FanFic:Sodor Academy Part Eight: April

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Previous Part: Part Seven

The eighth part of Sodor Academy, a Thomas the Tank Engine fan fiction.

Story

Thomas sat up, rubbing his aching head. "What happened?" he thought.

The van was on its side. "Oh no," thought Thomas. "Was there an accident?"

Everything was rocking as Thomas pulled himself out of the door. He looked around. "Oh no."

On three sides of him was water, extending on to the horizon. On the fourth side was a pier, on which the barge he was on was slowly rocking. Thomas clambered onto the pier.

He looked around. Apparently, he was on an island or a beach that was covered with, large pine trees. Thomas didn't really understand. Where was he? The last things he could remember was the trucks accelerating down a steep hill. He must have crashed onto this barge, and then, maybe, he'd floated downriver . . .

But that meant he could be anywhere. He might have even floated out to sea. It certainly looked that way, with so much water all around.

Thomas walked into the forest. Pehaps there was someone here. He had to call his friends and Sir Topham Hatt, and tell them that he was all right. Was Percy all right? Thomas hoped so. They must be worried sick . . .

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Emily demanded.

"I've told you," replied the yardmaster. "We've sent people down to the warehouses. We don't know where that runaway went. it could have stopped in a warehouse, or fallen into the river."

Behind them, Percy paled.

"Relax, Percy." said Henry. "Thomas would have gotten out."

"For all we know, he was unconcious. He could be anywhere," said Edward.

"Why don't we go down to the quay and look?" asked Molly.

After several hours of walking and following tracks, they arrived at an old pier.

"This can't be it," moaned Emily.

"There's no trace of him," added Henry.

"Um, guys . . ." called Percy. He was kneeling down, looking into the water. They all came to look. There, in the water, was a truck.

Thomas hurried through the forest. He had seen no sign of people anywhere. The forest was getting thicker. Thomas didn't know the time, but he probably only had a few hours before it got dark.

Then, he heard rustling from some bushes. He wheeled around. Nothing.

"Probably just a deer," he thought.

But the rustling came again. And again. Finally, Thomas was hit in the back of the neck by a gently thrown pinecone.

"i know you're there!" he shouted. "I'm lost. I need help. Can you tell me where I am."

Slowly, out of the undergrowth emerged three people. Two were small children, probably no more than ten, who appeared identical, wearing gray and orange shirts. Behind them a tall teenager wearing a blue shirt. All of their clothes were tattered, and they were filthy.

"Who are you? Where am I?" asked Thomas.

"I'm Bash," said the gray one. "I'm Dash," said the orange one. "And I'm Ferdinand," finished the blue one.

"You're on Misty Island," all three said at once.

"No."

"Polly-"

"Lady."

"Fine, Lady, they found the trucks. Thomas was probably unconcious," said Sir Topham Hatt.

"I still don't believe it."

"Thomas didn't mak it. It's horrible, I know, but we have to move on. I've contacted his parents, and they're coping as best they can. I know you knew him as well as anyone-"

"And you didn't."

"He was my student."

"but you didn't know him. Just like you don't know me, even though I'm practically your daughter."

"Lady, this isn't the time-"

"Look, if you knew him, you'd know that he wouldn't die. Thomas is too smart for that. I know he's alive."

Then she hung up.

The students were trying to cope. Even though the railway show had started, they stayed in their hotel rooms.

"If you need us, Henry and I will be in Edward and Duck's room," said Gordon.

"Why?" asked Molly.

"Edward went cold turkey on coffee, and Duck's OCD, so he probably can't handle him."

"Don't want to be down there, then," said Emily, grimacing.

After Gordon and Henry had left, Stanley walked in.

"Hey, you guys. You might want to look at this."

Stanley held an old rope.

"It's a mooring rope. I found it on the pier. The one end was tied to a pillar, but the other looks like it snapped, and fairly recently."

"Did you see a van in the water?" asked Molly.

"Does this mean . . . " said Percy hestitatingly.

"Thomas could still be alive!" finished Emily.

"You see, this was a logging island . . ." said Bash.

"-with a unique tree species, the jobi tree," finished Dash.

"That's right," finished Ferdinand.

"Americans bought the logging rights. All our families lived in the logging village."

"But then the island flooded."

"That's right."

"So the company left. We stayed. Our parents are dead. But we do okay."

"Those are ours." said Dash. He was pointing to three American logging-type engines. There a fourth, a long, rusted black engine, but thomas didn't ask about it.

The three led him to a cabin. "We'll ask Hiro about what to do."

"Who's Hiro?" asked Thomas.

Hiro was an old Japanese man. He was lying on the floor of the cabin. He appeared to meditating, but looked up when they came in.

"Well, what have you three brought me this time?"

"Hiro, this is Thomas. He said he washed up."

"Mr. Hiro, sir, I need t get home. Do you have a phone, I need to call Sir Topham Hatt. He's a very good man, and-"

"So you know Topham." Hiro smiled. "He is a good man. I used to work for him before I came here."

"What?"

"I was a teacher at the academy. That black engine- it's mine. I came here to run trains- they said they needed an enigneer with great expertise, and I needed a challenge. I was crippled in an accident and forgotten when they left." He moved to his knees, obviously grimacing with pain.

"That's terrible! You need medical attention."

Hiro was nonchalant. "I'm alright. I guide these three, and they bring me food from the mess hall."

"Iill find someway to help him," thought Thomas. Then he said, "is there any way off this island?"

"There is a causeway. It is old, but I believe that it will hold."

"why haven't you already used it?"

"We're content here," said Hiro. But then he pasued. "Perhaps, however, these three should leave the island. They can't live here forever."

Just then, Tohmas remembered his friends. "Do you have a phone?"

"Yes. We'll have to power up the generator."

"I want to call my friends, and let them know I'm all right."

"we have very little oil, and it is crucial to firing up the engines."

"I'm sure there's enough."

Hiro smiled. "Very well."

It was chaos in Edward's room. Gordon and Henry had locked them all in, to keep it from spreading. Duck was reorganizing his encyclopedia collection (he took it everywhere) obsessively. Henry had snapped, and was hyperventilating in the coroner. Gordon was in the bathroom, flushing one of Edward's secret caffiene stashes.

Edward was in a living Hell. He had never thought that it would be this bad.

I'm probably exaggerating the effects. The placebo effect, he thought. But he was still sure that he was hallucinating.

The phone rang. Edward, deciding to obey his inner demons, picked up.

"Edward?"

"Thomas?" I am hallucinating.

"Edward, I'm alright. I'm on Misty Island, which is, uh, crud, I don't know where it is. I'm sure you'll find it. I'm gonna try to get home. Just tell the others I'm okay. OK?"

Edward didn't answer.

"Edward."

"Thomas, I am trying to break free from a prison called caffiene, and I'm still not sure if I'm hallucinating."

"Edward, get Gordon."

Edward turned around. "Gordon! Thomas is on the phone!"

Gordon walked out of the bathroom. "This is bad. You're hallucinating."

"That's what I said. But he wants to talk to you. Just humor me, okay?"

Grdon picked up. "Hello?"

"Gordon! I'm on Misty Island. I'm alive. I'm coming home. We don't have much power. Uh- tell Lady-"

The line went dead.

"Misty Island, Misty Island. Here it is." said Duck, leafing thorugh his encyclopedia. "Oh, and it's a entry number that's a multiple of four, that's good . . ."

"Just tell us about it," said Emily.

"it's a small island, used to have a logging company, it's, ah, in the Thames estuary. There's a small causeway . . ."

"That's how he's getting home!" shouted Gordon.

"Wait!" cried Duck. "Says here the causeway was nearly broken in a storm. It's highly unsafe."

"Oh no," said Molly.

"We have to stop him!" shouted Percy.

"How?" moaned Gordon. "There probably aren't any trains fast enough to get there. The roads would take too long. I'd take my engine, but you can't run a light express engine on the mainline on such short notice."

"I'll go." said Stanley.

"What?!" everyone cried at once.

"I can run light there very easily, very fast. But it'd just be me. No room for another. You'd slow me down."

"There's a slow goods," called Duck, checking a schedule. "We'll meet you and Thomas there."

"Godspeed," said Edward, shaking his hand. "Now Go!"

It was only after Stanley was racing down the mainline that he realized that he didn't have the faintest idea of how he would save Thomas.

The wind was howling as Thomas set out for the engines. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" he asked Hiro for the thousandth time.

"You go. I'd only slow you down."

"I'll call the hospitals. They'll come and get you."

Hiro smiled. "Go."

Now Thomas was riding in the largest engine, a Climax, with Ferdinand. Bash and Dash took their engines ahead. "We know these lines better than Ferdinand," they'd said. "You follow us."

The rain poured as they rattled over the old two-track causeway. Eventually, Thomas could see the lights of a town in the far distance.

"I can see land!" he shouted. But he was interupted by the sudden crunch of gravel and rock.

The engine shook. Thomas leaned out the window. Ahead Bash and Dash engines were listing dangerously toward the sea. The engines rattled to a halt.

"The causeway's collapsing!" shouted Ferdinand.

"Keep going!" cried Thomas. "We can make it!"

"Our fires are out, and we've no oil to fire them back up," replied Ferdinand mournfully.

Bash and Dash were shouting. Thomas could see the raging water starting to engulf the track.The twins were trapped.

Thomas hung his head in despair. Then, in the far distance, he saw the gleam of an engine's headlamp. But it was heading away. This might be the only chance.

He shoved Ferdinand away from the controls and grabbed the whistle cord. He yanked it for all it was worth. The loud, two chimed whistle echoed eerily through the storm. Thomas kept pulling until every ounce of steam left in the boiler had left through the whistle. Then he fell back, and hoped.

The headlamp, gleaming from the shore, stopped moving. Then it reversed. Please. thought Thomas.

Stanley raced his engine through the storm. The causeway had to be nearby. But what if he'd missed it. Grimacing, he kept going.

Then, he heard a whistle. It was the loudest, longest whistle he'd ever heard. He stopped his engine.

Through the storm, he could just make out the failing gleam of several locomotives headlamps.

He reversed. There was a switch, branching off to a track that headed directly for the shore. Stanley kicked his throttle into full gear.

Thomas heard the wheesh of steam as Stanley's engine pulled alongside. "Thomas!" he called.

Thomas jumped out of the engine and ran to Stanley's engine.

"The causeway's giving way. There are three other people with me. We've got to get their engines free."

Stanley groaned. "I can't push three engines."

Then, Thomas had an idea. "I know someone who can."

Moving quickly, Stanley and Thomas carried Hiro to his engine. "Hurry!" he called. "Couple your engine behind. Mine's faster."

Thomas was about to get in with Hiro when Stanley said, "you rigged the couplings."

Tohmas was shocked, and he said nothing.

"You must have sabatoged the brakes too. That's why you couldn't stop."

"Stanley-"

Stanley just looked at him sadly. "How cruel was I, that I made you do that? I'm sorry, Thomas."

The two engines raced through the rain. "We don't have much time," said Hiro.

At last, they'd reached the logging kids. Hiro gingerly pushed his engine behind Ferdinand's.

He then signaled Stanley to started pushing. They slowly started pushing on the three engines.

Hrio slowly pushed the throttle open. The water lapped at their wheels as the five engines clattered across the causeway.

Finally, the ground became level again. "We've passed the worst," said Hiro.

Half an hour later, the engines limped into the town's station. Edward, Toby, Duck, Emily, Gordon, Henry, and Molly rushed over.

"THOMAS!" they all shouted. A mass group hug ensued.

After everyone had been introduced, Edward went to call the hospital for Hiro.

Sir Topham Hatt arrived the next day. "All of you can stay at Sodor until we work out a proper home for you," he told Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand.

"I'll head back to London, then," said Stanley.

"No, you can come to," said Hatt. "I've contacted your father. You can stay for the rest of the term."

Everyone cheered.

When they had all finally come home, there was a great celebration. Lady had clung to Thomas for so long that he was as red as James's jacket when she'd finally left to meet Hiro.

Thomas walked over to Stanley, who was sitting on the dorm stairs. "I'm sorry."

No, I'm sorry. I'm the one who tried to rplace you."

"No, I'm the one who got mad at a guy whose only crime was being a better person than I was."

"I'm no saint," said Stan;ey.

"Neither am I," replied Thomas. "But can we at least be friends."

Stanley smiled, adn they both shook hands.

Although Stanley did notice that the cord Thomas had been wearing around his neck since he'd arrived in London was missing.