Where are the survivors?

Kate and James warned me that people would want to know where they all were now.  I can't tell you that, but I can say a few things.
Frank flew the plane out with Claire, Kate, James, Miles and me on board.  We have all managed to blend in and stay under the radar, with a bit of help from my Mittelos contacts.  Kate helped Claire re-unite with Aaron, to be his real mom, but then we had to hide Kate, as she still was wanted by the authorities [We have since been able to mitigate this problem].  I have been contacted a few times from the Island via Ben, mostly as phone calls, though that is a topic for another time.
I know Desmond survived.  He was returned to Penny, and she now runs the Widmore Group.  That means Charles must have died in the cabin.  As far as I know, none of Charles' team have survived.
Miles is now a writer, though you wouldn't guess his pseudonym.  James, it seems, is not the type for a quiet life, and is between adventures in Africa somewhere.  And as he said in our last phone conversation, "Africa's a big place, Ricky boy."

The Smoke Monster - what did I know?

Many people think that I knew all about the Smoke Monster, but that was far from the truth.  I knew that the Dark Man was also the Smoke Monster - he admitted that to me when I was still shackled on the Black Rock.  He tried on several occasions to tempt me, to bring me around to his side, but I regarded him as an evil spirit, a nightmare made real.
I really didn't know much else during my time.  We could limit it with ash circles, and Dharma found was of using technology to create a sonar fence.  It could be called at times, to fight aggressors, but I don't know why it would attack the attackers, something to do with anger, passion, destruction.  It would rip and crush, but did not eat at all.  It could not pass through solid objects, nor over large bodies of water.  As smoke, it could move over the ground, but never entirely lose touch with it.  The Egyptians apparently saw it as an underworld god, and built a temple to it, where it lived at some times.  It could read people's memories and knowledge, learning of new ways. Ben thought he could control it, but like me and others, it was the one who was manipulating us.
It was not until we few managed to fly off the Island, that Clare and the other of Jacob's candidates told me that it was Jacob who had made that thing by some accident, and this is what underlined our struggle for so long.  The Monster had been a man at sometime in the past, and was killed when the Island's power was turned off by Desmond at the Heart, and he became a man again, in the image of John Locke.