Chapter Four: The Graveyard

A scream ripped from Kate's throat as the mangled corpse landed only inches in front of her. She stumbled back, bouncing off the hard wall of Sawyer's chest. She spun around, away from the corpse, and slammed her eyes shut. She didn't realize that she clutched a handful of Sawyer's shirt in her fist.

"What the goddamned hell...?" Sawyer muttered, reaching up to hold her elbow as he leaned around her to get a better look.

The corpse was male, though it was in bad shape. Decomposition had begun, and the entire thing was covered with red-brown blood stains.

"Do you believe in the monster now?" Kate asked in a shaky voice.

"You think some monster did that?"

"I know it, because I've seen this before. This is exactly what happened to the pilot."

"Really?" he asked, one eyebrow raised derisively.

"Yeah. Really. After that thing ripped him out of the cockpit, we found him stuck up in some trees, soaked with blood."

"So that's the monster's secret. It rips people out of planes and sticks them in trees." He rolled his eyes. "Really, Freckles, I would have thought you were smarter than that."

She dropped her grip on his shirt as if it had burned her. "Do you know what an ass you are? Do you even care?"

She paced away and squeezed her eyes shut. Where had the body come from? Was it indeed another victim of the monster? Was this someone from their crash? She didn't want to look again. She wanted to run away and pretend none of this had ever happened. But she needed to know if she recognized the body, if it was someone from the beach.

Pressing her lips together and swallowing the acrid taste in her mouth, she slowly turned her head.

The body was that of a dark-haired male. Her first thought was of the pilot, but no, she thought, this wasn't the pilot. This man had been tall and lanky, and was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that had once been blue but now was stained an ugly red-brown from the blood that had soaked through it. There were deep gouges carved into his cheeks and forehead, and it looked as though insects had gotten to him, even high up in the trees, if indeed that was where he had been.

This man was not anyone she recognized from the beach. Had he been catapulted out of the plane when the tail broke off? Had he survived the crash? She hoped for his sake he'd been dead when the monster found him. Because even if she didn't know who he was, even if she didn't know how he'd gotten there, she knew how he'd gotten those wounds and how he'd ended up in the trees.

There was no way to identify the man. His family and friends would never know what happened to him. Her eyes slid shut and she bowed her head as she fought a sudden rush of emotion. That could be here lying there, mutilated and forgotten. Why had she lived when this man had died? Why had any of them lived?

"You gonna stand there and stare at it forever?" Sawyer asked, breaking her train of thought.

She opened her eyes, willing away the moisture that had pooled behind her eyelids. She couldn't show Sawyer any more weakness. He already had her at far too great a disadvantage with his knowledge of her relationship with the marshal, even if she'd covered up her fear.

She shook her head and looked off into the trees. "If this body is from the crash, there has to be wreckage around here somewhere," she said.

"And?"

"And if there's wreckage, we may be able to find supplies."

"Exactly what supplies to you expect to find?"

"A fully-prepared seven-course meal and a payphone to call home," she shot back, glaring at him.

He chuckled, giving light to the dimples that had probably broken a thousand hearts. She had to look away from him. She wasn't going to let his carefree charm affect her. She wasn't going to become one thousand and one. She wasn't going to be a conquest, not another girl who was forgotten the moment they were through.

"Testy, testy," he murmured, his eyes gleaming.

She shook her head. "This is all a big joke to you, isn't it? Never mind that we're standing next to a dead man."

"And there's a few dozen dead men back at the beach. There's gotta be some way to break the tension, Sweetheart. Especially since other...avenues of entertainment seem to be closed," he said, not-so-subtly looking her up and down.

"Damn you," she whispered, her fists clenched. "Damn you." She pivoted on her heel and marched off into the trees, away from the body, away from him.

"Come on, Freckles," he called out. "I was only playing."

"Yeah. That's your problem."

"You need to lighten up," Sawyer said. "Gonna make yourself crazy if you take everything so damn serious."

"Being stuck here isn't serious?" she asked, then pressed on ahead without waiting for an answer. She didn't want to listen to whatever smartass comment he made next. She just wanted to get out of here.

Watching Kate begin to crack was bleeding away some of Sawyer's anger. He had to do something to break the tension. He'd woken up this morning before dawn to feel Kate sleeping in his arms. He'd sat there for several minutes, trying not to think that holding her felt good. When he'd felt her beginning to stir he'd remained still and kept his eyes closed. No need to let her know he'd been awake thinking about her.

Nor did he want her to know that the appearance of the body disturbed him. He'd been sure that rumors of the pilot's grisly death had been exaggerated, but now he wasn't so sure. That body could have been ejected from the plane, then hacked up by flying debris or tree branches, but he didn't think so. No, something living had made those marks on him.

Sometime later he stumbled and pitched forward, barely catching himself on a low-hanging tree branch. Taking a deep breath, he muttered a curse and looked back to see what had tripped him.

A leg. Severed above the knee, still clad in khakis and a Converse sneaker.

He pressed his lips together and looked away. Damn it, he was getting tired of this. He hadn't signed up for this shit. Not for everyone's hostility, not for finding severed body parts, not for any of it.

Kate was still plunging forward, about a dozen yards ahead of him, seemingly unaware that she wasn't alone on the island. She hadn't noticed the leg. Nor did she see, he realized, that she was on a collision course with a pair of bloody corpses, one tangled in some bushes, the other blocking the path directly in front of her.

He called out to her, but she either didn't hear him or ignored him. "Damn it." He took off at a run and caught up with her in seconds, grabbing her arm and yanking her back an instant before her foot connected with the body in her path.

She slammed against him and he staggered back, a thick tree trunk the only reason he kept his balance. For a moment they both breathed hard. Then she rounded on him and demanded, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm saving you, Sweetheart," he said, his lips twisted in a sardonic grin.

"When did I ask to be saved?"

He dropped her arm and leaned back against the tree, slipping his hands into his pockets. He cocked his head. "Why don't you turn around and see what you weren't paying attention to before you get pissed at me?"

She took a step back, putting space between them. She met his gaze, then slowly turned and realized where she'd been headed. When her eyes connected with the bodies ahead, she gasped in shock. She immediately spun around, her eyes slamming shut, her face twisted into a mask of revulsion and fear. She almost looked as though she was fighting tears.

She slowly stepped past him and tried to pull herself together, and for once he didn't antagonize her. After all, he wasn't a complete bastard. He turned and saw her brace a hand against a tree and take several deep breaths, her shoulders heaving up and down. She was still for a long moment, then took a deep breath and turned around again. Her eyes connected briefly with his before she walked into the trees, making a wide arc around the bodies. He followed, not able to take his eyes off her.

Damn it, he was supposed to be sending her over the edge, not the other way around. And the hell of it was, she wasn't even trying.

It was maybe half an hour later that a sudden glare nearly blinded him. He closed his eyes and ducked his head. He stepped to the side of the path they were on and shielded his eyes with his hand before looking again. Through a break in the trees he saw a huge chunk of shiny white metal. He stared at it, and a second later realized Kate had been right. Not far from the bodies they'd found were the twisted remains of another piece of the plane.

Along their path, he'd noticed signs of a couple other bodies, along with stray luggage and personal effects that had been tossed from the plane and spread across the island. He hadn't mentioned what he'd seen to Kate, who had remained near him and quiet since they'd found the bodies. But now, if any part of the passenger or luggage compartments had survived the landing, there should be something they could use. Hopefully water, he thought, taking note of his parched throat.

Kate noticed the wreckage too. She glanced up at him before both of them left the path and broke through the trees that sheltered the wreck.

The tall brush the wreck had landed in had been smashed. They stepped into the clearing, Sawyer heading for the wreckage while Kate wandered into the open space. She stood, angled away from the twisted metal, staring into the distance.

He picked his way through the debris field, stopping and kneeling in front of what looked like a smashed drink cart. He tried to pry the door open, but it was stuck. Muttering a curse, he stood up and stomped on it. He slammed his foot against it, once, twice, until finally, on the third try, it sprang open. Amongst the broken shards of vodka-scented glass, a bottle of water tumbled out. He almost laughed. It wasn't a seven-course meal, but it was something.

He picked it up and looked at it, his lips twisting into a half-grin. "Hey, Freckles," he said.

When she turned around, he held the bottle up so she could see it. When she realized what she was looking at, her eyes lit with the first life he'd seen all day. And then she did something that shocked them both.