Chapter 12

James snapped out of the trancelike state he had been in suddenly, his eyes opening wide and his nostrils flaring. His heartbeat was calm and so was his body but when he tried to straighten his legs the muscles and joints groaned in protest. He had cut off the circulation in his butt so he slowly stood up in his hiding place and tried to walk off the pins and needles as best he could.

Looking at the watch he had put on the floor next to him he realized that it was now midnight, he'd meditated for over 2 hours! 'Shit, what if I missed my window of opportunity? I gotta work fast, don't have all the time in the world before Jack, Kate or someone else ruins everything, by making a big deal about the fact that I am gone. God help me if Zeke and the Others discover I am here or on my way here.'

Wiping his hand down his face in order to wake himself up a little bit, he stared out into the camp, fighting the exhaustion he felt due to the meditation. 'This is why I don't like to do it. Tires me out too much now that I am more than a little rusty.' His plan had been simple, follow the dream to the camp then hopefully something would land in his lap and he could get back to the beach. However, as he made his way here James had revised this plan, he wanted to know how they had ended up on this Island, for what purpose, and who exactly was running this operation. He didn't like being a puppet, he never had.

James looked through his pack, he had tarp and poles to pitch a rudimentary but effective tent, rope, water, the pain reducing herbs from Sun, a rifle, ammunition, a white shirt, binoculars, boar jerky and a chocolate bar. To avoid making noise or leaving any clues he'd unwrapped it at the CommieCaves and shoved it in the pack like that. Picking it up he decided to indulge himself in the treat, he wasn't a fan of chocolate generally but since the crash he was starting to think he hadn't given it a fair chance to rock his world.

Biting into the chewy goodness, James couldn't help but think of the last time he had been in a position to appreciate chocolate. He'd been in the heart of the Amazon and they had just made camp on the edge of the mighty river. Diego, Travis, Catalina and him had been walking non-stop for 3 days looking for a village they were told was suffering from disease. Nobody wanted to help the villagers as rumor had it whatever was killing off the locals was highly contagious and deadly. Setting up camp in order to rest and do some reconnaissance in order to find out where the hell they were, Catalina had handed out chocolate bars to everyone. When James had refused she'd smiled at him sweetly and told him that after three days without proper rest, food or shower, it would taste like a little piece of heaven. Giving up on getting through to her that he just did not like chocolate he had accepted the candy bar and to his amazement in the middle of the world's most hostile jungle he'd had what he'd jokingly referred to as 'an almost holy' experience eating it.

Shaking his head in amusement at the memory, James looked out into the camp again and noticed that there was some sort of movement down there. Picking up the binoculars James watched with growing interest as the man he called Zeke stood directly within his sights talking to a tall broad shouldered giant of a man. It looked like Zeke had just returned from somewhere outside the camp because he was taking off his jacket, handing over his weapons to another person James couldn't make out. Then to his surprise, Zeke pulled off a wig and the eyebrows and beard he had been wearing too. 'Well, I'll be damned. What the hell is going on here?' James continued to watch the pair for 20 more minutes before the giant started to walk through the camp towards the hidden entrance as Zeke descended down into the hatch James had seen in his vision.

James lay down flat on his stomach and followed the figure with his eyes until it was about a foot away from the entrance.

"When he gets back from the hatch I want you to watch him carefully. I think he's hiding something. I want everyone to be on alert, no mistakes can happen now. Having Michael back should keep them occupied for a while. But I still want to be on the safe side, we should know within a few days whether Gale will be able to make contact with the mole."

"Yes sir, right away sir. I will get Alex to watch him. And I will stay posted here, sir!" Replied the man who couldn't be older than Kate as he stood to attention as the giant addressed him.

"Good, I know I can trust you to make sure no one gets in or out without my permission first, Toby. God alone knows what I would do if I didn't have you watching my back."

"Not to worry Sir, I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I would hate to think what would happen if you weren't here to keep things under control."

"Well with your vigilance, I am confident we will never have to find out, Toby. I am going to go back and talk to Alex myself. You keep your eyes on that entrance, if you see anyone you don't know or recognize within 10 seconds, shoot them. Dead."

"Yes sir!"

The man called Toby remained standing where he was as he watched the leader walk back towards the camp. Then he walked around the perimeter of the mountain base in fulfillment of his promise to be vigilant.

James slid back soundlessly before he sat up again, 'Well well seems like my man Zeke's second in command!' Thinking over what he'd just seen and heard, the best James could come up with was that the key to getting off the Island was the giant or maybe whatever was in this particular hatch. 'In order to kill the snake, you have to cut off its head. The body may thrash in response but eventually it will be still.'

Now the problem was how he was going to find out the information necessary to eliminate the threat these people posed. Against his will he knew he couldn't make a move just yet. The timing was off, he would have to be patient and wait until tomorrow night, when the moon would be full if he had a hope in hell of succeeding. Meanwhile he could plan how exactly he was going to kill Toby, Zeke and their 6 foot 8 leader.

Meanwhile

'Two in the morning! I've been traipsing through this jungle for almost 4 hours! I don't know where we are going, or how long it will take us to get there. Or what we will find when we get there, or if we'll get captured or killed before we ever find Sawyer.' Kate was starting to feel the unbearable pressure trying to be quiet, not talking and doing their best to cover their tracks as well as be on alert for sounds of pursuit was putting on her. The only consolation was that Eko must be feeling it too. Especially since neither one of them really knew where they were going. It had been a silent agreement to head deeper into the Jungle and in one of the two directions neither one of them had ever gone in. Come the dawn they both knew they would have to make a decision about which direction to go again as they would be in a better position to do so in the natural light, for now they would doggedly continue their silent march in the vast nothingness.

'Oh God, please let it rain and wash away our tracks. And don't let anyone notice our disappearance until mid-morning at the earliest. Oh and keep him safe wherever he is, that goes without saying.' She couldn't help but worry about how he was faring, wondering if he was alive or dead, it was driving her crazy.

She thought back to the night in the tent and cringed inwardly, she couldn't have handled that any worse if she'd run out his tent screaming rape at the top of her lungs. In hindsight she realized that she must have hurt his feelings, again. 'I can't seem to stop doing that! And when I am not doing the hurting, he's hurting me.' Maybe it was time to make some admissions to herself, now that there was a risk that he was lost to her forever. 'Yeah but if I do that, I'll inadvertedly give myself away as I always seem to do with him. So it's better not to think about it at all." Focusing on the task at hand Kate distracted herself with trying to listen for sounds of being followed.

Later on

The pink fingers of dawn spread their romantic light on the island, Kate and Eko finally stopped walking to discuss their next step. Whispering, Eko opined, "I think we should head northeast, because the lay of the land suggests there is some sort of depression near the horizon over there. It may just be that mountaintop ends in nothing but a bit of land then water or it could be that there is much more land behind that. If that is the case then, we are going in the right direction. If not we can backtrack and go in the other direction."

Kate nodded at his assessment, "What happens if we are wrong? How long will it take to get to that mountaintop?"

"All day at least. If we are lucky we can get there just after sunset. We need to move now, I want us to rest when the sun reaches its zenith. It will be too hot and we will be far too conspicuous. Can you make it until then without resting?"

Kate nodded once again, she didn't comment further but she noticed he hadn't answered her first question. Finishing off her bottle of water, she wiped her brow with the back of her hand before gesturing for Eko to lead the way. Wordlessly he marched on, and mentally girdling herself she followed suit.

They slept in turns, up in a tree. Kate for the first two hours, then Eko for the other two. At four the continued their trek, Kate would never admit it but she was exhausted, it wasn't like she had been well rested when they had set off and now she felt like a zombie walking barefoot on the muddy, rotting and pungent jungle floor. Her boots were tied and hanging around her neck. Like James had done she'd taken them off before they left the caves, and her feet had blisters on them that she knew would hurt for days.

She studied the Nigerian man with interest, nothing seemed to bother him, he was taking this entire expedition in his stride and Kate couldn't help but thank God he was there with her, she drew strength from his presence. 'As long as he doesn't panic, neither will I.' She told herself determinedly. It was now around 7 p.m. the sun was setting rapidly and they were still a few hours from the mountain. When they got to it, her and Eko had agreed to try and find a way around it under the cover of night, if that failed then they would have to climb it the following morning because it would be too dangerous otherwise.

'First thing I'll do when I see him, is hit him, hard. For putting me through this. Then I'll kiss him, chastely! And tell him I am sorry about how I acted in his tent, ask him, no beg him to forgive me. He'll love that, the loser! Then I'll hug him and he'll hug me back, telling me its ok… Get a grip Kate! Oh God please let him be alive, well and full of lip as usual! I can't make it on this Island without him, I need him, and he needs me too. I know it's crazy and it defies explanation, but it's true, somehow we keep each other sane. Besides I need to find out just what he was doing on a reservation and in the jungles of Latin America!' Kate was close to tears, she wanted to cry in desperation, exhaustion and from guilt at how things between them had been when she'd last spoken to him. He was the closest thing she had to a best friend on the Island and she didn't know if she could handle anything happening to him. Silently and furiously the tears unbidden began to fall, coursing down her face as she kept on walking behind Eko. She wiped them away angrily and tried to get a hold of herself. Stopping abruptly, Eko turned around to look at her, before he went up to her and wiped the tears from her face with his shirt. He had been naked from the waist up since they had left the caves, but had kept his shirt on his shoulders, like she had her shoes.

Looking up at Eko gratefully, Kate smiled self-consciously then whispered, "Thank you, I'm okay now. Let's keep going." Eko gave her a look filled with compassion before he took the lead again and they continued on.