The words from the French woman's message were playing over and over in Lena's head. The woman had been on the island for sixteen years, maybe even longer. And that was extremely unsettling.

"It's getting dark." Boone commented as they walked back to the beach after their failed attempt to send a message.

"Then pick up the pace." Sawyer retorted. Boone muttered something under his breath, but didn't elaborate.

"Says the guy walking the slowest." Lena said, rolling her eyes. Sawyer glared, and she just smiled.

"We should make camp." Sayid decided. Shannon protested that, not wanting to stay in the middle of the jungle, but Sayid's decision was the one they were going with.

"I'm not stopping." Sawyer said, once again proving his idiocy. "You all have a nice cookout."

"Excellent idea, walk through the jungle in the dark." Sayid replied sarcastically.

"Ooh, afraid the trees are going to get us?"

"No, what's knocking down the trees will get you." Sayid said, looking extremely annoyed. He seemed one hundred percent done with Sawyer. Then again, so was everyone else.

"Well, if you're so worried about me, how about giving me the clip back?" Sawyer said pulling out the empty gun.

"Put the gun back in your pants Sawyer." Kate sighed. "Sayid's right, if you keep walking you're not going to make it back to the beach."

"Which, now that I think about it, isn't a bad idea." Lena commented. And then, under Sawyer's hateful glare: "I'm just kidding, relax."

They got to work, building a fire and setting up sleeping areas. While they did this, Kate and Charlie explained what happened at the cockpit, how they lost communications and went off course.

Once everything was set up, Sayid started to explain exactly how they crashed.

"This." Sayid said, pointing to a rock. "Is Australia. This is us." He used a torch to point to the other rock, which was considerably smaller.

"Nice stick." Sawyer commented.

"Two days ago, we take off from Sydney." Sayid continued, completely ignoring Sawyer. Lena started to think. Had it really been just two days since the plane crashed? It felt like a lifetime ago, when her biggest worry was, well, much less of a concern than what was happening now.

"The pilot said he lost communication with the ground correct?" Lena tuned back in to Sayid's little explanation, hoping that she hadn't missed much.

"Yeah, six hours in." Kate answered. "He turned around and headed for Fiji."

"So we changed course." Sayid said. "Unfortunately, no one knows we changed course. The turbulence hit, and we know the rest." Sayid put the torch out ominously, as if he was telling some kind of horror story.

"The pilot said we were over a thousand miles off-course." Kate whispered fearfully.

"Yeah, but they'll find us!" Charlie exclaimed. "They have satellites in space that can take pictures of your license plate."

"If only we were all wearing license plates." Sayid replied dryly.

"Again, quite the ray of sunshine." Lena muttered.

"Basic photography." Sayid explained. "Point and shoots. Satellites can shoot but they must be told where to point." Charlie muttered something under his breath and stared angrily at the ground,

"Alright, great puppet show, fantastic." Sawyer interjected. "But we're stuck in the middle of nowhere. How about we talk about that transmission? You know, the one where the French chick said 'they're all dead.' And it's been on a loop for… how long was it, Freckles?"

"Sixteen years." Kate replied, not even looking up.

"Right, let's talk about that."

"We have to tell the others when we get back." Boone said.

"No one is telling them anything." Sayid said. "To relay what we heard without fully understanding it will cause panic. If we tell them what we know, we'll take away their hope. And hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."

"So we lie." Lena said. She, for one, was quite used to lying. She didn't know about everyone else, but this would be easy for her.

"For now, we should get some sleep." Sayid said.

Lena was happy to oblige, as she was rather exhausted. She hadn't slept last night, as she was too freaked out by the plane crash and whatever was out there in the jungle. She found a comfortable position and closed her eyes, losing herself to the darkness of sleep.

…

When Lena was 6 years old, her mother told her that they had to talk.

Lena was immediately worried about what that could mean. She was very young, but still perceptive and smart. She knew when something was wrong.

"Lena." Her mother began. As she was speaking, Lena noticed the bags under her eyes. She was exhausted. "Your father… he left a few days ago, and he's not coming back."

"He's dead?!" Lena exclaimed, tears threatening to pour from her dark blue eyes.

"No!" Her mother said hurriedly. "But he has done some very bad things, and he is going to be gone for awhile." Lena didn't know what to do. Her father had always been around, always joking around and being fun. But now he was gone?

And what about Lena's sister? Marie was only two years old. Would she even remember her father?

Lena felt lost.

…

"What are you doing?"

Lena woke up at Sayid's loud exclamation and was immediately on her feet. She surveyed the situation to see what was wrong and saw Boone holding both the gun and the magazine clip.

"Standing guard." Boone said to Sayid. "You heard what is out there." Why the hell had Boone, of all people, decided to take charge? Lena was sure that he didn't even know how to use a gun.

"You took my gun off me?" Sawyer asked incredulously.

"Please, you've never even held a gun." Shannon sighed at Boone, rolling her eyes. "You don't believe in them, or something like that."

"Everyone calm down." Sayid said. "Just give the gun back."

"Yeah, give it to Al Jazeera, he'll protect us." Sawyer snarked.

"That's a network." Lena corrected, thwarting that nickname and earning yet another glare from Sawyer. If she had a nickel for every time that guy glared at someone, she would be able to buy a private plane to take her off this island.

"I'll keep the gun!" Boone exclaimed.

"We should give it to her." Shannon said, pointing at Kate. Kate, who hadn't said anything once since they woke up, looked extremely shocked at Shannon's suggestion, as if she didn't trust herself with a gun. But, the more Lena thought about it, Kate was a logical choice.

"Yeah, Kate should hold the gun." Charlie seconded. Boone reluctantly gave the gun to Kate, who hesitated for a fraction of a second before tucking it away.

…

They reached the beach later that day. As soon as they stepped onto the coarse sand, the other survivors came running over, eager to hear the news.

Sayid had decided earlier that he would explain everything, and lie to everyone about what really happened.

"As you all know." Sayid began. "We hiked up the mountain in an attempt to help the rescue team locate us. Unfortunately, the transceiver failed to pick up a signal. We weren't able to send out a call for help, but we're not giving up." Sayid then launched into an explanation about rationing food and water and having everyone contribute, but Lena tuned out.

There was a loud scream from inside the tent. It was the man with the shrapnel, who Lena had learned was the US Marshal.

She saw Jack sigh and jog over to the tent. He was doing everything he could to save the man, but his efforts just didn't seem to be enough.

…

Throughout the rest of the day and the start of the night, the Marshal was getting worse and worse. His screams and cries pierced through the night as the other survivors were helpless to do anything about it.

And then, all of a sudden, a single gunshot could be heard coming from the tent. Lena's head jerked up in alarm as Sawyer walked out of the tent, holding the gun.

"What did you do?!" Jack shouted. Sawyer replied, quiet enough that Lena couldn't hear.

And then they all heard it. The choking, gasping sounds coming from the tent. The Marshal was still alive.

Both Jack and Sawyer ran back into the tent. Lena and the other survivors could only watch as they walked out, one by one, the cries of the Marshal silenced forever.