Post by Richard Alpert on Mar 1, 2009 23:14:14 GMT -5
The only good thing about the Dharma people was that they weren't as smart as he was, nor as willing to wait to get things done. The food source was running thin in the Hostile camp, and Richard knew exactly where to get it. The Dharma camp had food hidden around various parts of their barracks. Most was in the Station that they called The Swan, however, Richard knew that the people in the barracks had to have food in their houses. He also knew that one woman had just died. Her husband was working out on the other Island, the Hydra station. It would be a perfect snatch and grab operation. Of course, Richard couldn't risk the other members of the group. Sure, there would be better results if he had more hands to carry the food, but in the darkness of night, he was planning on making multiple trips. He needed to make as many as he could that night.
Richard stared up at the large pillars, the ones that the birds and animals stayed away from. He ran his hand along the cool steel, feeling the hum and energy from the invisible barrier that the pillars were generating. The other good thing about the Dharma people was that they were still naive. Incredibly wary, of course, but still insanely naive. As Richard bent down to the panel, he started to enter numbers. Numbers he saw on Hatch doors, numbers he saw on Dharma people's clothing...and instantly, the light turned from red to green, and Richard felt a smirk cross his face.
"So predictible." he muttered under his breath, and moved, pulling a small rabbit out of one of his two large messenger bags that were slung over his shoulder. He set it down on the ground and gave it a little pat before he watched it go through the fence unharmed. Stepping through the fence, he silently started to slip into the jungle towards the Barracks.
The empty house was the third house to the end. The houses had small fences that served as barriers for the inhabitants backyard, and Richard easily hopped over the white fence to the back door. Peering in, he saw nothing but darkness. He wasn't worried; he had been watching the man for a week, and he had memorised his schedule to the minute. He had 15 and a half minutes to get in and get out. Sliding the back door open, he entered slowly, brushing a strand of brown hair that had falling in front of his eyes. He heard nothing in the house. Moving to the pantry, he instantly starting pulling the food out of the cabnets, shoving it into one of the messenger bags. All of the food was either canned or boxed which worked well out in the jungle. Opening the freezer, he saw piles and piles of meat. The boar had been migrating further into the west, and it had been harder to catch them as of late. The Dharma meat would do quite well. He pulled out what he could manage in the bag, and made towards the bedroom.
Even in the dark, Richard could see the simpleness of the room. A large bed. A nightstand. An alarmclock. He turned silently, moving to the closet. He grabbed clothes and started shoving them into the bag. Women's clothes, Mens clothes, until the small closet was completely bare. However, the smaller part of the closet made him curious. He stood up, craining his neck until he saw a box. Further inspection told him there were three pistols in the box. Pulling them out, he placed two in the waistband of his pants, and the other in the bag. He then moved onto the smaller room, and realised it was a child's room. But where was the child?
Instantly, a shift on the bed made Richard frown deeply. He hadn't thought of a child. If there was a child, surely there was a guardian near by, right? A soft gasp made his head snap to the bed, but before the little girl could scream, Richard moved his hand over her mouth, the other around her head, and twisted.
The girl went limp in his arms. Setting her down carefully, he pulled the covers up over her and moved off the bed to the little girl's closet.
She was about the same size and age as Alex, but it didn't phase him at all. She wasn't Alex, it was as simple as that. Silently, he pulled the little girl's clothes out, shoving them into the bag. Glancing down at his watch, he noticed only five more minutes. However, a sound at the front door made Richard's head turn quickly towards the living room. He grabbed the last of the little girl's clothing and started towards the back door, however, footsteps made him quickly think of another escape route.
It couldn't be the husband. Who the hell was it? The other Dharma people, they wouldn't have just walked into a house. Richard thought they had at least a little more sense than that. All of these people were trigger-happy, that was for sure. He slowly removed the gun from his hip holster, and cocked it, hearing it softly click in the silence.
Kate had been asleep, or at least trying to sleep. She never quite got used to not sleeping in her own bed. Staring up at the darkened ceiling, breathing in and out methodically. She though she could count the bumps on the ceiling but gave up somewhere around 108.
Her eyes had just began to flutter shut when she heard a noise. Like a rocket she shot up in bed. Listening intently. Someone was inside. Just great. She just had to agree to babysit for the Donaldson's this weekend. Closing her eyes and counting slowly, trying to convince herself it wasn't really anything, then she heard it again. Pulling off the coveres and stepping quietly on wooden floors with bare feet, Kate crept to the doorway. Her hand found the handle of a cane that rested just there, and she raised it up, and used it to push open the door. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness in the hall, but when they did she noticed a door was open. The kid's door.
Face paling as she moved forward quickly and silently, she paused just before the threshold, taking a deep breath, and jumped around to look in the room. Krista was still under her covers asleep, so Kate, lowered the weapon, and moved forward glancing all around. As she stood above the bed, she reached for the covers, pulling them down in a fluid motion. She gasped, hand shooting to cover her mouth at the site of the girl. She felt her dinner stir in her stomach, as she looked away with tear stung eyes. That's when she saw him. Eyes growing large at the sight of the tall shadowy figure, she held out the cane in a shaky hand.
"How could you? She was only a child," was all she could manage to get out, hissing between clenched teeth. She would have swung already, but he had something in his hands, and it didn't look good.
Eyes stayed steady on the figure that stepped past him, and Richard's hand gripped tighter to his gun as he watched the figure - a woman - step passed him and into the child's room. He heard the gasp break the still of the night, and instantly, he knew that she had found the child.
"How could you? She was only a child."
"Everyone's expendible in this world. Would it help if I told you she didn't feel a thing?" he couldn't very well shoot the woman right here; the gunshot alone would bring them running. He glanced over through the darkness at the clock on the wall, and then back to Kate. He glanced at the cane she held in her hands. His mind worked, until he realised he had seen her before. Katherine, was it? She was the leader of...the Flame Station. "Katherine. That is your name right? Katherine? Or do you go by Kate?" he said evenly, eyes watching her in the dark. "Katherine, this can go one of two ways."
Richard tilted his head only slightly, blinking in the darkness. "You can put the cane down and walk away. It's pointless for you to stay here, because she's already dead. It's over and done with. Or, if you want to be brave," he felt a shrug lift one shoulder slightly. "you can stay here. I just killed a little girl, Katherine, you will prove no problem to me." He paused, and then continued. "The dead woman's husband is going to come home soon. I want you to think long and hard about what I've posed to you, and I want you to do what you think is right."
If the woman decided to stay, Richard could deal with that easily. If the woman decided to go, well Richard could easily deal with that, too.
"I'm giving you a choice. I want you to think about which would benefit you more."
"Who are you?" Kate hissed at the man, holding up her cane in a defensive manor. She didn't want to here his spiel about people being expendable. She knew who he was, he was one of them. Ben had warned her about them, warned her to be careful of them. Not to trust them. Easier said then done when one had a gun on you.
Her pulse quickened as he revealed he knew her name. The fact he knew anything about her was very unnerving. She sneered at him in distaste as he tried to bargain with her, her forehead was scrunched up from her scowl. "
You think you can just come in here, kill a child, and take whatever you want? You think you don't have to pay for this??" Kate asked, with rising indignation. She was not going to back down. He had just killed a child. If he shot her, he would be alerting everyone to his presence, and she was betting on him not wanting that.
"I don't need to think about anything, you son of a bitch!" Kate tightened her grip on the cane and narrowed her eyes. She knew how to take care of herself. Ben had seen to that. She was not going to let this guy get off scott free. Not a chance.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Richard." Of course, it didn't hurt for the people to know their enemies name. Besides, that Hostile word was getting thrown around so much that Richard figured at least he'd give them a name. Better to put a name to a face of fear, Richard thought, before Kate spoke again, her voice rising. He tilted his head as he listened to her.
"You think you can just come in here, kill a child and take whatever you want? You think you don't have to pay for this?!"
It was then that Richard scoffed. "Excuse me?" Richard asked, his voice a deadly mix of calm and frustration. "You people...you people act all high and mighty as if you're the kings and queens of your own destiny. This is not your kingdom." Richard told her with a frown. "You think that simply because you came onto an Island, it's yours. You're free to do whatever you wish with it. You come on my Island with your experiments and guns and then you complain that there's blood in the water?" He narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Kate. "I killed a child, yes. If it calls for it, I'd kill more. Do you want to know how many of my people you've killed?"
As Kate spoke again, calling him a son of a bitch, Richard felt his lips twist into a slight smirk. "No, see, you've got it all wrong." he told her honestly. "I'm doing exactly what you're doing. I'm living off the land. There just happens to be houses and people to my advantage. I'd say you people have got the bad end of the deal, sweetheart, honestly. And of course, maybe you all could be smarter than I'm thinking you are. But if that was a fact, then I wouldn't have been able to come into this house, so please, don't insult my intelligence, okay? You call us Hostiles, when in fact, it's you. You're the Hostiles. My people should be afraid of you, we should be the ones grabbing our guns whenever we hear a twig break in the Jungle, but no. No, you all go on red alert every time someone breathes the word Hostile. It's pathetic." Richard told her honestly. "You people...you people don't understand what you've done by coming here. Mark my words, Katherine. You are all going to die here on this Island."
And of course, Richard was sure that his side was going to win. They had to. He tilted his head slightly as he watched Kate. "Is that really what you came here for, Katherine? To die?" Richard asked honestly. "I've watched these people, your so-called leaders. They don't care about you. They only care about their silly experiments. They let that man's wife die out there in the jungle, alone, because of their fear. They couldn't even overcome their fear to save another." He knew that the Doctor's wife's death had been his people's mistake, however, if the Dharma people hadn't let her go out into the jungle alone...she wouldn't have been shot.
"You have to ask yourself, Katherine...which side will you be on? Because sooner or later...it's all going to end, and the people that die, they'll be nothing more than whispers. You don't want to be a whisper, do you?"
Kate stiffened a bit at his name. Richard. Wasn't he their leader? The one Ben had spoken about? Shifting her wright from her front foot to her back, Kate kept silent. Her eyes were unblinking, and her nostril's flared as she tried to regulate her breathing and her pulse. She was really starting to wonder what she had gotten herself into.
"You people attacked us first." Kate snapped, "we have every right to do whatever the hell we please. You may have lived here first, but you don't own the earth. What we do is for the greater good, and any deaths we may have caused were only because your people were attacking us. It was self-defense." Glaring at him, eyes flicking to the dead child, "you tellin' me that was self defense? That you can justify killing an innocent child just because some of your people were lost in a battle?" Shaking her head with growing disgust, hissing at him from behind clenched teeth, "you're a hypocrite."
"Living off the land doesn't include attacking inocent people!" Kate blurted out, "and I am nothing like you people." The very idea that he would compare himself to her was sick. He was one of them, a hostile, no matter how much he tried to smooth it over, at the end of the day, its still the same. "You think we fear you because we think you're stupid?" Kate raised both eyebrows in disbelief. "It's because you're animals," her tone nearly came to a shout, as she took a step towards him, "its because of things like, that!" A finger pointed to the corpse, but her eyes never left him. If anyone is pathetic, its you, Richard. The man who just killed a little girl!"
She didn't quite know what to say his threats to 'all' of them, but somehow she felt it shouldn't be taken lightly. Easing back, realizing she had come a bit too close in her anger. She let the cane lower in her hand just slightly. Her face fell when he said that Dharma didn't care about her, or its members. So what if it were pretty much true. She knew for a fact they had blamed many failed and fatal experiments on the hostiles. They were a good scape goat, but they also deserved the reputation they had. "You don't know anything about me." Her tone was much more resigned now, eye downcast.
Slowly raising her eyes to meet his, tears threatening to spill out from them. "I will be on whatever side isn't killing innocent children." Stepping back further, she held up an arm motioning for him to leave, "you better go now. They'll be here soon." She had no choice but to let him go, and if people found him, there was bound to be more loss of life. This already was too much. His words about being a whisper were cryptic, but she was not about to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had her scared.
"You people attacked us first. We have every right to do whatever the hell we please. You may have lived here first, but you don't own the earth. What we do is for the greater good, and any deaths we may have caused were only because your people were attacking us. It was self-defense."
"The greater good?" Richard repeated in a scoff, and he shook his head, watching her. "Why don't you get off your soap box for a second. You're saying that the deaths of those women, the children that they carried in their womb is OUR fault? Or when your people get shot down because they go into the woods and get a little trigger happy? You could easily say it's self-defense on our part, too." However, when Kate pointed to the little girl, Richard glanced at the dead girl in the bed and then back to Kate. "She was going to die anyway. I'd rather have her die an innocent than die knowing how corrupt you all are."
"You think we fear you because we think you're stupid."
"No, I think you fear us because in the end, you know we're completely capable of killing you all. I think you'd be wise to bite your tongue at me, Katherine. With a simple word, I can have this camp and all of the people in it destroyed. My people would eagerly come in here, and you think I'm an animal because I snapped a little girl's neck?" Richard asked honestly. "There are some in my camp that have talked of torturing your people, simply to seek revenge for their parents murder. I have people in my camp that talk of murdering the men, women, and children of your camp like they're complimenting the weather. Why is it, Katherine, that I don't simply let them do their bidding? Why is it that I choose to wait?"
Richard watched her slowly lower the cane slightly. "Because in every war...it's not fair if one side simply takes over another side. If we're going to have a war, Katherine, I want everyone to die fighting for what they believe in, even if I don't believe it myself. It's honourable."
"You don't know anything about me."
"Your name is Katherine Austen. Born in Ames, Iowa. Your father was an military man, however, he mysteriously died soon before you accepted the job with the Dharma people. You were married, once, to a man with a southern drawl. Kevin, I believe was his name. However, you chose this life, this prison over marriage. You're the Station Leader of the Flame and you seem to take an interest in the Leader of the Staff. Jack, is it?" Richard tilted his head slightly, watching Kate. "I also know that you're very unsure of yourself and why you're here. Should I go on?"
The emotions that crossed Kate's face were intriguing to Richard; partly he knew that he was getting to her. When she stated that she would be on the side that wasn't killing innocent children. Richard found himself smirking slightly at that.
"Your people have killed more children that I ever will. What do you think is more sad? Killing a child who's had a taste of life, or killing a child who's never even taken it's first breath?"
Richard stared up at the large pillars, the ones that the birds and animals stayed away from. He ran his hand along the cool steel, feeling the hum and energy from the invisible barrier that the pillars were generating. The other good thing about the Dharma people was that they were still naive. Incredibly wary, of course, but still insanely naive. As Richard bent down to the panel, he started to enter numbers. Numbers he saw on Hatch doors, numbers he saw on Dharma people's clothing...and instantly, the light turned from red to green, and Richard felt a smirk cross his face.
"So predictible." he muttered under his breath, and moved, pulling a small rabbit out of one of his two large messenger bags that were slung over his shoulder. He set it down on the ground and gave it a little pat before he watched it go through the fence unharmed. Stepping through the fence, he silently started to slip into the jungle towards the Barracks.
The empty house was the third house to the end. The houses had small fences that served as barriers for the inhabitants backyard, and Richard easily hopped over the white fence to the back door. Peering in, he saw nothing but darkness. He wasn't worried; he had been watching the man for a week, and he had memorised his schedule to the minute. He had 15 and a half minutes to get in and get out. Sliding the back door open, he entered slowly, brushing a strand of brown hair that had falling in front of his eyes. He heard nothing in the house. Moving to the pantry, he instantly starting pulling the food out of the cabnets, shoving it into one of the messenger bags. All of the food was either canned or boxed which worked well out in the jungle. Opening the freezer, he saw piles and piles of meat. The boar had been migrating further into the west, and it had been harder to catch them as of late. The Dharma meat would do quite well. He pulled out what he could manage in the bag, and made towards the bedroom.
Even in the dark, Richard could see the simpleness of the room. A large bed. A nightstand. An alarmclock. He turned silently, moving to the closet. He grabbed clothes and started shoving them into the bag. Women's clothes, Mens clothes, until the small closet was completely bare. However, the smaller part of the closet made him curious. He stood up, craining his neck until he saw a box. Further inspection told him there were three pistols in the box. Pulling them out, he placed two in the waistband of his pants, and the other in the bag. He then moved onto the smaller room, and realised it was a child's room. But where was the child?
Instantly, a shift on the bed made Richard frown deeply. He hadn't thought of a child. If there was a child, surely there was a guardian near by, right? A soft gasp made his head snap to the bed, but before the little girl could scream, Richard moved his hand over her mouth, the other around her head, and twisted.
The girl went limp in his arms. Setting her down carefully, he pulled the covers up over her and moved off the bed to the little girl's closet.
She was about the same size and age as Alex, but it didn't phase him at all. She wasn't Alex, it was as simple as that. Silently, he pulled the little girl's clothes out, shoving them into the bag. Glancing down at his watch, he noticed only five more minutes. However, a sound at the front door made Richard's head turn quickly towards the living room. He grabbed the last of the little girl's clothing and started towards the back door, however, footsteps made him quickly think of another escape route.
It couldn't be the husband. Who the hell was it? The other Dharma people, they wouldn't have just walked into a house. Richard thought they had at least a little more sense than that. All of these people were trigger-happy, that was for sure. He slowly removed the gun from his hip holster, and cocked it, hearing it softly click in the silence.
Kate had been asleep, or at least trying to sleep. She never quite got used to not sleeping in her own bed. Staring up at the darkened ceiling, breathing in and out methodically. She though she could count the bumps on the ceiling but gave up somewhere around 108.
Her eyes had just began to flutter shut when she heard a noise. Like a rocket she shot up in bed. Listening intently. Someone was inside. Just great. She just had to agree to babysit for the Donaldson's this weekend. Closing her eyes and counting slowly, trying to convince herself it wasn't really anything, then she heard it again. Pulling off the coveres and stepping quietly on wooden floors with bare feet, Kate crept to the doorway. Her hand found the handle of a cane that rested just there, and she raised it up, and used it to push open the door. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness in the hall, but when they did she noticed a door was open. The kid's door.
Face paling as she moved forward quickly and silently, she paused just before the threshold, taking a deep breath, and jumped around to look in the room. Krista was still under her covers asleep, so Kate, lowered the weapon, and moved forward glancing all around. As she stood above the bed, she reached for the covers, pulling them down in a fluid motion. She gasped, hand shooting to cover her mouth at the site of the girl. She felt her dinner stir in her stomach, as she looked away with tear stung eyes. That's when she saw him. Eyes growing large at the sight of the tall shadowy figure, she held out the cane in a shaky hand.
"How could you? She was only a child," was all she could manage to get out, hissing between clenched teeth. She would have swung already, but he had something in his hands, and it didn't look good.
Eyes stayed steady on the figure that stepped past him, and Richard's hand gripped tighter to his gun as he watched the figure - a woman - step passed him and into the child's room. He heard the gasp break the still of the night, and instantly, he knew that she had found the child.
"How could you? She was only a child."
"Everyone's expendible in this world. Would it help if I told you she didn't feel a thing?" he couldn't very well shoot the woman right here; the gunshot alone would bring them running. He glanced over through the darkness at the clock on the wall, and then back to Kate. He glanced at the cane she held in her hands. His mind worked, until he realised he had seen her before. Katherine, was it? She was the leader of...the Flame Station. "Katherine. That is your name right? Katherine? Or do you go by Kate?" he said evenly, eyes watching her in the dark. "Katherine, this can go one of two ways."
Richard tilted his head only slightly, blinking in the darkness. "You can put the cane down and walk away. It's pointless for you to stay here, because she's already dead. It's over and done with. Or, if you want to be brave," he felt a shrug lift one shoulder slightly. "you can stay here. I just killed a little girl, Katherine, you will prove no problem to me." He paused, and then continued. "The dead woman's husband is going to come home soon. I want you to think long and hard about what I've posed to you, and I want you to do what you think is right."
If the woman decided to stay, Richard could deal with that easily. If the woman decided to go, well Richard could easily deal with that, too.
"I'm giving you a choice. I want you to think about which would benefit you more."
"Who are you?" Kate hissed at the man, holding up her cane in a defensive manor. She didn't want to here his spiel about people being expendable. She knew who he was, he was one of them. Ben had warned her about them, warned her to be careful of them. Not to trust them. Easier said then done when one had a gun on you.
Her pulse quickened as he revealed he knew her name. The fact he knew anything about her was very unnerving. She sneered at him in distaste as he tried to bargain with her, her forehead was scrunched up from her scowl. "
You think you can just come in here, kill a child, and take whatever you want? You think you don't have to pay for this??" Kate asked, with rising indignation. She was not going to back down. He had just killed a child. If he shot her, he would be alerting everyone to his presence, and she was betting on him not wanting that.
"I don't need to think about anything, you son of a bitch!" Kate tightened her grip on the cane and narrowed her eyes. She knew how to take care of herself. Ben had seen to that. She was not going to let this guy get off scott free. Not a chance.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Richard." Of course, it didn't hurt for the people to know their enemies name. Besides, that Hostile word was getting thrown around so much that Richard figured at least he'd give them a name. Better to put a name to a face of fear, Richard thought, before Kate spoke again, her voice rising. He tilted his head as he listened to her.
"You think you can just come in here, kill a child and take whatever you want? You think you don't have to pay for this?!"
It was then that Richard scoffed. "Excuse me?" Richard asked, his voice a deadly mix of calm and frustration. "You people...you people act all high and mighty as if you're the kings and queens of your own destiny. This is not your kingdom." Richard told her with a frown. "You think that simply because you came onto an Island, it's yours. You're free to do whatever you wish with it. You come on my Island with your experiments and guns and then you complain that there's blood in the water?" He narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Kate. "I killed a child, yes. If it calls for it, I'd kill more. Do you want to know how many of my people you've killed?"
As Kate spoke again, calling him a son of a bitch, Richard felt his lips twist into a slight smirk. "No, see, you've got it all wrong." he told her honestly. "I'm doing exactly what you're doing. I'm living off the land. There just happens to be houses and people to my advantage. I'd say you people have got the bad end of the deal, sweetheart, honestly. And of course, maybe you all could be smarter than I'm thinking you are. But if that was a fact, then I wouldn't have been able to come into this house, so please, don't insult my intelligence, okay? You call us Hostiles, when in fact, it's you. You're the Hostiles. My people should be afraid of you, we should be the ones grabbing our guns whenever we hear a twig break in the Jungle, but no. No, you all go on red alert every time someone breathes the word Hostile. It's pathetic." Richard told her honestly. "You people...you people don't understand what you've done by coming here. Mark my words, Katherine. You are all going to die here on this Island."
And of course, Richard was sure that his side was going to win. They had to. He tilted his head slightly as he watched Kate. "Is that really what you came here for, Katherine? To die?" Richard asked honestly. "I've watched these people, your so-called leaders. They don't care about you. They only care about their silly experiments. They let that man's wife die out there in the jungle, alone, because of their fear. They couldn't even overcome their fear to save another." He knew that the Doctor's wife's death had been his people's mistake, however, if the Dharma people hadn't let her go out into the jungle alone...she wouldn't have been shot.
"You have to ask yourself, Katherine...which side will you be on? Because sooner or later...it's all going to end, and the people that die, they'll be nothing more than whispers. You don't want to be a whisper, do you?"
Kate stiffened a bit at his name. Richard. Wasn't he their leader? The one Ben had spoken about? Shifting her wright from her front foot to her back, Kate kept silent. Her eyes were unblinking, and her nostril's flared as she tried to regulate her breathing and her pulse. She was really starting to wonder what she had gotten herself into.
"You people attacked us first." Kate snapped, "we have every right to do whatever the hell we please. You may have lived here first, but you don't own the earth. What we do is for the greater good, and any deaths we may have caused were only because your people were attacking us. It was self-defense." Glaring at him, eyes flicking to the dead child, "you tellin' me that was self defense? That you can justify killing an innocent child just because some of your people were lost in a battle?" Shaking her head with growing disgust, hissing at him from behind clenched teeth, "you're a hypocrite."
"Living off the land doesn't include attacking inocent people!" Kate blurted out, "and I am nothing like you people." The very idea that he would compare himself to her was sick. He was one of them, a hostile, no matter how much he tried to smooth it over, at the end of the day, its still the same. "You think we fear you because we think you're stupid?" Kate raised both eyebrows in disbelief. "It's because you're animals," her tone nearly came to a shout, as she took a step towards him, "its because of things like, that!" A finger pointed to the corpse, but her eyes never left him. If anyone is pathetic, its you, Richard. The man who just killed a little girl!"
She didn't quite know what to say his threats to 'all' of them, but somehow she felt it shouldn't be taken lightly. Easing back, realizing she had come a bit too close in her anger. She let the cane lower in her hand just slightly. Her face fell when he said that Dharma didn't care about her, or its members. So what if it were pretty much true. She knew for a fact they had blamed many failed and fatal experiments on the hostiles. They were a good scape goat, but they also deserved the reputation they had. "You don't know anything about me." Her tone was much more resigned now, eye downcast.
Slowly raising her eyes to meet his, tears threatening to spill out from them. "I will be on whatever side isn't killing innocent children." Stepping back further, she held up an arm motioning for him to leave, "you better go now. They'll be here soon." She had no choice but to let him go, and if people found him, there was bound to be more loss of life. This already was too much. His words about being a whisper were cryptic, but she was not about to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had her scared.
"You people attacked us first. We have every right to do whatever the hell we please. You may have lived here first, but you don't own the earth. What we do is for the greater good, and any deaths we may have caused were only because your people were attacking us. It was self-defense."
"The greater good?" Richard repeated in a scoff, and he shook his head, watching her. "Why don't you get off your soap box for a second. You're saying that the deaths of those women, the children that they carried in their womb is OUR fault? Or when your people get shot down because they go into the woods and get a little trigger happy? You could easily say it's self-defense on our part, too." However, when Kate pointed to the little girl, Richard glanced at the dead girl in the bed and then back to Kate. "She was going to die anyway. I'd rather have her die an innocent than die knowing how corrupt you all are."
"You think we fear you because we think you're stupid."
"No, I think you fear us because in the end, you know we're completely capable of killing you all. I think you'd be wise to bite your tongue at me, Katherine. With a simple word, I can have this camp and all of the people in it destroyed. My people would eagerly come in here, and you think I'm an animal because I snapped a little girl's neck?" Richard asked honestly. "There are some in my camp that have talked of torturing your people, simply to seek revenge for their parents murder. I have people in my camp that talk of murdering the men, women, and children of your camp like they're complimenting the weather. Why is it, Katherine, that I don't simply let them do their bidding? Why is it that I choose to wait?"
Richard watched her slowly lower the cane slightly. "Because in every war...it's not fair if one side simply takes over another side. If we're going to have a war, Katherine, I want everyone to die fighting for what they believe in, even if I don't believe it myself. It's honourable."
"You don't know anything about me."
"Your name is Katherine Austen. Born in Ames, Iowa. Your father was an military man, however, he mysteriously died soon before you accepted the job with the Dharma people. You were married, once, to a man with a southern drawl. Kevin, I believe was his name. However, you chose this life, this prison over marriage. You're the Station Leader of the Flame and you seem to take an interest in the Leader of the Staff. Jack, is it?" Richard tilted his head slightly, watching Kate. "I also know that you're very unsure of yourself and why you're here. Should I go on?"
The emotions that crossed Kate's face were intriguing to Richard; partly he knew that he was getting to her. When she stated that she would be on the side that wasn't killing innocent children. Richard found himself smirking slightly at that.
"Your people have killed more children that I ever will. What do you think is more sad? Killing a child who's had a taste of life, or killing a child who's never even taken it's first breath?"
Also srsly getting back into the Kate mindset is more difficult than it looks. Also2 I have so many fricken typo's in there, it's killing me not to be able to edit it XD
