---Two---

"What the hell just happened?" Kate found herself asking, as everyone stood, shocked and staring at the woman's footprints in the ransacked sand. Jack was still bent over the coffin, looking inside. The woman had dropped her necklace in her haste. He picked it up carefully, cautiously, trying to figure everything out. That plane could've been the one to save them. And now its wreckage would be washing up on shore.

"We have to go after her," Michael said. "She could be dangerous," someone else pointed out. There were murmurs in the crowd of agreement and disagreement. Kate turned to Jack, hoping that he would reassure someone about what was going to happen. His face told her nothing.

"I'll go," Kate said, stepping up to the plate. "A few others can spread out and help me look, broaden the area."

A few scattered "I'll do it"s and "I'll help"s came from the small crowd. Kate nodded. "Then let's go." As the tiny group began making their way up the beach towards the forest, Jack stood up. "Wait," he called out. Kate stopped and looked back. "Be careful. If you find her, tell her not to take that knife out yet. She's probably suffering from post-traumatic shock, so just… help her through it as much as possible." Kate nodded back and continued trekking to the brush.

"I'll keep going in this direction, the rest of you split up. We'll cover more space," Kate directed to her small band of rescuers. Inside the woods, it seemed darker and more foreboding than it ever had before, though only for a split second. After a few minutes, Kate noticed some footprints in the moist sand. The impressions weren't too deep, meaning that the woman was no longer running. Kate paused to look over the small trail the woman had created in the damp earth.

Back on the beach, Charlie continued fussing over Aaron as Claire stood in the break of the water. Charlie didn't pay much attention to what Claire was doing, but she was completely lost in thought, letting the salty sting touch her skin as the waves washed over her feet and legs. She just stared into the horizon, arms at her sides. The wind blew them slightly. "Elsie…" she muttered to herself before turning back to Charlie and Aaron, smiling at her son.

Kate continued following the path, being sure not to step on any of the footprints. She had noticed that the woman wasn't wearing shoes when she was in the coffin, and the feet that had been running through here were barefoot, but she was starting to wonder whether or not these were the woman's. She stopped to ponder this idea, and sat down on a rock. There were vines and bamboo all around her, and the ground was soggy and spongy. She looked over the footsteps and noticed that they stopped and doubled back. Kate muttered a curse under her breath. The woman knew she was being followed and had gone in the same direction that she had come.

Kate jumped up and sprinted down the new path. She saw figures on the beach, and looked down. The footprints had ended quite some time ago. She muttered another curse under her breath, but paused. She heard rustling coming from the small thicket of brush behind her. She tried not to breathe as she turned around. Hidden behind fauna, Kate spotted a body of white, moving slowly, trying to hide.

"It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you," she said into the vastness. The woman perked up and shifted behind flora again. "I'm Kate. I promise, I won't hurt you. No-one will, as long as you come out. We can help you." The woman did not react, but shifted again. For some reason, her figure seemed so blurry that Kate could barely make her out. "I'm not entire sure how to address you." Still, silence. "Do you speak English? Miss…" Kate was cut off as the woman charged her, knife swinging. She uttered a bestial cry and she swung the knife in front of her, forcing Kate out of the forest and onto the sand. Kate dodged a few of the woman's crazed swings, but her final one grazed her neck. Blood bubbled on her throat, and Kate raised her hand in disbelief. The woman shied away at the sight of blood, and turned straight into Jack, who hit her out cold. She thumped heavily on the ground, sending up a cloud of sand. Jack and several others rushed over to help Kate.

"Kate, can you hear me?" he asked desperately. She nodded slightly. She'd fallen on her back, and she was staring up into the sky, blinking slowly. It was as if she wasn't there as her eyes glazed over and she passed out. "Someone tie that woman up! And for Chrissakes, help me!" He kept Kate's hand pressed to her wound as he tried to lift her up. Charlie rushed over with Michael, makeshift rope in hand, and they bound the woman's legs and feet together, then they used the remaining rope to tie her abdomen around the nearest tree.

Claire watched the ordeal from a distance, biting her fingernails.

Jack laid Kate down and got out the remaining sewing kit. It was time to return the favour that she had granted him that first day on the island. He quickly sewed up the small gash against her throat, and was constantly checking her pulse. She hadn't lost too much blood, which was surprising for a slit throat. Kate had passed out, less from the pain and more from the shock and blood loss. Jack knew that she would have a hell of a scar, though. He didn't want anything bad to happen to her. It was just a thought he'd been having ever since that first encounter. And he knew that it wasn't worth anything, especially since they had survived a plane crash, and hadn't had any help for almost 50 days.

Even after Kate had woken up, the strange woman still hadn't. Her white dress had stains of every colour you could imagine. Kate said that she must've tripped every now and then in the forest, as she had seen skid marks in the soil. There were spots of brown, red, green, grey. The hem was ratty and dirt-soaked. There were tears in the bodice, and a trail of red going from just under where the knife had been all the way down her waist. Her eyes looked bruised as they frantically searched for a way to open. Sayid had been called up, and he just stood there staring at her. Jack made his way over to him and the tied up, sleeping woman.

"I'm surprised you could bring yourself away from Kate's side," Sayid said teasingly to Jack. "This woman looks so… broken."

"She must've been in a death-like state for at least a day," Jack said, sitting down to examine her. "She's got bruises everywhere – arms, legs, chest. You gotta wonder, what the hell happened to her?"

Sayid moved behind Jack to pick up a water bottle. "Well, I guess it's time to find out," he said, tossing some of the cold water onto the woman's face. She woke with a start, gasping and sputtering. There was dried blood at the corners of her mouth, Jack saw now. She began struggling tirelessly against the ropes, screaming in a stream of gibberish at Jack and Sayid. Sayid held her shoulders down against the tree. "Who are you?" he yelled into her face." She stopped, calm. She laughed twice and the rolled her neck back to stare down Sayid.

"I'm God," she giggled.