Reviews are still welcome, inspirational, and taken into consideration as I plan future chapters.
To Anon: Walt will be featured in the next chapter.
The Raft Crew struggles to get back to the island.
Michael helplessly treaded water as he watched the motorboat speed away, forlornly crying "Waaaaaaaaalllllllllt!. Just as it appeared that they were going to be rescued from that godforsaken island, Michael had been dealt an extremely cruel blow in an instant. Over the last several days he had excellent progress in bonding with his son after a very rough start, and now Walt had just been snatched from him, with a possibility of never seeing each other again.
The devastated father was slapped out of his state of shock by a hand sporting a handcuff. Jin was shouting something incomprehensible, but obviously had been dragging Sawyer back to the raft. Jin himself had a most disagreeable decision to make seconds earlier. Should he rescue Sawyer, who had just fallen overboard after having been shot, or stay to help Michael try to fight off the attackers? Jin decided that since the kidnappers were armed with guns, stopping them immediately was hopeless. It was senseless to get himself and Michael shot as well, although it was agonizing to leave Michael and Walt in such a hopeless position.
Regaining his senses, Michael clambered onto the raft, and with Jin, pulled Sawyer up. Michael had mixed feelings about Sawyer, but now that man had just taken a bullet in an attempt to save his son. Michael felt obligated to repay the favor. Furthermore, having an additional able-bodied man around would increase the chances that Walt could be rescued. Michael then found a ray of hope. As the last trace of the powerboat disappeared from view, he realized that it had sped off in the direction of the island. If somehow he could get back there, he could instigate a search and rescue operation. It was a large island, but he would do whatever it took.
Regrettably, it was clear that Sawyer would not be able-bodied for some time. He had been shot in the right shoulder, and was bleeding profusely. With most of the supplies on the raft being destroyed or blown into the water by the Molotov cocktail, the raft crew had nothing but the clothes on their backs to use as bandages. Fortunately Michael and Jin had not lost their pocketknives, and they were able to tear neat strips from their and Sawyer's shirts. Michael was greeted by a howl of agony as wrapped the first strip around Sawyer's wounded shoulder. The cloth that had been soaked in salt water was not a very pleasant thing to apply to the wound to say the least. The first strip of cloth bled through quickly, and Jin promptly removed it and applied another. This time it was apparent that the bleeding was slowing down, but not enough to make anyone relax.
While Jin was attending to Sawyer, Michael surveyed the damage done to his masterpiece with a small pocket flashlight. Surprisingly, the damage was not as devastating as he first thought. The mast was broken, but most of the deck was intact. The rudder was bent, but still might be used. Unfortunately, the cabin had pretty much disintegrated. The only provisions he could find were two bottles of water that had been thrown into of what was left of a corner of the cabin. The biggest stroke of fortune, however, was that since the sail had been rolled down, it was barely singed.
Realizing that time was of the essence, Michael and Jin managed to communicate agreement that they would try to get as much of the mast in place as possible, and raise the sail on it. This was a difficult task in the dark. A log that was roughly half the length of the original mast had to be propped up and secured to the deck, and they had to use some rope that was holding together some logs in a corner of the deck that they considered not too important now. The logs they cut free could be used as poles or oars if necessary. With their combined determination the makeshift mast was completed in a quarter of an hour, and in another five minutes the sail had been raised to almost half its original height. Then Jin had to replace Sawyer's current blood-soaked strip of a shirt with another clean one. It did look like the bleeding had slowed down, but Sawyer was far from out of the woods.
The next decision was to determine in which direction to sail. The best they could do was to select a star in the south-southwest, which was in the general direction that the powerboat had gone. They would have a better idea of the precise direction in the morning, but Sawyer's wound, the possibility of infection if not treated within a day or so, and the shortage of water compelled them to get going as quickly as they could. Consequently, Michael took hold of the log connected to the rudder and did his best to proceed in the indicated direction.
As dawn broke, the raftmen could see the mountain on the north end of their island in the distance. They had made some progress, but the current and bent rudder had taken them too far to the west. Jin dived into the water to see what he could do about fixing the rudder, but without any tools there wasn't anything he could do. Therefore they aimed the sail and rudder more to the east to compensate.
As the day wore on they decided how to ration the water. Michael and Jin would take one swallow each hour, and Sawyer, in much worse shape, would drink two. In this manner they figured that water supply would last until nightfall, when they should reach land. Also Michael and Jin replaced the blood-soaked bandages with fresh ones, albeit from a rapidly depleting collection of cloth strips, on Sawyer's shoulder every hour. The twenty thousand dollar watch on Michael's wrist, given to him as a present the day before by Jin, was being put to the best use it ever had been.
Navigating the craft was not an easy task. Michael and Jin took turns holding the rudder in place and paddling with a makeshift oar. They had to constantly fight the tendency to drift to the west. Otherwise Arzt's prediction could come true: if they missed the island, their next stop might be Antarctica. As mid-afternoon approached, Michael squinted and turned away as a beam of sunlight caught his eye as he was regarding the mountain, now slipping behind them far to the left. He had to concentrate; he had to make it back to shore and begin the search for Walt. Even though that kidnapping was impossible to foresee and there was nothing he could have done, Michael felt that he had failed Walt. Michael had to set things right; he just had to.
Jin was having similar feelings with regard to Sun. He felt it was his obligation to save her, to find some outside source of help and rescue the plane crash survivors. He could not be of any help if he didn't make it back to shore. He realized now that more than anything else he wanted to see Sun again, and live the rest of their lives together, the way it was supposed to be. But he couldn't truly be happy as long as the man next to him, who had gone through this horrible experience with him, was missing his son. Jin vowed that he would do whatever it took to find Walt and reunite him with Michael. Jin's bond with Sun was now strong enough that he was certain she would feel the same way.
There was a question of where they wanted to make landfall. If they picked a random location on the west side of the island, they wouldn't know where the rest of their group was, and also wouldn't know where to find fresh water. It didn't look like Sawyer was in good shape for walking unassisted, and transporting Sawyer by land would be slower and harder than by sea, so they got close to the west shore and continued south. Had they been a little closer and earlier in the day, they might have seen a yellow lifejacket on the southwest shore, but twilight was fast approaching. In another half an hour, they decided they must land before it got dark, even though they were short of their goal of the beach on the south side of the island. They sailed the raft until it got stuck a few meters from shore, drank the last of their water, and disembarked the ill-fated craft. Sawyer's right arm dangled uselessly, so Jin and Michael fashioned a sling out of the remaining cloth strips. Then the trio headed along the beach toward the south, trying to keep Sawyer's damaged arm immobilized and from becoming worse. Their occasional shouts for help met with no reply; they were definitely too far away from the caves where everyone else was at. Walking with the aid of just a pair of pocket flashlights, progress was slow, but they eventually reached their goal of the beach camp at nearly 10 pm. At that point Sawyer collapsed completely, and took Michael with him. The group had had nothing to eat for a full day, and was utterly exhausted. Jin wasn't confident that he could make it to the caves alone, and quickly fell asleep on the beach with his crewmates.