Chapter 30

Hey, here's the next one. This is pretty short. Let me know what you think.

"We didn't find much fruit, but there was a really cool bird..." Jack only heard this part of Walt's story as he walked up to them. "Jack, how's Sawyer?"

"He has an infection buddy, you wanna go and keep him company?" Walt didn't reply, just ran further into the cave. Jack motioned for the three men to step out the entrance. "We have a problem."

"Just the one?"

"He has an infection, he's going to die if we don't get back to the hatch."

"How long?"

"Couple of days... maybe three. Not long though. Especially since we have no idea where we are or how far we are."

"Two days walk... maybe," Sayid was monotone, looking towards the jungle, "How will we move him?"

"We need a stretcher... or something... then we'll carry him."

"I will find what we need," with that Sayid turned and walked into the trees. Mike and Jack stared after him.

"There is something terrifying about him. Anyway, how're we gonna do this? D'you really think he will willingly get into a stretched and let us carry him?"

"First, he won't be able to 'get in,' he can barely stay awake. Second, give it a couple of hours and he won't be able to argue. The infection looks bad. But it's his temperature that's the problem right now. We need to keep him cool, but it's never cool here. We need to get him to that hatch, I saw medication, antibiotics, supplies. I'm sure, we get him there, he'll be..."

"What?"

"I want to say he'll be ok. But I don't know. I mean..." Jack looked behind him, "that Frank? He had one thing right, Sawyer pissed off a lot of people in our camp. Maybe they..."

"They wouldn't say no..."

"Wouldn't they? I mean... that's even if he lives long enough."

"Don't say that man, come on." They stood in silence as darkness surrounded them. Thinking about what was to come.

"We should go back in. Sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day," Jack walked in, straight over to Sawyer and Walt, Mike right behind him. "Hey, how's it going?"

"I was telling Sawyer about the bird... where's Sayid?"

"He's went back out to get something."

"In the dark?"

"He'll be fine, Walt."

"Yeah son, why don't you get some sleep, get a lot of rest for tomorrow."

"What's happening tomorrow?"

"Well," Jack sat on the opposite side of Sawyer, "We're going to start walking to our camp tomorrow." He felt Sawyer look at him.

"Like hell we are."

"Sawyer, you have an infection. You won't get better here, we need to move."

"No..."

"But if we do that... won't they find us?" Walt looked at his dad, scared and confused.

"That's a possibility, but... if we don't go now..."

"It's ok kid, we'll stay here."

"Sawyer stop. We can't. You can't," Jack saw Sawyer begin to argue back, "Stop, you need to rest. It's happening. Just sleep, we'll wake you tomorrow, just sleep." They watched as Sawyer's eye closed, but his body remained tense. His breathing quick and shallow. Jack turned to Walt, "We have to move tomorrow. Sawyer is really ill and if we don't go tomorrow... Walt, he will die. We have to go. We can't let him die."

"Ok, I'll go. He saved my life, I need to help him."