Chapter Six: Ghost Town
"What happened here?" Kate murmured to herself, her eyes scanning the expanse of the caves, the bags and suitcases spread haphazardly across the ground. No wonder the air had felt abandoned. It seemed as though it had been...literally.
"Looks like they went runnin'," Sawyer said.
For their lives, Kate added to herself. But what had caused them to run? What...or who? Had the Others found them, discovered the path to the caves and come upon the castaways? If indeed that was the Others she'd heard behind her on the beach last night. Not that they couldn't have come from a totally different direction.
And then there was that thing, the monster or whatever it was. It had attacked them yesterday, and Locke in particular. Maybe it had decided it wasn't finished.
She shook her head, realizing how crazy she sounded. And yet...she knew something was out there.
The most likely explanation was that everyone had left their things behind in an effort to get to the hatch as quickly as possible. At least she hoped so.
She shrugged out of her pack and reached inside for the empty water bottle. She handed it to Jin as he passed her on his way to the waterfall with the other bottle, then picked her way through the scattered luggage where Jack had gathered all of the medical supplies. Things were knocked from their makeshift shelves and scattered around.
She frowned, kneeling down and picking up several bottles of pills. It didn't seem as though this stuff had been accidentally knocked over in someone's haste to run. It looked as though it had been deliberately swept and scattered around. And come to think of it...
She glanced behind her and noticed that, indeed, many of the bags and suitcases were open, clothes spilling out of them. There was no way that wasn't deliberate. But who had done it? And why?
She saw Sawyer pawing through one of the bags. "What are you doing?" she called out over the din of the rain.
"Tryin' to find something that fits. All my shit's at the bottom of the ocean."
She watched him move on to another bag. She'd been ignoring—or at least trying to ignore—the fact that he hadn't been wearing a shirt. There were other things she needed to worry about. She shouldn't be spending her time contemplating some crazy, inappropriate attraction.
She gathered all the pill bottles she could find and stared at them. She had no idea which ones were the right ones. She knew almost nothing about medicine. "What was the name of the medication Jack gave you before?" she asked Sawyer. "For your arm. What was it called?"
"How the hell should I know?" he muttered, struggling into a plain black T-shirt he'd found. "He gave me the pills, I took them."
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She stared at the bottles a minute longer, but nothing occurred to her. Jack had said something once, mentioned the names of a couple antibiotics he'd found, but they remained just beyond her memory.
The storm continued to gain intensity. The rocky overhang largely protected them from the downpour, but gusts of wind occasionally whipped through to them. Kate got pelted with a burst of rain and stood up, wiping the droplets from the side of her face.
She went still, frowning as she turned a slow circle, scanning the circumference of the caves. They'd done their job, protecting the people inside from long hours in direct sunlight or boar attacks. But they were also a good place for an ambush.
Hand resting on the butt of her gun, she glanced from one entry/exit point to another. Here inside the caves, especially with the rain and wind drowning out any sound from the outside, it would be impossible to see anyone coming until they were already there. The Others could ambush them here and they'd never have a chance. Maybe they already had.
Glancing back at Sawyer, who'd managed to get the shirt on and was going through another suitcase for who knew what, then glancing at Jin, she stepped quietly toward the back of the caves.
Staring through the space between two giant slabs of rock that provided a path back to the jungle, she saw that even though it was only late afternoon, the storm had darkened the sky ominously. The trees were shrouded in shadows, lending an added layer of eeriness to the air. She wondered if there was anyone out there, watching her as she stared into the trees.
A flash behind her distracted her, and she turned to see that Sawyer had found a flashlight and flipped it on. He tapped the solid weight of it against his palm, then gritted his teeth as the impact shimmied up his arm and jarred his shoulder. She looked back over at the array of pill bottles. "We need to figure out which pills you should be taking," she said.
"Don't need pills," he muttered, flipping the flashlight back off.
"If you don't take some antibiotics, your shoulder is going to get infected."
"I'm flattered you're worried about me, Sweetheart. I really am. But I don't need your worry. Don't need your pity."
Kate took a deep breath. "If you get an infection, you're just going to get worse and worse until you collapse. And I'm not going to carry you through the jungle if that happens."
"Who says you're coming with me in the first place?"
"Do you really think you can make it through the jungle and find Walt without getting yourself killed?"
"I'll work it out," he muttered.
"Sure you will. You can't hunt, you can barely move your left arm, you don't have a weapon. You'll make it through the jungle just fine."
"Why don't you just cut the shit, Freckles? We both know you ain't Mother Theresa. You can quit pretendin'."
She glared at him a moment, then turned away with a shake of her head. She shouldn't really blame him. If she was the one who'd been shot, she suspected she'd be pissed off too. But the thing of it was, seeing him injured was doing things to her mind, bringing thoughts to the surface that she wanted nothing to do with. Don't think of it, she told herself. Think of everything he's done to piss you off. Think of the fact that he wouldn't give the marshal's case to you, and the way he exposed your secret to everybody. Don't think about what it felt like to kiss him, or the carefree smile she'd glimpsed at the waterfall, before the suitcase had been found.
She sat down near the medicine bottles again, her eyes darting from them to each of the cave's exit points. He could be as big a jerk as he wanted. She'd just follow from a distance.
She wasn't going to examine her reasons for being so determined not to let him go off on his own. She picked up one of the pill bottles. The name seemed familiar. She closed her eyes, trying to remember the conversation with Jack. Was this one of the medications he'd mentioned, that would work for several different things? She twisted the bottle around in her hand. If it was the right one, it could help keep his arm from getting infected. But if it was the wrong one, he could get worse. "Damn it," she whispered. She didn't want to be in this position. Didn't want to have to guess at whether or not she'd picked the right bottle, when Sawyer's health was at stake.
She stared at each of the other bottles in turn. Nothing jumped out at her. She had to make a decision, and she had to make it quickly. They were sitting ducks here, and as difficult as it was going to be, traveling through the jungle at night, during the storm, she'd still feel safer out there than here. It was a lot easier to blend into moving foliage than rocks and abandoned luggage.
"Hey," she said finally, tossing the bottle of pills in Sawyer's direction. They hit the ground and rolled toward him, bouncing off his knee as he knelt over another suitcase. "I think these are the right ones."
"You think?"
She shrugged, weary of fighting with him. "If you think you know more about medicine than I do, feel free to come and pick out a different bottle. But I remember Jack mentioning those, and I think they're the right ones."
She stood up and rubbed at the side of her knee, which had taken a hit during her fall and stiffened up a bit. She turned away, but she heard Sawyer grumbling, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him twist the cap off the pill bottle. She fought to contain a smile, which died quickly when an inkling of dread slithered along her spine.
Her gaze was drawn again to the back of the caves, to the shadowy path that led back into the jungle. Her heart pounded involuntarily. Was someone out there? Her breath hitched, and she found herself pulling the gun from her waistband, just to feel the solid weight in her hand. She walked slowly in that direction again, accepting a full water bottle from Jin. She nodded her thanks and watched as he approached Sawyer with another. She saw two more on the ground where he'd been. Apparently someone else had left them behind.
She looked into the narrow exit in the rocks, and was almost sure she saw a flash in the trees. She glanced at Sawyer. He was too busy going through luggage to pay attention to her. She slipped through the exit and scanned the trees, keeping her back against the rock, the gun in her hand. It was impossible to hear any possible foreign sounds over the noise of the storm. But wait...there! There was someone hiding in the trees, just inside the tree line. She caught a glimpse of blond hair. She should have asked Sawyer for descriptions of the people on the boat.
But then a snippet of a voice carried to her on the wind, and she knew it wasn't the Others out there. The voice she'd heard was Shannon's.
If Shannon was out there in the trees, Sayid was almost certainly with her. They'd been spending an awful lot of time together lately, and with Jack gone to the hatch, Sayid had become the group's de facto leader. She expected he'd keep Shannon close by him.
She glanced back into the caves. Neither Sawyer nor Jin had noticed her absence. Or if they had, they weren't doing anything about it.
She bent down and picked up a palm-sized rock. She needed to get Sayid's attention. She didn't know how many people were hidden in the trees, but she didn't want to cause a panic before talking things over with Sayid, nor did she want to stray too far from the caves. If she did, Sawyer would run off and she'd never find him in the rain.
She tossed the rock. It landed near Shannon's feet and she shrieked, spinning around only to be pulled back into the cover of the trees. Just as she'd suspected, Sayid appeared, holding a gun just as she was.
His eyes locked with hers through the wash of rain, and she gestured him closer. After what she suspected were reassurances to Shannon, he sprinted the short distance between them.
"What is going on?" he asked. "Why did you decide to come back here?"
She took a deep breath. "There was a problem with the raft."
His face creased in confusion. "The raft? How do you know this? They have no way of communicating with us."
She quickly relayed what had happened during the past day—the boat searching the beach, her tumble down the hill, coming upon the men from the raft and their trek back to the caves. "Michael told me that the men shot Sawyer, grabbed Walt, then set the raft on fire."
"Are they with you?" he asked.
"Sawyer and Jin are with me. Michael left to look for Walt. I...couldn't try to stop him."
"I understand," Sayid said.
"Sawyer's determined to go after them too, but he's not in any shape to hike through the jungle on his own."
"Kate, you are not responsible for him. He makes his own decisions."
"I know." She blew out a breath. "What happened here? It looks like everyone just got up and ran."
"We were watching the jungle last night and heard noises not far off. I thought perhaps you had changed your mind and come back. I went to meet you, but instead I discovered three men. I did not recognize them. I rushed back, broke everyone into small groups, and we scattered into the trees."
"You didn't hear anything from Jack?"
"No. We didn't have time. I told everyone to try and make their way toward the caves again before dark tonight, but they've likely been slowed by the storm."
"So who's with you? Do you...know where Sun is?"
He looked toward the caves, then back toward the trees. "She is with us," he said.
"We should get her. She should know that Jin's okay."
"I'll bring her," Sayid said.
Kate nodded, and turned back toward the caves.
Moments later, she stood toward the front entrance to the caves, watching Jin and Sun's tearful embrace. They held each other close, their words shaky and quiet. She couldn't understand them, which was just as well. The quiet emotion, the intimacy of the moment made her uncomfortable. She felt like an intruder, and wanted nothing more than to escape, to vanish into the jungle. Their obvious affection reminded her of exactly what she'd lost, what she'd destroyed.
She looked over at Sawyer, who'd commandeered someone's backpack and slung it over his good shoulder. She had no idea what was in it, but it didn't really matter. She took his water bottle, which was already half-empty, and refilled it, along with two others. She tucked two of them into her own pack and gave him the third. "The rain's slowed down some," she murmured. "We should go now."
"Told you I don't need your help, Freckles."
She looked up at him, then turned and looked back at Jin and Sun. Jin raised a hand and brought it to Sun's cheek, gently rubbing away her tears. Kate had to look away, the emotion overwhelming her. "I can get you to the Black Rock," she said to Sawyer. "Let's not argue about this, okay? Let's just go."
He looked down at her, then shook his head, apparently too tired or frustrated to argue anymore. It didn't really matter to her. She just wanted to escape the scene before her, which was only serving to remind her of her own loneliness, her own mistakes.
Muttering something under his breath she couldn't quite understand, he turned and walked out of the caves. She was right behind him when a quiet voice stopped her. "Kate."
She turned and saw Sun, her face a jumble of too many emotions to name. Kate waited, and when Sun spoke again, it was two quiet words that shook her.
"Thank you."
Kate nodded, smiling tremulously. She gestured back to Sawyer, who was heading out into the jungle. "I have to go."
"I understand. Take care of yourself."
"You too," Kate said, smiling once more before turning and hurrying after Sawyer. She caught up to him, thankful for the rain and the relative dark of the early evening. Both would keep her overloaded emotions her dirty little secret.
