Disclaimer: Nothing "Lost" is mine, alas. Nor did I write "Rock-a-bye Baby."

Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long. Hopefully Iwill update again soon, but my year is coming to a close, so I can't promise anything.

Surrender

Something is happening. Everything is different.

I am flooded with sight and smell, with hearing and touch. So much life after so long in death... I almost cannot stand it.

There is bark at my back. It is rough and wet and cool, and the moistness seeps through the rags of my uniform, making me shiver. There are ragged ropes bitting into my legs, torso and shoulders, binding me to this enormous edifice of nature. My arms are pinned motionless by my sides, and I am sweating through my shivers.

I don't know how I have gotten here, or why I have been bound like this. The only sound is of water dripping, slow, softly and somehow... sinister.

But I can see the sun.

It is as though I have never truly seen before, as though I have never been safe or warm or happy. It is the first time I have lived since the day I heard the numbers on the transmitter.

Here on this Island, this place of so much death and pain, I am finally safe. I am finally alive.

I am praying to die here, where I can see the sun.


The sound of the water has changed.

It is a beating now, an awful, steady throb like the pounding of some poisonous heart. The sound of it fills my chest and drowns my ears. It echoes around my skull, building like a tumor behind my eyes . Louder and louder and louder, until I cannot see for the strength of it.

So loud...

The bindings are cut.

I collapse insensible into the dirt. Seized by some impossible force, seized and dragged along rough wet ground and then cold wet stone. For hours, I think.

And then everything is still, except for the heart pounding forever. My pulse throbs in pitiful answer.

Alex... Alex...

Alex.

He is kneeling beside me, and I realize that I am resting on my knees and trembling with the terrible effort to remain upright. I don't expect to be able to move, but suddenly I am completely unbound. Free, in prison.

I could run away, escape. Fall back on the endless, baking sand and die there in the burnished gold haven of hell. I could run, if I had the strength.

I would run, if I had the will.

But my erstwhile masters are towering before us, and their whispers are almost swallowing the hypnotic beating heart. I can barely hear Alex's tortured breathing beside me.

Le bébé de Roche-un-bye, sur la cime d'arbre...

I cannot understand what they want. They have Alex. They have the expedition team. They have me.

Quand le vent souffle, le berceau basculera...

One final deed for me... and for Alex. Once more, before they have expended our usefullness and leached us dry of strength.

Quand le bough se casse, le berceau tombera...

Everything is fading. Alex turns, and meets my eyes.

Et vers le bas viendra bébé, berceau et tous.

My heart stops beating.


Sorry for the cliffhanger. One of these days I'll figure out how to get to the ending I have in mind.