"We should have stayed." Melissa sighed loudly, curling up into a ball. "We shouldn't have left him."

"If we had stayed, his sacrifice would have been in vain," Daley replied quietly. She too felt guilty about leaving Jackson in his time of need, but he had been making a sacrifice and if they didn't leave then they'd all have been caught and probably killed because no one would be free to save them. Six rescuers were better than none. They had to hide, lay low, until an opportune moment presented itself. Or until they found one.

"What if they kill Jackson," Melissa mumbled. "We'll all be lost. We need him. He shouldn't have to need us."

"He needs us now, Mel," Nathan murmured. "We aren't going to let him down. Not like this. We just need to lay low right now until we can figure out a way to save him from them."

"Better sooner than later," Lex stated. "We have to find out what they want with Jackson - with all of us before they can follow through with their plans."

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Jackson blinked hard. He'd read books about how prisoners woke up in shining light, blinded by the light. But it took him a few minutes to adjust his eyes to the darkness. He was in a wooden cage a few feet above the ground. There were six empty cages in a circle beside him. This had al been planned. He had been wrong. Jackson straighted up in the cage, pulling himself into a sitting position, leaning heavily against the wooden bars. Wincing he lifted up his shirt. His chest and abdoment were covered in deep bruises, and he felt the dry blood on his face crack more with each wince.

There were several tribes men surrounding the cages, working dutifully but none paid him any attention. Jackson winced, dabbing at a deep cut along his hair line. Then he noticed the chief, a man much bigger and much more glorius than the other men. He was approaching Jackson and he was armed with a hand made spear.

"Are you from Great Britain?" the chief asked in broken English.

"No," Jackson answered quietly. "I'm from America." The man lifted an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. "It's a new continent," Jackson explained. "Citizens of England settled in America and set up the continent for the future, I guess. I am not British. I am American."

"Where is America?" the chief asked.

Jackson shrugged. "I don't know. It's over by Scandinavia. But I don't know where it is from here. If I did maybe I wouldn't be here anymore."

The chief nodded slowly. "You and your people - you Americans - you are intruders. Trespassing is...illegal here."

"We didn't know," Jackson answered quickly. "We don't even want to be here. But our plane crushed on the beaches of this island. We've been trying to leave but...land is too far to swim..."

"You will stand trial, and you will be persecuted. And then you'll be offered to Balthazar as a sacrifice," the chief informed Jackson quietly.

"Balthazar?" Jackson asked slowly.

"You Americans are uneducated in the works of the mighty Balthazar?" The chief demanded, raising his voice. "What is this nonsense?"

"Well, you see, us Americans are educated in a thing called intelligence." Jackson figured he was already lost, so no holding back. "For the better part, we believe in a thing we call science. Nobody created us. It was an accident in evolution."

The chief scowled. "I hope Balthazar is not so merciful with you." Then the chief turned around and stomped off.