Chapter Eight

I was interrupted on my daily morning fruit hunt by the nosy brunette who caused me trouble a few days before on the hike. I had been keeping clear of Kate. While I knew she was only looking out for me, probably ordered to by my brother, I was always prone to hold a grudge. She surprised me, though, by asking me to help her and Sayid with locating the transmission of the French woman. Considering I was desperate to do anything other than carry around bananas, I agreed quite quickly.

So, that's how I ended up standing on the beach with Sayid, Kate and Boone, staring at antennas on poles.

"Three antennas. Three points of a triangle. One here on the beach. Another, Kate and Lana will position in the jungle, roughly two kilometres in, and the third I'll take to high ground, up there." Sayid told us. "If the French transmission is coming from somewhere within our triangulation, I'll be able to locate the source. But there are two complications."

"Of course there are." Boone scoffed.

"The power cells I grafted onto the antennas are dry. There's no telling how long they'll last. A minute – maybe more, maybe less." Sayid stressed.

"So we have to wait until we're in position before we switch them on." Kate nods from beside me.

"Wait. Wait a second." The blue eyed God across from me interrupted. "How are we going to be able to tell that we're actually in the right position? We have no way to communicate with each other."

"Bottle rockets?" I asked, watching Sayid pull them from a backpack.

"Thank God for fireworks smugglers." His eyebrows rose. "Now, when I'm in position I'll fire off my rocket. When you guys see it, you fire yours. As soon as the last one has gone up, we all switch on our antennas."

"Okay, but you said there are two complications." Kate pointed out.

"The battery in the transceiver is dead. Without the transceiver, all of this is for nothing. Something from a laptop computer would probably work, but I've not been able to find anything."

"I think I might know where to look." My eyebrows instantly raised in confusion when the woman looked at me before realisation hit me like a truck.

And that's how I ended up standing outside Sawyer's shelter with a scowl on my face. The two of us hadn't spoken much since I decided to stay on the beach, only communicating with the occasional glance each other's way. Though I'm always quick to pretend that I wasn't looking at him.

"You gonna stand out there all day?" I nearly jumped when his voice came out of the flowing tarp he used as a door. With a quick clench of my teeth, I forced myself to go inside.

"Well, to what do I owe the pleasure, midget?" My eyes narrowed at the nickname. No Twig? I was either getting shorter or starting to fill out more. I'd have to stress about it later.

"Any chance you got a laptop battery in your stash of..." My hazel orbs danced around the stolen suitcases scattered across his shelter. "Goods?"

Sawyer's lips curled into the expression I was most used to. The twinkle in his bright eyes half made me want to smack him. I refused to think of what the other half wanted me to do.

"That depends, don't it?"

"Depends on what?" My arms found their way across my chest, crossed while I rolled my eyes.

"What's in it for me?" He asked. Of course. It was like I forgot I was dealing with an insufferable selfish asshole.

"Maybe a chance to get off this stupid island?" My eyebrows rose, but surprisingly my voice stayed calm. "Sound like a good deal to you?"

"Nah," the man shrugged. "I don't do deals with maybes and chances, sweetheart."

"Fine," I glared at him, arms falling back down to my sides. "What do you want?"

With a long solid glance at me, he then reached over to a suitcase by his bed. My eyes lit up at the sight of him taking the battery out of a laptop. Though, the light in my eyes dimmed a bit when he stood and took a big step close to me. The battery sits in his grip as he holds his hand out, but I know better than to try to grab it.

"I want an IOU." The twinkle in his eyes was nearly blinding and it matched the smugness on his face perfectly. "Anytime, anywhere. Whatever it ends up being. You owe me."

If I was smart, I'd have spun in my sandals and marched my way out of there to tell Sayid that his plan was impossible. But even Sawyer himself had called me stupid a couple of times. I nearly ruined my first hike in the jungle by collapsing; I wasn't going to ruin this one by telling Sawyer to piss off.

"Fine," I muttered, reaching out and wrapping my fingers around the battery. His hand pulled back with my grip and I glanced up at his face with furrowed brows. A serious look painted his face; his eyebrows bunched together, his lip a straight line. If I wasn't so determined to do something important, I'd probably be scared. But once again, stupidity reigns.

"It's a deal, Sawyer." My head nodded and the battery made its way into my palm.

Once Sayid, Kate and I had everything packed and planned, we started making our way through the jungle, leaving Boone to fire his rocket on the beach. I realised quite quickly that the woman had only invited me to get back into my good books, judging by the way she kept trying to make small talk with me. Even Sayid looked amused by this.

"What we're doing – chasing some phantom distress signal..." Kate spoke. "What are the odds of this working?"

"No worse than the odds of our surviving that plane crash." Sayid replied.

"People survive plane crashes all the time." The woman pointed out.

"Not like this one." He started. "The tail section broke off while we were still in the air. Our section cart wheeled through the jungle and yet we escaped with nothing but a few scrapes. How do you explain that?"

"Extremely good luck?" I retorted with a shrug. The man's lip curved slightly.

"No one's that lucky. We shouldn't have survived."

"Sorry, Sayid, some things just happen. No rhyme, no reason." Kate agreed with me. How surprising.

We kept walking for a while before Kate finally slowed me down to talk. With Sayid still in sight to follow, but not in hearing range, she chose to speak.

"How you feeling?" She asked me. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Kate." I had to resist the urge to snap at her. Wanting to jump my brother's bones didn't make her my best friend. "I don't plan on collapsing anytime today."

"Look Lana..." She trailed off, her lips pursed. The expression on her face told me she had no idea what to say.

"It's fine," I held my hands up, not wanting an awkward moment. "Don't worry about it. We're good."

Kate's eyes met mine with a smile which soon faltered when a twig snapped behind us.

"Hey," the Southerner I made a deal with earlier greeted us. All three of us stopped walking.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kate immediately put an angry guard up.

"Easy." Sawyer gave an amused sigh before his bright eyes met mine with a hint of seriousness. "Just came to tell you something."

"What makes you think we're interested in anything you have to say?" The dark haired woman asked, hand on her hip. My eyes darted between them in confusion. I didn't realise they disliked each other so much.

"Just came to tell you, you were right about me that I don't help anyone but myself. Well, here I am, ready to pitch in." His sandy blonde hair shook as he held his arms out with a smile.

"You're here to help?" I asked, the surprise evident in my voice. His eyes narrowed at me before I turned to follow the other two.

"Hey, you act anymore surprised and I'm going to get offended." The man called behind me. Luckily, he can't see my smile. I didn't notice Sayid eyeing it though.

After walking uphill for a bit longer, the four of us finally came to a stop. My aching legs didn't argue.

"We'll place the second antenna here." Sayid told us. He turned to Sawyer, "You want to help?"

I watched the blonde man give him a nod while Kate got the antenna out of Sayid's pack. The Arab surprisingly handed it to Sawyer.

"Attach this antenna up in that tree, as high up as you can." He told him.

"Golly, thanks, boss." Sawyer snorted before walking towards the tree. My head shake hid the amused smile I had forming.

"Five o'clock. Watch for my flare, and then it's your turn." Sayid tells Kate, sternly.

"What about me?" The only reason I was invited on this trip was so Kate could have bonding time with me.

"You're coming with me." He told me, his dark eyes flickering towards the tree Sawyer was climbing. "I don't trust him."

"No one does." I rolled my eyes.

"I don't trust him with you, Lana." Sayid corrected himself. I glanced towards Kate, who seemed to agree with this.

"Go on, I can handle him." She told us. And just like that, Sayid and I left the two bickering idiots to kill each other.

The walk with Sayid seemed to move a lot quicker. He didn't try to produce any small talk, instead remaining focussed on the task at hand and going over things in his head. I was going over things in head, too. Why didn't they trust Sawyer with me? I knew as much as anyone that he was an annoying asshole. It's not like he was some evil villain. Or at least, I certainly didn't see him that way.

"One minute to five." I told him in our spot in a clearing. After a glance at his watch, he nodded, grabbing the lighter in preparation. A few long seconds later, he lit it. I watched the bright light fly to the sky in awe.

"Alright everyone, now it's your turn." The man muttered, stressed as he watched the sky impatiently. Around thirty seconds later, a rocket in the distance is launched. I grinned, while Sayid kept muttering. The third and final rocket came quickly after. "Yes!"

Once he gets the transceiver out of his pack and turns it on, I move closely beside him. Our faces mirrored each other as we stared at the screen. Acquiring signal...

"Where are you?" He asked. Receiving Signal...

"Yes! We did it!" A huge grin made its way to my face as our eyes remained glued to the device. My eyes caught sight of a strong signal before there was a rustling sound behind us.

I didn't even have time to look before my vision goes black.