Chapter 25: Hugo Breaks the Guns

Everyone had assembled for breakfast on the commons. Although Desmond had been gone for over two weeks, as of yet Hugo had made no move to find the Door.

He really couldn't say why. His mother was probably praying her daily rosary for him in front of the large, brightly-colored painting of the Virgin in her bedroom. He hoped that just like before, she had faith that he was still alive.

Also, leaving the people who had settled down in New Otherton seemed like quitting, like abandoning them. He didn't want to do that.

Hugo had to admit, though, that things were running more smoothly than he would have ever imagined. Ben and Cindy had taken over educating the older children. In between building the fish pond up at the swampy North Flats, the kids were busy converting the living room of Ben's house into a library, including putting together a handwritten "card catalog" to keep track of all the books.

Everyday management of New Otherton fell to Kathy and Shana, while Meredith and Sullivan supervised the gardens. Rose, with Hugo's help, ran the kitchen, and Bernard kept working on the infirmary.

It was Bernard who kept nagging Hugo about using the Door to return state-side. More than once he said, "I need dental tools and lidocaine, especially. If Richard Alpert's the wizard Ben says he is, he can get a prescription for a good quantity. They have kinds that don't need refrigeration. Some surgical tools, suture kits, antibiotics would be nice, too."

This morning, though, Hugo enjoyed his fried jack-fruit and taro porridge in peace. He sat with his back up against the great spreading oak, enjoying a large mug of the tea which Cindy brewed. Like him, she'd never developed a taste for coffee. Ben sat on her other side, and whenever Cindy spoke, he gave her a small, fond look.

It was that calm, peaceful time of morning, when breakfast is just done but not yet digested; when the day's work is laid out before you, but a few minutes' more of contemplation won't hurt.

Suddenly, something glinted over at the edge of the grassy commons, making a few bright flashes of light. As Hugo squinted to get a better look, three new people emerged from out of the shadows. They were dressed in brown and red Temple garb, and sunlight reflected off the burnished barrels of their rifles.

"You know these guys?" Hugo said to Ben. "They look kind of familiar."

Ben looked up and gave a slow nod.

Two dark-skinned young people, a man and a woman, both wore their rifles at the shoulder. But the pale-skinned, greying man in the center held his at the ready, as if he might start shooting at any moment. The three took their time striding across the grass as if they owned the place, and the older man didn't disguise his look of contempt.

"Rennie Delacroix," Ben said. "I don't know the younger ones."

Cindy looked at Hugo, terrified. Across the lawn, Sullivan put a protective arm around Meredith, then led her away from the approaching group. Everyone else on the lawn stopped what they were doing, and fell silent.

Hugo didn't like those rifles, not one bit, but there was no time to think about that right now, as he heaved to his feet. As he strode towards the new arrivals, he called out, "Yo, Temple dudes."

Shaking like a leaf, Cindy got up. "I have to find the kids."

Ben stood as well. In a calm voice he said, "They'll be OK. They're up at the fish pond with Darrah, remember? They won't be back till afternoon." He hated to admit that he was caught out in anything. Something had happened at the Temple, though, and it had scared Cindy out of her wits.

Out of earshot, it looked like Hugo was welcoming the Temple group. Rennie Delacroix looked irritated by Hugo's energetic patter, but the younger man smiled. The girl casually polished her rifle with her red scarf.

Between clenched teeth, Ben said to Cindy, "Fill me in."

"You sent us to the Temple, Ben, remember? When we all had to leave the Barracks. You didn't know, I guess."

"Know what?" Ben tried to suppress his frustration, unwilling to show that he had known next to nothing about conditions in the Temple.

"Dogen ran it as an armed camp. We couldn't leave, except for the work crews who tended the fields. Rennie was the enforcer, directly under Lennon."

"I'm sorry." Ben hoped that was good enough for the present. Hugo was still nodding, still smiling. That Southern California "chill" was coming in handy right about now.

Soon Hugo led the Temple group over to the central fire, gesturing to what was left over from breakfast. The young couple set a pot of boiled taro between them and began shoving porridge in their mouths with their fingers, clearly hungry.

Rennie scanned the grassy commons in between bites of fried jack-fruit, his face unsmiling. When he saw Cindy, his glance turned sharp and unfriendly. She averted her eyes.

Ben decided to try pleading, to overcome Cindy's reluctance. "Cindy, please. You've got to tell me what happened up there."

She swallowed hard. "The monster's man, Sayid, told us that whoever wanted to live had to join his master that same evening. Rennie, though, said that if any of us left, he and his men would hunt us down as traitors to Jacob. Everyone was running around screaming, yelling... It was chaos. A good half of us walked right past Rennie and out of there."

"That was smart, Cindy. It was the right thing to do."

She just shivered.

Hugo passed out mugs to the newcomers, then poured out coffee while the long seconds ticked like a bomb.

As long as Ben could remember, the Temple had always been a point of difficulty. A faction of Jacob's People had always lived there like monks: going barefoot, eating no meat, weaving and dyeing their own cloth. They went without marriage or sex because that was how Jacob lived, how they thought Jacob wanted it.

They cultivated barley for the soup pot, flax for thread, and their fields covered the northwestern Island with gold and blue patchwork. They dyed homespun with bark and berries, then embellished their tunics and loose pants with sea-shell beads.

Jacob inspired in them the reverence due to a god, but they regarded Richard Alpert with contempt and suspicion. Even as they talked of peace and serenity, they enforced Jacob's will with a large arsenal of Korean War-vintage rifles.

Charles Widmore had despised them, calling them beatniks and parasites. He claimed they stank, which was untrue. However, they never bathed in their sacred pools, neither the moat which surrounded the Temple, nor the stone pool inside of it.

But Widmore had to take them into account, whether he wanted to or not. It was their spartan influence which had for many years kept Widmore's crew living in tents. Nor was Widmore above trading military weapons and ammunition for grain, homespun and medicinal herbs. Nonetheless, the Temple people returned Widmore's sentiments about their respective ways of life, and preferred to hold themselves separate behind their thick stone wall.

The Temple followers had one advantage over Widmore's band, though. Ever since the time of the Incident, whenever a woman under Widmore's command died in pregnancy, the Temple gained a few new recruits. That didn't change, either, after Widmore reluctantly followed Ben and his infant daughter Alex to the Barracks.

Rennie Delacroix had been one of these. When Juliet Burke began her doomed work on pregnant women, Rennie believed with his whole heart that women who volunteered to become pregnant were doing Jacob's will. But when Rennie's wife Sabine died under Juliet's hands, the forty-four year old widower packed a kit-bag and entered into monastic life at the Temple.

Ben's train of thought derailed when Hugo walked over to the gazebo and said in a loud voice, "Hey, everybody, time for a meeting."

When everyone at the settlement had collected, Hugo said, "This is Rennie, Otis, and his friend Deanna." Then Hugo said to Rennie, "OK, tell them what you told me, about the Temple."

Rennie looked directly at Cindy. "I'm not saying nothing in front of traitors."

Hands on his hips, Hugo acted as if he hadn't heard that. "After the monster showed up, how'd you get out?"

Rennie shrugged, turning away.

"Tell him, Rennie," Otis said.

Face full of rage, Rennie repeated, "Not in front of turncoats."

Hugo's voice was gentle. "Dude, we don't have any traitors here. Everybody's cool." The dark cloud of his brow said without speaking, And you better be cool, too.

Rennie's words tumbled out raw and violent. "We cut and ran, all right? That what you wanted to hear? When he came, we didn't stay to fight. We ran like rabbits. A week later we went back, and there was nothing left. Not the Temple, not the people. Nothing."

Again that disorienting feeling swept over Ben, of not being on top of things. He had simply assumed the Temple remained out there in the jungle still: unchanged, remote, protected.

Leaning on his rifle, Otis said, "We didn't even need to bury the bodies. It was like the whole thing fell down. Nothing left but rubble."

Hugo turned away, a sick expression on his face.

"We've been looking for the rest of our people ever since," Otis finished.

Ben put on his most conciliatory face. "There's plenty of room here for anyone who wants to stay." It felt strange to say those words and really mean it. He didn't even need to look over at Hugo to feel his nod of agreement.

All through this, Deanna had been staring over at Cindy, trying to catch her eye. Finally she couldn't wait any longer, and darted over. "Cindy, you're alive!"

Still watching Rennie out of the corner of her eye, Cindy folded the younger woman into a close hug, then stroked her hair. "So it's just you three?"

"'Fraid so," Deanna answered. She surveyed the wary crowd which had formed around Rennie and Otis.

"Darrah's here too," said Cindy. "She's out with the children. All four of them are fine. Darrah and I got them out."

Deanna's lip trembled, and she suddenly looked very young. It wasn't until Faith and Sirrah approached that two fat tears leaked from Deanna's eyes and ran down her cheeks.

"Your baby, he's beautiful." Deanna said to Sirrah, choking back the tears.

Little Kiya reached for a red feather woven into the neckline of Deanna's shirt."Mommy, I want one."

"We can look for feathers in the woods," Faith answered. "These aren't for touching, baby. They're Deanna's."

"You have children here," Deanna murmured, as if she didn't believe it.

Along with Faith and Sirrah, Rose sidled up. "Claire had a baby too, three years ago."

"Right before mine," Faith added.

At Claire's name, Rennie swung his head around.

Hugo must have heard her mentioned as well, because he said, "Yeah, Temple dudes, sorry if you wanted to like, fly home or something. There was a plane last month that took Richard Alpert back. Claire, too, and some other people."

Ben held his breath. The bonhomie Hugo had expected to establish with that revelation didn't happen. Rennie raised his rifle, and everyone heard the audible click of the safety going off.

Otis must have recognized Claire's and Richard's names, too, because he beckoned to Deanna in a way that said, Get over here, now. She slipped away from Rose and other women, joining Otis at his side.

Rennie said in a loud, hard voice, "So the Monster's woman is gone?"

"What?" Hugo said.

"Don't play like you don't know," Rennie said in the same accusing tone. "If we stepped a toe out of the bounds, she hunted us like a panther. She was at his beck and call, did his dirty work. Claire was her name. Claire."

Hugo's face was terrible to see. Ben wasn't sure what Hugo might do at this instant, but he wasn't going to wait to find out. Raising his hand to Hugo as if to shush him, Ben said to Rennie in a firm voice full of quiet reassurance, "Yes, Rennie, Claire's gone. Like Hugo said, she left on the plane with the others."

"Good riddance," Rennie muttered. He lowered his rifle, but didn't re-engage the safety.

The group let out a long collective sigh, but their relief came too soon. Rennie spun around as if something had just occurred to him. "Did she do it?"

"Did she do what?" Ben said, confused.

"Don't play stupid, Ben. The only reason the monster got in was 'cause Jacob was gone. She served the Monster. So, did she do it? Did she kill Jacob?"

Ben didn't want to lock eyes with Hugo. It would be the worst possible thing to do at this moment, with Rennie scrutinizing them both. Even so, as much as he fought the impulse, he and Hugo's eyes slid together anyway. For an instant it seemed as if only the two of them and Rennie stood there on the green grass of the commons.

With a deep breath and new assurance, Rennie swung his rifle around. His fierce eyes glittered under grizzled brows as he glared at the crowd. "Just one question. Who here's ever seen Jacob?" Then he raised his own hand.

Hugo said, nonchalant,"I thought nobody saw Jacob, dude."

When Rennie didn't answer, Ben reluctantly raised his own hand, and Hugo followed. No one else moved.

"Now," Rennie went on. "Who saw him last?"

While Hugo kept his hand up, Ben lowered his own.

In three long strides Rennie reached Hugo and pressed the muzzle of his gun in the center of Hugo's chest. "So if you were the last one to see Jacob, you must have been the one who did him in."

Otis said in a calm voice, "Come on, man, you don't know that."

"Shut up, Otis," Rennie snapped.

Ben stepped forward. He could no more have moved Hugo than one of the mountains which ringed New Otherton, so Ben pushed the gun barrel aside instead, and stood directly in front of Hugo, blocking him with his body. As Rennie swung the rifle back into position, Ben felt the cold muzzle through his thin shirt.

Trying not to appear terrified, Ben said, "Think about it, Rennie. If Hugo's the new Jacob, what makes you think you could shoot him?"

"Step aside, Ben. My quarrel's not with you."

"Rennie, put down the gun, and let's talk about this." Ben started to sweat, hoping Rennie would just think it was just the mid-day heat.

"Nothing to talk about, Ben. OK, fat boy, how'd you do it? How'd you kill Jacob?"

Ben wondered what would happen if Rennie did fire, whether his own body would stop the bullets, or whether they would pass through to Hugo's as well.

"Ben, one last time. Move your ass, or I will put another hole in it."

The whole scene swam before Ben's eyes. Like old film caught in a projector, everything shuddered, then seemed to stop. In that frozen instant, Ben said through a throat dry as sand, "He didn't do it, Rennie. I did. You want to shoot someone, let's do it around back of these buildings, so folks here don't have to watch."

When Rennie hesitated, Ben seized the moment. "Faith and Sirrah, maybe you could take the little ones out of here, all right?" The two women gathered their children and headed for the nearest house. Even in his terror, Ben still felt a flick of pride that his voice didn't quaver.

Behind him, Hugo's indrawn breath sounded like a giant bellows. Ben didn't dare turn around, but the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and his skin prickled in the electric air.

With a sudden, rough movement due more to Hugo's vast momentum than any harshness, Hugo shoved Ben to the side and took a step forward.

Rennie stood there, paralyzed. Hugo took the weapon from his hands as easily as a toy from a naughty puppy. To the other Temple people Hugo said, "You too, both of you. Drop 'em."

Rose started to cry, and Bernard tried to hush her.

At once, Otis and Deanna put their guns down onto the grass. Hugo half-dragged, half-pushed them into a small pile at his own feet.

"All of 'em," Hugo said.

"OK, man, you got me." Otis set down a large pistol as well.

"Ammo too, guys."

With hard anger burning in his eyes, Rennie drew out a pistol from the back of his jeans and laid it down. The pile of guns and clips rested on the lawn like an ugly accusation.

The entire crowd grew completely silent.

Hugo gazed at the firearms, mind blank but senses on fire. It was as if he could see inside the weapons. His mind's-eye traveled over the bullets in the clips, the firing mechanisms, the rifled barrels, the hard-grained wood of the stock, the gleaming dark steel, all so carefully oiled and cared for.

Then, without being able to voice what he was doing or how he did it, Hugo broke the guns.

It only took a few seconds. When it was done, Hugo handed Rennie his rifle butt-first, positioning the business end right over the swell of his own stomach. "OK, go ahead. Shoot all you want."

Rennie didn't move. With a gentle motion Hugo took the rifle from Rennie once more, pointed it at his own thigh, and pulled the trigger.

It didn't even click.

"Check out the other ones if you want," Hugo said to Rennie. "None of them are gonna work."

A bitter pain stabbed through Hugo as he said it. Jacob could have done this. Rifles, machine guns, howitzers, poison gas, maybe even atomic bombs: Jacob could have made all of them just stop. All those people who had died by gunshot, shell or poison: none of them had to. Sure, people could still pound the crap out of each other with their fists, or use knives. You could push someone over a cliff, beat their head in with a rifle butt. A rain of flaming arrows could kill a lot of people, and had.

Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

"Hugo, may I?" Ben said, reaching for one of the rifles. When Hugo nodded, Ben picked it up, then turned it over in his hands with intent, expert practice. He aimed it skyward, away from the crowd, and tried to fire. Nothing happened.

Hugo gestured to Otis. "Give me one of those bullets." When Otis handed it to him, Hugo set it down on a flat rock, and raised another rock to strike it.

With an alarmed expression, Otis stepped back. "Man, are you nuts? You smack that bullet, it's gonna blow up in your face."

In response, Hugo brought the rock down on the bullet as hard as he could. The brass casing split, and a tiny amount of sand poured out onto the ground.

People gathered around close, to see better. Hugo smacked one bullet after another, until there was a small pile of sand and a larger one of shredded brass casing. Rennie stood silent and graven as stone.

Hugo stood up and turned to the crowd. "This is the way it's gonna be now. Nowhere on the Island. This gun thing, we're done."

"Thank God," said Rose from off to the side.

Hugo faced Rennie. "Dude, I get it. You, Dogen, Lennon, a few of you Temple dudes really got to meet Jacob. And yeah, he was a pretty persuasive guy. If you would of let me explain, I'd of told you that I was the last to see Jacob 'cause when I saw him, he was already dead. Call it a superpower, I guess. Sometimes I talk to dead people." Or he had, at least. Not since he'd talked to Christian Shephard, though, while Jack's body lay in his arms.

Rennie looked downward, his face shrouded in shadow. Then, with an abrupt motion of surrender, he sank to his knees in front of Hugo.

"Come on, man, cut it out. Get up, please," Hugo said, embarrassed.

Rennie stared down at Hugo's old, stained New Balances, where a hole was beginning to form right over the toe. "We'll clear out of here. Just say the word."

"Speak for yourself," Deanna said.

Hugo extended his hand to Rennie, who was still sunk on his knees. For a breath or two Rennie didn't move.

Finally Rennie put forth his own hand, and Hugo pulled him to his feet as easily as if the older man were a child. "Like Ben said, you guys really don't have to leave. There's plenty of houses. Or if you wanna bunk together, there's a dormitory over behind the rec center. I stayed in it once. It's not too bad."

"I think we'll find our own place, Deanna and me," Otis said. Then he turned to her as if something important had been left out. "I mean, Deanna, only if you—"

"I want to. Very much."

"Where she goes, I go, Rennie. She says stay, I stay."

Rennie just nodded, so Hugo said, "That's cool. Lemme tell you how we do things around here. Everybody shares. Everybody helps out. We don't keep secrets, and we don't hurt each other." Hugo didn't want to think about what he'd do if someone decided to ignore all that.

Some bitter memory must have crossed Rennie's mind. "We had that too, at the Temple. We were fine, until you people showed up—"

"We were not fine," Otis interrupted. "You know we were all living in fear. Every morning the same thing, get up, wait for the ax to fall. One day it did." He hesitated, looking at the woman at his side. "Deanna and I, we couldn't get married."

"Damn right," Rennie said. "Look what happened to Sabine."

"That's over," said Deanna. "Open your eyes, Rennie."

Hugo grasped Rennie's shoulder. "Look, we need you. I need you, all of you. We got a lot of stuff to do here. You don't have to live here, but you can, if you want. Thing is, though, it's all one Island now. We got to live like it. We got to act like it."

Years ago, Jack had stood in the midst of a group of scared, angry people very much like these, some of the men with the blood of a recent fight still on their knuckles. The words were Jack's, but Hugo didn't think Jack would mind one bit if he borrowed them. "If we don't figure out how to live together, we're going to die alone."

Bernard, who had been silent up till now, said, "Now that we're all back together here, it's like a fresh start."

"Tabula rasa," added Ben.

Hugo gathered up the useless weapons into his arms. "You guys worry about your tables. I got something to do."

Hugo strode down the concrete path to the motor pool, his arms fully laden with weaponry. Damn, guns are heavy. He had no idea what to do with them. Bury them, maybe. Out of sight, out of mind was best.

A jagged scar of red earth wound its way around the remnants of the motor pool, where the ground had split from the quakes. Hugo set his burden down, and the guns sank a bit into the soft earth. He hadn't brought a shovel, so this was going to be fun.

Then a strange thing happened, as the earth spoke to him without words, like a message straight to the heart. Look, Protector. Watch. All on their own, the guns sank a few inches deeper into the red ground, ready to gather them in if Hugo would just speak the word.

What the hell. It was worth a try. When Hugo said, "Take them," the guns sank into the red earth as if it were quicksand. A few moments later, the guns vanished, like they had never been there at all.

Hugo stepped over the spot, half-afraid that he might sink into that red scar too. All that happened was that he left some wide footprints, for the earth was denser than it looked.

Sudden curiosity made him dig into the ground with his hands. Tossing handfuls of earth aside, he made a conical hole where the guns should have been, but they were nowhere to be seen.

He wiped his brow with his shirt front, and bet that even if he could dig down to bedrock, those those guns would still be gone. A weird exhilaration ran through him. What else might he be able to do?

Another voice came to him, his Grandma Titi's this time. Clear as if she were reciting something, he heard her say, Not my will, but yours.

He plunged his hands into the pile of soft earth up to the forearms. The ground grabbed him back and his heart skipped a beat, for fear that it might pull him into its sandy embrace, just as it had the guns. Instead, the earth enveloped him in a grip warmer and more alive than any ordinary ground could ever offer.

"Dude," he breathed out in a long sigh.

With a final, gentle squeeze, the earth let him go. He kept his hands still submerged, though, luxuriating in the feel of the Island, its sensitive closeness, its love. A love so full that if he tried to do anything stupid or foolish with this vast power of his, if he strayed from his job as caretaker of this strange place, the earth itself would reject him, would no longer open to his will.

In this odd fellowship, he and the earth were linked, but it was very clear who saw farther, whose will was greater, whose wisdom more ancient.

"Why do you even need me at all?" Hugo whispered.

At once, his head filled with that light which he had never seen. Jack had, though. It had burned through Jack's closed eyelids as living waters poured over him in the Heart of the Island.

Because I love you.

As quickly as it had come, the presence was gone, leaving Hugo staring down into no ordinary hole left by no ordinary earthquake. All across the Island, much had sunk in the same way: all of it equally gone, all beyond recovery, and all on purpose.

Not my will, but yours, Hugo mouthed silently.

As he slid his hands out of the ground, the dirt fell from his arms. He filled the hole slowly and meditatively.

He had just finished when Ben turned the corner of the motor pool path. "Well, that could have gone a whole lot worse."

Hugo wiped first his hands, then his brow. "You know, that road trip we were gonna take to the Door... I got to stick around here for awhile. Make sure everybody gets settled in."

"Make sure Rennie gets settled in, you mean."

"Yeah, Ben, that's what I mean."

At first, neither of them wanted to say what was on their minds. Ben broke the silence with, "You know, if there are more people from the Temple out there—"

"There aren't," Hugo said in a flat voice.

"Not to challenge you, but how exactly do you know?"

Hugo sighed. "How do you know when you got a pebble in your shoe? It's like that." What he couldn't explain was how the earth under his feet sensed other footsteps as they walked upon it, then telegraphed the message to him through the earth itself. "They're gone, Ben. 'Cept for Cindy, Darrah, the kids, these guys that just came in today. And one more."

"One more?" Then Ben got it. "No wonder Deanna was so willing to challenge Rennie. She didn't think she had anything to lose, did she?"

Hugo sighed again, not unhappy, but feeling more removed from this quiet joy than he liked. "Yeah, her and Meredith, their kids'll probably have birthdays in the same month. Look, let's give Rennie a few weeks. Then—"

"You've got it," Ben said. "Then we head up to Window Rock."

(continued)