Chapter 2

They're not coming, son. No one is coming. They're all gone.

It was a year ago that we woke up. The first thing I did was gasp for breath. One breath after another until I was choking, spitting, struggling for another breath and another, the red-hot pain searing my chest, but still I battled for air, like I had finally surfaced from a deep, dark pool. I passed out.

Later when I opened my eyes again, Dr. Gatsbro was there in a room of color and light. I closed my eyes and refused to open them, too afraid that this was yet another torture unleashed on me, maybe a torture I had unleashed on myself, a trick to make me think it was all over.

"Come now, Locke. You're safe. Look. Look at the world. Open your eyes."

That was when I heard Kara scream. A true scream that I heard through my ears, not through my mind. My eyes shot open, and I tried to get up, but something held me back. Yes, another trick. You still can't help her.

"Your friend is fine. Trust me. You can relax, boy. Relax."

"Jenna!" I yelled. "What about Jenna? Where's Jenna?" I didn't hear her. Not even a moan. Time had no beginning or ending for me anymore, but I knew that somewhere in the blackness, I had once heard Jenna too.

A short time later, Dr. Gatsbro explained to me where I was and what had happened. That was when I understood Kara's scream.

Our families weren't coming. No one was coming. They were all dead.

No one we knew was still alive.

We had been gone for 260 years.

By the next day, I was taking a few steps, and by the next, I was allowed to see Kara. I cried. Six feet three and two hundred pounds, falling to my knees, sobbing like a lost child. Kara didn't cry. Her face was blank, but she came to me and held me and whispered in my ear the way she always had.

"I'm here, Locke. I will always be here for you."

But afterward, when we were alone, she slapped me and told me to never, ever allow Dr. Gatsbro to see my weakness again. My face stung for the rest of the afternoon.

The appointments with Dr. Gatsbro began the next day. There was a lot we still needed to know.