"We need enough wire so that we can trigger the dynamite from a safe distance." Danielle was saying. "I should be able to finish rigging the tents within the next 24 hours, and we will surely be ready by tomorrow night." The plan was already in motion, and Danielle was discussing it with Lena, Jack, Sayid, and Juliet.
"We also need to talk about Naomi's phone." Sayid added. "I can't transmit with it because Danielle's signal is blocking the frequency. If we can switch off the message, Naomi's boat should be able to hear us."
"No, they won't." Juliet sighed. "We're jamming it."
As Sayid bombarded Juliet with questions, Lena realized that the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. How Danielle's signal, which had been playing for sixteen years, was never heard, and how none of the electronic equipment they had salvaged ever seemed to work.
"Ben is using a DHARMA station to block any signals coming from the island besides ours." Juliet explained. "They call it the Looking Glass."
"Alright, well where is it?" Lena asked. Judging from Juliet's expression, it wasn't anywhere good.
"That's the problem." She replied. "It's underwater, and I don't even know where underwater it is."
"I believe I do." Sayid said quietly, as surprised at himself as the rest of the group was. He quickly excused himself and ran to get some papers that he believed would reveal the location of the mysterious station.
It turned out, some of the papers that Sayid had managed to get from the Flame station did reveal the location of the Looking Glass. There was, still, of course, the slight inconvenience (aka huge problem) of it being underwater. The only way in was to swim down and go through a moon pool.
Eventually, it had been Charlie who volunteered to swim down there, and Jack reluctantly agreed. For once, everything seemed to be in order while in the face of danger.
However, Lena spoke too soon.
"What is that?" She asked, pointing to some kind of canoe in the water. It seemed that some other people had noticed as well, because she wasn't the only one running towards the water. Inside the canoe was a teenage boy, no older than 18, and he seemed frantic.
"Karl?!" Sawyer exclaimed. Lena raised her eyebrows. Sawyer knew whoever that was? "It's ok, I know this guy. What the hell are you doing here?"
"They're coming." Karl gasped. "My people." He must have been that Other who helped Kate and Sawyer escape along with Juliet, and Danielle's daughter, Alex.
"We already know." Sawyer replied dismissively. "When your 'people' show up here tomorrow night, we'll be ready for them."
"Tomorrow?" Karl echoed. "No, they're coming tonight! They're coming right now!"
Oh fuck.
"We have to leave now!" Sun exclaimed after Karl denounced Juliet as a spy, to which she calmly replied that the survivors already knew.
"Where can we go?" Lena asked, not at all fond of the idea of running and hiding again. "They know everything about this island. They'll find us."
"We don't have nearly enough wire to set it off from a safe distance." Danielle said.
"We could shoot the tents." Sayid suggested. "We'll camouflage the dynamite, and once they're in range, we can target it from the tree line." Once again, Sayid had come up with a perfect solution.
Jack, however, seemed a bit wary of that idea, and reminded Sayid that Juliet had marked four tents, meaning they needed for guns and four shooters.
"I can do it." Lena offered before realizing that she no longer had a gun, as she had given it to someone else once she thought that she wouldn't need it. Luckily, both Kate and Danielle offered up theirs.
"Rousseau, you need to help me lead everyone to the radio tower." Jack said. "Charlie is going to the Looking Glass station, and once he's there, we can stop your transmission and send out a new one."
Well, Lena thought. So much for having the advantage.
…
By the time the rest of the group was ready to leave, Sayid and Lena had found the other two who would stay behind to fight the Others: Jin and Bernard. She wouldn't have pegged either of them as good shots, but apparently she had been wrong.
While the two men said goodbye to their respective wives, Lena checked her weapons. She had been given Danielle's rifle, which would be good for long-distance shooting. And she had her sword, of course, in case anything went wrong.
Once she was sure that she was fully equipped, Lena walked over to Sayid, who was standing alone and watching as the rest of the survivors started to leave.
"No one to wish you luck?" She asked. Sayid turned at the sound of her voice, and he seemed to relax a little. "I would, but I do need some luck too."
"I'd like to think that if one of us wasn't staying behind, we'd be sort of like them." Sayid replied, gesturing to the two couples. "Not exactly, of course."
"I'd like to think that too." Lena said. "Are you ready for this?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Sayid responded, summarizing what Lena was feeling as well. At least if things went wrong, they'd still be by each others's side. "Thank you for staying to do this."
"You can always count on me." Lena replied quietly, barely audible. What Sayid had said brought Lena back to what Kate had said the other day, about her having feelings for Sayid. Was she right? Or had she just been overestimating a friendship?
If- no, when Lena got out of the fight alive, then she could figure it out. But at the moment, she had a mission, and it was imperative that she did not fail.
…
The Others came on schedule, in the dead of night. The four people who had stayed behind, including Lena, were already in position, their targets having been assigned. Lena did have to admit, she thought it was a bit of a stretch to say that four women were pregnant, but the Others seemed to believe it.
There were about fifteen of them, give or take a few. Lena could see that Tom, the formerly bearded Other, and Pryce, the one who had caught them during the Jack rescue, were among them.
They split up, each of them taking one of the four tents. The group that was the closest to their tent was Sayid's target, although Lena's weren't far behind.
Don't miss, don't miss, don't you dare miss, Lena thought to herself as the Others came closer and closer. Her heart was pounding, and she was surprised that no one could hear it.
"It's empty!" A female other shouted as she pulled back the flap of Sayid's tent. The other Others shouted that it was a trap, but it was too late for them.
Sayid shot first, hitting his mark perfectly, and the tent exploded, killing at least three of the Others. Lena took careful aim and fired, breathing out a sigh of relief once her tent exploded, incinerating two of the Others. Bernard's tent was next, and it exploded just a few seconds after Lena's.
Come on, Jin.
There were gunshots, but no explosion. Jin had missed, and Pryce, the Other, had caught him. Tom, meanwhile had managed to take out Bernard, leaving two Others, Lena, and Sayid.
She looked at Sayid, wide-eyed, through the trees and foliage. He was aiming his gun at Pryce, who was currently shouting at the rest of them to come out.
There was a rustling noise behind her, and Lena whirled around to see a female Other approaching her with a gun in hand.
Lena didn't waste any time. She unsheathed her sword and sliced through the air at the Other, who managed to dodge the blow. Luckily, she managed to knock the woman's gun out of her hand, leaving her defenseless. Lena didn't have time to be remorseful as she slashed the blade across the woman's throat, killing her almost instantly.
Unfortunately, the rest of her team wasn't as victorious. Bernard was unconscious, Jin was still held at gunpoint, and Sayid…
Lena frantically scanned the tree line, hoping that he was still there. And he was, except there was a gun to his head.
"Put down your weapons!" The Other that was threatening Sayid said. "Put them down or I'll shoot him!" Lena knew that there was no way she could face all three of the remaining Others on her own without getting herself and her friends killed. So she did the logical thing: She laid her gun and sword on the ground, and she held her hands up in surrender.
…
"Why do we always end up in these situations?" Lena remarked to Sayid as the three Others forced them to kneel with their arms behind their backs. Sayid didn't reply, apparently too busy staring daggers at their captors. If only looks could kill.
The third Other, who's name Lena did not know, had tried to take her sword. He had burned himself, but not too badly, as he had dropped it immediately. He was well enough to hold a gun, at least, one that was currently pointed at the back of her head.
Tom, meanwhile, was talking to Ben on his walkie-talkie, explaining the situation. Lena did feel a bit accomplished knowing that they were surrounded by bits of dead, blown-up Others.
"They're not talking." Tom was saying to Ben. Yeah, no shit. "We have Jarrah, Ashford, Kwon, and the dentist." Bernard raised his eyebrows at being called 'the dentist' but he didn't dare to speak.
"Shoot Kwon." Came Ben's voice over the walkie-talkie. A panicked expression settled over all of them, even Sayid. There were four of them, and the Others didn't need them all alive. "If you want them to answer your questions, kill him now."
Jin said something hatefully in Korean, which Lena was pretty sure translated to something very unpleasant.
That didn't stop Pryce, though, as he aimed his gun directly at Jin's head. Lena knew that he wasn't bluffing. The Others were going to kill him.
And Sun would have to raise her child alone.
But if they talked, they would be giving up the entire rest of the survivors. Was it really worth the price?
"No talk." Jin said sternly as Tom explained that if they gave up the rest of their people, no one would be hurt.
"He's lying, he won't kill any of-" Sayid began to insist, but the third other hit him with the butt of his rifle, silencing him immediately.
"Don't do it." Lena whispered. She just had to hope that they were, in fact, bluffing. But as Pryce stood there, finger on the trigger-
"A radio tower." Bernard said. No, no, no. "They're hiking to a radio tower. A woman came to the island, and they're trying to call her ship."
"How did he know that we were coming tonight, and not tomorrow?" Said Ben, speaking through the walkie-talkie. Tom gestured for Bernard to continue, and he did.
"A kid told us." Bernard explained. "Said his name was Karl. He warned us that you were coming." Pryce finally lifted his gun away from Jin, and Lena breathed out a sigh of relief, although it was quickly overshadowed by worry for her friends.
"What do you want us to do?" Tom asked Ben. "Kill them?" Ben's reply, however, made it clear that he had a plan.
"No. Not yet."
…
It wasn't long before the walkie-talkie crackled to life again, and Tom was quick to answer. However, it seemed that Ben was talking to someone, and that someone was Jack.
"Your plan killed eleven of my people" Ben's voice was faint, but Lena could hear his words loud and clear. "But the ones that survived are now holding your friends. Lena, Sayid, Jin, Bernard. At gunpoint."
"Jack, don't give him anything!" Sayid shouted. Pryce slammed the end of his gun into Sayid's stomach, and he groaned, slumping to the ground.
"You son of a bitch." Lena growled, before shouting: "Don't do it, Jack!"
"And what's to stop me from snapping your neck?" Came Jack's voice. Despite everything, Lena cracked a small smile.
"Tom, if you don't hear my voice in one minute, shoot all four of them."
And just like that, Lena's smile disappeared as she began to mentally count down the seconds. But surely, surely they wouldn't actually kill them, right?
Right?
Fifty-seven, fifty-six, fifty five…
Lena didn't want to die. But there she was staring death right in the face. It was only a matter of forty-nine, forty-eight, forty-seven…
After everything, that couldn't be how it ended. It couldn't, it couldn't. Lena thought she had a purpose, something bigger than to die.
Thirty-six, thirty-five, thirty-four…
The three Others had their guns ready. She knew Jack wasn't going to give up the chance to leave the island, which was the right thing to do.
Twenty-two, twenty-one, twenty…
She thought of her mother, and Marie, and Joseph. She thought of everyone she had come to know on the island, the people who now felt like family to her. She thought of who she was before, and who she had become on the island. A better version of herself.
Ten, nine, eight…
Lena's time was nearly up, the clock ticking steadily. The Others would follow Ben's orders, like they always did.
Lena closed her eyes, preparing for the inevitable.
Three.
Two.
One.
A/N: Well everyone, that's the last chapter of the second book! Obviously this isn't much of a cliffhanger since you all know what happens next, but I needed to end the book somewhere. The third book is called Anchored, and will be posted this Friday with the same update schedule of every Friday and Sunday. Thank you all so much for reading this fic, and I will see you with the next book on Friday!
