Disclaimer: I don't own lost. This chapter involves a lot of events that occurred in the last episode "Raised By A Nother." My computer has been having some issues, so its taking me a while to actually update. Hopefully we'll get it fixed soon but until then sorry for the wait. That's all for now kids, enjoy the show!....story...thing.
A A Battery: very amusing reply. Please don't sick the scary french lady on me!
FATE
Never Trust A Stranger
Directly as promised, Claire nudged Charlie awake less than an hour after the sun came up, fully
dressed and ready to go. She left Ben in Shannon's care, who would most likely spend the entire
day trying to convince him to say her name. It had been bright as hell when they left the beach,
and equally hot. The temperature seemed to doble inside the jungle, though the thick veil of trees
over head obscured most of the light. Pale, dusty beams would shoot through any opening they
found in the bed of tangled leaves and branches with towered over them. But in-between these
swirling pillars of light was utter darkness. The leaves dripped sweat as the bobbed lightly, despite
the lack of breeze. They air remained thick and heavy through out the afternoon as the two made
their way through the forest. They had been walking for almost an hour, and still no sign of the fall,
witch had ben used as the dominating water source. It was well known that the fall was located
pretty far back in the jungle, but the idea was now slightly possible that they were heading in the
wrong direction. "You think we might have made a wrong turn?" Claire questioned after a
moment, talking ahead at Charlie, who was a foot or two ahead of her. "That's impossible" he
replied, grabbing every skinny tree trunk he passed. "Why?" she questioned, brushing a clump of
soaked matted strands back over her shoulder. "Because we haven't made any turns yet" he
replied, turning to face her, his hand still firmly wrapped around a measly, anorexic-looking trunk.
She pulled trough the trees, as he had been doing the entire run, to catch up with him. "Good pint"
she greed, stopping infront of him. "It dose seem like we've been walking for a while though" he
noted, squinting up at the black spotted sky above them. "Maybe we should take a break."
Claire nodded, and slowly began to pull of her back pack. She let the entire load drop to the
ground, seeing that it only carried some food, a bottle of water, soap and an extra pare of cloths,
just in case. She was currently clothed in a pair of lose denim geans witch were torn at the knees
and a lightly floraled tank from her maternity days. It still looked like a normal top, only instead of
stopping short at the waste, it exceeded past her hips so that without pants, it would still cover all
the necessities. The light cotton kept thing pretty comphortable in the heat, though she now
regretted not bringing shorts. She plopped to the ground and pulled the tangled mess of hair over
her shoulder. Charlie leaned back agenst a rather thick, exotic oak and open up his bag. He
retrieved his water bottle and gulped it down. "This is horrible" Charlie noted, as he re capped the
bottle. "What is?" she asked giving half attention while still concentrating on wringing as much
moisture out of the rope of hair dangling from her shoulder. "The weather! Bleeding brutal" he
explained. "no kidding" Claire agreed, running her palms down the length of her pants to remove
the access moisture with a minor look of disgust. "This is almost pointless. As soon as we get
washed up and make our journey back to the beach, we'll be worst off then we were when we
started" Charlie hypothesized, the bottle slushing with ever small gesture of his hand. His hair clung
to his forehead, small drops of sweat gathered around his chin. He whipped it off grungily with the
palm of his hand and began digging at the back of his neck. Claire made her way beside him and
took the hand down to her lap. "Its worth it" she informed, moving her fingers agenst the skin of his
palm. He laid his head agenst the tree and smiled, then took his hand back. He continued to stretch
his arm across her shoulders and pull her closer to him. Her head rest agenst his caller bone, strands
of drenched hair flung wildly across her shoulder. The strands slowed over his arm and dangled
agenst her back. He had never noticed how long her hair was until down, when the moisture had
pulled it down to its full weight. She shifted a few times, until she was securely nestled in the curve
of his body. He placed a kiss on her forehead then laid hid head back agenst the bark of the tree.
With the heat pounding down on them and the amount of light supplied by the illuminous vortexes
sparkling about them contributing verily little to their heavily shaded circle beneath the tree made it
difficult to maintain consciousness. It wasn't before long that the two of them both gave in to
exhaustion and fell into a deep slumber in each others arms. The sun shifted from its peak in the sky,
changing the angles of the beams so that they came in at a much fainter, blue, diagonal slant,
makeing it even darker than it had been before. The trees thick cast new shadows witch darted
across the forest bed. With afternoon came a breeze, witch brushed through the forest straight from
the island. Charlie awoke to the feel of the breeze tingling across the skin of his bare arm. He
jumped slightly, startled into reality, and for a moment he forgot where he was. He glanced around
himself at the dark leaves weighing down their branches. His eyes traveled down to Claire who lied,
still fast asleep agenst his chest. He remembered, and gave a gentle sigh of relief. He shifted himself
back to his original position with as little movement as possible, so as not to wake her. But try as he
might, his situation lack the camphorate it had held earlier. Claire must have subconsciously
detected this change, fore she began to shift around herself. Being shocked awake by the sudden
chill as he had been, her hand, witch lay open agenst the middle of his chest now took a firm grip at
his shirt. Her head lifted in the same instant, eyes half open and darting about the trees. "Claire" he
spoke, some what hoarsely, as to jot her memory. Her eyes met him in a state of suppress, witch
fadded quickly as she remembered where she was. She sighed, as he had, and rolled onto her back
so that they lay side by side, her neck still cradled in the curve of his arm. "How long have we been
asleep?" she asked, her voice still groggy as well. "I'm not sure. Must of been a couple hours" he
replied, pushing himself off the tree. "Its gotten dark" she noted as he helped her off the ground.
Charlie rubbed his eyes for a moment, then leaned down to pick up his book bag, witch had
remained as a partner opposite of Claire the entire time. He lifted it off the ground and flung it onto
his back. "Wheres my bag?" Claire questioned, looking down at the empty spot of dirt where she
had left it. "What?" he questioned sleepily, turning to her as he adjusted the straps on his. "The
back pack, the one I was carrying. Its gone" she explained, tracing the circle of clean dirt witch they
had been resting in for the past hours undisturbed. He copied her, giving a general look over of all
in view. She was most certainly right, the bag was no where to be found. "That's weird" she noted,
coming to a stop in the middle of the circle, palm rested at the back of her neck. "Some animal
probably ran off with it. Who knows" he shrugged, spotting his bottle of water on the ground and
picking it up. "Your probably right" she agreed, letting her hand drop to her side. "Come on, lets
go" he suggested, heading towards the direction they had been fallowing. "Wait, don't you think we
should head back?" she asked, glancing back the way they came. "Do you want to?" was his reply,
as he turned to face her. "Well, do you think we can make it to the fall and back to the beach before
sundown?" she answered with another question. "I think so. I mean I can't be sure because well, I
don't know what time it is but I think we can" he explained optamisticly. "Alright" she agreed
skeptically, meeting him at his side. "Well then, lets go" she suggested playfully, wrapping his hand
around hers. He lead the way, moving his free hand from tree to trees, the other nearly dragging
Claire behind him. It wasn't so much that she was slower than him as it was impossible for both of
them to fit through the path side by side. He stopped in his tracks suddenly, causing Claire to run
into him before realizing he hand stopped. "What is it?" she asked, observing as he lowered himself
to the ground in the middle of the path. He tugged up the hem of his pants and inspected his foot.
"Oh my goodness," Claire exclaimed, " you've been walking the entire time flip flops?" this was
outrageous. "Yep" he confirmed casually, picking at the tiny splinter wedged in the ball of his foot.
"What is wrong with you?" she muttered, shaking her head with wonder. "Hmm, let me get my
list" he replied sarchasticly, glancing at her over his shoulder. With the splinter cleanly removed, he pulled the sandles back on and pulled himself to his feet. They continued walking for what seemed
like an eternity. The day grew cooler, and darker, until no light was left except a faint white haze
way over head. With their eyes full adjusted, the apparent amount of light was tolerable. But never
the less the subtraction of light was clearly noticeable. "Charlie, its getting really dark. I think we
should turn back" Claire called ahead of her, her voice a bit shaky. "I think your right" he agreed.
He had ben walking exceptionally fast, and for a while he had zoned out, unaware of his
surroundings. But it was now clear to him to that their would not be enough sun left to withstand
the journey back. Even worse, it looked as if it were going to rain. "It must be later than I thought"
he noted, "I don't think we can make it back before sun down." Claire frowned slightly. "You
should have thought of that sooner" she replied. Although she did not show it on her expression,
Charlie could sense her fear. "Maybe we should just stay here for tonight" he suggested. It was no
lie that he wanted to get back to the beach as much as she did, but navigating their way through the
woods in pitch black would be impossible. Claire nodded unenthusiastically. Charlie removed his
book bag and lowered himself to one of the rocks. They had come upon a rather good resting spot.
A short wall of rocks molded into the earth witch raised up on the left and gradually descended to a
knee high boundary of rocks witch curved on the left. tall, thick trees outlined the ring, almost
forming a wall. Charlie lowered himself onto one of the rocks and began unloading his bag. Claire
climbed into a small flat spot where a slice had been made in one of the neighboring rocks. "Sorry
about dragging you all the way out here" Charlie apologized, still pulling objects from the bag.
"Well it was my idea" Claire defended for him, leaning her head back agenst the rock behind her.
"Yeah, but still. We should have gone back when we first stopped" he protested. "Nah. Its not that
bad." she assured, sitting up once again, "I'm just worried about leaving Ben with Shannon all
night." Charlie laughed a little. "I'm sure she can manage" he replied, finally emptying the bag. A towel, bar of soap, a flash light, some bandages, small jar filed about a quarter of the way with
iodine, box of matches, a zippo lighter and three bottles of water now scattered across the rock
beside him. Claire leaned forward, examining the items. "Atleast we know we can start a
fire" she noted. "Unless it rains" he contradicted, looking up at what was left of the sky. Between
the leaves was nothing but a grey haze. "Well then, atleast we have a flash light" she shrugged,
optamisticly. He nodded. "Well, if were gonna try for a fire, we better start now." he pushed himself
off the rock and headed towards the trees, where sticks and leaves were woven across the dirt.
Claire turned so that her feet rested on the rock where Charlie had just moved from, her hands
crossed at the wrist over her knees. He was kneeling down with his back to her, pulling up any
twigs or branches he could find. "You gonna help?" he questioned playfully, looking back at her
over his shoulder. "No, I think this is a mans job" she replied jokenly, leaning back on her elbows.
He smiled, and continued looking. It wasn't long before a sturdy pile had been made and the twigs
were lit. Charlie stood to his feet and turned to her triumphantly. "Congratulations"Claire exclaimed
sarcastically, glancing up from her little black note book, witch she had been wrighting in. He sat
keeled back down on the rock and crossed his arms over her knees. "What's this?" he questioned,
reaching for the book. "Nothing" she replied quickly, holding pulling it away. "Where'd you find it?"
he continued to question. "It was in my pocket" she answered, folding it shut. He reached for it
again. She held raised her arm out so that the book was far out of his reach. "Please" he plead, still
leaning over her. Claire thought for a moment, sarcastically. "Hmm, no." was her answer. "Fine"
Charlie frowned. He leaned down to give her a kiss witch as only meant to last for a quick second,
but continued much longer then that. Claire, completely disregarding her previous attempts to
protect her writhing's secrecy, dropped the book the ground and pulled her arms around his neck. If
he were paying attention, he could easily have won the little battle, but this seemed much more compelling. The kiss lasted until a brush of thunder sounded. The rain began pouring down and the
fire went out instantly. The forest went pitch black. The two sat up, startled by the sudden black out.
"Flashlight" Charlie muttered breathlessly, and began feeling around the surface of the rock until he
located the object. He twisted the top, turning it on. A small circle of light burst out, feeling their
general area with a faint amount of light. He moved up onto the higher rock next to Claire, sitting
close to keep each other warm. He pulled the beach towel witch had been kept in his bag around the
both of them, keeping his arm tightly around her shoulder. Claire, embarrassed, sat stiffly, looking in
the opposite direction of him. Not wanting her to feel uncomfortable, he lowered his arm around her
waist and took her hand in his. She glanced over at him and smiled, then looked away again. Her
cheeks went pink. Charlie lifted his other hand, witch hand been holding the flash light, to her chin,
turning her face to him. They kissed again, letting the flash light role about on the rock, causing its
circle of light to twirl back and forth across the trees. The rain pounded down on them. Both
oblivious to the icy beds hitting their skin. Suddenly, a twig snapped some where in the darkness.
Fallowed by a rustling sound in a faint pounding, like feet agenst the mud. Both jumped, startled once
again and looked over. Charlie quickly found the flash light and searched the perimeter. Nothing but
trees and leaves. "What was that?" Claire questioned, her voice quivered. "I don't know. Maybe it was
just the trees" he replied uncertainly. Another rustle in the distance. "I think theres someone out there"
Claire disagreed, looking almost terrified. "Why would some one be running from us?" He questioned,
not expecting an answer. " I think we should go" She suggested, hoping down from the rock. "Go
where?" he asked, rasing an eye brow as he hoped down beside her. "I don't know. I just, I can't stay
here" she was rambling distressfully. "Claire, its pitch black. Were not gonna get any where" he
explained sympathetically. "So what are we suppose to do? Just stay here in the dark and wait for them
to come back?" She was growing louder by the minute. He had never sceen her this frantic, normally he was the one to panic. "Claire, calm down. It was probably just the wind or a twig breaking or
something" he tried to assure. "Trees don't run Charlie" she protested. Charlie opened his mouth to
speak, but no words came out. His eyes were fixed on the ground behind her. Claire gave him a
confused glance, then turned around, trying to fallow his gaze to whatever had him so fixated. There in
the mud only inches away from her lay a thick foot print, imbedded in the mud. Another lie just above it
before the marks disappeared beneath a the carpet of broken sticks and leaves. Her hands trembled at
her side. After a moment, when the initial shock faded, she turned towards the path they had came in on.
"Claire, where are you going?" he sighed, trying to hide his frustration. "I don't know" she replied,
determined, without looking back. She walked fast, makeing it difficult for him to fallow her. "Claire,
stop. You don't know where your going" he tried to convince, pulling his arm from three to tree as he
fallowed her. "I'm not staying here" she confirmed, but before she could finish her sentence, a loud snap
sounded behind them. Both turned, and Charlie aimed his flash light in the direction of the sound as the
culprit made an attempt to run, but they saw nothing. Claire turned back. Charlie opened his mouth to
speak again but before he could make another try in convincing her to stay, she began walking: And
walked right into a trap. In a split second the ground softened ground before her gave in and she
disappeared beneath a black pit. Charlie rushed to her, dropping to his knees at the edge. "Claire!" he
called out, looking into the mass whole in the ground. "Claire!" he tried again, louder than before. No
answer. Shaking, he searched for the flash light witch he had dropped in panic while rushing to edge. He
found it rolled up agenst a tree root, retrieved it and shown it down into the ditch. It must have been
deeper than he thought because the light showed nothing but walls of thick soil and mud leading down
into more blackness. He called her name a third time, and herd nothing but the pouring rain and the
sound of his own shattered breathing. Quickly, he scrambled to his feet. She was clearly knocked
unconchus on her way down, and even if he could make it down to her, there would be no way of getting out. His only choice was to run for help.
Claire's eye slowly blinked open, although it was hard to tell rather or not they were still closed. She
could see nothing but blackness around her. Her head throbbed and her body felt soar. She moved her
arms and legs to make sure every thing was still working properly. Nothing seemed broken. Her lower
body felt numb and she soon became aware that she was waist deep in water. "Charlie?" she spoke, her
voice raw and shaky. No response. She tried again, as loud as she could. Nothing. Her body began to
shiver. Her skin tingled from the rain and mud covering her skin. She felt agenst the wall of dirt behind
her and tried to pull her self up, but the dirt only shifted beneath her arm, sliding her right back down into
the icy, muddy water. She wrapped tucked her arms beneath her shirt and wrapped them around her waist
in an attempt to stay warm. She concentrated on her breathing to keep her mind of panicking, but the
thoughts managed to seep in. Where is Charlie? What if something happened to him? How am I going to
get out of hear? Her head continued the throb on the left, but everything around it went numb. She
became aware of the warm liquid trickling slowly down that side of her face: blood. I hit my head on the
way down and knocked unchoncues. Charlie went for help. He'll be back soon. I'll be fine. She assured
her self as she rocked back and forth, knees to her chest. Moving as much as possible to stay warm.
She remained conscious until morning. The rain slowed to a faint drizzle and the sun came out. Though
the light did not yet reach inside the ditch, she could see every thing outside the opening above her. Her
body was almost completely numb. Her cloths and hair clung to her skin. It was morning, and Charlie had
not come back for her yet. She sat in silence for almost an hour before the sound of foot steps could be
herd. She sat up, alert and listened to the gentle thump, thump, thump, moving closer and closer.
"Charlie?" she called, excitedly, squinting up at the opening. For a moment it was silent. "Hello?" a voice,
witch did not belong to Charlie, called back. Moments later, an unfirmilier man leaned over the edge. Although it was hard to tell, the expression on his face showed that he could not see her. "Claire? Are you
all right?" the man called. Who ever he was, he knew her name. "Yes" she called back, a bit delayed.
"Alright", he nodded, "hang on. I'm gonna get you out of there." for a moment, he disappeared. She could
here him moving around over head. "Where's Charlie?" she questioned, calling up to him. "He's out
looking for you with a couple of the others. We split up to cover more ground" the voice called back
distantly. The man returned. "Can you move?" he called back, begging to lower down a rope. "Yeah" she
replied, squinting up at him. "Ok. Good. Grab on." Claire gripped the felt the wall for the rope. After a
moment, she located it and griped it tightly with both hands. Digging her feet into the mud, she began
pulling herself up. After a moment she could see the rope and her hands infront of her. Once she got close
enough to the surface, the man helped pull her up. She sat on the ground for a moment, trying to catch her
breath. "Your bleeding" the man noted, eyeing the patch of blood smeared with dirt on her forehead. "I
know. I hit my head when I fell" she replied breathlessly, looking down at the ground. She was sitting on
one side of her hip, supporting herself with both arms. "Here" the man offered, and began gently dabbing a
piece of cloth agenst her forehead. She flinch slightly, although it didn't really hurt. "Are you sure your
alright? Nothings sprained or broken?" the man questioned. "No, every thing else is fine" she answered
without looking up at him. "Good" he smiled faintly and helped her up. Her legs felt shaky and for a
moment she actually had to hold on to him. Soon she gained balance and let go. He handed her the piece
of cloth to try and clean herself off as much as possible. She began whipping away at the mud on her arms
as the man walked over to a book bag lieing on the ground ad keeled down before it. She stared at cloth
agenst her arm for a moment before it hit her. The rag was actually a shirt, a white tank that belonged to
her. It was the shirt she had kept as an extra in her bag, witch had ben stolen. "Where did you get this?"
she questioned, eyeing him strangely. "In your bag. I found it in the woods" he replied, glancing back at
her. His response was believable enough, but she didn't bye it. Something about this man made her paranoid. The man stood, bringing the book bag up with him, turned around and held it out to her. She
glanced at it, but made no attempt to take it. "Something wrong?" he questioned, rasing an eye brow at
her. She hesitated, glancing from the bag, back to him. "No" she replied finally, snapping back to reality.
"It's a shame you don't have any bandages in here. That gash looks pretty bad" he explained, lifting his
hand to examine the wound. She moved instinctively and his hand dropped. "What?" he asked,
defensively. She stood awkwardly, not knowing what to say. She opened her mouth to speak. "Claire!" a
voice called, coming from the direction behind him. She looked over past his shoulder and spotted Charlie,
a few yards away, running towards them full speed. Her eyes lit up. Suddenly, the man pulled something
out of his pocket, swung his arm around her waist and swung her around so her back faced him. The
object he had pulled was a knife, witch he held to her throat, using the other arm to hold her still. Charlie
stopped in his tracks, but maintained a look of determination. The two stared of intensely, neither showing
any sign of backing down. He'd come to the rescue and he intended to do so, no matter what.