"How exactly did something like this happen?" Hurley asked, breaking the shocked silence. He was right. How had a ship like that gotten into the jungle?
"Are you on the same island as I am?" Danielle replied.
"Fair point." Lena commented. The ship was majestic, with the words 'Black Rock' engraved in gold. She could tell that this ship had a story, and she was very curious as to what it was.
"Hey, where are you going?" Jack asked, snapping Lena out of her thoughts. She turned to see Danielle walking towards the jungle.
"Explosives are in the hold of the ship." Danielle called out as she left. "I did what you asked. You need dynamite, you don't need me." Jack started to go after her, but Locke held him back.
"Let her go, Jack."
"Who's going to lead us back?" Jack asked.
"I will." Locke replied. "You heard her, explosives are in the hold. Let's go."
"Whoa, hold on." Arzt said nervously. "I came here to tell you how to handle dynamite, not explore some ghost ship, you think I'm go-"
"Alright, just stay out here?" Jack interrupted in an annoyed tone.
"Uh, I'm going to stay here with Arnzt." Hurley added.
"Yeah… me too." Lena said with a slight shiver. As interesting as the ship looked, she didn't actually want to go in it.
Kate, Jack, and Locke all went inside the Black Rock, while Arzt started ranting about something to Hurley. Lena wandered a few feet into the jungle, wanting to catch her breath for a moment.
A few minutes later, Kate stepped out of the ship, followed by Jack and Locke, who were carrying a case of what Lena assumed was the dynamite.
"What the hell are you people doing?!" Arzt shouted. "Stop right where you are! Alright, put that down carefully. Damn it, gently. Alright, now back away. Get away from it!"
"What are you doing?" Lena asked.
"Shush!" Arzt said. "Do any of you have any idea what happens to dynamite in 90+ degree heat? Any of you? It sweats nitroglycerin." He removed a stick of dynamite to show them and, sure enough, there was some kind of substance on it. "Dynamite is nitroglycerin stabilized by clay. Nitroglycerin is the most dangerous and unstable explosive known to man. Any of you ever hear about the guy who invented nitroglycerin? Probably not, because he blew his freaking face off. So we're not going to take any more of this stuff than we need because nitroglycerin is extremely temperamental, so we-"
And then Leslie Arzt exploded.
…
Lena wanted to get out of Australia as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the next flight to Los Angeles wasn't for a few hours, which left Lena to kill some time in the airport.
She hadn't been planning on leaving this soon, and as a result, she had nothing to do. Not only that, she had nothing to do during the sixteen hour flight to LA.
Lena decided to buy some food, but, considering the mood she was in, she ended up getting a bag of salt and vinegar chips.
"This'll be a great flight." She muttered sarcastically. For a moment, it crossed her mind to go back to Marie's house, apologize, and help her sister out.
But that thought was short lived.
…
Lena ran into the jungle and puked multiple times.
It wasn't the fact that Arzt blew up, but the fact that the pieces of him landed on her and the others was both unsettling and disgusting. Sure, the guy was annoying, but he didn't deserve to die.
Back at the Black Rock, Jack and Locke were very slowly taking care of the dynamite. Lena, who wasn't religious, was praying that nothing else - no one else - exploded.
"I think we should split them up." Locke commented. "The sticks, I mean. We need three sticks to blow the hinge, so one other person should take three as well. Just in case."
"You and me, then." Jack sighed.
"No, I'm taking one." Kate protested, standing up from a log she had benefitting on.
"Absolutely not." Jack replied.
"This is why I came." Kate argued.
"I should take one." Lena added. "The other survivors need you guys. The doctor, the hunter, the tracker. I'm just the girl with the sword."
"Neither of you are taking one." Jack said.
"It's not your decision." Kate countered, getting angrier with all of Jack's words.
"We'll draw straws." Locke decided. "We don't have tie to argue over who gets to risk their life, so we'll let fate decide." Fate. Lena didn't really believe in it, but it was the only option. What she said was true: the other three were needed. She was not.
"Works for me." Kate commented.
"What about you." Jack asked Hurley. Hurley, who had been sitting on the ground and staring at the spot where Arzt had been standing, looked up at Jack. "What?"
"You have some… Arnzt on you." Hurley said, once again pronouncing the man's name wrong as he pointed to a spot on Jack's back. Sure enough a little bit of what had been Arzt was stuck to his shirt.
Jack shook off the little flake, shivering a bit as he did so. Lena couldn't blame him. The whole thing was very disturbing.
"Short sticks carry the packs." Locke said, holding out four sticks in his fists. Lena drew one first, and she could already tell that it was one of the long ones. So much for her plan.
Kate drew a medium sized stick, and Jack drew an even longer one than Lena's. Locke held out his palm, and the results became evident.
"Looks like it's you and me, Kate." Locke said.
…
"Ready?" Lena asked after Locke and Kate had carefully and successfully put their backpacks full of dynamite on. Kate nodded quickly. As much as she tried to hide it, lena could tell she was a little scared.
"We should keep a safe distance from each other." Locke said.
"Alright." Jack agreed. "If anyone hears or sees anything, take off your packs, put them down, and run. Got it?" Kate nodded again, and Locke simply tipped his head.
"Let's do this., then"
The walk through the jungle and back to the hatch was an odd one. It might have been the most tense moment of Lena's life as Locke and Kate carried the dynamite on their backs.
And then they heard it: Tick-tick-tick-tick.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Lena complained. The monster, the 'security system' had arrived."
Suddenly, Locke put his pack down and, instead of running away like any rational person would do, he ran towards the monster.
"Locke!" Jack yelled, but he was already too far gone. Jack and Kate exchanged a quick glance before running after him, dynamite be damned.
"Dude, run!" Hurley yelled as he sprinted as far away as possible. Lena drew her sword, the silver and gold patters glistening in the sunlight. But she wasn't a tracker. It was impossible to tell which way they had gone.
Just when she was about to give up hope, the three of them came back, Locke limping slightly, Kate looking slightly betrayed, and Jack looking annoyed, as per usual.
"Are you guys okay?" Lena asked, tucking her sword back into the sheath.
"Everything's fine." Locke confirmed. "Where's Hugo?"
Who the hell is Hugo?
"I'm right here." Hurley said as he stepped out from the trees. Lena guessed that Hugo was his real name, and Hurley was just a nickname. Either that, or Locke was just really bad with names.
"We should keep going." Jack said. "We have to make it back to the hatch."
…
"So what happened back there?" Lena asked Kate as they continued on their journey. Despite their best efforts, it had gotten dark, and the group was now relying on torchlight, and the few flashlights.
"The monster… it was smoke." Kate said. "Just black smoke, and it dragged Locke to this hole. We had to use a stick of dynamite to save him."
"Black smoke?" Lena echoed. "Maybe these Others have something to do with it. That's their thing, right?"
"Maybe." Kate said skeptically.
"We're here." Locke announced from ahead of them. Kate and Lena quickened their pace, and soon they were at the hatch, which looked even more eerie at night.
"Hugo, take these extra sticks back a few yards." Locke said, carefully handing the remaining dynamite sticks to Hurley. He quickly exchanged his torch for a flashlight and walked back into the jungle with the dynamite in hand.
"Kate, Lena, run the fuse." Locke instructed. "Jack and I will rig the charges." The remaining three nodded, and they got to work. Lena tied the fuse down near where Locke and Jack were setting up, and Kate pulled it back as far as it would go.
Once everything was in place, Jack attached the dynamite and the fuse. Lena flinched as the two came together, almost as if she was expecting it to explode. But the suspense was false, and nothing happened.
"I'll light it." Locke decided. "You three take cover, there will be enough burn time for me to get clear."
"Hurley!" Jack called out into the jungle.
"Just a second!" Came the reply. While waiting, Lena decided to find a good spot to take cover from the explosion, and ended up in a little nook in between two trees.
She held on to her sword, and it already made her feel better, like she was holding the hand of a loved one.
"No, no stop!" It was Hurley, running towards the hatch like a madman. What the hell had gotten into him? "We can't do this! Don't light it. The numbers are bad!"
Locke, however, paid no attention to Hurley's ranting and lit the fuse. Hurley let out a loud gasp as he ran over to Locke and tried to stop the fuse from going to the dynamite, but it was too late.
"The numbers are bad! The numbers are bad!"
"Get down!" Lena yelled as the fuse neared the hatch. Jack jumped out of his spot and tackled Hurley to the ground, just as the fuse reached the end.
Brightness filled Lena's eyes as the door to the hatch exploded.
…
Lena shoved her bag into the overhead compartment. The third time was always the charm, and that was true in this case as well.
Once her bag was safely stowed, she sat down in her assigned seat.
Lena glanced around the plane. She hated being confined in small spaces, but she didn't really have a choice.
Flying in general scared her a little. She was worried that she might crash and die, and no one would ever know she was there. She had, after all, just alienated the only person in the world who cared about her.
Because everyone else was dead.
Lena's morbid thoughts came to an abrupt stop as the plane started to move. She gripped the armrests of her seat tightly, but takeoff went very smoothly.
They were in the air.
…
Lena uncovered her eyes as the smoke cleared. She ignored the other four as she ran down to the hatch. She could see the door lying on the ground, meaning that they had been successful in blowing it up.
Jack, Locke, Kate, and Hurley also came over to the hatch, and all five of them hesitated for a moment, as if they were scared to see what was in there.
Locke was the first one to snap himself from the daze. He knelt down next to the entrance and held up his torch. Lena and the others peered over his shoulder to see what was there.
Behind the hatch door was a long, narrow passageway. There was a broken ladder going down the side. Lena couldn't even see the bottom.
And yet, somehow she knew: That hatch led to answers. But even more importantly, it could lead to survival.
A/N: So, that's the last chapter of the first book! Now, there has been a slight change of plans as to the remaining books in the series. Instead of one for each season, the second book will cover seasons 2 and 3, and the third book will cover seasons 4, 5, and 6. The second book is called Uncharted, and will be posted this Friday, so keep an eye out for that (the same update schedule will continue). Finally, thank you all for continuing to read, favorite, and comment, and I will see you on Friday with the next book. (Update: Uncharted has been posted, enjoy!)