Chapter 89
Locke wasn't surprised by Jack's information, and he merely nodded when he told him about overhearing Kate and Sawyer. He wasn't worried yet; from what Jack said they weren't moving very fast and they still had time here.
The alarm earlier had been negative; apparently there was no one on the passenger plane the Island wanted. There hadn't been one since, and that had been a couple of hours ago; apparently there were more shipping lanes than air routes that passed the Island. He wondered vaguely what kind of range the surveillance system had and he chuckled to himself. Probably 108 miles.
Ana had been fiddling with the same computer, pulling up different dates and watching the videos of the crashes; they dated back to the late seventies. She wasn't really concentrating on them, though they were horrible enough without really paying attention; her mind was on Jack. He had been gone a long time and she was getting worried; Sawyer was pretty pissed and she was afraid he'd kill Jack, just from grief over Kate. She felt kind of bad about Kate; she hated her, but to watch someone you knew get tortured and have their throat cut in front of you was...unnerving, to say the least. She'd seen Locke, too, a split second before Sawyer's blast, draw the knife quickly across Kate's throat. He was a bstard.
She'd been staring at Jack since he came in, panting and sweating like a pig; she figured he'd run up the mountain. Her eyes didn't leave him as he related everything to Locke, and he glanced at her once, finding her eyes glued to him; he smiled and Locke said, "We have awhile; I want to keep looking through these records."
Jack was a little agitated; didn't Locke understand? Sawyer was coming to kill him, he had no doubt; he wouldn't care but for the fact that he still needed John, at least until the Island was safe. "Locke, we should go."
Locke smiled and shook his head. "Relax, Jack. We have a while. Go check on Sara, she's been asleep a couple of hours." Jack had forgotten about her; he nodded and turned his gaze to Ana, who was still staring at him with a smoldering, lusty look.
"Yeah, Jack," she said softly, inclining her head towards the stairs, "Go check on Sara."
"Sure," he said, and he felt himself stir a little; Ana's eyes were glowing with excitement and he smiled at her again before heading for the stairs.
Ana watched him go before turning back to the computer, fiddling with the buttons for a second before grinning at Locke and running for the stairs.
Jack was waiting for her at the top and she fell into his arms, kissing him and tearing at his sweaty clothes as his hands shoved up under her shirt, caressing her roughly as he shoved her up against the wall. She struggled for a second, "Wait, Jack." He stopped and pulled away, and she nodded towards the bunk room. "Shower."
He grabbed her around the waist and picked her up against him; she wrapped her legs around his waist as they stumbled into the bunk room; she put her finger to her lips and motioned towards Sara, sleeping in one of the beds. They laughed as quietly as they could as Jack bumped her into the wall before sliding, giggling, into the bathroom and shutting the door.
Sara heard them come in and she kept her eyes closed as they shut the bathroom door, laughing and sighing breathlessly; she groaned a little and sat up, her body screaming with stiff muscles. There was a loud thump and a laugh as the shower came on and Sara forced herself to stand despite the pain; it was more agonizing to listen to Jack banging Ana in the shower. She shuddered at the thought and made her way slowly downstairs to where Locke was flipping through some documents.
He looked up as she came in and smiled at her outfit; she smiled blearily and waved her hand at the clothes. "I didn't have anything to change into."
Locke nodded. "There are extra clothes at camp. We'll be back there eventually." He smiled at her, his eyes crinkling. "Sleep good?"
She nodded, yawning. "Yeah. The shower was great too." Now that she wasn't so exhausted her curiousity was piqued. "What is this place?"
He nodded at the banks of computers and televisions. "Surveillance post."
"For what? And by who?"
He chuckled, putting down the file he had, and nodded to the chair next to him. "It's a long story."
She smiled back. "We have all day, don't we?"
He looked at her, hard, and smiled again, but it wasn't as warm. "No, we don't. We have to move out soon. But I can start at the beginning and tell you what I know. Since we landed on the Island." She noticed the pause as he added the last sentence.
She nodded, settling herself into the chair. "Okay. Start with the crash. I saw what happened," she shuddered at the memory of the grainy airplane being ripped into three pieces and vanishing into this air, "but how did it happen? What were those...tenatcles?"
He sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "Let me begin by saying this: you are not a part of the real world anymore. Reality is relative, Sara, and one man's idea of actuality may not be the same as another's. So, whatever you hear, whatever you see that you can't possibly believe is real, is." She nodded; she'd already seen enough of that to know he was telling the truth. "Good, you have an open mind." He grinned at her. "Some people are harder to convince."
"I'll bet." He meant Jack, and she knew it.
He continued. "The only way to get here is through a wrinkle in time and space, a tesseract-" he stopped as Sara laughed aloud, looking at him incredulously.
"A tesseract? That's from a book. A Wrinkle in Time. That's crazy." Shaking her head, she laughed again. "Tesseract."
John sighed. "Like I said, what you think isn't real, is. Yes, a tesseract. That was what you saw on the video, breaking the plane up. This hatch is an extension of that; it watches the skies for planes to pull in."
She was still a little skeptical, but she pushed it aside. "Someone learned to control it?"
He smiled, a little impresed by her deduction. "Yes, I believe so. I don't know for sure." He blinked and she was sure he was lying, but she let him continue. "This place is beautiful, Sara. If there is something you want, if you are not happy, you can be. It's special here, and it takes special people to keep it going." He started pacing a little, and she watched him, closely, trying to read his movements. "When our plane was brought down, there were two very special people on it, two opposites, two sides of the same coin. The Island called to them both and they answered; one to save it, one to destroy it."
"Who? And why would they want to destroy it?"
"The Dark and the Light are always at war; one always wants to destroy the other. That is our mission, here. That is why Jack, and Ana, and I, and everyone else was brought here, to take sides in the battle, to be the soldiers, the pawns. It could be why you were brought here. The newest war has just begun."
"War? War for what?"
"For heaven, Sara, and for hell. You see, " he said, smiling a little crazily at her, "They are the same place; and you are here." He glanced at the sun overhead and smiled. "That's enough for now. We have to move out." he paused, smiling with a little fear in his eyes. "Sawyer's coming for me."
-----
They weren't in any hurry to find the others; Sawyer was hoping he would terrify Locke so much he'd piss himself and run away. He chuckled to himself, Hell, I'd just like to see him piss himself. But if they ran it would give them some space and let him try to figure out what he had to do, since Vincent had gone all Riddler on him. Sometimes he felt like he couldn't get a straight answer out of anybody.
Kate had bugged him about his middle name until he had finally given in just to get her to shut the hell up about it. "Fine," he snapped, after she had asked him for the thousandth time. "Jackson." He said it so low she could barely hear it.
"What? I didn't hear you."
He glared at her. "Jackson."
She just stared for a second, then she burst into laughter, bending over double as she gasped for air. "Jackson? No wonder you didn't want to tell me."
He rolled his eyes. "It's for Andrew Jackson. He fought for Tennessee in the War of 1812."
She was still giggling. "I wonder if Jack's middle name is James?"
He shot her a look of disgust. "Don't joke about that, Freckles."
She grew serious, suddenly, and gave Sawyer a hard look. "What are we going to do if they haven't left, James? Kill them all?" As much as she disliked Jack now, and hated Locke and Ana, she was done with killing. She didn't want to have to do it ever again.
He drew her to him, hugging her close to shut out the chill he felt. "That depends on them, Kate. But if I have to burn each one of them to a crisp to keep you safe I'll do it."
She hugged him back, "I know." They were quiet for a second as they walked; the jungle was peaceful and beautiful and his; he began to wave his hands at the trees and they bent forward and back, bowing to them as they passed. Vincent was walking a little in front of them and Sawyer gave Kate a mischievious glance as he waved his hands again; a little black cloud swirled up into his hands and he blew it, gently, at Vincent and it hovered over him for a second, then Sawyer snapped his fingers and it let loose with a tiny little thunderstorm, drenching the dog in seconds as he tried in vain to esacape.
Kate giggled as the little black cloud chased Vincent around for a minute, then with a wave of Sawyer's hand it disappeared into nothing; she laughed even harder as Vincent gave Saywer the dirtiest look he could muster. Sawyer tried to look innocent, but that was something he could never do; his dimples gave him away as he grinned sheepishly at the dog.
Vincent trotted over to him and Kate backed away fast; she knew what was coming. He lolled his tongue out and grinned at Sawyer, then he shook as hard as he could, throwing water and and dog hair all over Sawyer before he could move.
He stared, dumbfounded for a second, then Kate's snorting laughter made him turn to look at her, and she suddenly felt herself being flopped onto the ground and held in place as Sawyer cried, "Get her, Vincent!" He didn't need a second invitation; as Sawyer held her down he rolled all over her, smearing her with wet dog smell and hair as she screamed with laughter and tried to push him off.
Finally Sawyer raised his hand and let her go and she sprang to her feet, breathless and flushed and dirty; Vincent panted next to her, laughing as she nudged him with her foot. "Traitor."
He barked and Sawyer looked at him like he was nuts. "What?" Vincent barked slower, enunciating every nuance of the bark and Sawyer repeated what he said out loud, "Nemo unquam sapiens proditori credendum putavit." He glanced at Kate and she shrugged. "What the hell is that, Lassie?" Vincent barked angrily and Sawyer said, "Come on, everyone knows Lassie was a boy. Ain't that right, Freckles?"
Kate smiled at Vincent. "Afraid so." She cocked her head as he growled rebelliously. "What was that you said, before? Was it Latin?"
He woofed and wagged his tail; Sawyer nodded. "Good. Latin. It means 'No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted.'" Looking askance at Vincent he said, "You sayin' we shouldn't trust you?"
Vincent sat down in front of him and yipped; Sawyer swiped at him with his hand, playfully angry. "You're sayin' I ain't a wise man- you know, dog, you better be glad Kate loves you, 'cause otherwise I'd be havin' some dog-kabobs for dinner tonight."
Vincent rolled his eyes and licked Kate's hand; she bent down and kissed him on the nose. Giving Sawyer a nasty look he trotted off into the jungle, and Kate grinned after him. Glancing down at her dirty clothes she said, "I really, really hate you sometimes."
He grinned and started trying to wave off some of the dog hair on his shirt. "Trust me, Freckles, I know."
