Fire and Ice
Chapter 7
Before night falls
"Yo FBI dude." The dawn's early light, is blocked out. Connor strains his eyes to see up. Hurley looms over him. "I was sleeping." Connor angrily groans. He turns over, realising that Lana must have gotten up earlier. Connor stretches, and gets up. Realising he's bare chested, grabs a t-shirt. Hurley gives him a mischievous wink. If you want a secret kept in this place, don't let Hurley find out.
"What's up?" Connor rinses his mouth out with water, before spitting it out. "We're one short!" Connor stops, not Eve, again. The heart stopping moment is cut short, when he sees Eve running with Vincent in the surf. "Somebody go missing?" He turns to Hurley.
"Jess." Connor sighs. "No body has seen her for four days dude!"
Connor looks around, come to think of it, things have been quiet around here.
"Jack wants to organise a search party!" Connor spies Lana walking along the beach, in a pink t-shirt, and blue sarong. Hurley looks in the same direction. Then at Connor, and nods. Connor grins in reply. "So you and the Russian chick?"
"Lithuanian!" Connor corrected. "We're friends."
Hurley's eyes narrowed in a conspiratorial glare. "Sure!"
"We're meeting at the bunker in one hour!"
"I always wondered what happens if we don't punch in the numbers?" Connor leans over Michael's shoulder, at the counter. Michael stares at the computer screen. Nothing, since, a few nights ago. The attempt at humour doesn't work.
"We'll get Walt back." Connor whispers. Michael nods forlornly. "You ever lost a child?" Connor's look cannot answer that. He pats Michael on the shoulder, before walking down the corridor. The dormitory where Matt died is still closed. Connor takes a moment to look at the pictures on the wall. They look the same stuff his nieces decorated his apartment with, whilst he was recovering. Voices down the corridor mean something has already started without him.
He leans against the doorway.
"You're late!" Kate moans.
"Sorry I was chasing some horses!" Chuckles Connor. Across the room, the remark brings a sharp look from Kate, the companions in the room turn away, with Kate's who told him look. A resigned sigh, and the room is quiet again. Connor looks over at Ana-Lucia, a cold Hispanic woman, she sits beside Eko. Locke is at one end of the room, Jack at the other. No Sayid, though given what has happened, I think Ana-Lucia will be glad of him not coming.
"I've checked the camp, not a sign, she's gone. Her stuff is still here." Connor briefs them. "Given the excitement over the past couple of days, it's hardly surprising!"
"I recommend everybody go in pairs, when they venture out." Ana-Lucia says. "They sense weakness."
Connor nods in agreement, so does Locke.
"What do we do about the missing child?" Eko stands up, and says forcefully. Silence greets his question.
"This is a pretty big island." Locke says, gesturing his hands around him. "This tunnel system and bunker could be the norm."
"Plus that thing." Kate adds nervously. "That is not something to worry about!" Locke glares at Kate. Jack steps into his line of sight. "Our first priority is finding Jess, wherever she is." Connor watches, a bemused observer. "Then we can organise a search for Walt." Michael adds standing in the doorway next to Connor. Locke looks at him, nervously, you should be elsewhere. "Don't worry I've got five minutes."
Jack forces himself to look at Michael. "Yeah, we'll do that!"
"Four teams – two in each." Connor watches faces in the huddle around his map. "Myself, and Eko, team one. Locke, Anna Lucia team two. Sayid and Libby, team three. Connor notices a defiant Kate standing beside Lana, this isn't a good idea, if there ever was one. "Kate and Lana, team four. We take knifes, pistols, drinking water, and bottle rockets." Connor feels the wind blowing off the ocean, it is laden with moisture, there is a monsoon coming, in a few hours. "We cover a four hour radius, then work our way back. We find Jess, light the rockets, watch out, we only have a couple left."
"If you sense anything wrong, get out of there." Eko adds.
"Michael, Charlie, and Bernard will take it in turns to observe the skyline, any rocket fired, all teams are to converge on the area."
Connor looks around, and winks at Lana. "Lets be careful out there." Lana blushes.
Lana falls to the ground with a thud, Kate watches her with an unsympathetic look, before carrying on. Lana gets up, rubs her arm, and then walks on. A stream runs nearby. In the distance, a waterfall is heard. To cross the stream, they both must cross slippery boulders. Out of the corner of her eye, Kate watches Lana catch up. She's been only one hour in the jungle, and already she can't hack it. Kate then starts out across the boulders. Lana, reluctantly follows behind. Precariously balanced on a stone, she struggles.
Before slipping into the water. Kate watches from a few boulders ahead. The faint trace of a smirk, is quickly hidden by a scowl, as Lana scrubs herself down, and carries on.
"I think we'll rest for five minutes." Kate smiles, Lana shakes her head. "I am fine, I am good." Lana says, as she plods on by. If looks could kill, Kate mutters.
Lana stares up into the jungle canopy. Sunlight, barely reaches the jungle floor. The air is heavy with trapped moisture, Lana wipes her face with a dry towel, moments before Kate brushes on past her, pissed off that Lana had not only caught up with her, but overtaken her.
"At high school, I was in the orienteering team." Lana strolls alongside her. Kate smiles. "So was I."
"I was the Captain too." Lana smiles, as she accelerates her pace.
Kate stops. I've been this way before. Lana stops, she's seen what Kate saw when she came this way. The forward section of the Oceanic Airways 777 is ahead, it is almost being strangled by vines, and the undergrowth. Lana has seen it too. I wonder?
"Lana." Kate shouts, as Lana sprints towards the cockpit. Kate runs after her. Stupid bitch, what is it about that cockpit, first Charlie, now Lana. The terror, she felt in their, seeing the co-pilot's terror, as he was snatched away. There's no Jack here too.
Lana, shines a torch into the cockpit. There is row upon row of airline seats, the stench is overpowering. Lana covers her mouth and nose, as she goes deeper inside. Skeletal human remains of some passengers are still there. Lana shines a torch into each row, scans the lit area for a moment before moving on.
Lana jumps with a start, as Kate accidentally trods on an empty water bottle. The crunching sound echoes in the still jungle. Lana scowls, as Kate winches.
For a moment both scowl, then smile. "Lets move on, Jess isn't here!" Lana says.
Bitch!
How dare she!
Lana thinks, as Kate leads her, away from the cockpit, and back the way they came from. For the moment, you're the one with the gun now. Lana remembers she has the knife. Lana's eyes narrow. Now is not the time.
Kate stops suddenly by the river bank. Lana wonders if she said something out loud. No, she's looking at something. Lana joins alongside her. There is blood in the water flowing downstream. Both scan upstream.
"Jess!" Kate shouts. There is figure lying on the rocky shore, half naked, with short brunette hair, her skin a ghastly shade of white. Lana jumps into the stream, and starts to wade upstream in the thigh deep water, a louder splash behind her, Kate joins alongside her.
"Jess!" Lana shouts even louder.
There is some movement from the figure. It's Jess, injured, but alive.
"She's hurt, but she's alive." Lana says excitedly, as they are but a few feet away. Kate stops Lana, by placing a hand over on Lana's shoulder. Lana breaths deeply.
Jess is covered in the same bruises and lesions that they have seen before. On Matt.
"Damn." Lana shouts. Kate stares in disbelief, at the two water sodden bottle rockets in Lana's hands. Lana looks at Jess, wrapped in a blanket, barely conscious. "It must have been when I fell in the stream." Kate groans, as Lana looks away.
"We'll have to carry her back!" Kate whispers. "She's dying."
Lana watches Jess, for a moment. "She could die, while we take her back."
Kate stares at Lana. "I'm not leaving her." Lana sighs.
"You're faster than me. I will stay with her." Lana walks over. "If you go now." Kate looks up at the ever blackening sky, with Lana. "You can be back before nightfall."
Kate hands a few extra bottles of water, and the revolver to Lana. "Find some shelter, just in case." Lana nods. "Good luck."
Kate starts to walk away. Lana watches her. Kate suddenly turns round. "You did good Lana!"
"You did good Lana!" Lana mimicks Kate's voice. Kate has been gone for over an hour. Lana watches Jess, she is shivering, even underneath the blanket, her breathing is shallow. She starts to cough. Lana stands up. "What's the point!" She whispers. Jess slowly turns her head around.
"Lana is that you?"
"Yes" Lana replies, picking up a water soaked rag. "I've got what Matt had, haven't I?" Jess whispers weakly. Lana looks at Jess. "I think you've got a fever." Lana smiles, it's not a warm one. "Jack'll fix you up!"
Lana kneels down next to Jess, dapping her forehead with the rag.
Jess weakly smiles. "I'd prefer Connor myself!" Lana's smile disapeers. "You can't have him!"
Jess thinking Lana is joking, carries on. "I saw him first!"
Lana is lost in thought for a moment. "No, I think I saw him first!" Lana harshly whispers, as she sharply shoves the rag over Jess's nose and mouth, and holds it firmly in place. Jess struggles against Lana's grip. Lana's strength pins Jess to the ground as her struggle to breathe gets more desperate.
After fifteen minutes, Lana stands up. Jess's eyes stare at her too but they are lifeless, dead. Lana smiles. "You can't have anybody now." Lana sits down.
"You okay Lana?" Jack wraps a blanket around a rain sodden Lana. Connor, and Locke, a few feet wrap Jess's body in plastic sheeting, this will be placed on a make shift stretcher. Eko and Sayid watch from opposite ends of the embankment, looking out into the jungle.
Lana nods, sobbing. "She started to cough and have seizures, I tried."
"You tried your best." Lana, feels the warmth in Kate's hands. "Jess wasn't alone when she died, you were with her!" Lana's lifeless eyes stare out into the night.
"I thought Connor was going to kill me." Charlie stares out into the rain soaked beach from his shelter. Hurley nods. "Got that right. Dude, you gotta have eyes in the back of your head when watching Eve."
"Two bloody hours. She was gone." Both stare into the next shelter. Eve is watching the rain too, or appears to be.
Eve stares at the object in the palm of her hand whilst Claire and Aaron sleep. She found lots of them, while looking for fruit for Mr Sawyer. In a blue day-sack. It sparkles, like magic. She smiles. Like angel dust. There is no way that she is going to tell anybody about these, besides only she knows where they are now hidden.
"Dude, Eve is nothing but trouble!" Both nod in agreement.
To be continued…
