Forget Me Not
Chapter Nine
Author's Note: Don't forget that I know nothing about dynamite except that it blows up.
Last time on "Forget Me Not":
"Can I help you?" Shannon said, realizing that she had been staring once second to long.
"Yeah, I'm looking for a Boone Carlisle?" The guy said. "I'm uh..David. Old friend. Remember me?"
(s)
"Boone, what's going on?" Shannon said, her enthusiasm gone and replaced with worry.
"I'll be fine," Boone promised, "it's just a..debt."
(s)
"What the hell do you want from me?" He said finally.
"Either you go to the nearest police station and turn yourself in," David said with an errie calmness to his voice, "or I'll kill you."
"I'm not turning myself in," Boone said, trying to pick himself up off the floor.
"Well then," David said, a small grin forming at the corner of his mouth.
Because that was the answer he had really wanted, but Boone had no time to talk himself out of the situation. David pulled the trigger, and a shot was fired.
(And Now)
But the shot wasn't from David's gun. Boone didn't have time to wonder where it came from before he had to scramble to the side in order to not be squashed by the fallen David. He stared at the body for a few moments before reminding himself of the shooter.
"Is he dead?"
Boone found himself not surprised at all to find Shannon facing him, the gun still pointed straight forward. She stood in shock, shaking, unable to move. Realizing that Shannon was still waiting for him to answer her, Boone crawled over to David and checked for a pulse. He found one.
"Yeah," he answered in a near whisper, and after a moment of recollecting himself, Boone looked back up at Shannon, "where did you learn to use a gun?"
"Back in New York," Shannon began, "when I was a kid, I found my dad's pistol. He figured that as long as we were living in the city, I might as well know how to protect myself. I found the gun earlier when I was looking through your stuff."
Boone shook his head.
"Some things never changed," he said, and looked back at the body, "we need to call the police."
"I thought you were hiding something," Shannon inquired, eyeing him.
"Don't worry about me," Boone said, "you mind putting that thing down?"
Shannon hadn't even realized she had still been holding the gun, but she put it down like it was nothing.
"Hand me the phone," Boone sighed in exhaustion.
(Space)
Boone's jaw clenched, determined, as he tried to block out visions of himself blowing up or rolling down the side of a mountain. He was the only one of the group who knew what was in the hatch, but even with that, he had no clue what kind of potential danger Locke could be in. But the fact that any given second his life could be over forced Boone to slow down a few paces.
(Space)
Kate made it back to Sayid and Jack in record time.
"Here," she said, throwing herself on the ground beside Jack and shoved the inhalers into his hands.
"Where'd you find-"
"Just hurry up!" Kate cut him off. "She doesn't look good."
Jack left his questions for later and after talking through the inhaler routine, had fully succeeded in getting Shannon to breathe in a slow, steady pace again. The three sighed and Shannon closed her eyes, laying back, but when she opened them again a few seconds later, it didn't take long for her to notice that one of them was missing.
"Where's Boone?" Shannon said, looking around.
"He went to help Locke," Kate explained, glancing towards Jack.
"What?" Shannon exclaimed. "He's out there on his own-"
Shannon was doing an incredible impersonation of an over-worried mother. She turned to Jack, desperate.
"Jack-" she looked at him with pleading eyes as if saying 'you know what I'm talking about'.
"Boone will be fine," Jack assured her, "he's probably already-"
Jack's reassurance was interrupted by a loud explosion that rocked the ship. As if they were on sea instead of land, the four castaways felt the vessel tip to its side and Sayid covered Shannon's head just before it hit the wooden planks behind her, and Kate tumbled on top of Jack. Ashes showered the earth along with fallen wood, limbs, and leaves. Then, catching them off guard, the ship rocked back the other way, and Jack grasped Kate's hand before she slid to the other side of the ship. A moment of silence followed, and once it seemed like it was over, Jack helped Kate sit up.
"Boone-" Shannon said simply, with worry.
Sayid didn't have to announce his leaving as he was out of sight in a flash with Jack, Kate, and Shannon right behind him. Jack didn't have time protest Shannon's leaving before they got down the stairs, because there was no turning back once they reached the wreckage which was once the lower deck of the ship.
Dust and ash covered the basement-type room, and Jack was suddenly glad that he had grabbed what he could of the supplies they found, because there was no salvaging now. Sayid moved away some of the wreckage to make an exit out, causing sunshine to fill the room with anticipation. Even though minutes earlier they were up in fresh air, it felt like they were entering a whole new world.
A creator set where the ground used to be, and Sayid had to sidestep around it to get to the path. There was no sign of Boone.
"I'm going back to the hatch," Sayid announced.
"Wait-" Shannon bit her lip, searching for a reason for Sayid to stay.
Sayid looked at her in apology, and then turned to Jack.
"Found out what you can," he said, "and meet me there."
Jack nodded and the three of them stood in silence until Sayid was gone.
"I can't believe we left this out," Kate ground, staring down at the creator.
"You didn't exactly have a way of getting it back in," Jack pointed out, just to make her feel better.
"He just seemed like he was in a hurry to leave," Kate continued, ignoring him, "like he was hiding something."
"Where did you get the inhalers?" Shannon asked suddenly.
Kate looked up.
"What?"
"You heard me."
Kate shrugged.
"Boone found them," she said, "in a bag he found."
"Did he take it with him?" Kate just stared at her. "The bag? Did he take it with him?"
"Yeah," Kate said, remembering, "I think so."
Shannon smiled.
"Good."
(Space)
Anxiety got the better of Boone and he picked up the pace about a half a mile before entering the familiar atmosphere of the hatch. Carefully Boone put his backpack on the ground, and took out the dynamite. It was then that he realized that lighting the fuse would take more than one person.
"Need some help?"
Boone jumped at Sayid's voice. How had he caught up so fast? Then again, it wouldn't of taken long had Sayid left right after he had, since he had been walking as slow as a snail.
"Sure," Boone shrugged, figuring he had no other choice.
Sayid helped him unravel the fire to light the fuse.
"Wait," Boone said right before we were about to light it, "shouldn't we warn Locke about what we're doing. I mean, just in case he's still conscious?"
"How are we going to-"
But Boone had already jumped down into the pit that made up the circumference of the hatch. He used a series of long and short beats against the hatch that Sayid recognize shortly after the second set.
"Morse code," he said, slightly surprised, "where did you learn it?"
Boone shrugged.
"Around," he listened for a moment and then sighed, "he's not answering."
"Out of curiosity," Sayid said, "how steep is it down there? To wherever Locke is, I mean."
"Twenty, thirty steps," said Boone, "but after the effects of the dynamite, the stepladder will probably break."
"Step ladder?" Sayid raised an eyebrow. "One that you two just made, or was it already there?"
"Already there," Boone said as Sayid helped him back up to land.
He looked back down to the hatch.
"So I guess we better do this."
Sayid nodded.
"I'll light the fuse," Sayid volunteered.
"No," Boone said, "I'll do it."
"Why is it that you're always one of the first to volunteer to risk their lives?" Sayid inquired.
"Why shouldn't I?"
Boone bent down to light the fuse and knowing that there was no talking him out of it.
"Remember to jumped back before-"
"I know," Boone sighed, a little agitated.
He lit the fuse and leaped onto the level land, a good fifteen feet from the hatch. Under his breath he counted down the ten seconds promised and then covered his ears, preparing himself for the explosion that came seconds later, rocking the island like an earthquake, sending Boone backwards into some brush that covered him as ashes showered above. Silence followed, and quiet footsteps told Boone that Sayid was still alive, and doing anything but taking his time in finding out what was inside the hatch.
Once on the surface of the hatch, Sayid and Boone removed the door to the hatchway which now sat a half an inch off the ground. The dark tunnel lurked below, welcoming them to the mystery of a high-tech, forgotten world.
"I'll go first," Boone said, "there's a step that's broken about a third of a way down- if there are any steps left."
And there were. Surprisingly, only a few steps were missing from the long case, and it was a rather easy trip down. Boone was the first to find Locke unconscious near the computer system that Sayid, luckily, hadn't discovered yet. Hoping to find a way to get Locke out without Sayid even taking a second thought to what was inside the hatch, Boone kept his flashlight low to the ground, careful to not shine it behind him.
"He's still breathing," he informed Sayid, "we should get him back to-"
"Exactly how long have you known this was here?"
Boone groaned. Of course Sayid would've brought some kind of source of light down with him. Now came the part of explaining why a computer system the size of a big screen tv was buried underground in the middle of an island in the South Pacific.
"Only two weeks give or take," Boone said truthfully.
Sayid stared at the system in awe.
"What does it do?" He said, and Boone was thankful that there was no sign of anger of fury in his voice, and he could only hope that he got the same response once Locke woke up.
"Here," Boone said, momentarily forgetting about Locke and feeling somewhat superior to Sayid, for once knowing something that no one else did.
Sayid watched in interest as Boone keyed the code to turn on the system, which he was surprised to find off. A loud creak sounded above them, but nothing followed, and Boone supposed that that was what happened when the door was opened the right way.
"Locke must of accidentally shut the system down," Boone said, "shut down the place. Kind of like in Jurassic Park."
"Right," Sayid said bitterly, having no idea what Boone was talking about.
Boone keyed in a few more of the codes and the hatch was lit up in bright colors of yellow, blue, and green, and Sayid was presented with a map.
"Is this the island?" He said slowly.
"Yeah," Boone said, his fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard with a practiced ease, "and that, is Jack, Kate, and Shannon."
He pointed out three moving dots on top of a brown surface that was a path to the caves.
"It looks like they decided to head back," Sayid observed, "we could probably meet them there."
Boone looked up to the sky above them.
"I'll take our bags if you can carry Locke," he offered.
He had no intentions of staying down here longer than he had to.
"Unless Jack wanted to-"
"Jack doesn't need to know," Sayid said, sounding as if the statement hadn't been planned, "I think we'll have a hard enough time keeping Locke sane the next few days."
Boone chuckled, knowing he was right. At least now if Locke killed him, he'd have a witness that could make up a plausible lie.
Author's Note: Horrible ending, I know, but it's all I had. I'm so sorry about the wait. I've been fighting writer's block all through this story.
You might want to read this next part, if you usually skip author's notes:
But let's get down to business(oh man, I'll have that song stuck in my head all night!). I can do two stories after this, the off-island fic and another on-island fic(Sawyer centric) Both will require some time for me to plan it out, since I have bits and pieces of futures fics planned. So you decide, which do you want first? I can warn you, this story may end in a mini cliffhanger- I just hope I get everyone back next time!
Coming up next, in "Forget Me Not:
In a final chapter(I think) things are settled between Shannon, Boone, and Sayid, though I haven't quite decided who I want to have the conversation with Boone: Sayid or Shannon; and Kate breaks the news to Sawyer who, well, provides a nice little mini-cliffie(such a cute word..lol!) for us. Oh and this line: "I think we'll have a hard enough time keeping Locke sane the next few days." was not put in there by mistake. Hint. Hint. Oh, and you guys also decide: do you want me to wrap up the Shannon/Boone flashback, or leave it where it ends?
Thanks sooo much for continuing to review, and I hope that when I do start whatever new story I start, you guys will stick around!
Until next time..
October Sky