I hope the new cover for every chapter is helping you to envision certain portions of the chapters like I am when I'm writing them. And don't be alarmed by the Sawyer/Juliet cover. This is still very much Jack and Kate's story. Enjoy.
Kate burst through the front door of the cabin, gun in hand, and pack in tow on her back.
Her eyes couldn't believe what they witnessed. Jack was there, as big as day...and then he wasn't. The fists that held to his shirt were suddenly empty, the space he held filled in with invisible waste. She screamed at the top of her lungs for him, tears streaming as she fell back into a seated position on the bed, and thinking to herself that she really was crazy. She must have imagined him. His voice, his touch and then the rest of him.
But then she realized that she couldn't have. The things he said to her, about Juliet, the plane, some device that he had to get to. ELMA. What the hell was an ELMA?
There was no way she imagined that. It was too real, too immediate and necessary to him to have made up in her head. He was never scared, he was too stubborn, but she could feel it radiating off of him. His fear created her own. She had to do something. She had to find ELMA. It was all she had left of him.
The beach was the last place she wanted to go, and Juliet was the last person she wanted to talk to, but the muddy sludge underfoot wouldn't stop her from getting there. For Jack.
Sayid, Sawyer and Juliet finally made it to dry land, with enough time to get back to the beach before sundown, which was happening just then, the jungle blanketed by the soft orange tint of the remnants of the settling sun. Sayid was now leading the trek, Sawyer was right behind him, with Juliet bringing up the rear.
Sawyer suddenly heard her sneeze, and decided to ignore it. Then, he heard another and another, more boisterous than the last. He turned to her, annoyed, but genuinely concerned.
"You alright, Blondie?" Sawyer asked.
Juliet spoke over the hand she had covering her nose and cheekbones. "I'm good. Just allergies." She sniffled again, and then sneezed, her ponytail whipping with the force of her body's need to get rid of the irritants in her nose and throat.
He looked up and saw that Sayid was still close enough for them to catch up and then roughly, hastily pulled his pack to his side and searched for a small face towel, and gestured it to her, almost hostilely so.
"No, I'm good." She said, bringing her other hand up to signal 'No thanks', just in case he couldn't hear her over her hand.
He sucked in a whistle of air. Was she kidding? While her voice was muffled, she sounded horrible. He was trying to be nice, for once, and she was really going to refuse it? He moved down closer to her, and could read the agony in her round eyes and almost wanted to do more than offer up his sweat rag. Damn.
"Take it, and after you sneeze into it, consider it a gift." Sawyer smirked, dangling it in front of her. As gracefully as she could, she blew her nose into the towel and wiped the snotty incontinence away with it.
Thank you." She said with a small smile, sounding better already.
"Don't mention it." He said as he turned around.
Don't even remember it, he thought. Any kind of caring act towards this woman made him feel like he wanted to remind her that he didn't like her. Then why was he trying to make her more comfortable? Why was he willing to lie to Locke for her, when it would be a pretty amazing sight to see him rip her a new one and, best of all, watch her fumble and, most likely, fail? But Sayid would rescue her, as always, just like he did with Kate. He was like Jack in that way, could never let a damsel burn where she stood for too long.
They caught back up with Sayid, but not too long after, he spoke up. "You willingly came to a tropical island with allergies?"
"I wasn't supposed to be trekking through the trees when I first got here, James." Juliet defended herself. "I spent most of my time in a lab…with air conditioning." She pointed that last part out with a sharp edge. "I had a house, a kitchen, running water, a bed, not the patch of worn cotton I get to say goodnight to nowadays."
He chuckled at that last part. She sounded grouchy, akin to his very sentiments about the whole setup. He was uncivilized, that much he knew. He wouldn't know a steady, secure life if it bit him in the 'nads, but no man should have to suffer through life without a soft place to land or the luxury of not having to worry about sand fleas. How many times had he picked those little bastards off his own ass? Too many to count.
Sawyer cocked a brow, looked her head-on and smiled cunningly. "Welcome to the wild side."
"We're here." Sayid said from up ahead. Sure enough, when Sawyer and Juliet followed him, they met the white sand and wide blue ocean floor view that stretched for miles. The murmur of people talking caught up with them as they walked up to their camp. Bernard, Hurley, Charlie and Jin were standing in a huddle. Bernard noticed that Sayid, Sawyer and Juliet were coming in hot, their faces unreadable. He hustled away from the group.
He approached Sayid, his eyebrows raised. "So? What happened? Did you find the plane?"
"Yes, we did."
"And?"
Sayid looked the elder blankly in the face, trying his best not to lie. "We found the plane, and the pilot." Hurley, Charlie, Jin, Sun and Rose joined in to listen.
"Okay, so why aren't we packing our bags and getting the hell out of here?" Bernard questioned.
"Because the plane is on another Island." Everyone turned and watched Locke approach the conversation. "If we all go, together, Ben'll kill us. These three are lucky to have made it back without getting caught." He caught the shock in Sawyer's eyes, and noted when he squelched it. Sayid's face tightened with tension, while Juliet simply stared on, giving Locke no indication that she was royally fucked.
"James, Sayid. Juliet." Locke said, emphasizing her name. He just tipped his head, offering her a warm smile. Her presence told him everything he needed to know. He wouldn't badger anyone else for information, because it only made him look like the bad guy, the outlier, the outcast. It all added up. Jacob's insistence that he go back to the beach, something up his sleeve that he wasn't willing to part with. Hurley's hesitance to tell him what was going on. The plane. Juliet.
Jack was back. A man of his word, he had come back to this place willingly, and selflessly, and there was no telling where he was now.
"Glad you're all back safe." He meant it, although he quite enjoyed the way Sayid's lips thinned as he frowned.
He watched the challenge live and prosper in Locke's eyes.
"Where the hell have you been?" Sayid wasted no time.
"Out and about." Was all Locke was willing to offer. "Sorry we got separated back at the barracks. I'm glad to see that Ben didn't kill you."
"It's too bad I can't say the same." Sawyer, Juliet and the others watched on as the two men stared each other down. A crooked smile brought wrinkles to the far corners of Locke's eyes as he took the jab with a steel jaw. "You don't think I know what you tried to do. Blow the submarine, so that you can keep us all here on this Island, again."
"You think yourself so much better than me, Sayid. Such an air of righteousness, such judgment. Everything I did and have done has been for this Island."
"That is the first honest thing you've said." Sayid countered, his attitude revving. "If this Island is the only thing you care about, why did you come here? Surely you have better things to do."
"I came back here, because I was told to."
"By whom?"
"By someone very important to this place, someone who, most likely, knew about that plane, who was on it and why. Probably even played a hand in making it happen." He turned to Juliet then.
"Well, I don't really care about your tall tales, John, you just make sure you stay the hell out of my way." Sayid threatened him.
John brought his hands up in mock defeat. "No problem. Lets just make a deal to stay out of each other's way, yeah?"
"Yeah." Sayid nodded
"Goodnight." Locke said before he retreated, back into the shadows. Everyone watched him retreat, a bit dumbfounded and shaken by the tension between him and Sayid. It was always there, festering in some capacity, but now, it was on a stage all its own.
"Okay, what the hell was that?" Sawyer asked no one in particular.
Charlie shook his head. "Beats me."
Sawyer then turned to Hurley and Charlie like a bullet. "Hey, nice job givin' us a heads up about Locke. When did he get back?"
"Last night, and was a sodding bastard to Hurley." Charlie offered.
"What do you mean?" Sayid asked.
"He just kept badgering him, yelling, 'What do you know?' Being his usual charming self."
Sayid turned to Hurley, as calm as he could, but still fuming. He now knew why it was so easy for Locke to push Jack's buttons. The man was insufferably arrogant. "What did you tell him?"
"Nothing. I didn't tell him anything." Hurley admitted.
"He knows everything he needs to know, and no one had to say a thing." Juliet piped up, drawing the attention of everyone in the huddle. She and Sayid made eye contact, their brain waves moving at the same frequency.
"He could be bluffin', it's not the first time he's done it." Sawyer offered.
"No. He knows something." Juliet said, sure of it. He had an air about him that was alarmingly similar to how he acted that night on the dock. He was so confident in what he was doing then and he was even more confident of it now. From what she was taught about him and his history with honoring his own interests, that was extremely dangerous.
She moved to Sayid, "And judging from what you told me about his hang-up with keeping you all on this Island, he's not over it." She stalked away, angry and frustrated.
"Juliet, wait…" Sayid said, calling after her as he turned to follow. She eventually stopped, and turned to him. He brought his hands up to rest over the curve of her shoulders.
"He doesn't know about everything." Sayid said, gesturing to his pack, where he stashed ELMA for safe keeping.
"We don't even know what that thing does, or why Jack brought it with him." Juliet reasoned.
"I have some old maps and notes that I took from someone I came across in the jungle. They were able to tell me things about the Island, but I haven't been able to get through everything. Maybe there's something there that could help."
Juliet turned to the water, not allowing him to see the tears well up in her eyes, but thanks to the glow coming from the bonfire nearby, he already had. She cared. She really cared. He thought.
"If you remember what I told you about Locke as well as I'm to believe, you should also recall that I'm particularly talented with electronics." She let go of a reluctant grin, trying to cheer up at Sayid's effort to comfort her.
He finally let his hands fall from her shoulders, determination set in his tone. "Give me some time, maybe I can figure it out."
"Well, don't take too long." Juliet offered with a slight huff. "We got a plane to catch."
Ben sipped from the rim of his wine glass, the red cutting through the spices from his rib-eye steak. In a way, he was celebrating. He had recovered full mobility of his legs, now able to move about without the use of his cane. He was back, his full recovery no longer a goal, but a reality. On the other end of the table, Alex, slouched in her seat, something she knew irritated him to no end, and purposefully scrapped at her plate with her fork, playing with her mashed potatoes absentmindedly. He made them just the way she liked them, a bit lumpy, and loaded up with bacon bits, chives, sour cream and cheese, but he knew she was in a cantankerous mood and not even her favorite foods could get her out of it.
He meticulously sliced at his steak, and brought the thin, juicy piece to his mouth, taking a moment to savor his craftsmanship, chewing approximately forty times before he swallowed. Perfect. The teeth of her fork made a sound that would wake stray dogs. It brought him back to his haunting reality: an angry teenager.
"So, how was your time with Mindy?" Ben asked.
Alex couldn't take it anymore. He was always trying to force her into something she just didn't want, currently at the top of the list was becoming best friends with one Mindy Lancaster. The perfect daughter. She met his eyes squarely, attitude steaming from her pores and rolled them into the back of her head, as she continued to play with her food.
Oh great, the silent treatment. He thought.
"I presume this is about Karl."
"You never let me see him."
"I suppose not wanting my 16-year-old daughter to get pregnant is something that should be frowned upon."
"I'm 16 and a half, and me and Karl don't have sex. We just hang out."
"And hanging out is such a definitive term. I assure you that your definition differs from mine." Ben replied sarcastically.
"You just don't want me to be happy." Alex concluded, crossing her arms over her small chest.
"Well of course I don't, because you being happy would mean the end of my universe as I know it! Don't you know, Alex? That I wake up every morning and think of ways to make my only child, my baby girl, so preposterously, extraordinarily miserable that she can't even stand to sit across from me at the dinner table, after four hours of slaving over a stove so that I can make her a meal, a meal some children on this Island only dream of having?"
He raised his hands up in the air for added emphasis and insult. "You caught me, Alex. You caught me. I am the Devil himself. Out to steal away all of your good fortune. Mystery solved."
"Why do you have to be this way?!" Alex fought back, her voice shrill, petulant and just the right selfish pitch for someone her age.
"What way?" Ben choked out.
"So overprotective. Have I not proven that I can take care of myself?"
"No, Alex, you haven't. You've made it abundantly clear to me that you are not an adult who is fully capable of making informed decisions, and as long as you live under my roof, you will never so much as breathe on Karl or any other human form your age with a penis between his legs. Is that clear?"
"God, you are such a control freak." Alex screeched, slamming her fork down. "I should have just followed him to his camp anyways, at least I'd be free!"
He had tuned her out, cutting at his steak, until he heard the last bit, which made him stop and look up at her. His eyes searching. "What did you just say?"
"I ran away, Dad, or did you not notice?" Alex asked, visibly devastated, taunting him. Now it was her turn to make fun of him, to make him feel as foolish and small as he made her. "I got as far as the other Island."
"You'll never guess who I ran into." Alex dangled, watching the hurt fester in her father's eyes, as if he actually cared about anything other than himself.
"John…Locke." She said, letting that name linger on her tongue. She knew that he was her father's arch enemy, the thorn in his side, and she took immeasurable delight in reminding him.
"He was coming out of the Temples. You know, that place you used to tell me ghost stories about when I was five? Yeah, I got there all by myself."
Ben breath stalled and he found himself gripping the handle of his steak knife a bit too tightly. John Locke… He was coming out of the Temples... That was all he heard her say, the rest had faded out.
John Locke found the Temples, the most sacred place on the Island, the sanctuary where everything that could be deciphered about it resided. He felt his pulse quicken, and his mouth go bone dry. How in the hell did he find it?
"Oh, I'm sorry, let me correct that statement. It's not that I ran into him, I was following him, because I wanted to go live with him and his people, because I want to get away from you!" Alex spat hatefully, lunging forward to make sure her words reached their target. Judging from the look of hurt on Ben's face, they had.
"If I'm such a horrible father Alex, if you hate me that much, then why did you come back?"
"Because he told me to." She said, before rising from the table defiantly and running down the hall to her room, slamming the door behind her.
He sat there in the empty room, his mouth open, his lips twitching, and his round eyes darting to and fro, misted by unshed tears. The wedge between he and his daughter was wider than ever, miles upon miles. She hadn't come back because she knew it was a mistake to leave, because she loved her father and had realized that she had done it out of a vie for attention that was never going to be truly satisfying in the long haul.
She came back because John Locke didn't want her.
Not only was he slowly, but all the more gradually given this new information, losing the Island to him, he was losing his own daughter to him as well. There was only one way to prevent either from happening. He had foolishly avoided it, but there was no avoiding it. Not anymore.
He was still invested in the code that he believed mattered. His Candidates were not to be touched, which was why he'd simply gotten rid of Jack instead of killing him. The temptation to kill John was hot in his belly, but that would have been too easy, yet, getting away with it, figuring out a way to kill him without blood falling on his hands would have been feasible. He wanted him to suffer more than he wanted to actually win, he realized. His downfall was his need to stand over Locke and crush his spirit into a million, tiny pieces.
His arrogance had allowed Locke to live long enough to find the Temples, to allow Jacob to lure him to the Temples, which was never a part of the plan, of the deal they made through Richard. Of that he was absolutely sure. He may have broken them, but Ben soon came to realize the deck he thought was stacked in his favor was no longer.
"He changed the rules." He mumbled, astonished.
Controlled, purposeful anger burned hot through his chest the deeper the realization sunk. Slowly, he rose from his chair, and like a drone on autopilot, walked over to a far corner of the dining room. He pulled the false bookshelf from the wall, exposing a shadowy doorway and walked through until he entered the small room behind it, a place he used for storage more than anything. He pushed himself over into a corner, where collared shirts hung from hangers. He pushed the shirts to either side, revealing a solid wall.
He bent over and pulled the wall aside at one edge, revealing a large rock-slid door with a bricked archway, hieroglyphics peppered all over. He stared at it for a moment, his eyes roaming over the drawings, jealous and devastated that John Locke had seen the matched set. He was probably in on everything by now.
With all the energy he could muster, he pushed at the cobbled door, revealing a hallway that darkened into a murky, tight crawlspace. He gulped as he pulled the torch from its holder, and ventured into the darkness, absolutely certain that John Locke would be dead by morning, if not sooner.
Kate continued on in the steady darkening jungle, the torch she held in her hand lighting her way. She still moved with the urgency of before, but with limited visibility, she had to be careful. She couldn't afford any stupid setbacks. There was no telling how many traps Rousseau still had planted at her feet. To get caught in a net when Jack needed her help was the last thing she wanted.
She knew she was close. She could feel it. Even in the darkness, things felt familiar, like she had walked this path before. Hope beat wildly in her chest. She started to pick up her pace. If she could get there sooner, she wouldn't have to wake the entire camp to get what she needed. The flame at the end of her torch started to flicker. Growing impatient and annoyed, she kept moving, deciding that she would use sheer will to keep the flame from going out, instead of continuing at the pace she was before.
The wind picked up, slowly and then not, chilling her skin under its swift and relentless flood. The leaves pushed and the branches creaked. She presumed that a storm was coming, but hadn't heard any thunder or felt any drop in temperature. The flame continued to flicker, threatened to be extinguished by the wind, and that was when she heard it. The eerily familiar whistling, then the high-pitched, echoing howl and jarred, unpolished grinding. The ground shook with power under the boot of something unstoppable, unquenchable.
Before she could take cover, the Smoke Monster had blasted onto the scene, cracking a few trees in half on its arrival, the debris falling and shaking the ground beneath it. It blew her off her feet, sending the torch out of her hands, and its flame out of commission. She snuck herself into a small niche at the base of a tree and held on as the vulture split through and the wind threatened to take her wherever it wanted. Her curls blew over her eyes and face, casting her into more darkness. She pushed them back as best she could and looked up from her hiding place to see it through squinted eyes, dark and mounting, zipping through the trees, in a straight-arrowed line.
She could see the lightning circuiting through it and the upper recesses of the trees as it passed by. It was the first time she'd actually seen it this close. How did something like it exist? How was it possible? With a sonic boom for emphasis, it was over. Suddenly, the jungle was quiet, and all that was left of the encounter was the scattered cricking in the distance. She clutched a fist over her heart, and felt it trying to knock right out of her chest.
It was different from the last time she encountered it, less erratic and more tunneled, like it was headed somewhere in particular. Like it had a target.
A sickening thud sounded low in her belly at the thought.
The beach. Her friends.
With trembling fear, she pulled herself up and without light to guide her, she did what she was good at. She ran.
The night had gone quiet, nothing but the sizzle of the brush in the fire nearby could be heard. Juliet, with a stick in hand, played with the flames, scrapping at the frayed edges of the fire's base, watching the scattered sparks shine and fizzle within seconds. Her mind kept wondering to Locke, then Jack, and back to Locke again. He was told to come back to the beach. His words kept her mind from resting.
'By someone very important to this place, someone who, most likely, knew about that plane, who was on it and why. Probably even played a hand in making it happen.'
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Then she thought about Jack, before they left. He was becoming more and more convinced that Locke wasn't as wrong as he once thought he was. He was plagued by guilt, uncertainty, and now he was gone. Somewhere where he couldn't do a thing about it, wherever that was.
She said a prayer every other minute that Sayid would be able to figure out the device's purpose, so they could find Jack and get as far away from this place as they possibly could.
She felt someone plop down beside her, silently. She turned and took in the shadowy half of his face, and smiled.
"Here." Sawyer passed her a pill bottle. She took it and read the label. 'Allegra (Fexofenadine hcl). Take one pill, every eight hours for relief.'
"Wanna take a wild guess as to what those are." She read the playfulness in his beautiful eyes, and decided to play along, giving her best Leonard McCoy impression, deepening her voice for effect.
"Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a pharmacist!" She watched him fall into a stream of earthy chuckles, allowing herself to laugh with him. She never would have thought she'd be sitting next to this man, laughing with him, and honestly working up the strength to be okay with missing him when he wasn't around. The truth floated in her stomach, mingling with the butterflies that took flight every time he paid attention to her, showed kindness.
She liked him.
"Good one." Sawyer said, appreciably. "They're anti-histamines, whatever that's supposed to mean."
He was pretty sure she had already picked up on that, given how intelligent she was, but it didn't hurt to show that he could put two-and-two together. Jack had all the medications he scavenged from abandoned luggage and the hatch categorized for what they treated, from minor scratches, allergies to more complex issues. For once, Sawyer was grateful for the Doc's penchant for organization. It made his search for the right stuff much easier.
"I swiped 'em from our little medical stash. They should help with the allergies." His voice was warm, having lost that biting edge sometime between their trek to the plane and back.
"Thank you." She said. He simply nodded, not letting it show how happy he was with himself.
He cleared his throat in an awkward attempt to break the burning silence. "So, big Star Trek fan, eh?"
"Yeah. I was the dork of all dorks growing up. Never missed an episode. You?"
"Naw. I was more of a Star Wars kind of guy. Han Solo was one cool son of a bitch." He admitted. Juliet watched his face melt. She could almost see something so pure about him then, something so infant and sad at the same time.
"But…'Little House on the Prairie' was only thing that busted TV my foster parents sat me in front of played without screwing up on me, so I can recite a line or two." His crooked smile fell as he took his eyes from the fire to meet hers.
He saw that look in her eyes again. Compassion. Pity. He hated it. What was he doing? He was so boggled by her, and what he was willing to do to get closer to her. He smacked his lips, and she felt it then, that defensive wall coming up. Oh how she wished he wasn't so closed off all the time.
"Goodnight, Blondie." He scratched out, moving to stand and making it not more than a few inches away until he heard her speak up.
"Wait…" She called out, before he could disappear into the darkness. He turned. "I'd like you to stay."
"Why?" He asked.
"Why not? You got somewhere else to be?" She asked. He shrugged, her point having been made, and sat back down next to her. A stiff silence settled over them, what feelings were burgeoning between them continuing to scare them both into an accomplished unease.
"What do you think about Locke? What he's planning?" Juliet asked, deciding to keep their attention settled on the group and their welfare. With Jack and Kate gone, they seemed to be the de facto leaders, the ones in a position to do something about Locke, with Sayid at the helm as well.
"I don't know." Sawyer admitted. "Whatever it is, it ain't good."
"Sayid told me about what he did before, when he was trying to triangulate the signal."
"Yeah, I wasn't exactly a fan favorite around here back then, so I wouldn't know what the A-Team was up to."
"The A-Team?"
"Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Locke." Sawyer listed. "They were always in a huddle about somethin', and I just didn't really care what about."
"Well, seems like you do now." She said, causing him to look her way. Her lips pursed into a small grin while bumping her shoulder into his playfully. "Welcome to the Huddle."
"Thanks." He offered.
When he thought about it, he could relate to her when it came to being an outcast, to not being trusted, to being judged for parts played. He was beginning to see the person she really was. Kind. Smart. Diligent. He had already noticed her rapturous beauty, arctic blue eyes contrasted by sun-bright blonde hair. Absolutely perfect. That was always the first thing he picked up on, but discovering all of the other pieces and putting them into context was helping him to see who she really was. He liked who she really was.
He liked her.
"I had a story all cooked up…" He blurted out. She turned to him, confused.
"About what you're doing back here." The confession had brought a lump to her throat. She sat up a little straighter, paying attention to every word he spoke.
"I don't think it would have flown though. That bald bastard has a way of picking at the truth, and besides, my conning skills are pretty rusty, so…"
It finally dawned on her. "You were gonna lie…for me?"
"Yeah…" He said that single word shyly. For him, it was the equivalent of telling her what he just realized. It was scary as hell. After a beat, he revealed what he knew to be the truth. What was it with him and telling the truth to this woman?
"I guess I'm finally figuring out what is it to be a friend."
In that moment, the wind picked up, pulling Sawyer's hair out of his face and allowing Juliet to see the genuine emotion in his eyes. She was touched that he had taken her words and turned them around for the better. There was a restless battle inside of him at all times, she noticed. To be the guy that he wanted others to see and the man he really was. She was happy that he was coming around to picking the latter. Baby steps as they were. He still kept that rancorous edge about him though, that she couldn't help but enjoy a little too much.
She would never tell him that.
The wind started to pick up even more, so strongly that it almost blew out the fire in front of them. Juliet's hair blew up from the ponytail it was tied in.
"Looks like a storm is coming." Sawyer said, clearing his throat and breaking the trance she had him under. "We should get to our tents. Call it a night."
A woman came up, addressing the entire beach, worried. "Has anyone seen my husband, Rob?"
Juliet turned when she heard the trembling, but familiar voice. She remembered the woman. She helped her to gather some supplies for her tent, and find some warmer clothing to wear, since her somewhat sheer, cropped t-shirt wasn't keeping the cold away at night. She also remembered meeting her husband. Short blond hair, blue eyes, nice smile. They were very sweet and helpful to her, and she found it fitting to return the favor.
"Hey!" Juliet called as she stood up and walked over to her. The woman turned.
"It's Sharon, right?" She asked her.
"Yeah, that's right." She said, comforted by Juliet's kind tone.
"When was the last time you saw him?"
"A little bit before sundown. He went into the jungle to get some brush for the fire, but he hasn't been back since."
"He went into the jungle, alone, in the dark?" Sawyer asked as he stepped into the conversation, his voice chastising. Juliet jetted a scathing look in his direction. Now is not the time, James.
"It hasn't been a problem before." Sharon defended him. "He knows to be quick."
Sawyer looked down at Juliet, who had checked out of the conversation, her expression scrutinizing.
"What?" He asked.
"You don't hear that?" She met his gaze.
"Hear what?" He asked. Without a word, she was gone, sprinting towards the treeline. Sharon quickly followed her.
"Wha—Hey!" He squeaked out, completely lost.
Juliet reached the group of about five people, standing in alarm, watching the jungle with confusion and curiosity. She stepped up next to Sayid, who held his gun tightly in his fist at his side, the soldier within him on high alert. Sawyer reached Juliet's side and tuned his ears to the jungle, confused.
"What the hell are y'all hearing that I ain't?" Sawyer asked. Suddenly, louder, more audible cricking blew with the tortuous wind.
"That." Sayid said.
Locke appeared from the shadows, off at the periphery, but watching, listening. He knew that sound all too well. A tight verve of excitement ran hot through his veins as a grin he couldn't contain reached his face.
"What if it's the Others…coming to finally kill us?" Hurley asked, trepidation in his tone.
"Then we'll be ready for 'em." Sawyer said, pulling out his gun, ready to do battle.
"My husband is out there. I need to find him." Sharon said, moving towards the trees.
Juliet grabbed her arm to stop her. "That's not a good idea, Sharon."
"I don't care! I'm not just gonna stand here while my husband is out there somewhere!"
In that moment, the cricking was overrun by intense snarling and rapacious growling. The wind blew at an unspeakable pace, crashing in a few of the tents and knocking down some of the makeshift cabinetry in the kitchen. The items on the clothesline were drafted into a horizontal line, the overwhelming gust pulling at the trees the line hung between. Suddenly flicks of intermittent light could be seen through the leaves as the ground begin to quake, setting ripples from where they originated to the water at the shoreline, knocking everything in-between off balance.
Sayid realized that it wasn't an army. This wasn't man, but something ungodly, welding enough power to crush them all. He did the only thing there was left to do.
"Everybody run!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.
As soon as he did so, the Smoke Monster ripped through the treeline, high and mighty, with unchallenged authority. It was stormy and thirsty, a body dropping to the sand from its halo as everyone scattered like ants. Juliet lost touch with Sharon in the shuffle of people running for their lives. When she turned, she was gone.
Sharon shakily approached the crumpled body that practically fell from the sky. Before she saw any definitive features, she noticed the watch at the wrist. It was the perfect match to the one she'd given her husband as a ten-year anniversary present.
"Robert!" She fell to her knees, leaning over what was left of him. He was unrecognizable. Blood ran down his face, caked within his blonde hair and his torso was crushed. He was surely dead, and she knew it, but that didn't stop her from hovering over him, crying her eyes out.
Locke stood nearby, motionless as the Monster wreaked havoc. He knew that he should be helping people get to safety, but he was mesmerized, their cries of disbelief and horror not loud enough to crush his inner musings. This was the closest he'd ever been to the Monster with all faculties intact, without fear overriding his curiosity. He wasn't afraid of it. He was thrilled by it. Had it come for him again? Where would it take him this time?
Sayid ran as fast he could to his tent, to gather what he could of the notes he'd taken from Rousseau and the device. There was no way he'd allow it out of his sight ever again. When he arrived to his tent, the landing formed from plane wreckage that he frequently used as a study area was completely clear. The notes were gone, having blown away. He searched for his pack, finding it a few inches away from where he let it drop hours before. He quickly unzipped it to find the device in the pocket he left it in. He grabbed it and another handgun in an outer pocket and moved to help those he could get to safety.
Juliet helped people get their bearings and find their way out when she froze in place, watching as the Monster grabbed hold of Sharon, wrapping around her torso and plucking her from her husband's dead body, kicking and screaming. She couldn't watch what happened next, closing her eyes, but still able to hear everything.
Sharon's screams were cut short as her body fell to the ground, a few feet from her dead husband. Juliet jumped into action, reaching her with lightning speed.
"Juliet!" Sawyer screamed, frantic. He turned back, his eyes combing the chaotic scene for her. He found her, kneeled over a body, untying the shirt from around her waist. He grimaced. He had to get her out of here and she wasn't making it easy. Why did she have to be a hero right this minute?
"Please help me…" Sharon said faintly, in shock, her injuries extensive.
"It's gonna be okay! I got you!" Juliet said, tying the shirt around the thigh of her crushed leg, trying her best to stop the bleeding. She suddenly saw that she had lost consciousness. Blood was seeping into the sand from the ball of her head, an injury that she hadn't noticed until now.
"No." Juliet winced, and reached for her head, trying to wake her and stop the hemorrhage at the same time. "Sharon? Sharon?"
Sawyer came out of nowhere, grabbed her hand and pulled. "Come on, she's dead!"
"No…" Juliet stammered, her hands still touching to Sharon's fatal injuries, refusing to give up.
"You wanna be dead too? Come on!" Sawyer barked at her, pulling her up and along with him to safety. She turned back, tears in her eyes. He turned with her, and brought her body back to the direction he needed it to go.
"There's nothin' you could have done, we gotta go now!"
Sayid continued to usher people through the escape route, the last of which were Sawyer and Juliet. He looked over to the carnage. Dead bodies were everywhere, piled and strayed patterns of lifeless limbs. Tents, supplies, etc. were scattered through the sand. Their home was completely destroyed, their only true sense of security and normalcy gone, just like that. In a flash.
What he witnessed next was the craziest thing he'd ever seen. Locke moved right into the eye of the storm, willingly. The Monster hovered over his head, and he just stood there, as if absolutely positive he wasn't going to be killed, tossed like a rag doll. Its head-end descended to his eye-level and looked him straight away, as if studying him, testing him. The electricity that powered it continued to crackle and burn. Its entire body streamed into view then, and began swarming at Locke's feet.
"Locke!" Sayid yelled from the treeline, desperate, watching as he continued to stand frozen in the most dangerous spot he possibly could. The Monster swirled around him more and more, now at his thighs and growing taller. Locke let his head tilt back, closed his eyes and opened his arms, welcoming whatever the Monster was going to do to him. Eventually, there was nothing left but the beast itself.
Locke had completely disappeared into the heart of its daunting presence. Swallowed within the storm, right where he wanted to be.
There was nothing Sayid could do for Locke that he wasn't willing to do for himself.
So, he took his own advice. He ran.
Lots of action in this one. I hope the Sawyer and Juliet relationship is developing to your liking. I quite like how it's going so far. Thanks for reading.