Okay, after many requests, I am back! Here is the first chapter of the second book of Sam's Story. Sorry, it is so late :(. I did NaNoWriMo, and then finals kicked my ass, but I am back now. Thank you all for all of the support through reading and reviewing. I hope you like this :).
*Guest done in order of time review was posted*
Queen24824: I'm glad you enjoyed my writing for book one :), and thank you for the many reviews. I hope you enjoy the second book.
AsukaHyuga: I am glad you are so excited! Your reviews always make me smile like an idiot. Don't worry, I won't leave Sam or you hanging, I could never, I get attached to my characters too! And don't worry, all your questions will be answered and soon Sam and Sawyer will be reunited. Keep reading, reviewing, and enjoying. :)))
ekm2003: I'm glad you can't get enough because I have a lot more to write. Enjoy book 2! :)
Guest 1: I will continue, and thank you for your review. Enjoy :).
Guest 2: Thank you for your reveiw. Sawyer is definitely my favorite character if you can't tell lol.
There was nothing in the hatch, at least nothing visible. All I could see when I looked inside was a dark tunnel that went straight down. Not some miraculous technology that could get us off the island. Not some perfect hidey-hole. The only consolation was it was at least not some terrible disaster, as Hurley seemed to be worried about. Or maybe it was all three things, but with no easy was in it would be hard to find out. There was a ladder on the side of the wall, but it didn't extend far enough to be of any real use.
"What is it?" Kate asks.
"It doesn't matter what it is. We blew the door so we could get everyone inside that thing so they'd be safe. That plan is not going to work," Jack says, standing up and walking away from the hatch. "We'll never get everyone down in time."
"So, what's the new plan, then?" I ask, standing up from my squatted position.
"I don't know yet," Jack says. "But we'll figure something out. I'll figure something out."
Kate and Locke ignore us, discussing how they could get down the hatch. "John," Boone interrupts. "Are you crazy? We aren't going down that thing."
"We all went through a lot to get here," Lockes says. "Aren't you the least bit curious about what is down here?"
"Curiosity doesn't matter right now," I say. "We have forty other people to worry about. I think your neglect has already caused enough death without adding them to your conscious."
"Sam's right. We're leaving now," Jack says.
"Yeah, let's do that," Hurley agrees enthusiastically.
John hesitates, not moving and meeting Jack with a death glare.
"They are waiting for us to come back and tell them what to do, so let's forget about-"
"Jack," Kate says, cutting Jack off. Jack turns his glare to her.
"What," he demands.
"Why don't we all just calm down here," John says.
"No, look, if you want to go exploring in the morning, that's fine. But tonight, we're done," Jack tells John. "I'm going to go get the dynamite we didn't use and we're heading back to the caves. How about you back it up, John?"
Both men are silent, staring each other down. John looks away first. "Sure, of course," he agrees with Jack.
Jack nods. "Okay." He turns and walks away.
"Why don't you want to go down there, Jack?" Locke asks.
"I have people to take care of," Jack says. "Right now the hatch isn't important."
"You didn't answer my question," Locke says and I roll my eyes. He really can't let anything go.
"Let's pack up," Jack says.
I move to help pack things until I realize there is nothing for me to do. Jack is handling the dynamite, Kate is picking up the fuse, and my bag is already packed. I lean against a tree; I know that the day is far from over, but I am exhausted. And more than ready for a break from Locke's antics.
"How are you holding up?" Boone asks me quietly. He leans on the tree next to me.
I sigh. "I'm just exhausted, tired of putting up with Locke."
"We'll be heading back soon," Boone says. "It can't get much worse."
"Well, now it will," I say. "You've cursed it."
Sure enough, less than a minute later…. "Why'd you do that? Why'd you light the fuse, man?" Hurley asks Locke from a couple of feet away. I raise my eyebrows at Boone and he shrugs his shoulders.
"Why wouldn't I light the fuse?" Locke asks.
"Uh, maybe because I was running towards you, waving my arms, yelling don't do that."
John laughs and I whisper to Boone, "I mean yeah, but when has Locke had anyone's best interests in mind?"
"I used to think he meant well," Boone says. "Now I'm not so sure."
"I guess I was just excited to get inside," Locke says. "I mean, that is why we came here, isn't it? That's why we went all the way out to the black rock and got the dynamite to blow the hatch. We did it so we could get inside, Hugo."
"And to save everybody's lives," Jack cuts in.
"And to save everyone's lives," Locke echoes.
"Or maybe it was just our destiny, right John?" Jack mocks.
"Maybe," John says seriously.
"Guys, uh," Kate interrupts. "It's the hatch door, you better see this."
What now? I walk over to the metal door on the jungle floor. We all gather around, and Locke shines his torch on the door. There, in big black letters, read QUARANTINE.
"Maybe we should leave," I propose.
Sawyer's POV
By the time Sawyer collapsed on his new piece of raft, he was exhausted and it was all he could do to shout at Micheal "I was trying to save your damn kid."
There wasn't much benefit in saying it, it wasn't like Mike was going to care or thank him for anything, but he might as well make him feel guilty. Sawyer's words may have shut Miceal up, but it didn't make the pain in his shoulder go away. It got worse, which Sawyer hadn't thought possible. As pathetic as it was after his journey over to this piece of the raft and all he really wanted was someone to take care of it for him. He wished Sam was here to fix his shoulder for him. She would be on his side, too. Or maybe she wouldn't be. He was being an asshole, not that that had ever phased her. Either way, Sawyer didn't really care about reality right now. He just wanted the pain to stop, and to be warm and dry, and for there to be someone around who gave a damn if he lived or died. He wanted grey eyes to be here, just now, just for a second.
But Sawyer was used to not getting what he wanted. And he was well aware that he deserved none of what he wanted. He didn't deserve Sam's friendship, and he certainly didn't deserve to have her here, taking care of him. Especially since that would mean she'd be stuck in this situation, too. He deserved the bullet currently lodged in his shoulder, the one he was about to remove. Sawyer never could remember if it was actually good to remove a bullet like this. Sam would probably know, but she wasn't here to stop him, so Sawyer ripped his shirt open over his injury.
"Hey, are you crazy?" Micheal asked him. "You're going to take a bullet out with your bare hands?"
"You got a better idea?" Sawyer asked. Micheal was silent. "Then go to hell," he said, before returning to his task.
"You're never going to be able to do it by yourself."
"I thought we parted ways, Mike."
"We're caught in the same current."
"You're still talking," Sawyer muttered. "Come on," he said to himself, before digging his fingers into his shoulder. The second Sawyer touched the open bullet wound, the pain became 100 times worse, and Sawyer screamed as he plunged forward and removed the bullet. He didn't stop, even for a second, because he knew if he did, he could never make himself start the torture again. When Sawyer finally pulled the bullet out, his hand was shaking and covered in blood as he threw it into the ocean. He didn't remember what he said to Mike, or if he said anything before he blacked out.
Sam's POV
Locke takes the lead, along with Kate. Jack follows behind him with Hurley, and I trail with Boone. We walk in silence until we get about halfway back when Boone speaks. "Look, I know this is a lot. At least, it is for me. Do you want to talk about it? Or not, because I understand either way."
"I don't want to talk about it. Maybe tomorrow, but right now? It is all just too much. I don't even want to think about it." It really is too much, and Boone only knows half of it. The whole business with the hatch is enough on its own. He still doesn't know how much I still miss Patrick, and how much I blame myself for his death. And the only person I really want to talk about is on a raft in the middle of the ocean.
"Okay," Boone says. "We can just walk unless you want to talk about something else?"
"I'm good," I tell him. "But I'll let you know."
Boone smiles. "Good."
I look ahead and see that Jack and the others have already arrived at the caves, and Jack is speaking to the survivors. "Come on, let's catch up," I say, before jogging towards the caves, away from Boone.
"- no way for all of us to get down in there tonight."
"Jack, where's Dr. Arzt?" Charlie asks.
"Uh, he didn't make it," Jack tells the crowd.
There is a round of shocked mutterings before Shannon speaks up. She looks like a wreck, and her eyes are filled with fear. "Did you see them?" she asks. "Did you see the Others?"
Before Jack, or any of us, can say anything, Charlie shouts at Shannon and soon the entire crowd has erupted into chaotic noise.
"Hey!" Jack shouts, drawing the attention back to him and silencing the crowd. "Everything's going to be okay. Let's just- let's take it easy. We're going to be alright. We're going to stay here tonight, okay? Together. We've still got four guns, we'll put lookouts at all the entrances. We're all going to be safe as long as we stay together. The sun comes up in three hours, and we're all gonna be here to see that happen. I promise."
The last line makes me inhale sharply, well just the last word, really. Promise. Promise is not something you do in medicine, even if you are 100% sure. Because nothing is ever truly 100%, and there is nothing worse than an unkept promise. In the silence that Jack's words leave, the sound of rope dropping is amplified, and everyone turns to see Locke gathering supplies.
"John, what are you doing?" Jack demands.
"I'm getting so cable," Locke tells Jack.
"What for?" Jack asks, even though I am pretty sure we can both guess what for.
"It's for the hatch. I'm going in."
"Is now really the time for this?" I ask Locke, crossing my arms and glaring at him. Jack walks over to Locke, standing over him commandingly.
"Fate waits for no one, Samantha," Locke says, and I roll my eyes. "You're right Jack. The safest thing is to stay here, wait for morning, wait for these 'others', to see if they ever show up, wait for the brave folks on the raft to bring help. But me, I'm tired of waiting."
"Have fun dying," I mutter to Locke before storming away. Jack can have it out more with him if he wants to, but I'm done, for now at least. I know it won't be long before I am dragged back into things.
Sawyer's POV
"It wasn't the flare," Sawyer told Micheal when he came to. They were still caught in the same current, and the silence was getting on Sawyer's nerves. "I said it wasn't the flare," he repeated when Micheal didn't respond. When the silence continued, Sawyer launched into the theory he had pieced together since the attack. "Those people that did this- at first I thought they were fishermen or pirates or something. Then I got a good look at their boat. Do you know anything about boats, Mike? A boat like that wasn't built for the open ocean. Water's coming over the side at the first little squeal. Maybe got a range of 100 miles. A boat like that had to have left port from somewhere close, like the island. French chick said the others were coming for the kid. I think they came, Mike." The only comfort to his theory was that maybe Sam was safe wherever she was. If the others came for them, then the people on the island should be safe.
"What?" Micheal asked.
"He's the one they wanted," Sawyer explained, ready to play the blame game again. "Why I got a bullet in my shoulder. Hell, Bluebeard blue us up because they wanted your kid."
"You saying this is my fault?" Micheal asked, incensed.
"Yeah. That's what I'm sayin'."
"They took my son because of you!"
"Me?"
"They were sailing away."
"They found us because they were looking for us, for Walt!" Sawyer shouted.
"Don't you ever say his name again, ever!" Micheal threatened.
"What you gonna do, splash me?" Sawyer mocked. Splash him is exactly what Micheal did, and Sawyer's flimsy piece of raft came apart from below him, thrusting him into the ocean. Micheal turned his back to Sawyer as he swam to Mike's piece of raft and pulled himself up onto it.
"Look I know how-"
"Shut up," Micheal said, not turning to look at Sawyer. "Don't even- You have no idea what it is like to care for somebody else."
"Yes I do," Sawyer said. He was talking to Micheal's back, but he didn't care. "I do, she's just not here right now."
Sam's POV
I couldn't have been more right. Less than a minute after I sit down on the outskirts of the camp, Sayid approaches me. "Sam, do you mind if I talk to you about something?" he asks.
I sigh, and scotch to make room for him. "I'm assuming it's nothing good."
"No, it's not," Sayid agrees, sitting down. "Shannon is having hallucinations. She saw Walt in the jungle earlier today. I think she is breaking down. Something about this place is getting to her, she hears voices in the jungle too."
I do a double-take at Sayid's first sentence, but by the time Sayid finishes talking, I'm over it. Crazier things have happened. "Why are you telling me this?" I ask Sayid. "I mean, I can prescribe her some anxiety medicine to help, if that is what you are looking for, but unless you think what she is seeing is real-"
"It can't be real. Walt is on the raft," Sayid interrupts.
"I know that," I say. "If you want drugs for her, I can help you. But why not go to Jack?"
"I don't want you to drug her," Sayid says.
"Then why tell me this?" I ask. "It's not as if we are friends."
"Look, I don't know what is going to happen, but whatever fight Locke and Jack are having, it isn't going to go away anytime soon. Jack has a single-mindedness to him, he won't be able to look after Shannon on top of everything else. You and I may never be friends, but we are on the same side of all of this. There aren't many level-headed people on this island, but you are one of them. I just needed you to know, that's all."
"I mean- you know I wouldn't let anything bad happen to anyone, not if I could help it. But Jack's not the only one who will be preoccupied. I can't always be Shannon's babysitter."
"I don't need you to be," Sayid says. "But you are a better multi-tasker than Jack, and I just wanted you to know." He stands up, ready to leave, but I stop him.
"I've got you," I say. "Stay alive tonight, okay."
Sayid nods, "You too," he tells me, before walking away, right as Jack walks up to me.
"What was that all about?" he asks.
"Nothing," I wave Jack off. "I've got it under control- I think. What do you need?"
"I'm going down to the hatch. Kate went after Locke and I am following her."
I groan and rub my hands over my face. "Please tell me you're joking."
"I'm not."
I stand up. "Fine, I'm coming with you."
"Sam, you don't have to come…"
"I know, but I am," I tell him. "If we are opening the hatch, I want to be there. Besides, I don't trust Locke alone down there."
"Fair enough," Jack agrees. "Are you ready to go?"
I nod. "I never unpacked."
The walk to the hatch is silent and short, and when we get there, both Jack and I stare down the abyss before looking back at each other. There is a cable from a tree hanging down it.
"Kate!" Jack screams down the hatch. "Locke!" There is no response from either of them. Jack drops his torch down the hatch, and a solid three seconds pass before it hits the ground and extinguishes. Jack takes a shaky breath, and we meet each other's gaze.
"So, who's going first?" I ask a faux lightness to my voice.
Jack pulls a shirt out of his back and rips it in half to wrap his hands. "I'll go down first. If the rope breaks, I'll have a better chance of catching you down there."
"I think it's pretty slim either way, but go ahead. I'll try to keep the rope stable from up here."
Jack descends the ladder of the hatch. "I'll holler when I get down."
I hear Jack land with a loud thud before he shouts back up to me. I take a deep breath before climbing down the ladder until there is only rope left. My descent down the cable is less a climb, and more of a slide, faster than should be possible. I am barely able to keep my grip and with nothing to protect my hands the rope turns them raw by the time I reach the ground. I let out a cry of pain and stare at my bloody hands. Maybe I didn't think this through entirely.
Jack grabs my hands and examines them, I wince at his touch. "Are you okay?" he asks.
I shake my head "No, but I'll heal," I hiss.
Jack takes the scraps he used to wrap his hands and ties them around mine to cover the blood. He ties them tight, and I wince as he pulls each knot but remain silent. After he is done, I wiggle my fingers, testing my limited mobility.
"Just stay behind me," Jack says. "I have a gun, only take those off if you have to."
"Okay, fine. Let's go."
Jack shines a flashlight through the dim, poorly constructed hallways, and I follow close behind him. There is water below us, and large flashlights are built into the wall. We don't dare speak, for fear of attracting unwanted attention. We move deeper and come across a path to the side, filled with dripping pipes. Jack goes down it and I follow. He shines his flashlight on a pair of shoes on the ground. We continue down the twisted hallway, which slowly opens up. The ceilings grow, and it becomes less like the dark dungeon of some strange video game. That is, until we get to a wall that pulls at the metal key around Jack's neck. Buckets of waste that look like battery acid sit at the foot of it. Jack looks at me with a questioning face, and I shrug my shoulders.
A mirror above turns to look at us, snapping us out of our exploration, and Jack shines a flashlight on it. "Someone's -" he begins, but loud music blaring from all around us interrupts him. Lights flash on, blinding us, and Jack ducks into another room. I follow him into a wide-open room, the ceiling stretches forever above us. The room is shaped like an octagon.
"Stay back," Jack says. "You're not safe in the open."
"This isn't exactly a safe journey to begin with, Jack," I say, walking up to a computer in the center of the room. I lean down to look at the screen. "What do you figure this is for?" My finger hovers over the keyboard.
"I wouldn't do that," Locke's voice says, and I spin around. Beside me, Jack raises his gun.
"Where's Kate?" Jack asks. "What the hell did you -"
The sound of a gun cocking cuts Jack off as a man raises a gun to Locke's head. The person holding the gun hides behind a wall. "Move, and I'll kill him."
Is that a promise? Jack doesn't lower his gun.
"Put the gun down," the man says.
"Where's Kate?" Jack asks.
"Jack, it's okay," Locke says.
"I said drop it!"
"Where's Kate?!"
"It's fine, just put down-"
"I'm not putting down anything," Jack shouts.
The man peaks away from the wall and shoots the ceiling above me; I flinch and cover my head with my hands before straightening up again. "Do you want him to die?"
"I wouldn't mind it," I say. "And I don't mind dying myself, there's only so much you can threaten."
"Is this what you were talking about, Locke?" Jack asks, laughing a bit manically, and for a moment I wonder if we've all lost it. Jack's laughing, Locke's cool a cucumber with a gun to his head, and I'm ready to get shot. Jack doesn't lower his gun. "Is this your destiny? All road lead here."
"Jack, calm down," Locke pleads.
The man with a gun takes a step, repositioning himself behind Locke. "Lower your gun, or I'll blow his dammed head off, brother!" For the first time, I see the man's face, and Jack loses some of his bravado.
"You," he says, letting his gun fall.
End of chapter, and the start of a new book. I'm not going to be formating chaptering quite the same for season two, since the flow of the show is a bit different, but besides that, let me know what you think? How did you like the start of book 2? Soon Sam and Sawyer will be reunited, but for now, each of them have their own stuff to deal with. Please review any thoughts, good or bad. And feel free to PM me! - K