Chapter 4

He woke with a massive headache. Being hit on the head two times two days in a row isn't doing wonders for his head. He opened his eyes slowly, squirting against the pain behind his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Kate was kneeling next to him, her hands still behind her back.

"Like my head's been run over by a 100-tonne truck." Sawyer lamented. He grimaced has he tried to sit up, letting the stars dancing before his eyes subside a little before he spoke again. "How long was I out?"

"A couple of hours I think" Jack replied. He looked at Sawyer with concern. "Are you really feeling alright?"

"Hell, doc, I just answered that damn question!" Sawyer growled.

"I am not asking about your head." Jack said. "What about the rest of your body? Any ill feelings?"

"As far as I know, my head is threatening to explode, my shoulders are aching from lying on the hard damn floor, and my wrists are sore from the bounds, my feet are numb, and my throat is dying of thirst soon! Does that satisfy you?" Sawyer shouted, his physical pain not doing much to help alleviate his mood at the moment.

"No, Sawyer, listen." Kate said. "They injected the blue liquid into you when you were knocked out. How do you feel now?"

Sawyer turned his head to look at his arm instinctively. There was indeed a tiny needle mark on his arm. "Great, what the hell did they stuff into me? What are those tests they talking about?"

"I am not sure, but I remembered Michael telling me they made Walt do some tests too." Jack said.

Sawyer leaned against the wall with his bound feet in front of him, feeling very tired all of a sudden. He closed his eyes.

"Sawyer, are you alright?" Kate asked, not used to the quietness of the Southern man.

"Yeah, just peachy" Sawyer said. But he knew he was lying. His whole body feels very lethargic all over. There were no strength in his arms and legs. The throbbing in his head gets louder by the minute. Suddenly, a pang of pain hit him in the stomach squarely, causing him to yell out a cry against his wish. "Aaargh…" he fell onto the floor sideways and doubled up, trying to curl into a ball to curb the pain, his bound hands thrashing behind his back.

"Help help! Somebody help!" Kate shouted frantically. She was almost crying. What have they done to him?

Someone opened the door. This time it was Tom, the man with the fake beard. He had removed his beard though. "Oh I see Mr Ford is reacting to the virus at last". He squatted next to Sawyer and drew a sample of his blood into a syringe. "We will do some tests and see how it's progressed." Then he stood up and left, shutting the door behind him.

"Hey you can't leave him like this!" Kate shouted. But she knew he couldn't hear her. She turned to look at Jack, who was looking at Sawyer. The pain seemed to have subsided a little. He was still on the ground all curled up, but at least he wasn't thrashing about as much.

"Sawyer, Sawyer, can you hear me?" Kate asked. Sawyer heard her, but he was in too much pain to reply. He gritted his teeth and grunted a little, lying on his side willing the pain to go away.

After what seemed like eternity, the door was opened again. Henry walked in with the same two men. "It looks like we are getting the right response from his body, which our researchers are very glad about… So now we have no more use for the two of you. You may leave now, but don't ever think of coming back to find us. We will release Mr Ford once we have completed our tests." He added on an afterthought "If he survives them."

One of the men walked over to Kate holding a hood to be put over her head. "No!" she shouted. "Wait! I am staying with him, I am not leaving!"