Fire and Ice

Chapter 16

Crossing the Line

"How far are they ahead John?" Connor sips from a water bottle. Locke examines the trail ahead crouching down by torchlight. He turns round, looking almost demonic in the limited light. "They're a couple of hours ahead I say." He gets up. "They're weighted down."

"The ruck-sacks from the bunker." Ana-Lucia says.

"Sawyer." Jack and Connor whisper in unison.

"The jungle here gets thicker, I suggest we tackle it in daylight." Locke sternly suggests, looking particularly at Connor. Who shrugs his shoulders despairingly. "You're our tracker John."

"I'll get the campfire going." Ana-Lucia brushes past Connor. "We could all do with the rest!" Jack says. Connor sighs.

"Look familiar?" Sawyer turns to Kate. Shining a torch ahead of them. He grins, at Kate's discomfort. "I thought you would remember."

"How can I forget?" Kate walks on. "I had a gun pointed at my head." Sawyer grins looking around. "Well Freckles." He walks forward. "We've just crossed that invisible line!" You and me ain't done Zeke.

"Lets stop here and get moving at first light!" Kate removes her ruck-sack.

Lana checks her watch for the umpteenth time in as many hours in the bunker. She checks the counter clock above the terminal. Forty-nine minutes, she curses underneath her breath.

"It doesn't go any faster." Libby leaning against the wall watches Lana. Lana fakes a smile, and turns round in her seat. "This is tedious work!" She mockingly exclaims.

"I can do this for a couple of hours Lana if you want to get some sleep!"

Lana nods. "Sleep that would be good!"

Lana walks out of the console room , towards the bunkbeds that are in the living habitat. What did she used to have to make her go into a deep sleep, Valium. She smiles. No, warm milk. She walks down the corridor. There is dripping water echoing throughout the corridor, it is dimly lit. Curiously her crucifix around her rises attracted to the wall. She's heard of the magnetic anomaly but not witnessed it first hand. Spooky. She watches her cross for a moment, then turns.

She stops. Down the far end of the corridor, where the hatch, a figure is standing, of a child. It is Eve. Lana gasps.

Connor wakes up, startled. Across from him, Ana-Lucia is stoking the dying embers of a fire. Jack and Locke are asleep, either side of them. There is more warmth from the fire, than from Ana-Lucia. Connor hauls himself up.

"You taking the next watch?" The question is more like an order, Ana-Lucia asks. Connor nods sitting down on a log.

"Is this a revenge mission Connor?" Ana-Lucia watches him.

The question is un-nerving for Connor. "We get them both back to stand trial!"

There is a smile from Ana-Lucia, not warm. "Sure, truth, and justice!"

She lies down to sleep. "The truth is always painful, but justice that's pretty remote just like this place!"

She yawns. "Just be sure before of what you want when you cross that line, justice or revenge!"

Eve stares at Lana through the darkness. Lana repeatedly closes and opens her eyes. With each passing moment the blood stain across her chest grows.

Where is that fucking gun!

A voice screams to her. You're dead!

Eve takes a step forward. "Why did you kill me Lana?"

Lana takes a step back. "You're dead!"

"Why did you kill me Lana!" Eve's voice is deeper, adult like. "You're dead!" Lana screams.

"I will kill you Lana!" Eve's voice is not Eve's, it's Kate's.

"No!" Lana screams, turns, and runs away from her.

Connor counts the rounds into the pump-action shotgun. Then counts them out again, and in again.

"Most people count sheep!" He says to Locke watching him.

"Not sure that is the one time I want to count on this Island!" Locke sips some water.

"How about wild boars!" Connor grins. Locke grins in reply.

"Sun-rise in an hour, Connor, we'll let Jack and Ana-Lucia sleep for the moment."

"It's quiet!" Sawyer yawns before he stretches his arms. Kate from a distance watches him. "It always is before the dawn!" Kate replies forlornly.

Both trade looks. "I guess we better get moving Freckles!"

Lana, watches the corridor from the table in the living area. She has not slept at all. The voices in her head have stopped for now.

Locke looks at the sky through the jungle canopy. Connor, Ana-Lucia, and Jack watch him. "What's wrong John?" Jack sighs.

"Curious." Is all that Locke can say. "Curious!" Connor grins at a perplexed Jack.

Locke turns to face them. "We're in a open jungle clearing!"

"Ok!" Jack looks round. Connor looks round in the opposite way. "With bright sunlight!"

Locke laughs. "Then why am I in the shade?"

Ana-Lucia looks up, and gasps. "Is that what I think it is?"

Connor, and Jack look up in the same direction. "Son of a bitch!" Connor whispers.

A face stares at the four of them, a bright yellow happy smiling face! It lies tangled in the jungle canopy.

"That's a balloon!"

"You got any ideas on where we're going?" Sawyer barks.

"No!" Kate replies. "I have no plan what so ever!"

Expecting a smart-ass reply from Sawyer, Kate turns round. Sawyer has stopped. He is looking into the jungle.

"What's up?" Sawyer waves his hand, to shut up. Kate is about to say something. Then they both hear it. Kate takes a few steps closer. They hear it again.

It's a man's voice, in pain, and shouting from the jungle.

"Sounds like somebody's in trouble!" Sawyer grins.

"It's a trap!" Kate whispers.

Sawyer grins, then walks in the direction of the screams. "Never was one for running too long." He turns round to Kate, loaded rifle in hand. "Gotta face your demons some time Freckles." He cocks the rifle. Kate follows suit with her pistol.

Lana starts to breath deeply. There is footsteps coming from down the corridor. Not this time! She gets up, picking up a kitchen knife from the table. She walks a few paces, the footsteps are louder, more slower, and closer.

She stands at the edge of the door, waiting. She smiles, you'll die this time! The footsteps get louder. A figure with blonde hair walks through. Lana waits a moment, draws the knife back, then strikes.

Libby turns round at the last moment.

"I'll be damned!"

Sawyer grins. As Kate lowers her pistol in disbelief. A scrawny bedraggled looking man, is hanging by one ankle several feet above the ground. He raises his head up, his eyes wide with terror, in line with Kate's.

"Oh thank god, somebody's come!"

Libby lies on the ground, gasping for breath. Lana watches her. "You thought you could spook me with mind games huh?" Lana sneers.

Libby struggles to say something, blood trickles from her mouth. Lana smiles as she crouches down beside her. Libby's eyes follow her. "Well you're going to spook me no longer." She whispers.

"There's a hatch in the computer room, Sayid says its some shaft that runs underneath the complex." She pauses. "I don't think anyone will find you for a long time Libby!" Lana stands up, and grabs the T-shirt Libby is wearing by the neck, and drags her from the living area.

To be continued…