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

Notes: I couldn't leave you guys hanging anymore. This chapter will answer most of your questions. There is character death unfortunately. I hate to do it but it seemed like it had to be done.

Summary: The survivors of the attack awake to a new reality.

"Rescued From Death"

Kate had screamed and fought and did everything she could to get away from the rescue workers. They said it was because she was in shock after witnessing so much devastation. She knew better. She knew it was because they were rescue workers. Kate didn't want to be rescued. She thought she was the only one on the island who felt that way, but she would soon learn otherwise.

She was currently sitting inside of a helicopter. The rescue workers had insisted that she stay there while they searched the island for other survivors. Next to her was Shannon. Shannon was quiet for once in her life. It had taken two strong guys to get her into the helicopter and away from Vincent. She was a strong girl when she wanted to be. She was in shock though, and very much afraid of everything that moved. Kate tried to stay still around her. She'd figured out that talking didn't help and she didn't mind the silence because she didn't have much to talk about anyway.

Kate wasn't thinking about the prison term she might face. She wasn't even thinking about Jack and her other friends who were missing. What she was thinking about, was Sawyer. She couldn't seem to forget the moment they'd parted ways. There never really had been a goodbye, just a fight like always. He'd betrayed her secret. She had been angry of course. But more then anything she was heartbroken. She'd felt like she could trust Sawyer above anyone else on the island for the sole reason that he, too, had secrets to keep. She had never told any of his secrets. Only a heartless person would do that, especially when the secret was so dark and traumatic.

Kate felt tears coming down her cheeks but didn't bother to wipe them away. If she looked out the window she would see the dead bodies being bagged up by the arriving rescue workers in boats. She didn't want to see that. She realized, for the first time, that they were not on the same part of the beach now that they had lived on. It was like they had run all the way to here before they were slaughtered. Which meant they had to have had a warning of some kind.

She heard a familiar voice and looked out the window.

Sayid was very nearly dead. He felt himself fading more and more as he approached the camp. He had lost so much blood during the attack. His head was beginning to clot, he felt, thanks to the bandage he had made. But it was still trickling blood. Head wounds were the worst. Even the smallest gash in the head would bleed for hours. Sayid had a huge gash and as the shock had begun to fade he realized that he could not hear out of that side and was in extreme pain as well.

He wondered how everyone else had made it through this disaster, if anyone had actually made it through alive. He'd taken out two of the others. Two of many. He couldn't even think that he might have made a difference. It was truly pathetic, he felt

When he heard voices, he stopped. There were people there. They were crying and talking in low voices. It couldn't be the others. The others would not be whispering. They obviously had the upper hand in this attack and would not be afraid of being seen at any cost. Sayid approached the tree crowded area of the beach. There was a large rock formation there. Upon closer inspection he would find that the rock had an area carved out of it on one side. That area would make a great hiding place for those who needed one desperately.

Sayid walked along the boulder, leaving bloody handprints on its side. He called out. "Hey, is somebody in there?" A moment of silence went by and Sayid considered the fact that maybe he should leave before whatever it was attacked him. He couldn't survive another wound. But then, a familiar voice answered.

"Sayid?" The man asked. Sayid walked closer to the grove and found that Jack was there. He was injured and bleeding from the head. He had scratches up and down his arms. But he was alive.

"Jack, are you ok?" He asked and couldn't resist giving his comrade a friendly hug. Jack pulled back and looked Sayid over. He paled as he looked.

"Sayid, your head…" He paused. "Come on, come over here." Sayid was led into the small area in the rock formation. It was a small cave like area which would only comfortably hold about four people. Currently, there were six people here. "I was able," Jack began again, "to save my medical kit. I have some bandages and peroxide. I used the last of the stitches on Claire though."

Sayid stopped and looked around the cave. Claire was there, but her baby wasn't. She looked very run down and pale. She had a man-made splint on her wrist and seemed to be in a lot of pain. She had a large stab wound on her left arm, but it had already been stitched up. She had been crying and it was easy to see that she was still fighting tears.

Sun was there too. She had been shot in the shoulder. She leaned against the wall and had her eyes closed. Her face was bloody as if she had been punched and her clothes were torn and barely covered her. At the moment another castaway was putting pressure on her shoulder wound. Every now and then she would turn her head and moan, or accept a drink of water from someone who offered one. Mostly she just laid there in a half sleep state. Sayid was worried about her condition.

He looked around closely. He didn't see Shannon.

Jack, noticing Sayid's reaction, spoke up. "We grabbed the people we could find and brought them here. We figured that hiding would be our best chance of survival. We looked, but she couldn't find Shannon. " He paused as Sayid took in this information. Sayid nodded for him to go on. "Have you seen Locke or Hurley anywhere Sayid?"

Sayid, feeling unsteady, seated himself in a free space on the ground. Jack knelt next to him and carefully removed the cloth bandage. Sayid winced as Jack explored the wound.

"Sayid, this is a bullet wound." Jack said in shock.

"Yes. I know." Sayid replied. Jack still seemed amazed.

"I guess one of us has some luck at least." Jack said after a moment of exploring. "It just grazed your skull. You've lost a lot of blood though."

"Yes. We were able to take down two of the others when they attacked. But they overpowered us. I have not seen Locke or Hurley since before the attack. They were both gone when I woke up, but there was blood everywhere."

Jack nodded knowingly. Sayid wanted to tell him that he didn't know, that he couldn't know unless he had been there and saw the devastation.

"What about the rest of us?" Sayid asked, wincing as Jack cleaned his wound. "Have you seen anyone else alive?"

"No." There was a hint of worry in his voice. "Charlie went after the man who took Claire's baby. We haven't seen him since. Kate wasn't at camp when they attacked." He paused. "We're going to die, Sayid, if we don't get off this island soon."

Sayid knew he was right. Most of the people here were seriously injured and barely holding on. The blood loss was incredible and there would be no one healthy enough to donate even if they did have the medical supplies to do so. If some of them happened to miraculously survive this attack, there would surely be a next one in another day or so, after the others could gather their strength again. They were as good as dead if they stayed here. Their only hope, was for a rescue.

Off in the jungle stood another survivor. He was sitting on the ground, trying to get his bearings. He had intended to go back to camp but had lost his way and was now lost in the middle of the jungle. He had watched at the others left the camp and gone home, wherever their home was. He'd gone back to the place where he'd last seen Sayid and Locke, but neither of them were there. He didn't know whether that was a good sign or a bad sign.

Hurley drank the last of the water he had left and sighed. "Dude, this sucks." He said out loud to nobody.

Suddenly, he heard thrashing coming from the bushes behind him. He turned around just in time to see somebody fall to the ground. "Dude!" He shouted and jumped back. He didn't know who it was and if he had known that he would have known whether just to kick the bastard in the head right there or go try to help them. Then, he heard a moan and knew what to do.

"Dude, what happened to you?" He knelt down on the ground next to Charlie. Charlie lay in a fetal position on the ground, clutching something to his chest. He breathed heavily in and out and seemed to be only halfway conscious. He was beat up in the face and the entire back of his shirt was ripped up as if someone had taken a knife to it. He was sweating and covered in dirt and sand from head to toe.

"Hurley…" Charlie finally managed to whisper his name. "Take him." Hurley was confused.

"Dude, take who?" He asked, trying not to sound too stupid. Suddenly Charlie let go of his tight grip on the thing in his arms, and Hurley saw who 'he' was.

"Hey it's the baby." When he noticed that Charlie was about to drop it, he reached out and quickly caught it. "You ok turnip head?" Hurley checked the baby over, but he looked unharmed. The baby began to cry and he suddenly lost all knowledge he'd ever had of how to make a baby stop crying.

"Charlie, are you ok man?" Hurley knelt down by him again. Charlie was still in the same position on the ground. Now that the baby was out of his hands it was easier to see where he'd been wounded. His shirt had hiked up when he fell and his stomach and chest were clearly bruised. Hurley had seen this before. The gangs in his neighborhood used to do this kind of stuff all the time. He would have bet that Charlie had a few broken ribs.

"Can't….breath." Charlie whispered. He was holding his chest. Hurley began to panic. The dude was obviously having a hard time of it. And Hurley knew little about first aid and that sort of thing.

"Dude, I'm gonna go find Jack." He turned but then thought to say something else. "Um…don't move or anything, ok? Thanks."

He ran off, a crying baby in his arms, in search of the doctor.

"We found another one." Two rescue workers emerged from the trees carrying another body. Kate allowed herself to look out the window and noticed that they already had the body in a body bag. She quickly turned away. She knew she couldn't stay here. Sooner or later one of them would recognize her. She had to find a way to get away.

Her plans were put on hold when one of the men came up to the helicopter and peeked in the open door. "Listen, we need someone to help us identify some of these bodies. We got reports of a fugitive on board your airline and we have to look for her." He stopped and pointed at Kate. "You." Kate tensed. "Can you help us identify some of these people?" Kate slowly stood up.

"Sure. Anything to help." She allowed him to help her out of the helicopter, leaving Shannon behind. She didn't think she had to worry about Shannon. She was too upset to say anything at the moment.

Slowly, she was escorted around the area. She was shown body after body. Most of them she only knew their first name. But one, unfortunately, she did know.

"Its Locke. His name is John Locke." The man had been badly beaten. He had a bullet hole in his head. But there was something about his eyes. They were still open. And his mouth was curled into something that resembled a smile. He had accepted his death, Kate could see it. She listened to the waves in the background and closed her eyes in remembrance of her friend. She was startled out of her moment of silence by another helicopter up ahead.

They forced her to move on quickly. Body after body, she never saw her friends. She was beginning to regain hope of their survival. Then, they came across the body of a young women. She was in her late twenties maybe with long brunette hair and pale skin. She was strikingly similar to Kate in many ways.

"Did you know her mam?" The rescue worker asked. Kate had never seen her before in her life. She looked the woman over, wondering how'd she missed knowing someone who was so similar to her. Then she realized it. The woman's clothes were not normal clothes. They were like the clothes the others had worn, bedraggled and worn. The woman had been shot. There was one bullet hole square in the middle of her head. Kate wondered, momentarily, if it was from a state issued marshal's gun.

"Maam?" The rescue worker prodded. Kate went over and over it in her mind. She wondered if she should, if she even could. Was it possible? She wondered if maybe she should just come clean and face it all. She felt defeated and could not speak.

"Kate. Her name's Kate officer." A voice said from off to her left. Kate looked up and her eyes widened. "I knew her. I thought she was a great gal, if you don't mind the whole criminal record thing of course. Too bad she didn't make it." Sawyer walked up to them. He looked over Kate from head to toe. She looked up at him nervously.

"And who are you sir?" The men asked Sawyer. He never took his eyes off of Kate. She never took her eyes off of him either.

"The name's Sawyer. I was on the raft." He replied. "Wish I'd been here though. I'm always game for a good fight." Kate smiled at his remark. She knew how to read Sawyer's subtext by now.

And from their left came another stretcher. This one had a young rock star on it. He was beaten and broken, but he still found the energy to smile when he passed them. Behind them was a chubby young man holding a tiny infant. The baby was sleeping his arms. It was an adorable sight to be seen.

And there was the Korean man, wandering the beach aimlessly hoping to find the love of his life.

And finally, there was the rescue worker who came running out from the bushes to their left.

"We found some live ones sir! A whole group of 'em!"