[ WP ] You are the first person to travel into the future via time machine . When you arrive , you gradually notice that your surroundings keep changing , seemingly at random . You eventually realize that you are LITERALLY in the future , and events in the present are still shaping the world .

Volunteers for the LUMO-DX Mk.III had to undergo a rigorous schedule of screenings - both physical and psychological. Over three-hundred candidates, from any background one can name, stepped forward for the chance at seeing the future. Literally. The private sector had made several such portable devices, operating on principles that - while outlined in a manual heavier than the apparatus - are far beyond my understanding. Therefore, it begs the question: why was I selected to test the pinnacle of MYRIAD Enterprises research? 
 
 I'm not remarkable in terms of wealth, academic, or social standing. Definitely not in personal success - for christ's sake, I develop websites for a living. The math I use most frequently is devoted to the dwindling numbers in my bank account. Meanwhile, there were Ph.D candidates running on treadmills next to me, many with military backgrounds that had decided re-enlistment was a boring prospect. I'll tell you what I think the answer was. 
 
 I had something to run from. It kept me going. It pushed me. I abused myself, punished myself, for six months... but I still had to keep going. Or the memories crept back in. Where better to go than the future - my future? 
 
 So there I was. Alone, in the dark, sitting on a cushioned floor of a room in an underground facility made to pierce the veils of causality. With a loser like me as the unsuspecting bullet. 
 
 Over an intercom, a tinny voice announced: `` Mr. Castrado. Whenever you're ready, we'll begin the count.'' 
 
 I adjusted the cumbersome contraption strapped to my arm, and winced as I felt the briefest of alien movements underneath my skin. Without it, I'd be much like a phone without a battery - a collection of winding wires, wrapped underneath the plastic casing to various connecting boards. The LUMO's module was like the cellphone casing, attached to my arm with a special plastic coupling. Though hardly copper wire, the rest of it was composed of an extensive network of interlaced fiber cables - thinner than a strand of hair - woven in to various parts of my body. Skin, skeleton, even some of my organs. Definitely, judging by the imaging injection they'd given me after the surgery, as a spidering layer of mesh surrounding the inside of my skull. And, no matter what the research team described as a hallucination, I knew I could feel them all shift whenever the external contraption was attached to my forearm. In combination with the injections they'd given me throughout the weeks leading up to this, I felt more like a Sci-Fi convention set piece than a living, breathing human. 
 
 `` I'm ready.'' I lied. 
 
 `` Just remember: when you've reincorporated, do n't forget to push the blue button. Otherwise...'' 
 
 `` I know, I know.'' I replied, impatiently. `` Otherwise, I go bye-bye.'' 
 
 `` Otherwise,'' the voice continued, flatly, `` you're stuck. You'll have a narrow window in which to do so.'' 
 
 `` Can I... have a drink first?'' I tried. 
 
 `` We ca n't allow that, I'm sorry.'' 
 
 *Her skin, pressed against my cheek. The earthy perfumes. Her breath, hot and humid in my ear. * 
 
 I swallowed, `` Let's get on with it.'' 
 
 `` Mark... Seven... Six... Five...'' 
 
 *Her eyes. Alive in the light of a fire, dancing with mine through a trail of smoldering ash. * 
 
 `` Four... Three...'' 
 
 *The arch of her back as she clutches, and pulls at my hair. She closes her eyes... * 
 
 `` Two... One...'' 
 
 *... And she's gone. * 
 
 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
 
 I was disoriented. Everything went fuzzy. Their research said that this was expected - very similar to the last hallucinatory sensory jumbling of a brain as it fired its last dying spark. The key difference was that mine would fire afresh. And oh boy, did it. But not in the ways I expected - for what that's worth. 
 
 Shifting waves of colors, and textures flashed in front of my eyes. I opened them, and closed them, just to make sure they were intact as expected. They definitely were. My ears picked up a buzzing cascade of chimes. It was similar to the sounds of those weird sound bowls they say are supposed to help with healing, or some such nonsense. A steady whining hum, interlaced with what sounded like a faraway swarm of locusts. I tested my muscles, one at a time before I dared to look down. When I did, I realized that I was intact. I was whole. But my surroundings had not consulted the aesthetic clarity that I possessed. My feet were standing on impossible geometries - and in them. I remembered thinking that if Edward Abbott had seen what I was seeing, his *Flatland* novella would have incorporated more hellish landscapes, and narratives. Because that's what it was. 
 
 
 I could as much see, as feel the microscopic pressures of unseen *things* as they folded, unfolded, and passed through my flesh. I felt for the LUMO's external module, and cheered as I found its fastenings had remained true. I tapped on the small screen, and selected from the unexpectedly friendly menu options to dull the barrage of sensations I was experiencing. Sure enough, the tingling that had spread throughout my body stopped. Then, I became as a lost ship in a fog, feeling little for the icy tendrils caressing my frame. I tried to walk, and found I went... many places. 
 
 The kaleidoscope of colors and textures recombined as flashes of unfamiliar scenery. At some points, I was certain that I was moving backwards in space, even though I kept telling my legs to push my body forward. It was unsightly, unnerving, and I felt waves of nauseated panic take over as my world spun out of control. 
 
 *Her panting, sibilance: `` I lo-'' * 
 
 `` STOP IT!'' I screamed. 
 
 The words sent ripples in the fabric of the scenery, undulating as if I'd thrown sand in water. What came next was reassuring. My words, for whatever reason, bounced around as a polyphonic echo that could n't decide what it wanted to sound like. It settled on my actual voice when it finally came back to me. And her... 
 
 A flashing light lit up my screen, highlighting a single query: 
 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? 
 
 I needed to press the blue button on the underside of the LUMO's external casing, allowing the team back home to recall me from wherever... whenever?... I was. Would be? Grammatical correctness had always been emotionally confusing, but this would have given the linguistically gifted a hellish existential crisis. I searched the underside for the small button. 
 
 `` Anthony...'' I thought I heard. My insides squirmed, and my head began to spin. 
 
 **BEEP** 
 
 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? 
 
 I felt a hand on my shoulder. The scene coalesced into an uncomfortably familiar place. 
 
 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
 
 `` Where am I?'' I asked aloud, surveying the gray surroundings with apprehension. 
 
 The hand spun me around. I saw her, and the blood left my face. 
 
 `` Anthony, there you are!'' Said a breathy voice. `` I've been looking all over for you.'' 
 
 I swallowed. We were standing on a railway platform. It was where Samantha and I used to go walking during the evening. 
 
 `` I'm here.'' I replied quickly. `` You're... what are you doing here?!'' 
 
 Samantha turned her petite nose up that, and cocked her head, the short curls of tousled auburn falling about her perfect shoulders. 
 
 `` Are you feeling okay, babe?'' She asked, inspecting me with concern. 
 
 I tried to speak, but could n't. I settled for wrapping my arms around her, hugging her so tightly I heard the wind leave her lungs. 
 
 `` Baby,'' she choked, `` too tight!'' 
 
 I let go immediately. I forgot how... easy it was to forget everything when I saw her. 
 
 `` You're... you're more beautiful than I remembered.'' I stuttered. 
 
 She smiled, and said, `` Flattery will get you places.'' 
 
 I felt a wide grin splitting my face. 
 
 **BEEP** 
 
 `` What was that?'' She asked, examining my arm. 
 
 Dammit! The button, how could I forget...? 
 
 `` Baby, what happened to you? You're bleeding.'' She uttered, touching my lip with her finger. 
 
 **BEEP... BEEP... BEEP** 
 
 Blood. There was blood on it. 
 
 `` Nothing. Sammy, let's... let's just keep walking.'' 
 
 The scene began to shift again. A roaring like the sound of a runaway train pierced the fantasy. Nearby, on the rails just beyond us, contours began to bend and twist into each other. She whirled around when she saw me staring. 
 
 `` Baby?! What's happening?'' She cried, with a look of panic. 
 
 **BEEP** 
 
 `` No.'' I muttered. 
 
 The waves came nearer. Out of the ethereal mist, the nose of a speeding bullet train formed, and bore down on us. 
 
 **BEEP** 
 
 `` ANTHONY!'' She yelled, gripping me in a tight embrace. 
 
 `` NO!'' I screamed. But I heard it elsewhere. From far away, repeated again. And again. 
 
 The wave washed over. The train came, smashing into us, ripping the scene into dancing motes of color... and Samantha with it. I caught the last dying echo of her sobs. 
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 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? 
 
 I could n't move. I was paralyzed with renewed fear. 
 
 `` GODDAMMIT!'' I yelled, tears streaming down my face. 
 
 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? Reset in 00:04:59:59 
 
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 There I was again. By the train tracks. And, there I also was, by the train tracks. Hugging Samantha as we looked in on horror. The sounds of the screeching metal of the train derailed from just behind the mist. I heard the loud succession of'NO' again, from further down the tracks. 
 
 `` NO!'' I screamed, and turned, watching the scene unfold. I was n't sure, but I thought I saw them begin to move. To run. 
 
 Then I was back, as I'd started... 
 
 Input/ # #. # # #. # #. # /::? Reset in 00:03:46:31 
 
 I had to try. I launched myself back into the waking dream. 
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 She showed up on my door, three months later. Things went back to normal... until we went for a walk. 
 
 My nose started bleeding. 
 
 I heard, in the distance, a loud chorus of: `` NO!'' 
 
 The train roared nearby. 
 
 `` ANTHONY!'' She yelled, gripping me in a tight embrace. 
 
 I turned, and shoved her as hard as I could as the train derailed...
