Okay, so here's chapter two. By the way, I will do flashbacks for Carmen, but only when they seem fitting- I've already got them all planned out.
DISCLAIMER: LOST OWNS ME, BUT I DO NOT OWN LOST
I looked over the suitcases, all varying in size and color, length and width. I reached for one that looked heavy. I knew it would be harder for me to carry, but the heavier, the more in it. I picked it up, it pulling me further to the ground with its weight. I grasped the bottom of the bag to get a better grip.
"You need help?" A man asked behind me. Boone had taken off his blue over-shirt, and was now in a white tee, his necklace dangling over his shirt.
"Yeah," I said, offering him the bag. He took it from me, falling a little with it's weight. We walked together over to the congregation of suitcases. He looked over at someone and placed his hands on his hips. I looked over. His sister Shannon was in a bikini, trying to tan. He shook his head.
"Be right back," he said, walking over towards Shannon. I smiled and laughed a bit. I knelt down over the bag and opened it up. I was right; the suitcase nearly exploded it was so full. I reached in, going through the clothes. The shirts were all bigger: men's most likely. I put them down in piles: one for reasonable clothing for our hot weather, consisting of short sleeve shirts and shorts, and another for unreasonable clothing, like long sleeved shirts. Boone came back over to me, looking kind of annoyed.
"You okay?" I asked. He smiled.
"Shannon, she's… difficult," He replied with a laugh. We got up and started to get another bag. I decided that I should tell Boone I knew Sawyer, just to be honest with him. I really liked him, and I wanted to talk to Sawyer again.
"Um, can I tell you something?" I asked him as he grabbed a suitcase from the sand.
"Uh, yeah, go ahead," he said. I smiled and sighed.
"Um, you know when I said I didn't know anyone on the plane?" He looked over to me. "I lied." We walked a little further.
"Who did you…"
"Sawyer!" I screamed. Sawyer was screaming at a Middle Eastern man, and had just punched him. I sprinted towards the mob that was watching them fight, doing absolutely nothing. What was wrong with them?
"Carmen, wait!" I heard Boone yell for me. He wasn't far behind me. I had almost reached them when Boone grabbed me and held me back.
"Sawyer, stop it!" I screamed. No one did anything. "Stop!" I screamed again. All of a sudden, the doctor came running in, and pulled Sawyer off of the Middle Eastern man. A Black man stepped in to help with the other man.
"What's going on?!" Jack demanded.
"Look, my kid found these in the jungle," The Black man said.
"And this guy was sitting in the back row of business class the whole flight, hands folded under the blanket. And for some reason, just pointing this out, the guy I saw next to him didn't make it," Sawyer said. I looked down at my feet.
I didn't once see Sawyer's hands.
They were hidden away the whole time.
Sawyer never touched my arm, or anything.
He was hiding his hands.
He was trying to cover up himself using a Middle Eastern man.
"Stop!" A woman screamed. Everyone was silent. She said something about a transceiver, and that it was broken. The Middle Eastern man said he could help.
"Oh great! Perfect! Let's trust this guy!" Sawyer yelled. Someone said something in the back, but I couldn't hear him.
"Shut up, Lard-o!" Sawyer said.
"Whoa!" I said, about to say something else. But Jack got in his face. Sawyer walked off. I jerked away from Boone and walked the other way. I was furious- so mad I couldn't see straight. I wanted to apologize to the Middle Eastern man. I had talked with him yesterday. I saw him working along the beach, talking to the overweight man that helped Claire earlier. I walked over to him.
"Um, hi," I said, interrupting what sounded like silence, but looked like a conversation. The man looked over at me, with accusing eyes. "I wanted to, um, apologize…" He looked even more confused. "About Sawyer, the man you fought with. He's not normally… like… that…" I said. What am I saying? He always is and has been a jack ass. The man smiled a little. I was going to turn and walk away.
"What is your name?" He asked me.
"Carmen," I replied softly. He smiled wider.
"I am Sayid," He said.
"Hurley," The overweight man said. I smiled at him.
"Do you believe it?" Sayid asked me.
"I'm sorry?"
"Do you believe that I crashed our plane?" He asked. He and Hurley stared at me, waiting for a reply.
"No," I said. But they didn't seem convinced. "No, I don't think you had anything to do with it." He smiled.
"Then it appears we are on the same side."
I walked away from him, smiling. I wasn't really sure of that: he may have had something to do with the plane crash, but Sawyer might've, too.
--
I put my hair up in a ponytail and walked towards Sayid.
"Did you fix it?" I asked him. He smiled at me.
"Yes, but we don't have a signal yet. We need to climb higher," He said, looking up at the mountain.
"Can I come with?" I asked. He looked at me. I could tell he wanted to say no because of my age. "I'm a really good climber, and I'm really tired of sorting through suitcases. He smiled.
"Find a backpack, and get a water bottle. And something for night, in case you get cold," He said. I smiled. He looked back at the transceiver.
"Thanks," I said. He looked up at me. I turned and walked the other way. I went to the stack of backpacks that were in with the suitcases. I picked one up, and grabbed two water bottles from the serving tray from the plane. I ran over towards Sayid, who was talking to the brown haired woman who came back with Jack.
"Hey," I said. The woman looked at me, and then back at Sayid.
"Um, I'm not sure if you should…"
"It's fine, Kate. She'll be alright," Sayid said.
"Nice to meet you, Kate, I'm Carmen," I said, forcing a handshake. She smiled after a moment.
"I'd like to come with you." Shannon was standing between all of us. She was wearing a pink tank top and shorts, and her face looked like she'd been crying.
"She's not going," Boone stepped in. They bickered for a moment, while Sayid, Kate and I stared, not knowing whether to step in and settle the argument for them, or just stand and watch, and quietly laugh to ourselves.
"I'm coming with you," Shannon insisted.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea…" Kate started.
"What are you, two years older than me? Please," She said. A man walked up beside her. "You're going, aren't you?"
"Yeah, are you?" He asked, seeming to be interested for other reasons.
"Yep."
"Yep, I'm definitely going…" He guaranteed. We walked off. I slipped the straps of the backpack over my shoulders and followed closely behind Kate.
"Hey," Boone said, coming up beside me.
"Hey, decided to take a walk with me?" I asked jokingly. He laughed.
"Like I said, she's…"
Sawyer passed us.
"Decided to join us," Kate said more than asked.
"I'm a complicated guy, sweetheart," He said.
"Difficult," I finished.
--
Climbing the mountain was a little harder than I assumed. We held on to branches and dirt, hoping nothing would slip. I put my foot on a rock that looked well nestled in the ground, and launched myself upwards towards the top of the cliff. I nearly slipped, and would've fallen, if Sawyer didn't grab my arm. He pulled me up, helping me over the ledge. I crawled over the edge.
"Is it more difficult than you thought?" Sayid asked, offering a hand to pull me up. I laughed, and grabbed on to it. I stood up, and we continued forward. I was walking next to the one man I didn't know too well.
"Hey," he said. I looked over at him and smiled.
"Hey." We walked for a little while. He started humming some song. It sounded familiar, but I didn't know where I'd heard it.
"Um, we haven't met. I'm Carmen," I said, smiling at him. He stopped humming.
"Charlie." And then he started humming again. It was getting really annoying.
--
We were walking through some really tall grass, surrounded by palm trees.
"Okay, wide open space! We should check the radio, see if we're good," Sawyer demanded. Sayid and him argued for a moment. We all stopped, and I was about to scream at Sawyer when Sayid did.
"If I just check, we might not have any batteries left to…"
Something growled. It was off in the grass in front of us. I couldn't see it, but it kept making noises. It was creeping around us.
"Something's coming," Kate said. We all stared at the grass, as if it were surrounding us. I didn't want to move, for fear that it would attract attention to myself.
"It's coming towards us, I think," Charlie said. I looked over at Sawyer, scared, and afraid. He had a strong face, like he was ready for what was coming. Boone held onto Shannon's arm, as if ready to push her away and sacrifice himself for her.
"Come on, let's move," Kate said. We all started running off in the direction we came, Shannon screaming like murder.
"Sawyer!" Kate screamed. I turned around, and saw Sawyer standing back there, just staring at the thing running towards him. I ran back for him.
"Carmen!" Boone screamed after me, but he had his hands full with Shannon. I reached Sawyer finally.
"Sawyer, come on!" I yelled. He pulled a gun out of his bag pocket, and started shooting at it. I watched intently. He shot one, two, three shots. It was still running at us. He kept shooting until it jumped at us. I screamed, and leaned backwards, waiting to be killed by this white blur, but it fell in front of us. I ran and grabbed onto Sawyer.
"That… that's a big bear," Shannon said. I stared at it. The group was talking a little. Kate went forward towards it.
"Guys, this isn't just a bear… it's a Polar bear."
The group kept arguing about it, thinking about how a polar bear could be in the Mid-Pacific, and how it got there. I was quiet... I didn't know what to say. Everything I had learned had, in the course of the past few days, contradicted itself. Planes crashing, no rescue, I lived, polar bears in the Pacific.
"Where did that come from?" Kate asked.
"Probably bear village. How the hell do I know?" Sawyer asked.
"Not the bear, the gun." I turned around and looked at Sawyer. How could he have a gun here? He looked to me as if I'd back him up, but I stood with a still, anxious face. He looked betrayed.
"I got it off one of the bodies."
"One of the bodies," Sayid repeated. Sawyer said it was an Air Marshall. Air Marshalls would take prisoners on planes. He found a Marshall…
"I know who you are," Sayid said. "You're the prisoner."
"I'm the what?" Sawyer asked nastily.
"You found a gun on a U.S. Marshall? Yes, I believe you did. You know where he was because you were the one he was bringing back to the states. Those handcuffs were on you. That's who you are, you son of a bitch." Kate grabbed the gun from Sawyer and pointed it at him.
"Stop!" I said, but Boone held me back.
"Does anybody know how to use a gun?" She asked.
"Don't you just pull the trigger?" Charlie asked.
"Don't use the gun," Sayid said.
"I wanna take it apart," She said. Boone lightened his grip on me, and I yanked my arm away. I didn't like how Boone believed he could just control me. He had only known me a few days. Sayid gave her instructions to take the gun apart, and she gave the bullets to Sayid, and the gun back to Sawyer. I pulled away and sat closer to the bear.
--
We kept hiking. And hiking. And hiking. And then we hiked some more. I walked beside Sayid. I was unsure of Sawyer, and I felt like Boone was crossing a line, pulling me away from fights that I want to help end. I figured that was my right, and he was not at liberty to stop me.
"Oh, now's a good time to check the radio. Not before, but now!" Sawyer complained. I looked over at Sayid, who was turning knobs on the little phone.
"We're up higher," Sayid answered.
"Yes, we are!" I sighed.
Sayid stopped behind me. I turned around.
"Hey, we've got a bar!" I ran back to him and got in close to him. "Mayday, mayday!" He yelled into the phone, but it screamed back at him.
"What's that, what would do that?" Kate asked.
"Feedback… I don't know," Sayid answered trying to figure out the phone.
"I'll tell what would do that, this guy not fixing a radio right, thing doesn't even work," Sawyer complained.
"No, no, no, it's not broken… we can't transmit because something's already transmitting…"
"What?"
"Transmitting from where?"
"Somewhere close, the signal's strong," Sayid answered.
"Close!" Charlie smiled, "You mean here on the island close! That's fantastic!"
"Maybe it's other survivors…" Boone thought.
"From our plane? How…"
I remained silent. I didn't know what to say, I was in shock. I was happy that I might get to leave this place and go home, but I didn't want anyone to find me. And I knew they would.
"Sawyer, shut up!" Kate said. I hadn't been paying attention, I didn't know what he said. Probably something unnecessarily rude.
"It's the rescue crew, it has to be…" Charlie thought. A woman's voice came onto the radio. "That's French! The French are coming! I've never been so happy they're the French!" We all laughed, excited and nervous.
"I never took French, what is she saying?" Kate asked.
"Does anyone speak French?" Sayid asked. I didn't know any useful language besides English. I only learned a little Latin, dead for a reason.
"She does," Boone pointed to Shannon.
"No, I don't! What?" She yelled.
"What are you talking about, you spent a year in Paris!"
"Drinking, not studying!"
A deep voice came on, saying large words I didn't understand, and then a long number.
"Okay… what's that?" Charlie asked.
"No, no, no, no, no…" Sayid cried.
"No, no, no what?"
"The batteries are dying!"
My head hurt from everyone yelling. I wished I hadn't come, or that we'd never found the phone in the first place.
"It's… it's repeating," Shannon said. Everyone went silent.
"She's right… it's a loop. 'Interation'… the it's repeating the same message…the next number will end… 533." We all listen to the male voice, ending with '533.'
"Does anyone know what the hell he's talking about?" Sawyer yelled.
"It's a running count of the number of time the message has repeated!" He yelled at Sawyer. "It's roughly thirty seconds long, so… if you…"
"Don't forget to carry the one, chief," Sawyer said.
"She's saying… Please. She's saying, Please help me, please someone come…" Shannon started.
"Or she's not! You don't even speak French!" Sawyer yelled.
"Let her listen!"
"Shut up man!"
Shannon closed her eyes for a moment.
"I'm alone now… I'm on the island alone… please someone come… the others, they're… they're dead. It killed them… it killed them all…"
Shannon pulled the phone away from her ear.
"That was good," Boone said. I stared down at the grass by Kate's feet. I felt like I couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't feel…
"Sixteen years," Sayid said. I looked up at him.
"What?" Sawyer asked him.
"Sixteen years… and five months, that's the count…"
Boone was confused. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"The interations… it's a distress call. A plea for help, a mayday. If the counter's right… it's been playing, over and over… for sixteen years," Sayid said. I couldn't move. I felt like I was rooted to the ground, paralyzed.
"Someone else… was stranded here?" Boone asked. I couldn't breathe.
"Maybe someone came for them," Kate hoped.
"If someone came, why's it still playing?" Sawyer said, crushing any hopes we might've had.
No one said a thing. No one moved. Not a sound. Surrounding us was the silence of what had happened. The silence of lost hope. The silence crushed dreams. The silence of relief. The silence of confusion.
"Guys," Charlie said, "Where are we?"
