The provisions were small; three bottles of water each and a hunk of cooked boar meat stuffed into a raggy camping backpack some unfortunate passenger had been thoughtful enough to stuff into the carry-on compartment. Sayid could feel Kate's eyes on him as he packed up his things again.

"You're staring at me," he said, slipping two large knives from Locke's collection into the pack.

Kate crossed her arms over her chest, her anger palpable in the humid air. "Do you like putting yourself in danger, Sayid?"

He grimaced. Sayid never knew how to handle the worry someone else felt about him. It made him feel uncomfortable. Worry was something he could not calm. He found it a useless emotion. Now he wished he could understand how Kate felt. If only so he could empathize. "No," he said at last. "But I know something of Danielle. I talked with her; reasoned with her before. Maybe we can end this without violence."

Kate looked away. "The sun has already set. And you yourself said that Danielle was worried about more bears."

He pulled his arms through the straps of the pack, tightening them with a gentle tug. "Then hopefully Charlie and I can catch her off guard at night."

She huffed in frustration. "And Charlie—he can barely walk, Sayid."

"But he knows Claire better than any of us. She will need a trusted face." He placed one hand on her shoulder and teased a strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear gently. "This is the right thing to do."

"But this is not the right time to do it," she argued.

"Freckles?" a Southern accent called out. Sawyer loomed in the cave opening, his shadow falling over Sayid and Kate. "Well, look who's back in town." Sayid turned, pulling away from Kate.

"I want no trouble with you," he said evenly.

Sawyer took a menacing step forward. "Why do you think I'm here to cause trouble? Maybe because you beat, tortured and stabbed me, Osama?"

"Sawyer." Kate's voice rang off the cave walls like the clang of steel. Sayid watched as a five second war took place with only stares and subtle facial movements as weapons. In the end, Sawyer backed down. "Jack has my meds," he said, looking away. "Have you seen Dr. Do-good?"

"Shannon had another asthma attack. I think he's over trying to talk to the Korean woman," Kate said softly. Sawyer nodded, his eyes shooting at daggers at Sayid before he left.

Kate's body sagged as he disappeared. "I wish you would all just get it out of your systems."

Sayid turned to her. "What?"

She kicked a bottle of water on the floor angrily. "Whatever testosterone-fueled pissing contest you and Jack and Sawyer and every other guy on this island need to have. Does he think fighting with you impresses me? Do you think that going off into the jungle in the middle of the night is heroic?" she raged.

He put out a hand towards her. "Kate-"

"It's crazy, Sayid. You're all crazy." Kate stormed from the cave, pushing Charlie aside as he paused to talk to her.

"Kate-" he began.

"And you," she started. "What makes you think you're fit to hike in the jungle? Do you think bleeding to death is really going to make Claire love you? You're ridiculous, all of you."

Charlie turned to Sayid. "What the hell was that about?"

Sayid shook his head. "She's worried," he said simply. "There's nothing any of us can do for that."

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Television and movies had lied to Charlie. Hard core lies.

Homemade torches didn't light up nearly as much forest as they'd have you believe. And Indy never yelped in pain when burning embers drifted onto his hand.

Charlie had wrapped his hand in a shirt to help keep off the sparks and embers at first, but gave up on the idea after one set the shirt on fire and nearly incinerated him.

He grit his teeth against the pain as another one scorched his skin. On the one hand, he was glad to have something to take his mind off the throbbing in his head. One what was rapidly becoming less of another hand, it hurt like hell.

Sayid had thought that they should head in the direction of Danielle's "house", but had started up when Charlie said he remembered seeing treetops and beach outside one of the hut windows. He hadn't thought at the time to see if he could see the plane wreckage, most of his attention focused on Claire and the baby.

They reached a broad, flat clearing just as the moon peaked overhead. Sayid dropped his pack in the tall grass unceremoniously. "We'll camp here for a few hours. How much sleep can you function on?"

"With or without coffee?" Charlie jibed before catching himself. Sayid didn't laugh, and Charlie's half smile faded. "How much do you need?"

"At least three and a half hours," Sayid said simply. "I suggest you take four or five. You need to regain your strength." He ground his torch into the dirt and did the same with Charlie's. "I'm a light sleeper, so I'll hear if anything approaches, but I'd rather not attract the attention of anyone with opposable thumbs."

Charlie nodded his head. "Right."

---------------------------------------------------

Charlie dreamed.

A snake moved stealthily through the grass towards where he lay. It started out no larger than a garter snake, but grew in size the closer it got, until its head was four times the size of his own and he stared straight into one black eye and one white eye. He felt strangely unafraid; his mind completely convinced that the snake was not here to harm him.

He was also unsurprised when it spoke to him without moving its lips, an ominous warning coming through.

"You know this place," it hissed. "We must have it. You cannot take without giving back."

"Balance," Charlie said, trying to look in both eyes simultaneously.

"Yes. Even gods and monsters must use what is theirs alone—and they must understand that actions promote reactions. We cannot give without taking away."

"I believe you," he said.

The snake hissed angrily at him. "Do not believe us." Flames leapt up in both of the creature's eyes, and its black forked tongue slithered out tauntingly. "Fear us."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Charlie bolted upright, his breathing hard.

In the bright moonlight, he could clearly make out Sayid sitting a few feet away, slicing off some boar meet.

Sayid struck a match and his torch jumped to life. He laid it on the ground as a temporary campfire. "You're awake," he said. He bit into the meat and chewed thoughtfully as Charlie squinted at the light. "I was going to give you another half hour, but the sooner we get moving, the better." He offered the boar meat to Charlie. "Take some. You could use the protein."

Charlie took the meat and knife offered. "Any trouble while I was asleep?" he rasped, surprised to find his throat dry.

Sayid passed him a water bottle. "No, but . . ." he trailed off, staring out towards the tree line. "At some point, I thought I heard something in the bushes. And you were talking in your sleep."

Charlie stuffed a slice of meat into his mouth, and talked around his food. "I had a dream. . . about a snake."

The other man's spine stiffened alarmingly. "A snake?"

"Yeah. A huge talking snake."

Sayid licked his lips thoughtfully. "I had a similar dream," he said softly.

"About a talking snake?"

He nodded.

Charlie swallowed slowly. "Did it have two different colored eyes?"

Sayid took the boar meat from Charlie's hands and stuffed it into the backpack. "We need to get moving."

"Sayid." Sayid tossed the backpack over his shoulder and lit Charlie's torch, handing it to him. "Sayid, did it have different colored eyes?"

"Yes," he said simply. He turned and started hiking up the hill at full pace. Charlie scrambled to his feet to follow.

"What did it say to you?"

"We have to keep moving."

"Sayid-"

"Only one word. Over and over again, like a mantra." Sayid turned, looking Charlie straight in the face. "Darkness."