I decided recently to begin drawing this story to a close... The next few chapters, starting with the one after this, will feature several climaxes to the story followed by an epilogue. I am also going to re-upload most of the old chapters, improved slightly and more coherent. For now, there is a hidden theme in this chapter, I wonder if you can work out what it is...
Hurley crept through the dark jungle and listened intently. The Island was telling him where the missing band of cops were through a technique that even Hugo did not fully understand. An owl hooted softly nearby as Hurley reached the edge of a clearing from which firelight could be seen glaring.
There were seven cops by three makeshift tents. In the centre of the clearing was an eighth figure on their knees. Two officers paced around the woman, who looked terrified.
"Who are you?" asked one of them. No answer.
"We have reason to believe the Control were in this area. Did you see them?" The woman nodded her head frantically at this and Hugo noticed the sweat on her forehead glowing red with the reflection of flames coming from a campfire. Both cops questioning her were armed with 9mms.
"Whose side are you on? Do you work for the gang?" Annie shook her head in reply.
"Why won't you speak?" asked one of the cops, in a tone that gave away his agitation.
Tears silently rolled down Annie's cheeks as she opened her mouth wide, allowing the light of the fire to illuminate the cavernous space. Where her tongue had once been was now a scarred stub of one. The cops looked at her in disgust.
"Did the Control do this to you?"
Annie nodded.
Hurley decided it was time to step in. He emerged from the tree line with his hands up. The police officers were startled for a second.
"I come in peace."
"Who do you represent?" asked the man closest to him, hand firmly on his gun…
"… I represent this island."
The cops looked at each other for a moment. The one nearest finally loosened the grip on his weapon and extended his hand.
"Then we have no quarrel with you my friend."
Hurley was surprised but relieved and shook his hand before introducing himself.
"Hugo."
"I am Fernando, and this is most of my team."
"Where did you find her?" Hurley asked, pointing at Annie.
"A few hundred feet away, unconscious. Her tongue has been cut out. By the Control."
"Well, that's not too bad. It can be fixed. I have a healing pool in a temple not far from here. We should take her there."
Annie looked far less frightened now and even stopped crying when she understood she could get her tongue back.
"You want us all to come?" Fernando asked.
"Well, yes. We need you on our side you see. To fight the gang… among other enemies."
"One of us is already at your temple." Said another officer, approaching the pair, "Jason. He's undercover."
"Well," said Fernando, "We can tell him there is no need now. He is with the right people." The other nodded.
"I'll try to get him on my walkie."
"How long will that take?" asked Hurley.
"Oh, not long at all. A few minutes."
Miles and Mark were in touch with their inner children tonight. The excitement gained from discovering endless labyrinths of secret passages within the temple was that which rivalled only the glee of a young boy imagining things like this.
The pair were sitting victorious atop their most recent discovery. This one involved finding a trap door in the courtyard, beneath which was a gushing river. They would jump down and be swept off by the current down a tunnel into a small underground lake. In the middle of the lake was a small island decorated with ancient ruins similar to those in the courtyard. It was on these old stones the two explorers sat.
"I'll tell you Miles, I'm really not cut out for this stuff." Mark said eventually, his voice echoing around the cave.
"I don't know, three of the passages we found today were found by you, man."
"I'm not talking about this. I'm talking about being caught up in a battle of factions. Fighting for survival, fighting for an Island, fighting to get back a little girl. I feel like death's at every corner."
"Oh, you'll get used to that." Miles told him. "You've just got to ignore that feeling you could die at any second and tell Death you're not ready."
Mark stared at the water of the lake, thinking.
"I shouldn't be here. I thought if I showed some bravery, I could start afresh. But it's not that easy. Sometimes I wonder if it's too late to start afresh. I have to live with the mistakes I've made. Which means I must die with them too, when the time comes."
Miles grinned.
"Seriously, you'll learn to deal with it over the next few weeks. Soon you'll be a natural, like me."
He hopped down from the pillar he was on and started swimming across the lake to reach the ascending stone steps on the other side. Mark followed a few moments later.
"Jason, come in Jason."
The cop who had just spoken waited with baited breath along side Hurley. The walkie finally replied.
"Is this Fernando's team?"
"Yes it is, good to hear from you man. You're still at the temple right?"
"Yeah. Yeah I'm still here… why?"
"The operation's over Jason, your cover's no longer needed…"
The next reply took a few more seconds.
"No, that's not- I think I'm really getting somewhere with these people, give me a few more-"
"We are standing here with their leader. He is no threat to us and his people don't have to be either. Do you copy?"
"You know what, this is bullshit. I've been out here infiltrating, weakening security, breaking lines of voodoo ash. What have you guys been doing? Hiding out in the jungle, that's just-"
Fernando came over and snatched the radio from his partners hand.
"Jason," he said sternly, "We're on our way to that temple, do not move a muscle, you got that?"
"… See you then. Over."
"We have got to get moving." Said Hurley urgently.
"What's the rush? Don't be scared of Jason, he hasn't hurt a fly since he was-"
"The 'voodoo' ash he mentioned is key to the survival of every last person in that temple. If he really broke that line of ash we need to un-break it A.S.A.P." he shook calmly as he sharply and slowly illustrated the acronym. "Do you understand officer?"
Fernando gradually fell into a rhythmic nod.
"You heard the man." He called to the rest of the cops. Hurley watched as the group's leader took out his gun. He knew it would be useless against the Man in Black but explaining that would simply waste more time and lead to more questions.
"Move out!" Fernando shouted at last, hurrying from the clearing closely followed by the cops. Hurley pulled Annie to her feet and left her at the back of the group to join Fernando at the front and show him the way to the temple…
Mark spent the sunrise hours fishing in the slower stretch of a river near the temple. It was more tranquil than anything had been in his entire life and he wondered how peaceful his life would be if every day began the same way. Ben had lent him the pole and he had found worms to sacrifice pretty easily in the dirt. He had caught two large carp that morning and put them in a bucket. Penny came to find him eventually.
"Miles said you'd have breakfast by now." She explained.
He stood and handed her the bucket.
"Take those to him. I'll catch up in a minute, I just need to pack this stuff away."
As she headed back he rinsed the hook and put the pole and equipment into a bag. A few minutes later he was hurrying back to the temple. The path from river to temple lead to the buildings back entrance. He hopped over the line of ash and went in through a series of old corridors. The route would take him through the temple and out the other side into the courtyard. Half way through this journey he heard someone cursing under their breath nearby. The voice was coming from a room that was usually uninhabited. It was a study of sorts but had not been used in a long time and thus was far dustier than Hugo's office. Old tomes decorated rotten tables and thick cobwebs welded the pages of the books shut as Mark had learned the hard way when he had initially been snooping around.
Jason was kicking the smallest table, swearing louder with each hit. He had an object in his hand which he eventually threw at the wall. The walkie came apart as it came into contact with the strong stone.
"'Don't move a muscle'," he was muttering to himself, "who does he think he is?"
"Jason…" said Mark.
"…What are you doing here?"
There was something different about Jason today, it was as if he was in the process of having some sort of break down.
"Are you okay?" Mark asked him cautiously.
"Am I okay? What does it look like Mark?"
"Well I just caught some fish maybe you'll feel better if-"
"You caught some fish? That's good for you man. Sorry I couldn't catch any. Guess I'm just too crazy right?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know full well what the fuck I'm talking about."
"Look, I'm gonna leave okay." Mark turned and began to walk out.
Suddenly there was a sharp click.
"Freeze."
A gun had been cocked behind him. Mark slowly put up his hands and went too face Jason.
"I'm not your enemy." He said as calmly as was possible.
"Everyone is." Scowled the other. He chuckled softly. "I'm sorry man. I know- I know you believed in me Fernando. You thought I could get better but this… this isn't going to work."
"I am not Fernando. And I pose no threat to you. Let me walk out of here and no-one has to know what happened."
"I lowered their defences, I've done everything you asked, and I am so close."
"Wait- are you talking about the temple? You lowered the defences of the temple?"
"Mark…" Jason sighed, "I wish you hadn't worked that out."
The gun steadied in his hand and he prepared to shoot.
When Hurley arrived at the temple he took the cops into the courtyard where he found Ben, Walt and Harrison deep in conversation.
Ben looked up.
"So you found them Hugo, well done."
"Ben, you have to check the ash. One of the survivors here is a cop undercover who has been lowering our defences."
"Why on earth would a cop want to do that?"
"Because," Fernando broke in, "He has a history of mental health problems and- and we believe that perhaps something about this island is making him relapse."
"Ben, there is no time. Go. Now."
With a curt nod, Hurley's assistant sprinted off, ready to follow the circle of ash all around the ancient temple.
"Fernando, take your cops and go looking for Jason." Said Hugo.
"Have either of you seen John?" he then asked Walt and Harrison. Both shook their heads.
"Try his uncle." Harrison suggested, pointing to Ned Norwood who was passing by.
"Mr Norwood, do you know where your nephew is?"
"No, not a clue. He never tells anyone where he's going or what he's-"
"I'll need to go and find him. If the ash is broken it is far too likely we're too late and I have got to protect that boy in the event of an attack. Oh," he added at the last second, "and take this woman to the healing pool. She needs a new tongue." He thrust Annie into Ned's arms and ran off into the temple, asking the island again and again where the heck John had gotten to.
What happened next was a blur. Mark had found himself in a brawl with Jason and they were fighting for control of the gun. Finally Mark got his hands on it in such a way so that he had power over the aiming of the weapon and so he pointed it at the rogue cop, even as Jason's finger was still clutching hopelessly to the underside of the gun.
"My friends are going to hurt you." Jason said through a chortle.
"I haven't done anything wrong." Mark told him through gritted teeth.
"They won't know that."
Mark's grip on the gun meant it was locked in place so when Jason pulled the trigger, the bullet when straight through his own head.
Mark stepped back in disbelief as the shell hit the floor nearby. He watched redness ooze from Jason's eye and vaguely realised he'd been deafened by the gunshot.
When a whole team of cops turned up a moment later to find him standing over their dead friend, gun smoking he could think of nothing else to do but run in the opposite direction.
Ben scurried along around the edge of the temple following the line of ash with his eyes, and running parallel to it. He had never appreciated just how big the temple was until this moment: huge. It had been extended a little when they rebuilt it all that time ago but he could not remember a time he had ever journeyed the whole way around it at this pace.
Finally he found the break in the ash and he threw himself down to where it was. From his pocket he pulled a small pouch of Shephard dust. He fumbled it and suddenly he was frantically searching a bush of herbs for it. Then he felt a dark presence and looked up. A pillar of black smoke was crawling towards the gap. Ben stood up and moved backwards, watching with horror as Hurley's nemesis crossed into what had moments ago been a safe haven.
So next chapter is an attack on the temple... hopefully it will be more exhilarating than the one in 'Sundown'. It's also, for the most part, already written. But I don't want to make the releases of chapters too uneven at the moment so you'll just have to wait a little longer. Thanks for reading :)