Chapter Ten

Taken

It had been a few days of golf and pretty much nothing else. Everyone was beginning to get antsy again and I knew that something had to go wrong sooner or later. Little did I know it would be in the middle of the night? I awoke to sounds of screams. I jumped up and glanced around the camp for the source. Charlie was holding Claire. She must've been the one screaming. I ran over with a few others to make sure she was all right. "It's alright. Hey, hey, you're dreaming. You were sleep-walking, alright?" Charlie said, trying to calm her down. He took her hands and noticed that they were bloody. I stared, wide eyed. "Claire, what happened?"

Claire was too busy trying not to cry to answer. Jack came running over and sat her down. "Becca, get the medical supplies" I went and got the peroxide and some gauze for her hands. "That must have been a hell of a nightmare" Jack said.

Claire shuddered slightly. "Who said it was a nightmare?"

"I'd say when someone makes their fists so tight they dig their fingernails a quarter of an inch into their palm they probably weren't dreaming about riding ponies." Jack replied. "Did you ever sleep-walk before?"

"No. I don't think so. How would I know?"

"It'll get back to you. I had a girlfriend once that told me I talked in my sleep".

"What did you say?"

"Don't know. Whatever it was she didn't like it" he went on. "How was your OB-GYN in Sydney?"

"Good. She was good" Claire said slightly distracted.

"Becca, come here for a sec" called Charlie. I got up and went over to see what he wanted. "You have nightmares, right?"

"Yeah, sometimes"

"What makes you feel better?" he asked curiously.

"Depends on the nightmare" I stated, thinking back to what I did to help. "Why? You want to do something for Claire?"

He smiled sheepishly. "I feel bad ya, know? I made her come to the caves and then she starts having nightmares"

"I don't think it had anything to do with you, Charlie" I sighed. "It was just a dream." He looked forlorn. "Don't leave her alone. Stay close in case it happens again, and maybe make her laugh. To take her mind off of it"

"Thanks" he said going off.

I went to go back to sleep, but found that I couldn't. I was too shaken up and scared of what I would see if I closed my eyes. I didn't want to have a nightmare like Claire did. I stayed awake for the rest of the day, just keeping to myself. I was tired and didn't want to move much.

I sighed and decided to do something with myself. I got up and headed for where the water was. I took some water in my bottle and headed for the beach. It was a nice day and I wasn't going to miss out on the sun. The closer I got, the hotter it seemed to become. I glanced around the beach looking for someone to talk too. I spotted Jack near the water, but he was with Kate and I didn't want to interrupt them.

I strolled down the sand, trying not to get too much in my shoes. This was a boring day. There was nothing to do and no one to talk to. I smiled as I remembered what I had previously done when I was bored. Laundry.

I never had to do laundry here or at least not yet anyway. I hadn't realized all the things I had slacked off on lately. The first few days we were here I had been focused and intent on getting things done. Now, it seemed like I had nothing to do. We had been on the island for 15 days, but it felt like so much longer. So much had happened in that time. I couldn't even remember the date anymore. I watched as the camp moved around me and noticed how everyone was working together. The tide was changing so everyone was moving their stuff up the beach. We had hardly known each other for fifteen days and yet all of us had already picked who we liked, disliked, hated, or thought was hot.

A thought clicked in my head. October 6th, it was October 6th. I hadn't realized that it had been that long. Wow, life passes by quickly when you're on a deserted island. And rescue still hadn't come. A pain shot through my heart. We were never going to be rescued. I was going to be stuck on this damn island for the rest of my life. I almost started to cry.

"Whoa, Dimples are you crying?" asked Sawyer.

"No" I answered sniffling slightly. "I don't cry"

"Well, alright then" he sighed. "But those look like tears to me"

"Well, there not" I snapped, wiping my eyes. I sighed and looked down at my hands. "Um, how's your arm" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Its fine" he smiled slightly. "But you're changing the subject"

I laughed. "So what if I am?" He only laughed back. I stared out to sea. "So did you hear about Claire?"

"What about Claire?"

"She had a nightmare last night" I said. "Woke up screaming with her fingernails dug into her palms"

"Wow," he stated. "Some pretty interesting stuff happens at the caves"

I didn't respond. Kate was by the ocean with Jack still. Sawyer was staring at them. "Sawyer, why don't you just apologize?" I asked.

"What?"

"Apologize to Kate" I stated. "She'll probably forgive you and then you'll be happy again."

"What makes you think I did something?" he asked offended.

I gave him an accusing look. "Sawyer, if she's not speaking to you, you did something wrong" He sighed and looked away. "You apologized to me" I rationalized. "But you can't apologize to her"

"You are a kid" he said. "I knew you would forgive me"

"I may be a kid, Sawyer, but I've been through a lot" I said. "And I don't always forgive people so easily." I walked towards the caves. I had enough of the beach for the day.

For some reason it felt like every time I had went to the beach lately, I got pissed. Maybe I shouldn't go there or something.

The rest of the day passed quickly and I was asleep before I knew it. The next thing I knew, I was awoken by screaming again. "Help me! Somebody's going to hurt me, please, help me" shouted Claire. She was crying and yelling hysterically. I jumped to my feet and headed over to see what was going on.

"Someone attacked her" Charlie explained holding Claire's hand.

"What?" Jack asked, confused.

"He held me down" Claire cried.

Michael looked around crazily. "Which way did he go? How long ago?"

"I don't know. I couldn't see. Just now, just now, he just ran away."

Hurley came running over. "What's going on?"

"We should find out, check the surrounding caves" Charlie proposed.

"Hey, wait, wait, hold on don't go –"Jack called, but it was too late, Charlie had made up his mind.

"Hurley, let's go" Charlie motioned, then left.

"C'mon, c'mon, let's sit down here, okay?" Jack said to Claire. He turned to a man I hadn't met. "Go get her some water"

"Yeah, sure" the man said going to get it.

Jack turned back to Claire. "Claire, look at me, it's okay. You're safe now"

"Did you get a look at him, at all?" Michael asked.

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

"Where did this happen?" Jack went on, trying to inspect her body.

"It was here. I, I was sleeping and I woke up and he was trying to hurt my baby" she explained. "He had this... this thing - like... like a needle. And he stabbed me with it." She lifted up her shirt but there was nothing there. "He was trying to hurt my baby" she insisted.

"It's okay. It's okay" Jack said trying to calm her down. She was still in hysterics.

"Does anything hurt?" I asked.

"No" she answered. "My baby" she whispered to her belly.

Everyone was searching the area for any sign of anything really. I wondered what they were really looking for. I got up to go get my water, but Jack grabbed my arm. "Becca, for tonight, you are glued to my side, do you hear me?" he said. "We don't know what's out there" I stopped and stared at him for a second, then sat back down.

Almost an hour later, I was still trying to calm down. Hurley came back to Jack with news about the search.

"We looked around the entire perimeter, man"

"Nobody saw or heard anything?" Jack asked.

"Uh-uh, nada. Everyone was asleep" Hurley answered. "So, I had an idea. I'm out here looking for some psycho with Scott and Steve, right? And I'm realizing who the hell are Scott and Steve?"

Jack's brow furrowed. "I'm not following you"

"Look, if I was a cop and some woman got attacked, we'd canvas, right? Knock on doors, find witnesses. But we don't even have doors" Hurley explained.

"Hurley, you're not helping me understand where you're. . ."

"Look, we don't know who's living here and who's still at the beach. I mean, we don't even know each other. My name isn't Hurley, its Hugo Reyes. Hurley's just a nickname I have, alright? Why? I'm not telling." He said. He sighed. "The point is we've got to find out who everyone is."

"You want to start a census" Jack said finally understanding.

"What's a census?"I asked.

"Like a registry" Jack answered.

"Yeah, a registry, you know names, what people look like, and who's related to whom." Hurley said. "I mean, we start laying down the law, maybe we'll stop attacking each other. It seems like someone's getting punched, or stabbed, or something every other day here. We've got to find out who did this to her."

"Right now, we need to concern ourselves with getting everyone to calm down." Jack said. "Then we'll worry about the census"

I sighed and hugged my knees to my chest. Somewhere out there was the man who attacked Claire. He could come back. He could attack someone else.

"Becca, maybe you should try to sleep" Jack suggested.

"I don't know if I can" I said looking around.

"Try" he said patting the ground next to him. I lay down and glanced up at Jack.

"Jack, if I fall asleep, don't leave ok?"

"Alright" he said. "I'm not moving"

I closed my eyes and attempted to get myself to go back to sleep. I was mildly surprised when I heard voices. Jack was talking to the man who went to get Claire water earlier.

"Ethan, did you see anything?" Jack whispered. "Anything at all?"

"No, Jack" he replied. "I didn't"

Jack sighed. "I'm not sure that Claire really was attacked"

"What do you mean? She made it all up?"

"No, she believes it" Jack said. "Pregnancy and the stress from the crash, it could cause nightmares"

Then I fell asleep. I heard no more and woke up in the morning. Jack had kept his promise and was still next to me. And was snoring. Again.

I sighed and sat up. It was going to rain soon. You could tell from the feeling in the air. Jack got up around ten minutes later. "Hey Jack?" I asked. "Are you going to the beach?"

"In a little bit, why?"

"I wanna go, but I don't want to walk alone" I said, sheepishly. "Not after last night"

"I think Hurley's goin right now" he said pointing. "You could go with him"

"Ok" I said glancing in the direction he was pointing. "See ya" I walked over towards Hurley and let him finish talking. When he was done I stared at his notebook. "What are you doing?"

"That census" he explained. "I'm asking everyone all the info I need"

"Oh" I said still looking curiously at the notebook.

"I still gotta ask you, and then I'm headed to the beach."

"Me?" I asked. "What do you need to know?"

"Just name, reason for travel, home address, that sort of thing" he said.

"Oh, um" I said. "Name: Rebecca Gallagher, I was in Sydney for school, and I have no home address"

"How do you have no address?"

"Foster kid" I explained. "I was going home to be moved to a new one, so I don't know what my address is right now"

"Oh, sorry, dude"

"It's fine" I sighed. "Happens more than you think" He started to walk away and I followed. "Mind if I come with you to the beach?"

"No, it's cool" he said.

"How many more people do you need?" I asked.

"A lot" he sighed. "I have somewhere around fifteen and there are forty-six of us"

"Ouch" I sighed. "Well, hopefully you get through it soon"

"Yeah" he said as we reached the beach. I stepped onto the sand and instantly felt at ease. The sand was warm and the sun beat down relentlessly onto the ocean. I sat down in the sand immediately and stared at the ocean. It was really inviting. The waves crashed in, and then they hit back out again. I wanted so much to go into the waves. Charlie came by me and sat down.

"Hey" I greeted him.

"Claire won't talk about it" he sighed. "She's being weird. I don't know what to do anymore"

"Charlie" I sighed putting my hand on his arm. "I know you don't want to hear this, but you can't do anything. Just wait. She'll come around"

"You're right" he said leaning back. "I didn't want to hear that"

"Sorry" I sighed. "But it's the truth"

"Yeah" he said.

I stared at the ocean a little while longer. "You know, we've been here almost a month and I never bothered to go swimming"

"Really?" he smiled amused. "That's just weird"

"Come with me then" I said getting up and taking my t-shirt off so that I was only in my camisole. Charlie stood up and took off his shirt. Wow, nice abs. I had on short shorts, so I just jumped into the water enthusiastically. It felt nice to have the water cover my body. It was cool, but not cold. It felt wonderful. I pulled up for air to see Charlie not far from me. I was only really in up to my waist, but the waves went right up over my head. I pushed my rampant hair out of my face. Charlie came up and I splashed him.

Laughing, he splashed me back. I dove under and pulled him down with me. My hair was spread out around my head. I came up gasping for air. We laughed at each other's faces and I went to go ashore. Charlie followed close behind. I lay on the sand, panting and laughing. "That was fun" I said.

He only nodded in response. We laid there for the longest time until the sun was high in the sky. I sat up and looked out at the horizon.

"Becca," he started. "You're a girl right? So you know what to do to, you know, make Claire feel better?"

"Charlie, if you really care about her, I would go talk to her. Just ask her what she wants."

"Ok" he said standing up. "Thanks, Becca"

And then he left me, going off to save his relationship with Claire. I had to say, I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole thing. Jack thought that she was only dreaming. That made more sense than the fact that someone own was coming into camp every night and attacking the pregnant person. I shuddered.

Basking in the sunlight until it was probably around three in the afternoon, I finally got up. My legs were itching for me to use them. I wasn't the kind of person who could stay sitting doing nothing for long periods of time. I stood up and began jogging nonchalantly down the beach. My feet patted the wet sand. My heart rate went faster and I was soon panting in the heat of the afternoon. I turned towards the jungle and ran past bushes, trees and the brush on the floor. It felt good to be moving again. I stopped when it began to hurt my chest. I panted and got back to the caves in record time since I ran most of it. Sayid was coming back into the camp at the exact same time I was. I gasped and ran to go meet him, but was stopped dead in my tracks. He was limping. He must have been hurt. I went towards Jack.

"Sayid?" he asked in confusion.

"Listen to me" he commanded wincing in pain and falling to the ground. "I found her, the French woman"

Jack knelt next to him. He glanced at Kate. "I need some water" He turned back to Sayid. "What happened?"

"The woman - on the island; I had to come back" he said holding his leg. "I had to come back. We're not alone"

Hurley came bursting onto the scene with his papers. "We've got a problem" he said approaching Jack. "The manifest, Jack, the census, the names of everyone who survived all 46 of us; I interviewed everyone. Here, at the beach, got their names. One of them, one of them isn't" Jack wasn't paying attention to him. "Jack!" he said to get his attention. "One of them isn't in the manifest. He wasn't on the plane"

"What?" I asked in confusion. Sayid passed out. I watched him breathe heavily. Jack stood up in a panic

"He wasn't on the plane" Hurley said again.

"Who wasn't on the plane?" Kate asked coming back with the water.

"Ethan, the Canadian guy, he is not on the passenger manifest" Hurley explained slightly out of breath. I thought about who Ethan was. I had just seen him not too long ago. How could he have not been on the plane?

"Well, where the hell is he?" Jack asked glancing around.

"I don't know" Hurley said. "I saw him yesterday, but now. . . "

Jack took a deep breath and yelled out: "Has anyone seen Ethan?"

Kat looked down at Sayid, who was still lying on the ground unconscious. "Sayid's leg…"

"Has anyone seen Ethan?" Jack asked again.

Michael came over in a nonchalant way, as though the whole world had not just gone topsy turvy. "Yeah, yeah; He went to go get some wood" he said pointing. "He took off on the path to the beach. Is he okay? What happened?"

"Where's Charlie?" Jack asked moving in that direction.

"What?" Kate asked still looking at Sayid.

"Where's Charlie?" he demanded.

My heart jumped. "He's with Claire"

"Huh?" asked Jack looking at me intently.

"He went after Claire" Locke answered coming up behind me. Jack took off in the direction of the beach. I wanted to follow, but didn't know what to do. I sighed and decided to simply wait it out. This had to be some kind of misunderstanding. How could someone be on the island if they weren't in the plane crash? Unless… unless they were already here.

I shuddered and sat down on a rock next to Sayid. We had to stop the bleeding. I knew enough form watching Jack how to at least slow the bleeding. I pulled off my belt and made a tourniquet on his upper leg. Kate came over poured water over it to clean it out. "Hold this" she said giving me some thread and a needle. I held it as she cleaned the wound and then took the stuff back. She sewed his leg and looked at me. "You can bandage it right?" she asked getting up. I nodded.

She up and left and I took her place in front of Sayid. I grabbed a bunch of the gauze and a piece of bandana that we had left. I wrapped his leg up tightly with the gauze ad then put the bandana over it, so that if it bled it would hold. I pinned it down and sat back to admire my work. I had to admit, if I ever considered being a doctor, I would be excellent at the bandaging part. Sayid stirred slightly. I watched as he stumbled to awake. I grabbed a bottle of water for him and waited.

He awoke a few minutes later. I smiled and handed him some water. He took it happily and downed half of it before coming up for air. 'Thank you" he said. 'Where is Jack?"

"He went off to look for Claire and Ethan" I said. "You met the French woman?"

"Yes" he said trying to get up. I offered him my hand to help. He took it and stood up straight.

"How do you know we are not alone?" I asked. "Other than the French woman I mean"

"She told me" he said simply. "And I believe her"

"Why?"

"Because I heard them; Whispers" he said coldly.

"You hear them too?" I asked in shock.

He gave me a panicked look. Walt came up and pulled on my arm. "Come here for a second."

I looked back at Sayid and went with him. "See dad," he said. "I and Becca could take Vincent, and he could sniff something that belonged to Charlie" he said. "And I can help"

"I said no, man." Michael replied. "Hey, Locke; Hey, look, you know, a lot of us don't just want to sit here waiting for news."

"Thanks, but we're set" Locke said looking down at me and Walt. "Anyone else will just slow us down"

"Okay. Maybe I'll just put together another party" Michael mused embarrassed.

"Good idea. We're going north. I suggest you go south" Locke said looking at his knife now.

Walt looked up at his dad as if to say I told you so "Come on" Michael said pulling him away. I had to admit, I felt bad for the pair of them. They didn't have that good of a relationship.

I paced around for awhile, not really knowing what to do with myself. Everyone I cared about was hurt, lost or would be hurt. I was in a state of pure panic.

Walt was also wandering aimlessly. I went towards him. "Wanna explore a little?" I asked giving him a semi smile.

"Sure" he replied grabbing his dog. We set off to the left towards the beach. We spotted Sawyer walking around.

"Sawyer" I called. "Did you hear about Charlie and Claire?" I asked. "They were taken"

"Who got taken by what?" he asked confused.

"Charlie and Claire, they think Ethan took them" Walt said.

"Ethan took them, eh?" he said rolling his eyes.

"Yeah" I answered with Walt in unison.

"Took them why?" he asked. "And who the hell is Ethan?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"He wasn't on the list thing, the manifest." Walt said.

"Ever think he might have lied about his name?" he asked.

"It's stupid to lie about your name." Walt accused.

"Alrighty, Tattoo, where do you think Ethan came from?" he asked Walt.

"Maybe he was already on the island, before we were."

"You got yourself one hell of an imagination, kid" he laughed.

"There could be lots of other people on the island." Walt went on.

"Yeah, it's not like we explored all of it" I added.

"So a tribe of evil natives planted a ringer in the camp to kidnap a pregnant girl and a reject from VH-1 has-beens" he said. "Yeah, fiendishly clever" He sarcastically added. "And why am I getting the evening news from a 6 and ten year old?"

"I'm 10 and she's thirteen"

"Okay, then it must be true" He acknowledged.

"If you don't believe me, ask Sayid. He said we're not alone" Walt said simply turning away.

Sawyer turned back to look at us. "Sayid's back?"

I nodded turning to follow Walt. We went back into the caves, now bored with the whole exploring thing. There was nothing to take my mind off of the fact that Charlie and Claire could be gone. Forever.