Time Shift 1 - 2001/2002
Locke and Zoe stood, hiding their eyes behind their arms as a bright white light invaded the entire atmosphere, almost blinding them from the brightness, a loud rumbling whirring and humming sound hummered across the entire island. The bright white glow vanished as quickly as it had come, and as Zoe's eyes re-adjusted its focus, she realised immediately, along with John, that Richard, the Others and the camp had disappeared. It was raining at an irritating pace, that reminded her of her trips to the Lake District and Wales back in Britain. Thunder crashed loudly above them, making Zoe's ears ring slightly, her ears screaming to be popped as they had filled with air.
"What the..." Zoe spoke softly.
"Richard?" John called out. He turned round on the spot looking for any sign of live apart from himself and Zoe. "Richard! Richard! Anyone?"
"What the... Richard? Richard?! Anyone? Anyone?!" He called out desperately.
"I take it you are as clueless as me then, to where they have gone?" Zoe asked rehtoricaly.
"We better get moving. I don't understand what's happened, but maybe there is someone who can tell us." John suggested. Zoe nodded in agreement, and they made their way through the jungle terrain, passing over a stream. Birds were chirping happily away, hidden well in the surrounding trees. Locke and Zoe eventually vacated the jungle area and came upon an open medow that was rather hilly. They paused as they got almost to the top of the prairie hill, which was grassy. Locke put his hand up to signal Zoe to stop, which he did obidently without complaint. Her bump was begining to tire her out again.
"What's up?" Zoe asked, but John signalled to silence her, and he cocked his head to one side to listen intently. Zoe pricked her ears too, and listened carefully to whatever it was John was listening too. Then she heard it. Not far off, there was the sound of a motor drone. Without warning, John accelerated up the rest of the mountainside, and Zoe followed, panting heavily. They both looked upward towards the sky. The rain had ceased now, andthe clouds made the weather slightly overcast, but the sun was fighting through the clouds. The droning grew louder and a Beechcraft burst into view, narrowly missing Locke and Zoe as they ducked just in time as the plane passed overhead, and down below into the valley. They heard and witnissed the crash, and a thick cloud of smoke rose down in the distance, beyond yonder some trees. Zoe and Locke exchanged significant glances and charged down the hill.
Locke tripped upon something on the way. He stumbled and fell, faceplanting on the ground. Zoe stopped to help him up, but he waved her away for a moment s he picked up the culprit of what had made him trip. He picked up a small religious statue. The same statue that contained the drugs Charlie had stashed at one time, when he was still alive. Locke picked it up and examined it. Zoe took it off him curiously and they were off again, towards the crashsite of the Beechcraft as they both realised for certain what it was.
"Boone." Zoe managed to whisper in horror at her memory of what the plane had meant to them both.
They arrived at the Beechcraft crash site to find the Beechcraft stuck up in the trees, one propeller creaking as it continued to spin slightly.
"Is anyone there?!" Locke shouted up to the Beechcraft, but there was no reply, except for the dangerously sounding creak of the plane.
"Hello?!" Locke shouted up again.
"Hello!" Zoe shouted after. But there was no reply. Just the earie groan of the plane in its rigid place of the crash site.
"Hello?!" John called up one last time, just in case there maybe a delayed response, but there was nothing but the creaking and groaning of the plane. Locke grunted and panted as he ran towards the vines. The same vines, unkown to Zoe, that Boone had used before when he had ascended to the climb up to the fuselage of the Beechcraft. The plane continued to creak threateningly in its precarious perch in the jungle canopy.
"John!? What do you think you're doing? It's far too dangerous!" Zoe shouted after him.
"There could be survivors!" John shouted back.
"You could fall! The plane could crash on you!" Zoe objected.
"It won't." John argued condidently. Zoe sighed impaiently, and sat down sulkily on a rock, exhausted. Locke continued his acsend up the vines toward the Beechcraft when he was suddenly interrupted but a gunshot, and a bullet ricoheted on Locke's right. Locke panted in shock and looked down, but it was just Zoe in view, who's attention had been caught by the sudden gunshot too. She stood up, staring panically around her surroundings.
Anothergunshot exploded through the air, again, it was aimed at Locke, and marginally missed him on his right. .
"Hey!" John shouted in protest. A third gunshot whistled through the air, this time, hitting John in his right leg. John losened his grip as the pain took hold instantly, and fell backwards towards the ground, landing in the foliage, narrowly mising a small pile of deadly rocks.
"John!" Zoe squealed in terror, and she ran over to him, constantly keeping a watch out for the culprit.
"Ugh!" John groaned as he hit the jungle floor. Zoe tried to help him get him to his feet, but he was too heavy, and in too much pain. He was panting and grunting, he reached out to feel his wound, which was now bleeding profusely. Leaves rustled and footsteps were fast approaching just ahead of them from the jungle. Locke tried to sit up, and a man siloutted at first by the sun and shadows of the jungle emereged, poiting a rifle meanacingly at them both. He stepped into the full sunlight. It was Ethan Rom.
****
"Who are you?" Ethan demmanded angrily. The colour from Zoe's face faded to chalk white in fear. She trembled, frozen on the spot, incapable of moving, or saying anything in reply. She went into shock. Ethan was dead.
He was dead. She saw him die with her own eyes. How could he be here now? Of course, the Beechcraft didn't make sense either, and the flashing blinding light must be the reason for this strange situation. Locke eyed Zoe worridly and turned to face Ethan bravely himself, holding out his hand instinctively to protect himself.
"Well, listen, listen-" John panicked slightly.
"How many others onboard?" Ethan continued to interrogate sinisterly.
"You don't understand. I didn't come on that plane." John tried to explain, but Ethan cocked his gun. He didn't believe him.
"Wrong answer." Ethan replied coldly. He raised his gun to aim at Zoe, and her heart raced, her lips quivvered, and she felt a sudden weep of cold rush over her.
"No, wait! Stop! Stop! I know you. I know who you are. Your name... your name is Ethan. Your name is Ethan." John shouted at him desperately. Ethan kept his aim at Zoe, but he was intrigued by John's response.
"Who are you?" He demanded.
"My name is John Locke. And that is Zoe Taylor. I know this is gonna be hard to understand, but Ben Linus appointed me as your leader." John tried to explain. Ethan paused, as if considering what Locke told him seriously.
"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Ethan concluded sourly, and he shifted his position more comfortably and refreshed his aim at Zoe to shoot her first, and she remained frozen on the spot, one hand and arm held firmly and protectively over her stomach, but she was too afraid to move, her face was still paler then a ghost.
Then, suddenly, the island started to hum. A low, heavy rumbling could be heard in the distance, which even caught Ethan by surprise, the air around them began to brighten. Ethan turned back to face Zoe.
"Good-bye, Zoe Taylor, John Locke." He spoke icly, showing no merciful or remorseful emotion on his face as he really prepared to fire at her, Zoe watched, and as if in slow motion, his finger tighten on the trigger as he was suddenly engulfed in a bright white light. Too shocked compared to Zoe to brace herself, she stared on, like a deer caught in headlights.
Time Shift 2, Day 4 2007The atmosphere changed to complete darkness as the bright white light ebbed away. Zoe remained frozen in position, still in shock. Locke grunted as he attempted to heave himself up, despite injury.
"Aah!" He complained, but with support of his surroundings, he used a tree to heave himself up, still grunting and panting as he did, he hobbled over to Zoe to try and grab her attention, but she was lost to their reality.
"Zoe." He spoke to her softly, but she didn't respond. He waved his hand over her eyes, but she didn't blink. He sighed, and then slapped her. She blinked, but there was little response to his action. Then, just moments after his slap, she snapped back to attention.
"Ethan-" She whispered.
"It's ok. He's gone." He reassured her gently. "Come on, we better keep moving. I don't know when we are."
"When?!" She whispered.
"I have a theory." Locke growled, and he helped her to her feet, struggling as he did so. Zoe's face was still alarmingly white. Locke hobbled over to the fuselage which was now on the jungle floor and burnt out. He ripped off a useful looking scrap that he turned into a splint and strapped it to himself to help support gimself as they continued to stumble through the midnight jungle.
"Aagh!" John complained as he tried to walk, but it was intensly painful. Footsteps suddenly echoed through the jungle though, and in the distance, they both recognised a light emmiting from a torch coming closer. Locke enleashed his knife and aimed it in the direction of the approaching stranger. Richard Alpert emerged from the darkness, carrying the torch.
"Richard?" Locke spoke incredulously. Locke lowered his knife and dropped it beside him.
"Hey, John." Richard spoke polietly, and sat beside him. He noticed Zoe too. "Zoe, you look like you've seen a ghost!"
"You could say that." Zoe trembled, shivvering. It wasn't cold, but she was still shaken up from seeing Ethan, and having a gun shoved in her face by him.
"Richard... what is happening?" Locke asked calmly.
"What's happening is that you're bleeding to death. Here." Richard explained and he started to treat John's wound, ignoring his grunts and groans.
"I need to get the bullet out." He apologised as he used tools from a medical kit to aid him.
"How did you know there was a bullet in my leg, Richard?" Locke inquired, almost accusingly.
"Because you told me there was, John." Richard replied simply, continuing to treat the wound.
"No, no. No, I didn't." Locke responded certainly.
"Well..." Richard replied, smiling at him. "You will." Locke panted some more.
"It was Ethan who shot me." Locke replied grudgingly.
"Well..." Richard spoke fairly, donning his eyeglasses."What comes around, goes around." Zoe felt the blood rush back to her cheeks at what Richard said. She was angry. After the way Ethan treated her, and her friends, Ethan definately got what he deserved, but she didn't say anything. She was still in shock by what she saw. Richard poured alcohol onto Locke's wound, and Locke cried out in pain and protest.
"Aah! When am I?" John demmanded.
"Well, John, that--that's all relative." Richard replied unhelpfully. Richard puts some tweezers toward Locke's wound.
"Wait, wait. When the sky lit up... where did you go?" John continued to question.
"I didn't go anywhere, John. You and Zoe went. All right, this--this is gonna hurt. It'll be a lot worse if you move, okay? Hold still." Richard warned. Locke inhaled sharply, and Zoe winced at the sound of squishing that accompanied Richard's probing with the tweezers in John's leg.
"Uhh!" John groaned as Richard extracted the bullet
"All done." Richard smiled prudly.
"Jeez." John panted exhaustily. Richard's instruments clattered as he packed his medical kit away.
" I don't understand. How--how did you know that I was here? How did you know where to find me?" John asked, anxious and confused.
"I wish I had time to explain it, John. But you're gonna be moving on soon, and we need to go over a couple of things before you do." Richard spoke rapidly, Locke had trouble keeping up.
""Moving on"? Aah!" Locke moaned as Richard pressed a pauze to John's leg.
"Sorry. The first thing, okay?" Richard apologised. Locke groaned again.
"You're gonna need to clean out the wound every couple of hours and keep as much weight off the leg as you can, all right? The Island'll do the rest, John, all right?" Richard asked.
"But I don't--" Locke mumbled, dazed.
"Second thing--no, no, pay attention. Next time we see each other, I'm not gonna recognize you. All right? You give me this. All right?" Richard explained quickly, and handed John something small, and something Zoe recognised. Richard's compass. Still, Locke questioned it.
"What is this?"
"It's a compass." Richard replied simply, as if stating the obvious.
"What does it do?" John asked stupidly. Zoe rolled her eyes.
"It points north, John. Look, I wish I had time to be more sensitive about this because it's a lot to swallow, but you need to know it in order to do what you gotta do. So I'm just gonna say it, okay?" Richard sighed. "The only way to save the Island, John, is to get your people back here--the ones who left."
"All of them? Carrie too?" John asked.
"No. Not Carrie. Look, John, I wish I had time to explain, but I want you to make sure she stays where she is." Richard replied.
"Jack, Kate... The chopper was headed for the boat. The boat--" John paniced.
"No, they're fine, John, and they're already home, so you have to convince them to come back." Richard explained.
"How--how am I supposed to do that?" John asked, tilting his head thoughtfully.
"You're gonna have to die, John." Richard explained unhelpfully.
A loud high-pitched humming turned rumbling, interrupting them all, although Richard didn't notice it, but he knew what was happening, and Locke pulls an arm over his eyes to shield them from the light in syncronisation with Zoe, who was trying to absorb what Richard had told them thoughtfully, trying to make sense of it all.
Time Shift 3 - 2001/2002The rumbling stoped as quickly as it had invaded. Birds chirped happily as it was suddenly daylight again. Locke and Zoe were alone again, on bare earth, unsheltered by the Beechcraft. John looked into his palm at the pocket compass, and pants. Zoe stared at the compass too, and exchanged a significant look with Locke as they really began to realise what was happening. They were travelling through time.
