"So, how's the transceiver coming along?" Lena asked as she walked over to Sayid. He had been working on it for at least an hour, and duding by the look on his face, he still had some ways to go.
"It's working, but there's no signal." Sayid sighed, setting down the transceiver. "Without one, we can't send out a message."
"I guess we'll have to figure out how to get a signal." Lena said. She sat down on the warm sand and gazed out towards the ocean.
"Thank you, by the way." Sayid said. "For defending me against Sawyer."
"No problem." Lena replied. "That asshole had it coming, anyways."
"That is very true." Sayid said, laughing a little.
"Is it working?" Asked a voice from behind them. It was Kate, who had somehow managed to find a change of clothes.
"Seems to be." Sayid answered. "Except we're not picking up a signal."
"Why do we need to pick up a signal?" Kate questioned. "Aren't we trying to send one?"
"Yes, but we need bars that show radio reception." Sayid explained, pointing to a blank spot on the transceiver. "We could try to broadcast blind, but that would waste the battery, and it probably wouldn't last very long."
"Well, is there anything else we could try?" Lena asked.
"We could see if we can get a signal from the higher ground." Sayid said, looking up at the mountain. It was steep, very steep. Lena thought that maybe she would be able to get up there, but there was a good change that she would fall and die.
"You want to go all the way up there?"
"It might be the only way to get a signal." said Sayid. Lena sighed, but she knew it was their best option.
"Alright." She said. "I'll go with you."
"So will I." Kate offered. "I'm going to tell Jack what we're doing first."
"Sounds good." Sayid nodded. "We'll leave in ten minutes."
…
Ten minutes later, they were ready to leave, and they were about to go into the jungle when Shannon stepped in front of them, followed by her brother, Boone.
"I'd like to come with you." Shannon said.
"She's not going." Boone interjected. "She doesn't want to go." The two siblings continued to bicker furiously, reminding Lena of her and Marie, her younger sister, which just made Lena feel sad. Luckily, Kate interjected, saying that Shannon going was probably not the best idea, which Lena agreed with.
"Oh come on." Shannon said. "You're going, aren't you?" She asked to someone behind them. Lena turned to see Charlie, who had also volunteered for this mission.
"Yeah, are you?" Charlie asked skeptically.
"Yes."
"Look anyone can come." Lena concluded. "But we're leaving right now." Sayid let out a long sigh, but continued to lead the now considerably bigger group towards the jungle.
They walked in silence for a few minutes until they heard footsteps behind them. Lena turned around to see, much to her surprise and annoyance, Sawyer.
"You decided to join us?" Kate asked.
"I'm a complex guy, sweetheart." Sawyer replied with his trademark smirk. Lena rolled her eyes, and the group kept walking.
Eventually, they reached a large cliff that towered over them and the rest of the island. Shannon and Boone started arguing about Shannon's ability to climb it, but Lena just tuned them out.
"I guess we're climbing." Lena said. Sayid went first, using the jutting out rocks as hand and footholds, and using hanging vines to pull himself up. Lena followed, trying to stay on Sayid's trail. They reached the top with no incident, and once everyone was up, they kept going.
"Alright, wide open space!" Sawyer exclaimed. "You should check the radio."
"We're not going to have any reception here." Sayid explained in an annoyed tone. "And I don't want to waste the batteries."
"Just try it, I'm not asking you to keep it on all god damn day." Sawyer retorted. Sayid turned around, about to try and talk some sense into the stubborn man.
"If I-" but Sayid didn't get to finish his sentence ,as a low animal growl came from the nearby bushes. There was a loud rusting as something quickly made its way towards them.
"What the hell is that?" Boone asked.
"Whatever it is, it's coming right for us!" Charlie said in a panicked voice. He started backing up very slowly, as if he thought it would go away.
"Guys, I think we should run." Lena said. "Like, now." She, for one, didn't have to be told twice. She took off in the other direction, and the sound of footsteps told her that everyone else was following.
She glanced over her shoulder to make sure everyone was alright and saw that Sawyer hadn't moved one inch.
A bear burst out of the bushes, right at Sawyer. But instead of running, he pulled out a gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! He fired the gun multiple times, and the bear slowed to a stop, dying at his feet.
Lena stopped running and turned around. The bear was dirty and bloody, and Sawyer was standing over it proudly, like a cat who had just caught a mouse.
"That's a big bear." Shannon muttered fearfully.
"Do you think that's what killed the pilot?" Boone asked.
"No way." Charlie answered. "This is a teeny tiny version compared to that." Oh, well that's just wonderful.
"Uh… guys." Kate said as she studied the bear. "This isn't just a bear. That's a polar bear."
"What?!" Lena exclaimed. She walked over to the now-dead bear to get a closer look. Sure enough, beneath the dirt, leaves, and blood was the white fur of a polar bear.
"That can't be a polar bear." Boone said.
"It's a polar bear." Sayid and Lena replied at the same time. She didn't know how, but a polar bear was on the island. The tropical island.
"Yeah, but polar bears don't usually live in the jungle." Shannon observed.
"Spot on." Charlie muttered sarcastically.
"Well, this one does." Said Boone, ignoring Charlie.
"Did." Sawyer corrected. "It did." That brought Lena's attention back to him. He was still holding the gun, which was not comforting at all. She would have trusted literally anyone else on the island with it before trusting it with him.
"Where did that come from?" Lena asked.
"Probably Bear Village." Sawyer answered, thinking that Lena was talking about the polar bear. "How the hell do I know?"
"Not the bear." Kate said, exasperated. "The gun."
"I got if off one of the bodies."
"One of the bodies?" Sayid asked skeptically. He was right. It wasn't very likely that Sawyer was just taking a walk through the fuselage full of corpses and just so happened to see one of them holding a gun.
"Yeah, People don't carry guns on planes." Shannon pointed out. That was true for most cases, at least. However, the odds of someone having one were very, very low.
"They do if they're a US Marshal, sweet cheeks." Sawyer replied. "There was one on the plane."
"And how exactly do you know that?" Kate asked.
"I saw the guy lying there with an ankle holster, so I took the gun." Sawyer explained. "I thought it might come in handy. And guess what? I just shot a bear!" In a way, he was also right. Without that gun, the bear probably would have injured or even killed at least one of them.
"Why do you think he's a Marshal?" Lena asked. "I don't think they go walking around wearing signs." Of course, an image popped into her head of a random guy wearing a sign on his back that said 'I'm a US Marshal!' Lena then cursed her weird brain
"Because he had a clip-on badge. I took that too, thought it looked cool." Sawyer said, holding up the Marshal's badge. It glinted in the sunlight, and Lena had to admit, it did look pretty cool.
"I know who you are." Sayid said, looking very smug. "You're the prisoner."
"I'm the what?"
"You're a wizard, Sawyer." Lena muttered. Everyone stopped and looked at her with very confused expressions.
"Oh come on, none of you have read Harry Potter?" Lena asked. "Whatever. Sayid, continue." Though in her mind, she mentally high-fived herself for the reference.
"You found a gun on the US Marshal." Sayid said. "You knew where it was because you were the one he was bringing back to the States. Those handcuffs were on you, and that's how you knew there was a gun."
"Oh piss off." Sawyer retorted. But Sayid did have a pretty good point, and Lena was sure that Sawyer knew that as well.
"That's who you are, you son of a bitch!"
"Fine!" Sawyer exclaimed. "I'm the criminal, you're the terrorist. We can all play a part." As Sawyer whirled around, Kate pulled the gun away and pointed it directly at Sawyer.
Damn, Kate, Lena thought.
"Does anybody know how to use a gun?" Kate asked. Lena did, but she was hoping someone else in the group did as well. She didn't exactly want to explain why she knew how to use a gun. That would lead into a very long conversation that would probably end with all of them wanting to get as far away from her as possible.
"I think you just pull the trigger." Charlie said in response to Kate.
"Don't use the gun." Sayid said hurriedly.
"I want to take it apart." Kate explained. "Don't worry, I'm not going to shoot anyone." Lena quietly sighed in relief. Even though he was an absolute pain in the ass, she didn't want Sawyer to get shot. And if Kate didn't know how to use a gun but tried to, she could end up shooting one of the nicer people in the group, or accidentally shoot Lena.
"There's a button on the grip." Sayid explained. "Push that, it will eject the magazine." Kate did so, and the magazine fell out, which she scrambled to pick up. Then, she gave the empty gun to Sawyer and the magazine to Sayid.
"Come on." Kate said. "Let's keep going."
…
They had been walking for at least a few hours, and they reached a large, grassy, open area that was on the mountain Sayid had pointed to earlier. He seemed to realize this, so he pulled out the transceiver and began to turn it on.
"Oh, so now's a good time to check the radio?" Sawyer asked. "Not before, but now?!" Because apparently, Sawyer couldn't tell the difference between 'in the thick jungle' and 'higher up on a clear plateau.'
"We're up higher." Sayid muttered dismissively, not even looking at Sawyer. He filled with the controls, and the screen lit up. Sayid's eyes lit up in delight as he saw this, so Lena guessed that it was a good thing. "Bar! We've got a bar!" He then spoke into the transceiver: "Mayday, mayday!" But all they heard was static.
"What is that?" Kate asked.
"Feedback." Sayid replied, turning with the controls."I don't know what it's from, but we're getting it."
"I'll tell you what it's from." Sawyer said. "The guy not fixing the radio. This thing doesn't even work." Couldn't that guy just shut up for one minute?
"No, it's not broken." Sayid said. "We can't transmit because something else is already transmitting."
"From where?"
"Somewhere close." Said said. "The signal is strong."
"Close?" Charlie asked. "You mean on the island? That's great!" Maybe a rescue team was coming, or already here, and they were trying to find them. A sliver of hope flashed through Lena's mind. Maybe they were going to be saved sooner than she thought.
"Maybe it's other survivors." Boone suggested. "What kind of transmission is it?"
"Maybe a sat phone, or a radio signal.." Sayid trailed off, still working on the radio. "We can listen to it, but I need to get the frequency." There was more static, but then a female voice filled the air, speaking a different language.
"It's French!" Charlie exclaimed. "The French are coming! I've never been so happy to hear the French!"
"What is she saying? Does anybody here speak French?" Lena asked. She certainly didn't. Sometimes, she barely even spoke English."
"She does." Boone said, pointing to his sister. Shannon gaped at him, shocked.
"No, I don't." She snapped.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Boone asked. "You spent a year in Paris!"
"Drinking, not studying." She retorted.
"Iteration 7294531." Said a deep male voice coming from the radio. Then the French woman's voice came back, repeating the same message. Sayid muttered 'no' multiple times in a panicked voice, which didn't sound good.
"'No, no, no' what?" Lena asked, confused by his frantic behavior.
"The batteries are dying!" Sayid exclaimed as Lena peeked over his shoulder to see what was happening. "We don't have much time." Meanwhile, Shannon and Boone were still arguing about Shannon's ability to speak French
"Iteration 7294532." There was that weird voice again, repeating a long string of numbers. And then the woman's voice came again, saying the same thing she said before.
"Look, do you speak French?" Lena asked Shannon. "Because that would be very helpful."
"Come on!" Boone shouted. Sayid handed Shannon the transceiver, and she held it to her ear, listening to the transmission.
"It's repeating." Shannon said in between deep breaths. She looked more focused than Lena had ever seen, listening closely to the French woman's words.
"She's right." Sayid deduced. "It's a loop. 'Iteration.' It's repeating the same message. It's a counter. The next number will end '533.'"
"Iteration 7294533." Sayid was right. The French message had played 7294533 times, and it was still going. Lena was terrible at math, but she could tell that was a long time.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sawyer asked. His I-know-everything attitude was gone, replace by sheer confusion.
"It's a running count of the number of times the message has repeated." Sayid explained. "It's roughly thirty seconds long… so how long has it…" He trailed off, mentally doing the , meanwhile listened closely as the transmission began to repeat again, concentrating on translating it.
"She's saying…." Shannon began. "'Please. Please help me. Please come get me.'"
"Do you even speak French?" Sawyer asked. Lena and Kate both told him to shut up at the same time.
"Iteration 7294534."
"'I'm alone now.'" Shannon continued. "'On the island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they're dead. It killed them. It killed them all.'" Shannon trembled, horrified at the words she was saying, the words that had been repeating for-
"Sixteen years." Sayid said. "Sixteen years and five months. That's how long the message has been playing over and over. Sixteen years."
"Someone else was stranded here?" Boone asked. "And then someone came for them.
"Then why is it still playing?" Lena pointed out. No one seemed to have the answer to that question. They started at the tiny little transceiver, repeating the words over and over and over again.
"Guys." Charlie said. "Where are we?"