"Howard!"
"Howard!"
The blonde boy turned away from the group yelling at him and muttered, "ch." The girl he just made fun of was covering her eyes with an arm and ran to the door of their house in the tree.
Howard never liked admitting he was wrong, or apologizing at all for that matter.
"You hurt Sharla's feelings," Bell scolded. Howard growled; Bell was supposed to be his follower, but he always sided with the others. "How do you think she feels?"
Even the quiet Kaoru was glaring at him from across the fire at Everyone's House. Howard always had to mess things up when they were going smoothly. He had a big catch that day, but they couldn't enjoy his fish when Howard goes off telling the shy girl she's useless.
"If she brought back more food maybe it wouldn't be true," the arrogant blonde kid retorted and Menori got in his face, shouting back at him.
"Enough," Luna jumped between them and Howard smirked as he turned away. She always got between him and whoever he was arguing with. He knew they were right a lot of the time, but as long as Luna was there to stop the argument, he didn't have to worry. "Howard," her voice was more stern than usual, "you should apologize to Sharla."
His eyes went wide, "Ehh?" He looked back and saw everyone staring at him. He tilted his head up towards the house on top of the tree and other than the sounds of the crackling fire, he could hear a quiet sobbing up in the tree. 'Is she really that upset?' His face changed for a second and everyone thought he was going to go, and then it returned to a wry grin and he turned around again.
"She'll get over it," he grabbed his bowl of food and walked away. They weren't going to leave him alone about it so he had to eat somewhere else. 'By morning they all will have forgotten about it,' he convinced himself.
He didn't go too far from the campsite so that the others could still hear him if he screamed. There were dangerous monsters in the forest after all. The boy walked out and sat on a large rock overlooking Fairy Lake.
It wasn't as comfortable as his bed in the boy's room, but it would do for the night. Suddenly he heard laughter on his left and looked across the bit of shore that he walked down to see the fire raging higher than before. Everyone was outside laughing and eating together, including Sharla.
'Good, they made her feel better,' he smiled and lay back on the rock. Then he frowned, 'I mean, now it'll be easier to walk back in like nothing happened.' He tilted his head sideways so he could watch them as he lay down and the happy campers looked ready to go to bed.
"When I'm not there they decided to have a party," he grumbled. 'Or maybe it was because I wasn't there...'
He stared up at the stars above his head, lost in thought about the other students he was stuck here with. The empty island was full of danger and peril, but also fun adventures with the other kids. 'Friends... No. They're not my friends,' he turned his head to the other side and rolled so he was as far on the other side of the rock as possible from the tree. 'Friends wouldn't leave me out here for the night.'
Sc
"Luna don't," Menori grabbed the orange haired girl by the arm. The girls were all getting ready for bed, but Luna said she was going to look for Howard.
"But..."
"We all know Howard," she was frowning but smirked a little, "he's too scared to go far from the tree. Besides, it'll do him and Sharla some good with a little distance."
Luna looked at the shy girl with glasses who was looking down sadly on her bed. She'd cheered up from one of Luna's special pep talks earlier, but she could tell what Howard said was still taking its toll.
The girl seemed to notice Luna was staring at her and shot out of bed. "No really it's fine, we shouldn't leave Howard out there." Though the words left her mouth, there was no conviction behind them and her friend could tell.
Luna was the leader and it was her decision. She finally sighed, "You're right Menori, we'll give him some time to cool down."
Sc
"Oof," Howard rubbed his head and looked around before groaning. It was he middle of the night and he'd fallen off the rock he was lying on since he pushed himself so far from the side near the tree.
He wiped off some dirt on his clothes and walked towards the water to get a drink. The boy looked down at the edge of Fairy Lake and wondered whether or not he should go back. His own reflection in the water made him grin and he put his thumb and pointed finger on either side of his chin. "Hello handsome Howard Junior."
All of a sudden his eyes opened wide as he looked above his reflection. There was a glowing yellow light in the water, except it was just like his face, a reflection. His head turned slowly up where he saw something coming out of the clouds in the distance. There weren't any stars in sight with the light cloud cover, so it could only be one thing.
"It's a ship," he whispered. He got up fast and started running down the shore towards their home, "It's a ship! Everyo..." his voice caught in his throat and a sly smirk spread across his face.
In a devious tone while he rubbed his hands together, the blonde child turned back and started running the other way closer to the descending ship and whispered, "If I come back with help they'll have to praise me. They'll forget all about the Sharla thing and accept that I'm the greatest." 'And it won't matter that I pressed the button,' his smile went away and he dug his feet in the ground as he ran harder, 'it won't matter that it's my fault we've been stuck here all this time.'
Howard jumped over roots and rocks. He climbed up a small cliff and kept the light in sight as it got lower. It was definitely glowing and now without a doubt it was a ship.
He figured he was far enough that the others wouldn't hear him and as he kept running, he held his arms above his head and waved them, "Oi! Oi we're down here! Hey!"
He reached a stream and didn't care that he'd get wet, running straight through it. "Oi! Hel-" he tripped on a root and his face skid on the dirt. "Owww," he got up and rubbed his cheek. He was starting to get annoyed that the ship showed no signs of changing course and coming towards him.
"I said I'm over here!" He yelled and jumped up in a small clearing. The ship was finally low enough that he got a good look at it and it made him smile even wider. It was one of his father's ships.
'Howard Corporation,' was written in big letters on the sides, but Howard recognized it since he worked on the designs with his papa. Now he knew for sure that his dad had people looking all over for him. 'Ha, and Shingo thought we needed the communications device to get help,' the blonde kid was about to shout again when he noticed something.
It was just like when they arrived in the shuttle. The sky was dark and the clouds were getting thicker. He watched as a bolt of lightning hit the ship and smoke started coming out of the top. "No!" His chances at being rescued were going down the drain and he was angry. The ship changed course a little and was getting closer to the ground fast as it spun around.
Whoever the pilot was, was amazing at his job. Howard stared as even though flames were coming from the ship, the ship was staying a little steady and managed to stay flat as it came down. It was further in the forest a ways, he thought maybe even in the Eastern woods, so he started running that way. The ship was about to get to the tree line and Howard thought it was actually going to land, and then the second lightning bolt hit.
It flew out of the sky and slammed into the cockpit of the ship, knocking the nose down and Howard heard the loud crash at the same time as his feet felt the vibration. He didn't know how far away he was from it, but his thoughts weren't on whether or not the crew was okay, he thought about the other students and wondered if they woke up from the vibrations.
Sc
"Kaoru, what are you doing up?" Luna asked the black haired boy in front of her. Both of them were in the living room and they thought they heard something which is why they woke up in the first place.
He kept his voice down as to not wake the others and looked out over the ledge where Howard's empty lounge chair was resting. "I don't know," His eyes glanced over the chair, but he wondered if the boy was in danger deep in the woods somewhere. Luna seemed to be thinking the same thing and when she looked out, she gasped.
"Is that, smoke?" She looked farther out and could definitely see some smoke coming out of the trees.
Kaoru growled, "That idiot better not set the forest on fire." Their food supply was slim as it was, they didn't need he fruit trees turned into ash.
"I'm sure he has it under control," Luna chuckled nervously. She thought she heard a loud crash which woke her up, but a long yawn reminded her that it was probably nothing. "It's going to rain in a little anyways, he'll head back when it does."
Kaoru nodded and then muttered, "I'm going to watch to make sure," he stared out and Luna shrugged as she headed back in the girl's room.
"What was it?" Sharla asked and Luna looked up to see both of the other girls awake.
"Oh nothing," Luna laughed and waved her hands, sorry for waking the others. "Howard just made his own fire."
After being there for around a month, it seemed like something they should all be able to do easily, but still, the girls chuckled as they thought about Howard trying to make a fire on his own.
Sc
Howard was walking the trees slower than before. He'd slowed down his running at first, but then he got to the trail. Next to him on his right was a path of broken trees and a huge trench that looked like something had skid through it recently.
There were small fires in the trench that the boy ran over to and stomped out so they wouldn't catch, but he could see the larger fire up ahead.
He kept slowing down until he got up a hill that the ship skid up. He looked down off the other side and saw the ship flat out with large dents all over it. The hull was breached in several places and the cockpit was destroyed.
There were flames coming out of the ship on different sections and Howard didn't know what to do. Before he could panic, he felt a raindrop on his dirty nose and looked up. The downpour didn't take long to start and he walked closer to the ship he wasn't as worried about anymore.
His eyes wandered around the broken pieces all over and he wondered if Shingo could fix it. Bell would need to help carry the pieces and they'd have to get Pague over to help. Luna would feed him while he and Kaoru pulled the ropes and led the massive elephant. His grin disappeared as he saw them.
When the glass of the cockpit shattered, the people inside didn't stay, inside. His eyes went wide and he felt puke in the back of his throat but he kept it down. There was someone lying halfway out of the glass and as lightning struck, he saw the blood all around them. It looked like the other pilot was thrown from his seat and Howard looked away from the man hanging off a branch in the tree.
"I should get the others," he muttered to himself. He was right next to the ship now and stumbled backwards, landing on his butt. "Ouch," he moaned and then he heard coughing on his right that made him snap his head that direction.
'Someone made it!' The boy ran to the side of the ship and to the broken part of the hull where someone was sticking their legs through first. "Are you here to save us?" Howard shouted and then saw the blood dripping down the person's leg. He decided to leave the important questions for later and reached in, pulling the metal up a little to make room and then yanking the person out of their ship. "Are you alright? Who are..."
The person pulled from the ship and the child who pulled him locked eyes and both of their jaws dropped. "P-Papa!"
"Junior?!" The man pulled from the ship asked in a quiet voice. His son dropped down and wrapped his arms around him, already crying about how scary and hard the island was and how the other kids were all annoying. "Son," he knew it was really his son after hearing only a few sobbed out sentences and he smiled wide. He started coughing in a fit and his son lifted his head up off his father's chest and looked at his dad's face.
"What's wrong?" The boy asked, wiping away tears. 'He's here! I knew he'd send for me, but he came himself! That's how much my papa loves me!' "Are you hurt?"
The smile on his dad's face was deceiving and Howard Senior tried to move as he shook his head 'no.' When he moved, pain coursed through his body and he moaned.
The blonde boy looked up as thunder cracked and lightning lit up the sky. Rain was pouring down on their faces, but Howard could see the color of the liquid on his father's face, and it was red. "Papa you're hurt," the boy reached up and yanked on the sleeve of his red shirt. He ripped it off and looked around his dad's head for the wound.
"You've sure become resourceful," his dad joked and started laughing. His laughs quickly turned into coughs, and this time they didn't stop and he felt a tremendous pain in his side. The man lowered a hand from his son's face since he determined this was real, and he lowered it to his side. The leader of the super corporation's eyes went wide and he let go of the huge shard of metal sticking out of his side. "Son," he started and the boy wrapping the cloth around the small cut on his forehead smiled down at him.
Howard saw something in his father's eyes that he didn't like. It made him scared, more scared than he'd been since... ever. "P-Papa, what's wrong?" His dad's expression changed in the last minute from one of joy to resignation. "You found me, I'm alive!" He shouted in an excited voice and his father just smiled at him.
"I'm sorry my son," the father whispered and lightning shot across the sky again. While everything was lit up, Howard saw something sticking out of his papa's side and he started shaking his head. "I'm sorry-"
"Don't say that," the boy argued and rose his voice. "Don't say," he stopped and smiled, "there are other students here. One of them might be able to help. Menori Visconti showed me how to wrap a bandage like this, she probably knows more about it. And this girl Luna, she's really smart and..."
"Oh," his father said with a genuine smile. "You've made friends too," his dad closed his eyes and smiled wide showing teeth as he chuckled. "And I thought nothing good came from this," the man was truly happy. The deaths he saw inside the ship of the rest of the crew in the back of his mind as he finally found his son. "Junior," he started and his voice was lower now.
The child was shaking his head and repeating the word, 'no,' in a defiant tone. He didn't want to hear anything his dad had to say while he was talking in 'that' tone. It was the same tone his mom used on her deathbed, and now he was doing the same thing.
"I'm proud of you," his father finished and Howard lifted his gaze in shock. He stared into his father's eyes and they kept staring at each other like that for ten, twenty, thirty seconds.
The child getting rained on realized his papa wasn't blinking. "Papa?" He asked, confused at why his dad's gaze didn't really seem to be on him any longer. "Papa! Papa!" He started shaking the man but Howard Sr.'s eyes stayed focused straight in front of him and the wide smile on his face never changed.
Howard stopped. He stared at the man in front of him and let go. When he was shaking his dad he didn't really care where he grabbed, but one hand was right under the large metal shark sticking out of his father's side, and now it was soaked it red. The kid's mind was swirling and he started screaming as he ran his hands through his hair over and over again. "Ahhhhh! AHHHHHHH!" His voice carried over thunder and he kept screaming until he was sure his throat was bleeding, and then kept going still.
The fires on the ship had all gone out except for one and Howard's eyes gazed on it as he was too exhausted to scream anymore. He looked down at his dad and with shaking hands he reached down and grabbed him. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice hoarse and drowned out by the rain. "It's my fault. I dislodged the escape pod. Everyone's stuck here because of me. You're dead because of me."
The child was dragging the grown man across the mud and towards the fire raging near him. "I let you down and if you'd seen me since I got here, you'd take back that you were proud of me." He stopped when the flames were too hot for him to continue and he pulled his dad up alongside next to him. "But you won't have died in vain papa," the kid's voice wasn't even audible to himself and just came out as a scratchy whisper.
The rain was still coming down hard and Howard rolled his father into the hole where the flaming piece of wreckage lay. He stared at his dad and thought about saying more, but the smell became too bad really quick and he threw up on the ground next to the flames. His throat was already on fire, and this shot so much more pain through his body but he took it without a single tear.
He turned around and started walking back through the woods the way he came. 'We have to get off this island, this planet. We have to get home.'
