A/N: Hey look! I'm not dead. Hope everyone had a nice holiday season. Here's a juicy chapter for y'all :D
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It took them the rest of the afternoon to get through the meadow and back into the jungle. The land had begun to slope in an upwardly fashion, slowing their progress even further.
Sawyer held his lead this time (not that it mattered since he obviously had no idea where he was going) but his sluggish pacing was really being to concern Kate. Since their last break, he'd been walking onward with fueled determination and the combination of the humid heat and the physical demand of the journey, applied to his already-weakened and still-recovering state, could only spell out trouble.
However, he'd never admit to being in pain, let alone being tired. Not 'til it killed him. So the responsibility of Sawyer's well-being fell onto Kate. Whatever happened out here would be directly on her shoulders. She'd signed up for it the moment she'd left the hatch this morning. Or perhaps even earlier. (The moment Sawyer had returned? Even before that? Her mind quickly blocked out the possibilities.)
Not about to allow Sawyer to continue carelessly driving himself onto dangerous territory (literally and not), Kate was left with no choice but to break the silence again.
Unsure exactly of how to approach the topic, and not keen on giving Sawyer the satisfaction of her caring, Kate instead took a safer route.
"Just admit that we're lost." She came to a stop and set her hands firmly on her hips.
That had come slightly out of the blue, but it worked in bringing Sawyer to a stop. He whirled around and narrowed his eyes at her, attempting to pick apart her statement, in search of a deeper meaning.
For once, he didn't find one. (Usually he would have her nailed. Kate's worries thickened again.)
"We ain't lost," he finally countered, though his tone was too defensive to pass as convincing.
There was stubborn, and then there was Sawyer. Kate chewed on her lip. "I'm fairly certain we've passed this log," she tipped her head at a rotting tree trunk to their side, "at least three times now, Sawyer. We're going in circles."
He let out a growl of frustration as he spared their surroundings a glance. (The fact that she was right got to him more than the fact they were indeed lost.) Kate held back a satisfied smile, knowing it'd only make matters worse. She brought her arms up, crossing them in front of her chest, and waited for Sawyer to make the next move.
Of course, things would never be simply resolved with him. "You signed up for this tour, Freckles. Ain't my problem you don't like the guide." He turned swiftly and continued to walk. (Typical.)
Kate stared after him a moment, then followed. She wasn't about to let of this go so easily.
"Come on, Sawyer. Let's just go back to camp."
He shot her an amused look over his shoulder. "How the hell do ya expect to find the way back if we're lost?"
(Ha! He admitted it, if indirectly.) Instead of basking in that fact, Kate let it slip by without commenting.
"Sun," she stated, simply.
That caused Sawyer to stop again. He lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "You gonna channel her through a rock or somethin'?"
It took Kate a moment to realize what he meant. She was torn between an eye roll and a laugh. "No, I mean the actual sun." She lifted a hand towards the western sky, where the last patch of clear sky housed a dull, yellow-gold sun. Sawyer flickered his gaze from it back to Kate, clearly not getting the picture.
"It sets in the West," she explained calmly, before frowning. "Haven't you ever watched it from the beach?"
Sawyer had to chuckled at that. "Not much for sunsets, Freckles." He let out some air through his nose. "What's your point anyway?"
She shook her head, annoyed that everything had to be spelled out for him. "We can follow the sun back to camp."
"Ah." Her watched her for a second, then shrugged. "Been through this before, sugar. I ain't goin' back to camp until I finish what I came out here to do." He glanced back at the sun, then turned his back to it and started walking in the opposite direction.
Kate didn't miss a beat. "You don't even know why you're out here, Sawyer." She stalked after him angrily. "Is this really worth it?"
He didn't reply and Kate felt her temper rising once more. (It was so much easier not caring. Damn human emotions...)
Suddenly Sawyer stopped and Kate couldn't react fast enough this time. She walked right into him, causing them both to sway a bit and earning herself a glare.
"What is it?" She peered around him and saw for herself what had caused the short stop. A moss-covered rock wall stood before them, rising out of the cracked dirt ground. It seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions. Kate let her gaze linger upward, where she could just make out the top edge of the wall, a good thirty or forty feet up. She wondered if an earthquake had caused this odd land alignment. It seemed like the only logical explanation. (Then again, this island and "logical explanations" didn't really match up too well.)
Sawyer was already walking along the wall by the time she'd brought her eyes back down. Sighing, she started after him.
There really was no going back now.
---
As they continued walking the perimeter of the rocky wall some time later, Kate felt (and heard) her stomach growl. It was now early in the evening and she hadn't eaten anything since the previous night. Before she could reach around her shoulder to extract a snack from her bag, she remembered that she'd left in such a haste this morning that she hadn't brought any food along for herself.
Her eyes wandered to Sawyer's figure strolling along a few steps ahead. Did she dare ask him for one of his goodies? (Food goodies, that is.) He'd give it to her, sure, (carte blanche!), but he wouldn't make it easy.
She started to weigh her options, but the rumble her stomach produced a second later made up her mind.
"Hey, Sawyer," she called out, slowing her steps. He turned and blinked at her. But before the question came to her lips, Kate's gaze offhandedly traveled up the tree Sawyer was now propped against and she smiled.
"Well?" He asked impatiently.
Kate pointed a finger and he sighed before cranking his neck to look up. "No more cloud games, darlin'." He stared at treetops, where only fragments of the overcastted sky peered through, and frowned. "The hell am I lookin' at?"
"Bananas." Kate chimed happily, having now wiggled out of her backpack. She walked towards Sawyer. "Gimme a few minutes to get some, okay?"
He brought his head downward and smirked at her. "As if I got a choice."
Returning the smile, Kate reached the trunk of the banana tree and wrapped her arms around it. Getting her footing, she skillfully started her way up the tall palm. Sawyer had moved back against the neighboring tree, and for a split second, Kate thought he was just being considerate. Or, at best, clearing the way in case she came tumbling down.
In truth, his actions were much more selfish than that. She spared him a quick glance as she climbed, and he was clearly enjoying the view.
"It wouldn't kill you to grow some decency." Kate hollered down as she reached the bananas, adjusting her hold before grabbing a patch and tugging them loose carefully.
"Nope," Sawyer drawled from below, his dimples probably showing, "but it'll sure as hell hurt."
A dozen bananas flew down at his head.
---
Half an hour later, Kate was on her third tree, where she was picking some native fruit, of which she didn't even know the name. She tossed the final ripe one down to Sawyer, who caught it obediently and set it atop in the pile they'd accumulated.
As Kate was about to start making her way back to the ground, something above her flashed. She peered up with concern and regarded the scene thoughtfully. Thick, dark clouds had now consumed the whole sky. Streaks of lightning would start off in the distance then travel through the clouds, covering what seemed like miles within seconds.
It looked like it would start pouring at any moment.
Peeling her eyes from the sky, Kate scanned the tree tops and then the flat earthly wall they had been following. She still couldn't see over the top, though she could make it out to be fairly leveled (possibly a plateau like the one they'd gone up when they had gone out looking for the transmission signal back in their early days on the island), but the walls towered a few dozen feet over the trees, and it was way too steep for her and Sawyer to attempt climbing. Especially not during a storm.
Her gaze followed the length of the wall, to which there really was no end in either direction, and stopped about a mile down, where she could just make out the top of a break in the rock. (A canyon?) Since they needed some sort of shelter for the night, Kate figured that was their safest shot.
Getting her direction set, she started back down the tree, moving from branch to branch with thoughtless ease. Roughly ten feet off the ground, however, a piece of the bark gave way. Before Kate knew it, she was slipping. Grasping the diameter of the trunk, she closed her eyes and commenced sliding the rest of the way down, unable to hold back the gasp that sounded from her lips.
Suddenly, a pair of hands were on her waist. She landed softly on her feet and exhaled her fear. The hands snaked their way around to her stomach and she felt herself being pressed back against a warm, solid form.
"You okay?" Sawyer whispered into her ear, his stubble grazing her skin softly. She cursed her body for betraying her with a shiver.
"Yeah, I..." She swallowed and pulled herself out of Sawyer's arms. He took a step back, offended, but still looking slightly worried. She turned around and leaned against the tree, calming her nerves before speaking again. "I took a bad step."
"Uh huh." He chuckled, his features warming as he picked up one of the citrus fruits she'd gathered off the top of the pile and bit into it. "Jane's losin' her touch." He chewed and swallowed. "Lucky for her, Tarzan's around to save the day."
Before an amusing visual could form itself in Kate's head (Sawyer in a loincloth?), she bent down and started packing the fruit in her bag. "We need to get moving. The sky's about to spill."
"Little rain never hurt." Sawyer shrugged as he finished off his snack. Kate suddenly realized she still hadn't eaten. She set aside a banana. "It's hot as hell."
"I doubt we're getting just a little by the looks of the clouds that are rolling in." She felt like she was explaining why you don't want to be prancing around under the cover of trees during a thunderstorm to a four-year-old. "There's a dent in the rocks about a mile off. If we're lucky, it's a cave or something of the sort. We can probably spend the night there."
She got up, having put all the fruit away (thankfully, her backpack had been thankfully packed lightly beforehand), and set her hands on her hips, looking at Sawyer pointedly. He rolled his eyes and peeled himself off the tree he was leaning on.
"All righty. You win."
He waved a hand, signifying that Kate should take the lead this time. She shot him a final, knowing look and did just that.
He smiled as his eyes lurked down her back, completely ignoring her unspoken warning.
---
Thirty minutes later, they still hadn't reached their destination. The terrain had taken another turn and it now consisted mainly of dark, jagged rocks that broke off into various fissions in some places and rose up into strange, exotic-looking structures in others. Random weedy plants and low-growing bushes would pop up here or there, but besides that, it was a grim sight. It was now obvious that volcanic activities had played a part in the formation of the island. This far inland, combined with the dim grey glow of the sky, the land almost looked alien.
Kate wondered if there were still active volcanoes on the island (hopefully they wouldn't have to find out) as she wove her way through the obstacles. She was being considerate of Sawyer's condition but all it was getting her was a load of smart-ass remarks and a fair amount of whiny bitching.
She felt, rather than heard, his mouth opening, gearing up for the newest mockery, but she held up a hand to hush him before he could get it out. She came to a stop beside the latest boulder she'd circled. Sawyer sighed and came around beside her, coming to a halt as well.
A strong sense of deja-vu hit them both, and not for the first time that day.
The mountain wall before them was indeed cracked, just Kate had seen from the tree earlier. What she hadn't had sight of was the majestic waterfall that was spilling down from between the gap and spreading out into a clear pool at the base, before continuing onward in a steady stream that snaked through the contrasting black rocks and stretched off into the distance. The water, bluish-green and crystalline in its clarity, housed an assortment of tropical-looking fish. They raced just below the surface, disturbing it only to catch the unlucky bugs that dared land upon it.
Sawyer was knee-deep in the pool before Kate had had a chance to take in the scene. She blinked.
"Sawyer, that's not a good idea."
He was unbuttoning his shirt with one hand, his pack forgotten by the water's edge. "Why the hell not?" He grinned back at her. "History repeats itself, Freckles. You can't back out." His spirit seemed rejuvenated by the water, and for that Kate was thankful.
She held back a smile. "There's a storm coming, for one thing."
He struggled with tugging his shirt off and she found herself going towards him without even meaning to. "We better hurry up before it gets here, then." He replied smartly, taking the final two steps towards the shore to break the distance between them and giving her an hopeful look. She sighed and reached for his sleeve, pulling his shirt off gently. His grin grew. "Do I get to undress you now?"
Kate shot him a glare. "I'm not going in. If you want to risk getting electrocuted, by all means." She dropped her bag next to Sawyer's and took a seat. He was already backing up towards the waterfall; the water up to his waist.
"Sure 'bout that? Water's great."
She rolled her eyes and looked away, trying hard to ignore the fact that it was insanely hot and even more humid then earlier in the day. And the water (and Sawyer) looked very tempting.
A sharp splash sounded and Kate looked back towards the waterfall. Sawyer was nowhere to be seen.
"You're not going to get me in by playing games, Sawyer." Her voice echoed dully against the rock wall before drowning against the thundering water. The pool's ripples evened out slowly, casting a mirror-like reflection of the dim sky along its surface. Kate turned her head again, attempting an air of indifference, but she couldn't help but watch the water out of the corner of her eye.
About 30 seconds later, when Sawyer hadn't reemerged, she got to her feet.
"Sawyer?" The air was dead silent around her. "This isn't funny!" She waddled into the water, not bothering with her shoes or jeans, and scanned the surface for any sign of him. The rocky bottom gleamed back at her. A yellow and blue striped fish skimmed the surface before frighteningly bounding off into the darkness of the deeper water.
Suddenly, something pushed her from behind and she lost her footing, tumbling forward headfirst. "Sure it is," she heard before crashing into the water. Quickly fighting her way to the surface, Kate gasped for air, inhaling a lung-full before turning to yell it out at Sawyer. But his goofy grin stopped her, and instead she pushed her hands out and sent a decently sized wave at his face.
He closed his eyes as it hit him, then reopened them and shook his head; his hair letting out a shower of water in all directions. Kate smiled despite herself. This did feel nice.
"You got my clothes all wet." She sounded anything but angry and Sawyer grinned again.
"You can always take'm off." He winked at her. "My offer still stands f'ya need any help."
Another wave was sent his way, but he dove under the water before it reached him. Kate narrowed her eyes, scanning the clear pool, this time prepared for an attack. But it didn't come.
She heard Sawyer break the surface behind her, some distance away. Turning, she squinted against the scarce light in attempt to make out what he was doing.
"Sawyer?"
He was facing the waterfall, his back towards her. Glancing over his shoulder, he nodded. "Come here and look at this."
Curiosity, she swam towards him, eyes set on the waterfall. As she neared Sawyer, she noticed what he was probably looking at as well. Behind the cascading water, the wall hollowed out into a cave. Sawyer was already going towards it.
"Maybe we shouldn't," Kate had stated before she'd even meant to speak, even though she'd originally led them here with the intention of finding shelther.
Sawyer didn't hesitate pulling himself onto the rocks and maneuvering towards the cavern. "I got a flashlight in my bag," he replied suggestively. It was a sneaky way of wording a direct command.
Sighing, Kate went against her better judgment and swam towards the bank to retrieve their stuff. At best, they wouldn't be stuck outside in the storm.
She didn't dwell on the "at worse..."
---
The waterfall distorted the sparse outside light along the solid cave floor. It didn't reach the walls though, and Kate had to keep a hand on the one closest to her as she walked. Sawyer trailed a few steps to the side, scanning his flashlight over random points and stopping to inspect them more closely.
"Nice, ain't it?"
Kate spared him a look before sinking deeper into the shadows. "It's kind of creeping me out, actually." She blinked, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the lack of light.
"What? Afraid of the dark?" Sawyer teased, his voice echoing above the water crashing down by the entrance.
"More afraid of what could be in the dark," she replied softly, and he probably didn't hear her.
Her hand ran across the smooth stone and she followed the wall deeper into the enclosure. The sound of the water dulled with each step. She felt Sawyer following along, though he was keeping his distance.
Suddenly, her fingers grazed an unfamiliar surface. Kate stopped, confused. Turning towards the wall, she placed her other hand upon it as well. It was cold, flaky and damp. She clipped away at it with her nail, then knocked a knuckle against it. A hollow thud replied.
Solid rock didn't give off that kind of sound.
"Hey Sawyer, shine the light over here." Her voice rang through the air and his heavy footsteps responded. The circular beam of light landed on her and she had to shield her eyes against its sudden glare. Taking a step back so that she stood next to Sawyer, she noticed him staring at something ahead of them with an odd expression on his face.
She turned and blinked against the reflecting light.
The heavily rusted metal stood out menacingly against the glassy stone that surrounded it. It took a few seconds for Kate to register what stood before them.
It was a door.
