Chapter 1: Chimera

Dark. Everything was dark. The small fires still burning around the camp didn't help. The wind blew the embers through the night. The fires started to die as a few raindrops fell.

Kate shifted onto her other side, her eyes fluttering madly. She didn't hear the thready moan escape her lips. She didn't sense the restless movements of her body, or the sand shifting beneath her.

In her mind, she ran. Mindlessly, one foot in front of the other, she tore across the field. It was coming, but she wouldn't let it get her. Not this time. She'd been caught once before, but never again. She wasn't going to become some anonymous face in the system. Or an unknown corpse in a field.

She dared a glance back and cried out. It was close. Too close. It was going to catch her.

She veered sharply to the right. She had to lose it. She couldn't let it catch her. She looked up suddenly and screamed. It was right in front of her. She stumbled and fell to her knees. She looked back over her shoulder and saw not some faceless monster but the marshal. He flashed a cocky grin and held up a pair of handcuffs.

"You lose, Kate."

She scrambled to her feet and took off through the trees. Branches caught at her clothes and scratched at her skin. She didn't care. All she knew was that she had to get away.

She heard someone call out her name but ignored them. She couldn't stop. She had to run. She had to get away.

Suddenly her eyes flew open and she scrambled to her feet. Her head pounded with a fear she couldn't fully remember. Strange images floated through her mind, but one thing kept repeating itself.

Get away. Get away.

She wove between the sleeping castaways and ran toward the trees. The branches were waving back and forth with an incoming storm. She didn't stop to think that it wasn't smart to run into the jungle, didn't stop to think about what could be out there. All she could think of was her overwhelming need to escape.

Sawyer's eyes flashed open. Wind was whipping the trees back and forth, but everyone else was still asleep. He reached up and rubbed an ache out of his shoulder. "Damn beach," he muttered. It was definitely uncomfortable sleeping on this godforsaken, rubble-strewn sand. There were a million places he'd rather be right now.

But unfortunately no one was going anywhere. If people wanted to delude themselves into thinking rescue was on its way, good for them. But he was a realist. He knew nobody was coming. They were all stuck here.

He pulled out a cigarette and lifted it to his mouth. It was going to be a bitch when they were gone. He'd been smoking since he was a teenager and hadn't ever tried to quit. He'd found several packs in the luggage left from the fuselage, but they wouldn't last forever. At the same time everyone was talking about rationing food and water, he was thinking about rationing his cigarettes.

Well, let the hero worry about food. There were other things he'd rather do.

He turned and tried to find where Kate was sleeping. She could protest all she wanted, but he knew what she was about. She tried to act the domineering tough girl, but he saw through her. Antagonizing her was actually pretty amusing. He figured it would only take another day or two to break through her defenses. Watching her lose her temper was going to be fun.

He frowned when Kate suddenly jumped to her feet and started heading for the jungle. Everyone was so dead-set against going in alone, yet there she was doing exactly that, in the dark no less.

Then the trees started thrashing.

He stood up and looked around as the camp came awake. A few people shouted and backed away, but most watched silently in fear. Then the rain swept across the beach and chaos erupted. People scrambled back and forth, fighting for and diving for cover.

He turned again and watched Kate disappear into the trees. Indecision tore at him. It wasn't his business. She wasn't his problem. Let her do whatever she wanted. If she got eaten by this so-called monster, well, there was nothing he could do. He was nobody's hero.

"Ah, hell," he muttered, and took off toward the trees.

Kate ran down a narrow path as the rain started falling. This had happened once before, running through the jungle in the rain. But the difference this time was that it was dark and she didn't know what was going on. She didn't remember running into the jungle. She only remembered realizing she was here.

She darted behind a large tree and stopped. She gasped for breath, her hand rubbing at a stitch in her side. She squeezed her eyes shut as fear welled up. She had no idea where she was. It must have been a nightmare that sent her running blindly. The thought disturbed her. It had been a long time since she'd had a nightmare so vivid.

She sank down to the ground and ran her hands through her hair. The rain fell harder, quickly soaking her through. She ignored it. She didn't know what to do. It was dark, and she had no idea which direction she'd come from. She wasn't even sure how long she'd been running before she broke out of the nightmare.

Something moved in the brush, something more than the wind. She slowly came to her feet, her back pressed against the tree. She watched the brush warily, her muscles tensed, ready to run if she had to. Branches and fronds parted and crunched above the noise of the storm. And then they broke apart in front of her and a dark shape emerged.

She screamed, backing around the tree and bending down to pick up a rock. The weight of it was solid in her hand. She palmed it, taking a deep breath and counting to three. Then she leaned around the tree and heaved it at the dark shape in front of her. Hearing a satisfying thud, she took off again. But she felt a presence behind her, and she was afraid she wasn't going to be able to outrun it this time.

This time it wasn't a dream.

She winced as a branch scratched her along her jawline. Branches and brush caught at her clothes and she stumbled.

Someone grabbed her shoulder. "Damnit, Freckles. Why—"

She ignored the voice, spinning around and sending her fist into his jaw. She saw the tall form stumble back, but couldn't tell who it was. She didn't care. She only cared that he was trying to keep her from getting away.

Before she could run again, he advanced on her and grabbed her wrist, holding it down at her side. She tried to swing at him with her free wrist, but he grabbed that one too and used his grip to propel her back against a nearby tree. She jerked and struggled against him, but she couldn't break his grip.

He stood close and tightened his grip on her wrists. "Damnit, stop struggling. You ain't going nowhere."

Kate finally stopped struggling and focused on the voice. She knew it. Her chest heaved with the force of her breathing. Her heart pounded. She looked up, and in the dim light saw Sawyer glaring down at her. For a moment, their eyes caught, and something electric sparked between them. She told herself it was just the storm, nothing more.

"Let me go," she demanded.

"So you can punch me again? I don't think so, Sweetheart."

"It's dark, and you were stalking me through the jungle," she hissed. "What the hell did you expect?"

"I wasn't stalking nobody. I watched you run into the trees and wondered what you were doing."

"So what? You decided to follow me? That either makes you a liar or just really stupid."

He glared at her. "You wanna run that by me again, Freckles?"

"You either followed me in here trying to be a hero and save me, or you just didn't realize you were as likely to get lost in here as I was."

He released her wrists and turned around, looking at the trees. He walked away from her, into the trees, but in a moment he was back. "Great. Just great."

"That's it, isn't it?" she asked. "You were too arrogant to think you'd get lost."

He advanced on her again. "Well, if you hadn't gone running like you were being chased by the damn devil—"

She planted her hands on his chest and pushed him back. "Don't you dare blame this on me. I didn't ask you to follow me. I—"

Something roared in the distance, and they heard the unmistakable sound of a tree trunk snapping. Kate whirled around and involuntarily stepped closer to Sawyer, and his hand came up to rest at her elbow. For a moment everything was quiet, then the brush ahead of them began thrashing back and forth.

Kate turned to him and gripped his arm, urging him forward. "Go," she murmured in a shaky voice. In her mind she saw the pilot's bloody corpse stuck up in the trees.

The brush thrashed in front of them. "Go! Go!"

She took off in the opposite direction, Sawyer right behind her. She fought the scream that welled up in her throat. Just move, she told herself.

You have to get away.

The storm stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Jack stood and watched as people murmured and started building fires to help dry out. He rubbed his face dry and looked around for Kate. Whatever her secrets, she was level-headed and could help keep everyone calm and together.

Earlier, she'd found a place to sleep off to his left a bit. He looked toward it, but all he could find was a thin airline blanket and a pile of clothes.

"Hey, have you seen Kate?" he asked as Charlie walked by.

"No man, I haven't. I'm going to take this water to Claire, make sure she's all right."

Jack nodded. "Yeah. That's a good idea."

He walked down the beach to where he found Sayid helping a small group of people start a fire. He tapped the other man on the shoulder. "Have you seen Kate?" he murmured when Sayid stood up.

"No. I assumed she was with you."

"She's not."

Sayid looked around the beach as people moved back and forth. "She must be here somewhere."

Jack didn't answer. He only helped stoke the fire, then rubbed his hands together and held them to the warmth of the flames.

"Uh, dudes? Dudes!"

Hurley came running up to them, slightly out of breath, a worried look on his face.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"Uh, I think the fu—I mean, I think Kate is gone. Someone said they thought they saw her running toward the jungle just before the storm hit."

"What?" Jack spun around and gazed at the tree line, worry creasing his face. The branches of the trees waved gently in the dwindling wind, but there was no sign of activity anywhere near them. No sign of Kate emerging from the jungle unharmed.

"I think that redneck is gone too," Hurley said. "I haven't seen him anywhere."

"Great," Jack murmured as the three of them stood looking at the trees.

"If they have not returned by sun-up, we will go looking for them," Sayid said.

Jack nodded and reluctantly turned away. There was nothing they could do tonight, but he was afraid that by morning it would be too late.