Chapter Three
The broken, slanting nose of the plane loomed up ahead of them ominously, like some bizarre ancient monument forgotten and left to decay in the jungle.
"Jesus," Sawyer breathed.
Like visitors to a memorial site, the three of them stood there quietly for a moment, recalling once again the horror of the accident and the unprecedented, almost unreal, situation they now found themselves in. Seeing a part of the plane again, after all these months, brought it hurtling back with raw force.
Kate broke the silence, tentatively. "I don't smell anything."
Sawyer looked at her like she was crazy. "What were you expectin', a buffet?"
She rolled her eyes. "I mean the bodies. Shouldn't it be kind of...overpowering from here? The smell?" She turned to Jack, confused.
"Maybe not. It depends."
"On what?" Sawyer asked.
"On how badly decomposed they are, what types of animals have gotten to them. There're a lot of things that eat rotting flesh, not just bugs. I mean, it's possible the boars could have gotten in there, maybe some carrion birds...the bacteria alone out here..."
Kate held her hand up, stopping him. She looked a little green around the gills. "I have an idea. Let's just wait and let it be a surprise." She moved slowly toward the plane.
"Too bad, doc. I bet that decomposing flesh story worked on all the girls back home, huh?" Sawyer, grinning, followed Kate to the opening of the wreckage.
Shannon turned her head from the water to look at Sayid, the remaining traces of anger melting away from her expression. He was relieved that she'd thought of something she could do for her brother. Anything that would make her feel better, he would be willing to help with, no matter what it took.
"What is it?"
"There's this book...I think it's about...rabbits, or something. English rabbits?"
"Watership Down."
"Yeah. Have you read it?"
"No." He smiled. "But I am familiar with it. Go on."
"It was his favorite book. Ever since he was a kid. He took it with him everywhere." She rolled her eyes slightly. "Kinda stupid, right? I mean, it's a kid's book. He was way too old for it."
"I don't think it's stupid," he said gently.
"Yeah...well, I did. I used to make fun of him." She stopped, looking upset again, but tried to focus. Sighing, she continued. "Anyway. He used to always try to get me to read it when we were kids. But I wasn't much of a reader. Big surprise, there, huh?"
"I wouldn't have thought that," Sayid said gallantly.
"You're a bad liar," she said, almost laughing. They stared at each for a few seconds intimately.
"What makes you think of this now? The book, I mean?"
"He had it with him, on the plane. It's here. Sawyer has it. Remember when everybody thought he had my inhalers?"
Sayid looked down, obviously still disturbed by recollections of his part in that needless torture. "All too well, I'm afraid."
"Well, that was why. They thought he had Boone's luggage. But it turned out it just washed up on the beach. He didn't even try to get his book back. All he cared about was my stupid inhalers." She tried hard to hold back tears, putting her hand to her face for a second.
"Shannon." Sayid placed his hand lightly on her back. "Do you want the book?"
She looked at him and whispered, "I want to read it."
He nodded. "Then we'll get it."
"Wait a second. It's not gonna be that easy. Sawyer has it, remember? It's not like he'll just hand it over."
"I didn't plan on negotiating. The book belongs to you. He has no right to it. But, as it turns out, we don't have to worry. He isn't here. He went with Jack and Kate to retrieve some things from the wreckage out in the jungle."
"The three of them went? Together?"
"If they haven't returned by tomorrow evening, we'll have to assume they've killed each other."
She laughed, and he felt an enormous amount of relief at her improved mood.
Standing up, he held out his hand to her. "Let's go get your book."
"I think it's getting worse," Claire said, leaning over the baby with her nose practically on his abdomen.
"I think you need to stop looking at it for a minute, Claire. It hasn't changed."
"Are you sure?"
He wasn't. In fact, he was almost positive it had gotten worse, but it wouldn't do much good to tell her that. "Yes," he said firmly.
Ignoring his advice, she turned back and resumed her close scrutiny.
He sighed. "Claire."
She forced herself to look away, turning her vision out to the waves. "Have you ever seen anything like this before? Anything at all?"
"I haven't been around kids much." He thought for a second. "There was this one baby, belonged to a girl I used to know when I was in Driveshaft. It had some weird skin problems after it was born. I think."
"What caused it?"
He looked as if he didn't want to say.
"Charlie?"
"Drugs. She was a drug addict," he said reluctantly.
"What are you trying to say!"
"What? Nothing!" his voice became comically squeaky.
"I've never done drugs in my life!" Claire was seemingly on the verge of a breakdown.
"I didn't say you had! Claire!"
"I can't believe you would even say that," she sniffled.
Surprised, he sat silently, gradually seeing the humor in the situation but knowing she was not in the frame of mind to join in. He stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get something. For the baby."
"What? A jar of invisible ointment? I don't think that's going to work this time."
Wounded, he stared at her for a few seconds with a hurt look, then turned and slowly walked off.
She was immediately apologetic. "Charlie!" He didn't turn, however, and after a few seconds she resumed her observation of the baby.
"Lift me up," Kate commanded Sawyer, putting her hands on the edge of the wreck's jagged gap, now tilted about five feet off the ground after its encounter with whatever had killed the pilot months before.
Sawyer raised his eyebrows. "Yes, ma'am." He formed a platform for her right foot, lifting her leg up as she hoisted herself onto the edge.
"Hey, Kate, wait a second! What are you doing?" Jack said as he came down the incline.
"I'm going inside," she said, as it was obvious. "Isn't that why we came out here?"
"Just...hold on a second," he replied, raising his hand up to motion to her to wait. He removed his backpack and withdrew a gun. "Let me check it out first, make sure it's safe."
"Give me the gun, I'll do it."
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't have any idea what's in there."
"Neither do you."
"Kate." He stared at her, not kidding around anymore.
She wasn't backing down either, however. She looked at the ground, and after a few seconds said in a low voice, "How many times have you fired a gun, Jack?"
He smiled a very faint, almost bitter smile, and slightly shook his head. "How many times have you fired a gun, Kate?"
"Don't answer that, Freckles. Believe she asked you first, didn't she?" Sawyer said savagely.
"I don't think anybody wanted your opinion," Jack responded.
"Yeah, well, I guess you forgot to use your secret best-friend language, then, because I'm standin' right here. Now why don't you just give her the damn gun so we can get on with this?"
Jack looked at Kate again, testing her, hoping she would reconsider and back down. She stared at the ground, avoiding his eyes, waiting. It was like she needed to win this for some reason, to prove something. Disappointed in her, and more than a little pissed off, he walked over and held the gun up towards her. "Fine. If that's what you want...it's all yours."
She reached out slowly, and took the gun, looking regretful but with a faint trace of victory. Turning to crawl through the opening, she looked back at them. "You coming?"
Sawyer looked at Jack, knowing the invitation was intended to pacify him, but he didn't respond. "Right behind you." He hoisted himself onto the edge, crawling in behind her. Jack waited a few seconds, then followed.
Inside the plane, Sawyer stood up behind Kate, bracing himself on the tilting aisle and looking around. "God damn," he said quietly. "I guess that explains the smell. Or lack of it."
Kate swallowed. "Yeah."
The human remains were now nothing but shriveled, blackened skeletons, barely recognizable as once living people, their flesh entirely consumed by...God only knew what. In a grotesque mockery of their situation, most were still wearing their lap belts, and a useless, futile oxygen mask dangled in front of each.
"Let's do this fast," Kate muttered.
"Sounds like a plan."
The cockpit section had shifted or fallen somehow, so that the incline of the aisle was no longer as steep as it had been, but it still sloped decidedly upward. Kate gingerly made her way up to the front seats, climbing up onto the edge of one and beginning to remove the overhead duffel bags.
"Jackpot!" Sawyer called gleefully from where he stood, further back. He held up a tiny bottle of Jack Daniels. Kate smiled and continued her exploration of the compartment. Jack, standing up in the back, looked around with distaste. "Let's just get all the bags outside...we can go through 'em later."
"What's 'a matter, Hoss? I thought you liked this corpse stuff." Jack ignored him and started pulling out luggage from the back.
"Here you go, sweetheart. Got something for ya." Sawyer held up a diaphragm pinched between his thumb and index finger, taken from a woman's purse.
"Oh my God, Sawyer! Do you know where that's been?" she wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"I got a pretty good idea," he smiled, looking at it appreciatively.
"You're sick," she said, trying not to laugh.
As he looked back at her, preparing a retort, his face froze in horror and the device slipped from his fingers, unheeded. "Shit," he muttered. "Kate, don't move!"
Jack looked up alarmed, and immediately saw what Sawyer had noticed. He tried to sound calm. "Kate, just stay right where you are...try not to move at all, okay!"
Startled by their warnings and by the looks of horror on their faces, she turned her head slowly in the direction they were staring. "Oh, God," she moaned in a low, terrified voice.
Coiled up on the ground, just inches below her foot on the cushioned seat, was a snake, with its head up, ready to strike.
