Chapter One: Harsh Memories
The silence was deafening for a long while, as Kate finally felt sleep coming to her slowly, but that was quickly forgotten when she heard that distant scream. She turned her head quickly, but only to hear the scream cut off by the sound of something hard colliding with something else. Kate held her breath. Who had screamed? It was someone from their camp, it had to be. Soon, everybody was getting out of their tents, wondering as to who had screamed. Kate stood up carefully, squinting her eyes to see what was happening down the beach. She could only see shadows, but they were enough. A large figure clubbed someone over the heads, knocking them unconscious. Kate swallowed hard, as people throughout the camp began to scream. It's them. She thought, as she turned. The Others. Her heart was hammering against her chest as she quietly knelt beside Violet, looking around her every few moments to make sure no one was sneaking up on her. She started to shake Violet vigorously.
"Wake up." She hissed, hearing clubs colliding with people's heads, or people's fists planting themselves into faces. The islanders were going down. Violet finally stirred, and Kate grabbed her arm, pulling her up. Violet staggered for a moment, as she stared at Kate.
"What's going-" Kate covered her mouth with her hand quickly, as her wide eyes stared around at the dark. It was hard to see anything. She motioned Violet to be quiet as she removed her hand.
"They're here." Kate whispered. Violet's eyes widened as she looked around, frustrated at the lack of light as well.
"What are we going to do?" Violet whispered, as Kate grabbed hold of her hand.
"We gotta get to the hatch." She began leading Violet toward the jungle, motioning her to walk slowly and quietly. Violet gasped out loud when they saw two shadows in front of them. Kate protectively pushed Violet behind her. It was difficult to make out, but the shadows appeared to be a man and a woman.
"There she is." The man's voice said, breaking the silence. Kate could barely make them out, but she saw the reflection of the moon in his eyes. He was looking straight at Violet.
"Let's go." He said again, as he stepped forward. Kate gave Violet a little push.
"Run Violet." She called. "Go!" Violet began to run, pausing to look behind her for a moment, as Kate started after her, but she felt thick arms grabbing her around the waist, holding her back.
"No! Violet, get to the hatch! Get to Jack!" She screamed, when Violet stopped. "Go!" Violet tearfully complied and began to run again. Kate could only struggle against the man's grasp, as she watched in horror when the man who had spotted Violet was chasing after her. Violet's screams filled the camp, and out of the corner of her eye, Violet saw the woman who was still standing there, pull a strange device out of her pocket, aiming it at Violet. She pressed a button and something shot out toward Violet.
"No! What are you doing?" Kate screamed as she watched to see whatever it was the woman had shot hit Violet. Violet stumbled immediately, falling to the ground, shaking violently.
"What have you done to her?" Kate screamed out at the woman, who was coming down the hill, sticking the device back in her pocket. Kate yelled out desperately as Violet's body stopped shaking, and lay motionless on the sand, helpless as the big shadowy man approached her with a hearty laugh.
"Don't touch her!" Kate screamed, struggling with all her might; she could feel tears streaming down her face as the man scooped Violet up in his arms and began to run.
"Let's go!" He called, as the woman followed him down the beach. Kate screamed out desperately, but could do nothing. The last thing she saw before she was clubbed over the head was the man running off with Violet in his arms, and the rest of the Others following him.
"Kate." A voice filled her head, as consciousness returned to her slowly. "Kate, it's me." Kate became very aware of the throbbing pain pulsing in her skull as she woke up. Her head was swimming as she struggled with all the energy she had left just to open her eyes. The sunlight was blinding, and she squinted immediately, letting out a small groan. Vision returned slowly as her eyes adjusted to the light, and she looked up to see a blurred Jack hovering over her. She immediately felt safe; Jack was here.
"Welcome back, Kate." Jack said with a bit of a smile. Kate barely heard anything but his voice. She barely heard the shouts of panic around the camp, as Jack helped her into a sitting position. She felt like her skull was going to explode.
"Here, take some of these." Jack offered her some Tylenol and a bottle of water, and she accepted wholeheartedly, swallowing in one gracious gulp. Jack's shape became more clear with every second that passed.
"What are you doing here?" She asked weakly. "I thought you were blowing open the hatch." She realized it was morning already. How long had she been unconscious for? Jack shrugged.
"Well, we got it open, but after we did, we saw Charlie running toward us. I don't even know how he managed to find us out here, but he told us there were a lot of people on the beach who were hurt, so I came back. Locke is still there, scoping it out. The good news is it's large enough to hold all of us. We'll be able to fit everybody down there to protect us all from the Others." He explained. Kate's eyes widened in a panic, remembering the night before in vivid detail. She suddenly became aware of the panic around her. She stared at Jack with desperate eyes.
"Where's Violet?" She demanded, feeling tears threatening her vision as she recalled the horrorific scene of those strangers hauling an unconscious Violet into the jungle. "Please tell me you've found her." Jack puckered his brow.
"Found her? Is she missing? Kate, what's going on?" He asked. Kate jumped up onto her feet, swaggering a little from dizziness, feeling Jack's hand on her back to steady her. She barely noticed as she scanned the beach.
"Has anybody seen Violet?" She yelled out, earning the attention of most of the islanders, who looked her way. Some shook their heads, but Kate's heart leapt into her throat when she saw Sayid and Claire both coming forward, both with grim expressions.
"Kate, I am sorry, but I saw them taking Violet into the jungle. I tried to chase after them but was clubbed over the head. I am sorry, Kate." Sayid said as he lowered his head.
"Me too Kate. I saw them take her. None of us had a chance to go after her." Claire added as she rubbed the bruise on her forehead. Kate stared at them for a moment, and then rounded on Jack.
"We have to find her, Jack. I don't know who or what these people are, but we have to go after them. They took one of our own, Jack. They took Violet! I saw them, Jack, they shot something at her, a dart or something. She went down and they took her off." She swallowed hard. "We have to find her." She forced herself to look at Jack with tear-filled eyes. Jack sighed, looking around the beach at all the people who were still nursing head wounds and bloody noses from the previous night's invasion.
"Please Jack. Will you help me find her?" Kate asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know who these people are, or what they want with Violet, but we can't let them get away with this." She lowered her voice so Claire wouldn't overhear. "You saw what they did to Charlie, and Claire. We can't let them do the same to Violet. Please help me Jack." Jack sighed, looking toward the jungle, seeing that the black smoke that had been rising from somewhere deep within the trees yesterday was no longer anywhere to be seen. The Others had obviously moved on. He turned back to Kate.
"It's a shot in the dark, Kate. I don't know where these people took Violet, but I'm guessing if we head in the direction the smoke came from yesterday, well, I'm guessing that's about our only chance right now." He said, pointing in the direction they had seen the Other's smoke rising into the sky only a day earlier. Kate nodded, and headed toward her tent to grab her backpack. Jack sighed and looked at Sayid, who pulled a gun out of his pants.
"I am coming with you, Jack. I know how to track. The more numbers we have out there, the safer we will be as a group, and the greater the chance of getting young Violet away from them as safely as possible." Sayid explained. Jack sighed as he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.
"This really is a stab in the dark, Sayid." He gazed over toward Kate, who was tossing water bottles into her backpack quickly. At least her strength seemed to return. "None of us have ever seen the Others. They've given us no indication of where they could be on this island, but I can gauruntee you right now Sayid, I will do everything in my power to locate them. This is the last draw."
"I'm going with you." Jack turned to see Claire stepping up with determined eyes. Jack shook his head.
"I don't think that's a good idea Claire." He said simply. "You have a baby to take care of."
"Sun will watch him for me." Claire said stubbornly. "Don't try to talk me out of this, Jack. These same people took me away to some unknown place and I don't remember any of that! I don't want the same thing to happen to Violet." Jack could see there was no chance he was going to win this argument. Besides, every moment that passed took Violet further and further from their reach. They had to move.
"Nobody leaves the group unless we all decide it's for the best." Jack said as he passed out guns to Claire and Kate, keeping one for himself. Sayid tucked his away behind his back as he started forward into the jungle, searching for any signs of the Others. Jack looked at Kate as she stared at her gun determinedly.
"Kate, did you hear me?" He asked. Kate looked up. Jack knew how stubborn Kate was, and it would be just like her to run off on her own to find Violet if she felt the group were slowing her down, or if she felt they should be going a different direction. Jack couldn't let that happen; not when Kate was running high on emotion and anger. They could get her into a lot of trouble.
"Listen I know you want to find Violet; we all do, but we stay together, alright?" Jack asked again. Kate cocked her gun and stuck it in her pants with a nod.
"Let's just get going, okay?" She said as she started toward the jungle. Jack tucked his own gun away and followed her into the jungle, with Claire on his heel. Sayid took the lead, leading the group further and further into the jungle, stopping every few minutes to examine the path for footprints, or any fragment of evidence the Others may have left. Claire stayed close to Sayid, looking around nervously every few moments, gripping the gun hilt awkwardly. She had never operated a gun before, and hoped she wouldn't have to. Kate and Jack followed behind slowly, Kate unconsciously tugging at her shirt as she stared at the dirt path.
"Hey." Jack said, breaking the silence as they walked down the path. "It'll be okay." He knew comforting words tended to be useless in times like these. He was a spinal surgeon; he knew words like that didn't always mean things would be okay, but he had to at least try. Kate stared at him with the most determined eyes he had ever seen, and Kate was a determined woman.
"We're going to find her, Jack." She said simply. "I will not leave this jungle unless Violet is with us!" Jack turned and stared at her.
"What exactly happened last night, Kate?" He asked. Kate closed her eyes as she stopped for a moment on the path; it was only for a second, and she continued on as though the memory hadn't bothered her.
"She was sleeping." Kate said, swallowing the lump in her throat. She would not cry, not when Violet was somewhere out there. "Violet was sleeping. Jack, she was so upset because Walt left. I couldn't sleep and that's when I heard all the commotion and saw them. They were in the camp, they were hitting people, clubbing them. I woke up Violet and we started to run to find you and..." She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "There was a man and a woman. The man looked right at Violet and said she was who they were after. I told her to run, to find you, and somebody grabbed hold of me and that man chased Violet down the beach and the woman shot whatever that was at Violet and she went down. They grabbed her and ran into the jungle. That's when the guy behind me knocked me out." Kate shuddered as she remembered how painful it had been to see the fear in Violet's eyes when she had looked back to see Kate held back by one of the Others. The tears in her eyes had shaded the fear behind them.
"Do you remember what they looked like?" Jack asked. Kate shook her head.
"It was dark. I could only make out shadows, but I know it was a man and a woman who took her." She sighed. "Jack, we won't have to move everybody down into the hatch. I'm convinced they won't be back. They got what they came for. But we have to find her. I have to find her! She was so convinced something bad was going to happen to her. She said Walt had a bad feeling she was in danger, and she was sure he was right. I promised her I wouldn't let anything happen to her, and last night, I broke that promise. Jack, I failed her." Tears finally shaded Kate's eyes as she stared forward, stopping in her tracks, to swallow the lump that was forming in her throat. Jack turned to face her.
"Kate you couldn't have known they were coming, or that they were coming for her. You didn't fail her, Kate. We're going to find her. We won't let them get away with this. They can't just show up whenever they want and take whoever they want! We won't let them have this kind of power over us Kate. We won't." Jack's confidence was strong, it was pulsing through his blood. Kate could feel it.
"I found something!" A distant voice called out, and Jack and Kate turned to see Sayid off in the distance near a bush. Kate and Jack ran ahead to where Claire and Sayid were kneeling in the dirt.
"What did you find?" Jack asked as he knelt also, followed by Kate, who's heart leapt into her throat when she saw what Sayid and Claire had found. There lying on the dirt path was a simple gold bracelet with a small charm in the shape of a strawberry hanging from it. Immediately, she remembered a conversation she had shared with Violet, not very long ago...
It was only a week after the crash. Violet was out visiting her big sister, Katie's grave, as she did every day. Kate knew the grief of losing her big sister Katie was still fresh with Violet. After all, Katie was on the plane with Violet when it crashed. Katie hadn't made it.
Kate watched from the distance as Violet sat cross-legged in front of the make-do cross that had been made for the graves. Katie's name had been carved into the wood to mark her place and Violet spent a lot of time there. Kate approached slowly, kneeling beside Violet, who stared at the ground sadly.
"Hey Violet." Kate said quietly as Violet wiped a tear away quickly.
"Hey." Violet replied with a swallow.
"I thought I'd just check up on you. You shouldn't be out in the sun too long, you're still getting over that fever, remember?" Kate asked. Violet nodded.
"I know." She said. "I was just leaving anyway." Kate noticed the 14-year-old was gently fingering a charm on a gold bracelet around her wrist. Kate tilted her head to see what the charm was. She hadn't noticed it before.
"What's that?" She asked curiously. Violet looked up and noticed Kate staring at her bracelet. Violet managed a small smile.
"Oh this." She said with a sniffle. "My mom gave me this when I was six. Katie already moved back home from college and it was Christmas. Katie and I always loved to watch movies together, and whenever we did, my mom would always make us vanilla ice cream with cut up strawberries. Katie and I love...we loved strawberries. So for Christmas, my mom bought each of us a bracelet with a strawberry charm on it. She used to call us the 'strawberry sisters." Violet smiled a little at the memory, and then it was gone. She sighed. "I'm never taking it off." She held it close. "Never."
"Kate, what's wrong?" Jack asked, as Kate turned to look at him, snapping out of it. She looked back down at the bracelet.
"Strawberry sisters." She said absently, as she picked it up, staring at it with tears in her eyes. She looked at Jack. "It's Violet's. It must have fallen off when they took her. That means we're going the right way. Let's keep going." She said as she pushed her way forward. She held the bracelet in her hand, staring at the small strawberry. She very nearly broke down into tears. I won't lose you, Violet. She thought to herself as she gently placed the bracelet in her pocket. Wherever you are, I'm coming. She could only hope it wasn't too late, wherever she was.