Author's notes: I've been telling the story like the show in Season 2 has been done sometimes, where the same day is shown in two consecutive episodes, but involving different characters. So this chapter describes what Alex and Walt have been doing during the monsoon month in which everyone else was shown in the previous chapter. I won't keep this up, however. A month may have been long, but Locke and Sawyer need some time to heal.

During monsoon season in the mines, Alex tries to win Walt's trust back

After Alex had been watching Walt sleep for half an hour, she backed out of his room when he began showing signs of waking. Alex had lost her nerve, being frightened that her mild actions and attempt to leave the underground network had raised too much suspicion by the Others. Consequently she would keep up the daily routine as if nothing unusual had happened. She waited outside Walt's room for a few minutes, and then pretended to enter his room for the first time that morning. As she had done dozens of times by now, she unlocked the manacles around Walt's wrists and ankles, and let him wash up while she returned with a breakfast tray.

Alex didn't feel like speaking, lest she give something away that might find its way back to the Others. Coupled with the sudden scalp massage from the previous evening, Walt sensed that something was wrong beyond the usual situation, but judged not to aggravate the situation. Consequently the pair ate in silence, and the regular routine was quickly re-established. Walt methodically mined the side corridors now in order, doing roughly one and a half per day. Previously he had been going up and down the central corridor, choosing the tunnels for which the tingling sensation in his head had been the strongest. Now that the largest lodes had been discovered, the Others had suggested, through Alex, the systematic search so as to be as sure as possible of collecting all the ore that was attainable. Walt had no intention of finding out what the consequences of disagreeing with that suggestion were.

A week of this activity passed before Alex grew restless of the silence, and felt sure enough that the Others weren't suspecting her of an escape attempt. She would wait for an innocuous opportunity to start a conversation. The occasion arose at the end of a workday when Walt stepped into the stream at the end of the short corridor of the tunnel that led west from the central chamber. For nearly two months this tiny river at the bottom of the rocky streambed had been no more than two decimeters deep, but on this occasion the water came to the bottom of Walt's knees. Alex saw the surprised look on Walt's face, and offered the explanation,

"Monsoon season must have started several days ago. Every year during this time the water level in that stream rises significantly. Other than that there is hardly any indication down here what the outside weather is like."

Walt felt it was appropriate to answer. "Oh. This guy Arzt said monsoon season was coming soon after we left on the raft, and I ended up here, but his prediction looks like it was early. So how long does monsoon season last?"

"The heavy rains typically last for one month. We have perhaps three weeks to go."

Alex was pleased that they were talking again. But she waited one more day before telling Walt the big story. She was about to tell at bedtime, but changed her mind, and locked Walt up hand and foot again. She started to leave, but changed her mind again, and announced, "Walt, I have to talk with you. About eight days ago, I tried to leave this place, but the Others have the exit guarded all the time now."

Walt was surprised at that statement, but pulled himself together. He figured he still had to be careful what he said. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because we have to get out of here, both of us. You need to see your father, and I … need to find my mother."

"What do you know about your mother?"

"Just what you told me about ten days ago. You had strained your back, and I was rubbing it, and you started talking about her. You were half-asleep, and may not remember, but I'm sure you were telling the truth. But why didn't you tell me sooner? Can't you trust me?"

So this part of Walt's plan had worked. She was convinced he told her the truth about Danielle. But that wasn't the same as complete trust in each other. "What happened about trusting you when you saw me tap out that message to my friends? Remember this?" Walt thrust his arms and legs out as far as they would go, the same position in which he had endured that water torture.

"Please don't do that, I couldn't do anything about that. The Others were bound to find out because you didn't get enough otherite that day, at least according to them. Still, I can see why you are reluctant to trust me now. We have to be honest with each other now, for both our sakes."

Walt was believing more and more that Alex was being honest now, and pulled back his arms as far as the chains would allow, with his elbows bent at the familiar right angles. "Okay, then answer this, why did you mess with my hair that other night?"

Alex was obligated to tell the truth if she was going to win Walt's confidence. "There's something about your hair I find irresistible. I've never seen anything like it. It feels good to run my fingers through it, and I thought that it might be my last opportunity to do so. That was the night I tried to leave."

"That … sounds very honest of you. You like my hair that much? Was there anything else you wanted to do like that?"

"Yes, there have been many times when you just lay there like a dead flounder, while you used to have so much energy. I found it very frustrating, and wanted to shake you up, reanimate you, by doing something like this." With that, Alex unleashed a sizable amount of pent-up emotion by holding her hands parallel and near to each other, and then executed a rather hard rapid chopping motion, going up and down Walt's chest and stomach, as she had done to his back several times before. It just so happened that today Walt was lying face up. Walt was taken by surprise, and his immediate reaction was to tense his pectoral and abdominal muscles, but then realized it was better to relax.

When Alex realized what she was doing, she stopped and apologized, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I just get so frustrated that …"

"That's okay," interrupted Walt. "It actually felt pretty good."

"Oh, it did?" Alex was a bit surprised. "Okay, then. I guess what I really want to ask is, 'What can I do to make you completely trust me?' Or do you still think the Others are putting me up to all this? I could undo three of your chains now, for example."

Walt thought some before answering. "I don't really know. After that message I sent the Others may never trust me again, and … it's hard to know for sure. I'm still careful what I say, because there's this lingering doubt. And I've realized it doesn't make any different if there's one or four chains on me; I'm not getting out either way. And if the Others want all four and find out there's less, that's going to be bad for both of us. So it would have to be something else. It's probably best just to keep everything the way it is." Walt yawned as he was quite tired by now.

Alex realized this conversation was ending for the day. "Let's think about it some more." As a final indication that she had changed, and was no longer only an informant for the Others, she playfully patted Walt's defenseless chest and stomach before leaving.

The next three weeks went by without incident. Alex and Walt were realizing that escape was not presently possible. They were outnumbered, and outgunned if they thought of using the mining tools as weapons. Fear of repercussion still remained. They talked more, but their conversations didn't amount to much. Alex gave more frequent massages in continued attempts to win Walt over. Meanwhile, the soles of Walt's feet became quite hardened, his fingernails and toenails continued to grow at a rate at which he had to clip them daily, he kept growing at an extremely fast rate, and his Afro surpassed the two-decimeter mark in thickness, much to Alex's delight. The water level in the stream for washing off grew on a daily basis, until it was chest-deep on Walt. The next day the level was constant, which indicated that the heavy rains had stopped. Of all the forty-two side tunnels, twenty-one on each side, off the main corridor leading southward from the central cave chamber, that Walt was allowed to mine, he had completed excavating all but the last one, which was the corridor next to the one with the heavy metal door.