Walt's second day working in the mines has him finding a side effect of the injections the Others gave him.

Waking up was nowhere near as pleasant an experience for Walt as falling asleep was. He awoke with a dull ache in his upper back. With his left hand chained, he tried to rub the sore spot with the back of his right fist, but couldn't quite reach it effectively and only mildly alleviated the pain. Then Alex walked in, unchained his hand, and rubbed the area he had been trying to reach.

"Oh, thank you," Walt said automatically, and then realized this was only going to enable him to do a full day's work. But there could be no harm in being polite. "You'll have to let me do something for you."

"You can do that by not doing anything that will get us in trouble," replied Alex. "Also, it is nice just having someone new to talk with."

Walt didn't have any particular response in mind, but that wasn't quite the response he had hoped for. Today he would try to instill some spirit into Alex, something that might convince her that a better life was out there and worth taking some risks for.

Over breakfast Alex announced, "The Others were satisfied with the rock samples you collected yesterday. A few of the smaller rocks didn't contain any 'otherite' as you called it, but that is all right. It is better to have some of those than to miss any significant real deposits. At this rate you will be finished in a few months."

"I was kind of hoping to be out of here in less time than that. Don't you wish you could do something else before then?"

"You just said you wanted to do something for me. Please don't talk like that. Perhaps you need a reminder of what the Others could do?"

"No," answered Walt, not hiding the dejection in his voice. Turning Alex to his way of thinking was not going to be a quick and easy process.

Alex had left the wheelbarrow outside the entrance to Walt's room the night before after she had transported the ore to the Others so that they could analyze and refine it. This morning Walt wheeled it back to the mines. As he and Alex reached the central cavern, she announced, "Based on the amount of otherite you collected the Others have determined there is no need for you to go to the last two cross-corridors. I will show you." They went along the central south-leading corridor, with Walt picking up the tools he left the day before along the way. Then they proceeded to the third intersection from the end. "This is as far as you are permitted."

"What's in those last two tunnels?" asked Walt. "Is it that machine?"

From Alex's reaction Walt could tell that he had made a good guess, but in the next instant her expression changed: "You are asking too many questions. Now get to work."

Spooked by her tone of voice, Walt followed Alex at a distance back towards the central cavern, turning off at the first intersection before it. He had counted the number of tunnels crossing the main corridor. Including the last two he was forbidden to enter, there was a total of twenty-three. Some day that knowledge might be useful. For now, he felt it in his best interest to collect everything he could in the tunnels far from the forbidden zone. This morning he had mined seven deposits of otherite when Alex suddenly reappeared, announcing the noon break. The timing was good, as Walt felt that something was a little different this day while handling the tools. He wheeled his collection back to his room, and Alex continued with it to the laboratory, dumped its contents, and returned with the empty barrow and lunch.

Neither person seemed eager to talk at this meal, and they were mostly finished when Walt realized what had been different. He noticed that his fingernails were longer than they should have been. Surely he had clipped them a day or two before the raft trip, but now it looked like they hadn't been cut in two weeks, and had been digging slightly into this hands.

Alex sensed that something might be wrong. "What is it?" she asked, breaking the ice at the quiet meal.

"Oh nothing, just that my nails are a little long. Guess I haven't clipped them in a longer time than I thought."

"Oooh," was Alex's immediate reaction.

"What's wrong?" Walt saw that Alex was now expressing concern.

Alex hesitated. "It may be nothing, or it may be a side effect of the injection they gave you."

"Uh, are there any other side effects?"

"It is better not to worry about those until we are sure of this one. No use getting upset over nothing, and besides, there's nothing we can do about it."

That response did nothing to alleviate Walt's concern. What else was going to happen? When the meal was over he took a close look at his feet, and the toenails were proportionately long in comparison with the fingernails. Well, maybe that wasn't so bad; it might be worse if one set of nails was growing much faster than the other.

In the afternoon Walt was left to himself in the mines, but he couldn't shake the feeling he was being spied on. While mining the second cross-tunnel, he plotted how he would eventually see what was in those last two tunnels. He would try to determine Alex's movements, and when she was away for a long enough period time he could investigate. If he got caught, he could claim he just lost count due to a powerful tingling sensation he felt in his head.

After he had excavated eight more deposits, Alex appeared and announced Walt had done enough for the day. He went through the relieving ritual of washing his sweat-drenched body in the underground stream at the end of the west tunnel, and carted his latest ore collection back to the corridor outside his room. While Alex was taking care of the rocks and dinner, Walt found a nail clippers in his washroom. So was that one of those promised "gifts" for good behavior?

With newly trimmed nails Walt had a more enjoyable dinner with Alex. He would try to use her apparent concern for him to his advantage, but take it slowly.

"Yes, the clippers counts as a little gift," Alex admitted. "You have done well so far; is there anything else you would like?"

"Well, how about something else to wear?" Walt gave a little laugh, hoping to gain more of Alex's confidence. Besides, those shorts he had worn for four straight days were really grungy by now.

Alex's face brightened. "That may be possible. I will look into it."

Walt was encouraged to see a spark of emotion out of Alex. He thanked her, but as he got up it was obvious his muscles were again sore. He got ready for bed while Alex took care of the dinnerware. Upon her return she ordered him to lie face down on his bed again. Walt put up a mild protest, but soon let her manacle his left wrist as he felt this would not be a good time to make trouble. He wasn't very comfortable with the arrangement; fearing that the Others would use this to affect his mind and crush his desire to escape. When Alex began rubbing the knots out of his back, Walt felt it was okay to ask, "What would happen if I refused your massage?"

Without saying anything, Alex used her left hand to rub up and down Walt's back. When she was convinced that Walt had given up on receiving an answer, she silently moved the upper right manacle into place. She rubbed Walt's right shoulder with her right hand, then gently took his right arm, and placed his wrist over the open manacle, and efficiently snapped it shut.

Oops. Walt had not intended to become this helpless. He was going to be massaged back into shape whether he liked it or not. After regarding her helpless captive for a few seconds, Alex suddenly went up and down Walt's back with the sides of her hands in a chopping motion, with a surprising amount of energy due to her frustration that Walt was not being cooperative enough. It felt great, but Walt tried to maintain some control of the situation by asking, "Could you please rub just below my right shoulder blade?" That was the spot that had been bothering him the most, with all the repeated swinging of the pickax and jabbing with the shovel. His next words were, "Yes, that's it. Press harder. Aaah." He had gotten Alex to do what he wanted, but now his brain could no longer think about anything other than the disappearance of the pain. So much for attempting to have any control over the situation.

Alex was now filled with mixed emotions. She was more concerned than before that eventually Walt would do something that would incur the wrath of the Others. While he was making some effort to hide it, the boy still was filled with a great deal of spirit. She would do what she could to maintain the fragile peace, and had to admit that she got some satisfaction out of giving the chopping massage, as if she was administering some kind of lesson. But she was dreading the prospect that more than Walt's fingernails would soon be growing at an alarming rate.

Alex continued rubbing Walt's back for several minutes, until it appeared he was asleep. She then left and reported the day's events to the Others in a serious matter-of-fact tone, and returned to her own room, around a corner of a side tunnel out of sight of Walt's. She thought she should tell Walt she had to make these reports, but he probably should have guessed that she did. After she was out of earshot the Others congratulated themselves on the way things were progressing, and had a laugh over how Alex had managed to handle Walt. They would be all set if this could be maintained for just a few months.