Rp 3 (Others)

Zoe was shivering with a throbbing headach and it was very dark when she woke up. She felt that her hands were bound tightly behind her back, cutting painfully into her wrists, as were her feet and she felt a gag around her mouth to stop her making any noise.

She peered around, her eyes straining to see where she was, but it was too dark. She could hear the sound of water dripping, echoing all around her. She must have been propped up against a wall or something like that, as she was now flat on her side lying down. Zoe could feel a tear down her face as she shivered with fear.She tried to sit up, but she was too weak. She tried to shout through her gag but it was useless, still, she continued to try and at least sit up.

"I think she's woken up." She hears someone say nearby in the darkness. Her eyes were now adjusting as she could just see the outline of three shapes.

"Good, the sooner we get this done the better." Another, rougher voice said in reply.

"Are you absoultly sure that they have him?" came the third voice.

"Of course I am. He hasn't been in contact with us in the last 24 hours. Something is wrong, and her people are responsible for it." She heard the sound of someone shuffling to get uo and walk closer to her. They grabbed her around both upper arms and hoisted her up, coming face to face with her, but it was still too dark for her to see anything properly. Her eyes widened with fear, scared at what he was going to do as he kept his grip on her arms, supporting her sitting upright.

"I am going to take your gag off. You scream, or talk without being spoken to, I shoot you, you understand?" came a toneless voice from one of her captors. Zoe was wincing in pain, but she managed to nod her head, looking away, not wanting to face him. Who were these people? What had she ever done to them? The man that had hold of her removed her gag and let go of her, giving himself a more comfortable position so that he sat down.

"So - where is he?" He asked coldly. Zoe frowned, she didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Who - who are you talking about?" She asked.

"Oh come one, don't play games with me, I know you are with them, so you know. Where is he? Where are they keeping him tied up?" He continued, his tone getting more agressive this time.

"I-I-I honestly don't know who you are talking about!" Zoe stutered. truthfully.

"Well you best be giving me answers soon young lady, or you won't be seeing your people anytime soon. Let's get straight to the point. We know you have one of our people, the problem is, we don't know where your little hidey out place is, so we need you to trade for our man. So the sooner you tell us where he is, the less fingers you are going to loose. Understand?"

Richard saw Ben and Mel emerging from Mel and Ethan's old house. He ran straigh over to them.

"Ben." He said seriously in alarm. "They have Zoe. I followed her when she ran away - you know, like orders, but they were took quick for me, I tried to stop them, but they took off with her. She tried to get away, but they were too good. I have a feeling they want to trade - and if they make Zoe tell them where this place is....well we can only assume the worse. What shall we do?"

"We trade." Ben replied.

"Are you sure?" Richard replied. "I mean, should we really nagotiate with thses people?" Richard replied.

"We need her. She's pregnant, and has become more special then ever." Ben replied. "It is more vital then ever now that she remains on this island."

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Zoe felt tears spill down her cheeks with fear - who were these people?

"Look, I would tell you anything you wanted, I really would, if it meant leaving me alone!" Zoe begged. "I'm not on their side anymore. They betrayed me, and I was trying to get as far away from them as I possibly could. All I want to do is go home. Please believe me!"

"That's the problem you see. We did before, and it landed us in even more of a mess, so if you don't mind, I don't think we will." The man who had threatened her said coldly, but before he could fulfill his threats, someone entered the cave.

"We found them. Well, one of them found us. We both agreed to meet on no mans land and make the trade. So long as she isn't harmed." He said to the three other men already in the cave.

"Isn't harmed? Why, what are they going to do?" Replied the man who had been talking to Zoe.

"She's pregnant." The new guy replied simply, walking over and gagging her again, placing a sack over her. "Come on, lets get this over with." Zoe felt herself being lifted to her feet, she buckled under them first time though, with not being able to see where she was going and having vvery restircted movement. She said nothing, but it was clear through her body language how she was feeling, and despite her best efforts, and knowing how all the stress could be harmful to the baby, she couldn't stop the terror she felt with the situation she was in, the grieving for Charlie, the news of being pregnant....everything happening in such a short space of time......................

Zoe was suddenly halted, and she took a heavy breath of frustration, wishing she knew where she was. The man who held her spoke aloud to them.

"This is how it will work. We have this place well surrounded, we maybe the enemy to you, but what we want is simple. For now, we want our man back. As for what is to come, we will worry about that when the time comes. We appreciate you are just as anxious to have this girl back. For whatever reason, we shall not pry - at least not yet. We will both release our prisoners, at the same time, and they shall walk past each other. We will then turn our backs and go back to where we set camp - you will go back to wherever it is you are. Everybody wins. Understood?" He shouted clearly to Ben, Richard and Mel. Ben nodded as Richard turned to look at him.

"How do we know you won't follow us once we go back?" Ben shouted at them. The man tilted his head slightly.

"You won't," He replied simply. "Just we won't know whether you have people following us, and considering you know this island better then us right now, you have the higher hand. On the count of three, release your prisoner, just as we will do the same for you." Richard backed up so he was level with Ben and Mel.

1...2...3... Zoe had the bag over her head removed, she was slightly blinded by the bright daylight, and as her gag was removed, she walked straight away to move away from her captors. She came to a sudden halt, pausing between Ben, Mel and Richard and the new mystery people she knew nothing about. Why had Ben agreed to this, she didn't know, and why was he so eager to have her back? She hesitated, looking at Mel in her eyes for some reassurance, glancing briefly back at Ben. She made a decision. She walked over to Mel and stood by her side, looking back at the other men, who left as soon as they got their man. Zoe then looked from Ben to Mel with her tear stained face, she was still shivering slightly from both shock and fear

"Why did you do this?" She asked.

Ben gave Zoe a cold angry stare, and turned on his heel to head back to the village. Mel glanced between them again, sighing and following, as did Richard. Zoe stood still, pausing for a moment, thinking. She glanced back at where the other people had been before she took a speedy pace to catch up with Ben, Richard and Mel. She came level with Ben.

"You know, you can'y completly blame me for running off Ben. You did order Mikhail to kill me, Desmond and Charlie. So you can see why I don't trust you - why I am confused by your actions, and why you wanted Mikhail to kill your people. Bonnie and Greta. If anything, I should be the one more mad at you." Zoe snapped at him. Ben halted.

"First of all - I did not tell Mikhail to kill you. You were the exception. Second of all, yes, I should be angrier at you Zoe. You were brought here. You agreed to come here, and I agreed to help you, but what was one of the first things you did? Disobey orders, and messed everything up. You are responsible for those hostiles being here. Everything I have done - blocking the signal. It was for the island. For our safety. We had one of them hostage. We could have got a lot if information out of them, but I was forced to trade for you, because of your foolishness to end up siding with the plane crash survivors, and coupulating with one of them, landing you pregnant. If I had the choice, I wouldn't have traded, but I know Jacob wouldn't want that. As for my part of the bargain of our deal for you coming here, we actually fulfilled that. But I am not sure you deserve to see him now. So you better be on your most prestine behaviour, following orders without question, or I might just give you back to the Dharma Inititive." Ben snapped back, most aggressivly, so much so, that it almost made Zoe wish she was back with them. Ben turned away from Zoe. "I'm very disappointed with you. When we first me you, I really did expect great things from you."

Ben then continued to walk back to the village. Zoe avoided eye contact with anyone else and continued to follow them back to the village.

Ben, Richard, Mel and Zoe arrived back at the village, Mel went straight over to Jack and Juliet. Ben stopped walking to allow Zoe to catch up. He didn't look at her as he spoke.

"Go to your place. I'll be there to deal with you later." He said harshly before he walked off to his own house. Zoe nodded, even though Ben wasn't watching, and she trailed back to where she had stayed those few days when she was on Ben's side. She entered the house. It felt so strange being back here. She hugged her shoulders, even though she wasn't cold, it was just comforting. She walked over to the bookcase, noticing some of the books had been recently disturbed, the main one being 'To Kill a Mockingbird', giving her a flashback of her second day of being on the island, and one of the first thing she did was pick it up and started on the first chapter.

It was then when she had first met Ben. Memories coming back to her from when she had amnesia from running to the losties camp. Zoe sat down on the sofa, staring into space, another tear ran down her cheek, as she lost herself in her own little world. She felt someone sit next to her, and wrap their arm around her shoulder. She leant onto his chest, and relaxed.

"Don't ever leave me." She whispered to him.

"I promise I won't let anyone hurt you." Charlie whispered back into her ear, holding her tight as they both hugged each other.

Zoe had fallen asleep on the sofa, having had a deep dream about Charlie, she was in a panic when she woke up, coming back to reality. She got up, feeling the sweat on her forehead as she went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. Her hand was shaking, and her teeth clattered on the glass as she took a sip, shivering all over, then it happened. She bowed her head in the sink just in time, coughing and retching afterwards.

She washed out the sink, and ran into the bathroom to clean herself up, looking at herself in the bathroom mirror, how terrible she looked. Bruises and cuts here and there, deep dark circles around her eyes from where she had had trouble from proper sleep, as well as her eyes blotchy and red. Zoe filled the sink with water, and splashed her face, cleaning her wounds. Once she was done, she paced the living area for a little while before huddling on the sofa, hugging her knees, biting one of her fingernails, staring into space as she waited.