The exhaustion was almost overpowering. Every second that dragged on, my body screamed in the utmost agony. The baby was giving me a hard time as well, when at first he had been calm, and now he screamed constantly, his wails shooting through my limbs and causing my brain to throb. If I could just sleep, all of the pain would disappear. But Ben was watching, I felt it. I didn't trust his "I don't want your baby" bullshit, not one bit. I had to force my eyes open, and any moment when I felt I would fall asleep, the baby's screams sent a jolt that caused me to remain awake. I had no idea how much time had passed since Ben had put me in my isolated cell, but Juliet came back with a tray of food, she as she had at least eight other times.
"How are you holding out?" She asked from the intercom.
I was aware that she was there, but her words went in one ear and out the other. She came around the other side and came in, shutting the door behind her. She was shaking my arm, calling my name, but her voice sounded so far off in the distance. Suddenly, I felt the baby sliding from my arms, and a brief surge of energy shot through me as I pounced on her, my free hand gripping her throat.
"LET HIM GO! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME!" I ordered, my voice cracking as it reached a pitch it hadn't obtained in…however long it's been.
Juliet thrust the baby back into my free arm and I finally released my grip on her neck and flopped back against the wall, slightly more alert then I had been. I held the baby close to my chest, glaring at Juliet as she coughed and tried to catch her breath. When she had finally recovered, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. I glanced down at the food tray I had kicked over in my fury, and noticed something odd sticking out from underneath the water bottle. I picked it up with my free hand and brought the note close to my face, turning from the camera so Ben couldn't see it.
"Ten minutes."
That was all it said. There was no signature, no indication as to what the person had intended by the note. As I mulled this over in my fried mind, the door on my side slid open again, and a young girl made her way into the room, a large rifle slung across her shoulders. Yet even with the large weapon in her arms, I didn't feel frightened. I recognized her face. It was the girl who had helped me get out when Ethan had kidnapped me. What the hell was her name?
"We've got to go, right now. I know you're exhausted, but you've got to come with me."
She helped pull me to my feet, but I shrugged off her arm as she began to pull me toward the door. I couldn't leave, not yet.
"Sawyer…" I cracked, my throat dry.
The girl…god damn it what was her name…picked up the water bottle from the tray and continued to pull on my arm.
"Somebody is already working on a plan to get your other friends out of here, but if we don't leave right now, I can't get you back to your beach."
I was so out of it I just went along with what she said, but stopped her once again and pointed at the camera mounted on the other side of the wall.
"I thought Juliet told you, that camera is broken. Now can we please?" She gestured for the door.
I finally allowed her to drag me through the darkened hallways, making sure to keep me in the shadows. The baby was sleeping for the first time in hours, so he wasn't being too much of a nuisance in the sneaking we were doing. I knew she'd get in trouble for helping me, which led me to wonder about her motivation for helping me a second time. Who cares, I thought in the back of my mind. I need to just get the hell out of here, and if she's willing to risk her ass to help me, then it was no skin off my back. We finally made it outside, and I felt relief as I realized that we were at least halfway out of danger.
"There are a set of boats on the shore ahead, I've got my boyfriend to row you back toward your island, and he's going to try and get you as close as possible to your camp."
Suddenly loud sirens were blaring in the distance, and people were running around. The girl cursed under her breath and pulled me under the shadows of some trees. We could hear the people shouting from where we were.
"They've escaped again! God damn it they've escaped!"
They? Were they talking about the girl too? Or maybe Sawyer and Kate have gotten out somehow too! The girl had mentioned that she had somebody that was going to help them. The girl was cursing under her breath as she continued to pull me through the wooded area. It wasn't long before she said;
"There! Just beyond those bushes are the boats!"
I turned to thank her, but suddenly, I froze. Directly behind her I could make out Jude's hulking figure, and I could see the rage flaring in his eyes. The girl spun around and raised her gun, but when she saw who it was, she lowered the weapon and smiled.
"You scared me to death Jude. How the hell did you get out?" The girl asked.
Jude didn't answer. His eyes were drilling deep inside me, as he stared at the baby furled up in my arms.
"You didn't kill it? I told you to get rid of it, Amy."
The girl looked from me to Jude and her face furrowed, confused.
"Jude, we don't have time for this. I've got to get Amy and her baby out of here. They're coming!"
Jude pulled out a long knife, one that resembled something Locke would've used to kill a boar. I pushed my baby into the girl's arms and stood in front of her.
"Stay…back!" I tried to sound threatening.
Then, Jude terrified me. He smiled. He was no longer my childhood friend, he was no longer the love of my life, he was an other. Jude suddenly lunged in the girl's direction but I caught him around the waist and somehow managed to throw the two of us to the ground. I kicked the knife clear of his hand and we rolled across the grass, punching and kicking in the blackness of the night. I had another surge of adrenaline and did my best to throw him off me. The girl stood there, trying to shield my baby from Jude every chance he got free. At one point he broke free and charged at the girl, but I leapt onto his back and dug my nails deep into the flesh of his face. Jude screamed in pain and threw me off him, directly onto my back, knocking the wind out of me. By the time I had caught my breath, Jude was searching for his knife in the dark.
"I'm gonna kill that fucking baby of yours Amy, and then, I'm gonna kill you. I love you, sweetheart."
I saw the glint of his knife beside me and rolled over to retrieve it. Jude saw my movements and leapt toward me, landing on top of my back and trying to force my hands away as he reached for the knife as well. Suddenly, my fingers closed around the blade and I turned over quickly…
…ramming the knife directly into his skull.
Jude's scream of agonizing pain could be heard for miles, and the instant he collapsed on the ground, I wrenched the knife from his skull, watching the blood drain onto the grass. I stared at the blade and then tossed it on the ground beside him. I took the gun from the girl's shoulders and fired directly at his skull.
His face was unrecognizable, and his once piercing screams had gone, and the only sounds we heard were the people yelling in the background. I took my baby from the girl's arms and she instantly got to work on a cover up. She picked up the blade and made a small cut on her stomach, and then removed the belt from her pants and ruffled up her hair.
She looked, convincingly enough, like a victim of a sexual assault. With her voice trembling, she turned back to me.
"Hurry up! Get to that boat!"
I didn't waste another second. I didn't spare Jude's destroyed body another glance. I ran through the clearing and threw myself in the boat with the man, who didn't look to be much older than the girl. Without asking any questions he began to row away from the island as fast as he could, and we could hear the people's voices finally discovering the horror scene.
I looked down at my bloodied hands, and saw that they were trembling from underneath the baby's blanket. The exhaustion came back in full force, and I nearly passed out on the boat as the man rowed away.
"Is Alex alright?" He asked in a hushed voice, as though the Others could still hear us.
I could only manage a nod, and he didn't press on with any further questions. My shirt was covered with blood and even, disgustingly, brain matter. I brushed the bits of brain of my shirt with my shaking hands, and suddenly, a wave of nausea overcame me. I turned my head and promptly vomited into the ocean. Since I barely had any food at all, it was just basically liquid and stomach fluids coming up.
"Who'd you shoot?" The man asked.
In between heaves, I managed to tell him Jude's name.
"Ah, I see. Poor guy. He came to this island, and Ben made so many promises to him, things like you would never be harmed, and that he would get to have revenge on the guy who got you pregnant. But Ben wouldn't tell him when he could see you. Poor guy talked about you all the time. I heard from Juliet that he'd-"
"Stop…" I pleaded. "No more."
The man nodded and continued rowing and finally the island slowly shrank behind us. The man, Karl he said his name was, talked quietly throughout the trip, mostly about Alex, and how her father was going to kill her for helping me. It was almost as if Karl was trying to get me to feel remorseful for having Alex help me. It wasn't like I had asked her for it, she came to me.
By the time the sun had begun to rise, we had finally made it back to our other island. He pushed the boat ashore and helped me get out.
"Your camp is directly through that clearing there." He paused, then added. "Don't worry about your other friends, Juliet has a plan to get them out of there safely. Don't try and come back, just let the plan work itself out. Give us about a week, and I promise you your friends will be back, safe and sound."
With that Karl pushed the boat back into the water and began to row back toward his island, back where he belonged. I almost began to feel a bit of remorse for what would happen to Alex and Karl, but for right now, my exhaustion was draining all of my energy. I was barely keeping myself standing, all I had to do was get back to the beach, and they would help me.
How could they help me though? I could still see Jude's splattered brain matters spread out about the trees, and I wanted to take that image out of my mind and block it forever. I forced myself to move onwards and, just as Karl had said, once I cleared through the trees, the campsite was directly in view. People were still asleep, and the sun was barely peaking up from beyond the horizon. The baby was wide awake, of course, but his curious eyes wandered the beach as I slowly stepped forward. My mind was clouding, I had to rouse somebody, anybody. The closest tent was Claire's, and she was sleeping soundly, one hand placed on top of the bars of Aaron's crib. I stumbled toward her tent and the instant I was in, Aaron made a loud gurgling noise. Claire woke with a start, looked around confused for a moment, then her eyes fell on me.
"Amy? Oh my God! Are you alright?" She looked at my arms. "Is that a baby?!"
She must've noticed my face, for she suddenly grabbed the baby from my arms and I collapsed on the ground, my head back against one of the poles supporting up her tent. I couldn't see, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. I heard Claire yelling for help, and then there was lots of noise. The exhaustion finally overtook me and I let it without a fight.
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It was a black sleep, all of the memories of the past few days seemed to push itself out of my mind in order to allow me to just recharge. God only knows how long I'd been asleep before my body finally decided it was time to wake up. I turned slowly and was facing John Locke, who was, at first, staring at the roof of my tent as though to find some sort of flaw in the design. Then, a small smile broke out on his face when he saw I had awakened.
"Good morning."
I sat up slowly, my body sore, and took the bottle of water he offered me. Once I had taken a drink from it, I looked around.
"Where's my baby?" I demanded.
"Claire's watching him right now. Got to tell you that you've had the entire beach shook up, coming back all bloody, beaten, and looking like death."
"Sorry." I apologized. "The Other's Salon was closed for business."
Locke smiled for a moment, but then it faded.
"What happened out there? Where are Jack, Kate, and Sawyer?"
I reiterated to him the events that had occurred during my captivity, excluding the part about Jacob. I didn't feel he really needed to know…not yet at least. Locke listened intently and nodded and asked questions only when I paused to draw in a breath. Then, once I had finished, he shook his head and stood up.
"Then I suppose the best we can do right now is wait to see if these Others truly stick to their word. You need to rest and relax."
And with that he left my tent, leaving me to sit alone in the darkness. I stood up a moment later, noting the bruises that covered my body. I made my way out of the tent and found Claire, looking slightly frazzled as she tried to take care of both the babies. I approached her slowly, and she smiled upon my arrival.
"How are you feeling?" She asked, rocking my baby in her arms.
"Better. A lot better now that I've slept."
"I can only imagine," She began as she handed back the baby to me. "I wouldn't sleep either if I had those Others watching me."
I looked down at my baby's sweet, innocent face and ran my hand across his cheek. He was so adorable, and he was all mine. I had saved him. Nothing would ever harm him.
"Did you think of a name yet?"
I shook my head.
"I've just been calling him Baby. I didn't have any boy names picked out."
Claire nodded as she tended to Aaron, and I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and met Charlie's eyes for the first time in days, and I nearly burst into tears. I put my free arm around him and held him as tightly as I could, almost as if to never let him go. He put both his hands on my face gently and smiled.
"You alright? You had us worried sick."
And for the moment, I was. I truly was alright. But how long would that last?
