A/N: Hello again, I'm really sorry it took me so long to post this chapter, but I now have access to my own computer (goodbye communal living-room desktop), so I should be able to update regularly as long as my classes and work schedule are kind to me :) Hopefully i'll be able to update weekly from now on :)

This new chapter is quite a bit longer than the first, so hopefully that Makes up for my absence, Thank you so much for reading :)

Tabula Rasa

"Dude, she's moving!"

Amara groaned and opened her eyes, immediately closing them when bright sunlight assaulted her retinas. She was lying in…. sand? And her left arm hurt like hell.

What in the everloving shit is going on?

She opened her eyes again, more slowly this time, and saw a chubby guy with curly hair waving his arms at someone. Slowly shifting up onto her good arm, she examined her surroundings. She was lying on a long stretch of beach that was covered in mangled wreckage; the ocean lay in front of her, its blue waters reaching out as far as she could see.

Oh hell

"Hey man, you're gonna be okay, the doctors coming." The curly haired guy consoled. Amara nodded absently, staring out across the ocean, struggling to process her situation. The plane, it had crashed, and badly at that, but they had made it. She and at least a few other people had made it out alive. She didn't remember getting out of the plane… someone must have pulled her out, thank god. But where in the hell were they? Looking out on the water, there was nothing, no boats, no land masses, nothing. An unpleasant feeling settled in her stomach. She started counting her fingers and toes. They were all there, thankfully.

"Hey, good to see you're up." Amara looked up to see a man wearing dirty white button down shirt and sporting a killer five-o-clock shadow standing at her side. He handed her a bottle of water,

"Here, you'll want to drink this." Amara nodded,

"Thanks." She drank a bit before replacing the cap and the man kneeled beside her.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Amara."

"Amara, I'm Jack, you've been in and out of consciousness for about three days, do you have a headache?"

Three days?

"Umm, no."

"Any nausea?"

"Not really, no."

He held a finger up in front of her face, "Follow my finger." Amara did, focusing on his fingertip while he moved it back and forth in front of her face. After a moment he nodded, "Your vision seems normal, and you don't seem to have any physical symptoms, but there's still a possibility you might have a concussion. I'm going to ask you a few questions about yourself and if you can't remember any of the answers, tell me okay?" Amara nodded.

"Alright, can you tell me your birthdate?"

"June 29th 1979."

"Where did you grow up?"

"America, for the most part."

"Where did our plane take off from?"

"Sydney, Australia."

"Okay and where were we headed?"

"Los Angles."

Jack smiled, "Good, good. Surprisingly, you seem just fine."

Amara nodded again, her mental fog fading as they spoke.

"What happened to my arm?" she asked, examining the white bandages wrapped neatly around the upper portion.

"Something must have hit you while we crashed, luggage or a piece of shrapnel, there was wreckage flying everywhere, most of us got hit one way or another."

"How many of us made it?" Amaras voice was quiet, she wasn't really sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"About 48."

"Has anyone contacted us? Is anyone coming?"

A pained look crossed Jack's face,

"Charlie, Kate and I went into the jungle and found the cockpit, the pilot was alive, but he told us we had lost radio communications a few hours into the flight so he headed for Fiji, we were 1000 miles off course when we crashed." He paused for a moment, "Rescue doesn't know where to look for us."

"So no one knows where we are…" Amara said, more to herself than anyone else. How could this have happened? This was the most ridiculous situation ever, plane crashes themselves were super rare, but to lose communication with the airport and then crash on a random beach 1000 miles from where they were supposed to be?

"Don't worry, we managed to get the transceiver from the cockpit, there's a group up the mountain trying to get a signal on it to send a call for help. I'm sure they'll get something."

A radio for help, that's something at least

They sat there silent for a moment before Jack spoke again,

"Anyways, I want you to take these," he handed her two little white pills, "and come see me tonight to get your bandages changed alright?"

"No problem, thank you." She smiled gratefully before tossing the pills back. Jack smiled for a second,

"It's no problem. Hurley is going to help get you something to eat and find some fresh clothes. If you feel dizzy, sit down right away and have him come find me." He started to walk away, but Amara stopped him,

"Umm, doc? I have one more question." He turned around,

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Umm, the guy next to me, his name was Sayid, he was from Iraq, did he make it?"

Jack laughed for a second,

"Yeah he did, he's probably on his way back from the mountains right now actually, he'll be happy to see you're awake, he's been checking in on you every once in a while for the past few days now." Amara grinned to herself,

Good, he was alive. That's good.

"Need anything else?" He asked good-naturedly.

"Nope, thank you." Jack nodded and headed off down the beach to tend to someone else.

Taking another swig of water, Amara looked up at the curly haired guy who she presumed was Hurley.

"Thanks for helping me out." He waved her off,

"It's no problem dude; you wanna go get some food?"

Amara was suddenly aware of the deep ache of hunger in her stomach.

"That would be fantastic."

She could tell immediately that she liked Hurley; he was very friendly and caught her up on everything that had happened so far while she ate her small tray of "chicken entrée".

"Yeah so when everyone was going to sleep on the first night there were these like, crashing noises in the jungle and everyone freaked out." Amara raised an eyebrow,

"Crashing noises, what like some kind of animal?"

"Something like that, but like, 10,000 times bigger than what you're thinking. This thing was knocking down trees and stuff. Charlie told me about it when they got back from the cockpit. He said it ripped the pilot out of the plane and threw him into a tree. He was all bloody and gross."

"What is this place, Isla Sorna?" Amara asked, trying to fathom any other explanation for a creature that could pull people from planes and deposit their mangled corpses at the tops of trees. Hurley laughed,

"That's what I said man, it's that giant one with a fin or something." Amara chuckled,

"If that's the case we're going to have a massive velociraptor problem soon…"

They exchanged very serious looks for a moment before dissolving into giggles. After a minute or so Hurley stood up,

"I like you man, let's see if we can go find your luggage." Amara nodded and scooped the last forkful of food into her mouth,

"I like you too bro." She said around the bits of rubbery chicken and rice.

It only took the two of them a few minutes to locate three of her five suitcases on the beach. Their bright red exterior made them fairly easy to spot against the pale sand. Kneeling down beside them Amara retrieved her luggage key from her pockets and opened them up, rummaging around with her good arm for a pair of shorts and a tank top, a fresh bra wouldn't have hurt either, but those were in one of her other suitcases.

"What do you need locked suitcases for anyway? Isn't regular luggage expensive enough?"

"I travel a lot for work, and my coworkers aren't historically the most honorable folks. I like to make sure the few things I do keep with me are kept safe." Amara replied, draping a grey ribbed tank top and some worn cutoffs over her injured arm. Carrying her hairbrush and a hair tie in her other hand.

"What, you work for a traveling circus or something?" Hurley asked, extending a hand to help her up. Amara laughed quietly as she took it,

"You actually aren't that far off. Alrighty, where do I go to change?"

Hurley paused for a minute and looked at the treeline,

"I suppose you just go anywhere in there, just don't go in too far, you don't want to get lost or, you know, eaten." Amara paused for a moment before heading toward the vast expanse of green before her,

"I'll do my best."

Admittedly, she was a bit apprehensive of the jungle, it was a damn jungle after all, jungles were known for all sorts of things more volatile than any forest could ever be. Add those factors to the monster that was apparently lurking about and those trees went from intimidating to terrifying.

I'll make this quick, I'll change really fast and be back on the beach in no time, the monster won't even know I'm here.

Her small reassurances did little to stay her nerves. She had never done well on her own in the outdoors. Too many horror movies took place in the woods for her to ever be completely comfortable in the wilderness. Taking deep breaths, Amara apprehensively pushed past a giant leafy plant and found that the jungle wasn't nearly as dense as she had anticipated. The area consisted primarily of long grasses and clusters of bamboo plants that grew thicker and more frequently the deeper she went.

This isn't so bad, I'll be just fine

Once she had traveled in far enough where she was sure no one could see her from the beach, she brushed out her unkempt blonde curls and pulled them into a ponytail and began the difficult process of removing her jeans with one hand. Untying and kicking her lace up boots aside she hobbled around in the grass awkwardly until they were finally off and tossed away. Pulling on the cutoffs was a far easier task. Removing her tee shirt was another story entirely, anytime the fabric so much as brushed against her bandages it sent shooting pains down her arm. However, after a considerable amount of stretching and contorting the shirt was off as well. For a moment she just stood there in her bra, enjoying the feel of the cool breeze on her pale skin. Steeling herself, she held the tank top in her hand.

Alright I can do this

Situating her good arm through the sleeve she started to pull the torso of the shirt over her head, but it got stuck, trapping her face in the fabric. Struggling, she tried to pull it down when a whistle cut through the air.

"Well well well, if that isn't the best welcome back I've ever received." A southern drawl came from right in front of her. Amara leapt nearly a mile in the air and yanked the shirt down, hurting her arm considerably in the process. Heart beating louder than a bass drum, she stared at the man who stood chuckling before her. Her face grew hot, she didn't know how to react, she felt she should say something witty back but nothing came out. Looking at her panicked face the guy's grin faded to a look of recognition,

"Hey, ain't you the girl that's been passed out since we got here?"

Amara tucked her arms in closer to her body,

"Yeah, I guess that's Me." she said mostly to the ground.

Before the man could respond, the leaves aways behind him started rustling and cluster of people walked out. Leading the group was a slender brunette woman in an orange tee-shirt.

"Sawyer, who are you talking to?" she called across the space between them.

The southern guy pointed at Amara and called back,

"Coma girl's awake and wandering alone in the jungle of mystery, figured I'd come over and see what was going on."

"She's out here alone? Didn't anyone tell her?" The brunette woman replied, alarm present in her voice.

"Tell who what?" came an English accent from the tail end of the group.

"That girl that got knocked out in the crash woke up." The clearly annoyed American guy closest to him responded. The brunette woman jogged over to meet them,

"Hey, you're up." she smiled warmly before continuing. "Why are you out here on your own? Didn't someone tell you about the-"

"The Spinosaurus? Hurley got me up to speed; I figured I'd be okay if I didn't go too far…" She trailed off, grinding her bare toes into the dirt. The woman nodded,

"Well you're okay so I guess you were right. I'm Kate by the way." She held out her hand and Amara shook it,

"I'm Amara." Kate smiled again, and Sayid stepped forward, a small smile on his lips, Amara smiled back, happy to see a familiar face.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, concerned.

"As good as a girl that got bludgeoned with carry-ons and shrapnel in a violent plane crash can I guess."

Sayid chuckled,

"That's good to hear, would you like to accompany us back to camp?"

"Yeah, that would be spectacular." Amara replied, bending over to grab her shoes and following the group barefoot. As they made the short trek back to the beach Amara was aware of one of the group members sidling up to her. A little unnerved, she turned to her left and was surprised to see another familiar face grinning cheekily at her.

Holy-

"Hello." The man said in a cheerful English accent.

"H-hi." She managed to stammer out, slightly taken aback. After a moment she managed,

"Y-you're Charlie Pace? Fr-from Driveshaft right?"

He laughed and grinned even wider,

"That would be me yes."

"No way, my fiancée was the biggest fan of you guys, we actually met you and Liam at a little pub after one of your earlier shows." Amara gushed excitedly

"Ah, I thought you looked vaguely familiar." Charlie mused, sarcasm evident in his laughing tone. "So ermm, you and your fiancée, were you traveling together?"

"Oh no, no he- he wasn't with me." Amara trailed off, sadness creeping into her voice, "well, I mean, I like to think he's always, you know, with me, which is pretty corny, but no Felix wasn't on the plane."

A couple group members ahead of them exchanged sympathetic looks and Amara was suddenly aware that everyone was listening to their conversation.

"Well I'm sure you'll see him again soon, rescue is out there somewhere." Charlie said optimistically as they reached the beach.

"Yeah, sure.. " Amara mumbled, carefully following the group through the wreckage to the bit of fuselage Sayid had chosen as a platform.

"As you and the others know, we hiked up the mountain in an attempt to help the rescue team locate us. The transceiver failed to pick up a signal. We weren't able to send out a call for help."

Amaras nerves instantly spiked, Well there goes that theory

Despite the noises of discontent from the crowd Sayid continued on, "But we're not giving up. If we gather electronic equipment - your cell phones, laptops - I can boost the signal and we can try again, but that may take some time. So for now, we should begin rationing our remaining food. If it rains, we should set up tarps to collect water. I need to organize 3 separate groups. Each group should have a leader. One group for water - I'll organize that. Who's going to organize electronics?"

A tall brown haired guy in a grey sweatshirt raised his hand,

"You? Rationing food?"

Another hand went up, "Okay. And I believe a third group should concern themselves with the construction of shelter." The group slowly started dividing up and going about their tasks, everyone seemed to be trying to assist in some way. Wanting to do her part, Amara made her way to the area on the upper section of the beach where she and Hurley had gathered up her suitcases. Grabbing the smallest of the group she poked around its contents, gathering up her laptop battery, spare cell phone battery, and her mp3 player and its charger.

Jogging back to the group, she located the guy in the grey sweatshirt and joined the small cluster of people gathered around him.

"Once we've gathered enough devices, we'll sort them based on how damaged they are, look through suitcases and carry ons and bring back anything you can find." The group of people nodded and dispersed, leaving Amara standing there

"I guess I'm a little ahead." She said, holding the bundle of electronics out to the man. He laughed,

"That's perfectly fine." He took the devices from her and examined them. "This is a great start." He set them onto a tarp that had been laid out and then extended his hand,

"I'm Ethan." Amara shook it

"Amara, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. Did you want to go look for more devices or will it hurt your arm to dig through the suitcases?" Amara blinked for a moment, looking at her bandages again.

"Umm, no I think its fine, jack must have given me a painkiller or something, I can hardly feel it." Ethan smiled,

"Alright, just be careful with it, you don't want to hurt it worse." Amara nodded,

"Yeah, I will." She smiled and headed down the beach, Ethan was nice enough, but something about him was slightly off, she just couldn't place it.

The rest of Amaras afternoon was spent digging through wreckage, making small talk with other survivors, and unearthing broken cell phones and busted up laptops for the ever growing hoard of broken technology. Once it was obvious that evening would be coming soon, Amara left the technology task and set about building herself a shelter.

After grabbing a couple tarps from the communal tarp pile she returned to where her suitcases were stacked. There was a bit of plane nearby that looked like it would make a sturdy wall.

Perfect

After placing her suitcases against the wreckage to claim it, she wandered about looking for additional supplies. Eventually collecting some pipe-like pieces of plane, a surprisingly light section of the fuselage with two windows, numerous palm leaves, and a ball of twine. Who on earth travels with twine?

An hour or so later, she had managed to drag the pieces together to make a triangle shaped shelter complete with a makeshift tarp door that was just tall enough to sit in. It wasn't very pretty, but it would do for the night. Satisfied with her handiwork, Amara made her way back to the main area for dinner, sitting in a group with Charlie, Hurley, Sayid, and the two younger Americans that had been in the group from the mountains.

"I mean I get that he's like, dying and all but could he as least do it quietly?" The blonde girl remarked, addressing the pained groaning that had been echoing around camp since early afternoon.

"Really Shannon?" The brown haired guy, Boone, replied, throwing a deeply annoyed look at his stepsister, which she immediately mirrored back.

As insensitive as it sounded, Amara agreed with her. It certainly wasn't the guys fault, but his constant cries of pain were upsetting everyone. The survivors all knew he was going to die, and many people were debating whether he should die on his own or be "put out of his misery." Amara hadn't announced it, but she was all for mercy killing him and moving on. Jack himself had said there was no way he was going to make it, so why let him suffer?

Everyone was awkwardly silent, Charlie picked at his food, Sayid seemed lost in thought, and Hurley was sifting sand through his fingers. Amara collected the last bit of rice onto her plastic spoon, ate it, and then stood up.

"I think I'm going to turn in for the night. Night y'all" She said, brushing bits of sand off her legs. The group murmured a collection of goodnights and she headed for her shelter, happy to have chosen a place a fair distance from the doctors tent.

Opening the largest of her suitcases she pulled out her quilt and laid it out inside the tent like a carpet over the sand. Next she grabbed a couple of sweatshirts and folded them into a makeshift pillow, she'd have to grab a real one from the plane tomorrow. Pleased with her sleeping accommodations she dug around for a pajama shirt and shorts. She may be stranded on a deserted island, but there was no way she was sleeping in her regular clothes.

After brushing out her hair she laid down in her new bed and pulled her tent flap open to look outside. The sun had set completely, and the only light available came from the scattered campfires. Most everyone would be sleeping by now. Yawning, she closed the tarp and rolled over, trying to get comfortable, listening to the sound of the waves outside. She was nearly asleep when a gunshot rang through the silence, and she shot straight up, a small yelp escaping her lips.

Where the hell did someone get a gun?

Her heart beat pounded in her chest as she stumbled out of her tent and ran towards the main group. Bewildered survivors all looked toward the infirmary, listening to the shouting coming from just outside it,

"You perforated his lung! It'll take hours to bleed out!"

Oh god someone actually did it

Amara exchanged horrified looks with Shannon and Boone, and everyone stood, silent. A few moments later, Sawyer emerged from the tent, a shocked expression on his face. Several long seconds later, Jack exited as well, looking grim. Amara listened for the groaning sounds, but none came.

Holy shit

The realization that the Marshall was dead swept through the crowd, and everyone seemed strangely indifferent to it. A few people actually shrugged before returning to their sleeping places. The rest stood around for a moment before doing the same. It was weird to think about how casually everyone took the news, but the crash had desensitized them she supposed. It wasn't like his death was a surprise.

Yawning, Amara headed back to her tent and laid down. The events of the day had tired her out, and she was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.