Chapter 13
As soon as the light of the full moon was obscured by a drifting cloud, James took aim and shot Toby in the head.
He scaled down the mountain wall digging his hands and barefeet into the hidden crevices he'd seen and made note of earlier that day. Hunching down as he ran, he ran alongside the edges of the valley heading towards the camp. He had slung the rifle over his shoulder and behind his back. Pandemonium hit the camp as everyone started to scream and run while the security personnel in the camp started to take offensive positions in order to fight back. James knew he didn't have long, but what helped him blend in was the white shirt he'd packed for no real reason.
All the people in charge of security in the camp wore white shirts so James knew it must have been some sort of divine providence that he had packed that particular shirt.
Also while he waited for night to fall, James had painfully hacked away his dirt blonde locks in another bid to blend in with the crowd. He had observed that all the men in the camp had short hair so he'd decided to while away the time by altering his appearance accordingly. (See pictures of Josh Holloway with short hair on his website to get an idea of what he looks like.)
Out of breath he reached the cover of the trees, lying down with his stomach flat on the ground, he shot Zeke and his female bodyguard Alex in the leg with two rapid shots. Firing the gun in the air and in random directions he knew it would distract people and confuse them. Shrugginghis pack of his back, he lit his other shirt on fire then threw the flaming article as far away from him as he could on the orchard floor and half crawled half slithered with only the rifle on his back, towards the hatch.
'Come on, come on, come on!' He chanted in his head as he reached the trap door and tugged with all his might. At this point he'd been spotted and shots were being fired in his direction. Praying like he had never prayed before, James managed to prise the door open, falling headfirst into the waiting hands of the giant and some of his men.
"Sonofabitch."
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Kate and Eko ducked down instantaneously when they heard the sound of gunshots fired. In a crouch the two headed cautiously towards the sound, "Do you think they've seen us?" She hissed urgently at Eko.
"No, this is happening somewhere else, we are close."
Stopping when they reached the foot of the mountain, Eko stood up and started searching the mountain face.
"What are you doing?" Kate hissed at him in confusion.
"I'm looking for an entrance."
"I don't think there any entrances! We have to find some other way to get there!"
"No, there must be some other way in here, a faster way to get to them! Look for signs of a secret entrance. Any bush or shrub or lump that looks out of place."
Reluctantly, Kate did as she was told, running her hands eyes frantically along the mountainside.
As more shots and yells were heard, Kate had to force herself to stop panicking and concentrate on finding the entrance.
She wrung her hands in mounting frustration and looked further along the mountain side her eyes colliding with a figure in white. Gasping in shock, she stared at the woman, moving as if in a trance towards her.
"Kate!" Eko whispered her name loudly, wondering what the brunette was doing walking off in the middle of their search like that.
Kate ignored him, then stopped in confusion as the woman was gone, she turned to Eko, who was striding towards her purposely.
"What are you doing?" He demanded sharply. Kate turned to look where the woman had been standing, she frowned. In front of her she noticed a discrepancy in the mountain wall.
Eko noticed this too along with the mystifying faint smell of roses. Together they pressed into the depression, the fake wall slid in and they stepped into the gap. The door shut behind them and they immediately pressed themselves into the shadow of the wall. Pointed at them were over half a dozen guns and the faces of the men and women wielding the weapons showed they would receive no mercy.
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James was standing in front of the giant, disarmed and bloody, after capturing him the giant himself had pummeled the Southerner in a fit of blind rage. James was pretty sure his rib had been broken again and there was the little matter of his injured shoulder throbbing with pain as he was sure some healing tissue had been torn.
Facing the giant, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of recognition, 'I know this man from somewhere.' The memory was eluding him.
"So you're the infamous Sawyer."
"I wouldn't say I was infamous."
"And your name isn't Sawyer, either."
"What do you know about it?" James growled threateningly.
"I know a lot of things. What I don't know is how you managed to find this place. You eluded every single one of my people and no one even realized you were missing until we got report that the fugitive and her male friend were gone."
James kept a poker face on but inside he was in turmoil, 'Kate and Jack were looking for her were they?'
"You got a name, André?"
The giant frowned at the nickname, "Yeah I got a hundred."
"Figures."
"How long have you been here then?"
"How long have you been here?" James prepared himself for the blow that was sure to follow but it never came. Instead André was looking at him with curious interest.
"What will it take to make you less belligerent, hm? Okay you want to know how long I've been here? Almost 4 years, this camp has been here since before Dharma. Now I'm going to ask you one last time, how long have you been here?"
"This is my second night here."
"How did you find this place."
"Accident."
"You're lying."
"Think whatcha like but that's the truth."
"I'm not seeing this conversation lasting very long James. Yes I know your name, wanna know how?"
"You got someone workin' for ya on the inside and somehow ya'll got yourselves a copy of the flight manifest."
"Very good. Looks like me and whole bunch of people in your neck of the woods underestimated you. Pity you didn't have any friends to share your theories with, otherwise we'd be a lot more concerned about your bunch-"
"What are you doin' to those kids André?" James interrupted impatiently.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Now who's lyin'?"
James was swaying slightly in the hands of the two henchmen, and he seemed to be struggling to keep his words from slurring slightly.
"You wanna take a seat, looks like you could use a chair." Gesturing to the men, André walked to a chair in the room that looked like a replica of the Swan station, except it was twice the size and had a larger computer and a few more chairs.
"Now let's talk about this like civilized people. I want to know how you got here and who you've told."
"No way, André. How 'bout this, you tell me how the hell we wound up on this damn Island and what y'all want with us Oceanic survivors, and maybe I'll let you live."
André had retraced his steps and wasstanding in front of the entrance, smiled sinisterly, "I have to give you credit where it's due James but you're living in a dream world if you think you are going to leave here. Alive."
James nodded in acquiescence and didn't say another word. As he nodded his head he whipped his head sharply to the left and upwards, butting one of the men in the nose. The crunch of bones breaking and the fountain of blood spurting all over James and the man to his right was horrifying to behold.
Before André could get across the room or fire his gun James had delivered the heels of his bound hands upwards in one swift motion into the other man's nose, killing the man instantly. Swiveling in his chair he kicked the other bleeding man straight into André.
Grabbing the pistol in the dead man's belt he fired one shot into Andre's right shoulder, crippling his gun hand and causing the giant to drop the gun. He pointed the gun at André again and shook his head, sending drops of blood spraying everywhere.
André froze on the floor where he was kneeling, keeping his hands open and slightly raised in concession of defeat. James fumbled around in the dead man's pockets, searching for his hunting knife. Finding it he sat back in the chair, slick with blood as it was and placed the knife between his knees and still holding the gun trained on André he started to saw the rope off.
"Who are you?" André asked in a slightly awe-struck fearful voice.
"A man who don't take too kindly to bein' threatened or told what to do."
"Where did you learn to fight like that? And shoot like that? The way you shot Toby and Alex and Frank none of those were flukes were they?"
Finally freeing himself of his bounds, James trained the gun on André with one hand this time. "No they weren't, and seein' as this room is soundproof ya better start talkin' before I lose ma patience."
"Some of you were chosen and others just happened to get on the wrong plane. They've tried to crash a number of planes over the last 20 something years. Yours was the first one to have so many survivors."
"Keep talkin'."
"It's part of a government sanctioned project, anyone with a brilliant idea has thrown in their two cents. The next phase involves testing some of the new theories on children which is why we have taken the kids."
"What exactly is this project?"
"Study on humans, see how they will survive under difficult circumstances is thesimplest explanation. The government role is behind the scenes so if anything ever goes wrong they won't be implicated."
"Which government? The US?"
"I get the impression that this is a little more international than just the US government."
"How do I make contact with the outside world?"
"You don't."
James eyed André closely, flipping the hunting knife expertly with his left hand, his eyes never leaving André's he said, "You got one more chance to answer that question without… encouragement, Beanstalk."
André swallowed nervously, "It's the green button, you can access different airwaves on it. You have to tweak the tuner to get the right wavelength then you can transmit your signal."
James smiled at this, "Well come on up here an' do it yourself. Don't have a lot of time, I got somewhere else I gotta be."
André got up unsteadily then stumbled over to the computer, "Easy now, don't wanna make me nervous. I might let ma knife slip straight into your kidney." James warned.
Sliding his chair over to the injured man nursing a broken nose he asked, "What's your name?"
"His name is Toby." André spoke up for the man.
"Toby and Toby? Man y'all don't mind losin' any sense of self in this place do ya?" Placing his foot on Toby's head James said, "One wrong move Number 2 and I'll bust your head open, understood?" The injured man nodded slightly from underneath James' foot.
"Move over to the left so I can see whatcha got there, Beanstalk."
André did so obligingly, then he asked, "What wavelength do you want?"
"Move that dial over to the right twice over and then once to the middle. Yeah that's right. Thanks André, I'll take it from here." That said James kicked the chair towards a far wall then walked over to the controls.
"Move over there, against the wall, feet together, hands in the air. Lower those arms even a fraction of an inch, an' we'll have words."
Then he turned to the computer controls and double-checking that everything was in order, James tapped out a distress signal using a code. A few minutes later, he received an answering code that made sense only to him and the recipient.
"Where are we, André?"
"In the South Pacific, no more than a couple hours away from Fiji by plane."
James tapped some more code into the computer before changing the frequency again and switching the big red button that said OFF.
"Time to go face the music, Boss." Dragging Toby up, James gestured for André to precede him. Climbing up the hatch ladder was Toby then André with James' gun right behind his back, then James.
James stopped André, handing him a pistol that he knew had no more bullets left in it. Instinct told him the giant was unaware of this, "I want ya to train this lil guy on me when we climb outta here. One wrong move an' you're dead."
André took the gun from James with a ill-disguised look of smug satisfaction.