Famous Last Words
Chapter Ten
"Jack! Jack!"
Jack groaned as he felt his face move from sighed to side as he was slapped back into conscious, and he just wanted to tell whoever it was in front of him to stop and just deal with it. He wanted at least a few minutes of peace and quiet.
"Jack, come on, you gotta wake up!
Jack groaned again. He knew the voice was right. Kate was still out there, somewhere. Funny how, at the moment, he remembered about Kate, though he couldn't remember a single other thing about the night..only every single thing he had done with Kate. Every single thing.
Forcing his eyes open, he realized that his right was couroperating more than his left, and he was beginning to think of what his doctor would say if he had been truthful about what all had been done to it. A hazy form of Sawyer began to form in front of him, hovering in and out of vision, and he felt weak and sick as Sawyer tried to help him up. Jack waved Sawyer's hand away, remaining on the ground. He heard Sawyer let out a groan of frustration, and Jack realized: who knew how long he'd been out? Who knew where Kate was or what happened or was happening to her? Finally, he allowed Sawyer to help him out, and Sawyer knew his job was going to be much more difficult then just giving Jack a hand when Jack staggered, losing his balance as he let go.
"Woah," Sawyer said, grabbing onto him, "you all right?"
"Fine," Jack muttered, "just-"
Jack staggered again.
"Take it easy," Sawyer said, "here- just- sit down."
"No!" Jack said, startling Sawyer. "We've got to go help Kate."
"It's been an hour," Sawyer informed him, "for all we know, she's back at your place, watching tv."
"No," Jack said shaking his head, "the tv's broken."
"Funny," Sawyer snorted sarcastically.
When Jack knew that there was absolutely no way that walking or fighting off bad guys was in question for a while, Jack collapsed against the alley wall, leaving Sawyer to pace in front of him.
"An hour then?" Jack said, after letting his pulse die down.
"Yeah," Sawyer said, picking on a small trail of dry blood running from his lower lip.
"What did you do for an hour?" Jack asked curiously, thankful that his voice was finally coming back.
"Looked around," Sawyer said with a grin, "turns out, we've been sitting here for three hours in the alley of an abandon car lot."
"And that's a good thing?" Jack said, trying to see the point.
"We ain't in the jungle anymore," Sawyer said, "how far are you plannin' on getting."
"Right.."
At news of this, and a new hope of saving Kate- or at least find out where she was and if she was okay, and maybe get the three of them to a hospital- Jack forced himself to stand, and was grateful when he saw that he could do this on his own. Carefully, he then followed Sawyer to the edge of the alleyway.
Checking to make sure the coast was clear, Sawyer ran across the parking lot without looking back, leaving Jack standing there, trying to catch up on what was happening. Finally, Jack shook his head, and followed.
The car door was stuck the first time Sawyer jerked on it, but flew open on the second. Hoping in the driver's seat, Sawyer checked the compartments attached to the dashboard, as if he knew what he was doing, and sure enough, the keys were laying right there on top of the registration.
"How'd you know about that?" Jack said, aghast.
"Let's just say I work in the business."
Jack decided that he really didn't want to know, and instead of pushing the subject, got into the passengers seat with no objections. In all truth, Jack himself was exhausted, but he figured that as long as he didn't show it, it was okay. And anyway, what was more important to him now: Kate or a few hours of sleep? Just as he thought this, the black Ford started up and drove after the path Kate took, and Sawyer followed it. But before, Jack just gave Sawyer a look before Sawyer started the car.
"What?"
"You aren't going to put on your seat belt?" Jack said in a tone that stated 'I'm not paying for your ticket'.
"You've never been to jail, have you?" Sawyer said, amused.
"No," Jack admitted, "but I've never been in a car chase either..save this one..and it doesn't look like it's going to turn out movie-perfect."
"Meaning I'm a bad driver?" Sawyer said, eyes narrowing.
"Meaning I don't trust you as a driver," said Jack.
Sighing, Sawyer gave in and after a small click tore the night's air, and turned to Jack.
"Happy now?"
"You'll think me later," Jack said with a knowing smile, looking out the window as Sawyer started up the car, beginning the chase.
(Space)
"We've got to throw them off."
"What?" Sawyer said, paying no attention at all to anything except the car in front of him.
"The car behind us," Jack explained, "whoever it is. We've got to throw them off."
"So great," Sawyer sighed, "now what your plan?"
"When you get to the intersection up ahead," Jack said, looking out the window, "turn left. It'll throw them off guard."
"Why?"
"Because turning left takes you to an abandon back road that nobody drives," Jack explained, "and that road will take you to a gas station."
"What, you hungry?" Sawyer sniggered.
"No, they'll have a phone," Jack went on, trying his hardest not to let Sawyer's comments bother him. At least I can call my place, find out if we're driving all over the state for nothing."
"You should think more often," Sawyer committed, "might save a few people from getting killed."
(Space)
Kate blinked to keep herself from falling asleep. The engine roared underneath her as she drove, and she came to realize that she liked Jack's car. Both driving it, and the knowledge that it was Jack's car. Though it spooked her to think of all that had gone on inside it. She shook her head. Stay focused..stay focused.
A yell erupted from the car behind her that made Kate jumped. She calmed down when she saw that the yell wasn't directed to her. Her worries then went to Sawyer and Jack. Where were they? Were they all right? She sighed. For all she knew, they were dead, buried in some dumpster in the projects. But a sudden pop jerked her away from her thoughts.
The window behind her shattered and Kate screamed for no one to hear. Someone was shooting at her.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Kate ducked and swerved to avoid being shot. But ducking and driving didn't go to well together, and Kate's head was almost blown off, and the wheel she was gripping blew as she felt herself jerk back. The car stop. She didn't know what happened. It had just- stopped. Was it another shot that she was unaware of? She cursed herself from the jinx she had just placed as another bullet whizzed by, shattering the front window of Jack's car, and the last thing Kate remembered was thinking, Jack's gonna kill me, before she was showered in glass.
(Space)
"Hey, Jack," Sawyer said after driving a few moments in silence.
"What now?"
It was now four in the morning, and Jack began to feel himself growing restless again. Through the shattered glass mirror than hung loosely from the car's exterior, Jack could see small circles forming on top of the bags that were already there, and he could just hear Kate's lectures now.
"Thought you said the car wasn't supposed to be behind us," Sawyer said, glancing through the review mirror.
"I did," Jack said, poking himself in the arm to wake him up.
"Well, they are."
"What?" Jack cried, and looked behind him.
At the sight of the drivers eyes behind him, Jack slouched down in his seat.
"Dammit," he muttered.
"What do we do now?" Sawyer said, assuming that Jack had a backup plan.
"Drive faster," was all Jack could think of.
Sawyer did, but the faster he drove, the faster the car behind them picked up, and they were right on the stolen truck's tail, and Jack got the wind knocked out of him the first time the car hit the bumper of their car.
"Hell," Sawyer muttered as he put the truck in the fastest gear he could.
But speeding up while another car was right on your bumper didn't work as well as Sawyer had planned. With a last hit, their car went sailing, flipping once, then twice, and the car hit the road.
Boom.
It sounded like a bomb had gone off. Jack felt cool blood trickle down the side of his face, and he could hear Sawyer scream uncontrollably beside him as the car skidded across the road, before coming to a stop as it smashed against a light post.
Jack was frozen. Glass covered him, and he knew one move, and he could cut himself, and receive possibly a far worse injury than he had already had from that night. He tried to tell Sawyer the same thing, not to move right away, but he couldn't bring himself to talk. The window beside him was busted in, and Jack moved his head the slightest to look out the window.
The road was covered in glass, along with a line of blood ran from the middle of the road towards the car they had stolen. He could barely make the silhouette of the other car a few feet from them, and Jack wondered if it was so wrong that part of him was glad that the passenger(or passengers) of the other car took the deep end. Suddenly a loud rasp of coughs let out beside him, and a mixture of blood and smoke filled the air.
"Sawyer," Jack said weakly, hoping Sawyer wouldn't do anything stupid as he too was recovering from the shock of the wreck.
Of all he had been through on the island, this had to be worse than them all. Even the plane crash itself didn't hurt this bad- at least then he had blacked out. But this time, Jack had seen the entire thing, as if being punished for something.
It had been as if he had been the only one on a roller coaster ride, though he couldn't recall hearing himself scream. He knew Sawyer had, that much was obvious(or at least, Sawyer had before he had momentarily blacked out there) but he couldn't remember if he had. It was odd- why wouldn't he had been able to? That was only a few minutes ago.
"Good, I'm alive," Sawyer said, just as weakly as Jack.
"Unless we're both dead," Jack said lightly.
"Hah," Sawyer muttered.
"Just, don't move, all right?" Jack said.
"Why?"
"There's glass everywhere," Jack pointed out.
"Not over here."
"Huh?" Jack said, turning his head before he realized what he was doing. "Ouch! Dammit!"
A small shred of glass cut into his neck, right above where Kate had 'accidentally' kissed him just a little too hard. At least now they'll think that's from the crash, Jack thought, figuring they'd make it to a hospital sometime. Thankfully, only a little bit of blood was on his finger when he pulled it back.
"Smart," Sawyer committed, "nice bruise by the way."
"What?"
And then Jack realized he must've seen the small mark above the fresh blood. Great, he thought, I'll never hear the end of it.
"So I guess I should think you," Sawyer said, clearly having no trouble recovering from the crash, which only made Jack feel weaker, and he vowed that for now on, he'd try to get at least a few hours of sleep in a night.
"For what?" Jack said, wondering what he'd done that Sawyer could possibly be thanking him for.
"For making me wear that seat belt," Sawyer said with a chuckle, "guess we were lucky, huh?"
"Pretty damn lucky," Jack agreed.
What stories they would have to tell Kate- Kate. A pang of guilt formed in his stomach. Not knowing rather or not she was all right hurt, with much worse pain than any injury could ever cause.
"What?" Sawyer said at Jack's sudden quietness.
"Nothing," Jack said, "we've got to get out of here. We still don't know where Kate is. Think you can get out on your own?"
"Yeah," Sawyer said and a seat belt clicked, "this window was already shattered. There wasn't much glass."
"Good," Jack said, "the door over here's jammed and the windshield and the window are broken in."
"Like I said before," said Sawyer as he rolled out, "we won't have to worry about wrecking the car."
Jack let out a small laugh as he crawled out Sawyer's door, taking Sawyer's hand as he was pulled up into a standing position, and he was once again thankful when this time, he was actually able to gain his balance on his own. That's when Sawyer looked at him, and started laughing.
"What?" Jack asked, wishing things didn't have to be so amusing.
They were becoming hard to keep up with.
"Whew," Sawyer said, calming down, "you know, if Kate based her pick on looks, we'd both be out of the race."
"The race you already lost, you mean?"
"Yeah, yeah," Sawyer said, looking up the road, "that gas station's just up ahead if you still wanna check it out."
"No," Jack said, "I've got another idea."
He rest his arm casually against the car to make it less obvious that it was hurt, and didn't even think to make sure that whoever it was who hit them wasn't there.
"Okay, here's what I need you to do-"
Jack never got far. A scream erupted in the night and a car whizzed by, never stopping to see if either car needed help. But that wasn't all. It was a scream Jack heard before, one that both he and Sawyer recognized.
"Was that Kate?" Sawyer said, thinking he was hearing things.
"Yeah," Jack nodded.
"New plan?"
"Yeah," Jack said, "looks like they're stopping up at that gas station."
"Thought you said nobody took this road," Sawyer pointed out.
"I guess I was wrong," Jack said, shrugging it off, "anyway, we need to get up to that gas station, and when we get there, I need you to call for help- police, whoever you can get. Then I need you to get a ride back to the apartment and wait there. At least then we would know where at least one of us was."
"Okay," Sawyer said, formulating the plan in his head, "what about you?"
"Me?" Jack said, thinking about it. "I'll wait until the driver gets out of the car, then I'll sneak in the back of the truck with Kate. We'll just- take it from there."
"I'm sure you will," Sawyer said with a smirk.
"Sawyer!" Jack growled. "This is serious!"
"I know, I know," Sawyer said, wiping the smirk off, "so why don't you just knock the guy out, steal the car."
"Because you might not be able to get that far," Jack said, "unless you want everything pinned on you."
"Nah, that's all right," Sawyer said, "I'll give you the pleasure of having your first night in jail."
"Thanks," Jack said sarcastically, "like I was saying, I want to make sure Kate's okay first off, and I'll work from there."
(Space)
Jack watched from a distance as Sawyer talked a truck driver into giving him a ride, manipulating him into thinking that his mother had just had a heart attack. It was kind of mean, especially since both Jack and Sawyer knew his parents were dead, but whatever it took. Sawyer had managed to get in touch with the police, but had hung up in frustration after having to wait a moment to long, so Jack had told him that he might as well just go back to the apartment, and take it easy. Sawyer knew Kate would kill him for 'just sitting at home' but she'd get over it, not to mention that the more people that went along on something like this, the harder it was.
So now, Jack waited until he was certain that the driver of the ford was out of the car before stepping on the lever that helped life him up into the back compartment. For a moment, Jack considered stealing the car, but he figured the driver would have to stop sometime soon. Not to mention only one stolen car was better than two.
A blue tarp covered the surface of the back of the truck, and its smooth pattern was thrown off by a lump that sat against the window behind the back seats, which was covered in duck tape and a number of bumper stickers, full of profane language and sayings. Ducking under the tarp, Jack lay down against the cool steel of the truck, and wiggled his way to the unconscious form of what he thought was Kate. When he saw that his thoughts were ended true, he let out a sigh of relief.
Giving himself a moment to make sure he'd be able to talk(the last thing he needed was to scare Kate) he poked at her sleeping form.
"Kate," he whispered softly, "Kate, come on, you've gotta wake up."
Kate's head moved in the slightest, and Jack exhaled deeply, making the tarp above him move up a little.
"Wha-?" Kate moaned as her eyes fluttered open, and widened at the sight of Jack.
She let out a scream and scooted back, but Jack grabbed her, praying no one out side heard that.
"It's all right," Jack said, trying to shake her out of it, "it's me, Jack. You're all right."
"Oh God," Kate muttered leaning her head back against the wall of the truck as she breathed heavily, "what- what are you doing here."
Looking over, she saw Jack's battered face. He still had a bruise over his eye from the fight, and a few trails of blood from the wreck. His right arm was still killing him, and Jack could only hope that it wasn't broken. Kate reached up, letting her finger trail down one of the many lines of blood, wiping some of it off.
"What happened?" She asked, worried.
"Long story," Jack said, not protesting at her touch, "I'll tell you in a minute, but I need you to be honest with me."
"Not going to ask me to marry me, are you?" Kate asked will a small smile.
Jack began to envy the way that both Kate and Sawyer were able to keep up their humor in dramatic times, while all he was able to do was worry.
"No," Jack said, trying and failing to smile, "are you hurt or anything? What happen?"
"Would you hate me if I told you I don't remember?"
This time, Jack was able to smile, just a little bit.
"No."
"Good."
They sat in silence for a moment before Kate started looking around, as if on instinct.
"Where's Sawyer?" She asked suddenly.
"He's going back to the apartment," Jack told her.
"Why?" She asked, worry building. "Is he hurt?"
"He'll live," Jack said, "I just told him to go back and wait-"
"You told him that!"
"Well this is kind of a one man job," he said, "and, well, I decided to be that man."
Kate calmed down a little and went back to being more serene, with the half smile still planted on her face.
"Thanks," she said, "for, you know, coming after me."
"It's what I do, isn't it?" Jack said, and was considering kissing her when the car started up.
Kate immediately tensed beside her, and grabbed his hand. Jack let her head fall onto her shoulder where she sat, petrified.
"Jack," she whispered, "I'm scared."
"Don't be," Jack said, and unlike that day in the bank, there was no objection, "just- go to sleep. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."
Nodding, Kate was already drifting off to sleep, and though he tried to fight it, Jack soon found himself falling into the same zone.
(Space)
When Jack stirred, the first thing he realized was that something heavy lay on one shoulder. The second was that his back was against something hard, and the left side of his face ached along with his back. It was only then that he remembered everything that had happened, and with the last memory he had being falling asleep in the car with Kate, he was wondering why they weren't moving, when he realized-
"Kate!" Jack whispered softly, shaking her lightly. "Kate, wake up, we've stopped!"
"What?" Kate said, yawning as she woke up. "What- who- where are we?"
She frightened Jack for a moment when she looked at him as though she wasn't sure who he was, but then relaxed when Kate settled down a bit.
"We stopped moving," Jack repeated, "I don't think there's anybody in the car."
"Can we take that risk?" Kate asked, adjusting her position she was sitting in.
"Yeah," Jack said.
Carefully, Jack lifted up the tarp and looked out. They were on the side of what looked to be a cliff. The morning's sun was just rising, and the sky was a shade of a beautiful dark purple. Jack estimated the time to be around four-thirty, maybe even five by now, and he began to wonder if Sawyer was worried about them, or if he, like they had, had just fallen asleep. He threw the tarp off of him as if he was just waking up and throwing the covers off, welcoming himself to the mountain. Kate seemed more taken aback by the beauty than anything.
"Wow," was all she could say as she sat up, and then looked back behind her, "I think you're right. They're gone."
Jack looked around. They must've been on the edge of some kind of park because they were surrounded by trees of every type. Birds chirped in the distance, and the place reminded Jack of being back on the island waking up from his one or two hours naps before the others awoke, and heading out to his spot on the beach.
"Let's see if the car will start up," Jack said, "get back home."
"Or," Kate said, scooting closer to him, "we could wait. Let Sawyer sleep in for a while, and then take it from there."
As she talked, she let her fingers climb up Jack's arm, and Jack couldn't resist.
"All right," he agreed, "but only for a while. They might come back."
"I doubt they'd leave us out here for nothing," Kate said, "whatever their stupid plan was, I don't know but- let's just rest a minute."
Fifteen minutes later, Jack and Kate were sitting on the hood of the truck, surrounded by sunlight, letting their legs dangle beneath them.
"Some night, huh?" Kate said.
"Yeah," Jack said, "and just when you think they're over.."
Kate laughed a little, and studied Jack's face, which was still bruised the slightest. She knew he must be drowsy from the blood loss, and in a normal world, he'd probably be in a hospital bed, and most likely with a cast or two. But since when was Jack's life normal.
"You know I think if I had known what was coming," Jack continued, "I think I would've passed on the rescue."
"I'm not so sure," Kate said, giving him a smile.
(Space)
Sawyer jerked away around five in the morning. His eyes darted around. When had he fallen asleep? He remembered getting back to the apartment, and waiting in silence for hours for Jack and Kate to return, but they never did. Now, he was reacting to a sound. A crash. He wasn't sure where it was coming from, but he was sure it wasn't good.
Picking himself up, he snuck over to the counter where Jack's phone was, and quickly dialed the cell number Jack had given him.
(Space)
Jack and Kate remained seated on the hood of the car, saying nothing as Kate leaned against Jack, and he held his balance with his sore arm as she did, though she never said anything. Suddenly, a ring tone rang from somewhere close by, and Kate's head spun around.
"What was that?" She said in a panic.
It took a moment for Jack to realize it was his phone, and he fished for it from deep down his pant's pocket. Finally he found it, and turned it on just as Kate was saying, "That thing survived the entire night."
"I didn't even know I had it," Jack said before answering, "hello?"
"Jack?" Sawyer said in a low voice over the phone.
"Sawyer?" Jack said, and Kate immediately drew interest to the conversation, turning towards him.
"What's wrong?" Kate whispered.
"Sh," Jack told her, and then echoed her question, "what's wrong?"
"I think someone's trying to break in," Sawyer said in a hushed voice.
"And you can't take care of that?" Jack said, knowing that Sawyer wasn't the type to call and ask for help.
"Yeah," Sawyer answered.
Inside Jack's apartment, Sawyer was trying to sneak around in the dark, trying to find somewhere to hide, or a weapon to use.
"I was wondering if you would've happened to keep those guns from the case," he continued.
The guns, Jack thought back in the truck, I completely forgot about them. During the rescue, Kate was Jack's only worry, and it wasn't until they were halfway to South America that he thought of his dad's body, along with the Marshall's(hey, he had to have family somewhere), but he figured it be selfish to ask them to turn back, which was easier said in his mind then said to his mother.
"No," Jack said, feeling helpless, "there's some knives though in the-"
"I'm not Locke!" Sawyer hissed into the phone, and back inside the apartment, his toe hit against the wooden bottom of a shelf, and he let out a curse."
"Listen," Jack said over the phone, "I don't know if my mom brought the box by but if she did, there should be some kind of safety deposit box in the closet of my room. The number's four eight one, got that?"
"Yeah," Sawyer said, heading that direction, and hung up before Jack could say anything else.
Pushing open the door to Jack's room, Sawyer suddenly felt like a kid who was sneaking into his parents room for money. He followed Jack's directions, and fumbled a few times before unlocking the safety deposit box that lay hidden under some hospital scrubs. Inside the box was a thick envelope with Jack's name written on it in scrawled, ancient letters. On top of the envelope sat a 9 mm with a pack of ammo. Sawyer loaded the gun, and quickly placed it in the back pocket of his pants as he heard another crash from the living room. As he closed the closet door, he debated about rather to stay in the room, or risk going out. His mind was quickly made up when he heard the door to the room open, and on first instinct, he dove under the bed.
Wimp, he told himself as he took the gun into his hands and cradled it, wimp.
Concealed in the shadows underneath the bed, Sawyer was hidden from the intruder, but whoever it was obviously knew who he was. Boots moved across the floor in hard steps, and Sawyer fought to hold his breath as they came closer, the floor creaking with each step. Then, just as the intruder was pulling up the covers to look under the bed, Sawyer slid out, and when the trespasser looked back up, he found Sawyer in a stance, gun pointed straight in between the intruders eyes.
"Woah, hold it," the intruder said.
Sawyer was surprised to find that the man across from him didn't have a gun, or at least, didn't appear to, but Sawyer didn't back down. For some reason he couldn't explain, Sawyer felt revengeful, and it was for far more reason than just this guy following them around them for a week.
"You don't know what your doin' with that thing," he continued.
He was also surprised to find that the man had some sort of southern accent of his own, but not as thick as Sawyer's.
"I know exactly what I'm doin' with it," Sawyer said, his finger shaking against the trigger.
"Let's just talk this through-"
"Talk this through?" Sawyer repeated with a dry caught. "Do you know how much hell you've put me through in the past week?"
"Hey, I don't know-"
Sawyer didn't give him a chance to finish his lie. One moment he was standing, and for the second time in his life, was able to pull a murder stunt for reasons the person opposite had nothing to do with, and the next, he was flying across the room, grabbing the intruder by the neck and tackling him to the floor. He got in a few more punches before he felt himself roll over, and soon the intruder was on top of him.
Almost afraid to once again face the feeling of being punch, Sawyer raised his arm, letting the first few hits bounce off his shoulder. But he then lost control when he was grabbed, and thrown against the rear of the bed, hitting the mattress with a thud, and the next thing he knew, Sawyer found a gun being pointed at him.
Author's Note: Muhaha. Soo evil, aren't I? I have half of the next chapter done. I just really liked that cliffhanger. Thanks for all the reviews!
Coming up next on "Famous Last Words":
Lots of blood, tears, and comic relief. Angsty stuff.
Thanks again!
October Sky
