You guys should rest. I'll be back soon."
He'd barely left the tent when Annie caught up to him.
"I'm coming too."
Jack looked at her. Over the past few days, he'd gotten better at reading her moods. Right now, she looked determined but fragile, like she was forcing herself to keep going.
"You don't have to—"
"I want to learn how things work here." Her voice was steady, but there was something underneath. "Just in case... if something happens to you."
The idea that something might happen to him, that she was getting ready for another loss, made Jack's chest hurt. "Nothing's gonna happen to me, Annie."
"You don't know that."
She was right. The camp felt safe enough, but everything had changed. Nobody knew if there'd be more attacks, more walls getting broken, more titans. Planning for the worst wasn't being negative—it was just smart.
"Okay," Jack said. "But we stick together, and I do the talking. Some of these camp people can be..." He tried to think of a nice way to say it. "Difficult."
Annie's POV
The camp reminded Annie of the internment zone back home, but different too. Same desperate feeling, same careful sharing of supplies, same tension from too many people crammed together.
But here, nobody wore armbands to mark them as lesser. The guards had weapons to protect people, not to scare them. When children cried, adults held them instead of telling them to shut up and be grateful.
These people don't know what they are, Annie thought as she watched Jack sweet-talk a food volunteer into giving them extra bread. They just think they're normal people.
It bothered her how easily he worked the camp's system, how fast he'd figured out which officials to talk to and what to say. In just an hour, he'd gotten food for three days, found out where the medical tent was, and somehow convinced someone to move them closer to the bathrooms.
"How do you do that?" Annie asked as they walked back, arms full of bags of supplies, hidden as clothes from prying eyes.
"Do what?"
"Make people want to help you."
Jack thought about it. "I guess... most people actually want to do good things. You just gotta make it easy for them."
"What if they don't want to do good things?"
"Then you find someone who does." His smile was practical. "There's always someone who does."
The simple way he said it made Annie want to scream. Or cry. Maybe both.
She'd been taught to see enemies and allies, good guys and bad guys, us and them. But Jack saw individual people making individual choices, most of them just trying their best when things were hard. It was so different from how she thought that it made her dizzy.
Jack's POV
When they got back to their tent, Reiner and Bertholdt were sitting quietly, both staring at the tent wall like it had answers written on it.
"Food delivery," Jack announced, trying to sound normal. "Plus extra blankets and some other stuff."
"Thanks," Reiner said, but his voice sounded weird.
Jack set everything down and looked at them. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah," Reiner said quickly. "Just tired."
It was obviously not the whole truth, he sighed internally, but Jack had learned not to push when one of them shut down. They'd talk when they were ready. Or they wouldn't, and he'd have to find other ways to help.
"So," Jack said, settling onto his bedroll, "what do you guys want to do tomorrow?"
The question seemed to surprise them. Bertholdt blinked like he didn't understand.
"Do?" Annie asked.
"Yeah. I mean, we're stuck here for who knows how long. Might as well make the best of it." Jack pulled out the extra bread he'd gotten. "There's other kids here. Games and stuff. And I heard there's a stream about a mile east where people go swimming."
"Swimming?" Bertholdt's voice was small, but there was something almost like interest in it.
"Sure. Water's probably cold, but it's clean. Better than the camp baths, anyway."
Jack saw something pass between the three of them—a look he couldn't quite read. But then Reiner smiled, and it was the first real smile Jack had seen from any of them.
"That sounds good," Reiner said. "It's been... it's been a while since we went swimming."
"What about you, Annie? You swim?"
Annie was quiet for a moment. "A little."
"Great. Tomorrow then, if the weather's nice." Jack grinned. "Maybe we can catch some fish to grill."
For the first time since he'd found them in that alley, the tent didn't feel heavy with sadness. Bertholdt was actually smiling a little, and even Annie looked less tense.
Maybe things are starting to get better, Jack thought as he divided up the bread. Maybe we can actually be okay here.