The Abandoned Island

Burnout

The next two weeks, after their break, was a busy time. Mostly for Zeph as she would coordinate and help with retrieving all of Ms. Jenny's crew and a few other faces that were stored there with them including George, Jack, Alfie, Ned, Nelson, Oliver Max and Monty, Byron, Isobella, Patrick and Buster, along with Thumper. They were all packed tightly together in the sheds, so it took a long time to get them all moved out and transported to the Steamworks one by one. That alone took three days to do, but it was done with a smile on Zeph's face and the help of her friends who rotated out pulling the breakdown train. The rest of the two weeks was repairing and briefing them all on the plan and seeing if they were up for it, as she wasn't going to force them to do anything they didn't want to. But she had nothing to worry about as they all readily agreed, as they all wanted to work again, but most importantly, they all wanted to help restore their island to its former glory. Zeph respected that greatly and made sure to fix them all as well as possible, using the many, many spare parts she now had at her disposal. During the day she'd work on the Pack, and for a few hours at night she'd work on the little P Class engine, making sure she was getting repaired to, even if it was a little bit at a time.

After the two week period, with bags under her eyes, Zeph finally finished repairing Thumper, the last one that needed to be fixed. Were all her repairs up to professional standards? Not a chance, but they would plenty good to allow them all to work. Now, the issue was getting housing set up at the clay pits and moving everyone over there. She loaded Kelly and Kevin onto the flatcars and set out with Edward, with Derek following. Zeph was very tired, though, and Edward had to call to her several times to wake her up when he needed coal as they puffed along. She kept falling asleep against his cab or tender, and he was worried she might fall out. Thankfully, they made it to the Clay Pits without such a thing happening, and with added luck, the water in the Drain had dried up, so that was one less thing to worry about.

When they arrived, Edward was glad she climbed out of his cab and listened to her walking back to the cranes. He could hear her dragging her feet and yawning. All of this was exactly what he was worried about happening. Slowly but surely, she lowered Kelly and Kevin down to the ground and made sure they were topped off with fuel and oil. "Kelly... can you please ummm..... survey the area and........ figure out what building would be best to turn into y'alls resting area, please? I'm gonna take a quick nap..." And before she got an answer, she curled up on the flatcar and passed out instantly. Kelly and Kevin drove to the front of Edward with worried looks. "She is going to get injured or worse if she doesn't start sleeping." Kelly told the blue engine, Kevin agreed as he looked over at her. "The problem is she is stubborn, and we are close to our goal of running our first true freight train, so she wants to work even harder to help us." Edward admitted, before continuing, "She has been getting maybe four hours of sleep on a good night, and most nights aren't good nights." The two cranes understood, but Kelly sighed, "I'll go check the buildings like she asked because at the end of the day, we will need somewhere safe to rest." And with that, he motored off to go examine the buildings, leaving Edward and Kevin to continue talking. Kevin was wondering why he had been brought along when he was nowhere as capable as Kelly was. Edward couldn't help but smile, "Despite how tired she is, I know she chose you for a reason. What that reason is, I could only guess, but I've learned she plans things out in their entirety." That seemed to make Kevin feel a little better about being there, but the two of them started just chatting quietly and waiting for Kelly's return. It wouldn't be for an hour, but he returned to them with a smile. "The more sturdy and permanent buildings are in good condition. We will have to clean up all the temporary structures, though, as the majority have collapsed. Besides that, everything seems to be in good shape. The lack of moisture here helped preserve this place very well."

"That is good..." A tired voice said behind Edward. Kelly and Kevin looked past the engine to see Zeph slowly walking forward, dragging her feet. "In that case, we'll start by cleaning out one of the larger buildings of anything inside to make room for all of you." Rubbing her eyes and stretching before smiling at them. They smiled back, but Edward soon spoke up, "You should get more sleep. This can wait another day while you get your needed sleep." She waved her hand dismissively as she got in front of him, "I don't have time to sleep all day. We have a lot of work to do, and it has already been over a month since I got back."