(Authors Note: I don't know why but it wouldn't let me post this chapter for like 3 days! I was getting so aggravated!)
Jack awoke to something that sounded like thumping. Soft cries could be heard and a sobbing. His head flooded with pain as his eyes came into focus. His temple was throbbing and felt three times its size as he struggled to sit up.
He was in their cell but they weren't alone. There were four guards in there, two were holding Kate as a third was punching her repeatedly. The gunshot wound on her arm sat untreated, bleeding down her arm and onto the floor.
They struck her once in the face, then in the chest, and a shot to the side.
"STOP!" Jack groaned, his head piercing.
"We were wondering when you'd wake up!" laughed Tom from the corner. He came over to Jack, his nose bright red and purple, swollen to twice it's size. He sounded nasally yet scornful as he spoke. "Enjoy the show."
"Jack," Kate gasped before they hit her again. This time the two let go of her and she slumped to the ground, writhing towards the wall. Her arm continued to bleed and she sobbed softly. The taller guard gave her a hard kick to the abdomen and she cried out, almost throwing up.
"STOP IT!" Jack pleaded, struggling to stand but he was too dizzy, his head still raging. "Please!"
"We should just kill her now."
Tom strode over to Kate and gripped her hair, pulling her up from the floor. Her face was red and bruised, and half of her was covered in blood from her arm. Her tears streamed steadily as she gasped, trying to breathe as he held her head up and pointed the gun in his hand at her throat.
"PLEASE!" Jack had never felt so desperate in his life. His gut felt like it was wrenching while his head could barely focus on what was happening. "No, please."
"You were foolish to think you could get out," Tom snapped, nodding to a guard who moved away from Kate towards Jack. "You'll learn never to do it again."
Without warning the guard gave Jack a swift punch to the face that sent him reeling back onto the floor. His head swam and he nearly blacked out, trying desperately to stay conscious. He slowly started to get up again and got another hit this time to the side.
"Stop it!" Kate screamed but Tom shushed her, still holding the gun to her throat.
After several more moments, they stopped at a nod from Tom. Jack remained kneeling, his forehead bleeding and his sides aching. Through the pain he could see Kate, also kneeling across the room from him.
"Why are you doing this?" Jack asked quietly.
No one spoke. Tom moved away from Kate towards Jack and pointed his gun at Jack's face.
"Because we can."
……………………………………..
"What are you doing?" Sayid demanded, hurrying over to help her out.
"Sayid you need to come back!" Sun exclaimed, looking around in horror at the devastation in the hatch. "Everyone is sick."
"Sick?" Desmond had spoken up.
"Yes, everyone except Claire and her baby," Sun took note of John and Charlie also being okay. "We need you!"
"I'm not a doctor," Sayid said firmly, moving to help Charlie put Locke on the sling to move him. "There is not much I can do."
"Jack is gone, we need your help!" she insisted, looking rather nervous.
"And why aren't you sick?" Desmond asked.
"I…I don't know," Sun looked confused. "Jin isn't feeling well, I figured I would too. Maybe being pregnant effects it…"
"Pregnant?" Desmond's eyes grew wide.
"We need to move," Sayid and Charlie had moved John onto the sling and were now effectively moving him towards the hole.
"They did it didn't they?" Desmond was approaching Sun who was backing up.
"What?" she asked confusedly, looking around at them for help.
"It's not yours," his eyes grew wide as he approached her. "It's theirs."
Desmond had reached out and grabbed Sun's wrist. With a sharp punch, Sayid had sent him flying backwards into the coffee table and onto the couch. Looking at Sun, he visually asked if she was okay and she nodded.
"Okay, you first," Sayid helped Sun back into the hole. "I need you to go ahead of us and tell Jin we're going to need his help…"
"I told you, he's sick. It came on quickly, they can barely move," she looked terrified as she stood in the hole, which came up to her waist. She looked up at Sayid desperately.
Sayid looked back at Desmond. Was it possible that Desmond was right about the illness? Had the explosion that had taken place dispersed some kind of sickness that was now effecting everyone? But what were Sun, Sayid, Claire, and Aaron's excuse? Sayid felt fine, other than completely exhausted and drained he felt fine.
"Let's focus on this right now," Sayid said, hoping they didn't sense the fear in his voice. Jack wasn't here and suddenly everyone expected him to be a leader. "Ready, let's go."
………………………………
Penny walked slowly down the beach, unsure of what to do next. It was possible this wasn't a deserted island, that people inhabited it just on the other side of in hidden places. She had heard about tribes using specific islands as bases and they appeared deserted when they were actually teeming with communities. Based on her encounter with one of them, she didn't want to meet any more welcoming committees.
She walked for a long time in the darkness, and remained close to the water. For some reason it gave her great comfort to be able to see the water. She feared the dark jungle that lay to her left, and wouldn't even let herself look at it as she walked, cradling her injured arm.
Exhaustion was just settling in as she stopped. Up ahead was what looked like a dock. It stretched out far from the shore without any kind of markers on the beach for it. It simply started and ended right there.
Carefully she walked out onto it. It was long and at the end she looked down into the depths. Oil from a boat floated at the top. So there had to be people here because someone had to have built this dock. It wasn't as old as the temple she'd been in, and a boat had been here recently.
Returning to shore she was about to continue when she heard voices. Quickly she hid behind the jetty, which wasn't far from the dock. She bent down behind the rocks and carefully poked her head over.
Two males, one in khaki colored clothing and the other in ripped jeans and no shirt were standing on the other side in front of a doorway that seemed to lead right into the rocks. Both of them held guns and the one with the khaki colored clothing was talking.
"The girl was cute," he said, sighing tiredly.
"I just don't get it," sighed the jean wearing man.
"What?"
"The whole fake out thing. I mean, their plane crashed it doesn't make them morons."
"Keep your voice down. What the boss wants the boss gets. Do you question him?" khaki man seemed almost imposing.
"No. I just want my pay so I can get off."
"You will, brother."
Penny crouched even lower, her mind reeling. So they were being paid to stand there. But what was their job and why had someone wearing the same khaki colored clothing attacked her? Very carefully she moved down the jetty until she was practically in the water. Then she slid over them carefully. Remaining low against the rocks she slid past them, knee deep in water as it sloshed against the rocks around her. Finally she was far enough that she could hurry out and up the beach to the shelter of the trees.
She hadn't gotten ten feet when she saw a campfire.
………………………………………………
"Charlie, can you get John back to camp?" Sayid asked once they had gotten John out of the tunnel. It had taken almost two hours to drag him out. Now they sat on the ground in the dark, panting.
Without waiting for an answer Sayid took off with Sun towards the beach. She was pale and looked frightened as they walked. Sayid wondered what Desmond had meant about it not being hers. Desmond had crawled out behind them and just remained standing there, doing nothing. Sayid was pretty sure his brain had been altered by whatever had happened.
"Claire!"
Sun had shouted out to Claire who was nearest to them as they came out onto the beach. She hurried from her tent, Aaron in her arms.
"Why is everybody sick?" Claire asked Sayid. But he noticed she looked pale herself.
"Do you feel alright?" Sun asked Claire.
"Yes," Claire nodded, though her brow was sweating.
"Perhaps it is just hitting you more slowly," Sayid suggested.
"No! I can't get sick, Aaron needs me," she turned around and hurried back to her tent, trying to hide a cough.
"Where is Jack?" asked Bernard, hurrying up to them breathlessly. "Something's wrong with Rose."
Sayid and Sun followed Bernard down the beach. As they passed tents, they saw people inside lying down or sitting up coughing, or throwing up. Several looked ghostly as they lay, some with strange looking sores on their hands.
They reached Bernard's tent where Rose sat weakly against a tree, looking exhausted.
"She suddenly got so sick," Bernard said worriedly, taking his wife's hand as Sayid looked at her. She didn't look sick like the others did, she looked weaker.
"I'm not a doctor," Sayid stood and looked at Sun. "I don't know what to do."
"All these people are sick!" Sun exclaimed. She looked terrified and hugged her arms to herself, shivering. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," Sayid said, panic filling him.
…………………………..
After what felt like an eternity, the door shut leaving Kate and Jack alone. As slowly as he could, Jack crawled over to Kate. She lay on the ground, her back to him. Her bleeding arm was soaking her shirt and Jack quickly put a hand over it. She winced and he turned her over.
In the dim light her pale face looked almost angelic.
"I'm going to save you," he promised her.
But she didn't believe him.
Suddenly the door opened again. Kate had lost consciousness and Jack remained kneeling above her, one hand on her wound.
In slid Alex, shutting the door partially behind her.
"I have a message from Sawyer," she hissed very quickly.
Jack couldn't stand but straightened up considerably. Sawyer was alive?
"He says he's alive and not to leave without him," she whispered, looking around.
"Thank…"
Before he could thank her she had left.
…………………………………………..
"Something happened."
Sawyer looked at Alex with wide eyes. He was able to sit up against the wall now although not for long. He was still in an enormous amount of pain but seemed to be recovering faster than anyone else in the room thanks to Alex sneaking him extra antibiotics.
"What?" he demanded, his heart beginning to pound.
"Well, when they tried to escape…" Alex didn't know how to say it. "Jack hit one of the boss's and he got really angry and roughed them up."
"You said Kate got shot," Sawyer spat. His anger wasn't towards Alex but towards Tom. "Is she okay?"
"I don't know. They're not giving Jack anything to treat her with."
"That guy could make a splint out of earwax," Sawyer shook his head. "So they did try to leave without me…"
"Yes but I told them you were alive so now they wont try it again," she whispered, the room still dark but she still kept her voice down. "How are you feeling?"
"Why are you helping me? You could have just let me die," he said suddenly.
"I've told you before," she turned away, putting the things back in the blanket she carried full of her stolen supplies.
"You could benefit from this, maybe whisper a lie or two to your boss to get us in trouble. Why help us?" he was suddenly angry. He was angry at the pain he was in and at the fact that Jack hadn't even tried to come look for him.
"Because I wanted to," she snapped, suddenly her own rage flaring inside. "Be grateful."
Sawyer didn't say anything. He didn't expect Alex to jump back at him so fiercely. He was generally grateful for her help but also somehow suspicious.
"ALEX!"
Sawyer jumped as did Alex. Standing in the doorway was a guard holding a club. He strode quickly over to Alex but before he could Sawyer had lowered his hand and covered the blanket in which she had kept her things. In a swift movement he had moved it under his own small mat and out of sight.
"What are you doing in here?" snapped the guard, yanking her up.
"I was checking on the patients…"
"You're not to talk to them," the guard threw a glare at Sawyer and Sawyer returned it.
Alex nodded and quickly strode from the room. The guard continued to glare at Sawyer.
"What, you wanna start with a crippled guy?" Sawyer spat, curling his lip. "Wow, that's tough of you."
Without another word the guard gave a huff and hurried from the room. Sawyer let out the breath he'd been holding and looked down at the lump in the mat, praying she'd come back before anyone else found them.
