Chapter 37
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Rose was in shock. She had spent the last two weeks writing Sawyer off, thinking he had left of his own free will. She was so sure. She was so focussed on those she knew had been taken. She didn't expect this. To feel protective and angry. It was a shock.
"Jack... what happened? To you? Him? All of you? You all just... vanished..."
He turned to face her. He felt exhausted. The pain in his arms and legs, radiating up to a sharp pain in his head. He had hardly slept. Hardly eaten. He felt himself tip to the side, Rose's hands suddenly on his arm, helping to hold him up.
"John! Help me..."
"I'm fine. I'm fine."
"No, you're not, you need to sit. John!" He suddenly appeared, hand on Jack's other arm, helping to guide him to a chair. Then they were all seated. Jack wasn't sure how it had happened. Then he had some food, some water beside him. He didn't know how that had happened either.
"What happened?" John almost spoke in a whisper. Jack smiled.
"It was them. The Others. They... ambushed us. We didn't see them coming. Couldn't stop them. They wanted Walt. We don't know why..."
"They wanted the kid?"
"Yeah. We were just there. They had us digging holes. We don't know why. We didn't really ask to be honest."
"You were collateral?"
"No. Just him," Jack nodded over to Sawyer, "they only... they only hurt him. Not us. Not Walt. Just..."
"Why?" Jack looked up at Rose, "why him?"
"He was a threat, I suppose."
"More than Sayid?"
"He would've been unpredictable. Well, we've seen that." This made John laugh.
"Would've? Was he not?"
"They took him out before..." Jack looked at Rose, "the guy in charge – Ben he was called – he shot him, with the taser, as soon as he looked like he'd try to escape. They had us... kneeling. And he shot him. Just like that. He did nothing, but he shot him anyway. The charge, in that taser, it was strong. I mean... he couldn't walk. Talk. Keep his eyes open... he didn't do anything wrong..." His voice faded out as he looked back at Sawyer, replaying it in his head.
"What happened? Where did they take you? We checked... as much of the island as possible. We couldn't find..."
"There's another island. They put us on a boat."
"What? How the hell did we not know that?"
"That's what we thought. They have some kind of compound. Building, land... cages."
"Cages? They had you in cages?"
"They had two, we were all in one. It was big. Walt... they took him with them. Only Sawyer saw him during... during the week we were there."
"Why?"
"Mike... did something to annoy them. The guy, second in command – Frank – he... he took Walt out and made him watch... as he beat Sawyer. By the time we... we got to him, he was half dead..."
"Oh my God..."
"... they left us. Then Sawyer, he hatched a plan to get out. We made it to the boat, Walt... he'd escaped... em..." things were not coming out clear, Jack could hear it, "we were on the boat, we thought it was fine. Then... Walt screamed. Ben had shot at him with the taser... but Sawyer," he looked back again, "he pushed him out the way, jumped in front of him... it was strong. It stopped his heart, he had a seizure..."
"Oh my God..." Rose didn't know what else to say. She looked at Sawyer, in disbelieve. She was about to ask more, but Jack looked exhausted, "You need to sleep. Over there. No, don't argue," Jack started to speak then stopped, "you need to. We'll watch him, wake you if we need to. It's ok."
The siren sounded.
"Is he asleep?" John looked at Rose as she re-joined him at the table, waiting on her answer.
"Yeah, for what good it'll do. What we heard... he won't be sleeping well for a while."
"Did you see what they did? To him," he nodded to Sawyer, "while we thought..."
"I know. I know. I feel..."
"I know. Me too."
"He's in a really bad way. I mean... I've never seen anything like that. And he's here. Been in the jungle... the pain... I... I can't think about it."
"Rose..." But she wasn't listening. She was staring at Sawyer, lost in thought.
"The pain he has been in... he must have been in... it's horrific... it's amazing he survived. I've never seen that before. The burn, it's so deep and wide. I can't..."
John just looked at her. Not sure what to say.
