Knowing LOST

This schedule is working so much better for me, guys. And while I’ve probably lost most of this project’s readership, at least I’m not having a heart attack to get an episode out to you every week. For those of you who are reading this, you’re all the audience I need. You guys are great, and thanks for coming back to follow this project after such a long time. Having said that, if you’ve got friends in the LOST community, you can tell them to head back over here and I won’t be offended in the least bit…

In the meantime, enjoy the newest episode of KL, entitled “Everything But Six.” You can expect episode 1.16 in a couple of weeks.

—-

Episode 1.15 “Everything But Six”

Olsen put his hand on the cardboard box, then stopped. “I’ll need to explain,” he said, his brow furrowing. “Context is important here.”

Locke frowned. “We’ll decide that when we see it,” he said finally, the gun still pointed at Olsen’s chest. “Now, go ahead. Answer all my questions.”

Olsen had broken a sweat, and beads of moisture were trickling down his nose. “Right, right,” he said. “I’ll need your knife. One of your knives.”

Locke looked over at Ryan, his expression guarded. His expression was clear enough: Should I trust him?

Ryan didn’t know why he nodded, but he didn’t blame himself. Olsen certainly didn’t seem threatening; he looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He was red-faced and sweaty. His cards are played out, Ryan realized. This box is his ace in the hole, not the knife.

Locke regarded him for a moment, then reached to his belt. “Don’t make me regret giving you this,” he warned Olsen, holding the gun steady. “I’m a good shot. I used to…”

“…go hunting with your dad, yeah,” Olsen finished, holding his hand out expectantly. Locke started, his brow furrowing and his bright eyes studying Olsen’s face carefully. Slowly he  removed the knife from its hilt and handed it to Olsen. Olsen clasped it firmly, his eyes trained on Locke as he turned back to the box. Only when he started to slice away the masking tape did he look away.

Ryan glanced over at Kevin, who was also watching intently. Kevin’s face was paper white, though his eyes were firmly focused on Olsen’s hands. He wasn’t as close to death as Ryan had expected, though the horrible empty space where his foot had been wanted to tell Ryan otherwise.

Olsen sliced the box open then handed the knife back to Locke, hilt first. “Alright,” he mumbled to no one in particular, then reached inside the box, pulling out a familiar object.

Ryan couldn’t help but laugh, a quick burst of surprised sound.

Olsen was brandishing the first season of LOST on DVD.

“N-no way,” he heard Kevin stammer, his voice almost breaking into a laugh. “No freaking way.”

Olsen allowed himself a small grin. “I’ve got four more where that came from,” he said, placing the DVDs in a chair beside him, and reached back inside, pulling out the second and third seasons and placing them in the chair as well. “It’s everything but six,” he said.

Claire was the first to reply. “What the hell are those?” she asked, reaching to pick one of them up. Her apprehension had almost completely evaporated as she flipped the set over and over in her hands. It was season five’s shiny blue-and-white case. “What the hell is LOST?”

Olsen sighed. “I don’t want to tell the same story twice,” he said. He turned to Ryan. “I need you to go get Jack.”

—-

Ryan stepped onto the beach and was immediately accosted by Joanna.

“Ryan!” she said, running up to him from across the beach. Sawyer glanced up from his book, startled. When he saw that it was only Ryan, he shook his head and returned to reading. “Where’s Kevin?” Joanna asked him quickly, in a hushed whisper. “I don’t want to panic anyone, but he’s gone and so is Ethan’s body! And the people on the beach are talking… No one’s seen Claire or Locke since yesterday!”

Ryan looked at her for a moment. She’s supposed to be dead, he realized. If anyone else deserves to know what’s going on, it’s her. He paused for a moment. He was about to pass the point of no return with her, he knew.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I know where they are, and everybody’s safe. If you want to come with me I’ll tell you everything.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Why do all the women on this island think I’m out to kill them? Ryan wondered to himself sadly. “Look,” he told her. “I’m going to go get Jack to come check on Kevin.”

Her eyes widened. “He’s hurt?” she asked. Ryan nodded.

“I’ll get Jack,” she said, and set off down the beach.

It only took her a few minutes to find Jack, who had been restocking his supplies at the medical tent. They soon both returned down the beach to Ryan.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked, somewhat distractedly. “Joanna said Kevin was hurt?”

“Yeah,” Ryan agreed. “They’re at…” he looked off into the jungle, the way he’d come. He’d left himself a pretty clear trail of scuffed earth once Locke had pointed him in the right direction, but he wasn’t sure if he was really ready to bring up the existence of the Pearl on the beach. “They’re that way,” he said.

He could tell by Jack’s expression that Jack echoed Joanna’s suspicious attitude, but he  nodded and followed Ryan anyway.

—-

Claire had taken a seat in the chair not occupied by the box of DVDs. She was shaking her head as she looked over and over again at the season five box set. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “Everyone’s on here… Jack, Locke, Hurley…”

She frowned. “Where am I?” she looked up at Olsen, then glanced over at Kevin. “Where are you? And who are these people?”

Olsen leaned in to look at where Claire was pointing, and she flinched slightly. He shook his head. She was pointing to Daniel Faraday. “That,” he said finally. “That is someone I’m really looking forward to meeting.”

Locke stepped forward to look as well. “Where is he now?” he asked.

“Probably… at his house,” Olsen replied. “He won’t be here for a couple of months yet.”

From down the hallway came a clanging as Ryan lifted the hatch doors and slammed them to the side.

“What the hell is this place?” came Jack’s voice, faintly echoing down the hallway.

Ryan shrugged. “There were people on this Island before us.”

There came no reply to that, and before long, three new figures were standing inside the Pearl station’s main room. Jack and Joanna immediately rushed to Kevin’s side, looking horrified at the blackened stump at the end of his leg.

“What the hell happened?” Jack demanded.

“Long story,” Kevin replied weakly, leaning on his crutch. Joanna, looking horrified, had her hand on his forearm.

“I’ve got time to hear it,” Jack replied.

“No, hold on, Jack,” Locke said calmly. “We’ve all been brought here for a reason. There’s another story that needs telling.” He looked expectantly at Olsen. “Now, I know the gist of what’s going on here thanks to Ryan,” he said. “But maybe you could start from the beginning.”

Olsen nodded, swallowing. “This is going to be a lot to handle,” he said quickly. He glanced over at Claire, and a trace of a smile brushed his lips. “So sit down if you need to.”

She looked at him, expressionless.

“Right,” he said, picking up the season one DVD from the unoccupied chair.

“Wait,” Jack said quickly. “What exactly are you about to tell us?”

Locke turned. “The answer to all our questions,” he replied. He looked back at Olsen, and Olsen began.

“Okay. This is going to be tough to believe, so I have to choose my words carefully, don’t I?

“On September 22, 2004, you all left Sydney on the way to Los Angeles, right? Well, most of you did, anyway. Ryan, Kevin, and I left from somewhere — and sometime — completely different. We left from LAX on May 24, 2010.”

Already Ryan could see there were questions growing on everyone’s faces. Joanna glanced at Kevin confusedly. Her hand was no longer on his forearm, though she hadn’t stepped away from him.

“We left on May 24, the day after the series finale of a television show called LOST,” Olsen said, holding up the box set. “The show I’m holding season one of right here.” He paused for a moment. “You’re all in it.”

Ryan could see a million questions building inside Jack. Locke, on the other hand, seemed much more at ease with the news, looking primarily intrigued. Joanna’s confusion looked like it was turning to fear, while Claire simply sat back in her chair. Ryan talking to her beforehand — it felt like months ago but really it was only a matter of hours — had helped to soften the major blow.

“Now, here’s where it gets strange,” Olsen continued, as if the rest of what he’d said was completely normal. “Somehow, the three of us got onto that plane at LAX, and we suddenly woke up here, as though we’d been a part of your plane crash.”

“Why?” said Jack, finally speaking up.

“If only we knew,” Kevin said. “I love LOST and all, but… Not this much.” His voice cracked and he went silent.

“So wait,” Jack said. “What is this LOST?”

“Ah,” said Olsen. “It’s a show about a plane — Oceanic Flight 815 — that crashes on a mysterious island. The plane that’s out there on the beach, as a matter of fact. And this very Island.”

“So we’re not real,” Claire said quietly. “None of this is real.”

Ryan stood up. “That’s the problem,” he said. “We don’t know. None of it makes sense anymore. You certainly seem real to me.”

She looked at him with what seemed to be a tinge of warmth in her eyes, though he wasn’t sure. He could have been grasping at straws, he feared. Their last day together hadn’t exactly given her a lot of cause for warmth.

Jack, on the other hand, was entirely devoid of warmth. “I just don’t understand it,” he said in a tone that said he didn’t really want to understand it. “You think that this is all just some TV show. You think that we’re all not real!”

“Look,” Olsen said calmly. “We don’t know what’s real anymore. All we know is what we can see, and what we see is that… Well, both our story and yours is real.”

Jack stood up from kneeling near Kevin’s foot and started to pace. “It just doesn’t make sense,” he said quietly.

“Maybe this will help,” Olsen replied, reaching into the brown box in the chair and pulling out a portable DVD player. He tossed it to Jack, who caught it. He then tossed him the season one box set.

“Were DVDs around in 2004?” Olsen asked Ryan, who nodded. He turned to Jack. “You know how to work that, I assume.”

Jack nodded, flipping the screen on the player open.

“Good,” Olsen replied, picking up the now empty box from the chair and putting onto the floor so that it formed a table. He pointed to the DVD player, then to it. “Start with disc one.”