I've done a bit | An SVA stori

Chapter 22: Skeleton Arm

All of a sudden life was moving for Rowan, not that he noticed. He was busy, and now waiting for a thunder storm, in so far a very sunny Spring.

The nice weather was good for the band. On Saturday the five met up at Toms and played and sung from tabs online.
Rowan and Ire on guitars (both his), Leon on bass, Wolf struggled with the cajon and Tom with a tambourine, just happy to be there.
"We don't sound shit." Leon laughed.
They called it a day and spent a bit thinking of a name for the band and eating from Toms jar of infinite penguins.
Tom suggested 'Hunting A Mushroom Man'.
"Can we not make it about the mushroom man." Wolf said quietly and Rowan and Tom laughed.
Tom went on teasing before telling Leon, "It's because she wrote-"
"Dude!" Wolf stopped her.
Leon saw Toms abundance of penguins and her penguin bed sheets and suggested 'Pen Gwyns', like White Heads, but it was taken by a company.
"You looked at Zazus yet?" Ire asked Rowan.
"Nah I'll do it Monday, got something cooler." He said.
"Zazus?" Leon asked.
The four took a moment of silent discussion before deciding to tell Leon about the sky, the underground base, everything.
"You're just doing this on the side?" They asked.
"It's fun, it's like Donnie Darko." Ire said.
"I never seen that."
"Isn't that really old too?" Rowan asked.
"Kinda." Ire laughed, "My dads obsessed with it."
"Do you just like these movies but don't wanna say?" Rowan smirker.
"No!"
"What's your favourite movie then?"
"Harry Potter." She answered, "But in it the school floods. So did ours."
"The school flooded?" Leon laughed.
"Yea January."
"Wait am I Donnie Darko?" Rowan asked.
"You're really old then?" Wolf teased, "So what happens in the end?"
"He dies I think."
"He dies?"
"You think?" Rowan laughed.
"I dunno, I didn't really get it."

School was shit. Ire skipped classes now and Tom would always follow her. For Tom school wasn't learning, it was a way to be with her friends.
On Monday Rowan brought in a glove he'd made and said he'd catch lightning next time there is some. He modelled it on the glove from the footage of the bunker, guessing (and hoping) it was to catch lightning. It had rubber strips down it and all his misplaced faith.
Rowan kept acknowledging his phone by trying to ignore it. He had a lot of unread messages from Piper he hadn't opened since he woke up.
"Rowan!" Tom called.
He quickly put his phone away and saw their computer. It was a website for Zazus, a company for repairing damaged power lines and cell towers and such. It looked normal, and empty. Its logo was a big eye above a desert, they had seen enough stuff to know that was probably bad.

Wolf slogged through the day, only smiling when Rowan waited for her after school.
"...hey." He said, "What's up?"
"Nothing." Wolf sighed.
"Okay."
"I guess... just they're trying to get me to see Ms Pendleton."
"Who?"
"She does like therapy."
"That's shit, don't listen to them. Amy made me see someone. He made me start this at least." He gave Wolf his diary, "But it's a scam. They don't wanna help, none of them do."
"Who's them?" She asked, "You and Ire keep saying them and they, who's they?"
"Y'know, them, like, they."
"Whatever." She opened the book.
Drawings of the clocks and coconats and ghosts and her.
"O!" He chuckled.
He'd drawn the three girls and written about their hijack.
"It's just I wrote about New Years." He explained, "Then next page is Valentines."

On Tuesday it began to rain and thanks to wishful thinking thunder came that evening.
Mock exams and time wasting lessons went by, not that Rowan noticed. He'd be in the library with Ire and Tom, but Wolf would go to lessons. She didn't care that thunder was on its way, nor about the school trying to get her to work, it was only good for the gym where she could punch away the stress.

Ire and Tom were looking at what they usually would, disappearance cases, alien and UFO sightings, having just found Zazus they didn't expect to be at a dead end, but the website was empty to them.

Catching lightning looked easy on paper. The illustrations showed a figure, one arm in the air and the other out on his side, with a bolt connected to both.
"I've looked everywhere, I can't find anything about anyone catching lightning." Ire told.
"Me neither..." Rowan sighed, "But what else is the picture?"
"Is it worth the risk?"
"Yea you might die." Tom added.
"We won't know unless we do." He said with a big smile.

Ire told her mum she was revising after school but the four spent the evening in a stone hut on the mountain to stay dry. Tom brought a big mason jar with her in case Rowan was successful.
"I can't wait!" She bounced.
"You know what you're doing ye?" Wolf asked for the billionth time, but Rowan brushed it off.
"Of course I do."
"Break a leg." Ire joked.
"You had to say that?" He laughed.
"Break an arm then."
"Or your back." Tom joined in.
"Break a lamp Jafar."
"Ok I'm going."

Rowan wore his glove and stood with the shrubs and the trickling rain. He felt watched by the girls, but by the shadow as well, hiding in the open dark; he knew he had to do this.
His hands began to gleam and his hairs stood up. He couldn't tell if it was goosebumps or a sealed fate.
Clouds spiralled above him. As the girls watched it sank in just how real it was.
Rowan braced for the lightning like he read the illustrations, and the sky shot with a light before a bolt came rushing down in an instant. It struck the boys glove and arched to the ground beside him.
The second lasted longer then most and before they could hear the thunders scream Rowan was on the floor. They scrambled through the rain and the mud, to the boy. His hand wrapped in his body but he couldn't help giggling.
"Rowan!?" Ire yelled over the rain.
Calming down, he looked at the girls, who didn't share his outlook.
"Come on!" Wolf yelled, helping him up.

They got to the shelter and Wolf took the boys glove off. His palm was cracked and bleeding, burnt down to his bandage.
"What do we do?" Ire panicked.
"It's fine- I'm fine." He assured her, but only he believed it.
"It's not."
"That's why I used my left hand." He laughed.
He got the hair off his face.
"We gotta go to the hospital." Wolf said.
"No we don't." He brushed off.
Tom couldn't take her eyes of the boys hand.
"Lightning can kill people." Ire thought out loud.
"I caught lightning." He boasted.
"You got hit by lightning!" Wolf refuted.
"I'm not dead!"
"He's not dead." Tom repeated.
"You don't get a say!" Wolf pointed.
"Well he did it." She said.
"Right!" He grinned.
"You didn't do anything you just didn't die!"
"Told you I could do it."
"YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Wolf scolded, getting everyone to shut up.
"Why do I care!?" She huffed and stormed home through the rain.