Chapter 1

Screams. Blood curdling screams filled the close air around Jack Shepard. His eyes shot open. Laying stiffly on his back his looked around at the long sprouts of bamboo that surrounded him. He could feel a sharp pain every time he took a breath. His mind ached from trying to remember what happened. He blinked several times. Is this real? Jack asked himself. How can this be possible?

Gasping from the pain in his side, he looked to the side and saw a dog walking through the chutes of bamboo. Wake up! He told himself. The dog stood looking at him, panting.

Jack squinted to adjust his focus on the dog, still trying to fight the reality of the situation he was in.

The lab made a soft whine, and ran off into the jungle. Jack sat up as slowly as his could, trying to prevent further pain from his side. Clenching his teeth from the stinging wound, he grabbed a little liquor bottle from his pocket. He knew he would have to dress his side later. If he was able to.

Jack began running through the bamboo, ignoring the pain he was causing himself, until his feet found sand. Looking around, he could see people limping and dragging one

another to safer areas, so many calling for help, and the wreckage of what was once a plane. Then the screams grew louder.

Jack could see the the engine still spinning. One man, dangerously close to it. Still disoriented, Jack still looked around. Close to the area where the engine was spinning, a man was trapped underneath a piece of the wreckage. Sudden fear ran through Jack. Was no one going to help this man?

" Ahhh! Somebody help me! My leg...Ahh!" The man yelled.

Unable to ignore the trapped man, Jack knew he needed to help him. He ran towards the trapped man and knelt down next to him.

" Give me a hand!" Jack called out. "You, Come on! Come over here! Give me a hand!" Jack called out to a group of men. The three men, one noticeably bald, came to help him get the man out from under the metal piece. " On the count of three! One. Two..Three!" Jack and the other men pulled the trapped man out from the metal piece. Jack instintively began to rip the man's pantleg to reveal the bloody wound on the man's leg. Jack loosened the tie around his neck and tied it around the man's leg as a tourniquet.

" Help!" A voice screamed, breaking Jack's concentration. " Somebody please! Help me! Please help me!" Jack looks up to see a young, pregnant woman on her hands and knees.

" Okay! Get him out of here! Get him away from the engine! Go! Get him out of here!" Jack's tells the men. He began to quickly make his way through the wreckage of the plane, towards the pregnant woman.

" Please help me. I'm having contractions." The young pregnant girl said.

" How many months pregnant are you?" Jack asked her, his doctor side rising.

" Nearly eight months". The woman said. Thinking, Jack looked up and saw a young man trying to do CPR on a middle aged African-American woman.

" How far apart are they coming?" Jack asked the young woman.

" I..I don't know... a few just started happening.." She stammered.

Jack thought of what he should do with the woman as he looked around again. He saw the bald man carrying the man with the bad leg away, and another man walking in front of the running engine.

" Hey! Hey! Get away from there!" The bald man yelled to him. The man could not hear what the bald man was saying over the noise of the engine, and suddenly got sucked into the engine, resulting in the engine exploding.

The screams rose up again. Jack fell over the pregnant woman to protect her from the hot fumes and pieces of metal flying from the explosion.

" Okay. Listen to me." Jack said to the woman. " You are going to be okay. Understand me? But you have to sit absolutely still."

Jack looked up again to see a short haired woman screaming his name. Jack did not recognize her. I guess there must just be another Jack on the plane. Jack thought.

He looked over to the young man that was still trying to get the woman to breathe. He still had no luck.

Jack turned towards a large man with curly hair that just passed his shoulders. " Hey! You!" The man turned to face him. " I need you to get this woman away from these fumes." He said to the man. " Take her over there and stay with her. If her contractions occur less than three minutes apart, call out to me". Jack began to run off.

' Oh..you got to be kidding me..." The man said. " Hey! What's your name?" He asked Jack.

" Jack." He answered.

" Oh, hey Jack. Your girl's been looking for you." The man told him.

" My girl..what?" Confusion flooded Jack's mind.

" There is a woman who has been calling out your name ever since I can remember.''

" Well, she's not calling to me. I'm not her Jack''. Jack said, and hurried off towards the young man and the unconscious woman.

Jack knelt down next to the man. He saw that the man looked barely older than twenty.

"Stop. Her head is not tilted back far enough. You're blowing air into her stomach." Jack told him.

" Are you sure?" He asked, watching Jack give the woman the mouth-to-mouth. " That's exactly what I was doing. I'm a lifeguard. I am licenced."

" Yeah, well, you need to seriously think about giving that licence back." Jack said.

"Hey, maybe we should do one of those hole things...you know, sticking a pen in the throat". The man suggested.

"Yeah, good idea. You go get me a pen". Jack said, not really caring whether he got the pen or not.

" Okay! Hey, what's your name?" The young man asked.

" My name's Jack. What's yours?" Jack asked.

" My name's Boone. Nice to meet you, Jack." Then Boone ran off to fetch pens for Jack to use. Jack continued to perform CPR on the woman. " C'mon! C'mon!" He said, beginning to get a little frantic that she was still not breathing.

Finally, the woman took a huge gasp of air. Jack relaxed a little and said, " Big deep breaths. Take deep breaths."

" Sir?'' A voice said to Jack.

Jack turned to face the short haired woman he saw earlier that was looking for another Jack.

" Will she be okay?" She asked him, looking at the woman that was still gasping for air.

" Yeah. Yes, she will be just fine. She just needs to relax and take deep breaths.'' Jack said.

" Great. Glad to hear it." She said, with a friendly smile. She held out her hand to Jack. " I'm Teri."

" Jack." He replied, feeling a sort of awkwardness as something flashed in her eye. Perhaps she has not found her Jack yet. " Heard you calling out a name earlier." Jack said.

Teri smiled sadly. " Yes. My husband's. He shares the same name as you.'' She said. " I've been looking all over the beach. I'm afraid he may not be here."

Jack realized how troubled Teri was. He could see that she was having difficulty grasping the fact that her husband may not come back.