The pine tree was later cut down for wood using the laser. He started a fire with the watch as well. They also built a clothesline with the smaller sticks to let their clothes dry out over the fire. Down to their underwear they sat very close to each other out of necessity, counting on the fire and body heat to keep each other warm.
The shivering ceased. Jimmy's knuckles continued to bleed. Without any proper bandages he ended up using his own T-shirt. Cindy gave him hers to wrap around the other hand. There was quite a bit of protesting but she won in the end.
Looking out over the ocean, all he could think about was how bad he screwed the world over. He was stranded. He never thought about how lucky he was that he wasn't alone. Eventually he would probably come to see it that way.
"What do we do now?" Cindy asked.
He didn't look at her. He prefered to wallow in his self pity. It was what he deserved. It was all over.
"Jimmy?"
Of course she would keep asking until he answered.
"Nothing." He finally said.
She scoffed. "Come on, Jimmy. You have that watch. Can't you reactivate Goddard or-"
"We're cut off, Cindy. I looked into it earlier. The watch works but it can't connect to a network. They took everything and cut off my ability to communicate, okay. And I don't even know how much battery I have left on this thing after that air jump. We're stranded."
Morning came. The fire had gone out at some point in the middle of the night. Sunlight beamed out over the horizon, flashing its way over to his eyes. He slowly began to open them. Right away the brightness was too intense. He sat up immediately as he shut his eyes, his arm covering his face.
He waited a second for them to adjust. His head turned to the left looking to the ground as his arm continued to shield the sun. She wasn't there.
Sight immediately blacked out as something soft fell over his head. He didn't react to it right away, still half asleep. Eventually he could tell with enough light that it was his long sleeve sweatshirt.
"Get up." He could hear Cindy say. "I found some coconuts for breakfast."
He removed the sweatshirt from his forehead. It was still fairly bright. He looked back away from the horizon. Much better now.
Cindy was fully clothed, walking up to him with his clothes and breakfast. He took them as she sat next to him.
He put on his clothes and ate in silence as they just sat there. It wasn't until Cindy suggested "We should look around. See if we can find anything." that they got up and got moving.
They had been walking along the shore for minutes. Neither said a thing. Jimmy was too upset to even be thinking about the pain coming from his hands. He wasn't going to forgive himself easily over this one. On the other hand Cindy knew he was hurting. Punching that tree made it obvious but she was more concerned about him at this point. She should've been upset that they were deserted but it wasn't like they couldn't take care of themselves. They both had done this before. They knew how to survive and they were only 11. That's why she couldn't accept defeat as easily as he was. They had been in worse scrapes than this. It couldn't just end here.
The silence wasn't working for her. Eventually they had to talk. She was the one that broke the ice. "So… You didn't kill Jerry, huh." She referred back to the event after Christmas.
She looked to see his reaction. His face didn't seem any different than before. It probably wasn't the best topic to open with. "No, I didn't kill him." He answered morosely.
She didn't respond back right away. They continued to walk forward. It wasn't exactly an ideal topic of conversation, but she continued it anyway. "How did you find him?"
Again a pause between question and answer. "He came to me."
"What?" She responded back surprised.
"He came back to the lab right after your dad's funeral. He said he had nowhere else to go."
"So you just let him in?" She asked still a little confused.
"It made sense at the time. I thought he could help me and he was up for it."
"Help you with what?"
There it was. The thing he tried to say the night before. The thing he should've said earlier. But now it didn't seem like a big deal to hide it any longer. Now that they were stranded what was there to hide anyway?
"I was planning an expedition in space. We were supposed to leave in 2 days. That's why the lab looks different now-"
"You were leaving?" She asked right away.
He paused for a bit, keeping his head down. "Yeah. I was going to tell you eventually but… You said it last night. We were getting closer and I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do. I didn't know what to say. I'm sorry."
He kept walking with his head down. At that moment she couldn't feel angry at him. He was already beating on himself. It was depressing just to look at him walk. "Well I'm kind of humbled you took my advice." She said referring to that night in the hangar.
"Doesn't really matter now though." He continued moping.
They kept walking. Watching him walk this lazily was downright ridiculous. It was pitiful. There was no way he could accept defeat this easily she thought.
She attempted to brighten him up a bit. "Remember the last time we were stuck on an island?"
Of course he remembered. They talked about it fairly recently. He probably thought it was a stupid question but she had to start somewhere. But he ignored her and just kept walking.
She continued. "It really sucked at first but then we started to have fun." She reminded trying to cheer him up.
"Cindy, please stop." He quit walking and faced her. "I really fucked up. Big time! They have everything I've ever worked on. Everything I've ever hacked into. It's enough for them to launch every nuclear bomb if they knew how to do it. And with Jerry they probably will know how in no time. I killed everyone, Cindy."
"Jimmy, stop doing this. I know there's another plan, there always is. We both know there's a way out of-"
"There's no way. They won, Cindy."
"What about the watch? There has to be a way to-"
"I told you. They cut me off from any network. There's no one I can contact."
"Are you kidding me? You have a working piece of technology on your wrist. You can find a way to make it work and reconnect. We can have a rescue ship come out here for us."
"Yes, we could. I could go into the forest right now, find some rocks and sticks, carve some useful tools so I can open the watch and work on finding a signal. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG THAT WILL TAKE! Everyone will be dead before I even have the chance."
"It's better than nothing." Cindy retorted.
Jimmy turned away. "It'll take weeks, maybe months." He began walking forward. "By then what would be the point?"
Cindy began to catch up. "Neutron! I'm not about to-"
"IT'S DONE!" He faced her before she could say anything else. "He turned on me and took everything I have. They won." He kept walking on. "I'm sorry I ruined your life."
She had been standing there defeated, but that last bit really ticked something off in her. "What?" He kept walking on. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just leave me alone, okay."
"Neutron!" She put an arm on his shoulder and spun him around to face her. "'I ruined your life?' What're you talking about?"
"You shouldn't have come. You had everything going right. You're getting experience at your job and you have medical school in the fall. And then I drag you into this. It's all-"
Cindy lifted her hand. "Stop right there! You can pity yourself all you want but don't start apologizing for me. I came here with you, okay. I made my own choice to help you out so don't feel bad for getting me stuck here with you. Don't tell me I would've been better off, especially now that the world is ending. I'm glad I'm stuck here with you. I don't want to see a nuclear holocaust. Besides someone has to make sure you don't die from repeatedly bashing your head into a tree."
He looked at her a little surprised. Even though it wasn't the first time she made it clear she cared about him on this island it certainly now felt like it. It wasn't from her own doing but he had just been too busy beating down on himself. She had looked at him waiting for an answer but it never came. He didn't know what to say. Instead she just proceeded to move forward. He followed behind her.
An hour of walking and nothing new to show for it. They sat on the sand. The situation was hardly happy, but at least the view was beautiful in its own right and the sound of the waves crashing offered some peaceful calm.
What she had said stuck with him for the past hour. He finally began to feel the pain in his bruised up hands along with the regret of letting rage take over. It was all for nothing and it was becoming painful. But also the realization that he wasn't in this alone. He had been so busy punishing himself that there were no thoughts for anyone else. He hated having her around. It had nothing to do with her company, it was just that he really hated to think he was responsible for dragging her into this regardless of what she said. But she was right. He was lucky that there was someone there that had his back. If there was anyone to be stuck on a deserted island with it would be her. He finally let out a bit of a smile at the thought of that. They had both said that to each other once. At the time it was a great relief on their relationship. It changed every interaction they had going forward. Even if they still argued that moment seeded the idea in both their brains that each one still cared very much about the other regardless. It was a life defining milestone for them both. It was doubtful that history would repeat itself this time.
Jimmy spoke. "Hey, um…" Surprised, Cindy to turned to look at him, awaiting whatever words he had to say. "You know it was 11 years ago." He turned to face her. She payed closer attention. "When we were stranded on that island." He clarified.
Her eyes went down as a smile slowly crept on her face. "I guess so, yeah."
He looked out over the ocean. "If we were still stranded there what do you think we'd be doing?"
She chuckled lightly at the question. "God, I don't know."
"We'd have grown out of our old clothes and gone primitive with loin cloths."
Cindy laughs. "Ew, no. I don't even want to think about."
He smiled but it faded back into reality. "Well you're going to have to start. That is if we're lucky and VX gas never makes it out here." That certainly killed the mood but it was a hard truth to ignore. He tried to bring it back around. "But if we still were out there what do you think would've happened?"
She looked at him a little surprised. "How do you mean?"
He thought it over. "I guess with us. Assuming we were the only faces we saw then how do you think we would be after 11 years?"
"It's like you're asking what it would be like if we got married."
Jimmy chuckles. "If that's how it happened we practically would've been." She simultaneously scoffed and smiled at the idea. "But seriously, do you think we would've been okay?"
She was surprised by the level of concern that came with that question. "Yeah, I do. We were able to make smoothies and build two houses in one day. We would've been fine-"
"I don't mean survive. I meant you and me…"
It confused her what answer he was looking for out of this. "We would've been good. We were happy. It was so much fun that I didn't even want to leave, remember?" She laughed at that memory.
On the other hand Jimmy wasn't laughing. Cindy realized she was the only one that was. It ceased when she saw his lack of enthusiastic expression. "I don't think we would've been happy."
Again she looked at him surprised. "Why not?"
He looked out to the ocean not daring to face her. "Think about it: we always fight. Even though we can get along we both end up at each other's throats eventually. And seeing the same face for 11 years is just…" He looked back up to Cindy. Her face was getting confused, saddened, and seemingly offended. He looked back down. "Just forget it. I don't know what I'm saying."
She just looked at him running his fingers through the sand. Something was definitely off. "Neutron, does this have anything to do with why you couldn't tell me you were leaving?"
He didn't have to look at her. She could see his eyes briefly widened after that question. Even though he quickly managed to conceal it she got the answer she was looking for.
He looked back up at her frustrated face. "That's not what I'm saying." He broke it as casually as possible.
"You don't think it would work out. That's it, right?"
"Does it matter? We're both stuck here."
"Does it matter? Of course it matters. We're stranded again and you're telling me you don't think we can get along."
He stood up. "Cindy, that's not what I meant-"
She stood up. "NO! Don't start with that, Neutron! You said exactly what you meant. And guess what? You were right as usual because right now we are fighting." He stared at her blankly. She took a deep sigh. "I don't know why I even bother with you. I'm trying to be the best friend that I can be here. I went on this adventure because if you got yourself killed I wouldn't have forgiven myself knowing I could help you. I stopped you from damaging your hands so badly because you wouldn't be able to build anything integral to our survival. I laid next to you so we wouldn't get hypothermia. WE'RE STRANDED ON A FUCKING DESERTED ISLAND and I'm doing everything I can to keep both of us from breaking. And you're telling me we're not going to get along?"
Jimmy sighed. "That's not-"
She got up, turned around and walked away.
He placed his hands behind his head and looked straight up at the sky, opening his mouth to silently curse. He then released his hands and looked back to Cindy, their distance growing as she continued to storm off. He knew he was a burden. He appreciated what she'd done. But for some reason it was hard to say what he really felt. The only person standing in his way was himself. For the longest time he was his own worst enemy. That was okay. He didn't mind it. Being angry with himself he could handle. He really didn't have any other choice. But he wasn't about to be the cause of losing the last person he would ever see in his life.
She had walked almost 100 yards away from him. He ran. "Cindy!" She didn't stop. He kept running. "Cindy!"
He finally caught up to her. "Cindy, wait!"
She turned around annoyed, crossing her arms over her chest. "What is it?"
He stopped. "I'm terrified, okay." She began to turn back but stopped. "I mean it. I'm scared for my mom. I'm scared for Sheen. I'm scared for Carl. I'm scared for everyone right not. I helped create hyperintelligent ants and put them in alliance with a hyperintelligent mouse. They're armed with the most dangerous gas on the planet and they're about to kill everybody with it. I… If that gas doesn't hit us then how am I supposed to live with that? And what about you? Even after we adjust to this place and start a decent life for ourselves you'll eventually come to resent me. You'd have to. I just got your mom killed. I got your friends killed. I destroyed your future and you will hate me for it when you see it that way. You'll realize that you're trapped with the guy that ended the world. Honestly, that scares me so much right now you have no idea. I'm even surprised that you're taking all this remarkably well right now… I appreciate that you stopped me yesterday. I'm glad you're here but…" She could see his eyes start to water up. "Cindy, I really don't know how I can come back from this one."
In that time her expression shifted to one of sympathy. "I'm not mad at you." She said sincerely. "You're fine. You're going to figure this out, you know. You always do."
He chuckled uncomfortably. "Cindy, I wasn't joking around. We're cut off." He looked at the ground. "We're stuck here."
Here he stood defeated, but she knew better. There was no way it could end here. "Carl once told me you built a time machine to get out of the dinosaur age." That got his attention. He looked back at her. "Well?"
"The cretaceous period? Yeah, I did that."
"And…"
"I doubt there's diamonds here to make it work."
"But…"
"What're you getting at?"
"Jeez, you really got dumber."
"Cindy!" He yelled at her. Something caught the corner of his eye. It was far away down the beach.
"My point is you can still build something to get us out of this mess. It might be a time machine to go back and fix all this. It might not-"
Jimmy pointed out beyond. "I think it might be something else."
Cindy looked out to where he was pointing. "What?"
"Please tell me you see it too."
"See what?"
"Right near the end in that bank. What does that look like to you?"
She focused more on where he was pointing. It was tough to see clearly but there was something poking out. Almost as if it were some kind of structure or a… "Is that…" She didn't finish the question. She turned to Jimmy. "Do you think-"
"Let's find out." He took off running down the beach.
Sure enough it was. The tree houses they had built the last time they were stranded. They spent the night on their own island and didn't even know it.
"I can't believe it." Cindy marveled at them. "All these years and they're still standing."
"Of course they are. The tubes passing through the bottom support them in place. They're guaranteed not to wash away."
She looked at him perplexed. "What're you talking about?"
He looked back at her and laughed. "We just found our ticket out of here." He ran up to his treehouse.
She stood there still confused. "What?"
"Come on!" He shouted as he ran.
She caught up with him at the lift in front of his house. She noted how different the wood felt. Actually it felt more like metal even though it didn't look any different than it had all those years ago.
"I came back and made a few modifications of my own." The lift started to pull them up. "I didn't ever plan on coming back but with all our adventures I thought it might be a good idea to have a safe house." The lift stopped at the top. Jimmy jumped out.
"A safe house?" She asked following him inside. Nothing inside his tree house looked any different. Apart from the material not being actual wood it looked exactly as it once did.
"Yeah." Jimmy confirmed as he plucked out one of his hairs. "It seemed like a good idea incase I needed to go into hiding from any villains we came across." He placed his hair against the wall. There was no clear scanner against it, but suddenly a red light beamed through the wall to reach for the hair.
DNA match confirmed. Welcome home, Jimmy.
"Wait a minute, is that VOX?" Jimmy nodded back. "Won't they be able to find us?"
"It's not the same interface. I separated it so no one could track me here. It wouldn't be much of a safe house if they could." The entry tube opened up close to Jimmy's feet. "Ladies first?" He offered.
"Is there padding at the bottom?" She asked.
"Of course not." He grinned.
Cindy sighed. "Oh, what the hell." She jumped into the hole. Jimmy followed after her.
"OW!" The landing was much rougher than it was back in his old lab. As opposed to going down a slide, this was a straight drop down. And it hurt. She struggled to stand.
The lab was closer to the original design of the one back home. It had the same subterranean feel except was much, much smaller. It was only one large computer, the same design of the one he had back in the clubhouse. Near the back was a bed along with a supply closet filled with canned food, water, and purple flurp. There were no laboratory utensils in sight. It really was just a safehouse.
"WOO…" Jimmy came down hollering. He landed perfectly on his two feet smiling. Cindy was shocked at the sight. She was about to curse him out but held her tongue.
Jimmy went straight for the computer.
"What're you doing?" She asked.
"Tracking where they are." He answered.
"I'm confused. Didn't you say they locked you out of everything?"
"They locked me out of VOX which is connected to almost everything: my watch, most of my inventions, the hovercar-"
She interrupted. "Then how can you find them."
He smiled. "Lucky for us they took the one invention even I can't control."
"Goddard." She whispered to herself.
"I've always kept a beacon in him incase I lost him. Anyone can access it but no one would know what it is they're seeing except for me."
Jimmy finished typing the commands he needed. After pressing the enter key a map of the Earth appeared. Two green lines, one at the left/the other on top, began to move until they reached the proper coordinates coming in. The map zoomed in to the proper spot. It didn't look like Goddard was moving. They found the location.
"New York City." Jimmy watched the map zoom in closer. It revealed a satellite feed. He could see the hover car sitting at the top of a very tall building. He recognized it.
"Is that the new building?" Cindy asked, equally shocked.
"One World Trade Center, that's it."
"That's an eerie choice."
"They probably need high ground to disperse the gas all over the city. It kind of makes sense." They both kept their eyes on the monitor a bit longer than necessary.
Cindy looked back down at Jimmy. "How are we supposed to get off this island?"
His eye's widened. Finding the treehouse was what gave them hope for leaving to begin with. He rolled back from his chair and opened up the bottom desk drawer. In it were three backpacks. He grabbed two of them and handed one to Cindy.
She looked at it strangely. "What're we supposed to…" She looked back at Jimmy putting his on. The familiar Neutron logo was on it. As soon as she saw it she recognized what it was.
"Oh no, no way."