In the End

Chapter Twenty-One

Author's Note: If you haven't seen season two and don't want any clue at all as to what's going on, don't read this author's note. Don't worry, you won't miss out on anything. This is the point where my story becomes similar to season two. I've made it to where there aren't many spoilers in this, so just in case someone reading hasn't seen season two and does want some clue(wow I'm confusing myself) I'll put it in vague(my new word) terms so that I don't give away too much. One particular plot, mostly brought up in this chapter, is very similar to something happening in season two. I didn't intend for it to be that way, but it was kind of inspired because the character in this story and a certain guest star in season two are similar and I was inspired by that..and Tim Robbins in War of the Worlds:-p Anyway, they are similar, but not a like. They're happening for different reasons. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, try and forget that overly confusing paragraph. You can ask me if you want, but it's not necessary.

Also, I know the chaos theory presented in this chapter isn't exactly the real chaos theory, but it's the island's version:-p

And don't forget, what happened to Claire in Fated is different then what happened in the show..if I remember correctly she never even escaped.

Disclaimer: A Wrinkle In Time was written by Madeleine L'Engle. The themes about the book I mention in this chapter may be totally wrong, but for the sake of the story, bare with me. Yell at me later:-p

If that great brain were cut, were crushed, would every mind under ITs control in Camazotz die too?..Was their life completely dependent on IT?

- A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Chapter Twenty-One: The Chaos Theory

The static left a soft buzzing noise that echoed in the room, leaving a ringing sensation in Boone's ears. He kept staring at the computer, waiting for something else to come up, but the screen only stared back at him. Behind him stood Locke, for once, just as in shock as he was. Boone was sure that this would be one of the only times that he would see Locke puzzled. They were both dumbfounded, and their hope was belittled with that one conversation. Even if they were to get the screen to come back up, they would still be talking to that person, someone who clearly didn't want them there. But even though the person on the other line wasn't their for them to see, Boone thought there was something odd about his wording. He almost seemed afraid. Afraid for them.

"What the hell did you do?"

Boone spun around, knocking his knee against a computer chair he never even noticed was there. Callum was approaching them, walking through the dark shadows of the room. He could feel Locke's eyes watching him instead of Callum, obviously looking for answers.

"I don't understand-" Locke began.

"Back away!" Callum shouted, rushing towards the desk.

Boone and Locke immediately jumped out of the way to allow Callum through.

"Get away from there!" Callum exclaimed, even though they were already a good distance away.

Frantically Callum started pressing buttons, occasionally banging on them, like a little kid who didn't know what he was supposed to do with a keyboard.

"Is something wrong?" Locke asked.

Boone wished he would be quiet. He didn't know for sure how capable of being a "bad guy" Callum was, and he didn't plan on finding out.

"Get out of here!" Callum shouted, catching them both off-guard.

Boone actually found himself offended that Callum didn't take note of who he was.

"Get out!" Callum yelled again, inputting multiple codes into the computer, hands finding their way around the keypad like he was playing a complicated piano solo.

For the first time, Boone noticed the rifle that bounced against Callum's thigh from where it was hung on his shoulder. He began to step back, slowly nearing the exit, eyes never leaving the gun.

"Wait!"

Boone skidded to a stop. He was only slightly surprised to see that Locke hadn't moved an inch towards the door. Callum turned towards him, and through the light that radiated out of the computer, Boone noticed that he was wearing boots. Hiking boots. Boone recognized them as a fairly new style of shoes, but they were covered from heal to lace in dried mud. Yet there was no mud tracks in the hatch.

"I recognize you," Callum said, approaching him, pointing an accusing finger at him, "you were just here. I few days ago." Boone tensed as Callum's hand found the barrel of the gun. "I kidnapped you. You knocked me out." Boone didn't reply. "Where are the others?"

"I don't know," Boone replied truthfully.

He couldn't remember seeing neither Sayid nor Sawyer that morning at the beach.

"And who are you?" Callum said to Locke.

Callum now had the rifle in his hands and was jabbing it at Locke.

"My name's John Locke," Locke replied quickly. Boone looked at him in surprise, "I was with him-" he waved towards Boone, "on the crash."

For one fearful moment Boone thought that Locke was going to say something about their past before the crash, but after the brief introduction, Locke offered no more.

"Why'd you come back?" Callum demanded after taking a moment to take in what Locke told him. At least he believed them this time. "Why'd the hell did you come back?"

The gun wavered between Locke and Boone. Boone's eyes trailed down to the trigger, where Callum's sweaty, shaky finger was ready to pull it at any given moment.

"Well I don't blame ya," Callum said when neither answered. He lowered the gun and looked around the room, "damn creepy place if you asked me."

"Who are you?" Locke inquired, taking Callum's sudden calmness to their advantage.

Callum glanced from Locke to Boone, and then to the computer behind them. The static was still dancing on the screen, teasing them with the answers they couldn't have.

"I was in a crash, all right?" Callum said, sighing exasperatedly. "A long time ago. I was with a few other guys, flying from Canada."

Locke raised an eyebrow, and Boone knew what he was thinking. Ethan was from Canada.

"Only three of us survived," Callum continued, "we walked around the jungle for days. We kept seeing things. Smelling things. Like smoke. We were convinced we weren't alone. But we were proven wrong."

Callum turned away from them, a distant, haunted look in his eyes. Boone almost felt bad for him. After all, everyone on the island had a story.

"Daniel," Callum went on, "didn't last a day out there. He fell. Broke his neck. It seemed a little too much of a coincidence for us, going into the jungle and immediately one of us dies, so we hid his body in a cave, said a quick prayer, and went on. And then he found us."

"'He'?" Locke repeated in interest.

"He wanted to kill us at first," Callum said, ignoring Locke's comment, "but we tricked him, said that we'd be helpful to him, even though he had know idea what kind of hell he was apart of-" Callum let the slid back onto his shoulder and balanced it there, stuffing his hands inside his pockets. He took one last look around the back of the room before turning back to Boone and Locke. "If only we knew then what he was really up too-" he shook his head, "doesn't matter now, anyway."

Callum diverted his eyes to the ground, glaring at it coldly.

"We always tried to get out of this after coming down here," Callum continued quietly, "and then one day he left. Just like that. Never saw him again."

A long moment of silence followed. Boone wanted to say something, ask questions, but every time he opened his mouth to do so, nothing came out. Locke was quick to cover for him.

"The one who disappeared?" Locke began. "Ethan?"

Callum looked up at him in surprise. His eyes were filled with a sadness Boone didn't expect Callum to posses, but then again, everyone was entitled to their feelings. He never thought about it before, but Callum could be just as in over his head as he was, and his history on the island could be just as painful as all of theirs.

"He showed up at our camp," Locke went on, "kidnapped two of us, hung one of them. We managed to save one of them, but he kept the other with him. She was nine months pregnant."

By his reaction, Boone knew it was safe to say that Callum knew nothing of what Locke was saying. He looked surprised, angry, even betrayed. But all of that soon faded, and Callum's face once again grew dark.

"He was only trying to protect her then," Callum said defensively, "keep her child away from this life. He gave her to one of them, didn't he?"

"He may have planned too," Locke agreed, "but we found her, in a place like this. We searched it, and found some kind of experimental site. Do you know about this?"

Callum didn't answer right away, nor did he defend Ethan again. Once again he looked furious, but whether it was because of what Ethan did or because he wasn't included in the plan, Boone couldn't tell.

"No," Callum finally admitted.

He kicked at the ground and bit his lip, holding back a curse.

"I-I'm sorry," he said sincerely, "I didn't know. Honestly. Sorry for the inconvenience. You..you can go now."

Callum waved a hand towards the door, ushering them out, as if all it took to make everything okay was an apology. Boone felt himself growing furious, more frustrated by the minute.

"You little-" he made to charge towards Callum, but Locke held out a hand to stop him.

"So what did you do?" Locke asked loudly to get Callum's attention. "Down here? What did you do?"

Boone had been looking towards the ground as Locke spoke, and when he looked up, he saw that Callum was leaning forward against the computer table, hands grasping it for support. Locke's eyes trailed to the computer.

"What's that for?" He said, motioning towards the static-filled screen.

"It controls everything," Callum replied darkly, breathing heavily as if he had just run a mile.

He stared at the screen with a cold intensity that no one should posses.

"The island," Callum went on, "without this, the island wouldn't exists. It would just be..an island. It wouldn't be special."

"What?" Boone blurted out before he realized what he was doing. "I don't understand-"

"What do you know about that computer?" Callum asked him, cutting Boone off. He waved towards the opening that led to the original hatch. "The system that's down?"

Boone thought quickly, going over everything he discovered about it over the past few months.

"That it can control minds," Boone said thoughtfully, "read minds. Keep control of things."

"Exactly," Callum said. He never turned away from the screen. "It controls you. You don't realize it, but every step you take, every thing you think, it's monitored, okayed, by the force of that computer. It keeps everything together, holds it in place-" he turned back towards Locke and Boone, and leaned against the table, "and what happens when that one experimental variable, that one thing that holds the pieces together falls apart?"

Boone stared back at Callum blankly. What he was saying sounded so insane, even though he pretty much knew what he was talking about.

Callum's hands smacked together, as if signaling an explosion.

"Chaos."

The one word would linger in Boone's mind for days, eating up his thoughts, taking control of him. Chaos. That's what's going on, he realized, a chaotic mess that tore the world as they knew it apart.

"You get so used to having something help you think," Callum continued, walking towards them, "you don't realize it, but it's there, and suddenly, everything's just a little bit easier. You're in this place, but there's someone-something- out there that's watching over you, and whether you believe it's a god or a computer, it keeps you going. Do you really think that you could've lasted on the island as long as you've been there if it was like it is now? Constant attacks, constant murderers, over and over and over again. It really messes with the mind, mate, and that's why I like being down here, to control it all-" his eyes met Boone's, and for a moment, it was almost like Callum was trying to- or maybe was- reading his mind, "but I can't do that now, can I?"

Callum's chaos theory reminded Boone of a story he had to read for school once, A Wrinkle In Time, about time travel and tesseracts. There was a hidden meaning to the story, though, one that he was surprised the teachers expected middle school students to catch: a theme about control and brainwashing. Wondering into places you don't belong and overtaken by its spell. A theme about the madness of a world, a world that could only exists on fiction planets and deserted islands..yet at the same time the similarities between the planet Camazotzs and the real world could be pinpointed by even a fifth grader.

"And so the world falls apart," Callum went on, breaking Boone from his thoughts, "and we just sit here, and let it do so."

Boone watched Locke as he studied Callum, who was staring distantly at the wall.

"When Boone told me about you," Locke spoke up carefully, "he mentioned something about a code that could fix everything. What happens if we find it?"

At first Callum had no reaction. Then a mixture of emotions came at once: first he looked furious, but then an evil grin curled at his lips, and he turned towards them what's more.

"Then we could all celebrate our miraculous victory," Callum said, "but good luck finding it, mate. Until then, you best get your affairs set straight, and stay out of the jungle."

"Why?" Said Locke, speaking what Boone was thinking at the moment. "Why stay out of the jungle?"

"That thing should be out there, shouldn't it?" Callum said, sounding confused. "And it's for real this time, mate. No second chances."

Boone was confused, but Locke seemed to understand everything Callum was saying, despite his many questions.

"Well don't wear out your welcome," Callum said quickly to avoid silence, "I guess you better start finding that code, huh?"

Locke nodded. Boone looked towards him in surprise.

"What?" He hissed. "Are you crazy?"

"Your dream," Locke reminded him, "with the numbers?"

He had completely forgotten about the dream.

"It was only a dream," Boone said, "this..this is insane."

"Is it?" Locke said, crossing his arms, "then what have you been doing down here for the past four months?"

Boone hesitated. He was cornered. They had what could be a code, and it was always worth a try.

"I don't know you personally," Callum spoke up, "but when a man goes back to somewhere he left, he either forgot something, or is looking to do something; and I can assure you, mate, you didn't forget anything."

Callum grinned again. He didn't know how it happened, but suddenly it seemed liked Callum and Locke had some mutual agreement that he was left out on. Boone didn't want to be down here anymore than he had to, after all, this was supposed to be like his retirement, but he knew this was all his fault, and he had to fix it.

"All right," Boone agreed, reluctantly, "I'm in."

Both Callum and Locke grinned. At that moment, Boone realized how similar they both were, but he couldn't put a finger on why.

"Let's get to work then," Callum said happily, and swiftly turned back towards the computer.

But unlike before, the screen was now blank again, awaiting them to start their 'work'.

Author's Note: I know this chapter was especially short, but I felt that it needed to stand alone, what with all the information given in it. I'll try and put another out soon with more in it: Jate, Sebecca, Alex, the whole shabang. Thanks so much for all the reviews! Hang tight, it'll be a bumpy ride to the end, but I hope in the end you'll be satisfied. But I truly appreciate that yall stick around each update, and want always want more..at least, you claim you do..o.O As always, you guys rock!

Coming up next, on "In the End":

You should probably be able to predict what's going to happen next chapter, which will probably be a songfic. To which song, you may ask? That's for me to know and you to find out:p There should be lots more Jate coming up, and more of those Alex-Jack conversations. Charlie, Claire, and the baby are well and will be returning, which means they'll all have to adjust to "baby-island". Fun, fun, fun.

Thanks again!

Until next time..

October Sky