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Chapter 7, Day 16

Callie

I was startled awake by a blood-curdling scream for the second night in a row. The minute I heard it, I knew Claire had had another nightmare. The first one had been bad enough; enough for her to dig her nails into her palms causing a puncture in her own skin. This new one seemed to be even worse, considering she was crying for someone to help her.

I stumbled up, running to where she was standing and thrashing around. I arrived just as Charlie and Hurley ran off. Jack led Claire to sit down and I approached, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Claire, what happened? Are you alright?" I questioned her. She didn't seem to be calming down much even though we were the only ones with her and none of us would hurt her.

"Someone attacked me! He-he was trying to hurt me—hurt my baby!" she cried, with a frantic note in her accented voice. Jack placed himself in front of her.

"Claire, look at me, its okay. You're safe now," he comforted.

"Did you get a look at him?" Michael asked her. She shook her head, rocking back and forth in her seat.

"No, it was dark. I couldn't see."

"Where did this happen?" asked Jack calmly.

"H-here. I-I woke up and he was trying to hurt my baby!" she exclaimed, on the verge of panicked tears. "He had this-this thing—a needle and he stabbed me with it. He was trying to hurt my baby." She lifted up her shirt to show her large stomach, but when I examined it, it didn't look like anyone had stabbed her. It didn't look like anyone even touched her.

We didn't try to convince her otherwise and stayed with her for a while. Only when both Jack and Michael left did I talk to her. "Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?" I asked softly. She shook her head again.

"No, it-it was real. I'm sure of it," she responded, with a hint of stubbornness in her voice. I didn't question her any farther. What kind of nightmare would cause her to get that scared two nights in a row. Okay, so maybe the first one wasn't real because she was sleepwalking and all, but she was really scared for her life this time. So, I decided I believed her.

"Who do you think would do it?"

She paused for a moment, thinking it over with her eyebrows furrowed. She finally shrugged and looked over at me with scared blue eyes. "I dunno. But whoever did, I don't want to be anywhere near him."

We sat in silence for a while, until Charlie returned carrying a blanket and laid it around her shoulders. He sat on the other side of her. "Are you alright?" he asked her gently. She just barely nodded. "Don't worry if you want to close your eyes, I'll be here all night. I won't let anyone get to you, Claire, I promise. I won't leave you." The corner of my mouth rose slightly. It was cute how he acted around her.

"Yeah, me either," I continued. "I know a fourteen year old girl isn't really intimidating to most, but if he shows up I'll beat him up for you. Promise." She managed to smile a little bit. Like we promised, my uncle and I stayed with our friend until she eventually fell asleep.

~o~

I woke kinda early the next morning, even though I didn't go to sleep until late at night. That was probably a sign that I should take some more pills, but whatever. Claire was already awake and off doing something and Charlie was probably with her. I grabbed one of my empty water bottles and went to go fill it up.

"Callie!" I turned around and watched as Hurley came over to me. He stopped in front of me and readied a pen to write across a notepad. "Name please?" I hesitated and blinked.

"You, uh, know my name, Hurley," I stated, crossing my arms. He smiled and pointed the pen at me as if he realized something significant.

"Ah, but see, you don't know mine!"

I blinked a few more times and started. "What?"

"My actual name is Hugo Reyes, not Hurley," he explained. I remained confused and nodded slowly.

"Okay, awesome. I still don't know what that has to do with anything."

"I'm taking a census of the people around the caves and the beach camp. None of us really know who everybody is, and it's about time we found out. And it looks like you're gonna be the, uh, 6th person on the list. So, name please?"

"Uhh, Callie. Callie Jordan Georgeston. I'm going to change my last name to Pace once we get off this damn island," I responded. The census was a sensible thing to do, and I didn't see anything wrong with the idea.

"Age? Birthday?"

"14 going on 15. Today's October 7, so I'll be 15 in twelve days; hence I was born October 19, 1989."

"Happy Birthday in twelve days. Place of residence?"

"You mean, besides Mystery Island?" I smirked. "LA. I was going home." Hurley scribbled that down.

"Going home, got it. And what were you going home from? Why were you in Australia?" I laughed bitterly. This should be interesting for him.

"Well, my mom and I were going to bust my dad out of jail. Legally, of course. Fortunately, we didn't come back with him," I told him, a devilish smirk on my face the whole time. He stared for a minute, taking in that information.

"Right, well, I'm going to go," he stated, and turned to leave. I laughed again.

"Have fun with your census," I bid him. Once he was gone I searched around the caves, looking for something to do. I spotted Claire this time, alone. I approached her and took a seat next to her.

"You feel okay?" I questioned. She nodded.

"Yeah, much better. Still a little spooked, but I think I'll be fine." I nodded too and smiled at her. I stayed with her for most of day, conversing with her on random things and keeping her company. I couldn't even imagine what she was feeling. I mean, she was almost nine months pregnant while stuck on a deserted island with barely any medical tools and only one doctor. It must be terrifying.

Jack arrived where we were sitting later in the afternoon. "Hey," he greeted to both of us. "Uh, Callie, do you mind if I speak to Claire alone for a minute."

"Well…" I scoffed in fake offense and stood up. He grinned a little bit and for once I did something that he told me. I walked off, debating my options on what to do next. Hurley was probably out on the beach, still taking notes on the people of the crash.

I followed the path to the beach cautiously. I still didn't like the jungle and was weary of it ever since I had seen; well, whatever it was that I saw. I didn't really like thinking about it too much either. I gave a relieved outtake of breath when I arrived at the beach without seeing any hallucinations. I stalked up to the first person I saw.

"Hey, Kate. You seen Hurley? Jack kicked me out," I said, joking on the last part. Kate smiled.

"Yeah, he's around somewhere. He already asked his questions for the census on me," Kate told me. I nodded and thanked her. I spotted Hurley not too far from where Kate was, continuing to his next person.

"Hey, Hurley! Do you mind if I help? I don't really have anything else to do," I offered. He accepted and I tagged along with him. But of course, his next two people were the two people I never really liked on this island. And of course, when we asked them, Shannon couldn't just reply like a normal person.

"You want my information; Name: Shannon Rutherford, age: 20, address: Craphole Island." I rolled my eyes and followed her and Hurley as she stomped away with her bag draped across her shoulder. Boone followed, close behind.

"Where were you guys last night?" Hurley inquired.

"Um, the beach," she responded, not slowing down. Boone kept up with Hurley, walking beside him.

"So, why the interrogation?" he inputted curiously. Hurley chuckled.

"You're like the 20th person to ask me that. Why is everyone so uptight about answering a few questions?"

"Well, maybe we're just not cool with you setting up your own little Patriot Act, man." I rolled my eyes again, almost laughing.

"He's a liberal," Shannon threw out.

"Claire got attacked last night and it was Hurley's idea to start up a census to know everyone and try to find out who her attacker was," I explained to them. "She's okay though," I added at Boone and Shannon's shocked faces.

Shannon nearly threw her back down and stopped in her tracks. "I am so not moving to the rape caves."

Boone ignored her and turned to Hurley and me. "You know, your life would be so much easier if you just had the manifest. We crossed out all the names of the dead after we burned the fuselage, so it should be a full roster of the rest of us." I exchanged a look with Hurley. It would be really helpful if he knew this, before he went out and got everybody's information.

"Really? Who has it?" Hurley asked, sounding excited. Boone gave a blank look and I knew immediately without him even saying anything.

"Who do you think?"

"Well, good luck getting it from him, man. I mean, he likes me so call me if you need me to help you out," I joked, smirking. Hurley sighed and headed for Sawyer's tent. I waited for him, happy to get away from Boone and Shannon, and ended up being utterly surprised when he emerged from the tent with the manifest in his hand.

"He actually gave it to you?"I questioned astonished. He smiled.

"Apparently I have a gift," he said. I raised my eyebrows and sat down.

"Oh, I bet."

We worked together filling in the names he hadn't yet gotten on his list and making sure all the people on his list were on the manifest. This was about an hour's worth of work and everything seemed to be going right in place. So it seemed.

"Dudette? Do you know Ethan Rom?" he asked slowly. I shrugged nonchalantly.

"I've seen him. Never met him though. Why?"

Hurley paused. "He's not on the manifest." I looked up immediately, stopping mid-sentence in my scribble-writing.

"What do you mean he's not on the manifest?"

"I mean, his name's, like, not on here. He wasn't on the plane," he stated, stunned. My eyes widened in realization. I knew what this meant.

"So you mean like, he's not one of us? You mean, he was here before us? He lives on the island?" Fear swelled up inside of me at the possibility of what this all could mean. He could have been the one that attacked Claire. He could be spying on us. And if he was spying on us that must mean that he has his own people that, too, live on the island. "I-I think we should tell the others of this."

"Yeeeah." We both stumbled up quickly and sprinted through the jungle, wanting to arrive as quickly as possible to whoever we could find. We found Jack and Kate with Locke watching close by. I was too worried to even notice that Sayid was back and in pain after a week of absence. Hurley didn't seem to take note of this either.

"We've got a problem," he stated, kneeling next to a busy Jack. Hurley tried to explain what we had discovered but Jack was too caught up in trying to help Sayid.

"Jack!" I exclaimed sharply. He finally turned around and appeared to see us for the first time since we got there. "There's someone at our camp that wasn't on the plane. He was on the island before us."

"What? Who?"

I paused and bit my lower lip. "How well do you know Ethan Rom?" Sayid gave a pained gasp and sat up with much effort. He looked almost delusional and exhausted.

"That's what I was saying. There are others on the island besides us. We're not alone," he choked out, and suddenly fear struck the hearts of everyone in the area listening. We honestly weren't alone.

"Sayid, what did you see? What did they do to you?" I was met with no answer.

~o~

"Has anyone seen Ethan?" Jack yelled, getting up and diverting his attention away from Sayid's leg. "Where is Ethan?" Panic started to take over those who were watching and listening nearby and the noise level started to raise, none of the words meeting Jack's question.

Finally, Michael answered Jack. "Yeah, he went to go get some wood. He took off on the path to the beach. What happened?" Michael had clearly just arrived. Jack didn't answer his, and started walking around the camp.

"Where's Charlie?" he asked. I hadn't seen Charlie around for a while now. In fact, I haven't seen him since last night. I started to worry, and searched around the camp as well, hoping for a sight of him as a reassurance. "Where's Charlie?" Jack repeated.

"He went after Claire," Locke broke in, speaking for the first time. I met eyes with my fellow survivors.

"And where the hell's Claire?" I started in a bitter tone. "In case it's slipped anybody's minds, she was attacked last night." Jack and Locke exchanged a brief look with each other and all of a sudden both ran for the jungle. I started to follow, but someone's gentle hand on my shoulder held me back. I looked up and met Kate's worried green eyes. I sighed and stared after them.

Still biting my lip in worry, I shakily sat down on the ground and waited. They'd come back eventually and when they did, I'd be here. It wasn't until about another half an hour until Locke came back without Jack. Things had calmed a bit and people went off to do their own thing. But only certain people like me and Kate and Boone waited.

I jumped up when I saw Locke emerge from the forest. Kate kinda stole my chance to talk to him but I managed to catch Kate saying, "I'm coming with you."

"I figured you might," came Locke's reply. I took this moment to step in and fell into pace at Locke's side.

"And you must know I'm coming too," I told him. It was more of a statement than a question. He gave a simple nod without looking at me.

"Yeah, figured that also."

But I wasn't the last member to this little search party. Boone asked to join in as well, despite his sister's objections. Locke explained that we were going to follow Ethan's trail as a way to find Charlie and Claire and probably Jack too.

"Let's get moving," he stated and handed Boone and I knives. He may have scared me before, but how many adults gave a teenager a knife and expected they knew what to do with it. I think I was starting to like him. With that, and a little delay from Michael, we headed out of the caves and into the jungle.

We had only been walking for a little while before we found Jack, looking confused and lost. I still didn't like being in the jungle, but I wasn't scared at the moment since I had others with me (including a hunter).

"Did you find anything?" Kate asked him. He looked down and shook his head.

"You should go back to the caves to help Sayid with his leg," Locke suggested, clearly trying to get him out of the way, but Jack refused saying that he had taken care of Sayid's leg. Jack and Locke headed away from us, going into a private conversation that the rest of us couldn't hear. I didn't bother to speak to Kate or Boone.

"Follow me," I heard Locke say. The three of us just stared as Locke began to walk away. Jack beckoned us to follow and so we did. We searched and searched but still didn't find any sign of them. Locke decided to stop and took out a piece of red cloth to mark where we've been. We had lost the trail a few minutes ago; it seemed to have just disappeared. Locke, Boone and I stayed while Jack and Kate went off to search the area.

I ignored Locke and Boone's conversation and sat down, looking around the perimeter of the area, hoping that Charlie and Claire would miraculously appear outside the bushes and tell how they escaped. But I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. I sighed when Jack and Kate came back alone.

"If you can't find the trail…" Jack started but Locke cut him off.

"I'll pick it up again. We need to rest for a minute to get our clarity back." I turned my attention towards him and opened my mouth to say something, but I too was cut off.

"A break? It's almost 4 o'clock. When the sun sets there's no way…"

"It's 4:25 and yes, I'm taking a break," Locke snapped. This made me change my mind on my comment against the break; I didn't want to push him any farther. But I just couldn't imagine what Ethan could be doing right now. He could be killing them for all we knew.

"Hey, what's this?" I turned at Boone's voice and almost gasped at what he was holding up. It was one of those tapes that Charlie wore around his fingers; this one had the letter L on it.

"That's Charlie's!" I cried, standing and getting in a circle next to Boone and Locke. Locke called Jack and Kate, who were having their own talk, over. Jack and Kate ran over to join us and Jack took the tape from Locke.

"Look familiar?" Locke said. Jack nodded.

"It's Charlie's."

"That's what I said," I added.

"You think it just came off?" asked Boone.

"No," started Jack. "He's leaving us a trail."

"A trail which we should follow," I said. Jack and Locke nodded and we were off again, searching for any part of Charlie's trail. Jack managed to find another part of Charlie's trail, but we reached another fork in the road when Locke found another footprint trail.

"What if Charlie isn't the one leaving the trail. If Ethan knows that we're behind him, he could be setting up a dummy trail. Take off in one direction, double-back his own footprints," Kate explained. I nodded, along with her, an idea sparking up in my head.

"Yeah, what if the tapes lead us to Charlie but the footprints lead us to where Ethan and possibly Claire went," I suggested. "Which means we'd have to split up in order to follow both?" Yay, I felt smart.

"She's right," Jack agreed, nodding his head. I resisted the urge to beam.

"No, we should stay together," Locke intervened.

"Why? We've got two trails, and, apparently, three trackers." He gestured to Kate and me on his last point. Locke finally considered this and agreed. I choose to go with Jack and Kate; one, because Kate was pretty much the only one I somewhat trusted in our little search party and two, because the trail we were following would most likely lead us to Charlie.

Jack was practically sprinting through the trail, trying desperately to find the next tape. I stayed behind both Jack and Kate and ignored their bickering. I picked up a few things when they seemed to forget I was there, such as Kate being on the run. The run from what? I never thought of the fact that that could possibly mean she was a fugitive, which I didn't learn until later.

"My dad was in the army. Ranger Battalion. We were stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington State. We'd go hiking together. One day we spend 8 hours tracking deer. Being in the woods, it was like his religion," Kate all of a sudden starting telling him. "That was real. Anything you want to share, Jack?"

When Jack didn't say anything, I interrupted. "Can we go now?" They both glanced at me, reminding themselves that I was indeed here and started moving once again. I felt a drop of water on my hand while stumbling past some rocks on the path, and of course rain started pouring from the sky randomly. Great, just great. This certainly didn't improve my mood.

I looked up towards the sky and cried, "What the hell?!" I rolled my eyes and shivered as rain drenched me from head to toe. Now I was tired, miserable, thirsty and wet. Jack found the T tape on one of the damp rocks. We all froze in fear as we heard the sound of something almost like a bird screeching. No, there was something more to it… it sounded like Claire! I took off after Jack.

"Jack! Callie! Where are you going?" I heard Kate yell from behind me. I didn't bother to answer but instead trailed after Jack, finding a vine of my own to climb up the hill that was in our way.

"Didn't you hear her?" Jack exclaimed over the heavy rain. Kate questioned him, but he kept climbing. I did as well, but I answered her.

"Claire. She was screaming. You didn't hear that?" I said, breathing heavily as I tried to get up the hill.

"I don't think that was Claire, Callie," she doubted. I shot a look at her.

"I've heard her scream two nights in a row now. Trust me, it was her."

Jack had reached the top and reached to pull himself up… but he ended up slipping. We screamed for him as he tumbled down. Despite my better judgment, I slid down my vine as carefully as I could. Kate didn't come after until I was almost halfway down. I gasped when I dropped to the bottom. I just managed to see someone kick Jack in the face, causing him to lose consciousness. A fiery rage boiled up inside of me as I looked at his face. He merely smirked and turned away.

"Ethan! Where are they?! What the hell did you do with them?!" I bellowed as loud as I could. "You better tell me where the hell Charlie and Claire are! You hear me? Get back here and tell me where they are!" I started to chase after him, but the moment I blinked, he was gone. Frustrated hot tears fell down my cheeks, blending in with the rain water.

I couldn't move from my spot for a while. It had stopped raining about five minutes later, and Jack came-to again and questioned about Ethan. Kate didn't see him, but Jack and I did. "He got away," I said, my tone low and bitter. "Ethan got away."

There was a silence between us until Jack said, "I'm not letting him do this."

"Not letting him?" Kate almost yelled, chasing after him. I almost was too emotionally exhausted to grasp that we were running again. Once I did, I gathered up my energy and took off after them. I had to find Charlie and Claire, I had to. I couldn't give up even if the case looked hopeless.

I tripped upon pretty much everything in sight trying to keep up with Jack, but I was determined not to let anybody or anything get in the way of saving the only family member I had left (that is, if my mom hadn't told me about anybody else) and my close friend. We finally came upon the last letter tape, the E; only it wasn't separated like the others. It was still attached to my uncle's hand. I gasped and let out a shuddered breath.

"Oh god, no!" I breathed. "Get him down! Come on!" Jack and I ran over to Charlie's hanging form and lifted him as much as possible while Kate climbed and cut the vine around his neck away. He fell lifelessly to the ground.

"Charlie! Oh, please be alive!" I exclaimed while helping Jack remove the rope vines from his neck. He wasn't breathing. I stepped aside, taking Charlie's hand, as Jack used CPR. My vision went blurry and I thought I might black out, but when I blinked I realized they were just tears running down my face. The CPR wasn't working.

I heard the sound of sobbing in my ears without noticing it was my own. Jack was pounding on Charlie's chest now; he still wasn't breathing. I briefly heard Kate mutter for him to stop, which was unthinkable to me. "What do you mean stop? Don't stop! He s-still has a chance!" I choked out. Kate was crying now too. But Jack stopped.

This couldn't be happening. Charlie was the only person I had left. He couldn't be gone. He wasn't! So, damn it, why was Jack giving up? Charlie was not dead! "Jack, please," I meant to say this harsher, but it only came out as a whimper. It didn't appear that he heard me, but he did. And it triggered something. He shook his head.

"No," was the only thing he said before he continued pounding on Charlie's chest. I squeezed onto Charlie's hand tightly, as if it would somehow bring the life back into him. Kate kept repeating stop, but neither of us listened to her. Warm tears stained my cheeks when this still didn't seem to work. I jumped when Charlie suddenly breathed.

"Charlie!" I exclaimed, my tears becoming those of joy. I beamed, still sobbing a little, and helped Jack hoist him up. He gasped and struggled for air, but he was still breathing, and that's all I cared about. I put my arms around him and sobbed onto his shoulder. He was alive.

~o~

The greater problem was indeed over with, but that still didn't stop my worry. We got Charlie back to the caves safe and sound, but he hadn't said a thing since. He barely talked to us on the way back. Jack, Kate and I sat with him as Jack tended to his neck wound.

"Charlie, you've got to talk to me," Jack said after checking his breathing. "We're going to back out and look for Claire the moment the sun comes up, and I could really use your help. Anything that you can tell me about what you remember, where you were going. Did you see or hear...?"

"I didn't see anything," Charlie finally said, his voice low and dark. "I didn't hear anything. I don't remember anything… all they wanted was her."

"What? They?"

"All they wanted was Claire." And that was the last thing Charlie said to Jack for the rest of the night. Jack and Kate eventually left Charlie's side when they didn't know what else to say, but I sat by him, just because I wanted him to know I was there.

"Charlie, you know you can talk to me. Even if you can't remember anything, or even if you're not willing to talk, I'm willing to listen. Just so you know," I said softly. I didn't get an answer and was about to leave until I heard his intake of breath.

"The last thing I remember is Ethan taking us; me and Claire. I tried to help her, but he—he knocked me out. Then I woke up and you three were standing over me," he said slowly, his eyes not once leaving the fire. "Ethan—he's not one of us." I almost laughed.

"Yeah. Yeah, we know that." I bit my lip and looked over at him. "Do you need any company for the night? I'm here if you need me." For once, Charlie looked away from the fire and shook his head at the ground.

"No, it's alright. You should sleep," he barely whispered. I paused once again and then nodded. I stood up and brushed myself off and was about to leave. I hesitated and bent town to kiss Charlie on the cheek.

"I'm glad you're alive," I stated quietly and left. I thought my last statement over in my head. I knew what I needed to do next. Even though I never been too fond of him, he saved Charlie's life. I walked over to where Jack was. He was standing close to his medical supplies, going through them and thinking what he might need in the next few days.

"Jack." My voice came out as just over a whisper. He turned and gave me a small smile. I forced a smile out too. I was about to say a thank you, but I ended up walking over and hugging him. He was surprised back quickly returned my embrace. "Thank you. Thank you for not giving up. Thank you for saving his life." I released him and once again I was on the verge of tears. Geez, I was so oddly emotional today. What's wrong with me?

Jack grinned and put a hand on my shoulder. "You're welcome. It was just something I had to do." He took his hand away from my shoulder and gestured to where I usually sleep. "You should get—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I should get some sleep. I've been told," I finished, rolling my eyes but still smiling. "Thanks." And so, once again I did what he told me (once again, what's wrong with me?).

To be honest, I was exhausted from the day and I could very easily fall asleep if I just close my eyes. I know that I would just wake up early in the morning feeling like I never slept at all. The sleeping pills Sawyer gave me only worked on occasion unfortunately. So even though I took them daily, most of the time my thoughts kept me awake. Such as tonight, I played in my head all the bad things that happened and could have happened today.

I couldn't believe that less than 6 hours ago I was sitting with Claire, just talking to her about random things that crossed our minds. And now who knew where she was. Oh, not again, I thought when tears spilled out of my eyes for the millionth time that day. I let them fall. They stopped within an hour and I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing them not to open again until it was morning.

~o~