On An Island

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five: An Alternative Plan

The door to the hut kicked open. Through the thin blindfold she could see a ray of light peering into the room. Her hands instinctively fought against the ropes that bound her, but they only clawed deeper into her wrist. She gasped loudly, a momentary panic attack coming over her. Jack was somewhere nearby, but she couldn't see him; she wasn't even sure if it was his breath she heard beside her.

"Hello Danielle," Kate held her breath before another gasp of air could leave her. She didn't recognize the voice, but she was certain that this was the voice of Ben, the man who would probably prefer to keep Jack alive over herself. The man who wasn't afraid to call a woman he hadn't seen in sixteen years, the mother of the child he'd kidnapped, by her first name.

A shiver shot up her spine; she could feel eyes watching her and she knew Ben had seen her and Jack. She tried to see through the blindfold, like she had been able to see the light, but all she saw was darkness. Even the sunlight drifted away.

"I know what you have in mind," Ben said- a heavy footstep landed on the floor as he took a step towards them; Kate froze, "but you have to consider if this is what's best for Alex."

"I know what's best for my daughter," Rousseau replied harshly, "let me have her back or I'll let them go."

Ben laughed. It was a small chuckle that made it evident he wasn't intimidated at all by her threat. The laugh seemed to float through the room until reaching Kate's ears and she fought to keep still, desperate to break from her binds and fight back. But something told her she didn't need to draw tension to herself right now. She needed to listen while the attention was being taken off her and Jack. She needed to think of a way out of this.

"Some may say that false hope is worse than having no hope at all," Ben said, "don't give them false hope. They're coming with us. After all, that's what the doctor wanted. Right, Jack?"

Kate held her breath, thinking that Jack may actually reply. No sound came, but she was certain she could feel the anger vibrating off of him; she could see his eyes glaring at Ben. But that's when Kate realized: this was what Jack wanted. He didn't mean for things to turn out this violently, but he wanted to go back to the Others camp. And he hadn't wanted her to be involved at all. Now, thanks to her insisting on interrupting his plan, not trusting him, they were in more trouble than before.

"I want my daughter," Rousseau stated. Kate wondered if Rousseau's gun wasn't even pointed at her two hostages now but at Ben. But there was always Mikhail...was he still there, or had he gone to the team of Others who surely came to help Ben?

"I'll let you see your daughter," Ben said after a short pause of silence, "and then you can decide what's best for her."

Suddenly she heard Jack gasp in pain. Her head snapped towards him; she tried to see him through the darkness. A similar gasp of pain escaped her before she knew what was happening- something sharp dug into her arm. Then she neither felt nor saw anything.

----

She woke up on a cold floor. Water was dripping on her head. Groaning she rolled over, unwillingly allowing the dripping water to fall into her mouth. The water tasted of thick salt. She spat the water onto the floor, coughing as more of the sour liquid escaped into her lungs. Her eyes were open but she could only see darkness; when she tried to reach up she found that her hands were no longer bound. She tore the blindfold off of her and scrambled away from the dripping water, immediately taking in her surroundings: she was in a room that seemed to stretch out forever in darkness ahead of her, a wooden bench sat on a concrete floor nearby. Tiles lined rusted walls; the entire place looked as though it had been dying for years. And Jack lay in a corner.

She rushed to his side, carefully turning him over and pulling the blindfold away from his eyes. He was unconscious.

"Jack?" She asked, concern quickly being replaced with panic. "Jack?"

His eyes looked as though someone had glued them shut. He was too lost in a world too far away to hear her. She reached to help him sit up, wincing at how limp his arms felt.

"Don't."

Kate turned at the feminine voice. A blonde woman was standing a dozen feet away from her, dressed in jeans in a white blouse.

"What did you do to him?" Kate demanded. She turned back to Jack as she awaited her answer; her hands found a bump from where Rousseau hit him on the back of the head.

"He's been sedated," the woman replied. She didn't sound like she was enjoying the news she had to share, or even that she cared. But there was still something about her voice that Kate didn't like. Her voice was too calm, too uncaring. "He needs the rest."

"Rest?" Kate exclaimed. "You sedated him! What else did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me!" This time Kate stood up and began walking towards the woman. "Where are we? How long have we been here?" She received no answer; the woman only gazed at her as she approached, curious. "Where are we?"

She swung out a fist.

"Stop!" The woman cried, loud enough and frightened enough to make Kate drop her arm. "There's glass."

She held out her hands and set them on an invisible wall that divided the room. Their eyes met, and Kate really took in the woman's appearance for the first time, trying to determine what her place with the Others was. However long her stay on the island had been, there seemed to be no effect on the woman: there wasn't a trace of dirt on her hands, her hair combed and her clothes free of winkles. Only her shoes seemed worn: the laces had been permanently tanned with dirt, the once-white tennis-shoes were badge. Traces of sand were caught beneath the spikes on the bottom of the shoes.

"I'm Juliet," the woman replied. Again that calm voice; her personality seemed to suggest that she had no concerned for Kate or Jack, or anything the Others were doing on the island. But she looked tired of it, exhausted from the kidnappings and whatever else went on to the point where she was now being pushed along to follow orders. Simply tell her to do something and she would obey as easily as a small pebble being kicked along pavement.

"Where are we?" Kate said again, agreeing to be calm for awhile. "The water that's dripping from the pipes, it's saltwater. We're not...underwater somewhere, are we?"

A small smile crept across Juliet's lips, pleased to see that Kate had guessed correctly. Kate remained silent, wondering how it was that she could be underwater when she could remember nothing of a boat, nothing of being on an ocean and transported to some place underwater. What she did understand was that for the moment Juliet was answering her questions.

"What's going to happen to us?" She looked Juliet in the eye and was certain she would answer when a soft groan drew their attention away. They both looked towards Jack.

She fell to the floor at his side, placing a hand on his arm as he came to, eyelids attempting to flutter open and wincing in pain. Juliet appeared next to her and assisted her in helping him sit up. At last Jack managed to fight whatever pain he had succumbed to; his eyes blinked open.

"You were unconscious-"

"You were sedated," Kate corrected, glaring at Juliet before turning back to Jack, face melting into sympathy.

"You do realize that I won't be able to do the surgery if I'm unconscious?" Jack said. His voice was hoarse and raspy. Juliet handed him a bottle of water.

Ignoring him, Juliet stood up and headed for the exit, which Kate found to be the faint outline of a door.

"Where are you going?" She demanded, getting to her feet.

Again Juliet ignored them, leaving the room as she pushed the wall open to reveal the hidden pathway. Kate raced to try and catch the door before it closed. A dark, damp pathway that was what her idea of a dungeon looked like gazed back at her sympathetically before the door slammed in her face. Forced to admit to defeat, Kate looked down to the ground, eyes closing. Suddenly she felt tired. She walked back to Jack and sat on the floor beside him, tilting her head towards him. He wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the ground as though trying to see his reflection through the concrete floors.

"You just had to interfere."

His words managed to come alive as he spoke, his raspy voice soon spitting out anger. She stared at him, admitting than an accusation wasn't what she expecting to hear from her. Had this been the last straw, the one last obstacle that would tear their friendship apart?

"I was worried about you," she stated, making it clear how offended she'd been by his accusation, "I had to stop you."

"I was fine-"

"Did you really think it would be that easy?"

He turned to her then, and she could feel his cold gaze hiding behind the pain and exhaustion in his eyes. Worse, she could see the flames dancing in the darkness of his eyes, the disappointment and hatred he felt towards her so easily jumping over the wall of emotions she had learned how to read.

"Yeah, it would have been that easy."

He looked away from her as though ashamed. His eyes lingered in the empty space in front of, not closing despite how obviously tired he was. Then her own eyes diverted to the floor; his effort at brewing guilt worked. But she didn't regret wanting to know that he was safe, that he was conquering some insane plan of his alone.

"Well we're here now," she said, "and we have to deal with that. Let's just stop blaming each other and find a way out of here."

His eyes spun back around to her in an instant, flashing hot flames of anger that danced higher and higher as his voice rose.

"Don't you understand?" His voice had come to a shout, echoing against the tiled, rotting, walls. "I have to do this! It's the only way to get us out of here!"

"How do you know that?" Kate shot, her voice suddenly rising to match his tone. "Do you really think that these people stay true to their word? They've kidnapped us, Jack! Again!"

"Because we were stupid enough to let them!"

They stared at each other and for a moment Kate was confused. She didn't recognize Jack in any of these words, in the anger that boiled in his voice and eyes. Or was this who he really was; had he been holding back this anger since the day they met?

"Well you got what you wanted," she said, lowering her voice though the disgust in her tone never left. Of anything that disgust grew, growing thicker as her voice fell to normal volume. "Did you hear Ben?" He didn't answer, but she felt his eyes drift away as she looked to the ground. A moment of silence passed. "Are you going to do the surgery?"

She had waited, sounding like a child who thought waiting to ask for a favor after a long stream of begging would make their chances of getting what they wanted better. An unhealthy amount of bitterness was still in Jack's tone when he spoke.

"Yes."

When her eyes traveled up to him this time she gazed at him, pleading for him to change his mind. But he didn't look at her. Not until a moment later, when finally he seemed to gather his emotions behind the wall that shielded her from him until just now.

"Your head," he said. He looked at her, anger fading from his eyes as well. But she could still see traces of what had been there before, disappointment and anger that would never go away.

She knew he was talking about the concussion.

"I'm fine," she said, not sure if she were lying or not.

"Let me see-"

"Jack."

They both looked up to see Juliet standing in the door- the dungeon-like passage behind it could be seen.

"Ben wants to talk to you," Juliet explained.

"He can talk to me here."

He turned back to Kate; she winced as she felt his hands brush against the bump that was still on the back of her hand.

"Jack."

Jack sighed; they both looked to Juliet. She was holding a hood and a pair of handcuffs. Kate looked to Jack, who looked at the floor. He stood up and she watched as he walked to Juliet, diverting her eyes to the floor as he was bound and as the hood fell over his head. Her eyes stayed on the floor as she listened to the door shut quietly and the footsteps echo in the dark hallway, almost afraid to think of where those hallways could lead to.

----

He recognized his surroundings immediately. His hands were unbound first, then the bag was ripped off of his head. He was staring at a doctor's office. Sinks, cabinets, medical equipment, a cot. And Ben standing there, smiling.

"I thought we could look over these x-rays," Ben said, "decide how quickly the surgery should be done."

His mouth opened, tried to answer Ben, but all that came out was:

"We're in a doctor's office."

Ben laughed.

"You know we have the capable of taking x-rays," he said, "where do you expect us to keep are patients?"

"In cages?"

Ben's amused demeanor died, and the situation of captor versus captive drew thick tension into the room. He didn't know what Ben expected, if the man thought that somehow they would become friends if Jack agreed to be his doctor and do the surgery.

Ben turned from him, gazing towards the wall in thoughtful silence. Jack watched him think, not certain what to believe when he turned around. His captor's eyes watched him, studying him, looking for something in Jack's eyes. Loyalty.

"There are different arrangements we could make for you and Kate," Ben began, not yet sounding confident, "you could come live in the village, with us."

He couldn't begin to picture life with the Others. Would they eventually be asked to help kidnap people? The tiny houses, the home-away-from-home appeal of the Others' village revealed a secret so deathly, so sick, that it was incomprehensible. They would move into this society and be shoved back into a type of normalcy: electricity, kitchens, the standard house with picture frames and bookshelves. Like the hatch, except this would supposedly be a true home. Then they would come back to this island and be reminded who the Others really were, and that the houses, the clothes, the paved pathways was all an act. And an act for who? Some higher force? A government, maybe, they were trying to impress? Or was it all to fool themselves, to make themselves think they were actually normal people.

They weren't normal people, and Jack refused to become one of them.

"We're leaving this island," Jack announced, "and don't you dare say anything to her-"

"Leave this island and go where?" Ben challenged. Jack unwillingly caught his eye; he tensed a little under the man's gaze, subjected to those curious eyes just searching for the button to push to bring him to defeat. "She's on the run from the government."

"At least the government won't kill her. At least the government won't-"

"No, they'll just throw her in prison," a ghost of a smile danced across Ben's face; Jack was sure that inside Ben was certain he had won. "Take the twenty-three thousand for themselves. Or who knows. Maybe they'll give the money to you."

His head tilted slightly in confusion, slightly in awe because he understood. Even though he didn't want to. Twenty-three thousand. That must be how much Kate was worth, and there were millions on the watch, looking for her, desperate to get their hands on just a percentage of that money.

"Twenty-three thousand dollars," Ben said again, his tone mimicking the awe-struck appearance of Jack. "It makes you wonder what she did. Twenty-three thousand dollars...she didn't just still candy from a gas station. Not that I don't think that's a crime."

What Jack didn't tell Ben was that he understood. He knew he was right, but he also knew that somehow the police had to be wrong. Kate had to be innocent.

The sound of a ship groaning in the night rung heavily throughout the medical station they were in, shaking the walls, demanding to find its way through the harbor. Only there couldn't be a ship. He let out a sharp his, grabbing his ears as the ship suddenly let out a roar. The door burst open, Juliet appeared, pale and afraid.

"Something's wrong!" She shouted over the noise. Her faint attempts of concern and fear barely elevated over the roaring.

The walls were literally shaking, trembling as the roaring beat against the fragile interior of the hatch. No one noticed as Jack followed Ben, bending down low as he covered his ears in attempts to protect himself from the echoing screams of the ship. Leaving the doctor's office led them into a white hallway, bare, abandoned. Lights flickered, he swore he felt the floor sliding beneath them. A set of double doors awaited them. He burst out into the sunlight to see that he was in the middle of the jungle- no where near a beach.

The world flashed white. Or violet. He fell to the ground, his eyes closed. Still he saw the violet-white flashes, radiant and so natural. Coming from the noise. As though the two had been stored in the island somewhere, kept prisoner. Until now.

Something sharp hit him on the back of the head and suddenly the light and noise were gone.

----

His shoulders shook slightly and it was all that he could feel as he stared at the darkness he was trapped in. All he could remember was a flashing light and a roaring sound. He remembered the roars of the monster, its shouts and the sound of a rattling chain as it chased them threw the jungle. It wasn't the same noise. This had been a roaring, so violent the island had been left shaken. Maybe he had too, maybe that's why his shoulders were trembling.

His eyes twisted, twitched, as they attempted to open, breaking through the darkness and memory of light. He was certain this would result in a violent wince, cowering away from the rays of light so bright they seemed to pierce his sight. The shaking increased; he could feel his skin scraping against cold concrete. He tried to open his eyes but they didn't seem to work, blinded by a light he couldn't even see now.

Soft skin brushed against his face; the shaking stopped. He became aware of a thick humming in his ears. Someone was humming a tune he didn't like, a tune that would never go away...

Suddenly his eyes worked. Eyelids rising slowly, he was welcomed into the bright light. The sharp rays of the white and violet that had attacked the island were still blurring his vision. The tune was still being hummed in his ear, a soft growing that suddenly cresendoed. Wincing, Jack brought a hand to his forehead. His skin was burning.

Light struck his vision, not glowing but stinging. He shut his eyes, forced himself back into darkness. Remained there for a moment, taking in the comfort of the shadows he seeked to shield himself from the light. The shaking began again, quickly becoming irritating as he felt his skin trembling against the cold floor. Yet his forehead was burning, set on fire by the sun- by those lights that had blocked out the sun. The burning became unbearable, and he forced his eyes open again in hopes of finding a way to making the fire trapped in his head go away.

This time the light was softer, dimmer, more welcoming, as was the smile that greeted him. Kate. She hadn't been there...was she still experiencing the same symptoms?

"How-" he coughed, voice dry, peeling away. He wished he had some water, but she didn't offer him any. He coughed again, tried to speak again, swallowing hard, wincing at the empty taste in his mouth. "Did you see that?"

Something strange happened. Her lips moved but he couldn't hear her, not as he should of. Her voice seemed so hollow, so far away. Like he was hearing her from the other end of a long tunnel, a deep tunnel that fought against sound. That's when he realized he never heard himself talking. The words had come out empty, he couldn't even be sure if he had actually spoken. Kate seemed to understand. She shook her head no, gazed down at him with a look of sickness and concern on her face. She sank to the floor, relaxing a little, rested a hand on his arms. That's when sleep found him, bringing him back to the darkness he had somehow managed to escape from.

----

When he woke up this time the darkness was familiar to him. He was too tired, too exhausted, to fight, and the dark depths of his sleeping mind accepted this. Pushing himself away from sleep, Jack awoke to the same dim light as before. The familiar feeling of cool concrete rushed back to him as his senses rose from their sleep. The cool, smooth floor felt soothing against the burning feeling that was returning to his head. But the humming was gone. Now there was just silence. He looked around for Kate, vision blurry, the floor and vacant room swerving together as his eyes found her sleeping form. She was beside him, sitting up against a wall. Knees drawn to her chest, arm hanging over them with her head resting on her forearms she slept, and he let her stay unaware of his awakening from sleep.

The creaking of an aging door drew his attention to the exit of the room; he found himself calm as Juliet walked into the room, carrying a plate of food. He wondered if he could talk now.

"How long-" his voice croaked, reminiscent of his earlier attempts at communication. At least he could hear himself now, though there was a soft piercing feeling in his ears, the slightest bit of pressure hit him as he tried to talk again, but enough for him to notice, enough to cause that much more pain. "How long have I been out?"

"A few hours," Juliet replied, "don't worry, you were sleeping. It wasn't because of the head injury."

For the first time he remembered what caused him to be in this situation, this darkness. The sharp pain to the back of his head. He gently felt the back of his head and found two bumps, painful to the touch. One from where Rousseau hit him, one from where he hadn't succeeded in going unnoticed by the Others when he ran outside, free to move on his own for the first time since that morning, not bound from moving or sight, not trapped in a room. He could have ran away had he been allowed a few more minutes to adjust to the light and noise.

"You should eat," Juliet said in a quiet, encouraging tone.

"And Kate?" He asked as he saw there was only one sandwich on the plate she carried. He caught a glimpse of the contents of the meal: freshly toasted bread, turkey, lettuce. Food...when was the last time he ate?

"She'll get to eat when she wakes up," Juliet said, "she must have fallen asleep waiting for you to wake up again."

Jack nodded, not completely convinced. He stared at the sandwich as Juliet placed it beside him, noting the careful way the edges were cut. The sandwich had been sliced down the middle into two neat sections, the turkey, lettuce, and even the tomatoes stored delicately in-between the two slices of white bread. What looked like a simple act of kindness had to be much more. The sandwich was made with too much care to blend in with the tainted yellow and green walls around him. He looked up at Juliet.

"Did you want something?" He asked.

Juliet wasn't there. Only blackness stared back at him through an ajar door. The door looked inviting, abandoned and welcoming him to step through into the empty hallway. He looked down at Kate, sleeping beside him, and was able to quickly make up his mind.

"I thought you guys might want to watch some tv."

His head jerked around, hand frozen from where it sat on Kate's shoulder, ready to wake her up and announce their opportunity of escape. Juliet was smiling. Her hand rested on an antique television set, rested on a faded green cart. Her fingers turned a circular dial and the television came to life before he had time to processes the newest modern invention found on the supposedly deserted island.

But what came on wasn't an old black-and-white movie or even the latest box office hit. The camera was focused on the living room of a quaint house. Drapes of contradicting shades of light and dark green hung around white curtains, blocking a view of the outside of the house. A white pillar sat to the left of the screen; a pathway led into what could have been a kitchen.

In front of a camera sat a blonde woman. Her hair was pulled back to fully reveal her face, her eyes set solely on the camera in front of her and the person this tape was made for- Jack. She held pieces of white poster boards; on them were messages.

"I think it's a good thing, what you're doing for Ben..."

She was talking over the silent videotape, but he wasn't listening. She didn't mean for him to listen. His eyes focused instead on the cue-cards, on the fact that the television was positioned away from the security cameras.

Ignore everything I'm saying.

Juliet never blinked as the cue-cards changed in her hands; her eyes never left the camera in front of her.

Ben is a liar. And he is very dangerous. Some of us want a change. But it has to look like an accident. It has to look like we tried to save him. And that's up to you, Jack. It's a complicated surgery. No one would ever know. And I would protect you.

Now tell me to turn off the movie.

"Turn off the movie."

He looked away from the television screen as the picture of the living room and drapes and Juliet's message faded away. He knew she didn't expect him to reply, and didn't say anything as he heard the television cart being wheeled away. He noticed the squeaking of the wheels on the cracking concrete floor and wondered why him. Except he knew why. She wanted him to kill Ben during the surgery. Risk his chance of getting himself and Kate rescued so that some of the Others- the people holding him captive- could get revenge. Because Juliet knew he wanted revenge. He would be saving the life of a man he hated, who he truly hated and who didn't deserve his help. But he would also be gaining freedom, a ticket to safety. The surgery would have to be done in the next couple of days; he had that amount of time to keep telling himself he was making the right decision.

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews!

Until next time...

October Sky