Chapter Eight-Who Knows How to Use a Gun?

"Ethan? Ethan Rom?" Alex asked, looking slightly sick.

Charlie's eyes flashed in her direction. "Yeah. You know him?"

Alex nodded slowly "He was the one who kidnapped me. What does he want?"

"Claire! He strangled me and told me to bring Claire to him, or he'd kill someone!"

Kate gave a small scream and Alex looked grim. "I don't doubt it. Ethan is insane."

"Where did you see him?" Sayid asked. Charlie blinked.

"I dunno, about 100 feet in, over there." He said, pointing into the woods.

Kate shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Well, we need to tell Jack…hey, where did Sawyer go?"

Alex spoke up "Right after you two came out of the forest, Sawyer to a cigarette and a lighter out of his pocket and went back into the jungle. I thought you knew."

But Kate didn't here her. She was already running through the trees, trying to find Sawyer to warn him of the danger lurking there.

-

Kate found Sawyer sitting with his back against a tree, smoking. She came to a halt in front of him, out of breath.

"Hell, Freckles!" he drawled, watching her wipe sweat from her brow. "You look like you just ran a marathon."

"Sawyer," she gasped out "We need to get out of here! Ethan threatened to kill one of the castaways! He's here, in the jungle!"

Sawyer was on his feet in an instant "Why didn't you say so sooner? Come on!" he said, grabbing her hand and starting to run down the path, pulling her behind him.

They reached the beach a few minutes later. Once out of the trees, Sawyer slowed down, turning to look at Kate.

"Ya know, most people on this island would've let me stay out there, hoping I'd get killed. But you came after me. Why did you do a crazy thing like that, running into the woods where some psycho lives?"

"Well," Kate said, smiling at him "Probably because I like you. A lot."

Sawyer grinned back, then laughed. He took her hand again and lead her down to the surf, where a small group of castaways were clustered around Jack.

Jack appeared to be finishing a speech of some kind. "…This is the only way we can insure that Ethan doesn't hurt anyone." He said, looking around at the group.

Charlie was shaking his head, a furious expression on his face. "No bloody way, man!" he yelled at Jack "You're crazy!"

"What's so bad about the plan, Charlie?" Claire asked quietly.

Charlie spun around to look at her. "Claire, they want to use you as bait to get to Ethan."

She nodded "I know. But if it can stop someone from getting hurt, I'm going to do it."

The Driveshaft bassist looked desperate. "Claire, think about Hope!"

Claire stared right into Charlie's eyes. "If anything happens, I know you'll take care of her for me."

Charlie seemed to be on the verge of tears. "Of course I will." He said so quietly they barely heard him.

Jacked coughed nervously and addressed the group once more.

"We have four guns, so we need to pick the people carefully."

"Make that five, doc." Sawyer interrupted, "I still got the marshal's carryon gun."

Jack blinked and continued. "Okay, so we have five guns. Who knows how to use one?"

Locke, Sayid, Kate and Sawyer raised their hands. After a moment's hesitation, Alex put her hand up along with them.

Sayid looked at her in surprise. "You know how to use a gun?"

Alex grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, my father, Robert, always said that you can never be too careful on this island, so he taught me at age six how to fire one and I've been practicing ever since. I got the gun from a crashed boat that the others had already raided. What?" she said, looking surprised at Sayid's shock. "It's not like the bodies were gonna need it anytime soon."

"So we have six guns?" asked Jack, his eyes on Alex.

"Yeah, we have six." She said "But I'll have to go get it. It'll only take a minute." And with that, she scampered into the woods to retrieve the gun from the hollowed-out log she had hidden it in.

After she left, Charlie walked up to Jack.

"I want to come with you."

Jack shook his head. "We can only take people who know how to use a gun."

Charlie was starting to get angry again. "Jack, I want to come!"

"But you don't know how to use a gun." Jack said gently "Sayid, Locke, Sawyer, Alex, Kate and I do."

"Who said you know how to use a gun, Jack?" asked Alex, who had appeared at the doctor's elbow, holding a nine millimeter gun in her hand. Jack blushed.

"Of course I do!"

Alex grinned at him "Okay."

Jack cleared his throat "Well, we should get started, then." He passed out the guns to the people who were coming. Jack slipped the last gun into his belt. "Make sure they're all ready to use at any moment." He cautioned as the small band of survivors made its way through the jungle, leaving Charlie at the beach.

Alex smiled and reached out towards Jack, taking the nine millimeter gun from his belt. She flipped a small switch on the side and held it out to him, barely containing her laughter. "Guns work better when the safety is turned off."

Jack turned a brilliant shade of pink, and snatched the gun back from Alex.

"I know how to use a gun!" he whispered furiously to her. Alex patted the doctor on the shoulder.

"Never said you didn't, Jack."

-

When they reached the clearing Charlie had encountered Ethan in, Claire sat down in the middle of it, glancing around nervously.

She couldn't see the other castaways, but she knew they were there, surrounding her, waiting for Ethan to make his appearance.

A minute passed. Then two.

Nearly an hour later, Claire's nerves were stretched to their breaking point. The dark, cold and rainy weather wasn't helping either. Suddenly, she heard a crash behind her. She whirled around to find herself face to face with Ethan Rom.

Author's Note: I hate typing! Chapter Nine should be up by tommorow!