Vaccine
Vaccine
Rating: R
Timeline: Season 3
Word count: 557
Characters: Desmond, Sun, Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Juliet and others.
Warning: Disease and deaths.
Disclaimer: This is a fictional, nonprofit work for entertainment purpose only. The copyright in the TV show LOST and its components is owned by "American Broadcast Companies, Inc.", which reserves all rights therein.
Author’s Notes: This is not a work in progress.
Desmond is the first to succumb. It’s been three days since he talked to Charlie when the visions come to haunt him again. This time, though, they stay and become stronger by the hour. “Coward”, they say.
The fever starts the following morning. People try to come close to him, but he cries and begs for them to stay away. Being the only one with some sort of medical knowledge, Sun goes to his help, but no matter what kind of tea or medicine she gives him, he only seems to get worse.
The following day the rash appears over his arms and legs. He scratches them till the skin is raw. Sun dutifully bandages the wounds. He doesn’t recognise her anymore.
That night the camp is kept awake as he bawls “Penny” repeatedly, like a mantra. In the morning he’s dead.
Three days after Desmond’s burial, they hear Sun’s sobs through the beach. Few are courageous enough to go to her and Jin’s tent. When Kate, Sayid and Locke arrive there, they see the woman covered in blood, cradling her husband’s lifeless body, knife still in her clutch. “He was going to kill me”, she keeps murmuring, but there’s nobody else to understand her language.
Kate does to her what she did to Desmond, ignoring Sawyer’s pleas that “it’s useless”. When she leaves the tent to wash the clothes stained by her friend’s miscarriage, Sun kills herself with the same knife she used on Jin.
Sawyer keeps his eyes on Kate as she behaves normally for the next two days. He’s already expecting it when she disappears on the third.
Sayid and Locke suggest a rescue party, but most people on the camp know they don’t plan on bringing her back. “If Jack had been here”, Hurley begins to say, but Sawyer interrupts him. “If Jack’d been here it’d only be worse”, he says.
They see him for the last time loading the only gun they had left, putting it on the waistline of his jeans and crossing the tree line. He’s not hiding his tears anymore. Three days later, they hear two shots far into the jungle.
Jack watches as Juliet recharges the pistol. Somewhere in his mind he thinks he should be the one doing that, but her words are still ringing through his brain. “Sounds like a case of hydrophobia.”
“A bit. And Alzheimer’s Disease, maybe.” She steps closer to him, touching his arm with the tip of the pistol. “Hallucinations, loss of memory, loss of control of basic body functions. Only it happens much faster.”
“Three days”, he repeats to himself. “Aaron had rashes. The baby. I had a look at them. He was just fine a few days later, and I never had a single symptom.”
Jack winces slightly when Juliet shoots. “Children develop a different kind, apparently”, she explains, “nobody ever understood why. They have the rashes, a bit of fever, then it’s over. We use blood samples to develop the vaccine for adults, but it’s short-lived. After a while the antibodies simply vanish. The ones who had it during childhood seem to be protected forever, though.”
“You found a prevention. What about a cure?”, Jack asks her while she puts the vaccine pistol back into its case. Juliet never answers him, because she doesn’t need to. He already knows.
Rating: R
Timeline: Season 3
Word count: 557
Characters: Desmond, Sun, Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Juliet and others.
Warning: Disease and deaths.
Disclaimer: This is a fictional, nonprofit work for entertainment purpose only. The copyright in the TV show LOST and its components is owned by "American Broadcast Companies, Inc.", which reserves all rights therein.
Author’s Notes: This is not a work in progress.
Desmond is the first to succumb. It’s been three days since he talked to Charlie when the visions come to haunt him again. This time, though, they stay and become stronger by the hour. “Coward”, they say.
The fever starts the following morning. People try to come close to him, but he cries and begs for them to stay away. Being the only one with some sort of medical knowledge, Sun goes to his help, but no matter what kind of tea or medicine she gives him, he only seems to get worse.
The following day the rash appears over his arms and legs. He scratches them till the skin is raw. Sun dutifully bandages the wounds. He doesn’t recognise her anymore.
That night the camp is kept awake as he bawls “Penny” repeatedly, like a mantra. In the morning he’s dead.
Three days after Desmond’s burial, they hear Sun’s sobs through the beach. Few are courageous enough to go to her and Jin’s tent. When Kate, Sayid and Locke arrive there, they see the woman covered in blood, cradling her husband’s lifeless body, knife still in her clutch. “He was going to kill me”, she keeps murmuring, but there’s nobody else to understand her language.
Kate does to her what she did to Desmond, ignoring Sawyer’s pleas that “it’s useless”. When she leaves the tent to wash the clothes stained by her friend’s miscarriage, Sun kills herself with the same knife she used on Jin.
Sawyer keeps his eyes on Kate as she behaves normally for the next two days. He’s already expecting it when she disappears on the third.
Sayid and Locke suggest a rescue party, but most people on the camp know they don’t plan on bringing her back. “If Jack had been here”, Hurley begins to say, but Sawyer interrupts him. “If Jack’d been here it’d only be worse”, he says.
They see him for the last time loading the only gun they had left, putting it on the waistline of his jeans and crossing the tree line. He’s not hiding his tears anymore. Three days later, they hear two shots far into the jungle.
Jack watches as Juliet recharges the pistol. Somewhere in his mind he thinks he should be the one doing that, but her words are still ringing through his brain. “Sounds like a case of hydrophobia.”
“A bit. And Alzheimer’s Disease, maybe.” She steps closer to him, touching his arm with the tip of the pistol. “Hallucinations, loss of memory, loss of control of basic body functions. Only it happens much faster.”
“Three days”, he repeats to himself. “Aaron had rashes. The baby. I had a look at them. He was just fine a few days later, and I never had a single symptom.”
Jack winces slightly when Juliet shoots. “Children develop a different kind, apparently”, she explains, “nobody ever understood why. They have the rashes, a bit of fever, then it’s over. We use blood samples to develop the vaccine for adults, but it’s short-lived. After a while the antibodies simply vanish. The ones who had it during childhood seem to be protected forever, though.”
“You found a prevention. What about a cure?”, Jack asks her while she puts the vaccine pistol back into its case. Juliet never answers him, because she doesn’t need to. He already knows.