It took a few seconds for Miles to regain his bearings enough to sit up and look around. A few yards ahead of him, the redhead was standing with her back to him. "Charlotte?" he called out. Getting no response he stood up and slowly walked to her, reaching out a trembling hand to touch her.
The instant his fingers made contact with her arm, she turned her head and smiled at him and then began walking away.
"Wait, Charlotte..." He started after her but then stopped. Charlotte is dead. She died when we were moving through time. But..when in time were we when she died? Is it possible...?
"I think this branch will be good."
The sound of Hurley's voice drifted through the jungle and Miles felt a wave of relief come over him. "Jim, Hugo, where are you guys?"
"Over here," Sawyer called. "You out here by yourself?"
"Yeah." Miles walked in their direction and met up with them quickly. "Hey, you guys seen anybody else out here?"
"Who else would be out here?" Hurley asked. "I mean, I guess Rose and Bernard could be but I haven't seen them this far from their cabin."
Sawyer tilted his head to look Miles over. "Something happen?"
For just a second, Miles considered telling them what had happened but just as quickly decided against it. "Nah, it was just...you know how sound travels out here. So did you find Ben or lose Richard?"
Hurley chuckled. "We found Ben and Richard stayed with him. He has a broken leg so we're looking for branches that can be used to splint it."
"Where's Kate and Frank?"
"I told them to head back to the church because I...I just had a bad feeling. Obviously I was wrong about it but better safe than sorry, right?"
"Oh no..." Hurley said. He dropped the branch he had been carrying and began walking quickly in the direction of the foot. "We gotta find them before they get too deep!" he yelled without pausing or looking back.
"Too deep in what?" Sawyer asked. He, too, abandoned his task and took off after Hurley.
"So much for you can leave at anytime." Miles shook his head and decided that he should go after Sawyer and Hurley; he really wasn't too keen on spending any time alone in the jungle.
"You still haven't answered my question, Ben. What happened before you fell down here?"
Ben tried to sit up and then groaned. "I can feel my leg again. That's a good sign, right?"
"Yes, it's a good sign. Now tell me what happened?"
This time there was a heavy sigh. "I came out here to check the traps, got disoriented and walked in the wrong direction."
"I don't believe that for a second. You could roam this island in pitch darkness while blindfolded." Richard wished there was enough light to see Ben's face and gauge his reaction. "What spooked you enough that you ran into your own trap?"
"I...I didn't want to be there when Hugo returned, just in case he did manage to convince anyone to come back. I didn't want to face them. So instead I came out into the jungle figuring that if I returned with a boar then the task of cooking and cleaning it would give me something to do so everyone would leave me alone." There was a pause as Ben took a deep breath. "I saw Alex."
"Ben, Alex is dead. I buried her myself. It was just your mind-"
"I know what I saw and it was not the product of my imagination. She was standing with her back to me and then she turned around and looked at me, and she smiled and took a step towards me and I...I started running away from her and then I was down here." He wiped at his eyes before continuing. "You and I both know that dead is dead but..."
"Once we get you out of here, you need to tell Hurley."
"It isn't the first time I've seen her since she died. When I went to be judged, I...I saw her. I know now that it was the monster pretending to be her but...it hurt so much when she said that it was all my fault because I knew that she was right."
He heard Ben crying and wished he knew what to say while waiting for Ben to collect himself.
"Thank you for burying her. I didn't think you would just leave her there but not knowing for certain was hell."
"Maybe we can plant some flowers or...I don't know, make a marker of some kind."
"That would mean a lot to me." He looked up at the opening of the pit and frowned. "How long do you think it will take them?"
"I don't know. I would think there are plenty of branches around but they may have gone to get something to cut them with."
"That's true. So tell me, what have you been up to since you escaped?"
"Hmm? Oh, just...adjusting. Taking care of things with Mittelos and trying to help get everyone settled into their new lives."
"Things went smoothly?"
"Yeah, for the most part, at least until I got the bright idea to come to Los Angeles and talk to Eloise."
"What happened?"
"Eloise said that Sun's father, Mr. Paik, is after us because he thinks we can lead him to his daughter."
"He didn't manage to hurt anyone, did he?"
"No, Eloise got us to the church and then Hugo got us here."
"What did you mean about finding them before they got too deep?" Sawyer asked when he caught up to Hurley.
"I assume they'll have gone back down to the tunnel trying to find the door."
"Yeah, so?"
Hurley stopped and grabbed Sawyer's arm, forcing the other man to stop and look at him. "It's hard to explain, but there are multiple doors off the island. Some are two-way, like the one at the Lamp Post, and some are one-way, like the one Desmond came out in the monastery. The thing is, since I'm the guardian I can control the doorways on the island but if Kate and Frank manage to find it and they open that door, there's no telling where or even when they'll end up."
"You mean they could go through time?"
"That's sort of what the lighthouse was for before Jack broke the mirrors. It's how Jacob was able to visit everyone at different times in their lives."
"Why didn't you say something about that sooner?"
"Look, I didn't know Frank and Kate were going to try leaving all right? Let's just get back to there. Most likely they won't find the door at all. The island's good at hiding things."
"I hope you're right."
"So what are we going to do if they're gone?" Miles finally asked, having hung back while Sawyer and Hurley talked.
Hurley looked down at the ground. "I don't know."
"Can you see anything that looks like a door?" Frank asked. He was searching one side of the tunnel while Kate searched the other. Both of them were running there hands along the stone, hoping to feel the door in case their eyes missed it.
"No, nothing but solid rock."
"There's a fork up ahead but I don't remember us turning, do you?"
"No, I thought we went in a straight line from the door to the foot. I don't understand how we can't find the door now."
"Maybe we should go back up and wait for everybody to get back."
"Or we could split up, you go right and I'll go left at the fork, and see what we find."
"We only have the one torch and I don't know about you, but I can't see so well in the dark. Besides, I don't think splitting up is such a good idea. It certainly never worked out well before on this island."
Kate sighed. "You're right. We should stick together. Let's head back since there's nothing we can do down here."
Footsteps echoed and both of them turned back to where the tunnel forked. "Hello?" Frank asked. "Somebody down here?" The footsteps came closer and he pushed Kate behind him. "You stay back there," he told her.
"Kate," a familiar voice called. "Kate, is that you?"
"Jack?" Kate pushed Frank out of her way "Jack!" She made her way to where the tunnels forked and looked in both directions but she couldn't see anything. "JACK!"
Frank came after her and put his hand on her back. "Kate, you heard what Hurley said. Jack is gone, and whatever is down here...it ain't him. Now come on, let's get out of here and just wait for the others."
Kate took one last long look at the tunnel before nodding her head in agreement. "Yeah, I know. I just..."
"We'll talk to Hurley, find out what's going on."
"And what makes you so sure Hurley knows?" Kate asked before passing Frank to head back to the statue.
"They're not coming back are they?"
Richard looked up towards the opening and shook his head though Ben couldn't possibly see the gesture. "No, it's dark up there so I don't think they're coming back tonight."
"Well this is a fine way to welcome you home, although I suppose you'd be nervous if something bad wasn't happening here."
He chuckled at that though he knew that Ben was right; he always expected that something bad would happen and the island had rarely disappointed him. "So what do you want to do until they come back?"
"Our options are rather limited, in case you hadn't noticed." The statement was followed by a sigh. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap. Why don't you tell me about your life off the island? Hurley mentioned that you had bought a house."
"It's just an old farm house that I've been fixing up. You should come visit some time. If you can."
"I think I would like that very much. Thank you." There was a pause and a light rustling sound as Ben moved a bit. "I'd like nothing more than to leave this island the instant we get out of this hole."
"I thought you loved this island and never wanted to leave it?"
"That was before...before everything. And now I'm seeing Alex again and..." Ben gave a bitter laugh. "I may have loved this island but I'm beginning to see that the island does not care at all for me so why should I stay here?"
"What about Hugo?"
"Hugo would be all right for a while, especially if some of his friends are here. I wouldn't just take off and leave him here alone; that's why I stayed here and let him meet you all."
"Has something else happened?"
"Let's just say Hugo's gift of communicating with the dead didn't disappear when he took over as the island's protector."
"So he's seen more ghosts?"
"Yes, he has, and some of them were not too friendly."
"Is that the real reason why he needed us to come back here?"
"What reason did he give you?"
"That Paik Industries is after the island as an energy source."
"That is true enough."
"But?"
"Hugo is a people person and I'm a control freak. Clearly being on this island is not the ideal situation for either of us."
"I guess that makes sense, but I know how much you love this island. Kate said you were willing to die with the island rather than getting off with the rest of us."
"That was before I realized that the island had it in for me."
"I don't think the island has it in for you."
"Then how do you explain this, Richard?"
"You got spooked and walked over the trap. The island didn't do this to you; your trap worked the way it was supposed to."
"And why did I see Alex if not because the island is taunting me?" Ben's voice sounded strained and Richard was sure he was fighting hard not to cry at the thought of his dead daughter being used, once again, to hurt him.
"Maybe it wasn't the island that did it."
"Maybe it was a hallucination? That's not exactly better."
"I'm just saying that maybe your mind was showing you the one person you would give anything to see again."
There was silence for a while, then a soft "You're right about that."
Richard leaned back against the wall of dirt and looked once more to the top though he could see nothing but the darkness from the thick jungle canopy. He had a feeling it was going to be a very long night.
"Kate? Frank? Uh, guys?"
"I'm going down there after them," Sawyer said, rushing forward until Hurley grabbed his arm.
"Dude, we'll all go down there, all right?"
He looked away for a moment, then looked Hurley in the eye. "Fine, we all go down there together."
"Come on, let's go find them." Hurley led the way down to where they believed Kate and Frank had gone but Miles hung back.
"Listen, it doesn't take three of us to go down there and...well what about Ben and Richard?"
"It's too dark now to get back to them anyway," Sawyer said. "They should be fine where they are and in the morning we'll head back."
"I don't know, Ben's been acting kind of...strange. Maybe someone should go back there."
"Great, I'll grab a torch and go back and see you guys tomorrow."
"What's the rush? They ain't going nowhere."
"I can't explain it but I just...I need to get back there. I'll see you guys in the morning. Go find Kate and Frank." Without waiting for a response, Miles took off after grabbing a torch and lighting it.
"Damnit Hugo, now he's gonna be lost in the jungle too."
"No he's not. You need to chill and help me find Kate and Frank."
Sawyer shook his head, looking confused as Hurley grabbed a torch and headed into the tunnel.
A familiar sound that could best be described as a howling caught Richard's ear and he held his breath. It repeated, followed by what sounded like metal chains being drug. "Ben, you awake?"
"Of course I'm awake. You heard it too, didn't you?"
"Yes. What is it?"
"What do you think it is?"
"This isn't the time to play games, Ben!"
"Who says I'm playing? I just asked you what you think it is because I have no idea what it is. The monster is dead, I saw that myself."
They heard the howling sound again, closer. "What if you were wrong?"
"Kate shot him and Jack kicked him off a cliff. He was dead."
"The first time I met him, he told me that he had a body once but that Jacob stole it, and he looked nothing like Locke. The body may have died but it sounds like the monster is very much alive."
"Then let's hope it can't go down holes."
Miles heard the sound in the distance and momentarily considered returning to the foot. Shaking his head, he continued on. After everything Richard did to help us get off the island, I owe him.
He tried to follow the path that they had taken to get from the hole to the foot and soon he saw what appeared to be a large hole in the ground. "Richard? You down there?"
"Miles?" Richard looked up at the opening and saw only the glow from the torch.
"Yeah, it's me." Miles reached the edge of the pit and knelt down. "How are things down there?"
"Just peachy. How are things up there?" Ben called.
"Asshole," he said under his breath. "Hurley and Sawyer said they'll be here in the morning to get you out," he yelled down. Then he thought of something and felt bad that he hadn't thought of it sooner. "I have a canteen of water; let me toss it down to you. I'm sure both of you are thirsty."
"That would be much appreciated," Richard yelled back.
"I'll drop it close to the wall so hopefully it won't hit either of you in the head."
"I'm sure I can guess who's head he'd prefer to bounce that canteen off of," Ben grumbled.
"No one is bouncing canteens off of anyone's head, all right?" Richard heard a thud and felt his way over to the other wall where he found the canteen.
"I'd offer to drop the torch down there but I'm fairly certain that would end badly."
At that Richard smiled. "I'm pretty sure it would too."
"I'm going to stay up here so nothing else falls down in that hole."
"Thank you Miles," Ben said. "I know you probably came back out of concern for Richard but nevertheless, I do appreciate it."
The howling and metallic ticking sounded so close that Miles seriously considered jumping into the hole with Ben and Richard. "Ok, what the hell is that? I thought the monster was dead?"
"We don't know what it is. Can you see anything?" Richard asked.
"No, it's too dark to see anything." Miles stood up and looked all around but couldn't see a thing beyond the glow of his torch. He could hear what he thought was something large rustling through the trees though. The rustling was moving away and soon the jungle was quiet again. "I guess it's gone."
"Hugo and I haven't seen any sign of the monster before today so I honestly don't know if that is the monster or not."
"You two just get some rest," Miles yelled down. Then, to himself he added, "Because I know I won't be."
"Hey, isn't this the door we've been looking for?" Kate asked, causing Frank to turn around and come closer with the torch.
"It must be. How the hell did we miss this before?"
"I don't know." Kate's hand reached for the doorknob and she turned it, opening the door to reveal a glowing white light too bright to see beyond..