Lena quietly hummed to herself as she filled up water bottles to bring down to the beach. She was determined to make this day normal.
Unfortunately, as she saw Sayid storm angrily into the caves, she knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Where is Jack?" Sayid asked Lena.
"I-" Lena started to say that she didn't know, but Jack walked out from behind one of the rock formations, making the question pointless.
"Where is it?" Sayid demanded. He was angrier than Lena had ever seen him, and she wondered what Jack could have possibly done to make him this mad.
"Where's what?" Jack asked, confused.
"The map, Rousseau's map." Sayid explained. "I told you, it won't help you find her?" The French woman? Why would they want to find her?
"Slow down." Jack said. "I don't hav the map."
"What makes this worse is that you don't even do your own dirty work." Sayid continued. "You get Hurley to do it for you."
"Uh, what?" Lena said. She was completely lost in the conversation.
"Hurley?" Jack said.
"He was in my tent last night, quizzing me about Rousseau, about numbers she wrote…" Sayid trailed off. "You don't know anything about this, do you?" Jack shook his head worriedly and then addressed Charlie, who had just walked in with firewood under his arm.
"Charlie, have you seen Hurley?" Jack asked.
"A few hours ago, yeah." Charlie said. "He was going out for a walk. Acting like a loon, I might add."
"Oh my god." Sayid whispered. "He's going after her."
Lena sighed. So much for a normal day.
…
Sayid, Jack, Lena, and Charlie apparently caught up with Hurley just in time, because Sayid's eyes widened seeing something he stepped on.
"Hurley, don't move!" Sayid yelled, running into view.
"What are you guys-" Hurley started to ask, leaning forward. Now Lena could see the giant ball of pointy spikes hanging just over Hurley's head. If he moved, those would too.
"I said do not move." Sayid interrupted. "If you take your weight off it, it will release that." He pointed to the sticks, and Hurley paled.
"We're gonna have to pull an Indiana Jones here and replace his weight with something else." Lena deduced.
"Replace his weight? How?" Charlie exclaimed.
"I could just drop the wire." Hurley suggested. Charlie was right before, when he said Hurley was 'acting like a loon.' He seemed crazy.
"No!" Sayid and Jack yelled.
"I'll find a big rock, or something." Charlie said, backing up. "A really big rock, yeah."
"I'm dropping the wire." Hurley said. As much as the other four protests, Hurley let the wire fall to the ground. Lena flinched, but nothing happened.
"I can make it." Hurley insisted, staring at the bundle of sticks. "I can definitely get out of the way, I'm spry." All four of them protested this statement as Hurley prepared to run.
"Hurley, don't even-" Jack started to say, but Hurley dove off the trigger, and the sticks missed him by mere inches.
"Hurley, what the bloody hell's wrong with you?!" Charlie said furiously. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"Nothing's wrong with me." Hurley said. "I came out here to get a battery. You guys coming or what?" Sayid let out a very long sigh, and Jack also looked quite annoyed, but neither of them told anyone to turn back.
"Fine, you can come." Sayid said. "But I think it would be best if I took the lead."
"Excellent idea." Charlie noted, and they walked through the jungle in silence.
There was really nothing to be said as they walked, because the only thing on all of their minds was questions. Was Hurley going crazy? Would they find the French woman? What if-
"It stops here." Sayid stated, reaching the end of the wire. "It goes into the ground. This poses somewhat of a problem."
"Somewhat?" Lena echoed. "I'm pretty sure that's just a flat out problem."
"Hey guys?" Charlie yelled from a few feet away. "You should come see this." Lena walked over to where Charlie was standing and couldn't believe her eyes. Because, across a canyon, there was a broken down rope bridge.
"I swear, this island is turning into a fantasy novel." Lena muttered. Not that there was anything wrong with fantasy novels, she just didn't want to be living in one.
"You never mentioned anything about a bridge." Jack said to Sayid, who seemed just as awed as the rest of them.
"I never saw this before." Sayid replied.
"She couldn't have built this by herself." Lena said. "I mean, she's just one weird French person." Sayid, however, reminded her that she hadn't been alone upon first arriving to the island, and that her people might have helped her build it.
"Or Ethan's people." Charlie said with a shudder. Hurley, who hadn't said anything, grabbed the handle and started walking across the small, narrow bridge.
"Hurley, what are you doing?" Jack asked urgently.
"Relax, I'm just going to check it out." Hurley replied. "You guys should stay here."
"And we're sure he hasn't gone crazy?" Lena murmured as Jack, Charlie, and Sayid shouted for him to come back, even though Hurley showed no indication of turning around.
"Dudes, chill, I'll be fine." Hurley said. He was halfway across the bridge now, and the only thing Lena could do was hold her breath and pray.
Thankfully, Hurley got to the other side of the canyon safely, so maybe he wasn't crazy after all.
Charlie, seeing Hurley standing on the other side, moved towards the bridge and started to walk across. Surprisingly, Lena was even more worried this time.
"Charlie!" Jack exclaimed.
"Hey, if he can do it…" Charlie trailed off. He made it about three fourths of the way before the end of the bridge on Lena's side collapsed. She gasped as Charlie jumped towards Hurley, who pulled him onto solid ground.
"I'm okay!" Charlie exclaimed. "Woo!"
"Alright, you two stay there!" Jack yelled. "We'll find away around and meet you there!"
…
About half an hour later, they still hadn't found a way to get to where Hurley and Charlie were. Instead, it felt like they were walking in circles. As much as they pretended, Jack and Sayid didn't know where they were going.
"Stop." Sayid said suddenly, putting his arm out in front of the other two.
"What?" Jack and Lena asked at the same time.
"This area is familiar." Sayid explained. "I think we're close."
"How do you know?" Jack replied, starting to walk forward again. "I thought she lived underground." And, just as he said that, he stepped on a wire.
There was a giant explosion just a few feet in front of them, and all three of them were thrown back.
"Well." Lena groaned. "I think we found it."
"That's a pretty hardcore security system." Jack commented as they walked down into Rousseau's destroyed home. "Someone trips a wire and the whole place blows up?"
"There's nothing here." Sayid sighed as he shifted through the rubble. "No batteries, no supplies, nothing."
"I don't get it." Lena said. "Why the hell would she blow up her shelter?"
"She knew." Sayid explained. "She knew that one day I'd come back and bring others. So she abandoned it, booby trapped it, and moved on."
"Where?" Jack asked. Sayid didn't have an answer to that, apparently.
Suddenly, Charlie burst through the trees, panting hard and out of breath. Hie expression turned to a relieved one when he saw them standing in the ruins.
"Hey!" He yelled. "Someone shot at us, Hurley and me. We were looking for you when it just came out of nowhere!"
"Rousseau." Sayid sighed.
"Where's Hurley?" Jack asked urgently.
"I- I don't know." Charlie said, looking worried. "He was right behind me and then he just wasn't. We have to find him!"
"We should all go, safety in numbers." Lena suggested.
"Go where?"
And there was Hurley, standing in between two trees and looking… happy.
"Hurley!" Charlie exclaimed. "What the bloody hell happened to you?"
"Need a battery?" Hurley asked, ignoring Charlie and pulling a few batteries out of his backpack. "She says hi, Sayid." Sayid's eyes widened in confusion, but Hurley didn't offer an explanation.
"How did you get these?" Sayid managed to ask, still with a shocked expression on his face. Hurley just shrugged and gave a four-word answer.
"I guess I'm lucky."
A/N: Hey guys!Thanks for reading another chapter of Adrift. I just want to take a quick second to say to all my silent readers: Is there anything stopping you from leaving a comment? Even a simple "good job" would be great, or, even better, constructive criticism about the chapter or the story. I'k not going to be one of those "comment or I'l stop updating" authors because that's just mean, but it would be really great if you could leave some feedback.