Chapter Seven

Caves

Charlie was sitting near one of the caves the next day. He looked upset. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing" he said impatiently. I noticed that he was sweating and his eyes were bloodshot. He stalked off in the direction of Jack, who was inside one of the caves setting up the meds.

I shrugged it off and started to walk away. If I didn't know any better, I would say that Charlie was de-toxing off drugs. It was only a guess after my mother though.

All the sudden huge ear shattering crash sounded behind me. I hurled around to see the cave crash in on Charlie and Jack. A lot of dust ensued. Charlie came out of the cloud, coughing and stumbling. Jack didn't follow. He must still have been inside. I ran towards the cave, but Hurley stopped me. "Dude, it's not safe" he said shaking his head. He went forward to see if he could hear Jack. "Jack?" he called. "Can you hear me, dude?"

"I don't know what happened. We were just talking and it - and it came down on us - all happened so fast" Charlie said looking back at the cave.

"Dude, we gotta get help" Hurley said. "Charlie, go down to the beach and get help"

"Okay, I'm on it."

"And make sure you tell Kate" he called after him.

Michael went into the opening to check if it would be safe for us to try to dig him out. When he okayed the walls as secure, we devised a plan to get Jack out. "Alright, this area here is load-bearing. We've got to dig where there's no danger of the wall buckling in on itself. Here, we dig in here so the wall doesn't collapse. Four at a time, by hand, until we can find some kind of shovel. We take shifts, and go slow. Whoever isn't digging should be clearing the rocks that we clear out and bring the water to whoever is working, okay. Let's move."

Everyone moved into positions, I and Walt handled the water, since no one would let us near the opening of the cave. We lugged bottles back and forth to the people digging. It was a lot of rocks, and I never thought that it was going to end. Jack was going to die in there if we didn't get through soon. I wanted to cry.

"We're through!" yelled Michael. "We gotta hole"

"Jack?" called Hurley. "Can you hear me Jack? C'mon dude, answer me!"

I stood as quiet as I could to see if I could hear him answer. A small muffled sound came from the hole.

"I hear him" exclaimed Hurley.

"He's alive" Boone sighed in relief.

"Jack, bro, you okay?" Hurley went on. I couldn't hear the answer. Hurley looked at Michael. "What do we do? How do we get him out?" Hurley looked back at the hole. "He's okay. He made it out" called Hurley into the hole. I supposed he was talking about Charlie.

"Hey listen, Jack, we're going to get you out of there, okay?" Michael called. He seemed determined to get him out. He stared at the hole for a moment deciding what to do.

"Okay, we can't safely make that tunnel any bigger, but since Jack can't get out, one of us is going to have to go in and un-pin him."

"I think we need someone smaller" Boone said.

Jin said something in Korean. "Dude, we don't understand Chinese" Hurley said.

"Korean, man, they're Korean" Michael replied.

"I'll do it" I said raising my hand slightly. "I can fit easily.

"No way, it is way too dangerous" Michael disagreed.

"Oh, so it's ok for you, but not for me?" I asked angrily.

"I'll do it" Charlie said.

"Charlie?" Hurley said.

"No, man. Look, you're still too shook up. I might be able to squeeze through." Michael said examining the hole.

"Hey, who's going to take care of your son if something happens?" he asked Michael. "She's got a husband," he pointed to Sun. "He's got a sister" he said to Boone. I'm alone here, no one on the Island. Let me do this"

"Okay" agreed Michael.

"Excellent" Charlie smiled stepping towards the hole.

"Listen man, go slow," Michael instructed. "Try not to nudge any rocks around you"

"Anything else?"

"Yeah" Michael smiled. "Good luck"

Boone came forward and handed him a bottle of water. "Be safe, man"

"Good luck, Charlie" Hurley spoke.

"Thanks guys" he said turning towards the tunnel. I ran up to him before he went in.

"Charlie?" I asked.

"Ya, Bex?" he asked turning back towards me. He looked at me, waiting what I was about to say. I was suddenly speechless. I didn't know how to tell him what I wanted to say.

"Be careful" I said. "You're one of my only friends here"

"I'll be fine, Rebecca" he said with a smile.

I nodded and took a step back. He squeezed himself into the hole, trying extremely hard to not knock any of the rocks around him. It got to the point where I couldn't see him anymore. Suddenly, a small rumbling came from inside the cave.

"Charlie!" yelled Michael. "Charlie, move!"

The cave collapsed again, covering the entrance to the hole we had previously created. Now both of them were trapped in there. Worse yet, they may have been crushed. Everyone stood quiet and still, just staring at the hole in shock and worry. "We can't just leave them" Boone rationalized.

"They're going to run out of air" Hurley said.

"We have to help them" I whined wanting to go at the hole myself.

"Stop talking, I'm trying to think" cried Michael. I stood rooted to the spot, waiting for him to make a decision. I prayed that were alive in there.

Kate came running towards the hole. Oh, god. She must have heard about Jack. She went straight to Michael. "Where is he?" she asked in hysterics. "Where is he?"

"Kate?"

"Where is he? Where's Jack?"

"He's in there" motioned Hurley, saying what the rest of us could not.

"Does anyone know if he's alive?"

"We don't know" Michael spoke up. "Charlie went in there through a tunnel we dug, but it collapsed"

She went at the rocks as though they had done something to personally offend her. "Why is no one digging?" She began pulling rock after rock away from the pile. Quickly everyone joined in. Walt and I went back to hauling water to the people digging. I went to fill more water into a bottle as Vincent began barking.

"Hey, it's the doctor!" exclaimed Walt pointing at Jack and Charlie walking at us. I ran to Charlie, hugging his waist. Kate nearly jumped Jack.

"Ow, easy, my shoulder" chided Jack. He had a huge smile on his face.

"How did you get out?" asked Hurley.

"Charlie," explained Jack. "Charlie found a way out"

"Dude, you rock!" replied Hurley, slapping Charlie on the back. Charlie beamed back.

"You should go tell Claire" I said winking at him. He blushed and put his arm around my shoulder. I watched as everyone hugged Jack and I was last. I hugged his waist and held back tears. "I thought you were a goner" Jack laughed and hugged me back. I looked at his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine" he said. "C'mon"

The night came quickly that night. It had been a long day. I was sitting next to Walt at the fire closest to the brush. He didn't say much and I appreciated that.

Jack walked by with a make-shift sling on his arm. "Hey, Jack?" I called "I'm glad you're ok" He laughed and kept going. I poked the fire with a long stick out of boredom. "You know what would be awesome right now?" Walt asked with a smile.

"What?" I asked smiling back.

"Marshmallows"

I laughed. That would definitely make this a lot better. I could almost taste the mushy goodness on my tongue. I sat back on my elbows. I was in the jungle, next to a fire, with absolutely no rescue in sight, but at that exact moment. I was ok.

I opened the door, slamming it behind me. "You're getting money from your Dad's broker, illegally?" I screamed.

Jaylon jumped and covered my mouth with his hand. "Shh"

"Jay" I said in a whisper. "How could you?"

"If it's what I need to do to be with you, I'm gonna do it" he said.

"No" I said, backing away. "We don't need to do this. I can go alone. I can just…"

"Just what? Board a plane and run away?"

I stopped, he was right. I didn't know what to do. "Jay I can do it myself" I said suddenly, surprising even myself. "I don't need you"