LOST

Chapter 3: Entering the Jungle

"You all everybody. Oh, you all everybody.."

Charlie Pace was a member of the famous British band Driveshaft, at least before they broke up. Charlie was always hesitant to be in a rock band but once he got that first little taste of stardom, he was addicted. When Driveshaft was officially pronounced dead, Charlie went through the toughest times in his life. If his denial of being a has-been wasn't enough, his extreme heroin addiction was enough to drive him crazy.

Charlie was flying to L.A. to hopefully start a comeback for Driveshaft. Now, Charlie was gazing patiently out at the ocean, hoping with all his might that a ship would appear in the distance. There was not a doubt in his mind that they would be rescued today, at the very latest early tomorrow.

Coming back to reality, he heard a voice in the distance that he recognized and slowly turned around. It was Ana-Lucia, the woman who had taken his only stash from him. He hated her deeply and even now was formulating a plan in his head to get his heroin back. He knew she was intentionally trying to piss him off, she probably wanted to see what he would do. Well, he wasn't going to let her get the best of him.

He would take his drugs back, Charlie vowed. Even if it meant hurting her.

Jack Shepard walked along the beach with Ana-Lucia, both still very tired from last night. Neither one of them had gotten more than a couple hours of sleep, they were both very up and awake, checking the fires and making sure everyone else was okay. Now as they walked towards the fuselage, Ana informed Jack of all the supplies they had managed to salvage from the plane.

"Luckily, we were able to find a lot of usable things in the plane," Ana said, motioning to several large backpacks. She opened one and showed him the contents "See, check it out. Books, bathroom stuff, clothes, tarps,"

As Ana continued to list off items, Jack interrupted "Any medical supplies?"

Ana then gave him a mischievous smile and pulled out a green backpack from the back. As she opened it, Jack gazed in awe as he saw that it was stuffed full of medicines, first aid kits, and bandages.

Ana handed Jack the backpack and said "Merry Christmas, doctor,"

They both laughed but then Ana changed the mood by pulling something out of her pocket and saying "Oh, there was something else,"

As she placed the small object in Jack's hand, he saw that it was a small bag of heroin. "Wha- Jack began but Ana explained "I found it on one of the survivors. I thought about getting rid of it, but well, since you are the doctor I'm sure it could have its medical uses.

Jack pocketed it and nodded "Yeah, I guess it could."

After a few moments in awkward silence, Ana sighed and said "Well, I guess I'll see you around Jack."

She turned and started to walk away. Jack watched her for a few seconds and then called out "Ana,"

She turned around and looked at him. He then asked "You just…took it from them?"

Ana shrugged and gave a slight smile. "Something like that."

She then waved to him and continued to walk away from him. He looked at her for a few more seconds and then turned back to the backpack, emptying out its contents to see what was really in there. He was surprised by what he found, Ana really had done a good job collecting even the most obscure medicines for him.

He gazed out at the ocean for a few seconds and couldn't help but think "Maybe we really do have a shot at surviving here."

As a tired Boone walked through the sand, he saw his sister, Shannon watching him with her arms folded. As he approached her with the two large suitcases he was dragging she made no effort to help him and he eventually dropped them at her feet.

"What took you so long?" Shannon asked rudely.

Boone wiped some sweat off his forehead and rolled his eyes "There's a lot of luggage lying around. Maybe if you had helped me, we would have found ours a little quicker, princess."

Shannon looked at her brother in disgust and said "What, are you calling me lazy?"

Boone laughed and picked up his own suitcase. "Not if you can think of a better name for yourself. Come on, I found some shade down here."

Boone started to walk towards the fuselage but Shannon just watched him walk away and turned to her own belongings. Finding a blanket and bikini, she ducked behind some bushes to change and thought "Who needs shade when you've got a perfect place to sunbathe?"

Sawyer walked along the beach by himself, smoking a cigarette. These last few days had been a bitch to him. He had traveled to Australia to kill a man whom he had been told by an associate named Hibbs, was responsible for the death of his parents so many years ago. In the end, Sawyer killed this man before finding out that it was just a con and the man was just a person who had loaned money to one of his associates.

This had pissed Sawyer off more than almost anything he could remember. He vowed that as soon as he got back to the U.S., he would make Hibbs pay for conning him. Sawyer was never the one to get conned. It was usually him doing the conning.

Now here he was, stuck on shithole island with a bunch of good-doing morons. There was the doctor, who had been gallantly leaping around saving lives like he was Jesus himself yesterday. There was the bald guy, who looked at everyone with a creepy smile like he could see through your clothes or something. There was an arab guy, who Sawyer was very suspicious of and was always keeping an eye on him. Hell, he might have even caused the plane crash.

Sawyer looked out at the ocean, hoping that rescue would come soon. He didn't like being here at all, he'd rather be in civilization where countless dumbasses were just waiting to be conned every day. Not that Sawyer couldn't pull off a few little tricks here too though. In fact, good ideas were already starting to come into his mind and he began to formulate some plans.

It was the middle of the day now. Much discussion could be heard of people who were becoming anxious and worried that no signs of rescue had shown up yet. Claire was among these people, who was feeling very concerned that they had not been saved yet. She was nervous because she knew she could probably go into labor at any time and on this deserted island, that would not be good.

She now walked up to the doctor, Jack who was sorting through a bunch of medical supplies. Jack looked up at her and immediately said "Hey, Claire right? Sorry, I heard that there was a pregnant woman here and I was just about to go find you, but…" He motioned to the supplies. "I got held up."

Claire smiled and sat down on a suitcase while Jack finished picking the items up. "That's okay," Claire said. "I know that there's a lot of things you need to do, being the doctor and all."

Jack zipped up the backpack with the supplies in it and sat down next to her. He then asked her "So how many months pregnant are you?"

"About nine months," Claire replied, getting the same uneasy feeling that she always got every time she told someone that.

"No problems with the pregnancy so far?"

Claire shook her head. "Nope, I was even okay to fly to L.A."

Jack asked her "And why were you flying to L.A.?"

"I was err… giving the baby up for adoption," Claire told him, slightly embarrassed.

"Why not just do that in Australia?"

"It's umm, a long story," Claire said shortly.

Not wanting to get any deeper into her personal affairs, Jack told her "Well Claire, I need to tell you something important that you can't tell anybody else. I need to tell you because.. I'm afraid I might have to deliver this baby for you on the island."

"What?" Claire asked, startled. "Why-

Jack cut her off and said quickly "Listen Claire, the stewardess Cindy told me that when we crashed, we were a thousand miles off course. With no transceiver or any way to communicate, there's a good chance that we might not be rescued any time soon."

It took Claire a few moments to let this information sink in. At the same time, somebody ran up to them yelling "Jack!"

Jack turned around and looked. It was a very beautiful woman with nice, blonde hair and perfectly tanned skin. She came up to Jack and said "Jack, you've got to help me. My boyfriend, Paulo went off into the jungle this morning and told me he'd be back by noon. It's almost evening now and…I think something might have happened to him!"

Jack stood up and gazed out into the dark jungle that covered what looked like most of the island. He had told everyone this morning to not journey in there until a group was formed that would explore it and find food.

He then saw that the woman looked very worried and said "Okay, calm down. What's your name?"

"My name's Nikki. He went in there another man, he said that they were going to look for animals to hunt. He was…he was fed up with the plane food."

"Okay," Jack calmed her. "We'll figure this out. Do you know who the other guy was?"

Nikki told him "It was the black man who has that kid about ten years old. He left his son in the care of that woman named Libby."

Jack then helped Claire stand up from the suitcase and before walking off with Nikki, he said to her "We'll talk more later, okay?"

Claire nodded and watched them walk off. It seemed to her that Jack really was becoming the leader of the group. If what the stewardess had told him really was true, then they were all going to need a leader more badly than he knew.

Sayid sensed something was wrong as he walked up to Jack, who was gathering a backpack full of supplies, not medical but food and water. He also saw Nikki, who was assembling a backpack for herself as well. For some reason, she looked very worried.

"Are you going somewhere?" Sayid asked as he approached the two.

Jack turned to Sayid and said "Nikki tells me that her boyfriend, Paulo and the father of that kid, Walt went out hunting in the jungle this morning without telling anyone."

"After hearing you warn nobody to go venturing in there?" Sayid asked.

Jack shrugged and said "I guess some people just don't listen."

Jack and Nikki finished packing and lifted the backpacks onto their shoulders. Sayid then said "So it's just you and her going in there?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, pretty much." He then went on to tell Sayid "Okay listen, if we don't come back by nightfall, you're going to have to-

"I'm coming with you on this one," Sayid said before Jack could finish.

"Are you sure that's the best idea, Sayid?" Jack replied. The way he said it, Sayid could tell he was trying to imply that he wanted him to stay at the wreckage with the others.

Sayid said confidently "Yes, I'm sure."

Jack eyed his determination and sighed "Well, hurry up and get a backpack for yourself. Me and Nikki will wait over there by those trees."

Jack pointed to a group of trees at the edge of the jungle and Sayid nodded. "You won't regret bringing me," he assured him.

Jack didn't look too sure.

Kate struggled as she tried to climb a tall, thick tree that she saw some fruit growing off its branches. She was filled with determination and hunger as she hadn't eaten all day. With this in mind, she pushed herself that extra strength and eventually, after a few minutes of scrambling, made it to the fruit. She grabbed some of it and saw that they were mangos.

Hungrily, she bit into one and immediately tasted an exotic sweetness that she had never experienced before. It was awesome and soon after finishing one, she bit into another. Then she heard some rustling down on the ground and she hid herself in the leaves of the tree. As she watched, a few moments later two men appeared from the tall bushes in the distance. They were both carrying sticks with sharpened points at the end, a very crude attempt at making a spear. As Kate listened close, she picked up some of their conversation.

"Man, where the hell are we?"

"I thought you were keeping track of our direction."

"I told you to do that! Let's face it, we're totally lost."

"Well come on Mike, it can't be that hard to get back to the beach."

"You know man, this was your dumb idea. Jack told us to stay put!"

"Screw Jack, man. Who put him in charge anyway? I want to hunt some wildlife, so that's what I'm doing."

As Kate watched them, they kept walking closer and closer to the tree that she was hiding in. But as she lied there in silence, one of the mangos she was holding under her arm fell down onto the ground. "Shit," she muttered under her breath.

One of the men walked over to where the mango had just fallen and picked it up. He then smiled and said "Hey, check it out! Fresh fruit."

He then pointed to the tree and said "I bet one of us could climb up there to get more."

"Are you offering?" the other man asked, as he also walked up to the tree.

The man sized the tree up and down and said "No problem."

Lying there in the tree, Kate felt a creeping feeling of dread. She was screwed.

Jack, Sayid, and Nikki were now entering the jungle. Jack drew a deep breath and took his first step into unknown territory. After he had taken a few more steps, he was amazed how much cooler it was in the jungle than on the beach. He also started to hear the many sounds of animals and insects in the jungle. He then realized how easy it would be for two people to get lost in the jungle, especially people who had no clue what they were doing.

After about ten minutes of walking, Sayid exclaimed "Look! I see footprints!"

Sure enough, Jack saw that Sayid had picked up a trail but then took a second look. "There's only one set of tracks," he noticed. He turned to Nikki and asked "Are you sure that they both went into the jungle.

Nikki nodded her head, apparently in the same confusion. Jack then shrugged and said "Well, we might as well follow it. I mean, it's got to lead us to someone, huh?"

Sayid nodded and began to follow the trail. Nobody was sure now where, or who, it would lead to.

Paulo struggled to keep hold of the tree as he almost fell out. Below him, Michael was watching him carefully and yelled "You sure you can do this?"

Paulo looked back down and laughed "You kiddin me? Me and Nikki used to rock climb all the time."

All of a sudden, a body tumbled out from one of the large branches on the tree. Immediately Michael ran over and saw that it was the body of a young woman. He quickly turned her over on her back and checked to see if she was breathing. With relief, he saw that she was.

Paulo leaped down from the tree and looked over at the girl. "Did she just fall out of that tree?" he asked in disbelief.

Michael nodded, the same look of amazement on his face and tried to get her to regain consciousness. A few seconds later, the girl's eyes flew open and she jolted up and screamed.

Michael grabbed her shoulder and said "Hey, hey, calm down okay? Take a deep breath and sit down."

The girl obeyed and after a few moments asked "W-who are you?"

Michael explained "My name is Michael and my friend here is Paulo. We're survivors of Flight 815, the plane that crashed on this island yesterday."

Paulo, still suspicious added "Are you?"

The girl nodded, starting to calm down. Michael then asked "What, you've been out here all by yourself? How'd you get separated from us?"

The girl shook her head and answered "I-I don't know. I remember the plane crash but I blacked out…I woke up in the jungle and I've been on my own ever since. I was trying to make my way to the beach and I stopped to pick some fruit. I-I guess I just fell asleep up there."

Michael smiled and said "Well, you're safe now. We'll bring you back to the beach where the wreckage is, there's sixty-five of us in all.

Paulo then muttered "That is, as soon as we find the beach."

Michael glared at him but then stood up and stretched out an arm to help up the girl. "Thank you.." the girl said softly.

Michael nodded and asked "What is your name?"

"Kate," the girl said after a moment. "My name's Kate."

"Well, good to have you aboard Kate," Michael said happily. "Now let's try to get out of this damn jungle."

Ana-Lucia had just finished walking across the cockpit, fuselage, and tail section. Jack was nowhere to be seen. Confused, she spotted the pregnant girl that she had seen Jack talking to earlier sitting in a seat from the plane.

As she approached her, the girl looked up from the diary she was writing in and said "Oh, hello there. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Hey, do you know where Jack is?" Ana asked. "I saw him talking to you earlier."

The girl scratched her head and said "Um, he walked off with Nikki somewhere."

"Who the hell is Nikki?" Ana questioned. It had only been two days, she hardly knew anybody's name.

"She's the one with that super-cute boyfriend," the girl explained. "But uh, I think she said something about him going off into the jungle and not coming back."

Ana looked startled and asked "You think Jack went into the jungle to look for him?"

The girl shrugged. "I'm sorry, I really don't know much more than that."

Ana nodded and said "Well, thanks anyway." As she then turned to walk away, she turned back for a second and asked "So what's your name then?"

The girl smiled and said "I'm Claire. And you?"

"Ana-Lucia," she said simply. Ana then turned and marched off, pissed that Jack would go into the jungle without first informing her. She also made a mental note in her head to remember Claire was the name of the pregnant girl. She knew that it was going to be important later on that nobody remained a stranger. Especially in a place like this.

Jack, Nikki, and Sayid had been following the single set of footprints for about half an hour. Jack was starting to get a bit worried that they were getting a bit too deep into the jungle and started to consider going back before it got too dark. From what he saw yesterday, night fell early on this island and he predicted that sunset would be coming in just a while.

He decided to express his concern to Sayid and said "Hey, how much longer do you think this trail is gonna go on for?"

Sayid, who was up ahead turned around and answered "I do not know. The tracks show no sign of any weariness at all."

"Paulo does get tired easily," Nikki spoke up. "It would be normal for him to want to take a couple breaks also."

Sayid then studied the trail and said "There is also another thing that is concerning me. These would not be the tracks of a person who is not used to this territory."

Jack looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

Sayid looked at him and explained "Whoever left these footprints, knew where they were headed."

Jack looked down at the trail and asked "So what are you saying Sayid?"

Nikki then saw what Sayid was implying and realized "You don't think Paulo left this trail."

Sayid looked at her and nodded. He then looked back at Jack, who was giving him an incredulous look and said "Yes, Nikki is correct."

"You know that's crazy, right?" Jack said, giving a small smile.

Sayid frowned at him and said "Well, there's only one way to find out. Come, let's keep moving."

As they started to continue their trek through the jungle, all of them were caught up in their own thoughts. Sayid, who was a hundred percent sure that this trail was not Paulo's was determined to solve the mystery that had been put before him. Nikki, who noticed that it was going to be dark soon, was worried to death about where her boyfriend was and prayed that he was okay.

And Jack, a person who didn't believe in anything supernatural or weird like this, was confident that the trail was Paulo's and as soon as they caught up to him, Sayid would realize that his judgment was right.

Night was now about to fall upon the island. As Michael looked up into the sky, he saw this and pointed out "Hey, what if we can't make it back to the beach by tonight?"

Paulo stopped and sighed. "We should have been back by now. This is some bullshit…"

Kate then questioned "Why would you two go hunting if you didn't have a clue how to get back?"

Michael gave her an embarrassed look and said "Well, yeah I guess we were being a little dumb. But that's not the point now, we gotta figure out what we're going to do."

Paulo sat down on a log and took out a water bottle, which was now almost empty. "Okay, we'll take a break and talk this over. Hell, we might be able to find a cave or something to stay in for the night."

Michael thought it over and said "All right, we'll talk this over bu-

At that moment all three of them heard a loud, squealing sound in the distance and Paulo's eyes immediately lit up. "Pig?" he asked.

Both exchanging nods, the next moment Paulo and Michael took off into the bushes, determined to catch up with the boar. Kate, not sure what to do, took off with them to try and keep up. Now that she had been caught, and her story so far had played out fine, she figured she might as well stay with these people. After all, one night in the jungle alone was bad enough.

Even though it was getting hard to see the ground, Paulo spotted some hoof tracks and a second later, found himself just a few feet away from a good-sized boar. It was sprinting away from him at a breakneck speed but Paulo, with his good athletic skills was able to keep up with it long enough to chuck his single spear into the pig's stomach. It immediately slowed down and a second later, collapsed on the ground. Paulo shouted in victory and ran over to his catch.

He was amazed what a lucky shot he had achieved. He retrieved his spear by pulling it out of the boar's side and as he did, he heard a sickening noise of blood and guts. This was some definite Lord of the Flies shit.

A minute later, Michael appeared with Kate and laughed with happiness when he saw the dead boar lying on the ground. "You did it man!" he exclaimed, and took some deep breaths, trying to catch himself.

Then a figure appeared from the trees and for a moment, Paulo pointed his spear until he realized that it was Sayid, the arab man who he had met yesterday. Sayid saw him pointed, a moment later Nikki and Jack emerged from the distance. Nikki saw him and ran up yelling "Paulo, you're okay! Oh, you idiot!"

She embraced him in a huge hug but then pulled herself away from him and started shouting "What the hell were you thinking?! You were gone the whole day! Don't you care about me anymore?"

Jack and Sayid exchanged glances and started to laugh. They then noticed Michael and behind him was some strange woman that neither of them recognized from the beach. Jack strode up to the two and asked "Michael, who's this?"

Michael explained while the woman stood silent "This is Kate. She was a survivor of the crash, just like us."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Care to explain?" he asked.

"Sure man," Michael replied. "But we better get heading back now, it's about dark."

Sayid nodded and said "Yes, I'm sure we'd all like to hear about your 'exploits' of the day."

Jack confronted Paulo and asked him "You did hear what I said this morning about going into the jungle, didn't you?"

Paulo looked at him for a second and gave a small laugh "Yeah, sorry about that Jack-o. Guess I overestimated my sense of direction."

Jack gave him a small nod, but he could tell that Paulo still knew he was pissed at him. As they began to walk back, all of them were exhausted by what they had been through today. But they were coming back with boar, which was going to cheer up everyone at camp. Well, for those who got some anyway.

As they were all busy, Michael and Paulo explaining how they got lost, Sayid and Jack carrying the boar, and everyone listening as Kate told her story, nobody remembered about the mysterious footprints that kept leading deeper into the jungle, even after they had all stopped following and turned around. But it was better that they forgot for right now because if they had kept following the trail, they would have caught up to something that they would have all been very unprepared to see.

That trail would be gone by the next morning. And even though they would most likely discuss the strange occurrence with one another, it would remain just that, a "strange occurrence". As they were soon going to find out, this island was not an ordinary place. It was filled with mystery and secrets.

And danger loomed over everything.

LOST