again I don't own Lost, review please
"Dude, are they still not back?" Hurley asked walking over to Jack who was looking out at where the ocean and the sky meet at the horizon. The sun was nearing that line now and would be setting within an hour, the first of the stars where starting to appear.
"No, not yet," Jack said before leaving to check on the injured.
His mind was stuck on Kate; it had been since she told him she was leaving. He tried to occupy his mind with other things and other people but nothing work. He kept wondering and kept worrying, was she safe? Would she be back soon?
"It's getting dark," Boone pointed out on their trip back down the hill.
"Then pick up the pass," Sawyer said from a couple yards in front.
"Heck," Boone grumbled and Sawyer stopped.
"Sorry, didn't quite catch that. Care to say it again?" he said looking back at him Kate put a hand on his arm.
"We should make camp," Sayid said ending argument before a fight could start.
"Here?" Shannon asked.
"Yes," Sayid said putting his bag on the ground.
Sawyer wanted to keep going, he was confident enough that he would have gotten back if he was on his own before dark. But he knew that if he did keep going one of two things would happen; one Kate would be left with three guys and a blonde that may not protect her if something happened, the second would be that she would go with him and if something happened then it would be only him and her and he may not be able to protect her on his own. The latter was the more likely of the two but one way or another he was going to protect Kate and it would easier if there were more people so he put his bag on the ground beside Kate's.
Night had fallen and they had built a camp fire, Sayid demonstrating, roughly and hypothetically, where they were. He had placed a stone on the ground saying it would represent Australia and he held a torch which was them in the plane. He talked them through leaving the continent and then losing the radio 6 hours in and heading to Fiji when they hit the turbulence and going down. He stomped out the fire that caught in the grass when he touched the torch to the ground.
"Regrettable no one knows that we changed course," Sayid placed the torch back in the fire.
"Yeah, but they can still know where we are. You know, they've got satiates that can take a pictures of a person's license plate," Charlie said.
"If only we were wearing license plates. Satellites are like cameras, they a point and shot. Yes they can take a picture but they must be told where to point," Sayid told him.
"Oh," Charlie said looking back at the fire.
Sawyer, being his usually smartass self, clapped, "really enjoyed the puppet show. Fantastic, but we're stuck in the middle of damn nowhere. Why don't we talk about that other thing? You know that transmission Muhammad picked up on the radio? The French chick that said, "They're all dead." The transmission's been on repeat for" he snapped his fingers having lost the numbers "how long was it, Freckles?"
Kate rolled her eyes before responding, "16 years and 5 months."
"Exactly, how about we talk about that?"
"We'll have to tell everyone when we get back," Boone said.
"Tell them out exactly?" Shannon asked him.
"What we heard."
"We can't tell them anything. To tell them what we heard without understanding would only create panic. If we tell them what we know we take away their hope. And hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."
"So, we have to lie," Kate clarified, and Sayid nodded.
Jack tied a couple pieces of a bamboo together while Hurley held them still.
"Was it a dinosaur?" Hurley asked out of the blue.
"Was what?" Jack asked not following Hurley's train of thought.
"The thing that killed the pilot."
"It wasn't a dinosaur."
"So you saw it," Hurley said as he helped Jack put a tarp on the bamboo frame.
"No."
"Then how do you know it wasn't?"
"Because dinosaurs are extinct.
"Oh, right."
Sawyer looked out into the darkness as the others slept, he couldn't sleep with the thought of whatever it was out there. He looked beside him at Kate who was laying on the ground beside him, he looked around at the others who were all asleep.
"You should sleep," Sawyer told her softly.
"Can't" she whispered.
"You're thinking about him aren't you?" he asked.
"Who?"
He didn't reply, he knew the answer was yes. He could see it when she looked at him, she was falling for him, hard. He could only hope she won't get hurt like she had been hurt in the past. Even with the he hadn't seen her this happy in nearly a year, before her close friend Tom had been killed in a car crash. He had been her first love and even though they were not together any more he had still been her closest friend and she had been crushed when he had died. He never wanted to that happen to her again; he hated the feeling of helplessness he had all to often when it came to these things.
Jack tended to a couple of the injured that morning in the infirmary he'd built the night before, when Hurley hurried over to him.
"Dude, their back," Hurley told him then led Jack to where a many other survivors had gathered in front of Sayid who was speaking.
"As you and the others know, we hiked up the mountain in an attempt to help the rescue team locate us. The transceiver failed to pick up a signal. We weren't able to send out a call for help," was what Sayid had decided they would tell the rest of the survivors instead of the fact they had picked up the 16 year old French recording. "But we're not giving up. If we gather electronic equipment - your cell phones, laptops - I can boost the signal and we can try again, but that may take some time. So for now, we should begin rationing our remaining food. If it rains, we should set up tarps to collect water. I need to organize 3 separate groups. Each group should have a leader."
Kate had spotted Jack in the crowd and had stopped listening to Sayid. She moved away from the group going unnoticed by everyone, except Sawyer and Jack. Jack followed her away from the rest moving to a place where they could talk and not be over heard.
Kate told him about that they had been unable to send a message because of the French woman's preexisting one about the others being killed.
"Anything else?" Jack asked her when she finished.
"We came across a polar bear," Kate said not for sure how else to put it that would keep him from overacting.
"Are you alright?" he asked immediately concerned that she may have been hurt.
"We're fine," she reassured him, "Sawyer killed it, but there may be more and people shouldn't go in there alone."
"With whatever it is knocking over trees I don't think we need to worry about people wondering off in to the jungle," Jack joked and Kate smiled at him.
Jack swallowed looking into the fuselage; he had to go in a see what medications he could find. He walked in to it electing to start at the front and move his way out again.
He knelt went through a couple bags, holding a flashlight with his teeth as he read the side of a prescription bottle. He looked up hearing movement he removed held the flashlight in his hand now and shined it around. He slowly stood up, seeing the movement and Sawyer popped out from between a few collapsed seats.
"Boo," he said with a smirk.
"What you doing?" Jack asked covering up the fact he was relieved that it was only Sawyer.
"Salvaging same as you," Sawyer told him.
"What's in the bag?"
"Oh, some booze and couple books," Sawyer said dismissively.
"Books?" Jack repeated questioningly.
"Oh don't sound so surprised Doc."
"Well, while your looting would mind helping me?" Jack asked expecting some sarcastic or smart-aleck remark.
"Sure," Sawyer said with a shrug, "what are you looking for?" he planned on using this time to find out what kind of person the good doctor was in hopes of protecting Kate.
"Aw, medicine," Jack said he hadn't expected him to agree at least not that easily.
Claire struggled to drag a suitcase but stopped when she heard a voice speaking to her and the sound of footsteps heading her way.
"Hey, I'll get that," said a voice with British accent.
"Thanks" Claire said as he grabbed the case and with some difficult do to its weight lifted it. He staggered over to a wheel chair and placed the bag in it. He wheeled it on as Claire walked beside him smiling.
"So how is the baby?" Charlie asked trying to make conversation.
"He's doing good," Claire said.
"Good," Charlie said, "so, uh was your husband on the plane?"
"No, I'm not married."
"Oh," Charlie said trying not to sound hopeful.
"I know how modern of me," Claire said.
"Well, who needs men, right? Bloody useless." Claire laughed and Charlie smiled, he liked her laugh.
With Sawyer's help Jack had quickly filled his bag with all the medication that they had found. Before they went their separate ways Jack hand Sawyer a couple books he had found.
Sawyer smirked as he looked at the covers then looked back at Jack, "thanks," he said then left.
Kate sat down next Walt, who was still holding on to Vincent's leash. Kate was wondering how to start a conversion but he did it for her.
"Do you have dog?" he asked, looking up at her with innocence in his eyes.
"Yeah, I do," she smiled at him have a very good idea of how he felt.
"What's its name?"
"Duke," she said thinking of her 4 year old golden retriever, who was staying with her parents while she was away.
"What kind of dog is he?" he looked up from the lead again.
"He's a golden retriever. What kind of dog is Vincent?"
"He's a lab," Walt smiled a little.
"You know labs are some the smartest dogs," Kate told him, Walt looked back at the leash and smiled softly. "I'm sure we'll find him."
Kate watched as the small fire Sawyer had made grew slowly, he was sitting next to her watching her as she was deep in thought; he finally spoke.
"Who you thinking about?" he asked her.
"Duke," she said simply, she then sighed and looked back him her eyes mist. "I miss him."
Sawyer slipped an arm around her and hugged her; he didn't know what to tell her so he held her. He wouldn't admit it but he missed the fur ball too, Duke had some how developed a habit of stealing Sawyer's shoes whenever he came over. Duke would hide them God knows where and wag his tail while Sawyer cursed and rant while he looked for them, when Sawyer finally gave up looking Duke would retrieve the shoes and put them back. He wouldn't chew them or tear them up just hide them.
After a while Sawyer loosen his grip and let go. They sat quiet for a while looking up at the stars. Kate blinked and looked over at him like she had remembered something.
"What?" he said with a smile.
"I just noticed that I haven't seen you smoke since before we got on the plane," she told him and he chuckled.
"I gave it up."
"Seriously?" she grinned at him.
"Yep," he said and Kate gave a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I'm proud of you," she told him smiling.
The next day was actually pretty normal. Vincent had been found and was back with Walt. Kate had found several different fruit trees while exploring different parts of the jungle and with Sawyer's help had carried a good amount back to the beach. That night though thing seemed to lose the little normality that day had.
Kate blinked slowly as she woke up to the sound of a dog barking; in her half-awake state she first thought it was Duke. But she then remembered that she was on an island and the dog was Vincent. Her eyes flew wide open and she sat up when she hear a growl, that was definitely not Vincent.
Sawyer was beside her, he stood and grabbed a large flashlight as she moved to stand behind Jack, who had a small pin light from the first aid kit. Slowly the three of them, followed by Sayid, Hurly, Charlie and a few others, move towards the fuselage. The sound of something rummaging in it could be heard.
"What is it?" Kate asked softly, voicing what everyone else was thinking.
"Someone is in there." Claire sounding a bit shocked that someone would go in there with the bodies, especially at night.
"Everyone in there is died," came Sayid's replied.
"Jack," Kate said as Jack moved towards it, she took a step to follow after him but Sawyer stepped in front of her. Sawyer moved behind Jack and Kate followed behind him
Jack moved closer holding up the flashlight, "Sawyer," said when he saw the southerner falling behind him.
"Right behind you Jackass."
Charlie looks back at the rest of the group, no one moves, he sees the fear on Claire's face as she watches her brother and he stood up and follows after them.
The four slowly crept towards the plane while the growls and sounds of rummaging continues on. Sawyer and Jack shine the flashlights in to the gaping hole in the back of the plan. They still don't see anything so they moved closer.
They stood only a foot or two in front of the plane now, and they could make out movement in the shadows. One of the beams of light reflected off a pair of eyes, and an even louder growl is heard plus the sound of something moving towards them.
"Run," Jack order and group flees, the other survivors that had stayed behind also ran. Charlie helps Claire move while Sayid helps Shannon and Boone, and Jin helps Sun. Jack pulls Kate to him as three things, which sounded similar to pigs, ran in to the jungle.
Kate realized she was still holding on to Jack's hand and quickly lets go, blushing. Thankfully for her no one can tell in the dark.
Many of them moved to look into the jungle after the animals.
Kate heard Sun ask Jin what was that in Korean, her question is then repeated by Charlie.
"What the bloody hell where they?"
"Boars," Locke told them.
Jack tended to a scrap on Charlie's arm as they plus Sayid, Kate and Sawyer spoke of what to do with the bodies.
"There are more than twenty bodies in there, it will be hard to bury them without shovels," Sayid observed.
"If we bury them the boars or some other animal will dig them up," Jack said as he finished with Charlie's wound.
"Then what are we supposed to do Jacko?"
"We'll have to burn them," Jack said not happy with the idea of doing that.
"Burning the remains, they deserve better than that," Sayid said though he knew it was the only way.
"Better than what? Being eaten by wild animals? Any bodies we bury are not going to stay buried for very long. Look, I know this seems harsh, but it's the only choose we have."
No one said anything for a while after that.
"Look, I'm not happy about it either, but we crashed a thousand miles off course. "They're looking for us in the wrong place. It's been 4 days, no one's come. Tomorrow morning we need everyone to start gathering up wood, dried brush, and turn that fuselage into a furnace. Wait until the sun goes down tomorrow night before we start the fire." Jack then hot up and left.
"Why does he want to light the fire as sun goes down?" Charlie asked.
"He hopes someone will see it," Kate said before she got up to go back to bed.
Kate walks up to Sayid the next morning, he is working with the electronics that the other survivors had supplies him.
"Goes I wasn't the only one who didn't go back to sleep," she commented.
"Had better things to do then collect firewood."
"You're trying to pick up the transmission again, aren't you? The one we heard on the transceiver."
"If the French woman's transmission has truly been playing on a loop for 16 years then there has to be a power source on the Island. A significant one."
"Can you find it?" she asked hopefully.
"Hypothetically, yes. I'm making an antenna of sorts. With a few of these mounted at different points on the Island I may be able to use the transceiver to triangulate the signal, find out where it's coming from."
"And by finding where the transition is coming from you will be able to find the power source."
"Yes, mind you this is all hypothetical."
"What can I do to help," Kate asked, he smiled at her and gave her a few instruction on how to help.
Sayid swore under his breath in Arabic when he cut the side of his hand on a sharp bit of metal.
"Language much," Kate smirked at him; Sayid stared at her for a moment. Kate had spoken in Arabic not English.
"You speak Arabic as while," he said in mentioned language, he alluded to the fact she had interpreted the French transmission.
"Among other languages, yes."
"Would Korean be one of them," he asked, he had seen her and Sun talking but hadn't been close enough to hear so either she spoke Korean or Sun spoke English and hadn't told anyone.
"It would," Kate said and had a pretty good idea why he had asked. She knew that Sun could speak English, but they had always spoke in Korean, it was more important to Kate that Sun's speaking English was kept secret rather than her speaking Korean. Also if Jin ever found out Sun spoke to her it would be less of a problem for Sun if it seemed that Kate had started the conversation.
The two worked a while longer before Sayid spoke again; he asked her if she knew a Sergeant Austen in the US Army. It was Kate's turn to stare at him, she explained that he was her father and Sayid said that he had meet him many years ago during the war, and that it was thanks to her father that he had immigrated to the states after his girlfriend had been killed.
"Hey Freckles, where did you get to?" Sawyer called for her.
"Was wondering how long your cousin would let you out of his sight."
"Guess Locke is ready to go hunting," she stood up.
"Take this," Sayid said handing her one of the antennas they had finished, "try to put it someplace high."
She nodded and left.
Jack walked over to her a she place a knife in a sheath at her waist.
"So you're going boar hunting huh?" he said.
"It's not the first time I ever went hunting," Kate told him, he didn't know why but he could believe that.
"Tell me something, how come every time there's a hike into the heart of darkness you sign up? You know what's in there," he couldn't stop himself from saying.
"No, I don't actually, neither do you Jack," she replied moving to her backpack.
"That doesn't help the matter," he said fallowing her.
"If I didn't know any better I would say you that worried me," she flirted, 'I can't believe that I just said that.'
"If I didn't know better so would I," Jack said then quickly looked for a way to cover up what he had just let slip. "Care to tell me the other reason you're going?"
Kate bit her lower lip for a second then unzipped her bag and showed him the homemade antenna, "Sayid asked me put his out somewhere so he can use it triangulate the distress signal we heard, find the source."
"So this isn't about boars," Jack said, Kate was about to speak when Sawyer called for her. She turned to leave.
"Be safe," Jack called after her, she looked back at him and smiled warmly.
"Yeah, you too," she left.
She meet the other three that were going on the hunt and they soon left. About 20 minutes in Locke, who was in the led, stopped and knelt down. Kate saw what he did and also knelt down.
"The ground here has been rooted up. That's how boars get the majority of their food, they dig. Afterwards they generally wallow in the dirt, rub up against the trees, scoring them with their tusks," he told them as he dug a the ground a little with his knife.
"Okay. So what does all that mean?" Michael.
"it means that we getting close," Locke stood and kept moving.
"How's your son doing with will this?" Kate asked Michael after about 10 more minutes of tracking.
"A hell of a lot better than I am."
"You must be proud, he's a brave kid."
"Yeah. I can't take credit for that. I wasn't part of his life. Till his mother passed away, two weeks ago."
"I'm sorry," Kate said she didn't know what else to say to him.
"That's okay. They were living in Sydney the past couple of years. I flew out last week, you know, to go get him." Michael had been about to ask Kate why she had been in Australia when soft shuffling sound could be heard ahead of them.
Locke held out an arm and they stopped. Locke slowly and cautiously moves toward a tree half hidden in the tall grass, the other three following behind him. With his knife he points out some gouging on the trunk he looked to them for conformation that they understood. He points ahead of them and moves in that direction, Kate behind him, Sawyer on her heels and Michael close to 3 feet behind them.
Kate unsheathed her knife as Locke signals to her and Sawyer to move around in the bushes. Sawyer nods and got ready to move as Locke motions for Michael to go around the other side.
"Quit giving us the steal signal," Michael says a little too loudly.
Kate's gaze snaps to look in the direction of where the boars were, there's the loud sound of mother charging at them. Sawyer grabs Kate as the boar comes out of the grass running at her; he lifted her off the ground and spins her around so that he is between her the razorback. They along with Locke get knock to the ground as it brush past them heading for Michael.
Kate places a hand to her right temple to feel blood from a graze met her fingers. She sits up hearing a groan, she looks to her right seeing Sawyer, he got the wind knocked out of him but is fine she looks to her left to see Locke lying on his back looking up at the sky. She smiles inwardly seeing that he is still holding his knife; she quickly finds hers and sheaths it. Then hears the groan again, she moves past Sawyer to Michael.
She finds him lying on his back like the others but unlike them he was injured. Kate brushes some of the leaves away from his leg wound and he moans loudly.
Sawyer was beside her now, "that doesn't look too good."
"John," Kate called to Locke who hadn't moved, "Locke you okay?"
"Fine, Helen," he said sitting up as Kate tore one Michael's sleeves and tied around his wound to slow the bleeding.
"Helen?" Sawyer said confused.
"What?" Locke asked blinking like he had just come out of a trance.
"You called her Helen."
"Which way did the boar go?" Locke as he got to his feet.
"Michael is hurt we have to get him to Jack," Kate said as Locke looked around.
"You two do that," he started walking off, "I'm going to get that boar."
"You're crazy," Sawyer said, Kate moved to go after him but Sawyer stopped her. "Leave him, we have to take him," he motioning to the groaning Michael, "back to camp." Sawyer put on Michael's arm around his neck while Kate did the same with the other and on the count of three and pulled him and slowly started to head back.
"You know you have nice way about you. A good soul, kind, patient," Rose patted Jack's arm before accepting the water bottle he had brought for her. "Lot like your girlfriend's soul really, she someone else who would sit with me."
"Claire, she's not my girlfriend," Jack said figuring that who she was referring to.
"She's your sister, I know," she said turning from looking out at the ocean to look at him. "I'm taking about the other girl, ok so maybe she's not girlfriend, yet anyway. But I can see there is something between you and her, Kate."
"I've only known her four days though," Jack said, not denying that he felt something for her since he couldn't.
"You don't need four days to know if a person is your partner in life, you don't really even need four minutes, Bernard and I didn't," she said looking back at the ocean smiling.
"Stop for second," Kate said, she knew she had promised Sayid to get the antenna in place before she went back.
"I think the guy with the gimpy leg should really be the one to decide when to stop," Michael said breathing heavy as Kate and Sawyer sat him down.
"Shut up," Sawyer told him, "what's going on Freckles?"
"I'm going to climb this tree and install an antenna to boost the transceiver signal."
"You are going to climb that tree," Michael said point to the tree in question.
"I've climbed worse before," she said then quickly began to climb. It didn't take her long to reach the top and only about a minute to secure the device.
A growl could be heard in the distance, she caught sight of trees in the not too far distance falling.
"Locke," she breathed as Sawyer yelled for her to get down.
She skidded down the tree not noticing she also skinned up her arms, "get him back to camp," she told Sawyer before hurrying off.
"Wait Freckles," Sawyer yelled after her but she kept going, "damn it." He pulled Michael to his feet and ran with him back to the camp. 'Sooner I get him there, sooner I catch up.'
"Dude what happened," Hurley said when he saw Sawyer practically carrying Michael in a dead run back.
"Get him to the doc," Sawyer said before running after Kate.
It hadn't taken Kate long to find Locke as he moved towards a thicket following the sound of boars. She slowly from a sprint to jog when she reached him but before she could tell him they had run the trees not 10 yards in front of them swayed and boar ran out, a growl erupted from the trees as the beast emerged.
It grabbed the boar and bit it in two; it swallowed the first after crunching the bones with great ease then tore into the second part, which was larger. Locke and Kate backed in to the tall grass behind them which reached over their heads hiding them.
A second boar fled the bushes; unfortunately for it the beast had seen it. It pinned it with one huge foot, it claws almost like finger, before tear off its head. Kate and Locke could do only two things. Watch in horror as it tore into the boars, blood dripping from its snot and fangs, which were easily as long as Locke's knife, if not longer, and looked far more deadly. The other thing was pray; pray it didn't find them and pray that it wouldn't be hungry enough to go after them.
Once finished it gave satisfied growled, then it looked at them with its evil red eyes. It gave another growl that seemed to almost be a laugh before it turned and disappeared in the trees. Leavening the two human to terrified to even start to wonder how something as big as it could disappear like that or what it even was or how it came to be.
so we have met the beast, remember I warned you I would change other things too, it is here in place of the whole Man in Black and Jacob story
hope you like the change