A pretty face don't mean a pretty heart

Chapter 7

Collateral Casualty

"Tomorrow morning." Michael looks at the ridge. The sound of building work on the "ark" is growing louder and more desperate, as the deadline approaches.

Rocks tumble down a cliff into the ocean.

Don't look down. Sawyer looks down. Sayid is looking up. Waves crash against the base of the cliffs, three hundred meters below. "If Allah intended us to scale great heights, he would have given us wings!"

Sayid said, climbing up precariously.

"Red bull usually works me." Charlie grins. Sayid and Sawyer look at him, like he's the village idiot. Ahead of them, Boone, Locke and Connor, are fifty meters above. Starting at first light, they have almost completed the most difficult part of their journey.

"It must be an English thing." Mutters Sawyer.

"Take a breather." Locke sits down and sips water. They are a hundred meters from the cliff's edge, resting beside the canopy of a jungle, which goes up a step incline. On the other side of this incline is the ridge.

"With luck we'll be above them before nightfall, it'll give us a few hours to observe their movements." Sayid takes a swig of water. Connor is checking his pistol, Boone is watching him, and copying him.

"We'll have to get in close." Connor says checking the sighting. "Check your targets."

"Me and Sawyer will take the left flank. Boone, Locke the right. Sayid cover our backs. Charlie, be on call with the first aid."

Connor slots a magazine into the pistol. "Aim for the chest, to take them down."

Locke coolly eyes Connor. "You've done this before."

"Yeah – forty two times." Boone whistles, easily impressed. Connor grins. "On Rainbow six on my PS2."

"How many times for real?" Charlie asks, dreading the answer.

"I've never had to use my gun in anger." Though my gun has been fired in anger.

Boone and Charlie trade looks of concern. Locke chuckles.

"The priority is to get our people back alive." Connor remembers his training at the FBI Academy.

"I don't like this Nathaniel." Nathaniel raises his hand for Mary to cease speaking. Man is, after all the head of woman. "Miriam is a good daughter, when the time comes she will do as she is told."

"What did you do to Kate last night?"

Jack shouts, his voice hoarse from lack of water. Saul beats him again with the butt of his rifle. Shannon is unusually quiet.

Mary looks at Nathaniel; she too would like to know.

"If they still have not left this Island in the morning. The three of them will die." Nathaniel says in a matter of fact tone.

No. Kate screams. She looks at her reflection in a pool of water on the cave floor. Her hair has been cut short. I look like.

She looks up. Miriam stares at her, with shark like eyes.

"Bloody hell." Charlie whispers excitedly. Locke stands and takes in the scene. "In an alternative universe I'd build a house here."

"Your comeback tour from dead, you could build a hotel here." Sawyer mutters.

"The view is something else." Sayid whispers. Connor looks down the slope. "There." He points. "It is behind that crest and around the corner. The caves will be there."

Locke removes his day-sack. "Everybody wait here. I'll scout ahead."

"We kidnapped the wrong man." Saul whispers to Peter, handing him the binoculars. "The boat is almost complete." Peter grunts in approval. "Father covets your woman." Saul breathes deeply, his brother is right.

"He is our father, and we honour our parents' word."

A few meters away from them. Locke raises his head. Slowly, he moves away.

"I definitely saw Jack and Shannon. No sign of Kate." Connor hides his disappointment well. "There are five of them. However, Nathaniel and his daughter look as though they might be taking a trip to collect water."

"We go in now. That leaves the mother, and the two sons, against four of us at the point of contact. Agreed?" Connor whispers. There are assenting nods, and an eagerness to get on with it.

"Just as we discussed."

Locke watches Miriam lead Nathaniel down a trail. He is armed she is not. She must have hurt herself. Locke thinks. He whistles. He and Boone crawl forward.

Connor and Sawyer crawl forward as well. Above them and a hundred metres behind them, Sayid takes the safety off the rifle, and aims at the wide open space outside the cave. Nobody is there.

Saul comes out, wondering what type of bird makes that noise. He has left his rifle inside the cave.

Sawyer takes out a surprise. A hollow coconut shell, filled with gunpowder and stones, with a vine fuse. He looks at Connor, Connor nods. He lights the fuse.

On the other side, Boone does the same.

Saul hears a hissing noise. Snakes on this island, surely god would not allow serpents in his Eden. He hears something like a rock falling. The hissing gets louder, and now comes from two directions. Something rolls towards him.

The fuse stops. A curious Saul walks towards them.

They both explode, sending stones and kicking up dirt. He is blinded momentarily.

"Now!" A voice screams. Three shots ring out.

Saul's chest becomes a crimson red. Sayid, drops the rifle, and runs with Charlie.

Peter comes out, brandishing his rifle. He comes face to face with Connor. There is no hesitation from Connor. He fires twice, Peter falls down, screaming. Connor grimaces, he knows the agony he is in.

"Die." Screams a banshee like voice. Mary runs out at Connor. Shots ring out, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Connor yells at Sawyer to stop, as she slides down the side of the cave. Boone and Locke, belatedly join Connor and Sawyer.

There is stillness. The four of them, weapons drawn, walk slowly into the cave. Mercifully, Peter screams have stopped. He's dead.

"Shannon" Boone shouts, seeing her in the cave. He runs into the cave. Locke sees Jack struggling to get up. He runs over to free them both. Connor sees another figure at the entrance of an adjoining cave, he recognises her from the clothes, two days before. He runs over. Sawyer coolly takes out a cigarette, and starts to smoke.

"Hey Kate it's me." He kneels down beside her. She's still breathing. Thank Christ.

He turns her over. The joy turns to horror. As Miriam smiles at him. "Your bitch is going to die." She cackles, before she slashes Connor across the chest with a Swiss army knife. He screams, and steadies himself, raises his gun, and fires. Once, twice, three times at her.

Sayid and Sawyer, come to the sudden realisation that something is wrong. Who was with Nathaniel?

A bloodied Connor gets up. "Nathaniel has got Kate." He screams.

Sawyer, Sayid, Locke and Connor rush out and peer down the trail.

A shot rings out, and echoes. The four of them start running down the trail.

Another shot rings out, and echoes.

They reach the jungle. They find Kate.