Was it was a long distance, or a short one? Was he moving incredibly fast, or had time simply slowed to a standstill around him? Jack Shepherd was finding it increasingly difficult to make these distinctions.
Hadn't he died? Jack had certainly been ready to. He had been lying on the jungle floor, bamboo swaying lazily above him, becoming increasingly blurry with every passing second. Where it had all began, where it all should have ended. Jack had accepted his fate. He had been ready to end the nightmare. But... the island wasn't finished with him.
The island had taken everything. It had created a hole, and Jack had leaked away. Bit by bit, he had been drained. The island had been a sponge, soaking it all in. It was all he had left.
Now he was nothing but smoke. The monster. The one thing on the island that he had feared was the thing he had become.
For the first time, faith had taken hold of him. For a moment, science ceased to matter. He hadn't fulfilled his duties; the island wasn't finished with him yet. It wasn't his time to die.
Jack could control things that weren't meant to be controlled. He could tap into his consciousness in ways he could not comprehend. Here was his form, body, moving in any direction he desired. Jack's vision expanded to three-hundred-sixty degrees. Further. He could see in layers, he could glimpse thoughts and memories.
His friends were staring at him. Sawyer was cursing, and thinking of that first night on the island when the trees had bent closer and closer to the beach. Kate was thinking about a friend, Tom, and remembering his body before she left him. The toy airplane she'd left there.
"It belonged to the man I killed!"
Jack pushed the thoughts into a different layer, and focused on the fence. He burst through and re-materialized on the other side. An alarm blared, and without looking back, Jack ran.
He rounded the side of the building, searching for the source of the alarm. His stomach felt like lead. Along a smooth surface of wall, Jack found a control box. He changed his hand into smoke and plunged it through the metal. Jack concentrated, and the box shorted with a satisfying sound of sparks. The alarm stopped. Jack could only hope that the fence shut off too.
A group of soldiers came running out from the direction of the building, guns in hand. Jack raced straight for them. They didn't fire. Jack knew that they weren't expecting what he was about to do, and was glad for the advantage. Halfway across the complex, Jack changed. He became a billowing pillar of white smoke.
Jack barreled for them. He consumed them, covered them like a heavy fog. They screamed. In an instant Jack knew that he could destroy them. He could rip them apart, fry their brains, throw them against the ground and crush their skulls. Just get it over with, he thought. Suddenly, images and memories permeated his thoughts.
'Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday dear Adam, happy birthday to you!' Adam looked up at his parents, who were smiling down at him, and felt loved, safe. Candles danced merrily over a cake that read, 10 years old! His mother held up a camera.
'Blow out the candles!' The candles went out and filled the air with smoke that spiraled into the air.
Adam screamed in agony and fear. He fired his gun wildly at the smoke that was obscuring his vision and choking his lungs.
'This is it, Will. I've had enough!' Mary stormed through the bedroom, tears in her eyes, grabbing clothes out of the dresser. She heaved a suitcase up onto the bed and began stuffing it with random articles of clothing.
'Mary, please, just listen-' Will begged.
'No! We're through, do you hear me?!' Will's heart filled with regret. What had he done?
Will fell to the ground coughing, thinking of Mary and how much he missed her. Why had he taken this job? Why had he listened to that Eloise-woman?
'This is your daughter,' the nurse smiled, 'Do you want to hold her?' Dave nodded, then held the child in his arms and felt a fierce love swell up inside him. He would do anything for her. He shifted her weight to one arm and held out his hand to caress the top of her head. She gripped his finger.
Dave ran through the smoke, trying to find an escape. He had to get back to his family, to his newborn daughter. The money wasn't worth this.
More and more images passed through Jack's vision like slides on a projector, weakening him. How can I do this? Jack thought, How can I kill people? Their lives were flashing before his eyes. Their regrets, triumphs, failures, love, loss. Because you're a monster, he answered, you're the monster.
He tried to focus on his own, good thoughts… Kate. Jack found it ironic that was the first thing that came to his mind, because he had no doubt in his mind that he was the last person she'd be thinking of right now. She'd be thinking of a giant monster killing people. But she wouldn't be thinking about him.
Jack tried to convince himself that he was doing something good… he was saving lives. These men would kill his friends without hesitation. But, they hadn't shot at you, he thought. Jack thought of Aaron, his nephew. He's been following the group since London so he had a glimpse of the boy he'd raised as his son.
More screams… more pleas for help… more images of lives that made these people seem so innocent.
A voice, Christian, spoke up in Jack's mind, "You don't have what it takes, kiddo," he said. "When it comes down to it, you just don't have what it takes."
You always were right dad, he thought.
Jack knocked them all unconscious, but he let them live. He let them survive, left them as a possible threat. You're making a mistake, he thought, No. I'm saving lives. It was this thought that let Jack leave the men, leave the threat, and go help elsewhere.
"You sold me out Jack!" Christian stormed out of conference room, his lab coat billowing behind him. Jack followed quickly, his eyes focused on the floor. "They're gonna have my job because of this!" He turned and slammed his fist into the wall, which crumbled inward, creating a hole.
"You were drunk Dad! Your hands were shaking. I'm not going to lie about that, I refuse to lie about that. You're the one who doesn't have what it takes, you can't even stay sober for one procedure!" Christian swallowed, then walked straight up to Jack, breathing heavily.
"So this is how it is then,"' Christian growled, "This is how you treat your father?" Jack raised his eyes to meet his father's. They were bloodshot. He could smell alcohol on the man's breath. Jack nodded, slowly, making sure his father saw him.
"I'm saving lives," he said. I'm saving lives.
Jack saw Kate and Ben running for the entrance.
"You go find Desmond and I'll get Claire!" Kate shouted. They split up, making themselves more vulnerable.
Jack tried to hold back the men coming out of a small door of the building. He saw Sawyer fall back, and Penny run out of ammo. They were losing. Men continued to rush out of the door in a relentless stream. Jack charged it, his smoke becoming a solid form hard enough to smash the brick into dust. The men inside yelled out to the others.
"What the?" One of the soldiers gawked at the monster looming before him. He had one hand on the door behind him, the other reaching for a submachine gun.
Whether or not the man fired on him, Jack was unsure. Frankly it wouldn't make much of a difference if he had. Jack crashed into him and through the door.