Good news everyone! The parts came in a day earlier than expected and i was able to quickly repair my poor laptop! The old girls back in top shape and I'm working on new content! Heres what i have so far, it may be a bit shorter than i intended to, but hopefully it will keep you adoring fans satiated till i can produce a longer chapter next week!
Sara had regained consciousness just in time to see Jacob put the final arrow in The Haitians chest. Groggily, she blinked a few times, shaking her head and trying to clear her mind.
Blood. I smell blood, she thought to herself, taking a deep breath. Looking around, she took notice of the dozens of bodies and the arid stench of an explosion. What the hell happened?
"Jacob…" Sara croaked, her throat dry and staring at him in horror.
Jacob knelt on the ground, blood staining his hands and covering parts of his body, whispering something to himself.
"Jacob," Sara tried again, a little louder
It was almost as if he didnt hear her, he continued to mutter to himself absently.
"Jacob!" she screamed, rattling the chains still hooked to her wrists as loudly as she could.
He raised his head ever so slowly and turned to look at her. His eyes looked hollow and empty, his face pale against the crimson streaks of viscera.
"Sara?" he mumbled, looking confused.
"Jacob cut me loose." She urged.
He stood up slowly, swaying from side to side in a strange manner. Walking towards where she hung, he stumbled and lurched forwards spraying blood up into the air as his hands hit the floor. He groaned before shakily standing up and moving closer. Something about the way he moved worried Sara. He lurched closer, bending down to fiddle with the chains. WIth a few loud clunks, the chains dangled free, causing Sara to fall down and catch self on Jacob's body. Her hands landed on his bare chest, sliding in the cooling blood that slicked it. She could barely feel his heart beating as she stood there for a second, his eyes still looked blank as she looked him over.
"I did this…" she heard him mumble again and again. "I did this."
He took a step back, causing her to lose her balance for a second. She fell back against the torture stand, a sharp spike of pain causing her to grunt as a link of chain dug into her spine.
"I did this," he whispered again, turning around the room and looking blankly at the carnage before him.
Sara straightened up and marched over to him, taking his head in her hands and forcing him to look directly into her eyes.
"Jacob," she called, sternly as she could, searching his eyes for any glimpse of an answer. "What happened?!"
"I did this," was all he replied, over and over. His blank eyes looked back at her, but she could feel that he wasn't quite seeing her.
"We have to get out of here," she sighed, letting go of his head as he continued his muttering.
She knelt down beside one of the bodies, pulling free a combat knife from its belt sheath and cutting the gear from the body. The tactical vest was useless, shredded completely by what looked like ferocious slashes and strikes from an arrow tip. She pulled loose the shirt, ignoring the drying blood and slipped it on. With a few gentle tugs, she tied it around her midsection before removing the pants and putting them on. Better than nothing, she thought to herself as she tied the belt so they stayed on. She stood up, looking around the room for any useful equipment before turning around to find Jacob standing directly in front of The Haitian.
"I did this," she heard him whisper as he stared at the bleeding mess of a man who had just been torturing them both.
"Jacob, we have to leave." She called, looking for an exit. When he didn't respond, she ran over to him, grabbing his arm and spinning him away from the body.
"Now, Jacob!" she urged, pulling him to a door she hoped lead out. He stumbled along behind her.
She let go of his hand and switched the combat knife to it before throwing open the door in front of them. Inside were a set of metal stairs spiraling upwards. Up should take us out, she thought, at least it will if we're underground. She turned around to look behind her, Jacob slightly swaying back and forth. Anywhere is better than here.
She grabbed his hand, pulling him behind her as she ascended the stairs, ignoring the first door they came to and continuing upwards. After a few minutes of their own footsteps on metal echoing around them, they reached the end of the staircase, coming to a grey metal door with two latches on it. Please let this be a way out, she begged, throwing the latches before pulling the door open.
Blinding light shone through, causing her to raise her hand and squint. A wicked breeze rushed at them accompanied by a loud thumping sound. Her eyes adjusted and she noticed another of the military garbed minions loading a distinguished looking woman onto a helicopter. The minion spotted Sara, shoving the woman into the chopper and screaming for the pilot to take off. He raised his rifle, clicking off the safety and laser dot appearing on Saras chest. She flipped the combat knife to its tip and flung it at the minion. The knife sank up to its hilt in his throat, causing him to stumble backwards and involuntarily squeeze the trigger. Rounds burst from the gun as it arched up and backwards, bullets bouncing off of the fleeing helicopter. The pilot weaved away as best he could, zigzagging out of the line of fire and speeding away. The body barely hit the ground before Sara rushed over, grabbing up the rifle and taking aim at the helicopter. She peered through the sight, gauging the distance before lowering the rifle and cursing low. Wouldn't do any good, she thought to herself, damn thing would probably crash before it would be of any use to us. She turned around, seeing Jacob slumped against the door they just passed through, still muttering and staring blankly ahead. I have to get him off this island.
She slung the rifle over her shoulder, the sling attached and still intact, kneeling down and searching the still warm body. The corpse of the minion carried the same gear as the rest, aside from another combat knife and a half full canteen, most of it was useless. Upon further inspection, she found a folded up map of the island. She scanned its surface, looking for some point of reference and finding they had several locations circled in bright red. Four of them were marked with question marks, and the fifth she deduced to be their current location. Helipad, it read. She looked up, trying to determine their location and compared it to her surroundings. Damn, she thought, were on the complete opposite side of the island, up in the damn mountains. No wonder i never knew this was here. With a groan, she folded the map back up and stuffed it down her shirt. She spied a dull metal railing across the helipad, approaching it and thankfully finding an emergency set of grated metal stairs descending down to the ground.
"Jacob, lets go," She called, walking over to him and pulling him to his feet. He grunted, standing up sluggishly and swaying.
Sara pulled him along, leading him over to the rickety set of stairs and slowly started her way down. They creaked and moaned, threatening to break free from their moorings but ultimately stayed connected. She slowly crept down, every so often pausing to turn around and make sure Jacob was still following her. Down and down they went, the grey from the stairs starting to blur into an endless spiral. After what seemed like hours, the pair made it to ground level. Sara pulled the map back out from between her cleavage and regained her barings. A few moments later, Jacob stepped off the stairs, stumbling and falling into the dirt. She stuffed the map back down her shirt, grunting as she hefted him up to his feet.
"Come on, kid," she urged, draping his arm over her shoulders for better leverage. "We've got a long way to go."
They walked for hours, stopping only to fill the canteen from a stream along their way and to double check their heading.
Darkness began its creeping shadow across the trees as they came to set of downed trees laying over top of an indent in the rising hillside.
"We'll camp here for tonight," she sighed wearily, letting Jacob collapse onto the ground gently.
No response came.
She shook her head, a worried look spreading to her exhausted face, before gathering up a small collection of twigs and pieces of brush. Arranging them in a small pile, she began building the beginnings of a fire in front of him. She unslung the rifle from her shoulders, ejecting the magazine it and removing a round. Slapping the magazine back in, she set the rifle aside and picked up a rock. With a few quick, precise strikes she managed to dislodge the bullet itself from the round casing. Coming back to the pile, she cleared a small hole and dumped the powder from the casing. After arranging a small amount of brush directly over it, she drew the combat knife and struck it against the rock. A few strikes later, she had managed to produce an array of sparks, catching the powder and igniting the brush. She smiled to herself, quickly arranging more brush and some larger twigs over her accomplishment till she had a medium sized fire crackling away in front of them. The dancing light from the fire flashed in Jacobs eyes as she looked up at him, silently begging for him to snap out of it She sighed quietly to herself, moving to kneel in front of him.
"Come on kid," she pleaded with him, placing her hands on both sides of his face and finding his skin to be unusually cold. "You can't go checking out on me."
She gently shook him, staring into his eyes for some sort of sign. The hollow emptiness was the only thing staring back. With a sigh, she let go of his face before kissing his forehead quickly. She picked up the rifle from where it lay, leaning it against the dirt and sitting beside Jacob. With a snap, she absently broke apart a small twig she picked up and tossed it into their fire. Its my fault, she thought staring into the burning embers. I brought him here, i pushed him, i took advantage of him…
"Sara?" Jacobs voice came quietly, breaking her out of her self loathing and startling her slightly.
"Im here," She replied, grabbing his arm gently, giving it a squeeze and turning to look at him.
"Where are we?" he asked, his voice thick with exhaustion.
"We're still on Lian Yu. A few miles away from that hell hole…"
He went quiet again, staring down into the fire as she waited with baited breath.
"I killed them," he whispered, barely loud enough to hear and causing her to lean closer to him. "I killed them all and i liked it…"
"What the hell happened?" she asked, laying a hand softly on the opposite side of his face and making him look at her. His face turned, but his eyes never left the fire.
"I died," he whispered in disbelief. "I died…..i was dead, i know it. They were there...and…"
"Hey," she cooed, brushing his hair and trying to calm him. "Who was there?"
"Mom…" he choked, eyes welling up. "Laurel, Ollie, You…..Thea…"
"Jacob, it was probably just a hallucination, a dream."
"No," he growled, grabbing her hand firmly and startling her. "They were real, as real as you are right now.
"Look kid," she sighed, trying to release his fingers from their vice like grip on her hand. "You were most likely resurrected from the Lazarus water still in your system. I've been there. A few years back, Malcolm Merlyn...well he manipulated someone into killing me."
"Three arrows," she continued, rubbing the exact spot in her midsection where metal pierced flesh. "I still feel them every time i think about it. The sting of surprise, the look on that person's face, falling and then guess what...nothing. That's all there was. Black, nothingness."
"I know what i saw." He growled firmly, looking down at his hands and tracing where his wedding band would have been. "I was with them, i held her in my arms again…...then that smirking bastard pulled me away from them…"
"What?" she asked, looking at him confused. "Who did?"
"There was this man, in this dark room," he explained. "He said his name was Baron Kriminal...with a K….he dressed all snazy….said he was commandeering my body...killing those men…"
"I dont know of any Barons," she started. "But i do know why you killed those men. It's called the bloodlust…..i suffered from it as well when i was resurrected. It's basically the souls in the water calling out for vengeance, you have to kill the person who killed you."
"I still feel it," he admitted, forming tight fists with his hands and closing his eyes. "Anger, wrath, almost a hunger to kill them again."
"You shouldn't feel anything…" she admitted with a frown. "I saw what you did to that man…"
"Then why do i?" he asked in a frustrated tone, shaking his head.
"I dont know Jacob," she growled at him before sighing and touching his arm lightly. "I promise you, when we get off this Island, i'll take you to someone who will have more answers."
"If we get off this island," he muttered, shrugging away from her touch.
"Trust me," she grumbled, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him towards her until he gave in and leaned back against her legs. "We will get off this island, now get some sleep, well start off again at first light."
He sighed and gave in, scooting around in the dirt till he was comfortable facing the face with his head on her thigh. A few minutes of relative silence passed, the only sound coming from the crackle of burning brush.
"Hey kid," she whispered, brushing her fingers through his hair and cracking a grin. "Your not officially a Lance till you've died and come back to life…"
He snorted at her, she could feel a smile creep to his face before it vanished.
"What about Laurel…." he whispered back sadly.
Sara froze for a second, her fingers stopping in his hair. She opened her mouth to say something before shaking her head and closing her eyes instead.