During a break in the battle, Michael and Walt catch up on events over the psst 108 days.

As Alex shouted, the second Other, the one farther into the room, turned his head to see the first Other, holding Alex, pull her toward him, and throw a punch with the hand holding his gun. Before the punch connected, however, Walt had sat up, and in one quick motion seized the handle of the knife hidden in his hair over his ear, and hurled it directly into the Other's right shoulder. That Other howled in pain as he dropped his gun and his punch landed with much less force than intended. The second Other's reaction was to blindly strike Walt in the head with his gun hand. That Other was a moment too late to realize that Michael had sprung from behind the doorway and was already aiming his knife. With Walt safely off to the side, Michael threw his knife, and made it stick into the Other's side. As the Other fell a shot was fired from his gun, but it only hit the ceiling. In another second Michael had pounced on him, and knocked him out with one vicious punch to the jaw. The first Other struggled to reach his dropped gun, but with adrenalin pumping at full throttle Michael reached him as he was bent over, and delivered a hard chop to the back of the neck. This Other crumpled to the floor, bleeding and unconscious.

"Walt! Are you okay?" Michael practically screamed.

Thanks to Walt's mass of thick hair, the Other's blow to his head was cushioned somewhat, although it would leave a bruise. "Yes, Dad, I'm okay, check on Alex. I can get out of this." Walt retrieved the manacle key from his loincloth, and unlocked the manacles around his ankles. He got up and hurried over to Alex, who was slumped against the wall. "Alex! Are you okay?"

Alex would have a bruise on her face and a bump on the back of her head where it hit the wall, but it might have been a lot worse. "I … I'll be all right, I just need to rest for a minute. Chain them, and …" Alex paused. "and bandage their wounds. We don't want to stoop to their level and just let them bleed to death."

Michael and Walt helped Alex up, and walked her to the bed, where she lay down. The thought crossed Michael's mind that bleeding to death would be an appropriate sentence for the Others, but Alex's words made some sense, and he didn't want to appear too cruel in front of his son. Maybe they would bleed to death anyway despite their efforts. Michael and Walt first chained one wrist of each Other to one of the manacles fastened to chains connected to the legs on the right side of Walt's now former bed, the side away from the door. Next, he searched them, finding and taking a manacle key from each. Then Michael tore off the sleeves of the Others' shirts. Walt ran into the bathroom to soak them in water, and returned, handing them to Michael who pulled the knives out, and tied the strips of cloth tightly around the shoulder and side wounds.

Next, Michael and Walt checked the corridor, but it was silent. There was no trace of anyone else, which agreed with Alex's description of where the Others should be located. Then they went back to the bathroom, to wash off the knives and to talk while giving Alex a chance to recover. Michael spoke first: "Oh Walt, I missed you so much! What have those animals done to you?"

There was way too much to talk about. Walt's reaction was to step forward and hug his father, and proclaim, "I was afraid I'd never see you again! And … thanks for saving my life, and Alex's just now." Walt was practically in tears, but after several seconds composed himself. "They had me working in these mines, looking for some mineral they said they needed to cure some disease they have. They said children on this island had some kind of ability to sense it if they were injected with something. Their drug worked, but it had side effects. It made me grow fast. I had to clip my finger and toenails every day, and my hair got kind of long."

This was hard for Michael to take in. "When we get back, we'll have Jack take a look at you. But couldn't you at least have gotten a haircut?"

Walt cracked a smile. "Alex gave some excuse about us not handling sharp objects, but I think she likes it like this. She ran her fingers though it a few times, and said she's never seen anything like it. But about Alex – she has to be that French woman's daughter, right? How is she?"

Michael had forgotten about Danielle, but now remembered the resemblance. "Her name is Danielle, and she helped us a few times, getting us weapons from her hideout. I'm sure she's on the island somewhere, but don't know where."

"We've got to get her back to her mother. Alex should be feeling better now. Let's just get my stuff from here; I could still use it. The Others gave me a few things for good behavior. Here's the nail clippers; it works really well. And would you believe this Afro-pick? Maybe we could use this bar of soap and washcloth. Oh, and my change of clothes."

Michael frowned as Walt pointed to a scrap of cloth, or rather animal skin, hanging on the clothesline that matched the one he was currently wearing. "You don't mean to say that's all you've been wearing the past three and a half months?"

That triggered a memory. "My old clothes – when they first captured me they stripped me to my shorts, and even cut those shorter. I saw one of the Others scatter them along the ground on one side of the island, and then they took me way around to the other side. I'm afraid they were using them as a trap."

Michael now remembered. "I'm afraid you're right. A group of us went all around the island, and we found your clothes. They did lead to a trap, and Shannon and Sayid were hurt for several days, but they're okay now. Sayid is with Jin and Sawyer now nearer the cave entrance. And the trap, which was a net that released a bunch of rocks, almost got Vincent, but he's okay, and Shannon is still taking care of him."

"Vincent! I can't wait to see him!" But it would still be a couple days at least. Walt resumed his narrative. "After a few days of only wearing those shorts, they were really disgusting, and I asked if I could get something else to wear, and Alex made me a couple of loincloths out of boarskin like this. That was a surprise, and it felt really funny at first, but they are comfortable in this heat, and I got used to them. I actually outgrew some of them. Alex did a great job with these, and she told me she made the outfit she has on. But hey, some of our ancestors probably wore things like this their whole lives."

"Uh, I guess so." Michael didn't know what to say. While thinking of a response, he put the clippers, Afro-pick, and "change of clothes" in his pack that he had laid on the floor before the attack on the Others. "So all this time you've been mining this mineral in that outfit all day, and at night …"

Walt led Michael back into the bedroom. Walt sighed, "Yes, I was usually chained to this bed all night. At first it was just one hand or foot, but after I tried to communicate with Locke, … wait, what happened to Locke?"

Michael replied, "Locke was caught in an avalanche of rocks in an explosion. I helped dig him out. His legs were broken, but Jack says he'll be okay in a few weeks. Locke was in a wheelchair, but now is on crutches and getting around. Of course he wanted to come help rescue you, but just couldn't."

Walt was relieved to hear Locke hadn't been killed. "I'm sorry he got hurt; I know he was trying to rescue me. Well, after that, I was chained by both hands and both feet every night. At least I could move some and had the choice of lying face up or face down, and could alternate." Walt realized he left out the detail that Alex had done the chaining, of course under the orders of the Others, but his father didn't have to know about that now, or the water torture.

Michael was disturbed at the image of poor Walt lying shackled hand and foot and clad only in a skimpy loincloth every night for over two months, and the face-up/face-down thing did not help ease Michael's mind. He shook his head; that was in the past, and Walt had demonstrated remarkable resilience. Things were going to be a lot better. He turned to Alex and asked, "Are you feeling well enough to walk now?"

Alex struggled to a sitting position, swung her feet over the edge of the bed, and slowly stood up. "I believe so."

"Good. It's time to see how our friends are doing. Michael picked up the Others' guns, which were still on the floor, placing one in his pack and holding the other, while Walt and Alex were given the knives. They looked into the corridor, and still there was no one else present. How had Sawyer, Sayid, and Jin been doing?