Forget Me Not
Chapter Eight
Boone raced down the steps of the Black Rock, praying that this path would be the right one. He stumbled on the fourth step, but quickly picked himself back up, and lowered himself into the dark.
(Space)
Jack had pulled down a bunch of the items on the table and were going through them on the ground. They were still waiting for someone to come and get him, and in the mean time, had been able to find no dynamite from where they were.
The staircase just near them was too unstable and too steep to attempt to climb, and not to mention that Kate was so transfixed with whatever it was that she found about Sawyer that she hadn't looked up in ages.
Among the things Jack had pulled out were a few purses(most of the objects that had been inside- presumably, anyway- had been removed previously to finding them) flight pamphlets, books, the average carry on luggage. But one particular item had caught his attention: a manilla envelope, similar to the one Kate had found. The only difference was, that this one wasn't from the plane. Jack fumbled with the silver bind that held the packaging together before finally resulting to ripping the envelope apart. Kate glanced over his way, but didn't say anything as she turned back to the information she was studying. Reaching in the envelope, Jack pulled out a few slick piece of papers: pictures.
Pictures of a boat. A cruise ship that sat in the banks of an ocean, tied to steaks that held it to the land. That was the first picture. The second was of the other side of the ship. In purple writing the name 'Moondance' was painted on the side of the vessel. Jack didn't take cruises, but he knew enough to make an educated guess that the ship was named after Van Morrison's song "Moondance". More pictures photographed the land around the ships, scenery that looked like Europe.
Next Jack found the manifest of the ship's crew. He didn't recognize any of the names of the crew, until he ran over two that caused his heart to skip a beat: Alexis Rousseau and Adam Romero. The information startled him, but at the same time, Jack almost had expected it. Nearly a month and they still knew nothing about her except that Alex had been shipwrecked on the island, was the daughter of Danielle, and had been carrying along a passport to Europe and a gun that she said wasn't hers. But wait..Alex had said she had never been on a plane. She was afraid of flying..or was she? At first Jack felt defeated and then angry and betrayed. Why didn't he see the flaw in her story earlier? Better yet, why were the two working on a cruise ship, with a gun buried with their luggage?
"Jack!"
"We're in here!" Jack yelled without thinking.
Standing, he stuffed the recently found information into his bag(where Kate's was also hidden), and Kate followed him to the staircase. Boone's face appeared above them.
"We can get to the third step," Jack explained, "and then it caves in. Pull me up, and then I can help Kate."
Boone did so, and Jack rolled over once on the upper deck. For a moment, he was a little taken aback by the scenery. He had never viewed the island from a higher point of view, but it just seemed so..different from up here. So normal. Waves crashed to hs left, and a cool breeze blew over them as Jack reached down to help Kate up.
"It's Shannon," Boone said, a little out of breath, "she's having an asthma attack."
"What?" Jack said. "Now?"
"She's not supposed to go on long hikes or anything strenuous like that," Boone said, "that's why she doesn't ever go to the caves."
"She seemed fine when she went with us to get a transceiver signal," Kate said, puzzled, crossing her arms.
"She had her inhalers then," he reminded her, "but now- it's bad. Come on. Sayid's with her."
Jack and Kate raced after him until they spotted where Shannon was, slumped against the railing of the deck with Sayid beside her. It didn't look like she was awake. Sayid stood to greet them, and warned them of how bad the situation was.
"It's worse than it was the first attack," he told them in a low voice, "I think her throat's closing up. She's only been out for five minutes."
Boone paled in worry, but Jack hid his, rushing over and knocking Sayid out of the way, saying "Move over", though not giving him a choice. Boone, Kate, and Sayid watched as Jack placed his fingers on Shannon's neck, feeling for a pulse.
"Can't you try CPR or something?" Boone said desperately.
"She's breathing," Jack told him, "I don't know why she passed out."
"Maybe it was the heat," Kate suggested, "maybe she just got dehydrated."
"That was probably it," Jack admitted, "someone get me some water."
Sayid handed him a bottle from Shannon's bag on the demand, and Jack uncapped it. Prying open Shannon's mouth, Jack forced a small mouthful of water into her lungs. The cool liquid woke Shannon up in loud gasp for breath. She was still unable to breathe properly.
"Kate, Boone," Jack said, turning to them, "I need you two to go back down where we were, and search for anything that might help her. You might want to look for a cabin too. Sayid, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Shannon while I go and see if I can find any of those herbs that Sun used last time."
"Wait," Sayid said, stopping Jack before he could stand, "what about Locke."
"Right," Jack said, sighing, "new plan. Boone, you go look for the inhalers, Kate go find the herbs, I'll go find the dynamite and go help Locke."
"I'll take the dynamite," Boone said suddenly.
"What?" Jack spun around. "No, I'll do it."
Boone stepped up to him.
"You don't even know your way back!" He argued. "And do you know anything about dynamite?"
"Do you?" Jack retorted, taken aback.
"I used to run a fireworks display every Fourth of July through high school," Boone explained, "not exactly dynamite, but close enough."
Jack sighed in defeat.
"Fine, " he said, "there were some boxes we didn't open."
"I'll show him," Kate volunteered.
Jack looked down as she left. He wanted to protest and tell her that he didn't want her around the explosives, that it wasn't safe, but he knew the protest would be useless.
(Space)
Kate jumped down after Boone, catching herself before losing balance as the soles of her hiking boots hit the floorboards of the ship. In front of her, Boone turned on his flashlight and began looking around.
"What did you and Jack find?" Boone asked curiously.
"Some stuff from the plane," Kate said, "a bunch of luggage."
Boone's head whipped back around, making Kate jump a little.
"Where?" He demanded calmly.
"Um.." Kate thought, looking around, and pointed, "over there."
Completely forgetting the explosives, Boone stepped over some fallen debris from where the floor above caved in and found the table of luggage. He immediately leafed through the objects, until his hands fell over a brown duffel bag. Boone stopped.
"I found the dynamite!" Kate called from somewhere in the darkness.
"Um.." Boone tried hard to concentrate on what was going on. "Great, I'll be there in a second."
Taking the bag with him, Boone used the light to find his way to Kate, who stood beside a box of explosives, her hands on her hips.
"Any idea how to open this thing?" She asked hopefully.
"Just help me drag it outside," Boone sighed, "I'll deal with it then."
It took nearly fifteen minutes for the two of them to drag the box out. They first had to clear the path, and then trust that the box wouldn't blow up on them. Gently, they set the old crete onto the ground, and Boone lifted the top off to reveal stacks of dynamite.
"So how are we going to do this?" Kate said, trying not to let her nerves show.
"They need to be wrapped," Boone said after a pause, trying to remember all that he was taught about explosives. "They'll sweat nitro..nitro something. Just be very..very careful with them."
Kate nodded and reached down, praying that she would live to see the end of the day. Hours seemed to pass before her fingers landed on the edges of one of the thousands of dynamite. Closing her eyes, Kate raised the explosive out of its place. Opening one eye, it took a moment for Kate to realize that she was still alive, and not blown into bits and pieces.
"Sit it down," Boone instructed, motioning to a shirt he had pulled out of a bag and drenched with water.
She started to do so.
"Carefully," Boone reminded her when she started to go too fast.
Eyeing him, Kate nodded, and slowed her pace. When the dynamite was safely on the ground, Kate sighed in relief. Boone began to wrap it as she worked on the second, and then a third.
"Kate," Boone said before they started packaging the dynamite, "I found some inhalers in the front pocket of the bag. Get them out, take them to Jack."
Boone failed to mention that the backpack was his, but Kate didn't take note of it as they cautiously placed the dynamite inside.
"And just incase anything happens," Boone added after he had the pack on his shoulders, "you might want to see if Jack and Sayid want to take some back. That's assuming, you know.."
Both of their eyes trailed to the railing of the ship, where miniscule blurs could be seen in a distant.
"I'll ask," Kate said, putting the inhalers in a pocket of her pack.
After wishing him luck, Kate watched as Boone disappeared down the path, and made her way back inside the ship.
Author's Note: I'm soooo sorry for the lack of updates and short chapters but hectic is the only way to describe my past week. i couldn't even be sure that I'd be able to get on later, so I decided to leave it here. (hangs head in shame) Bad writer, I know.
Coming up next, on "Forget Me Not":
Notice something about that ending? They left the dynamite outside. No, not a writer's mistake. Actually, yeah, it was, but then I thought, "Hm..I could do something with that." Like a plot I had planned but couldn't fit in. Is it bad? Yeah. But don't worry, no one's dying on my watch! In fact, no one's even getting hurt(they may be knocked against the side of the ship, but nothing serious). Aren't you guys proud of me?
Freckles-101: I noticed that about the italics right after I shut down the computer and went to bed. Sorry about that, I'll try and remember to fix it tonight.
Once again, I apologize for the wait and the shortness. You guys deserve better and I'll try and pick up the pace this week. But now I must continue with the marathon of The Dead Zone season three to prepare for the season premiere tonight, and a new episode of The 4400. I'll try and write more later. Thanks again!
October Sky