All the Things You Are
by Andressa Casale
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost, I wrote this for my fun only.
Rating: Rated T for some violence and minor suggestive adult themes, nothing that wouldn't have aired on the show.
Author's Note: Please, before you go on, take notice that I'm not a native English speaker, and this fiction has not been proof read. I did my best to keep this as flawless as possible. So if anyone would be willing to help me out, I'm looking for a beta reader!
Chapter Summary: And so John Locke said, "all roads lead here!" What is it about the hatch that is so important?
You're Lost
[Prologue – Part 01 of 12]
He was having a pleasant dream. He was dreaming that the island wasn't infected by that terrible virus for which he had to shoot himself with vaccine every nine days. In his dream there were no hostiles so he could walk around, go out, instead of being locked 24/7 in this dammed station.
She was there with him, they were skinny-dipping in a beautiful calm beach and he was drinking in the beauty of her. Her golden hair was shinnying with the sun, her blue eyes beaming with happiness. Everything was perfect until a green parrot came flying down near them, cawing something that sounded like an alarm beeping furiously and it woke him up.
He opened his eyes startled by the loud noise of the alarm beeping. All he could see was the bunk bed, he lay there for a moment to make some sense of things before rushing to the computer room. The clock was counting down from 20 seconds, he entered the numbers, 4 8 15 16 23 42, those sodding numbers that had him chained to this place. He was slaved by the belief that if he didn't push the button every 108 minutes the world was going to explode. So he pressed execute, the clock flipped back to 108.
He was annoyed, it wasn't his time to push the button, where was his partner? He looked around the cage he had learned to call home, and found him in the living room sitting on a chair. The man had a haunted expression on his face. His eyes were dark as if he hadn't slept for days, and he shook almost violently while fussing with a shotgun on his hands.
"Radzinsky, what are you doing?" He asked annoyed, "this was supposed to be your shift!"
"Did you push the button?" Radzinsky asked
"Yes…"
"Good, since I won't be around anymore, you'll have to do it on your own."
"What are you talking about?" Inman asked raising his voice, "this is a job for two. Are they going to send your replacement?"
"They…" Radzinsky laughed sarcastically. "There are no they anymore, Inman. There's no more Dharma, no more Namaste and Good luck. Those hypocrites got themselves killed by their own people. They turned against each other and some of them joined up with the hostiles."
"What?"
"That's right, Inman, we're nothing more than pawns in a game! The hostiles infiltrated the Dharma Initiative, and now they live in the Barracks as if they're one of us, they eat our food as if it was theirs!"
"Man," Inman looked at Radzinsky with pity. "This place is getting to your head."
"I'm serious!" He exclaimed offended
"Ok, tell me something, if they killed our people, then how come they let us live?" Inman took a seat on the chair next to Radzinsky.
"Because they need some idiot to keep pushing this stupid button," he shouted, "if we don't, then the whole world goes Kaboom!" Radzinsky was silent as if thinking. His were the eyes of a mad man. "I should have never built this station, it's all my fault!"
"Are you ready to tell me what the incident was?" Inman asked "Because when they recruited me to work for the Dharma Initiative they never told me I'd have to keep pushing a button for no explained reason. So if you want me to keep pushing it, you better tell me what was the incident!"
"I was building the Swan Station to research on the electromagnetism that was powerfully rich around this area. This station would allow manipulation of electromagnetism that would change the world in ways never possible before!" Radzinsky said enthusiastically. "Then one day, back in 1977 we were drilling into the earth to build the station when we hit an area containing a large electromagnetic buildup, once the pocket was breached it started to leak electromagnetism. It was chaos, everything metal started to be dragged into the hole. It was only a matter of time before everything exploded."
"How did you stop it?"
"We tried to clean up our mess by cementing the area, we tried to dam the leak, but the energy kept building up behind the dam and would eventually break it. So I came up with a system."
"The button?"
"Yes the button, we wait 108 minutes for the charge to build up so that we can discharge it by pressing the button."
"Ok… But what if the system fails?!" Radzinsky chuckled at Inman's question.
"That's why I picked you, Inman, because you are smart. And so am I! Everyone knows that it's wrong to trust in just one system."
"What did you do?"
"We in the Dharma Initiative knew that back in the 50's the U.S. Government had been testing hydrogen bombs on the island, we knew of a bomb called Jughead that was in the possession of the hostiles. We made a pact with them, and they helped us build a failsafe using the core of the bomb. So now if the system fails we turn this key," Radzinsky pulled a key out of his pocket and showed it to him, "and the island explodes, but the world still keeps turning around the sun."
"Where is the failsafe?"
"There is a grate on the floor in the computer room." Radzinsky looked deep into Inman's face with a hard to read expression. "Inman, what if I told you we've already had this conversation before?"
"What?"
"Yes, every time I told you this I would tell I had a plan."
"A plan?"
"Yes, a plan. The first time I told you this we were really, really old, and no one had come to replace us I told you that once we were both dead there wasn't going to be someone to push the button."
"Really?" Inman laughed at the crazy story.
"Yes, do you know what the plan was?" Inman just stared at him waiting for an answer. "We were going to turn the key and explode the island and then we would finish the job we had been locked down here to do. We were going to save the word. We turned the key, but it didn't end. I was sent back to the first day you started pushing the button and you didn't even remember that ever happening... Inman, you're lost!" Inman shook his head he was sure the man had finally gone crazy. "We both are, we're lost in a loop."
"A loop?"
"Yes a loop, after I was sent back I was sure that I was meant to change something, maybe stop the hostile purge, but every time I tried to stop something it never worked, I ended up dead and then back where everything started, back to this maddening loop!" Radzinsky ran his hand through his hair pulling it.
"And what is the plan now?"
"I met someone," Radzinsky told him, "his name is Josiah, and he told me he knew how to stop it. He told me I would have to die, I would have to kill myself. Because one day my replacement will come, and he will turn the key, and the bomb will explode and everything will work out fine!"
"Kill yourself! Why don't you give me the gun and we can talk about your plan?" Inman tried to take the gun out of his hands, but Radzinsky got to his feet before he could do it.
"Don't you understand?" He shouted, "I'm the loophole! If I don't kill myself now he'll never come, and it will never happen!"
"Calm down," Inman also got to his feet and tried to slowly approach his partner, "let's talk about this, maybe there's something I could do to help."
"The only thing you can do to help is keep pushing the button until he comes…"
"Who is he, how do I know he's the one?"
"Ask him, 'what did one snowman say to the other snow man?'" Inman shook his head, the last thing Radzinsky had said was the final piece to diagnose him as crazy. "The answer is," he pulled back the hammer of the gun, "smells like carrot!" He said and then put the gun on his mouth.
Radzinsky pulled the trigger, leaving behind a blood stain on the roof of the Swan Station. Inman just stared at his body in shock.