Fire and Ice
Chapter 6
The morning after…
Shannon is dead. Jack tried valiantly, as always. However with gunshot wounds to the stomach, she lost a lot of blood, bled out, and died cradled in Sayid's arms. The camp's mood is that it is too early to waken up, and yet too late to sleep. Her body is hidden away from view, in her own shelter.
Jack appears. Connor beckons Lana to watch over Sayid, whilst he walks away and Locke walks over.
"How is he?" Jack watches Lana place a blanket around Sayid. Locke watches too. "I've been where he's going, it's not pretty." Locke and Lana trade glances. "He'll need us in the next few days."
"What do we do now?"
Connor watches Kate tend to a very badly beat up Sawyer. Obviously the raft has failed; he thinks with a grim irony. Michael claps Vincent. He smiles at Rose hugging her husband, Bernard for dear life. It must be nice having faith. He notices Eve walking amongst the other survivors, looking up at their faces. Connor turns away, her grand-parents aren't amongst them. Sun and Jin walk away to the edge of the beach, no doubt exchanging sweet nothings.
Ain't this a happy reunion. He turns away.
She is sitting alone. Ana-Lucia is clutching a pistol. Connor recognises it as one of the Marshall's which was given to Sawyer, which means. She shot Shannon. He still has the handcuffs. Lana appears beside him.
"Too much has happened tonight. Let's wait until morning."
The sun breaks over the horizon. The beach camp comes back to life.
"How is he?" Kate looks up. Connor watches a sleeping Sawyer. Patched up. "He's in a bad way." Kate wipes his forehead. "Jack wants to move him to the bunker."
"Let me know when, and I'll help." Kate thinly smiles. "Thanks." Connor walks away. Kate stands up. "Connor."
Connor turns around. "Was Eve's grand-parents amongst them?" Kate asks.
Connor shakes his head. "No – have you seen her ?"
Kate shakes her head. Glances are traded. "I'll look for her!"
The bedsit is filthy, squalid, from behind dirty curtains sun-light streams in, in the distance Sydney harbour bridge can be seen. Eve is huddled in the corner, wearing dirty jeans and a T-shirt. A TV blares in the corner, cartoons, Totally Spies is on her favourite. A woman walks in, unkempt, most people would guess she's in her late thirties, however Aileen Stevens is twenty-three, and Eve's mother. The man snoring in the double bed, unshaven, is her latest boyfriend.
"Eve honey, turn the TV down, Bobbie's got to sleep." Aileen lies up on the beside Bobbie, she's just been in the bathroom shooting up. Aileen falls into a heroine induced slumber.
Eve turns down the TV, and carries on watching. From the corridor, there is loud banging on the door.
Three days previously.
"That's Eve?" Edward Mars looks at the photograph of a pretty blonde haired girl aged five. The elderly couple in their early sixties both nod anxiously. Mars coolly looks at them. They're genuine, both the state of California, and the Australian authorities have granted the grand-parents full custody. In the California case, Aileen skipped the country before the police and social services battered down her apartment door. Mars sips his coffee.
"It's lucky we met on the plane over." He says. The trail for Kate Austin has gone cold, she'll turn up. I just have to pass the time.
"The local police have helped all they can, we think we know were she is. It's not the place were me and my wife could just turn up." The grandfather says.
Mars nods. "Ok, I'll help you out. As soon as I get her, you take her straight to a police station, make up some story, and she'll be back with you in the states in no time."
"I didn't kill her." Ana-Lucia forlornly says. Jack sits across from her. Behind him stands Locke, behind Ana-Lucia, stands a very intimidating black African man, called Eko. Connor strolls past, Charlie is checking the other end of the camp for Eve. She's disappeared. Eve where are you?
"Hello." Eve answers the door. Mars smiles. He crouches down. "You must be Eve." He smiles, it is something he is very unaccustomed to doing. Eve nods.
"Eve, I'm a police-man sent by your grandpa and grandma." Mars doesn't need to say any more, Eve's face lights up. "Would you like to see them?" Eve nods.
"Where is she." Snarls Sayid, he storms in the direction of Ana-Lucia. The small group is startled by his sudden angry presence. Locke and Jack try to restrain him. Ana-Lucia backs off. Eko stands beside her.
Connor watches, and walks on.
Eve has walked for an hour now, no-body is aware that she is gone. She is alone, really alone now. Kate told her of a spot where she goes when she wants to be alone. It's a small ledge on a cliff. She's been here before with Kate, but has been told not to come here alone.
Eve approaches the edge of the cliff. She hears the crashing of waves against the cliffs. Suddenly the ground gives way. Eve screams, as she falls down the cliff.
She slides, trying to grip onto something, and at the last moment, her jumper snags onto a sharp rock.
Connor looks at his watch, and then at the sky, the sun is setting. There is still no sign of Eve.
"She'll turn up." Lana says. "Claire says that she always wonders off for a few hours." Connor looks around in frustration.
"She's probably back at the camp."
Connor sighs. "You're right." Lana offers a reassuring smile. "It is very dark soon, I would be home soon."
Eve looks down, wide eyed in fear. The waves crash onto rocks, hundreds of metres below.
"Help." She screams.
The wind carries her voice.
"So would I!" Connor remarks.
Lana is about to reply, when both of them hear it. Lana stops. "That is…"
Connor hears it on the wind too. "Eve"
"Connor." Both Lana and Connor reach the point where the cliffs are. It is night-fall now as Connor peers over the edge. He sees Eve standing on a ledge. Lana joins alongside him. Boulders and bits of gravel slide down the cliff. It's not good. Connor thinks.
"Eve." He shouts. "Stay where you are, we'll get you out." He looks into the jungle behind him; material necessary for a rescue is not in abundance.
"I will stay here." Lana peers down. "Connor will go and get help."
Connor runs into the beachside camp. His face is badly gashed from a fall earlier on. Michael and Charlie alerted by his shouting, greet him.
Connor falls onto his knees, struggling for breath, as more alerted survivors join them.
"It's Eve, she's fallen down a cliff, she's on a ledge."
"Do you think they'll come?" Eve says. Lana gently smiles. "Yes, they will all come." She is using her jacket as a pillow to lean on. "For you I think everybody will come."
"I ain't going out in the dark man!" A tail end survivor shouts. Connor glares at him. "There's things' out there hunting us!"
"We're not leaving Eve out there over-night." Charlie says, standing inches from the man's face. "Count me in Connor!" He says shaming the man.
Michael appears through the crowd. "I've got about one hundred metres worth of rope. I'm in." Jin says something in Korean. "I guess that's four." Jin's smiles match that of Connor.
"I'm coming too Connor." Bernard steps into view, he smiles at Rose. "Five."
"I'm a clinical Psychologist, but I can pull a rope if need be." Libby says slinging her day-sack over her shoulder. "Six"
A bulky figure stands next to Connor. Connor looks round. Eko stands next to him. He nods. "Save the child we must."
"Seven."
"Connor." Michael says. "Come on, we've got enough."
Mars watches the reunion from a distance. Both grand-parents hug Eve for dear life. Two child protection officers escort them into an MPV, there is still some formalities to complete, but Eve is back with people who will love and care for her. There is a faint trace of a smile across Mars's face. This is what it feels like to be human, he thinks.
Gravel and more rocks fall into the ocean. Connor looks up.
Very firm hands wrap a rope around Eve's waist. Connor tries not to think, as he is standing an inch from hundreds of foot drop. He gives Eve the thumbs up, a wide-eyed Eve gives a thumbs up. Connor looks up. "Okay, pull."
Lana leads, with Charlie, Jin, Bernard, Libby, Michael and Eko anchors the line. The two different sets of survivors pulling together.
Not a single person that night went to sleep before checking in on Eve, who was asleep in Connor's shelter. The big frame of Eko standing guard over her like a vigilant watch dog, intimidating even to Connor and Lana, who tip-toed in to check. A curt nod, and Connor closes the make-shift curtains.
Connor yawns, Lana smiles. "It's been a long day." Her hand slips into Connor's. "You need some rest."
To be continued…
