Burning Bright

Follow the Leader

{ October 6th, Day 3 }

It was another day of hiking, but this time Torako was wearing the extra pair of socks that had been in her backpack. She didn't want to ruin her tights. They might be useful in the future if they had to make a water filter. They found a stream to drink from. Torako refilled the water bottle. While they were there, Torako duct-taped her knife to a stick that would make a sturdy shaft, and they saw some tiny horse-like animals and a beaver-like animal. Torako wanted to sketch them and make notes about their habitats and behaviors, but there was no time as everyone else was already moving on. She committed it to memory instead, so she could do it later. Yarai led them away from that area. Torako thought it was a wise decision. She saw some very large footprints that appeared to have belonged to a huge feline and an enormous bird. She shared the box of pocky she had in her backpack with the others.

There was a loud booming noise sometime in the night that woke all of them up.

"What was that!?" Ono asked. Torako furrowed her brow.

"I'll find out," she said. She pulled a small flashlight out of her backpack and held it in her teeth as she climbed a tree to light her way so she wouldn't misstep in the dark.

"Be careful!" Kurusu-sensei told her. Torako climbed all the way up to the top of the tree. Her eyes widened. There, in the direction of plane, was a fiery inferno that burned taller than all the trees around it. She stood there, staring at it, holding tightly to the tree. She had seen a few forest fires before. This wasn't natural. It was the plane. She knew it. It was the only thing out there that could have made such a noise and such a large fire.

"What's taking so long?" Ono called up to her. Torako got ahold of herself and carefully climbed back down. When she reached the bottom, she took the flashlight out of her mouth and looked at everyone. They stared back at her. Yarai noticed that she had paled.

"... I saw a huge fire... where the plane was," Torako stated. For a few minutes, Kurusu-sensei, Ono, Mikoshiba, and Itou just stared at her. Then it sank in.

"What!?" Itou said, grabbing her by the front of her sweater.

"That's a bad joke, Tora-chan!" Ono said, laughing nervously.

"Why would you say such a thing!?" Mikoshiba asked. They all grabbed Torako, pleading with their eyes that she would take it back.

"C-Calm down!" Kurus-sensei said, trying to pull them off of her. "It's not Fukui-chan's fault!"

"!!" They were all surprised when Yarai walked around and picked Torako up and moved her out of their reach. Then he climbed up the tree. They waited. He came back down.

"She's right," he said.

"No way!" Ono and Mikoshiba cried. Itou punched a tree.

"Are you shitting me!?" Itou yelled. "Why the... How could this happen!?"

"..." Torako was wondering the same thing. 'Something must have caused the fuel tank to combust... but what? It's not like animals carry fire around... Could a human have done this? Why? it's true we can't use the plane without anyone to fly it, and the radio was busted, but still...'

{ October 7th, Day 4 }

It was yet another day of hiking.

"Haa. Haa," Kurusu-sensei said, breathing hard. The land had been steadily inclining for a while. They were all sweating. Torako had tied her sweater around her waist. "I just followed him out afterwards without even thinking... even though there were other students there, too... Ah... Good grief... One way or another..."