Fire and Ice
Chapter 11
When the rain comes down
The monsoon hits the camp in a torrent. Connor watches it, whilst rubbing his bruises. He checks his watch. Lana should be back by now, with Eve. There is a crack of thunder, and the wind howls through the shelter. If they'd any sense they'd be either in the bunker or in the caves.
Kate watches the rain too. That dumb son of a bitch, Sawyer, she sighs. Getting her backpack, she heads off into the storm.
Lana mutters a curse, as she wipes the rain from her face. She marks the tree next to her, before carrying on. Eve where the hell are you?
"Eve" Lana shouts. She walks on. She is getting very close to the perimeter. On instinct, Lana draws the knife that she is carrying.
Eve is safe, she's in a shelter that she's constructed; it's really an old tree trunk, with plastic sheeting over it. She's trying to jar open a sealed box with a knife "borrowed" from Kate. It was with the diamonds she found in the blue back-pack. She is not having much success. Connor and Jack are going to be very angry with her for straying away from the camps. She hears a voice in the wind. Then there is a rattle, and the box lid pops open. She smiles. Then her eyes open wide with horror with what she sees before her.
ID Cards, with Lana's picture on them. She counts them, there are four of them. There are two more, she turns them over, these two are of Kate, but its not her name on them, she checks Lana's, Lana's name is not on them. A cell phone There is a roll of money, Australian, and US dollars. Her eyes go wide with excitement. She's gotta tell Connor about this.
"You haven't seen Eve?" Sawyer shouts at the entrance of the bunker.
"No dude – she's supposed to be back at the camp!" Hurley replies.
"Well guess what Pillsbury, she isn't there?" Sawyer snaps back. Rose and Bernard appear wondering what the commotion is. Sawyer turns tail, and heads back out into the rain.
Eve quickly hides the diamonds again. Before gathering up what she has found. She looks out into the jungle, she is about a mile from the beach. Connor will be there. She runs into the jungle, carrying the box.
"Sawyer" Kate shouts. She stops for a moment, a blind elephant was more difficult to track. She hears some-body crashing through the jungle. Realising that she hasn't packed a knife or a gun, she hesitates.
Sawyer rushes out from the under grove ten metres from Kate. A sigh of relief is breathed. Sawyer stands panting. "Well?"
"You're hands are all cut Freckles" Kate rubs them on her jeans, wincing from the pain. Sawyer looks at them, there are some deep cuts. He reaches out to touch Kate's hands, she draws them away sharply.
Sawyer recoils, taking a step back.
"I fell climbing up a tree looking for you." Kate snaps back at a following Sawyer. The rain, the cuts and Sawyer are not making her mood any better.
"Thank you." Sawyer replies, for once it sounds genuine. "I suppose we better find Eve."
Eve carries on running. Not watching where is running she runs into something. She falls onto the ground scattering the box and its contents over the muddy jungle floor. Eve looks up. She gasps in horror.
"Hey what are you doing here?" Lana smiles. "You've got a lot of people looking for you?"
Eve cannot say anything.
Lana goes to pick her up, but her eyes catch something. Lots of things. She recognises them. They were in her backpack with her diamonds, her ID cards, her cell phone, and somebody else's ID card too.
Lana remembers. It is all coming back to her. Eve tries to crawl away. Lana watches her, with a cold detachment. She sees one ID card in particular, she stops, and stares at it.
The next time I see you, I will kill you. She remembers.
The red mist descends on Lana. She follows Eve.
Moments later, screams are heard. Child's screams. They echo, throughout the jungle.
Through the torrential rain, Kate hears them, and instinctively turns in their direction. Sawyer watches her. "Where are you going?" He shouts.
Kate stops. "I think I heard Eve!"
"Come on Freckles, she's probably back at camp." Sawyer, annoyed turns back in the direction of the beach. Kate watches as he walks off, she turns and runs.
Connor bolts upright in his shelter. The wind is howling, a plastic tarpaulin flaps, and whines as the rain batters the edges.
Lana quickly washes herself, in a puddle of rain water. The blood washes easily off her hands. She looks at her knife. It is not blood stained, and then whose knife did she use. She pauses to think. She smiles she knows whose knife she used. She used Kate's. She breathes deeply. A plan is forming.
"Eve." Kate shouts, as she stops for breath. Panting she leans against a tree. Each rain droplet stings as it hits her. She wipes her face, and carries on.
Lana hears Kate's shouts, she's about five minutes away, and smiles coolly. She stares down. Tough luck kid. She then runs away.
Kate carefully edges her way around a tree trunk. What she sees before her, is horrifying. Blood flows in a trickle, in a small stream of rain water. A few metres away she sees Eve, lying on the ground. Kate drops the day-sack she is carrying, and runs over, there is no movement from Eve as Kate falls to her knees in shock, She removes her shirt, trying to staunch a chest wound, there is still no breathing from Eve.
"Eve don't give up on me." Kate shouts through the tears, as she sees some, sign of movement. Eve's hands start to tremble. Eve's eyes open.
Eve screams and suddenly strikes out at Kate. It is a frenzied, attack, her hands claw and slash at Kate's face chest, and arms. Kate struggles, to, and finally succeeds to pin Eve's arms down on the ground. There is one final convulsion from Eve, and she stops.
Suddenly the rain stops. The only sounds are Kate's breathing, forced as it is with her tears, as she looks at the lifeless body of a child before her, and the final drops of rain, falling from the jungle canopy. She leans back sobbing. Oblivious to the sound of foot-steps coming at a brisk pace.
"Freckles, you are one." Sawyer's voice pauses. "What the fuck!"
To be continued…
