Chapter 14
Kate stared in shock at the bloodied man hauling himself up from the hatch, especially when he was followed by a nasty looking mammoth of a man who had a gun trained on someone. When she saw James emerge from the hatch, she thought she was going to pass out with relief. 'Oh thank you Lord! Now about getting us out of this tricky situation, feel free to do so at anytime.'
James stumbled into the man, and the man stuck his pistol in his lower back, prodding the Southerner to walk towards the trees in the orchard. There was an orange tree, and sitting underneath it were Zeke and Alex, who looked relieved to see the Southerner had been apprehended. As soon as they reached the pair, James let the pistol drop out of his sleeve as he whipped behind André and held the gun to his head.
"Seems to me we got ourselves a bit of a situation!" Yelled James for the benefit of all the guns trained on him. Kate and Eko were both bound and gagged, on their knees about five feet away facing him. Half the guns trained on them were behind and the other half were to Sawyer's right, meaning he was protected from behind by the tree trunk and also from the left side.
'Come on James if you don't do somethin' fast you're all dead. Hope this works'
"How 'bout I count to three, if you don't let her go, I blow Beanstalk's brains all over Zeke and his bodyguard here." He had cocked his head in Kate's direction when he mentioned her.
He counted to 2 winking at Eko, before anyone could say anything he shot André in the head. He'd made the mistake of missing the heart with the Marshal he wasn't going to risk it this time.
Kate was shocked, and winded because as soon as Sawyer had fired his gun, Eko had slammed her into the ground protecting her from the bullets that were thundering all around her. 'Nooooooooooo!' Her mind was screaming over and over again, 'He's dead, no way is he going to survive this, oh God oh God why?'
When the guns were silent, Kate tears of sorrow streaming down her face, felt herself being pulled up by Eko.
James was alive, he had Zeke as a human shield and was motioning for Alex to get up. "Go get Walt, I am giving ya five minutes if we're not back by then, I kill him too. You walk in front, I want your back to mine, if you make any wrong moves I kill him then you."
In agreement, Alex limped painfully to press her back against James and do as she had been told. All the guns that had been trained on Kate and Eko were silent as they were being re-loaded, using the slight advantage, Eko had risen to his knees and borne down on the men positioned behind them like a sinister firing squad.
Running to James Kate got her bounds undone by him her eyes glowing with relief that they were all still alive, 'For now at least.' James thought to himself, darkly.
"I don't even wanna know how y'all found me Freckles, now for all our sakes we gotta find Walt and get the hell outta here."
Concurring with him she worked the gag off her mouth, "I need a gun so I can help him before someone-" She was interrupted by Eko who had somehow managed to work his bounds off in the tussle with the men and appropriate a loaded rifle. She glanced up at James in awe and he shook his head in disbelieving agreement.
"Here, you still need a gun." Handing her a rifle that had been lying on the ground next to Zeke when he had been seated, he gave her a piercing look trying to discern if she was hurt in any way. "I'm fine." She said it softly, touched at his concern.
"Make sure ya stay that way, me an' Alex will be back in two shakes, isn't that right Alex?" With that he prodded the injured girl as she led them to the mud huts in the camp at the edge of the valley.
Kate remained where she was for a second as she took a fortifying deep breath, James' sarcasm had a calming effect on her. 'As long as he's quipping, things are going to be okay.' She told herself resolutely.
Eko was moving towards her now with a hostage in tow, so using her rifle she made sure she was covering his back.
"What are we gonna do?"
"We need to get them to put their guns down."
"How are we going to do that?"
"Shoot the remaining five men over there, then bargain with this one."
"Are we shooting to kill?" Kate couldn't keep the reluctance out of her voice as she asked the question.
"No. Aim for their shoulders, the arm with the weapon, if that fails then aim for the legs."
"Okay, I can do that."
"Now!"
Together the two aimed and fired, taking down two men at a time, they didn't have to fire a second shot on anyone. Turning in unison they faced the remaining six gunmen who threw their weapons to the ground in surrender instantaneously.
Ordering Kate to stay in the protection of the trees Eko, ran with his hostage to pick up the discarded weapons. He then commanded the men to huddle together as he bound and gagged every single one of them. He had thrown the pile of weapons in front of Kate, and now that the men including the ones Kate and him had shot were bound he yelled out to the onlookers.
"Listen to me! I do not want to hurt you people, if anyone tries anything I will. If you all just put down whatever weapons you have I will take this as an act of good faith. I won't shoot unless you give me reason to. Come here I want all of you to line up in front of me, women and children first."
Stunned the crowd did what it was told, there weren't many children, just the two kids that had been abducted from the beach when the tail section had crashed into the water, and nine other boys and girls of an indeterminate age.
Kate kept her rifle trained on the crowd as Eko and the hostage bound all the adult men and women. They let the children sit on the floor, and Kate started to count the people. Before she finished, James wason his way back to themwith Alex and Walt, he still had his gun trained on Zeke.
Leaving a gagged and bound Zeke on the floor, James met up with Kate and Eko in the shadow of the trees to discuss their next move.
"Jesus how many of them are there? I saw some oldfolks in the hut they were keepin' Walt in. Had some kind of brain machines hooked to him."
"I am not sure, so far I have counted 100 people excluding the children. Sawyer we can't leave them here."
"If we take the kids with us it will slow us down, and will give them reason to come after us."
Kate looked at James with dread, "Are you serious?"
"Yeah Kate I am! If we take these kids with us I don't see us makin' it back to the beach, and it will start a war I am not sure we can win!" He whispered vehemently.
"Maybe you shouldhave thought of that before you decided to go all Commando on your own, Sawyer!" She hissed back at him furiously.
"We can split up." They both turned around to look at Eko like he had grown two heads.
"What now?" James asked, incredulously.
"I can take the children and you and Kate can take Walt and the new leader."
Kate frowned as she processed this, "No, it's too risky. We have to go back together. We started this together we will finish it together. If we split up now and something happens to you, Sawyer we'll be defenseless against an attack. You have all the guns remember?"
"Actually I don't Freckles, I gave them to someone for safekeeping while I was gone and in case I did not make it back."
Kate and Eko looked at him in surprise, "Ana-Lucia. That's why she stayed behind." Kate assumed.
"Wrong, Sass, I gave them to Chewie, figure'd he knows how to use 'em and as long as Tokyo Rose doesn't get attacked he'll keep a cool head."
"You gave them to Jin?" Kate asked baffled.
"Yeah, I also figured no one'd ask him about them so hell got to kill two birds with one stone."
"We need to make a decision about the children." Interjected Eko.
"Okay, Shaft, how 'bout you and Freckles take the kids. I'll take Walt, an' my buddy Zeke over there."
"No-" Kate started to argue.
"Do you realize how much of the risk you are placing upon your shoulders?"
"Yeah Amistad, I do. I know what I'm doin' let's just get goin' it will be light in a few hours."
Eko nodded before turning around to herd the children together, lifting Emma the little girl Ana-Lucia had saved from the tail section onto his shoulders, he took her brother's hand and said, "Come on children, you're going with me."
Kate stood there underneath the tree as if rooted to the spot and looked atJames searchingly, "Why are you doing this? Just because he's injured you can't trust him, you have no idea how many of them are out there waiting to ambush us or-"
"Neither do you, Kate. I came here knowin' exactly what I was doin' and you followed me here, endangerin' yourself and Eko. I can't do my job properly if I have to worry about the safety of others. Now go, looks like Mr. Ed's 'bout to leave you behind." As he spoke he spied his discarded pack and put it on his shoulders.
He gently pushed Kate in the direction of the retreating Eko and then turned to walk over to Zeke. "Come on, Hillbilly Pirate, we're goin' on a trip." He kicked the bleeding man, roughly. Stooping, he hauled the man to his feet and turned to Walt who had remained silent since he'd been detached from the wires and tubes in the hut.
"Come on Shortround, let's get ya back to your Daddy." His voice was cheerful and upbeat as if they were going on a fun adventure. Walt turned to look at the sea of faces on the floor, they were all bound gagged and some were wounded. He stared at them in a detached manner before following James towards the mountain and its entrance.
Kate, Eko and the kids were waiting for James to come through the entrance and when he did, she breathed a sigh of relief. 'One potential crisis down, five million more to go before we are safe.'
James frowned in anger, "What y'all waitin' for? Go!"
With that, Eko started to move, he led Kate and the kids back the way the two of them had come earlier on that evening. James lagged behind, covering his and their tracks as they went. Stopping only once to teach Walt and then continuing on.
By sunrise, Kate, Eko and the kids were much further away and James led his hostage and Walt in a different direction.