There was a strange rumbling somewhere above Charlie. As he looked up, chunks of the ceiling began to fall and dust and dirt began to trickle in through the cracks and holes. The entire hatch was rumbling, like it was sinking even deeper.
"CHARLIE!" shouted John from the bathroom.
Ducking, Charlie leapt through the hall and into the main room where the walls were also shaking, cracks running up and down. Pipes were bursting and water was spilling onto the floor. He skidded into the hall and through to the computer room where he dove through the doorway into the bathroom.
"What's happening?" John asked worriedly from his place on the floor.
"I don't know," Charlie ducked as several pieces of tile fell from the ceiling. Looking over, Charlie saw Eko was still lying with his eyes wide.
After a few moments the rumbling stopped. There was the sound of pipes hissing water into the hatch. Crumbling bits of dirt and parts of the walls were breaking and falling into puddles. Charlie looked up and around the dark bathroom that wasn't as badly damaged.
"I think we have a problem," Charlie spoke quietly.
……
Sayid scrambled, trying not to let the dirt slide back into where he'd dug but it was fruitless. The ground was shifting and moving and Hurley stumbled back. Sayid was knocked off his feet and rolled down the low incline of dirt.
"NO!" Sayid screamed in rage. He tried to climb back up it and slid in the dirt and mud. "NO!"
Why was this happening, he asked himself? Shannon, why can't you help me here? Often Sayid found himself asking that. He knew she was with him, but wanted to know why soemtimes she couldn't help him out.
It can't end this way, Sayid pleaded as he dug with his bare hands through the loose dirt. It was fruitless, the hatch was way beneath now. His heart was hammering and he knew the hatch had probably collapsed into itself, killing Charlie.
It wasn't fair.
"Sayid," Hurley said confusedly. He looked shocked, upset, and traumatized. He watched as Sayid dug frantically, repeating Shannon's name and asking her why.
"I'm going to go get…someone," Hurley turned and walked away.
……
"Jack," Kate hissed. "Can you do it?"
"I have to," Jack stood up and seemed to be trying to calm himself down. He walked to and fro, breathing deeply.
"What if he dies?"
Jack ignored her and paced. How could he do this? It was almost certain Sawyer would die. He felt like he had back when Sawyer came back with the infected bullet wound. It had seemed so certain. He had lied to everyone, saying there was hope. How could he do that now?
Somehow, Jack was brought back to his wedding. As he paced, he could see Sarah's face. Why, he wondered, was he thinking this now? It made absolutely no sense. He could see her standing there as they gave their vows, and as they pronounced their love. Perhaps it was because at no other time had Jack been as scared as he had been that day.
Looking at Kate he saw her desperation and her fear. He wanted so badly to tell her it would be okay. It was like a second calling to him, to help fix things and make people feel better.
Yet he couldn't find it in himself to do it.
The door reopened and Kate stood. Both Jack and her expected to be grabbed again but this time two large men came in with a stretcher. They went over to Sawyer and laid it beside him, then carefully moving him onto it and lifting it again.
"We'll start him on antibiotics," Tom said from the doorway as they carried Sawyer out. Kate had a hand over her mouth. "Come on."
Jack looked at Kate and then went through the doorway.
……
Penny felt slightly seasick and they had only been at sea for a day. She had spent most of it asleep in her cabin. She wasn't feeling great and supposed the stress of having to leave her family behind wasn't helping.
She came onto the deck where several researchers were lowering audio devices into the churning water to capture whale calls.
"Fascinating," she enthused as she passed as they gave her bright-eyed looks. She came up to Robert who was at the forward deck looking out onto the expansive ocean.
"Refreshing isn't it?" Robert said, grinning at her. He saw her pale green look and sighed. "I guess not for all."
"When are we expected to reach the area?" she asked quietly, trying to speak above the wind while also trying to keep out of voice range of the people behind her.
"A week, possibly," Robert whispered, glancing over his shoulder. "You should try to enjoy the trip."
"Hard to," she sighed.
"Oy! You've got to hear this!" shouted a voice from above deck.
Many of the researchers scrambled from their posts and clogged the stairwell to the upper deck. Robert and Penny followed more slowly and were on the edge of the group as everyone gathered around the speaker in which the whale calls were being transmitted.
But something else was coming through. It was crackling and static and then numbers being repeated over and over again
…
"4 8 15 16 23 42…4 8 15 16 23 42…4 8 15 16 23 42"
"What is that?" whispered Penny, looking at Robert.
"We must be picking up someone else's coordinates," said the researcher who was twiddling with knobs to make it clearer. For a moment the chanting of the numbers was loud and clear, repeating over the group. It reached a fever pitch where it was almost deafening and then it turned to static and there was only the sound of the waves hitting the side of the boat as the yacht crashed through the choppy waters.
"Strange," Penny said to Robert as they turned and went back out to the deck. Most of the researchers reclaimed their posts and others began hurrying around with notes. "Those numbers make no sense."
"It's probably a bad transmission," Robert said uneasily. But Penny saw something in his eyes.
"What is it?" she asked firmly, stopping. She wrapped her arms around her as the chilly ocean air whipped her blonde hair about.
"I've heard those numbers before," he said quietly.
……..
Jack had the same scrubs on as he had when operating on the other man. Blood stains covered it. He had been able to wash his hands but there was no soap. No gloves, nothing to keep infection out. Jack was trying as hard as he could to keep from shaking as he was lead into the operating room.
The blood on the floor had been mopped but wasn't completely gone. Scarlet shone in several places and along the walls. The same people were in the room and Jack immediately found Kate's eyes among the shrouded and masked.
On the table lay Sawyer, only his shirt removed. He still wore his trademark jeans and shoes. Somehow, it was a sad sight. Sawyer looked so defeated, so worn down as he lay there. Jack approached and suddenly was terrified out of his mind.
"Jack," Kate went to say but someone gripped her arm and she had a shark intake of breath.
Jack worked as best as he could. There was no suction, and the tools and sewing he had were rough. He fixed the perforation in Sawyer's lung and then went to remove the spleen. It would be pointless to leave it in there to get infected.
As Jack worked he could feel Kate's eyes on him, begging him not to make a mistake. He could feel everyone watching, as he tried his best to keep his work neat with the amount of blood coming out. Jack kept a close eye on Sawyer's face for any sign of him waking up. He knew they had given him something but wasn't sure what.
"I'm pretty much done," Jack said as he began to sew Sawyer's small incision up.
"Not yet," Tom suddenly came around the doorway with a small cart. "You have one last thing to do."
"What?" Jack looked confusedly from Sawyer lying bleeding on the table to the covered cart.
"You're going to give him a new liver," Tom said calmly, removing the blanket and revealing a human liver lying in a bucket of water. "No questions asked."
"I can't do a liver transplant!" Jack exclaimed.
Suddenly the man behind Kate gripped her around the throat and began to squeeze. Her hands went to his enormous arm, her eyes going wide as she struggled to breathe. Jack went to move and the man held up a hand, indicating that if Jack moved then it'd be over.
"Will you do it?" Tom growled.
For a moment Kate could see the pain in Kate's eyes he felt inside. They were stuck, they had no choice. Jack wondered for a split second where he'd be if he'd missed his flight…
"Okay," Jack gasped and the man let go of Kate. "I'll do it."
Kate stumbled and fell to her knees, gasping and holding her throat. Jack looked from Sawyer's face to the liver and then sighed.
"I need more light."
……………
He had walked around again and found the hatch was completely blocked in. The hole he had climbed through was gone, filled in with more dirt that was beginning to pile in the hallway. It seemed they were sinking even deeper. A sense of hopelessness filled Charlie was he returned to the bathroom.
Charlie was able to drag John out of the bathroom and into the computer room where they leaned against the wall, looking out upon the wreckage. Most of the yellow lights in the ceiling had gone out, leaving only spots of glowing ember like circles on the debris. Charlie could see all the utensils that had been sticking to the wall had fallen.
"How are you paralyzed?" Charlie asked for the nineteenth time. He was exhausted and somehow realized that they might not get out of there.
John didn't answer. In his head he was trying to remember how it felt to walk. He remembered the feeling of standing, and walking quickly across the sand. It was a joy he'd only had for a short time and now was gone.
"Some guys thought I'd stolen money from them," John said quietly, his eyes staring off into one of the yellow lights. "So they came to my house and shot me."
"That's it?" Charlie looked disappointed.
"What, expecting some big dramatic story?" John seemed to brighten.
"Yeah! I was expecting something about you chasing down Rhinos in Africa and getting butted by one and ripped to shreds by a viscous lion!" Charlie enthused. He realized he didn't feel too well. "I suppose being a good boar hunter doesn't make you Indiana Jones."
"No, it's doesn't," sighed John.
"If you were paralyzed, how come you were walking?" Charlie asked.
"Because the island fixed me," and John said this with utmost certainty. "It cured me."
"You can't cure something like that," Charlie shook his head. The silence was making him sleepy and slightly goofy. "Nope."
"I was walking, Charlie. And now I can't," John looked sadly at him. "You don't believe me?"
"That the plane crash cured your back? No," Charlie snorted. "It's crazy."
"As crazy as a plane crashing on an island with a hatch where you push a button every one hundred and eight minutes?"
He had a point, Charlie thought solemnly.
"Why is it back?" asked Charlie softly, not wanting to sound rude.
"Because whatever crashed the plane fixed it. Whatever happened when we didn't press that button, was what happened when the plane crashed. It happened a second time and I suppose…reversed it," John seemed oddly calm about this and it kind of creeped Charlie out. He thought about Eko's wide, staring eyes back in the bathroom and shivered.
"Do you suppose Jack and the others got Walt back?"
………..
Slowly, Jack stepped away from Sawyer on the table and looked down at his blood soaked hands. How, he wondered, was Sawyer ever going to survive now? He was still alive, his pulse still strong and he was still under whatever anesthetic they'd given him. But now infection would take over.
"He needs massive, I mean loads of antibiotics," Jack said in a wavering voice, the blood on his hands glimmering in the cheap light.
"We have a stock but we have to conserve," Tom snapped, gripped Jack's arm and pulling him towards the other room. "He is not the only person here who needs them."
"You have stocks of antibiotics?" Jack gasped, his heart still seized up in his chest as it had been during the entire surgery.
"Yes," Tom starting pulling Jack down the hall and Jack ripped his arm away.
"We had over a dozen people die because of infection, and you had antibiotics?" Jack shouted angrily. His blood was pounding. Sawyer would die possibly within a day, and all because this guy was being careful with his stock. "YOU HAD THEM?"
The club came down hard on Jack's head and although he didn't pass out, he was dazed as Tom dragged him back to their cell and threw him inside, his blood stained hands leaving streaks on the floor.
"You'll watch your tone with me, boy!" Tom shouted from the doorway as Jack feebly rose to his hands and knees. "Remember, I still have your girlfriend!"
The door slammed shut tight.
Kate had helped them move Sawyer into another room where many more people lay unconscious on stretchers and gurneys that lay on the floor. It was a makeshift ICU, she knew that. No one was around to check them and from their eyes, she knew several were dead. When they set down Sawyer, the rest of them headed away and she hurried to him.
"Sawyer," she whispered, putting her hand to his cheek. "Sawyer, if you can hear me, it's going to be okay."
Sawyer seemed to be deeply under. She thought of the pain he'd be in when he woke up and her eyes stung.
"It's going to be fine. Jack fixed you," she could see Jack's face when he stepped away, that look that told her nothing would be okay. "It's fine."
"Let's go," someone said, gripping Kate and pulling her up.
He roughly shoved her ahead of him and she fell over someone's feet, landing hard on the ground. Looking up, she was beside someone whose dead blank eyes stared right into her. She let out a scream and went to stand but was yanked up and dragged through the door into the hallway.
"No," Tom appeared, walking towards them. "She gets put somewhere else. I want him to learn his lesson."
Kate's eyes went wide as the man holding her turned her around and they went towards another part of the hall.
Reaching a doorway with an open door, she looked inside and saw what looked like dark mounds of something. A horrible smell was emitting from the room.
"This will teach them," Tom gave grin.
Kate was flung inside and landed hard, hurrying to stand to rush to the door as it slammed and locked. She pounded the door, trying to open it but nothing worked. Turning around she couldn't see, it was too dark. Reaching over with her hand she fumbled for some kind of light switch and turned it on.
Bodies, in all states of decay were piled in merciless mounds all around the borders of the room.
Kate's scream echoed in her own head.
