Walt finds friends, possibly imaginary, who alternate helping, providing answers, and giving him a hard time.

Walt squinted as two figures emerged from the sunlight as if out of thin air. They were smaller than Karl and Alex, more like children his own age. They were talking, with the girl speaking first.

"There he is! Isn't he adorable?"

The boy scoffed. "Well, I guess he looks better than your last several boyfriends."

The girl hit the boy in the arm. "Shut up."

They reached the far edge of the quicksand. The girl continued, "Hello, Walt."

Walt wasn't sure who these two blond kids were supposed to be. "Hello. Who are you?"

"I'm Emma, and this is my dopey little brother Zack. We were on the same plane."

It was Zack's turn to hit Emma in the arm, but not too hard. "Hey Walt, how're you doing?"

I'm stuck in quicksand, isn't it obvious? Walt felt sarcastic. "I'm just fine, beautiful day isn't it? There were hardly any children on that plane; I might have passed you in the aisle."

"Turns out the same people who kidnapped you kidnapped us earlier, but they didn't let us see each other," contributed Emma. She winked at Walt. "Gosh, you're cute." Zack coughed.

Walt had heard enough of this from Alex, and got impatient.

"Yeah, I'm cute. Now, aren't you going to help me out of here? In case you didn't notice, I'm really stuck."

Emma and Zack giggled, and didn't offer an explanation. Then the probable truth dawned on Walt.

"Let me guess, it's against the rules, right?"

"Way to go Walt, you're not as dumb as you look," said Zack.

"But I'm in danger here. You're supposed to help me."

"You're not in danger, Walt," reassured Emma. "Didn't you learn in school, you only sink until the mass of the quicksand you displace equals the mass of your body? It's called buoyancy. With no outside forces, it will be very hard for you to sink deeper if you tried."

"Yeah," added Zack. "Good thing you're not wearing or carrying anything, that would have made you sink deeper."

Walt spluttered a double negative that was actually correct. "I'm not wearing nothing! I've got a grass skirt on under here, and leg irons on my ankles."

"Whatever you say Walt, we believe you," replied Emma.

Walt was having a hard time with this conversation. "I don't care what you believe because I know it's the truth Now who are you really? Or what are you?"

"Think Walt," answered Zach. "Alex gave you enough clues."

Walt sighed, and thought for a minute. Then he came up with,

"You two are like Alex, and Karl, aren't you? You look like guys I barely saw, and say and act like I think kids your age would, subject to what Jacob will let me know?"

"See Zach, he's not dumb." Emma smiled cheerfully. "And Walt, what do you think kids our age would act around someone in your situation?"

"You'd help me out of here!" insisted Walt. "But … if I'm not in danger …" Walt grimaced. "You're going to tease me, aren't you?" Walt extended his arms up and to the sides. " Go on, tease the funny stuck guy."

Emma and Zach burst into laughter. Walt was indignant at first, but the laughter became contagious. I got into this deep myself; I guess it is kind of funny. In a couple minutes they all stopped laughing.

"Congratulations, Walt," smirked Zach. "Jacob is pleased with you now, and may answer some questions."

Walt was in a better mood. "So if you can't help me out, how long until Danielle comes back?"

"Sorry, can't answer that," answered Zack.

Walt let out a deep breath. "Just like Alex when I asked her how long I would be tied to that tree. Look, I've been stuck here for hours and I'm hungry. Is there something the rules do allow?"

Emma stepped to the side of the path she was on, and pulled a banana off a bunch. To Walt's surprise, she tossed it to him, and he caught it.

"You can do this now?" asked Walt, who promptly devoured the banana, and flung the peel to the side. "Thanks."

"Jacob is being nicer to you now that you're proving yourself," explained Emma. "He really was mad at you for pushing the frozen donkey wheel too far and blowing up the Swan Hatch."

"Cheez, I did the best I could. Now can I have another banana?"

"You have to earn the next one." Emma grinned.

"What? What do I have to do? I can't do very much in here."

"You can flex those beautiful muscles of yours."

Walt thought it over. He was still hungry, as one banana wasn't a whole lot, and there were just nanobot creations, and not even real people. He went for it, expanding his chest and flexing his biceps.

Emma giggled. "Zack wishes he had muscles like that."

"Shut up!" Zack shoved Emma. "Walt, now stick your thumbs in your ears, and wiggle your fingers."

"What? This is silly."

"You want to go hungry?" demanded Zack. I'm sure Danielle will be back by tomorrow. Now stick out your tongue as well."

"Fine!" It was not as if Walt had much dignity left. He complied with the requests, and the blond siblings both hit the ground rolling in laughter. Now Walt added sarcastically, "Is there anything else I can do?"

Emma got up. "I'd like to see you tense those gorgeous abs of yours. And smile."

By now Walt wanted to show up Zack, even if the latter wasn't real. Walt tensed his abdominal muscles all he could, and forced a smile.

"You're so handsome," cooed Emma.

Zack snorted. "Now beat your chest and roar like Tarzan."

Walt went along, thumping his chest. "Roooooaaarrrrrrr!"

Zach wasn't satisfied. "You can do better than that. What happened to all those muscles?"

Getting more irritated, Walt puffed out his chest and beat it as hard as he could. "RRROOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR!!" Venting some frustration felt good.

Emma and Zack hit the deck again. After a minute Emma took pity on Walt and tossed him a second banana. Walt lost no time in peeling and eating it, but this time threw the peel at Zack. It looked like it went right through the boy.

"Now Walter, that wasn't very nice." Zack's tone was mock-serious. You have to pay for that."

"What'cha gonna do, tickle me like Alex?"

Without answering, Zack strode toward Walt. Walt was surprised to see Zack not sink at all, but then remembered this wasn't a real person. However, Zack went around Walt's back and climbed onto his shoulders. Suddenly there was the weight of a real boy there, and Walt resumed sinking.

"Hey, get off there!"

Walt twisted and turned, but any attempts to throw Zack off resulted in Walt's arms passing through Zack's apparent body. Walt's gorgeous abs slipped below the surface of the quicksand.

"That's enough, Zack, get off him now!" demanded Emma. "Don't push him past his chest so he can breathe easily."

Zach got off just before the sand reached the bottom of Walt's chest. Zack whispered to Walt, "She just wants to look at your pecs, man."

Walt was going to agree before anything worse happened. "Yeah, I know."

After Zach walked back across the quicksand, Emma tossed Walt another banana. "I'm sorry that happened. My brother can be a jerk sometimes." She gave Zack a good shove, knocking him down. Walt ate the third banana, and tossed the peel in the direction opposite Zack.

"Look, do you two fight all the time?"

"Didn't you decide we're not real people?" Emma was smiling again. "We're fighting because you think we would. It's your perception of sibling rivalry."

"So what about the real Emma and Zack?"

"They're with the rest of the people who were on the island."

Walt remembered something Alex had said about his friends wishing him well.

"Where are my friends now? Those who were on the plane, and the island?"

Emma paused, as if waiting for permission to talk. "We can tell you this. They're in a state of limbo. A part of the black smoke has them. They are coming here – in location and in time. But it's not a fast process; it will probably take weeks."

It struck Walt that chest-deep in quicksand was a ridiculous position from which to carry on a conversation. Then again, it wasn't so much more ridiculous than waist-deep. "Can you please pull me out to at least the way I was before you got here? Or don't the rules allow that?"

Emma shook her head sweetly. "You don't need that help. Jacob will only help you when you really need it."

Walt sighed. His arms were getting tired, and he rested them gingerly on the top of the surface. "So can you at least stay until Danielle gets back?"

Emma and Zack exchanged glances. Zack finally spoke. "We can do that. It's not physical help, and it's not like we have anything better to do."

"Um, thanks."

The children chatted for an hour, and then another. They talked about life at home, though Walt couldn't be sure anything the brother and sister said pertained to the real ones. In a move toward reconciliation, Zack went and got a couple of mangoes for Walt as a slight change of pace. Walt put up with being stuck so deep as being able to talk with someone, real or not, was a lot better than being stuck alone. Then after Walt had been trapped in the quicksand for four hours, Zack announced,

"She's coming. We gotta split."

"Good-bye Walt, see you later." Emma waved good-bye, and the siblings scrambled off to the side, but not before picking up the banana peels lest Danielle should find them.

Danielle returned to her trap, finding Walt sunk deeper than when she left him.

"Sorry it took so long, but I did kill the boar in the end. You continued to try to get out?"

"Uh, it was more like being too hard to keep still." Can't tell her Zack pushed me in deeper.

Danielle wasn't sure about Walt's explanation, but had her own solution.

"Here, put these on."

She tossed Walt a pair of handcuffs. Walt quickly snapped them on his wrists, fighting the regret that his hands weren't going to be free for who knows how long. Next, Danielle tied a rope around a nearby tree, and threw the other end to Walt. "Pull yourself out."

Walt grasped the rope with both hands, and gave a good pull. He moved a few centimeters to the tree, and his body rose a few centimeters. He regrouped, and the next pull produced almost the same results. After a third, he needed to take a break.

"This is hard!"

Danielle decided it would be best for Walt to extricate himself with no more assistance.

"Life is hard, Walt. You must learn to deal with it. Meet me at the bunker."

Walt remembered that this trap was pretty close to Danielle's bunker. She left Walt to struggle on his own. Walt persevered, but soon had to take another break. This would have been a lot easier if Zack hadn't pushed me down. Walt was a meter from his goal when his strength gave out. "I can't do this!"

Standing still, he was startled to see Emma emerge from the forest. She walked on the quicksand to Walt, and ran her hands over his upper arms.

"Walt, I just had to feel your muscles."

Walt gasped, and made another effort, pulling himself a good couple decimeters to the tree.

Emma took another step, and asked, "You said something about tickling, are you ticklish?" She reached under Walt's arms and tickled his armpits.

"AH HA NO HA HA!"

Walt lurched, and pulled himself out the rest of the way. He was drained of energy, and gasping for breath. "Th-thanks. I'm free – sort of."

Emma had to remind Walt, "You're still in handcuffs and leg irons. You can't escape Danielle like that. You will get a chance, though, and you must take it. I have to go now."

Emma glided across to where Zack was watching from the edge of the forest, and then they both disappeared, as if into thin air. Walt crawled for a distance, then struggled to his feet. Reluctantly he went back to the bunker. "I think I need to wash up before dinner." After a few minutes rest, Walt and Danielle went to the stream, which Walt sat in for fifteen minutes while Danielle filled water bottles. Feeling more refreshed, Walt got out, and rearranged and replenished his grass skirt, which had been damaged while getting out of the quicksand. While there were some good-sized blades of grass in the area, they weren't as long or as sturdy as those from the sea of green, but they would serve the purpose well enough. Danielle and Walt went back home and prepared the boar for a good meal, and then fell asleep rapidly.