Chapter 14

John Locke woke up early the 10th day after the crash. The day prior they had searched for the missing girl, but today Locke was going into the jungle alone. Lauren was probably dead, based on the amount of blood they found on the hilltop they had tracked her to. Locke was not going to search the hilltop though, he had a different destination in mind. Quietly, he gathered his supplies: his hunting knives, rope, fruit, water and some boar he had saved from the night before. One boar, despite how large it was, was barely enough to feed the group for one day. Even with fruit and fish to supplement it, the survivors had ravaged their meal. Locke, however, saw the problem and ate only a little of his portion, saving the rest for the following day.

Locke left the camp silently, the group still fast asleep. The sun would rise in roughly 40 minutes, and then they would rise, so Locke stole away before any early-risers could catch him. After passing through the treeline, he didn't bother to walk on his toes, and he tramped through the jungle. Locke only stopped once, about a mile from the beach camp. He found a wallow and fashioned a trap using the rope he brought. When he finished, Locke was set on a direct path. Once he reached the clearing where he had run into Lauren, he knew he was close.

Locke moved several large leaves out of the way, revealing a metal door buried in the ground. The metal door was old and dented and had a small window, but no handle. Locke began to dig around the edges of the door, excavating it.

****Passage of Time****

After hours of digging, Locke was covered head to toe in dirt. His fingernails were black and the sweat pouring from his head left streaks through the grime. Locke leaned back, looked at his work, and smiled. The wide hole in the ground revealed a steel shaft rising from the dirt. He had only dug about 8 feet deep, but the base was much deeper in the earth.

"It's a hatch…" Locke breathed.

****Passage of Time****

When Locke returned to camp that evening he was immediately accosted by Jack.

"Where have you been?"

"Hunting."

"Alone? All day?" Locke could see the outrage on Jack's face. Since their time on the island, Jack had become their leader. A hero in the crash and a doctor too, the group put their faith in Jack to make the right decisions. Locke thought back to their conversation in the jungle, a few days after the crash. Jack hadn't slept but insisted on searching for water. Locke found him wandering through the trees, and sat him down and gave him some advice. "This place is different," Locke had said.

"I was setting traps throughout the jungle, I didn't expect to catch anything today." Locke lied. The others knew the island was strange, but he knew they weren't ready for this.

"We don't know what's out there, John. Nobody goes into the jungle alone." Jack walked away.

"So you didn't catch anything?" Shannon whined.

"Any sign of Lauren?" Sayid inquired.

Locke shook his head at both of them and walked away to rinse the dirt from his skin. Boone jogged after him.

"I'd like to help you."

"Any experience hunting boar?"

"No… but I'm willing to learn."

Locke looked at the young man standing next to him. His piercing blue eyes looked back earnestly.

"I'll come by your tent early," Locke finally said and Boone smiled a boyish smile and walked away.

Down the beach the baby wailed and Locke tried to block it out. For days, Kate and Jack had rationed the half empty canister of formula. Now they were down to its last drops.

****Flashback****

Locke put on his favorite pajamas, they had footballs on them and he had worn them so many times that small holes had formed and the hems were fraying. As he nestled under the comforter, his foster mom kissed his forehead.

"Goodnight, John," she whispered and turned out the light. She walked down the hall to where John's little sister screamed in her crib. Jeanie had been sick for four days, and the doctors had just given them acetaminophen and sent them home. John knew his mother was worried, so he worried too. John counted the minutes she cried, hoping to lose track and fall asleep. But 23 minutes later, John still laid awake, listening to his sister cry.

He got out of bed and padded down the hall. He stopped outside his foster mom's bedroom.

"I'm starting to lose it, Jan," she whispered to the phone, "I can't do this much longer."

John pressed his ear to the door to hear better.

"The doctors were useless… I have four other kids to worry about!"

The person on the other end spoke for a moment.

"But Jan her crying is driving me up the wall! I just want to shake her!"

John couldn't bear to listen anymore. He walked down further down the hall and into his older brother's room. He laid on his bed, perusing a magazine.

"What do you want?" He sneered as John entered the room.

"I… Jea…" Locke stuttered.

"Get out!" He threw a pillow at John, as John scurried out of the room. His brother was only a few years older than him, but acted like a grumpy old man. John wandered through the house in football pajamas, trying to find a place where he couldn't hear Jeanie's wails. He opened the linen closet, stuffed himself between a basket of throw pillows and closed the door. Inside, John grabbed one of the pillows and wrapped it over his ears. Leaning against the basket, John finally fell asleep.

****Flashback Ends****

Locke strode out of his tent, early the next morning, to find Boone standing there waiting for him.

"I thought you said early?" The boy joked.

"Here," Locke offered him a hunting knife, "hold it like this and when you're ready to make the kill, do this." Locke showed Boone the proper technique, then handed the knife over. Boone attached the sheath to his belt and picked up his pack.

"Ready?"

"Let's go," Locke led the way out of camp towards his first trap.

Whilst they hiked through the jungle, Locke considered telling the young man the truth. He was brave and eager, but could he keep a secret? Boone and Shannon had contributed little since the journey to the cockpit. Aside from searching through the wreckage, Boone never strayed far from his sister, who usually just tanned on the beach.

"What do you do in the real world Mr. Locke," Boone asked, breaking John away from his thoughts.

"Just John… why don't you guess?"

"Well, you're either a taxidermist or a hitman."

John laughed, "I was a regional collections supervisor at a box company."

Boone looked skeptical, but the pair ventured further into the jungle until they happened upon Locke's trap. The rope lay untouched, hidden under the brush. Locke sighed in frustration, before looking around the area. He noticed a tree, not far from where his trap was set, that had tusk marks he hadn't seen before. Walking over to the tree, he looked at the ground. Hoof marks littered the jungle floor. Locke turned to Boone, and beckoned him to follow.

They tracked the boar in silence for a long time. It led them closer and closer to where Locke's hatch hid under a blanket of palm leaves. When they entered the clearing just west of the hatch, Locke finally spoke up.

"Boone, I have to tell you something…" he waited for Boone's attention. Boone turned around and nodded.

"What is it?"

"I found something… a door buried in the ground," Locke admitted after a moment's hesitation.

"A door? What's in it?" Boone asked.

"I don't know, there's no handle. I've been excavating it."

"Where?"

"Just on the other side of those trees," Locke pointed towards the hatch. Boone began walking towards it and Locke followed. As they stepped through the trees, Boone saw the whole picture. A wide hole, maybe 15 feet across, revealed a round metal hatch that went deep into the ground. On top of the hatch was a door, with no handle, and a small window that revealed only darkness.

"How are we going to open it?"

"That's what you and I are going to figure out," Locke said with a smile.