All Roads Lead Here by Teenage Anomaly
And you'll be lost
Every river that you tried to cross
Every gun you ever held went off
And I'm...
Just waiting until the firing stopped
And I'm...
Just waiting 'til the shine wears off
Chapter Twenty-Five: The End of The Beginning (part two)
Knowledge of 'what is' does not open the door directly to 'what should be'.
-Albert Einstein
The doorbell was ringing.
Karen Sherman rose out of her chair in the study with a sigh and crossed the ten feet to the front door, swinging it open to come face to face with two of Katty's best friends. She gave them a sad smile.
"Hi, girls."
"Um, Mrs. Sherman, do you know about this?"
The shorter, stunningly pretty brunette held up LOST, season one. Karen Sherman nodded.
"Here, come in," she said, holding the door open wide. The two teens followed the older woman into the kitchen.
"Do you want something to drink?" she called.
"Is it alcoholic?" asked the taller of the two, grinning a little. Karen laughed.
"Not yet. After a few more weeks of this, though…"
She leant on the bar, facing the two girls.
"So, when did you two figure it out?"
"Oceanic 815," said the short brunette.
"I thought she was crazy," said the taller girl.
"But there were just too many coincidences," said the short one. Karen sighed.
"Yeah, we figured it out a couple of days after the crash. Holly, Felicia… you know you can't tell anyone."
They both nodded, their pretty young faces hardening. "We know."
"Here, let's sit down." Karen gestured to the living room and the three women made their way to sit down on the beige couches. While with Katty, the girls would make a big deal over the extra soft pillows, they now sat down calmly, and Felicia was able to restrain from grabbing a pillow and squeezing it to her chest.
"How much have you seen?" asked Karen, gulping down some of her water.
"The whole first season. We're starting the second tonight."
It was Friday.
A grin spread across Karen's face. "It's weird, isn't it? Seeing her on screen."
"And what she's doing on screen," cackled Felicia, nudging Holly, who had to stifle a laugh. To say that the two girls were proud of their friend's romantic conquests would be a severe understatement. Karen laughed too.
"It shouldn't really surprise me that she's got half the men on the island chasing their tails."
"It surprises me," said Felicia, the taller of the two, growing more comfortable. She leaned back against the couch. "I mean, not that she's unattractive, she's not, but she just never really cared about getting guys that much."
"I bet she loves it on the island," murmured Holly. Karen nodded.
"You can tell. She loves it there."
"I hope she's okay," said Felicia, more quietly. "I hope she gets off."
"She's smart and resourceful. She'll be fine," said Karen soothingly.
The three women sat in the light filled room, saying nothing, trying to believe that their friend and their daughter would make it off the island, if alive, then relatively unbroken.
They all knew it was unlikely.
-
Back on the Island
I straightened up in the musty gloom of the interior of the ship, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the gloom. There were skeletons, still in their manacles, and some weird looking machine type thing. The whole place smelled of death and decay.
Is this where Richard came from?
I looked around as I followed John. I didn't think so. He excluded such an aura of agelessness, of something completely incomprehensible and ancient, that it was hard to imagine him being even as young as two hundred years old. In my mind, Richard had seen Babylon fall.
And Elliot had been right there with him.
"Jack, John, Katty. Over here," called Kate, standing next to decrepit boxes with the word 'EXPLOSIVES' written on the sides in all capital, evenly spaced black letters. The three of us made our way over to her, stepping gingerly over and around pieces of skeletons. To say that it was eerie and unsettling would be an understatement.
Kate and Jack argued momentarily about what to do with the box, and Kate then fixed Jack with an incredulous and angry stare when he wouldn't let her help carry the box.
"It's okay," I muttered, putting a hand on her arm. "C'mon, let's go."
We threaded our way back out of the ship, blinking and squinting once we emerged into blinding light. I raised a hand to shield my eyes, but to no avail. The light pounded through my brain.
"What the hell are you people doing? Wait, wait, stop, stop, right where you are. Alright, I want you to put that down carefully. Put it down carefully. Put it gently, gently. Damn it, carefully, gently, gently. Alright, now get out of there. Come away from there. C'mon, get out. Move away from it!"
Arzt scurried towards us, flapping his hands at us, shooing us away. We all stared at him, annoyed and a little bit amused. My heart was pounding, but I knew that thinking about what was about to happen was useless, so I just backed up, far away from the angry little man.
"What the hell is your problem-" started Jack, but Arzt didn't bat an eye.
"Shhh. Be quiet," he said, eliciting a glare from Jack. "Do any of you have any idea what happens to dynamite in 90 plus degree heat, huh?" Arzt carefully began prying open the old, creaking crate with a pocketknife, sweating profusely as he did so. "So you know? Any of you? It sweats… nitroglycerin." Jack took a step towards him, hand outstretched, but Arzt just looked up at him, irritated. "Whoa, hey, what you doing? Did I ask you to come closer?"
Very gingerly, grasping opposite ends of the stick as though he wanted to be in the least contact with the explosive as possible, he said, "Dynamite is nitroglycerin stabilized by clay. Nitroglycerin is the most dangerous and unstable explosive known to man. Hey, Kate, give me your shirt." Kate gave him a look and he continued, irritated, "Now, princess, give me your shirt. I need to wrap the dynamite. Just throw it to me, right here. Be careful, c'mon, hurry up." Kate tossed him the blouse she'd been wearing over her tank top, looking far less than happy. "Okay, good, now back up, back up, back up. Just back up. Get out of my way. Any of you ever hear about the guy who invented nitroglycerin?"
None of us said anything, but every eyebrow rose and I exchanged a glance with a less-than-impressed Jack.
"Probably not - because he blew his freaking face off." He dipped the shirt in mud, coating it, before gingerly beginning to wrap the stick of dynamite. "His lab assistant came into the room, saw that his mentor detonated, and he said, 'Huh, I guess this stuff does work.'." He very carelessly took the now wrapped stick of dynamite and gestured to us with it. I braced myself.
Sorry, Arzt.
"Alright, we're not going to take any more of this stuff than we need because nitroglycerin is extremely temperamental, so we-"
BANG.
The sheer shock and size of the explosion sent me flying- again- to the ground and I scraped my arm along the side of a conveniently placed tree. I simply lay there in the grass, breathing heavily, my heart pounding, as… as Arzt rained down on us.
"Dude," said Hurley.
I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the blue sky, panting.
"That was not cool," I grunted, dragging myself to my feet and… pieces fell off me. Jack climbed to his feet too, and whirled on me.
"Why didn't you-"
"Jack, we've been over this-"
"You could have tried!" he shouted, his eyes widening.
"I have tried!" I shouted back. Hurley stared between the two of us.
"Guys-"
"In case you forgot, Jack, the first time I 'tried', a woman got eaten by a shark. The second time, I had to watch the man I loved die!"
Jack shook his head, glaring at me, before turning away. Hurley stared at me, eyes wide.
"You… knew?"
"Yeah, I knew, Hurley! I know everything! I know what's gonna happen to you, to Kate, to Jack, to Mr. freaking Clean over there! I know who's gonna get off the island, how they get off, and what they leave behind. I know what happens after they leave the island but the only thing I don't know… is what happens to me."
I turned back to Jack, my mouth set in a firm line, my eyebrows pulled up, creasing in the middle.
"I'm sorry I can't be the superhero you need me to be, Jack." My voice was quiet. "But don't you blame me for somethin' I got no control over."
"Let's take care of this dynamite," said John decisively, and, after giving me a long, hard look, Jack went over to him.
Kate sat down next to Hurley on a log, looking at him sympathetically.
"You okay?" she asked.
"That was messed up," said Hurley, staring blankly in front of him.
"Yeah," said Kate. I leaned back against a tree, my sweaty arms crossed over my chest, and looked down at them.
"He just - exploded in front of us. He was just trying to help." He hesitated a moment before continuing, "This is because I came."
"Hey, it was an accident."
"An accident," said Hurley, his voice the tiniest bit sarcastic. "Yeah."
"Dude, it woulda happened whether you came or not," I said, an eyebrow raised. Both of them looked at me.
"Oh yeah?" asked Hurley. "Do people die or… get hurt or… die whenever you come around?"
"Yes," I said. Kate's eyebrows pulled up and she stared at me.
"Really?" asked Hurley. I nodded.
"Hurley, you an' me are kinda the exact opposite. You cause death, and I can't stop it. So, really, we're very much alike."
"We kinda are, aren't we?"
"Nice to meet ya, death buddy," I said with a small smile, nodding at him. He slowly began grinning too. Kate rose to her feet and crossed to Locke and Jack. Hurley and I followed.
"No I'm- I'm taking one," said Kate firmly, looking at Jack. He shook his head.
"It's not gonna happen, no."
"This is why I came," she insisted, but Jack merely raised his eyebrows.
"Then you wasted a trip."
"I need to do this," she said, a note of pleading in her voice.
"Kate, no one owes anyone anything-"
"I'm carrying one-"
"We're done here-"
"This is not your decision-!"
"Kate, yes it is-!"
"We'll draw straws," interrupted Locke finally, the patience on his lined, craggy face wearing thin. "They're coming. We don't have time to argue about who gets to risk their life, so - we'll let fate decide."
"Works for me," said Kate, glaring at Jack, who merely nodded, defeated.
-
"Katty?"
"Yeah?"
Jack nodded at his pack, then looked to Kate.
"Don't tell her."
"I wasn't plannin' on it, Jack-o."
He nodded, then turned to the others.
"Alright, we stagger. If anyone sees or hears anything-"
"Like the security system that eats people?" interjected Hurly quietly.
"Yeah, like that," chuckled Jack sardonically. "You two," he said, pointing at Kate and Locke, "you take your packs off and you run. You got it?"
"Got it," nodded Kate.
"Yes sir," said Locke.
"Aye, mon capitan," I said. They gave me a collective, odd look.
"Okay," said Jack, hoisting his pack higher on his shoulders and turning to face the darkening jungle. "Let's do this."
"Hallelujah, on the road again," I muttered, making sure my gun was loaded before sticking it back down my pants.
-Flashback-
Katty stood in the airport, the strap of her carry-on slung over her shoulder, causing her to slouch. Her back, still healing, itched. The TV she was standing in front of and staring up at was muted, but the pictures of the explosion in Venice that should have killed her still caused her to frown as ice formed in her stomach. She thought of Elliot; of the three men she'd murdered.
People bustled around her, chattering in various languages and accents, all of them with somewhere to go, someone to find. She was alone.
On the TV, there was a shot of the explosion that must have come from a camera somewhere in the city. The explosion reared over buildings, sending smoke and flames rocketing in the sky. Katty's brow furrowed. The woman on the screen's lip's moved, but there were no sounds. It didn't matter. Katty knew what they'd be saying even without the subtitles.
She shouldn't have survived.
"It's a tragedy," said a voice and she looked behind her to see a tall, fair man with piercing blue eyes staring up at the TV screen, his brow furrowed, just slightly.
"I can't believe what people'll do to each other," he murmured, more to himself than to her.
She nodded, turning back to the TV. "Guess that makes two of us."
He looked down at her for the first time and smiled. "Two is better than one."
A small, involuntary smile formed on her face. "Yeah, sure is."
He grasped her shoulder, squeezing a little to tightly, and she stared into those piercing blue eyes, shocked. He gave her a small smile.
"Don't give up hope," he said, and she couldn't do anything but nod. His smile widened and then, before she could say anything, he had straightened up and was walking away, disappearing into the crowd.
-
We were only an hour or so away from dark when the next 'incident' occurred. It started with an enormous bird screeching and flying down right above us, sending Hurley and I cowering, our arms over our heads.
"Whoever named this place Dark Territory?" said Hurley once we had regained control of our breathing, looking around the jungle. "Genius."
There was an odd chittering and rattling sound and the monster, but smaller, slid past us in the air, making my heart stop. My hand was on my gun, instantly.
Jack turned to Kate, his eyes wide, and she nodded, her eyes equally wide.
"Yeah," she said, "I saw it. We've got to get out of here."
Everyone but Locke began moving, very quickly.
"John," I hissed, but he simply waved me on, his eyes wide.
"You go," he said.
There was a dull thud and a metallic screech and a tree maybe fifty yards in front of us was ripped up from the ground by the roots. I screamed in shock, short and breathy, and then I ran. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack drop his pack off the ground before turning around and shouting, "Locke! What are you doing?"
Jack turned on his heel and sped to Locke, who was still walking slowly towards the monster. I swore and made after Jack.
"LOCKE!"
There was a sudden, earthshaking "thud", right next to Locke, and he fell to the ground, the look of awe that had been on his face being replaced by terror. He tried to scramble backwards, clambering to his feet, his eyes wide and horrified.
"Locke!"
There was another explosion and then Locke was jerked back to the ground by a tendril of black smoke and he was being dragged backwards by his leg, hands scrabbling at the jungle floor. Jack and I raced after him.
Jack jumped and grasped Locke's wrist just as the man's body was about to disappear down the hole. Locke stared up at us, eyes wide but strangely calm, as I skidded next to Jack, slipping and sliding across the jungle floor, scraping up my legs, and clutched at his other arm.
Kate came running in, her face paling and her eyes widening as she took stock of what was happening.
"Oh, god," she said, horrified.
"I need the dynamite!" panted Jack. Kate nodded and began to hurriedly take her pack off, but Jack shook his head.
"No, no, it's in my pack. Just go get it. Hurry, go. John, John!"
"Let me go. Just let me go. I'll be alright." There was such confidence in his voice that for a moment, I actually believed him. He tried to let go of Jack and I, but our grips were too strong.
"No," commanded Jack, shaking his head, face straining with the effort of holding onto John.
"Let me go, I'll be alright!"
"I've got it," said Kate, unwrapping the dynamite as she knelt next to us.
"Careful unwrapping it."
"Alright."
As soon as she was done, Jack said, "Alright, now throw it in."
"No!" shouted Locke, trying to escape from mine and Jack's hold. I gave him a warning look.
"John, knock it off."
"It'll blow us up!" said Kate, incredulous.
"Just hurry," groaned Jack. "I can't hold him!"
Sweat and strain were causing Locke to slide in our hands. I gritted my jaw, digging my heels into the dirt. The monster was pulling him down.
"Don't do this, Kate-"
"Throw it in- NOW, KATE!"
I shouted from the effort of holding Locke and Kate gave a wild cry as she threw the dynamite down with all her might. It exploded with the force of a bomb, sending smoke rocketing up into the sky and then, just as quickly as it had begun, it was over.
Kate reached in to help us drag Locke out of the hole. I grunted, grasping his bicep with my sweaty hands as my own arms strained.
We pulled him out and then the three of us collapsed onto the jungle floor, all on top of each other, staring at the sky and breathing heavily.
"This is the most freaked up dog pile in the world," I said flatly, panting, and then, slowly, almost hysterically, we all began to laugh.
-Flashback-
"Um, is this the flight to LA?" Katty mumbled nervously as she approached the attendant at the desk. The woman, after giving her a cursory glance, nodded without smiling.
"Yes, it is."
"Thanks," said Katty, giving a relieved smile. She approached the people checking tickets and handed it to the woman, who looked somehow familiar. The woman gave her a kindly smile.
"Here you are, love," she said, handing Katty back the ticket. Katty gave her a smile, hitching her bag higher on her shoulders.
"Thanks," she said, and then began the walk down the ramp, her arms crossed across her chest, hugging herself.
She stepped onto the plane and the flight assistant (another woman who looked familiar) nodded at her, smiling congenially. Katty returned the smile from reflex. Her ponytail was falling out of its constraint.
She made her way through first class and then stopped, her mouth open and her eyes widening as she took in the scene before her.
Jack Shepard was putting his luggage into the compartments and John Locke watched, a hard look on his face.
Shannon and Boone were sitting in the middle of the plane, arguing.
Michael was burning a hole into the seat in front of him as Walt played his game-boy.
"You mind movin' sometime today?" drawled an angry, Southern-tinged voice behind her. Half knowing who she'd see, she turned slowly to see Sawyer smirking down at her.
She ducked into the next row and asked a woman with a prissy looking face, her voice shaking and urgent, "Um, excuse me, can you tell me what flight this is?"
Looking at her as though she was insane, the woman answered, "Flight 815."
Katty's heart stopped and she simply stared at the woman, unsure whether to burst into tears or scream for joy. The woman stared back.
"Is there a problem?" she asked, her voice annoyed. Katty shook her head, heart hammering.
"Uh, no, there's- there's no problem."
She checked her ticket, praying that she was sitting in the middle of the plane, prepared to make a scene if she wasn't-
She was in the middle, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she made her way to her seat. She had to fight back a grin when she saw who was sitting across the aisle from her.
She pulled her iPod out of her carry-on before shoving it haphazardly into the luggage compartment. She'd get it out and hold on to it once they were in the air.
Katty half-collapsed into her seat, folding her legs underneath her. Sayid merely glanced at her before staring out the window, and she stared at the seat in front of her, grinning giddily.
Hurley clambered onto the plane, doubled over and panting. As he made his way to his seat, he winked at her.
A grin spread across her face.
Don't give up hope.
-
"We shouldn't be this close to each other, Jack," said Locke, several hours later, when night had fallen and the orange light of torches illuminated our faces. I snorted.
"If we blow up, we blow up," said Jack gruffly. There was a moment of silence and then the question that had been burning at him for at least an hour came flying out and he asked loudly, "What the hell was all that about back there, John?"
"What was what about?" asked Locke, slightly innocently. Jack's face contorted slightly. I raised my eyebrows, thinking, I'm staying out of this one.
"You asked me to let you go."
"That's right," said Locke, nodding. I watched the exchange, not wanting to say anything, my face examining the confident, calm look on John's face and the angry, frustrated one on Jack's.
"That thing was taking you down the hole and you asked me to let you go." There was a note of barely control fury in Jack's voice and his eyes, in the orange light, looked a little demented. Poor guy.
"It wasn't going to hurt me."
"No, John, it was going to kill you!" shouted Jack, making an infuriated, jerking movement with the torch. Locke just smiled.
"I seriously doubt that."
"Look, I need for you- I need for you to explain to me what the hell's going on inside your head, John. I need to know why you believe that that thing wasn't going to-"
"I believe that I was being tested," interrupted John, raising his voice just enough to cover Jack's and glancing at me. I just looked back at him, my brow furrowing slightly. Jack stopped speaking, a look of complete, angry disbelief on his face.
"Tested?" he asked, his voice sarcastic. John nodded, his face intense.
"Yeah, tested."
"I think-"
"That's why you and I don't see eye-to-eye sometimes, Jack - because you're a man of science." He paused, leaving Jack to digest this. Jack was smiling now, a little insanely.
"Yeah, and what does that make you?"
"Me, well, I'm a man of faith. Do you really think all this is an accident - that we, a group of strangers survived, many of us with just superficial injuries? Do you think we crashed on this place by coincidence- especially, this place? We were brought here for a purpose, for a reason, all of us. Each one of us was brought here for a reason," he said, his voice and face more intense than I'd ever witnessed. This was John Locke at his prime- this is the John Locke that could change the world.
"Brought here? And who brought us here, John?" Jack was simply humoring him now, but his patience was wearing visibly thin.
"The Island. The Island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you've seen that, I know you have. But the Island chose you, too, Jack. It's destiny," replied John, his face sincere.
Jack just looked at him, before saying quietly, "Did you talk with Boone about destiny, John?"
My heart twisted as those smiling blue eyes flashed through my mind and I gripped the torch a little tighter. Both men glanced at me, and I looked evenly back at them. John turned to Jack.
"Boone was a sacrifice that the Island demanded. What happened to him at that plane was a part of a chain of events that led us here- that led us down a path- that led you and me to this day, to right now."
"And where does that path end, John?"
A smile spread over Locke's face. "The path ends at the Hatch. The Hatch, Jack- all of it- all of it happened so that we could open the Hatch."
"No, no, we're opening the Hatch so that we can survive," hissed Jack, whirling on him.
"Survival is all relative, Jack," said Locke fervently.
"I don't believe in destiny," replied Jack, shaking his head, eyes widening.
Locke smiled, that confident, quiet smile that could comfort you or give you nightmares.
"Yes, you do," he said calmly. "You just don't know it yet."
Jack glared at him, jerking his head, but said nothing, and John and I fell into step beside each other.
"I'm sorry," he said abruptly, and I looked up at him, a little surprised.
"Fer what?"
"Boone," he said quietly, his gaze dropping to meet mine. It was as though an ice-cube was dropped into my stomach and I sighed.
"It wasn't your fault, John."
"I know," he said quickly. "I know. But he- he loved you. And I know you loved him."
"Yeah, love wasn't our problem. Our problem was that, in the real world, we never woulda worked."
"What do you mean?"
I shrugged, gesturing with the torch. "He was a liberal. I'm so conservative I'm practically an anarchist. I love guns, he hated them. I hate confrontations, he liked to get things over with. We argued about everything."
I sighed, puffing out my cheeks, running a hand through my bangs as I thought about all the arguments we'd had- they seemed so pointless, now that he was gone.
"But I guess that was part of the beauty of it."
"I thought teenagers thought you didn't need anything but love," stated John, a smile creeping into his voice.
"John, you and I both know that two people need so much more than love," I said quietly, and after a moment, he nodded, looking back to the dark jungle in front of him.
"They sure do," he said.
The jungle was eerier at night. Much eerier, and I was glad I had John- fearless John Locke- at my side.
A breeze rippled through the trees, making the flame on my torch flicker, and I shivered, moving a little closer to Locke.
Eventually, we reached the hatch. As they bustled around, trying to get everything set up, I crouched down in the dirt and touched the hatch, simply regarding it.
The person in that hatch was the one person in the world who would be able to empathize with me. The one person in the world that would understand. I had no interest in Desmond, romantically speaking, but it would be nicer than I could say to have one person who understood.
"Katty!"
"Yeah?" I said, standing up and turning around. Jack nodded at Kate.
"Help her with the fuse, okay?"
I nodded and patted him on the shoulder as I walked over to Kate.
"Okay," she said, smiling at me. "Let's do this."
The fuse, unfortunately, wasn't very long, maybe seven or eight yards.
"How are you?" Kate asked me once we were out of earshot of the guys. I looked up at her as sweat dripped down my face.
"I'm okay."
She nodded after a minute. "Okay."
"Wire," we heard Locke say. "Hold that end. Now the fuse."
"I'll do it," said Jack impatiently, and pushed the fuse very, very gently into the dynamite. Kate and I watched him, she with apprehension, me with curiosity. Watching all this on a TV screen was one thing. Living it… well, that was something different entirely. Jack straightened up and he and Locke walked over to us. Kate gave me a relieved smile that I returned half-heartedly.
"This is as far as it goes," said Kate once John and Jack reached us. Jack glanced at me and nodded.
"It's far enough," said Locke. "I'll light it. You take cover, there'll be enough burn time for me to get clear."
"Hurley!" Jack shouted.
"Wait just a sec!" he called.
"So, what was that about back there?" asked Kate when it was just she, Jack and I, her voice hard. I winced. I didn't want to hear this.
"What was what about?" asked Jack. Kate's eyes narrowed.
"Putting the dynamite in your pack."
"I made a judgment call," said Jack firmly, raising his eyebrows.
"We drew straws."
Jack chuckled. "Sorry, I'm not going to let drawing straws make decisions like that for us, Kate."
"You had no right to make that choice-" she began, angrily. Jack shook his head, his patience snapping. My wince turned into a grimace as I watched the two of them staring each other down.
"Everybody wants me to be a leader until I make a decision that they don't like. You want to keep second guessing me, Kate? That's your call. There's something that you need to know- if we survive this, if we survive tonight- we're going to have a Locke problem. And I have to know that you've got my back."
Kate was silent for a moment before saying, "I've got your back.
"Are we ready?" called, speak of the devil, Locke. I looked over at him.
"Wait a sec, wait a sec," said Hurley, frantically.
And, again, for maybe the fourth time that day, all hell broke loose. Really, it was getting mundane.
"No. No, no, no. Stop! Stop, we can't do this! Stop. Wait. Stop, we can't do this! Stop!" Hurley was beyond all reason, his eyes wild. I made to go stop him, but Kate grasped my arm and moved forward herself. "Stop it. We can't. Stop. Don't light it! We can't do this. We can't do this. Stop. Wait. You've got to stop it!"
Locke lit the fuse and Hurley froze, blood draining from his face
"The numbers are bad-"
I once again took a step to calm Hurley down, but before I could think, there was a hand clamping over my mouth and an arm wrapped around my stomach. My eyes widened and I tried to scream, but I was being dragged backwards. I flailed around, twisting and turning and punching and kicking, but the person's grip was relentless and strong, and then the hatch and my friends disappeared from view, although I could still hear Hurley's shouting.
"The Numbers are bad!"
"Hurley! Hurley, you've got to get back-!"
BOOM.
The explosion lit up the jungle, and I saw the arm wrapping in a vise like grip across my stomach. The jungle shook and there was a sudden rush of movement as birds took off.
Eyes still wide, I simply stood with my back against my attacker's chest, my heart hammering. The light from the explosion gradually died away, but tendrils of smoke floated around us, floated through the jungle, and the scent of gunpowder was like a blanket over my face.
He let go of me then, and I whipped around, fully intended on giving Richard a piece of my mind-
But the words died in my throat and the thoughts in my minds turned to dust and I was frozen where I stood, completely speechless, mouth gaping.
Elliot Chase Alpert was standing in front of me.
LOST
"Lost" by Coldplay
A/N: IT IS COMPLETE! Wow, everyone who's read and reviewed this story, thank you so, so much. All your reviews and encouragement mean more to me than I can possibly say, so thank you so very much.
I am doing a story for season two, as well, and hopefully I'll have the first chapter up in a week or so. I wanna get the first few chapters written before I leave the country. Also, I'm kind of at a loss as to titles for the next story, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them! I want to keep in using a quote from the show (like all roads lead hear) so keep that in mind :). Other things to consider- she keeps trying to change things but can't, Boone's still dead, we meet Benry, etc. Also, romantically wise, the next story is going to focus mainly on Katty and Sayid's friendship/romance. Not to say that there aren't going to be some steamy Sawyer and Richard moments, but it's mainly going to about our lovely Arab and our not-so-lovely anti-heroine.
Once again, I LOVE YOU GUYS SO FREAKING MUCH! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!
See you next season!
Sarah
PS: If you don't remember who Elliot is, go and read chapters 4, 12, and 19.