Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or any of the characters in Lost.

Notes: I decided that I would, after all, include the others in the story. Except they never went after the raft or Walt. Thanks for all of the great reviews! You guys inspire me to continue this story.

Chapter Two: The Raft Rescue

First, the helicopters picked up the people on the raft. The man and his son were first up the unsteady rope ladder. The boy first, his father following behind him. Each of them were lifted into the helicopter by the rescue workers and buckled into their own seat. This was really it. They would finally be going home.

Walt felt nothing but excitement as he climbed up into the helicopter. He felt like one of those soldiers in those army commercials riding in it. He held onto the small window with both hands and watched the ocean fly by him. As much as he loved this whole experience, he was trying just as much not to think about what would happen when he and his dad got back home. Home? Where was home? He didn't have one that he knew of. He didn't have any friends anymore. The only family he had was sitting right next to him. All of this toys, clothes, comic books, were all gone with the tail end of the plane.

Even his best friend in the world, Vincent , was gone. He was on the island somewhere, protecting Shannon. He hoped that Vincent was ok and that the other people hadn't hurt him. Walt looked away from the window and up at his dad. He seemed to be off in his own thoughts. Walt smiled and went back to looking out the window again. His stomach was doing flip flops over the thought of the helicopter landing in a new and frightening place. He swallowed a thick lump in his throat and tried to count how many fish he could see from the helicopter window.

Michael looked over at his son, who was eagerly watching the ocean outside of the window. So much was going to change now. There was so much to be done. He was finally going home, back to his own bed in his own house in his own city. But he was on his own anymore. He had a son now. There was a little boy who was counting on him to make everything good and right. Everything from making sure he got a good dinner to getting him new school clothes to taking him to baseball practice. Michael felt nauseous at the thought. Yes, he wanted his son. He'd wanted nothing more since the day he'd learned of his ex-wife's pregnancy. Walt was his own flesh and blood and nothing could top that.

But Michael was scared. He and Walt had had some good moments and some not so good moments on the island. But over all, he felt that a bond was formed. But this was only the beginning. What if he got Walt home and set up his room and put him in school and everything started to fall apart again? What if Walt didn't like his school or his room or his classmates? Michael wanted nothing more then to make his son happy, but at what cost to his own life? He couldn't help but feel that there was still a selfish bone in his body that wanted to be expressed. He had gotten so used to living on his own and fending only for himself that he had forgotten how to put another human being before himself. On the island it was easy, most of the time it had been a fight for survival and Walt's life had always come first in his mind. But at home there was more temptation. Home was a whole other story.

He looked over at Walt and smiled. The boy was still looking out at the ocean, mesmerized by the waves. This was going to be one hell of a journey for them.

Another helicopter took the other two survivors, a Korean man who spoke very little English and a southern man with long scraggily hair and an attitude to match.

"What's your name?" The rescue worker asked the Korean man. Ironically, the Korean man knew the names of all the parts of the raft, but was unaware of what the word "name" meant.

"Hey Jackie Chan, tell him something' to call ya." The southern man encouraged. The Korean man seemed to understand this much better.

"Ah. Jin. I am Jin." He nodded enthusiastically. The rescue worker considered this a moment and then looked over at the southern man.

"And you? What's your name?" Sawyer looked at him and smiled his cocky grin.

"You can call me Sawyer." He leaned back, away from the windows. He had no desire to see the ocean. He'd seen enough over the last month. He'd seen enough of his fellow castaways, or at least most of them anyway. There was one castaway who he couldn't seem to get off his mind. They'd never gotten the chance to say goodbye. For all she knew, he figured, he could be dead right now. Same for her. With the others plaguing the island he had to wonder what would become of her. Hell, maybe the others weren't even their biggest problem right now. Maybe it was the fact that they were all about to be rescued. What chance would she have now? She was wanted pretty much everywhere. It made him angry to think of her having to live out the rest of her life behind bars, just because he had to be stubborn and go on the raft instead of her. Damn his stubborn streak.

Sawyer had his personal reasons for disliking this turn of events as well. As much as he'd wanted to get away from all of the annoying people he was forced to live with, he hadn't minded the island so much. He hadn't minded getting away from his life for awhile, forgetting about the guilt and anger and loneliness that awaited him at his piece of crap house back where he came from. Shit, he thought, maybe he should have burned down the second raft just like some dope had burned down the first. Then he'd be on the island right now, fighting off the others. Maybe protecting her or even saving her life. He reached into his right pants pocket and felt a pair of rather ugly makeshift reading glasses and two pieces of rolled up paper. One of the papers had Freckles handwriting. The other was his own. He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.

Jin, on the other hand, was enjoying his view of the ocean. He was happy to be rescued, although part of him worried about what would happen when he got back to his homeland. What would happen with Sun's father? He knew that he couldn't go back into the family business. Not with everything that had happened between him and his wife over the last month. He had realized just how much he stood to lose by going back into the business. His father-in-law certainly would not approve of this decision, and may even stop talking to them entirely. As much as he didn't want his wife to lose touch with her father, there was just no other way. At least none that he could figure out right now.

Right now, he had bigger things to think about. He could only hope that the others had not done any harm to Sun. He vowed right then to make it up to her. Everything that he had done to make her life so terrible, he was going to make up for it. He needed to show her how much she truly meant to him. She had embarrassed him, which had really hurt him deep down. It was unheard of for a woman to embarrass her husband like she had. But, then, it was also unheard of for a husband to treat his wife with such unkindness as he had in the past. He was going to fix things and make them right. He had much to be thankful for. For one, he was alive. He could only pray that Sun was too.

As the four survivors of the raft were being flown back to civilization, the other helicopters were just arriving to pick up the remaining castaways on the mysterious island. But what the rescue workers found was more of a massacre then a rescue mission. Dead bodies lay all around the beach and screaming could be heard from all the way in the air as they were.

"What the hell went on down there?" Said one rescue worker.

"Looks like they've been slaughtered." He paused. "Well, lets go down and check it out."