Hey, I just want to thank you all for hanging with me while I've been on this hiatus.I hope you're all still with me and thanks for being patient. I'm working on chapter 17. It's handwritten just not typed so that won't be too much longer in the works. I don't know, I guess with certain "spoilers" recently my creativity has suddenly sparked again because no matter what happens in the show, here, in this fic Ana's going to be kicking around for sure for a long time.
Thanks again and I promise this fic isn't dead. It's nearing the finale soon.
Sorry it took me so long and glad you're all liking it. Thanks ever so for all your lovely reviews and I hope you keep enjoying what I'm writing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost, but if I did it would be VERY different.
Chapter 16 (part 2)
The jungle around them was silent. Eerily so, save for the noises that they made as Shannon lead them tentatively, gun clasped in hand, towards the hatch and towards the hope of safety.
Ana had instructed her to take the head of the first group of ten, full mostly of women and older members of the survivor community. Claire and her baby too. Those who were less likely to put up much of a fight and were, therefore, their top priority to move first if the Others decided to take the beach first as she suspected they would.
Ana herself had, surprisingly to most, taken the rear but she had done so for a reason. A reason best unknown by the group and most of all Shannon. She couldn't afford for any of them to panic anymore than they already had. They'd wasted more than enough time on that. The Others always came from behind and at least if she was there to meet them, she could provide a last line of defence for them, give them a fighting chance to complete the journey to the hatch. She'd keep the Others busy…for a while at least, but it was highly unlikely that they would come just yet. They liked to play with people's minds too much. They enjoyed the terror that they caused to take hold of men, women and children alike. They liked to be in control and They swore by trickery and deceit. Ana knew they were going to come. Sure, they were watching them as they hurried their way through the bracken right at that moment, but They wouldn't surface until they'd destroyed every last ounce of hope that they had left. If she could give her life ensuring that a handful of people at least survived before that happened and They finally came then she would do so.
Her hands fisted themselves a little tighter about her wooden club and she nudged the woman in front of her, who she vaguely remembered as Tracy, with her elbow, earning her a scowl and a curse muttered beneath breath.
"Keep moving." She responded resolutely, ignoring the insult and the woman did as she was instructed, albeit furiously.
Ana wasn't bothered about her sudden decline in popularity, however. She was doing what needed to be done. She was keeping them alive and if to do so meant that she became a figure hated, then so be it. She wanted to live, thank you very much, more than she wanted to be bosom-buddies with them all and as much as she would have liked to leave some of the more obnoxious ones behind at the beach, she had far too much guilt to contend with already to add the deaths and abductions of her fellow survivors to the equation.
Tracy in front of her stopped again so abruptly that Ana almost crashed into her headlong.
"I said keep it moving!" Ana growled again, stepping around the glaring brunette and glancing up the small line to see what was going on. "Shannon!" she called, but instead of the young blonde coming into view, came another slight brunette, one that Ana had never thought she'd be so glad to see, and the tall, reassuring figure of the island doctor.
"Ana!" they cried in unison and relief, meeting her halfway up the line and she greeted them with a curt nod. She wasn't one for 'I told you so's and now was neither the time nor the place even if she had felt inclined.
"Charlie got to you pretty fast then," she mused with a half smile and wary glance at their surroundings. "Whaddaya know. Boy can run after all."
Jack graced her comment with a fleeting grin but Kate remained stoic and held out a rifle towards her instead.
"Here," she stated and Ana received it gratefully, passing on her handmade club to one of the group who was currently weapon-less.
"You need to get them back to the hatch quickly," Ana stated in a hushed breath, dark eyes never leaving the other woman's face except to snatch a brief glance at the tall doctor at her side. She slung the weapon over her head and left shoulder expertly before receiving a handgun also offered to her by Kate. "And I want you to take Shannon with you and keep her in the hatch-"
"Shannon's not going anywhere." The blonde in quest announced, drawing their gazes apart as she stopped a few paces away from them, arms folded and frowning. "What are you? Like three years older than me!" she snorted and suddenly Ana was aware of why exactly the majority of the other survivors had given the girl a less than flattering title. Right then Ana was being introduced to 'Shannon the Bitch'. "I don't need you to always be looking out for me and protecting me." A quick toss of her head, a flick of silk straight hair and her glare was back focused upon the three of them. "I can look out for myself."
Ana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Why was it that people this side of the island were always so difficult? And why was it always the blondes? But she shook her head before her thoughts could degenerate any further and slip towards less constructive notions and concerns, and turned her back upon Jack and Kate briefly, taking Shannon by her shoulders to steer her to the side and keep their next exchange of words as private as they could from the gaggle of onlookers.
"Shannon-" she began but the young woman shook her own head more forcefully and shrugged Ana's hand away.
"I know this is just because you think you owe me one." She hissed through her teeth, tone harsh and yet little more than a whisper in the same instant. "You shot me! Big deal! It was an accident, I thought we'd been through all this before."
"It's not because I 'owe you one'." Ana snapped back in return, mimicking Shannon's words in her ire and desperation.
"Don't lie, Ana. I'm the queen of lying, I know when someone's spinning me one." She snorted in return and Ana fell silent.
Perhaps she was protecting her merely because of the shooting incident. Did she feel the need to keep her safe to absolve her own guilt at the occurrence? Was it Sayid's reaction upon his return that prompted her to make certain of Shannon's security?
As if she'd read her mind and been privy to all her contemplations, Shannon smiled somewhat triumphantly and nodded, watching, through lighter brown eyes than Ana's were, intently.
"I'm right. I know I'm right, but you need to get over this, Ana, and start thinking about the best way to keep all these people, and all those others back at the beach, safe."
"And that's you?" Ana countered suddenly, eyes narrowing slightly at the lecture being given to her by a woman at least seven years her junior.
Shannon nodded. "I can use a gun better than most of the guys can." She returned, the harshness of before receding back behind her pretty face until there was no trace of their bitter exchange left to be seen. "I bet I've got a better aim than you have!"
Ana's eyebrows lept up her forehead in part indignation and part amusement and she smiled, allowing a chuckle to pass her tight lips even as she rubbed a palm at her temples and shook her head. "I think we both know that's not true." She offered in a low tone but Shannon remained unmoved by the reference to their first meeting. "Alright," she hissed finally. "So you're good with a gun. That's all the more reason for you to go back to the hatch with Jack." Shannon opened her mouth, taking breath to interrupt but Ana continued on, speaking over her when she had to. "Look at them, Shannon." Her arm swept out wide inviting her to look over the congregation all wide eyes and staring at them. "They can't fight. None of them can put up little more than mild resistance. So what are they gonna do if the Other's come for them? Say I take you out there with me and we're both killed, Shannon. What'll they do then? Who will be there to fight for them then?"
Silence fell between them as Ana's whispers subsided into the noise of the jungle wildlife and Shannon's gaze fell to the ground as she contemplated the words spoken. The truth to them.
At length she nodded. "Fine. I'll go with them to the hatch. But you really do owe me one now." And Ana nodded back in return, smiling lightly at the brief attempt at levity before turning back to Jack and Kate as Shannon moved back towards the head of the expedition.
"Okay, I'm going back for the next group-" she stated resting her hands at her hips, weapon securely holstered in her belt.
"You can't go alone!" Kate protested with a slight frown and wary glance at the worried faces of the other survivors who shuffled after Shannon nervously and Ana rolled her eyes to the jungle canopy in exasperation. Not another one. "What if They come when you're out there alone?"
"Then I'll kill Them." She responded fiercely, beginning back down the line and in the direction that they had come from and there was an extended moment of silence before Kate followed her demanding that she was going too. It shouldn't have surprised her really. Kate had proved herself as the island busybody anyway but before Jack could protest, before Ana could tell her no chance in hell, a cry went up from the rear of the line. A scream of panic that caused fear to rise and settle across them all in a fevered pitch that made Ana's stomach churn.
"Where's Tracy!" one of the other women from the very back of the line cried in a panicked stutter, breath coming in ragged, very nearly hysterical gasps. "Where's Tracy! She's gone!"
-oOo-
True to her word, two hours later, they stood before their destination. According to Nora that was, though the insignificance of the metal door made Sawyer a little more dubious of their current location than the others of the group.
It was just as dirty and rusted as the tunnels that they'd travelled along. Just as coated with mud and age and corrosion. It barely warranted their attention, Sawyer mused as they watched Nora step forwards and place her palms flat against it, still bound at the wrists.
"Welcome," she grinned across her shoulder to them all before wiping her hands back and forth across the door's surface in tandem, dislodging the filth there with a purpose to reveal what lay beneath.
The black paint was flaky and worn and the white paint almost non-existent save for the a handful of remaining specs that her hands nearly dislodged in the cleaning process.
Black lines and white writing spelling out letters familiar from the hatch back on the other side of the island and in the bunker where Ana had taken him, Mike and Jin following their release from the prison-pit that they had first got acquainted in.
A white silhouette of a bird, though not the same as the one back at the hatch that had given the place it's name 'The Swan'. This bird had talons. This bird had a knife sharp beak.
"Welcome," Nora stated again, breaking into Sawyer's musings. "To the Hawk, Gentlemen."
-oOo-