'Lost In Thought'

Chapter 2: "Heat of the Moment"

The door of the cabin fell back with a deafening 'whoosh' followed by a crunching of bones as it hit the ground of the small hut. Luke and Locke had not known what the crunching was at the time, but they soon found out when Lucas reluctantly peered inside at the insistence of Locke. At first, Luke didn't know if he was seeing things correctly. Once he got over the initial shock and understood what the bones were, he fell back, not very aware that he was falling, but not quite passing out. He saw the underside of the trees above and the sun, that glorious sun. Locke hurriedly made a quick dash to catch Luke from landing on his back. He swooped Lucas up, and caught a glimpse of the inside of the cabin as he did.

Aside from the bones, the interior was actually fairly nice. There was a large oak table to the right, crudely fashioned out of the same wood that the cabin itself was made. Chairs of the same quality surrounded it on all four sides. On the table were various papers of some sort, scattered about. This table was the only furniture in sight. Toward the left there were suitcases, pieces of what used to be tarp, lots of yarn, and a shotgun perched atop a small counter and mixed among the human remains. These were the only objects Locke had noticed while valiantly coming to Luke's rescue. Contrary to Luke, however, Locke had not shown as much emotion to the bones. He was only the least bit shocked, who couldn't be? But after you've seen a hatch in the middle of the jungle, a giant 'security system' roaming the premises, and suddenly regain the use of your legs, not much can startle you anymore. Reluctantly looking away from the cabin, he looked down at Lucas in his arms.

"Are you okay?" he asked, the least bit concerned with Lucas' well being versus the mystery of the cabin bones.

"I…I…where…?" Luke stuttered, trying to regain his senses. He was totally out of it and very confused. He could see the sun above himself, but it wasn't the jungle sun he had become accustomed to these last few months. It was the sun above the park on the day he made his decision to leave for Los Angeles.

Lucas was an orphan and had never known his real parents. At the age of 5, he had been adopted by the kind Mindleton family. He attended a public school like most other children. After graduating from high school, he attended Harvard, where he had intended to become a lawyer. His intentions followed through, for he did in fact have a career in law.

Currently, he stood in front of the building he knew all too well: The building of Faccet, Crooklyne, and Mindleton. That was him, Lucas Mindleton. A hard-working, all work and no play defense attorney. He was dressed in a dark black Italian suit with a white shirt and navy tie. His blonde hair was combed neatly, his pants were ironed the morning before, he was cleanly shaven, and the suitcase he carried was made of real leather. The law firm in which he partnered was founded some years ago by George Faccet and Felix Crooklyne, along with himself. These other partners were his best friends, previously Harvard law students as well. Together, they had only lost four cases.

As Lucas Mindleton entered the building that afternoon, he hadn't expected what was waiting for him on the other side of the door. George and Felix were there, standing together, with bottles of wine in their hands. They were both dressed extremely casually, which was unusual for two attorneys on a day such as this. Suddenly, Lucas realized what was happening. He knew what they were up to only seconds before they screamed "Happy Birthday, Luke!" and popped the corks off the wine. He embraced the two in a friendly hug and thanked them.

"You guys didn't have to do all this for me!" Lucas exclaimed. "What about work?" he asked as they pushed a cup of the wine in his hand.

"Of course, typical Lucas asking about work on his birthday," George said with a laugh.

"Don't worry, we don't have any cases today, because we're taking you out! It's about time you lived your life!" Felix said.

"Taking me…where?" Lucas was anxious and nervous at the same time.

"Well, we already booked the flights. We're takin' you to Australia, mate!" said George excitedly.

Luke was awestruck. Australia? On his birthday? He didn't know what to think, so he just stood there speechless. He had always wanted to go there, but he never seemed to have the time. Were they really planning on taking him to Australia? He got his answer in the hectic 5 hours that involved changing, packing as much as he could for the flight, and following them to the airport in a hurry. There at the airport, all three friends had boarded the plane that would take the trio to the Land Down Under.

During the week that followed, the three men had stayed in Australia. Unexpectedly, Lucas had found someone he cared about. Her name was Alyssa. They had met at a small park on the outskirts of town. George and Felix were out and about exploring the continent, and Lucas just wanted to take it easy. The lady of his affections, unknown that this was what she would become, was walking her dog on the sidewalk and nearly passed Lucas, who was sitting on a bench nearby.

"Hey," she had said, stopping as she saw his pathetic self all alone. "You look a little lonely out here by yourself."

Lucas, not the man of conversation glory, was not only surprised that someone had talked to him, but didn't really know what to say in response. He looked up at this mysterious stranger. She was a very pretty lady. She had very tan skin, long dark black hair, and a very gentle demeanor, as far as Luke could tell.

"Oh, hello," he said to her. "I just came out here for a little sun and, uh, just to, hang out and…chill, ya' know"

She looked at him and giggled. "Are you from around here?"

Now totally red in the face, Luke responded with a shake of his head to indicate 'no.' "My friends brought me here for a little birthday getaway." Then, without realizing what he was doing, surprising both Alyssa and himself, he asked her out to dinner. Just like that, out of the blue, he had asked her on a date.

From then until the end of the trip, Luke and Alyssa had gone out on 6 occasions and Lucas had been invited into her house once. They had talked about each other's lives, learned more about each other, and finally, on one night, they had kissed, right before he had been invited up to her apartment. Lucas was in love. His friends, George and Felix, had suspected something was wrong when they announced the end of the trip. It seemed so unfair to Luke. Why did he have to leave? He had found the person he may want to spend his life with, and Australia was such a nice place too. The next day, when it was time to leave, Lucas went back to the park where he and Alyssa had first met, and sat down on the same bench where she had approached him. He wanted to stay there forever. In Australia, that is. He certainly had enough money to move, but it didn't seem right. His home was in L.A. He couldn't just abandon his career either. Aware of all these things, he had decided not to stay.

That day he had boarded the ill-fated Oceanic Flight 815, along with George and Felix. Lucas sat in the middle of the plane, while his friends had to board in the tail section. One hour before take-off, they had packed their bags and left the hotel where they had stayed. Lucas fell into a small depression before they arrived at the airport, and didn't say much to his friends as they walked past him to the rear of the plane. All passengers were seated, and the plane left the ground and took off through the blue depths of the sky.

Alyssa had been jogging and walking her dog after she returned from work. Finally, she could go home and relax, maybe even give Lucas a call later at the hotel. She reached her apartment, number 2342, and opened the door. Slipped under the door was a note that had 'ALYSSA' sprawled across the front. She bent down, picked it up, and began to read it as she sat down on a chair in her apartment. Her dog ran off into another room. The note read:

Good-bye my sweet Australian friend. I am so glad that I met you on this trip. As you are reading this, I'm already on the plane back to Los Angeles. I'm sorry that it had to end so abruptly, because it didn't even have much of a chance to begin. I wish you the best. Maybe we will meet again someday.

Sincerely,

Luke

P.S. If it helps, I considered staying.

Alyssa couldn't help but shed a tear as she put the note down.

Approximately 20, 000 miles above her, at that same exact moment, a plane was losing turbulence. The tail section flew off, and fell into oblivion, while the rest of the plane crashed like a meteor onto a South Pacific island. There were 48 survivors.

Luke awoke with a start. His pulse was rushing, he was sweating, and he was panting like an animal. Locke had laid him down on top of the table in the cabin after Lucas had fallen back and passed out. While he had been in his state of unconsciousness, Locke had scourged the cabin. All he had found, however, were the items on the counter to the left, dust an inch thick, the papers he pushed aside to make room for Luke on the table, and the hundreds of human bones strewn about.

When Lucas had snapped back to reality, he wasn't quite sure what was going on. He looked down and saw those all too familiar white remnants and he instantly knew he was inside the log structure. He turned to Locke, who was busy folding up and storing as many of the papers as he could. That's when they heard it: a faint rustling outside in the jungle. They turned to look out the entrance, where the door used to stand. They couldn't see anything.

"What do you think…?" Luke began to ask, but Locke shushed him. Luke jumped off the table and landed on some bones, thwarting his plan to try and keep quiet. Locke followed close behind him as he began to walk out. Locke, however, expertly dodged all the white bones on his way. When they left the safety of the cabin, they saw her. It was so sudden; they both stopped in their place and stared at her. The rugged-looking French lady, Danielle Rousseau, was standing to the left of them. She had a shotgun, quite like the one lying in the cabin, slung around her back. Her clothes were dirty and worn from years of use. She looked at them with a fierce, devilish look in her eyes.

"What were you doing in there?" she asked, deciding to skip the 'how do you do's?' and get right to the matter at hand.

Locke was quick to answer. "How does it concern you?" he countered boldly.

She looked at him with that same glaring look. "I built the place. It is one of my residences on this island, and I don't see how it concerns you."

"We're fighting to survive out there," Locke said with a wave of his hand, looking quite annoyed. "Anywhere where there could possibly be supplies is a place we need to look into."

"I see. Well, as I am sure you have found out for yourself, there isn't anything of use in there," said the French lady in a mocking tone.

"No, maybe not, but there were HUMAN BONES, lady!" Luke announced bravely.

This time it was Danielle's turn to look annoyed. She paused, and was reluctant to respond. "I had to do it, they were diseased!" she said exasperatedly. "I had to…I had to KILL them all!"

Luke couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for her. It only lasted a minute, before being replaced by a feeling of 'Dang she must be crazy to kill all these people!'

"You!" she exclaimed, pointing to Locke. "Stay away from me! GET AWAY! The disease, it's spreading! GET AWAY!"

But Locke needed to learn more. "What disease? Who did you kill?" he asked.

"Just get…away…from me!" she said as she pulled her shotgun from around her back and now held it in her hands. "I wasn't afraid to shoot them." She pointed her shotgun barrel to the bones on the floor. "I'll have no problem shooting you too! You're all…ill!" She started to aim the shotgun at Locke, who looked extremely calm for the situation.

Luke tried to calm things down on the French lady's side. "Let's just take it easy now…," he began.

Danielle turned to face Luke, the shotgun now bearing down on a different target. "Don't interfere. You haven't been infected yet, but I will still kill you if you get in the way."

Both Lucas and Locke looked totally helpless and incapable of doing much to stop this madwoman. So, they let her speak, and didn't dare interrupt.

"We came here, my colleagues and I, by accident. Our ship crashed and we had to…"

But Locke wasn't listening. His thoughts were someplace else, many years before the plane crash. His life was just starting to look up. He had his own apartment, a new job, a new outlook. So when his short-time girlfriend told him that she was pregnant with his child, it all seemed to fall apart once again. He couldn't support a child! He could barely support himself. It was all happening too fast for him. He had to talk about this with Stephanie, the woman he knew for only a month, and who now carried his baby. They got together to talk about what should happen to the baby, and after many discussions and arguments, he and Stephanie had decided together what was to be done with the child: She was getting an abortion.

"…and so they fell ill with the sickness a short while later and I feared that it would spread. So, I killed them. Somehow, it's back, and that man has it," she concluded, pointing to Locke, again with her shotgun.

As she was talking, Locke had slowly backed up, trying to get to the entrance of the cabin and grab the shotgun inside. She hadn't noticed yet, so he kept on creeping back. He was only four feet away from the opening now, where he planned to dash to retrieve the gun. Three feet, two feet…

It was the day of the abortion. Stephanie wanted to go alone, and Locke was reluctant to oblige. What were they doing? He sat in his apartment, thinking. They were killing an innocent life. A human being that could do so much good in the world would never get the chance to see beyond the womb. John thought about leaving, to go stop her, but he decided otherwise. At the hospital, Stephanie was having the same doubts as Locke. That's why, before they started the abortion, she had decided against the procedure. After she left the hospital that day, she also left town, and never saw John Locke again.

Crunch. Locke had gotten too close and didn't realize it. Danielle, who had been busy talking to Lucas, now turned her attention to the source of the noise. Locke turned so he faced the entrance and ran to the counter toward the left on which the shotgun was perched. He could only pray it had bullets.

Almost 30 years before the crash, Stephanie had left town in the hopes of starting a new life. She was still pregnant at the time, and would be for another two months. After long days of picking a new home, a new lifestyle, and a new job, her water broke. She rushed to the hospital. The nurses were very nice and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. She thanked them, and soon she began having the contractions. A doctor was rushed in. All she could think about was the excruciating pain…and that there wasn't a man next to her to help her breathe, to swear at during the birth, or to cut the umbilical cord when the baby was born.

After Locke had grabbed the gun off the counter, he turned around…and received the unwelcome surprise of being faced with a gun similar to what he himself was holding.

"Don't move," Danielle said. "Or I'll shoot."

She tried to stand as far away from Locke as possible, afraid that she may catch the same virus that had ended in a mass slaughter in the same cabin where they stood now.

Locke didn't know what to do. He couldn't just let her kill him, so he slowly lifted his gun to meet hers.

"Put it down!" she screamed, but Locke didn't listen or hesitate.

Both guns were now pointed at their intended victims. Suddenly Lucas appeared at the doorway.

"Don't let her, Locke! She'll kill both of us!"

At that moment, a finger curled around the trigger of a gun, and a shot was fired. The shot had hit its target.

"It's a boy!" they cheered as the baby was born. Stephanie allowed a small smile to creep across her face, but it didn't last long. She hadn't planned on keeping the baby. She was giving him up for adoption.

After the cord was cut, the nurse asked her what she wanted to name him. Stephanie had thought about it since she knew she was pregnant. She smiled, as she held the newborn boy for the first and last time of her life, and said in a faint whisper,

"Lucas."

To Be Continued…