27: Flashback (This is a really confusing episode)

"That's enough for now, Kyle," the man in the white suit said, reaching over and clicking something on the electric shock control. "Time to sleep." White-hot pain cascaded up and down Kyle's spine, splitting his brain open and blinding him.

Darkness.

After a geological epoch of darkness and silence, a grey haze opened up below him, turning bright white and swallowing him up. When he opened his eyes again, Kyle was on Europa. A bright red sign, DORM A, squatted above the building he was next to. Caught off guard, he stood there, stunned. Some guys ran past him, one slapping him on the shoulder in greeting as they went by.

Across a long courtyard dotted with trees was a similar building, DORM B. He started walking in that direction. He passed another building on the way, and someone else waved at him. Kyle couldn't remember who any of these people were. He'd been on Europa for seven months, But he'd been in the past for over a year - twice as long, in fact. Or, he'd be pretty sure if he wasn't being trapped by the white suit people.

Dorm A was the guys' dorm. Dorm B was the girls'. Distracted by the pale blue sunlight, Kyle body-slammed into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry - " Kyle started, but lost his voice when he saw who it was.

Doctor Caldwell, the one who'd built the Depositor, started picking up some files he'd dropped.

"Oh, hey there, Kyle," he said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Hey, uhm, I'm sorry about the... the thing."

"What thing?" Kyle asked.

Caldwell looked confused. "You know, the going back in time thing?"

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

The old doctor sighed. "Kyle, where have you been lately? You just zoned out during the tournament and let them kick your butt."

Kyle gasped, remembering now. The eight potential candidates for time travel were pitted against each other two-on-two, and the champion was picked to go back in time and complete the mission. "The tournament. You mean, I didn't win?"

"No. It was like you had gone brain dead during that first round."

Kyle was stunned. "So, who won?"

"Samantha, of course," the doctor answered.

Kyle remembered her. She was the one who had gotten second place. She was also pretty begrudging about it. He had woken up the morning after to find both his arms behind his back, encased in a quarter-ton block of ice. The Omniscient Narrator thinks you'd find that pretty funny if you had never been to Europa. Ice is some serious stuff on one of Jupiter's moons, being so far away from the Sun, which is the primary source of warmth in the solar system.

Doctor Caldwell walked away hurriedly, leaving Kyle standing there, stunned.

The Omniscient Narrator jerks back from the prototype holographic keyboard his friend Rea hooked him up with, watching it spark, flicker and die.

After getting his computer turned on again, the Omniscient Narrator opens the file to find that a sentence has been entered that he didn’t type. Strange, he thinks. What has been going on with his computer lately? It’s as if someone else has been narrating his story on his computer. Despite this startling development, he continues Kyle’s story. But something has changed.

The environment around Kyle slurred and shifted and became dark. The air around him was hot and stuffy. There were other bodies around him. He was soon vacuum-sucked into the memory.

Kyle was the second to land in the pile, sandwiched by Bradley and Piott. Kyle slumped over, lying on his back. The ground underneath them started moving; a giant conveyor machine that rumbled along. This was not good.

“This is not good,” Kyle said. Whoa, déjà vu.

Kyle stood up. The others did the same.

There was a bright yellow light, a single speck in the distance, waiting for them. A deep, staccato boom rumbled its way.

Piott breathed the one word on their minds: “Volcano.”

Kyle shouted the other word on their minds. “RUN!”

So they did, into the darkness away from the orange light. But it was useless: the conveyor was picking up speed. Soon, it was going to pitch them into the volcano.

The three Lunars were sprinting, but were still moving ever slowly to the angry orange glow that had gone from a pinprick to a large rectangle.

Bradley tripped, groaning as the belt carried him over the edge, and was gone.

“MORRIS!” Piott turned around, losing his balance and thudding to the ground, and was gone as well. Blinking the sweat out of his eyes, Kyle was torn between giving up and surviving.

But something has changed.

Something seemed to ripple throughout space, causing Kyle to become dizzy. He tripped over his own foot and went toppling over the edge.

Someone was screaming his name.

The Omniscient Narrator would like to pull you aside for the moment. He knows you’re really confused. The past few episodes have had way too much self-insertion and confusing, disorientating parts. This is the last of it until Chapter Four, when it’ll all make sense. Pinkie-promise.

The Omniscient Narrator gives you an awkward hug and returns you to your regularly scheduled screaming.

Someone was screaming his name.

A rough hand grabbed Kyle’s shirt just as the heat turned his shoes into mush. He glanced up at his savior.