by Danny
Danny Hearn:
Time machine. He said time machine. Time. Machine. A machine which allows the user to travel through time. I got caught in an exploding time machine. Shit.
I'm surrounded by white light. Painfully blinding, all-encompassing, beautiful white light. I'm floating. I think I'm floating. It feels like I'm floating. My legs don't seem to be in contact with anything, but I don't feel like I'm falling. Logic dictates: I am floating.
I'm calm. I'm too calm. I feel like I should be panicking at a time like this. But the white light... around me. That fills the space. It illuminates the universe. The universe inside me and the universe outside me.
Wait... it's not white light. It's not pure. It's not empty. It's quite the opposite. I am in the midst of every single moment in history, from the beginning of time to the very end. I'm in the big bang, and I'm in Milliways restaurant. I'm every-when at once.
And it's beautiful. Time travel is a beautiful thing. It takes you to every moment in time at once, in order to deliver you to one specific one. I'll bet very few time travellers actually take the moment to admire its glory. And all this lasts only an instant. A split second. I've existed simultaneously in every moment in time, and I was only in such a state for the barest fragment of it. Something about that strikes me as ironic.
When it's all over, I'm surrounded by black. Darkness. Everywhere. It takes me a moment to realize that this is because I have my eyes closed. I open them, which seems the logical thing to do.
I'm in the desert. Well, not the desert. A desert. I'm sure there's more than one. So, where am I? Think rationally, Daniel. I was in a time machine. Not a space machine. I haven't travelled in space. Only time. So, this is where the lab was. Or... where the lab will be.
Think... I was wandering the streets. Came across a hologram wall, which I found strange... someone trying to hide something. Naturally, curiosity overcame me... I wandered in. Into a hallway. An empty, white hallway. Wandered through it. Found a lab. Blacked out. Woke up inside a tube. That's the last time I wander into a random hologram wall... unless it's the Batcave. That would be cool. So... where was the lab? Europe. Just east of someplace called Mandelovia. So, I know where I am.
A blaring horn catches my attention. I look up, and notice that I happen to be sitting on train tracks in the middle of the desert. And a very large train is barreling toward me, at a very high speed.
My problems: One, I have no idea when this is. Two, I'm naked. Three, there's a train about to hit me. These must be dealt with in reverse order.
I dive off the tracks, out of the path of the oncoming train. As it passes by, I stretch out an arm, and grab onto the handle of a conveniently open door. I hoist myself up and into the carriage of the still-moving train. I collapse onto the floor, and catch my breath.
Right. One problem dealt with. Now, I need two more things: clothes, and a date. Not a date as in a woman, a date as in I need to know the point in time I'm at... though I wouldn't say no to a woman.
I look around. There's nothing in this carriage. Just great. At the front of the carriage, there's a door, leading into another carriage. Might as well try my chances. Passing through another door into the next carriage, I find that I'm in a carriage filled with passengers. At first, I'm relieved. People. Who can probably help me out.
My second thought is... Shit. I'm naked.