Chapter 18
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In the darkness, they planned. Well, Sawyer planned. The other three listened.
"I've had all day to think about how we should do this. When Walt makes his move – and he will," he looked at Mike as he said this, "we shouldn't act straight away."
"What?"
"When he runs, security will be high. If we leave too, they will be expecting it. If we stay put they'll be thrown off."
"But we can't leave Walt alone out there."
"But if we wait until night, when it's dark..."
"We are more likely to get away unseen," Sayid seemed to finish Sawyer's sentence.
"Or at least get a head start," Sawyer looked at them all. They all knew he would need as much time as possible to get away.
"I understand that, but when Walt runs, he'll be alone."
"He will be under the row boat, like Sawyer told him to do," Sayid was looking at Mike, "last night I tried to pick the lock. It looks easy. No one came to stop me. Which either means, no one is watching the camera at night or..."
"Or there is, but they didn't stop you so you would think they weren't watching," Sawyer looked at Sayid as he spoke. Mike and Jack just looked at them both, not sure what to say.
"I agree with Sawyer, when Walt makes his move, we wait until night, escape when it's dark."
"But Walt..."
"Mike, Walt will be ok. He knows where to hide."
"Sawyer, what if the boat isn't there anymore? Or they've moved the boat we came on?"
"We must assume they are there," Sayid didn't look at Mike, but at the building. Jack noticed how dark it was.
"We should sleep. We don't know when any of this will happen. We should rest while we have the chance."
They got settled, Sawyer on the bench, Sayid looking at the building, Mike and Jack with their backs against the bench. The night passed in no time, the day bringing heat and the noise of birds. Jack woke to find Sayid awake.
"Anybody?"
"Not yet."
Jack turned to wake Sawyer, Mike waking in the process. He did the usual checks on his patient, finding him to be progressing quickly; vision still blurred but overall getting stronger. No one spoke, each man thinking of the plan they had made the night before, thinking of what they were planning to do.
Before long Ben and Frank emerged from the building. They walked over to the cage. As they reached the gate, Jack, Sayid and Mike stood up and stepped away from the gate as it swung open. Without a word, Ben motioned for the three men to step out, which they did. They left the cage, again following Ben to the dig site. Another day was about to pass in the haze of the sun.
The next three days went by without incident. Jack, Sayid and Mike continued to dig all day and Sawyer sat alone. They all kept their heads down, resulting in no violence and regular food. By day, they did what they were told. By night, they planned. They had discovered the lock on the gate would be easy to pick, Sayid took it upon himself to grab a long, pointed piece of metal from the site as they were having their break. Between he and Sawyer, they devised a quick way to get the gate open. Jack and Mike planned what to do once away from the Others. They had to act fast, had to find Walt fast. Getting on the boat was the easy bit – even though they barely had a plan for doing it except to run in that direction – it was driving the boat that would be difficult. They didn't know how much fuel it would have, or how much they would need. Would they manage to get their bearing in the dark? Would they have to swim? Would they be able to get it started?
With each day that passed, Sawyer grew stronger. He was thinking clearer, his body was waking up. Jack watched as he became the man they knew before this – sarcastic, tough and annoying. Each time he gave a snide remark, Jack watched as Mike began to answer back, stopping as he remembered how Sawyer had helped Walt.
On day 7, they were at the dig site as normal. Then the siren went off.
