Sayid looked down at the struggling man on the ground and reached down, grabbing his collar and forcing him to sit up straight against some cabinets. The below deck consisted of a simple bed and kitchen. A bed smaller than a cot was against the wall, and beside it were many cabinets on the walls leading to a counter on top of which was what Sayid supposed at one time had been a stove but looked as though it had been taken apart.
The man hadn't said a word, just continued to moan in pain at the bulletwound in his leg.
"What is your name?" Sayid asked simply, standing with his hands behind his back and his back straight, his eyes on the man.
"I won't talk," the man said through gritted teeth. "You'll have to kill me first."
Sayid gave a sharp kick and the man reeled sideways, clutching his side and screaming in pain. Sending a second one, the man flipped over and breathed heavily, staring up at Sayid with wide eyes.
"Edward," the man gasped, his eyes almost closed in agony. "My name is Edward."
"Edward," slowly Sayid bent. "Where are our friends?"
"I don't know…"
Sayid had ripped his gun from his belt and placed it at Edward's skull, pressing the point into his temple. Edward looked at Sayid with strangely calm eyes.
"You will answer my questions," Sayid ordered, his voice deep and menacing. "Or I will kill you."
"I would welcome death," Edward grinned demonically.
"Then I will shoot you in the kneecap," Sayid lowered the gun to Edwards uninjured leg. "And when you still don't answer I will shoot you in the other and make sure you don't bleed to death so you can still talk to me."
This guy knew Sayid was serious. He looked at Sayid with wide eyes.
"Where are the three people you took hostage?" Sayid demanded, the gun pressed against Edward's knee.
…………………
Something hit Sawyer, almost like a shock but it ran through his body and didn't leave. He felt like he was being electrocuted as suddenly his entire body stiffened and he felt his back arch, raising him off the table since his arms and ankles were restrained. Hands came and pushed him down as he let out a yell but it suddenly faded.
He could feel the cold table beneath him and a slight breeze on his face. Opening his eyes again he saw an oxygen mask that looked extremely old was being held over his face, although not touching it. He went to move, to jerk away from it and it was taken away.
"What the hell?" he demanded, breathing heavily. His fingertips tingled and he looked around wildly at the many people beside the table.
"The first one is usually the worst," said the man to his right that Sawyer supposed was what these people called a doctor. He had a remote in his hand. Sawyer saw many wires were leading to the bed and realized he probably had been electrocuted. "But now that your blood is flowing we can begin."
"Begin what?" Sawyer snapped.
A needle suddenly pierced his arm and he jerked hard, elbowing the woman who was giving it, causing the needle to break off halfway, sticking out of his arm.
"You will behave," said the doctor fiercely. He was an Asian man although he had no accent.
The woman ripped the needle out of his arm painfully and stuck him again with a different one. Sawyer winced, waiting for whatever they were giving him to kick in.
"If the liver we gave you isn't being rejected, if it is adjusting to your body, you should react normally," the man said, more to the five other people in the room than to Sawyer.
"And if not?" Sawyer realized there was fear in his voice. He was sweating profusely.
"You'll go into a seizure and we'll be forced to bring you out of it," the doctor said this with a slight grin.
He wasn't sure why but all Sawyer could think about was Kate. He would stay here so they could get out without having to come for him. But really, would they be able to escape? These people were nuts, performing experiments and surgeries on people without proper equipment. Yet he could see her face and would have given anything to find her again.
Suddenly something felt like it was stirring in his chest. It grew tighter and Sawyer knew something was wrong. He wondered if he'd die here, if this was the end. Looking up he saw the man who was pretending to be a doctor looked concerned and then Sawyer felt his eyes roll into his head and it was nothing but pain.
…………………………….
"What do you know?"
Jack sat beside the short haired Australian woman. He pretended to help her wrap bodies but was actually drilling her, trying to get answers.
"I haven't been here long. But I know that the stuff they do, some of it works out and some of it doesn't," she whispered, wrapping one body and pushing it aside without any kind of hesitance. "Like surgeries and stuff. Some people are okay and some die. I think more die than survive, though."
"But who funds it? Who pays for the electricity to this island? And if it has electricity why don't planes fly over and see it?" he demanded, his mind raging with questions.
"I know it's protected by something magnetic but that's all I know. As for who pays for it, I'm pretty sure no one does. That's why everything goes so bad. They don't have the stuff they used to have," she glanced around nervously, seeing if anyone was listening. "I think they were shut down but refused to shut down."
"But they're killing people. Where do all these people come from?" he asked.
"These are all recent. After they were shut down I think people started to try to leave so they kept them here against their will. I heard this all from someone else so don't quote me," she whispered. Jack was suddenly reminded of a prison sequence from a movie where someone gets the dirt from another inmate. "And others are stranded sailors, and sometimes I swear they take them from the mainland."
"But how?" he demanded. "How do they get away with kidnapping people? Doesn't anybody look for them?"
"I really don't know," she shook her head, continuing to tie the rope around one body. "All I know is once you're here…you're here."
"The button," suddenly Jack was reminded. "Do you know anything about a button that you push every one hundred and eight minutes?"
"Yeah, it's one of the experiments that went wrong. It turned out being imperative that they push it so they kept the guy who was down there down there to keep pushing it," she sighed. "Poor fellah."
"We opened that hatch," Jack breathed, his heart pounding in his chest. "We found that guy and now we've been pressing the button."
She looked confused and then her eyes widened.
"Were you on Flight 815?" she said so low that Jack barely heard her. He nodded and she put a hand to her mouth.
"They told me you all died!" she hissed, her hand going to her heart. "Oh my god!"
"Are you Cindy?" he said confusedly.
"Yes!" she said too loudly, lowering her voice and slouching a bit, glancing at the guards who hadn't moved. "Is Ana okay?"
Jack looked down and Cindy seemed to understand.
"Did they get her?" she asked sadly, not tying the rope she had in her hand, just twisting it.
"No," sighed Jack. "She was murdered by one of our own."
……………………..
Kate found herself waking up a bit as she was being carried back to the cell. She could see the white light above her but felt extremely sick. She knew it was probably from her arm. When she started to move the two guys who were carrying her lowered her and held onto her as she tried to regain composure.
Behind her was what sounded like a scream. She jumped and her vision cleared. She could see two doors closed at the end of the hall. She started towards it but was pulled back.
But the scream erupted again and her eyes widened.
Ripping her hand away, she hurried as fast as she could in her weakened state to the doors, bursting through them.
Lying twitching and moaning on the table was Sawyer. He seemed to be having some kind of seizure, his feet knocking around and his hands trembling. One of them held his head while another was injecting him with something. People stood all around holding syringes and different instruments.
"SAWYER!" she screamed, her entire body feeling as though she'd fallen into ice.
Kate? Sawyer opened his eyes. Was it possible that he had just heard Kate's voice?
Slowly he tilted his head, feeling weak, dizzy, and nauseous all at the same time as he tried to focus his eyes at the end of the bed. She stood there, looking filthy and ragged, and slightly thinner. She rushed towards him but someone intercepted her.
"Jack said you were dead!" she screamed, looking hysterical.
But Sawyer couldn't even speak. He was too weak, whatever they'd done to him had drained him completely. He felt as though he could fall asleep forever. But Kate's face remained in front of his eyes.
……………………………………………..
"WHERE ARE THEY?" Sayid demanded.
"I don't know!"
Sayid fired. Sun had been looking down the hole and had screamed when he did. For a moment Edward didn't shout or even scream. Then a wail of agony seemed to erupt from his throat as his hands went to his now bleeding foot. Sayid had changed his mind about the knee.
"I said where are they?" Sayid snapped, grabbing Edward by his longer hair and pointing the gun at his other foot. "I will blow off your fingers one by one…"
"They're dead!"
Sun had remained at the hole looking down, her hand over her mouth, feeling sick. When Edward said this, Sayid's eyes had widened but Sun had suddenly sat back, covering her face.
"You're lying," shouted Sayid, shoving the man hard. Blood was covering the floor of the boat, rolling side to side with the waves. The man looked faint, pale and weak.
"They were killed soon after they were caught," Edward moaned and he gripped the edge of the counter to stay sitting up, no longer screaming in pain but beginning to look delirious. "They're dead."
"YOU'RE LYING!" Sayid screamed, pointing the gun at Edward. "TELL ME THE TRUTH!"
"The truth?" Edward had reached his hand up. "The truth is you're all going to die."
And from inside the sink, something Sayid hadn't even seen, Edward pulled a long kitchen knife. Sayid seemed to freeze for a moment, not understanding, and then Edward plunged the knife into his own heart.
Sun screamed long and loud. Sayid looked up at her and suddenly raced up the stairs to her, leaving Edward's dead body behind.
She was backing away from him towards the bow, her hands shaking as she continued to scream. He grabbed her and pulled her to him, keeping her from squirming away. She continued to scream, the horrible image before her eyes. They were dead, they were all dead she knew it.
"He's lying," Sayid said firmly as Sun began to cry.
"NO HE'S NOT!" she shrieked, her voice echoing in the trees. "NO HE'S NOT!"
For a moment Sayid contemplated giving up. They could try to sail home, sail straight out towards the horizon and hope to find a shipping lane or land. But he knew there was nothing there. They would never escape this island, he knew that.
……………………….
Penny had heard gunshots but had only seen the Asian woman screaming on deck. She wondered if the Arab man had shot the khaki clothed guy he'd caught. She watched from the trees as the Arab man talked to the woman, and then disappeared below deck again, emerging once more and climbing down the side of the boat.
As he moved towards where she was she slowly walked. She kept parallel to him as he walked. He had left the woman on the boat. Penny wondered what was going on.
Suddenly hands were on her. All around her, people had begun to grab her. Looking up and around she found five men, all large and built, all in khaki clothing had seized her arms and legs.
"HELP!" she screamed as they began to lift her. She struggled, punching and scratching but they only held her tighter.
Sayid looked back at the boat. It hadn't been Sun who had screamed that time. Looking over at the trees, he saw something he didn't understand. Five of the Others were holding a struggling woman in their arms. She was dressed normally and was screaming for help, begging for them to let her go as they began moving through the jungle.
His first shot took out the tallest one that was holding her arm. The second and third got the two on each side and just as Sayid was about to hit the last one, he took off running with the other in tow.
Penny lay on the ground shivering and terrified. She went to stand and saw the Arab man approaching. She jumped to her feet, wavering and terrified as she backed away slowly.
"Please don't kill me," she pleaded with Sayid, who held the gun ahead of him but not pointed at her. "Please! I have a daughter!"
Sayid examined this woman. She had regular pants on, and a bloody blouse. Her hair was messy and she looked filthy. She had no shoes on and plenty of cuts on her feet. But she looked terrified, almost like she had no idea where she was.
"You're not from here are you?" asked Sayid, lowering his gun.
"No," she said, feeling extremely faint. She stepped forward and wavered. Sayid hurried forward and caught her as she fainted.
Lifting her, he carried her across the beach and towards the boat. Wading into the water he got to the boat and as gently as he could, lifted her on board.
"Sun…"
Sayid looked around. She wasn't on the deck. Why would she go below deck with that body there?
Suddenly Sayid felt something was wrong. Looking down at the deck he saw what looked like blood all over it. Examining his hands, Sayid saw they were crimson from the ladder that was covered in it.
"SUN!" Sayid shouted, going to the hole and bending to look in it. All that was there was the bloody floor. Edward's body was gone, and so was Sun. "SUN!"
Sayid had never wished he hadn't gotten on that plane more than he did at that moment.
