Part 193: Search and Capture

(This just in. Famed fan fiction writer Jason has reported to the cops that his first installment of People of the Tail Section Season 2 was stolen by an obessed fan named Ricky Tuttle. Tuttle was last scene boarded up in the local library, screaming that he was going to post Jason's entry for all the other fans to see. "Ricky is crazy," Jason was commented saying, "I hope it was worth it cause I can't wait to see him in jail."

No further word on the whereabouts of Ricky Tuttle but according to police, he was successfully able to post the first episode of the egarley awaited series. More at 11 pm tonight on Internet Radio.)


“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THE NUMBERS ARE BAD???” Mia hit Hurley hard in the arm.

“OW! OW!” the large man ran as the little Lakota girl continued to hit him. John then came over and quickly grabbed by the waist, stopping her assault.

“EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!!” Tony screamed, then took a deep breath, “Hurley, please . . .what do you mean the numbers are bad?”

“The numbers are cursed, dude. We should walk away right now.” He said in panted breath.

“How do you know they are cursed?” Locke asked him.

“Cause I heard the numbers . . .used them to win the . . .lottery.”

John blinked in disbelief, “You . ..YOU . ..won the lottery???”

“Yeah, dude. For the longest time, I thought the money was cursed but then I realized it was the numbers. I am bad luck because I used the numbers for personal gain, guys. If I stay here, bad things will happen.”

Mia then pulled her pad out of her jacket and flipped out the page to the numbers she wrote down. She quickly held them up to Hurley, “THESE? You used these numbers to win the lottery?”

He turned away, “Please, Mia, I don’t want to look at them!”

“You . ..won . .the lottery?” John asked again.

“Why didn’t you tell us about the numbers, Hurley?” the Lakota girl demanded.

“I didn’t think . . . anybody would believe me. Hell, I barely believe it.”

Mia stared disgusted at the large man but then again, with such a fantastic story, would anybody have believed him? She was angry but she could understand his fear in not wanting to reveal what the numbers had done to him. “I would have believe you, Hurley,” she assured him.

“I didn’t know that!” he said in his defence.

“GUUUHH!” she grunted, as she punched him again in the chest.

“Okay, okay, lets all settle down,” Jack ordered, “First order of business is for Mia to stop hitting Hurley.”

The Lakota girl walked away, holding up her hands in frustration. The doctor rubbed his head and then looked to the bald man. “Locke, maybe we should reconsider-“

“YOU WON THE LOTTERY?” John asked yet again.

“John, drop it,” Tony said, “That really isn’t important now.”

“Well, it kinda is,” the archer turned back to the large man, “How much did you win?”

“One hundred and eighty million,” he confessed.

“One . .hundred . . .” John couldn’t even finish the sentence, he was in such shock.

“It really doesn’t matter how much money Hugo has.” Locke interrupted, “We’ve opened the Hatch and now it is time to see what is down there,”

“Locke, as I was trying to say, maybe we should listen to Hurley and leave it alone?” asked Jack.

“I’m sorry, Jack,” the bald man said with reluctance, “I’ve come too far to turn back now.”

The group watched the bald man grab a torch and walk over to the smoldering hatch. Mix quickly joined him and was followed by John. Marita took Tony by the arm and led him away. Jack patted Hurley on the arm and joined the others. Kate was quick to follow. Hurley was left standing by himself. He wanted to grab his bags and run but he didn’t want to head back to the beach alone either. “This is a bad idea,” he mumbled as he joined them at the hatch.

Locke stepped up, looking down. The broken ladder extended down into the depths of the hatch, covered in darkness. The bald man knew they wouldn’t be able to proceed unless it was illuminated down there. He quickly dropped the torch into the hole. The flaming stick lit up the hatch as it plummeted into the darkness. They were able to see it fall until it landed on the bottom. Locke smiled, “Looks like a good thirty to forty feet.”

“How do we get down, the ladder is broken?” Mia pointed.

“Get some rope, I will lower you down.”

“WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!” John protested, “MIA . . .is going in first?”

“John,” Mia said, realizing he was being protective.

“No way in hell are you going down there alone. I will go first.”

“You look like you weight 200 . . .210 pounds, John, “ the older man pointed out, “It’s going to be difficult to lower you. Mia is perfect cause she is the youngest and weighs the lightest.”

“John, I have to do this.”

“I’ll do it,” Kate stepped up.

“Kate, for the last damn time, you don’t have anything to prove to anybody.” Jack grunted.

“I’m the perfect choice. I am the next lighter one than Mia and John is already hell bent on not letting her go down. I has to be me.”

“We could spend all freaking night fighting over who goes down, “ Tony said, “Mia, do you want to go or will you let Kate go?”

Mia sighed. She knew she wouldn’t be able to get through to John. She felt kind of jealous that Kate would be able to discover the mysteries of the Hatch before she could. But in the end, they would all go down eventually. “Yeah, she can go,” the Lakota girl sighed.

“All right, let’s get the rope and lower her down.” Locke said, walking back to their gear.

The other men began to help him. Mia leaned down, staring into the hatch. The flame from the torch still burned at the bottom. Kate came over and kneeled beside her. The young woman moved her hair aside as she looked at the brunette. Kate offered a sympatheic smile. “Sorry.” She whispered.

“I’ve waited a few weeks to get into this Hatch,” Mia winked at her, “What’s a few more minutes?”

“I promise a detailed report of all I see.”

“No need, “ she grinned, patting her on the arm, “I will be right behind you.”

Mia casually took another look down the Hatch as her friends got the rope ready to her right. She was reminded of staring down the Arrow Drive bridge over the Green River back home. She and her friends, especially the male friends, would spit or throw things down to the river just to see it drop. Despite it’s vulgarity, she was tempted to spit again, just to watch it plummet into the wind.

Then something grabbed the torch and pulled it away.

“OH MY GOD!” Kate leaped away from the Hatch, with Mia right behind her.

Locke turned around and looked at them in alarm. “What,” he asked, “What the matter?”

“Locke . .something . . just . ..grabbed the torch and pulled it away.” Mia pointed.

The group then came back to the hatch and looked down. They didn’t see anything but the darkness. Then the shadows began to move. Marita began to squeeze Tony’s arm almost to the point of causing him pain. “Honey, what’s wrong?” he asked, “What do you see?”

“The shadows . . .they are moving as if . . .someone is down there.” She squeaked.

“How the Hell could anybody be down there?” Jack grunted.

Then a humanoid shape appeared in the darkness. They couldn’t see what it was but it was clearly shaped like a human. What made them gasp in awe was the fact it was looking up at them with glowing green eyes. John couldn’t take his eyes off of the thing looking up at them. Jack, a man of science, was going through his head at 100 mph to determine why a person with green eyes would be looking at them and he was not finding any answers. Hurley simply felt like vomiting. Locke then leaned down and got on his hands and knees. “HELLO??” he called.

The green eyes blinked at him. Mia was alarmed. She had no idea who or what was at the bottom of the hatch. But the green eyes . . . .they reminded of her that dream she had when Brendon recited his poem and the green eyes were his. What was her dead friend trying to tell her? “HELLO?” Locke screamed again, “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH??”

“Locke?” a soft voice whispered from down the hatch.

Jack nearly freaked. How could someone they had never met be locked in a hatch and now they knew who their rescuer was? John looked at the bald man; expecting him to be holding some sort of secret, like Ethan did. Locke, however, looked just as shocked as the archer was. Tony was about to say something but then a group of noise caught his attention. He turned around and faced the woods. The noise he heard confused him severely.

It sounded like a battalion flanking them.

“Someone’s coming,” he warned the others.

“Tony, what?” Marita turned around.

“We got to get out of here!” the blind man pulled her, “NOW!”

Hurley didn’t ask; he had been dying to leave for the past ten minutes. He quickly grabbed a torch and began to run. By the time he reached the woods, a man with a rifle pointed it at his face. He backed off quickly. Within seconds, more and more soldiers appeared from the woods. John pulled out an arrow and pointed at the nearest man. Jack grabbed his friend by his backpack. ‘’JOHN, NO!” he screamed.

The archer was surrounded by six men. John wanted to fire on all of them and he probably could but Jack was right. He was outnumbered and even if he could hit a few they would open fire. Not only on him but his friends and loved ones as well. He slowly lowered his bow.

Out of the woods walked another man, slightly skinny. He walked up to them and gently pulled out a side arm. Locke looked at them. Were these Ethan’s people? The skinny man walked up them and smiled. “Bravo.” He smiled, “Bravo.”

“Who are you?” Jack asked.

“Had we know you had the explosives, not mention discovered this damn thing, we would have killed the lot of you.” The man smiled, “If would seem you are more resourceful, than we believed.”

Kate held onto Jack and John as they stood in a group. The way the man was describing what he just said, he was implying that he had been watching them for a while. The man then held up his side arm right to Marita’s face. The Latina buried her head in Tony’s shoulder in fright. “Drop your weapons, and surrender,” the man ordered.

“This is insane,” Jack muttered, “Who are you people?”

“Better do what he says, Jack,” Locke said, dropping his knives into the dirt.

The skinny man walked up to the older man, smiling. “You are obviously the brains of this outfit,” he grinned, “Once you give up the weapons, you will get on your knees. You surrender and come with us.”

“Come with you where?” Locke asked.

“Back to our camp,” he said, in seriousness, “My commander would like a word with all of you.”

“Do what he says, John,” Tony told him.

John didn’t like giving up his weapons to a bunch of strangers pointing guns at them. But Tony suggested it and he knew his friends wouldn’t have told him to do it unless it was necessary. John slowly placed down his bow and began to remove his quiver. Two soldiers quickly came over and collected them. Locke slowly got on his knees. When he did, everybody slowly follow suit. Two more soldiers came over and began to tie their hands together with rope. Then another rope was filtered in between them all, so they would all be connected. “Arc-Welders, move in and secure the Hatch,” the skinny man ordered.

Four men then moved out from their flanks. Two of the soldiers picked up what remained of the dome cover and moved to place it back on top of the hatch. One man then pulled out a welding torch and lit it. Locke looked on in despair as the sparks began to fly from the metal as it was being reconnected together. “NOOOOOO!!!!” someone screamed at the bottom of the hatch.

The soldiers backed off, pointing their guns at the dome. The arc-welder was scared almost to the point where he might have accidentally burned his left leg. He quickly looked back to the man who was in charge. “WHAT?” he shrugged, “What are you looking at me for? FINISH IT!”

The arc-welder continued his work. Locke looked up to the man who seemed to be in charge of these soldiers. “Sir, you have us at your mercy. Would you kindly tell me what is in the hatch?” he asked.

“That would be a NO,” the man said calmly.

“No, as in you don’t know or that you won’t tell me?”

“No, as in I am not authorized to answer your questions,” the man sneered, “Now, for you own sake and the sake of your friends . . .SHUT UP.”

“One last question,” the bald man smiled, “Am I allowed to call you something other than sir?”

“Locke, don’t piss him off,” Hurley said.

The man looked at him with a smile that was both sinister and playful. “If you must, my name is Frakes.” He told them.

“NOOO, PLEASE!!!” echoed the Hatch, “DON’T DO THIS!!!”

“Hurry up, will you?” Frakes barked, “I don’t want to listen to this crap all night.”

“LOCKE, HELP US!!!” a voice screamed from the pit.

The soldiers then paused. Frakes looked confused, then turned to the bald man. He stared ahead, not acknowlding the head soldier. “How does that thing know your name?” he asked.

Locke said nothing. Jack looked at him, curious about that part himself. Frakes stepped closer, examining him. “No, no,” he whispered, “There is no way you got down that Hatch fast enough to introduce yourself.”

“I am as lost as you are.” The older man confessed.

The more the arc-welder sealed the hatch, the screams for freedom became drowned. The soldier then stood up, taking off his goggles. “All set, sir, sealed and closed-“

The soldier was interrupted by an arrow piercing his neck.

The other soldiers then turned and fired toward the trees. The group huddled together under the whispering tat-tat-tat of the rifles. Tony took notice of the facts that their rifles were silenced; only well paid soldiers or some kind of black ops team would have such a thing. Not only where they expense, they were illegal. The soldiers continued to fire into the trees until Frakes started to wave his hand in front of his face. “CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!” he ordered.

The soldiers stopped firing, continuing to point their guns into the darkness above. John looked back at the dead welder, noticing the arrow in his neck. It wasn’t one of his. Frakes walked and kneeled down to the soldier. He gently reached down and examining the arrow, noticing it’s gleaming silver tip. “Raven.” He cursed under his breath.

“Sir, if we fan out, we can probably pin him down and-“ the soldier tried to suggest.

“AND do what?” the leader grunted, “He can see in the dark, fool. You can’t.”

Frakes turned to the woods and screamed, “RAAAAAVVVEEEENNN!!!”

A weird echo caressed the darkness.

“I don’t know what your game is but I will find you, freak!” he cursed, “There is no one who is going to help you!”

Another strange chirping sound came from the woods. Frakes held out his gun aloft and walked over to the group. He then put the gun on Locke’s head. “NO!” squeaked Kate.

Locke closed his eyes, waiting for the shot. But it never game. Within minutes the chirping sound had stopped. Frakes then pulled the gun away and holstered it. “Yes, Mr. Locke,” he stared down at him, “I am very certain my commander will want to talk with you.”

The skinny leader walked over and motioned for the soldiers to move out. “Form a defensive perimeter in case Raven is out there. Someone grab Copeland’s body,” he walked a little further, “Texas, bring them in.”

Then from out of the shadows emerged a giant man. Marita gasped in horror at the sight of the biggest man she had ever seen. He looked about a good 7 to 8 feet tall and his clothing looks like it was sewn together to fit him. His skin was a pale white as was his hair. His eyes almost glowed a soft red. Tony could hear the giant man’s foot steps. “What is that?” he asked.

“Nothing much, Tony,” John whispered, “However, I thought the Incredible Hulk was supposed to be green?”

The man known as Texas grabbed the end of the rope that held the survivors together. As he pulled them, Locke lurched forward not getting his footing just yet. Kate quickly grabbed his arm and helped him. Then eventually they were all being towed by the giant albino. Tony hoped the others would find them but he had no idea the size of force they were dealing with.

He really wished he wasn’t blind.