"We need to eat," Sayid says, stopping us.
"Are we still on course?" Locke asks.
Sayid pulls out a compass. "We're still heading north on a bearing of three-oh-five. Yes."
"I'm sensing a lack of confidence."
"We've been walking for two days, following a compass bearing provided by the carvings on a stick!"
"And?" Locke counters.
"You really think we're just going to chance upon where the Others are?"
"I don't know what we're going to chance upon, Sayid, but my bearing is the only bearing we got."
"I'm going to find some fruit, and then, John, we'll have a rational conversation regarding our next move."
We sit down. "Can someone explain the bearings thing again?" Kate asks.
"When we buried Eko," I explain. "Locke went back into the jungle to get his Jesus Stick. The one he carried around with him everywhere that had all that Bible scripture on it. So Locke was pounding the stick into the ground as a grave marker when the sun magically shined through the trees, highlighting one of the verses. 'Lift up your eyes and look North' John 3:05. Now Locke believes that the scripture was meant for him.
"It was meant for me," Locke says. "And it's leading us to the right place."
"Lower your voices," Sayid says, coming out of the tall brush.
"Where's the fruit?" I ask him.
"Never mind the fruit. There is a house back there," he says, pointing with his thumb.
"What do you mean 'a house'?" Rousseau asks.
"A somewhat large blue building with a man living inside. There is a cow and a few other animals, but he was the only man I saw."
"What did he look like?" Locke asks.
"Like the man we saw in the Pearl station."
"The guy with the eye patch?" I ask.
Sayid nods his head.
"What are you talking about?" Kate asks.
"Never mind," Sayid says. "We need to scout out the perimeter. Follow me."
Sayid crouches in the brush and leads the rest of us through. He hold up his hand to stop us, and just like he said, a blue house with farm animals surrounding it, including a cow and a saddled horse. I even spot a fluffy domesticated cat with a bell around its neck sitting on the fence.
"I'm going to circle the perimeter. Wait for me here," Sayid instructs, pulling his rifle off his back.
He returns a few minutes later. "You sure it's completely isolated?" Locke asks.
"I've circled the house. Nothing but jungles surrounding it. Here," Sayid says, handing binoculars to Locke.
"Does that dish still work?" Locke asks, pointing the binoculars over to the side of the blue house where a large satellite dish sits there.
"A satellite dish of that size would have broadcasting capabilities for thousands of miles. Danielle, you once mentioned a radio tower. Is this it?"
"I have never been here before," she answers.
"The man in the house," Kate says. "You said you've seen him before?"
"On a video feed from the Pearl Station," I answer.
"So who is he?"
"Only one way to find out," Sayid says, removing his gun and handing it to me. "We ask him."
"What's this for?" I ask.
"If I'm unarmed, he won't feel threatened. In case he is threatened, you cover me from here."
Behind me I feel Rousseau stand. "Hey, where are you going?" Kate asks her.
"I have no interest in that man inside the house. I have survived on the island precisely by avoiding these types of encounters. I'll wait for you by the stream, for those of you who survive."
Sayid stands and starts walking toward the house with his hands raised. He makes it about halfway when something catches his eye. His face jerks to the side.
BOOM! A gunshot fires from the house and Sayid's body contracts from the gunshot, hitting him in the arm.
Kate tries to stand, but Locke and I pull her back down. "No, he's been hit. He's been hit," she protests.
"Not yet," Locke counters. "Do you want to get shot too?"
"I didn't cross the line!" I hear an accented voice call from the house. I look through the brush and see Patchy, holding a gun. "We had a truce! This is my land! You said I could stay here!"
"I'm not who you think I am!" Sayid calls from the ground. "My name is Sayid Jarrah! I was on a plane that crashed here months ago!"
"A plane?"
"I'm unarmed, I swear!"
Patchy lowers his gun. "Stay right there!" he calls, leaving the window.
We brake our cover and I run for Sayid, crouching down beside him and helping his sit up. The bullet hit him in the left bicep. If I had the tools, this would be so easy to fix. Non-fatal gunshot wounds are my specialty.
The door to the house opens and Patchy is there, holding his rifle pointed right at me. Locke and Kate fire a few shots a piece and Patch backs off.
"Drop the rifle!" Locke shouts and Patchy follows his orders. "Stop, right now. Back up. Back up." Locke picks up his gun.
"Are you all right?" I ask Sayid. He nods, frantically and I manage to get him on his feet. Kate keeps Patchy covered with her gun.
"You really did crash here?" Patchy asks us.
"Over forty of us, yes," Sayid gasps.
"I'll go in first. Make sure it's ok," Locke says, going into the house.
"Who are you?" Kate asks Patchy.
"My name is Mikhail Bakunin and I am the last remaining member of the DHARMA Initiative."
Sayid puts his arm around me and I help him inside. Mikhail opens the door for us. Kate lowers her gun. "Please, sit," Mikhail instructs, leading us towards a long couch in the center of the room. I drop Sayid down and his eyes bug out with pain.
I take off Sayid's rifle and start to check out the wound, but Mikhail stops me. "Here, let me." He starts inspecting the wound.
"You have experience treating gunshot wounds?" I ask.
"I spent some time in Afghanistan. I had experience with field medicine in the Soviet Army."
"Small world," I mutter.
Mikhail looks at me with his single eye. "You were not in the Soviet Army."
"No, I was in the American one. In Afghanistan. Different war, though."
"She was also a field medic, so maybe you could—," Kate starts, but I cut her off.
"No I wasn't. I was a helicopter paramedic."
Mikhail nods his head towards me. "It is a pleasure to meet another veteran. If you could, in the kitchen, on the top shelf there is a medical kit. Will you bring it please?"
I look at Sayid skeptically.
"It's alright, Tia," he says.
I move to the kitchen and spot a pantry. I find the kit quickly and bring it back. I don't see Locke anywhere. I wonder where he's gone off to.
"How did you get here?" Sayid asks, when I sit back down.
"I almost don't know where to begin," Mikhail says.
"Why don't you begin with the DHARMA Initiative?"
"I grew up in Kiev and joined the Soviet Army. I was stationed at a listening post at Vladivostok. After the Cold War, after we lost the Cold War, my unit was decommissioned. I was dismissed from my life in the military. And after years of conducting unpleasant actions against our enemies, I found myself wanting to do something good. So I replied to a newspaper advertisement."
Mikhail placed a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose and stared sterilizing the equipment in the medical kit during this story.
"An advertisement?" Sayid asks.
"'Would you like to save the world?' it read. That's how I met them, the Initiative. They're very secretive, very rich, very smart."
"So, when did you come to the island?"
"Eleven years now. I like computers, communications equipment, being alone like a lighthouse keeper. So they put me in this station. They called it The Flame."
"What is the purpose of The Flame?"
"To communicate with the outside world, of course," Mikhail says.
"What happened to the DHARMA Initiative?"
"They're all dead, of course. They foolishly initiated a war against the Hostiles. The Purge they called it."
"How did you survive this purge?"
"By not participating in it. I told you, I like being alone."
"And the Hostiles allowed you to stay here?"
"After it was over, four men appeared in the yard. They offered a truce. They said to imagine a line that extended all the way across the valley. As long as I did not cross it, I would be left alone. Then they took two cows and I never saw them again."
"They weren't interested in the satellite dish in the yard?" Kate asks.
"Why would they be? It hasn't functioned for years."
"Who are they, these hostiles?" Sayid asks.
"I do not know. But they were here a long time before we were. A very long time."
Mikhail has prepared all of his tools. He grabs the small clamps that resemble a fancy pair of tweezers. He digs it into Sayid's arm with no warning other than a glance. Sayid screams in pain as Mikhail removes the bullet and drops it into a bowl.
Sayid's head falls into my bad shoulder and I do my best to grit through the sudden pain. Mikhail is now holding a needle and surgical thread, waiting to close the bullet hole. I sit Sayid back up to let Mikhail continue. As he sews he mutters something in Russian to the gray cat with the bell, who's now perched on the window. "What did you just say?" Sayid asks him.
"I told Nadia to be polite because you are my guests."
"Nadia?"
"Mm-hm. After Nadia Comaneci, the greatest athlete the world has ever known," He nods to a picture of a gymnast on a balance beam. "We have the same birthday." He ties a knot in the surgical thread. "Excellent work if I say so myself," he praised, putting the tools back in the kit.
"Thank you, Mikhail," Sayid says, landing back on my shoulder, more gently this time.
Mikhail stands. "Perhaps I can begin to earn your forgiveness by offering you some iced tea. I will also check on your friend."
He leaves with the kit and heads into the kitchen. I notice he's left a roll of bandages on the coffee table. I sit Sayid back up and grab it, beginning to wrap it around Sayid's fresh bullet wound, which has started to bleed again. Kate sits in the armchair closest to us. I notice her confused face. "What's wrong?" I ask her.
"It just doesn't make any sense. Why would they let him stay here with all this stuff, all this equipment?"
"Yeah, you're right. I was wondering the same thing."
"Actually, it makes perfect sense," Sayid counters.
"What are you talking about?" Kate asks.
"The reason they let him stay here is because he is not DHARMA. He is one of them."
"He shot you and you just let him—,"
I cut her off. "Why are we still sitting here?" I ask him.
"We are sitting here because I am certain he is not alone."
He does not have time to explain because Mikhail has returned with four large glasses of tea, placed on a serving tray. He sets it down on the coffee table and begins to pass it out. "I grow the tea myself. So pardon the sweetness."
"Any tea is good tea," Sayid smiles, accepting the glass.
"Do you know how long it's been since we've seen ice?" Kate says.
Mikhail smiles as he hands me my glass. I don't take a drink.
"I noticed a series of thick wires as I walked around the station," Sayid continues.
"This is the hub. But they go around to various stations on the Island."
"And these cables, do any of them run into the ocean?"
"Yes. There is an underwater beacon that emits solar pings to help guide in the vessels."
"By vessels, you mean submarines."
"Yes. The Initiative used it to bring us to the island. But I can only imagine that the Hostiles have either destroyed it or commandeered it by now."
"That explains how they are able to get around our position and capture our sailboat, Tia."
"You have a sailboat?" Mikhail asks, his eye jumping between Sayid and I.
"Until we lost it to your Hostiles," I say.
"That's very unfortunate."
"Well," Sayid says, leaning forward and placing his glass on the table. "At least we were able to kill one of them." He's right. Sun told me about her struggle for her life when she was stuck on the boat. She ended up shooting a woman in the stomach.
Mikhail looks up at us and grins maliciously. "Why are we continuing to play this little game when we all know it has moved to the next stage?"
He grabs the pitcher of tea and throws it against the wall, startling Kate. Sayid makes to attack him, but Mikhail kicks Sayid in the stomach, flattening him against the wall behind us. I stand and Mikhail slaps me across the face and I fall to the ground.
I haven't been hit by a man in two years. The old sting against my cheek sends a rage though me that I cannot describe. I hear him slap Kate and she falls next to me, her eyes closed. Mikhail has Sayid in a fist fight. I grab the rifle off the couch as Sayid gets the upper hand and kicks Mikhail onto the floor in front of me. I point the rifle at his head and kick him in the face. My father's features replace those of Mikhail's for a second, giving him two blue eyes instead of a single brown one. Then, in an instant it's gone.
Kate gets up off the ground, holding her rifle on Mikhail with me. Locke comes out of a room, from God knows where, his pistol pointing forward. "Get some rope," Sayid tells him, clutching his fresh bullet wound, sending Locke back into the room he came from.
Mikhail looks up at me with his beady eye, blood streaming from his nose. I can't help it. I take the butt of my rifle and his him in the head, knocking him out. Locke returns with the rope and he and Sayid tie up Mikhail's wrists and ankles. "How do you know he's not alone?" Kate asks Sayid.
"The horse is still saddled outside, and the stirrups are set for someone much shorter than this man."
"You think the Others sent someone out here to keep him company?" Locke asks.
"I think they sent someone out here because they lost communication."
"Maybe when the sky turned purple."
"That would be my guess.
"Well, if they sent somebody out here, they're hiding pretty good. I checked every nook and cranny of this place."
Sayid grabs the edge of the rug Mikhail is lying beside and flips it away, revealing a trap door. "Not every nook and cranny, John."
We move the rug away completely and Sayid opens the door. A small amount of light shines from below. "Tia, you stay up here with John," Sayid instructs.
"No, I'll be fine," Locke protests. "She should go with you two."
"Very well," he says taking his rifle back from me. "Here we go."
We head down the trap door, my glock in my hand. The light I saw is coming from a small lantern hanging on a peg. Kate takes it from its perch and uses it as a light. She shines it up on a small rectangle pinned to the top of the wall. I recognize the small brown package. "What is it?" She asks.
"C4 explosives." I answer.
Sayid's eyes dart around the walls. "The entire place is wired," he says, pointing out the wires from the small brown explosive leading to other C4s around the basement.
"Why?" Kate asks.
"I don't know."
He grabs a flashlight from the small table next to him and tries it out. It turns on and adds more light to the room. I follow him to a door and Kate moves in a different direction. Sayid kicks open the door and we enter a small room. There is a large set of shelves holding thick binders with the DHARMA logo on them. Sayid grabs one off the shelf. DHARMA Initiative Food Drop Protocol is printed on the cover. He replaces the binder and grabs another. DHARMA Initiative Operations Manuel printed on this one. He opens it and flips through it. I grab another binder off the shelf. DHARMA Initiative Communications Directory. DHARMA Initiative Medical Protocol. The amount of binders is endless.
I hear a pang in the main room of the basement. I shove the binder back onto the shelf and pull my gun up walking out of the room. Kate and a slim figure are scuffling on the floor. The figure grabs Kate's gun and starts to stand. "Don't even think about it," I tell the figure, cocking my gun so they'll hear it. "Put the gun on the ground."
I move to the side and get a better look at our new foe. It's a woman, black with a long face and wide eyes. She crouches to the ground setting the gun back down. Kate stands and looks at the woman. Her eyes widen and Kate punches her in the face. The woman falls to the ground. "What are you doing?" I ask her.
"She was there! She was at the dock! She was there when we got kidnapped! She knows where Jack is!"
Sayid comes out of the binder room finally. "What's going on?"
"We found Mikhail's friend," I say.
Sayid holds the tip of his rifle up to her neck. "Are there any more of you here?" She doesn't answer. "Let's take her upstairs," he says, grabbing her hands. "John, we're coming up!" he calls up the stairs. We walk up and the woman moves her hands to her head, keeping them there. When we reach the ground floor Locke and Mikhail are gone. "John?" Sayid calls.
"Out here!" we hear him call from outside. Sayid keeps his gun on the woman and we walk outside, my gun raised again.
Mikhail stands outside, a gun on Locke's head. "This is simple," he says. "Send her over to me and I release him, and we all go our separate ways."
"Don't listen to him," Locke says. "If he was going to kill me, I'd be dead already."
"Shut your mouth!"
"Listen to me," Sayid shouts.
"Sayid, do not let her go," Locke tells him.
"I will execute you right here!" Mikhail shouts.
"He's not going to do it!"
"Be quiet, John!" Sayid shouts.
"I'm the only thing keeping him alive!" Locke says.
"I swear to you!" Mikhail threatens.
"Calm down everyone!" Sayid yells.
The woman and Mikhail start speaking in Russian. I can't understand a word.
"Don't let her talk to him!" Locke shouts.
He and Sayid argue over the woman and Mikhail, the two conversations blending together. Sayid shouts at Mikhail, telling him to stop. Then the woman shouts out in English "Just do it, Mikhail!"
Mikhail pushes Locke away and shoots the woman in the chest. She falls to the ground and I see Locke advance on Mikhail.
"John!" Sayid calls out. Mikhail and Locke fight but Sayid runs over, hitting Mikhail witht he butt of his rifle.
Mikhail lands on the ground, the tip of the barrel of Sayid's gun at his throat. "Finish it! Kill me!" Mikhail cries. But Sayid removes the gun and walks back towards me.
Kate and Locke went back into The Flame to make sure we didn't miss anything. Sayid and I tie up Mikhail's hands again and we walk him into the brush by gunpoint as darkness falls. "Danielle! Danielle!" Sayid calls for Rousseau. "Tell me something," he says, turning back to Mikhail. "Were you ever a member of the DHARMA Initiative? Or was everything you said a lie? Of course, I'm wasting my breath."
"I was never a member," he says. "But everything else I told you was true. I moved into this station after the Purge."
"The Purge? In which a group of scientists attacked your people?"
"Believe what you want, but that is what happened."
Rousseau comes out of the brush, holding her gun on Mikhail. "Your friends, did he kill them?" she asks.
"No. They are collecting whatever is useful from the farmhouse," Sayid answers. "And now we have our ticket to where the Others live, where we will find your daughter, and Jack, and finally, perhaps, a way home."
"There is nothing you could do to me to make me lead you there."
"I didn't say you were our ticket, did I?" Sayid reaches into his pack and pulls out a laminated sheet of paper. "This is a map showing electrical and data cabling running from the Flame, here," he points. "To a place called the Barracks, here. It's comprised of houses and dormitories, with water and power large enough to accommodate an entire community. Sounds like a place well worth visiting, don't you think?"
"There will come a time when your guard is down," Mikhail says. "And when it is, I will not hesitate a moment before killing you. You should know this before you—,"
Rousseau cuts him off. "He is making an excellent point. You have a map. Why keep him alive? We should kill him, Sayid. He already told us he would kill us."
"No," Sayid says. "He's my prisoner. I will decide his fate."
Kate and Locke meet us in the brush. "Did you find anything?" I ask.
"Actually I just played a silly chess game on his computer again." He turns to Mikhail. "And now I can see why you didn't want me to beat it."
"Meaning what?" Sayid asks him.
BOOOOOM!
The Flame station behind Locke explodes in a giant wave of light, throwing us all into the ground.
When we recover Sayid screams at Locke. "What have you done, John? That place was our one hope of communication with the outside world!"
"The computer said that if there was an incursion of the station by the Hostiles, I should enter 77," he defends. "So I entered 77."
Sayid stands angrily, pulling Mikhail with him. "We should go. If anyone is around this explosion's going to attract their attention."