20 Minutes

I held my breath as the swirling time energy materialized around me. The glowing substance hovered for a few seconds, before swirling through the air to envelope me in a cocoon of light. I closed my eyes as it slowly grew brighter and brighter. Inside, my heart beat wildly, when I’d open my eyes again, I’d be in another time! It was almost too much to take in. The light burned brightly through my eyelids and I scrunched them closed tighter. This process was perfectly safe, but still visions of freak accidents plagued my mind. Everything felt fuzzy, like my consciousness had left my body. Then suddenly it was over and the light slowly dissipated. Still, I kept my eyes closed, partially from fear and partially from anticipation.

What would I find when I finally opened my eyes? Would it be a futuristic paradise, full of technology that could hardly be imaginable? Or perhaps would it be a terrible future, with harsh rulers and oppression. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. More likely than not, the future was going to be ordinary. New scientific advances were a definite, but other issues such as governments were unlikely to be significantly different. Finally, unable to take the suspense any longer, I opened my eyes.

What met my gaze was darkness. I was in a room, but the lights were out. A few windows filtered in dim moonlight, but it was barely enough to illuminate the bulky shadows of the room. Squinting, my eyes began to adjust to the light and I recognized lab equipment. The room in fact wasn’t much different from the one I’d just time traveled from, yet this one was empty of scientists. As my eyes further adjusted to the light, I discovered that everything was coated with dust and a few stray cobwebs hung in corners, though there were no spiders to be seen.

I frowned, this was not what I’d expected, but it made sense. The organization had probably shut down, after all, I had gone 150 years into the future. Companies couldn’t stay around forever. Another explanation was that perhaps this particular location had gone out of use. I decided to assume that for now as I’d likely never find out for sure. I only had 20 minutes here. Remembering that, my eyes widened and I hurried to step from the energy platform. I had to get more of a look at this future before time ran out.

Stumbling through the room, I darted to the window. The windows were coated with dirt and I could only make out vague shapes on the other side. Stepping back, I tugged at the window and managed to slide it open. In the distance, the sky was slowly getting lighter, illuminating devastation.

I was in a desert, with a few huddled, worn-down buildings scattered here and there. Sick dread filled my heart as I scanned the dry horizon. Even among my darkest fears I had never truly believed the future would change for the worse. What had happened here? What had changed the lush countryside around the lab into...this? 

As I stared in shock, a small bit of movement caught my eye. I quickly focused on it. It appeared to be a person. Someone who might have answers! I slid my leg out the window. I was only on the second floor and lowering myself down was probably safer than trying to navigate out of the ancient research facility. I lowered myself as far as I could before dropping the rest of the way. Landing hard, I got a closer look at the ground. The bright green grass and wildflowers of my time were gone and there was nary a plant in sight. The dark, rich soil that had hid beneath the green was now a light brown-orange. It was also packed down hard and so dry, spidery cracks ran in all directions. I shook myself and headed off in the direction I’d seen the person. I was running out of time and I just couldn’t leave without finding what had lead to this future. 

After a bit of jogging, I caught up to the person near an old storage lab. It was a man with rugged black hair and tattered clothes. He was going through several metal crates stacked against the building. I slowly coughed to get the man's attention. He whirled around and glared with such intensity that I felt my words die in my throat. Only then did I realize there were several barriers I’d likely have to work through. First of all, English probably had changed from the language I knew, and in such a hostile environment people would likely be suspicious of strangers. 

“Wall? Who er you?” The man finally grunted, the glare not leaving his face.

I gave a sigh of relief that English was still semi-the-same, before introducing myself. “Oh um, I’m Harley Gibbons, Chromulon Scientist, and I’m...from far away.” 

“What er you do’in these parts?”

Stammering, I told a quick cover story. I wasn’t sure if he’d believe me about time travel. After my story I asked him what had happened. The story was slow in forthcoming, the man didn’t trust me and could tell I was completely out of my element, but eventually I learned what had caused the end of the world, and it really was the end of the world, as it wasn’t limited to this area, it had spread everywhere.

“100 years ago deadly virus, spread across Earth. No one know the cause, no one could stop it, it kill everything. People, animals, plants, it even kill sicknesses. Only few things survive. The sickness was terrible. Bleeding cough, purple pain, weakness, blindness, die from inside. Virus spread everywhere, and then 50 years ago, it was gone. No one else get sick, but too late. Only few people, animals, plants left.”

The man spoke gruffly, without emotion, but the words killed me inside. My nausea grew and I grasped at the metal crates to keep from falling. Fifty years, that was it. Fifty years before mass destruction, before doomsday. Of course the future had to be terrible. 

A sudden glow distracted me from my thoughts. I looked up and realized the glow was coming from myself. The time energy was reforming, and soon I’d be pulled back to my own time. I sighed, my time was up and now I had the delightful job of explaining to my co workers what lay in store for us. As the light swirled around me, I caught one last glimpse of the man watching me in shock, before the light blocked out all else. The next instant I was back in the lab surrounded by eager scientists. At first I was confused at not being back outside, but then I remembered how time energy acts as a rubber band, pulling you back to its place and time of origin. Instantly I was bombarded with questions, but was unable to answer any of them. The room felt stuffy and time traveling had taken a lot of my energy. Finally our manager shooed most of the onlookers away and lead me to a chair. Once seated, I slowly began telling my tale while sipping from a glass of water.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur, mostly involving endless retellings of my expedition and questions about all the minor details. Despite the many times I told the story, hardly anyone heard it. The future was deemed too terrible to be told to the public, and all information from this experiment was going to be classified as top secret. After the nth time telling the story, I was dismissed and instructed never to tell it again, and I didn’t plan to. The day had started with so much promise, but now all I had was a bleak look at the future and a splitting headache. Going home late that night was a relief to put it lightly.

Before I went to bed, I looked out the window at the stars. They were so beautiful and far away. Once man had dreamed of exploring them, but with the upcoming future, they would never get the chance, or perhaps they would someday. The Earth survived for 100 years after the first onslaught of the illness, so perhaps it could recover. I stepped back from the window to close the curtains and turn out the light, but something stopped me, something in my reflection. I took a step closer, a small smudge darkened my reflection on my cheek. I reached up to try and rub it from my face and flinched away in pain. Whatever it was, it wasn’t leftovers. Closing the curtains, I went to the bathroom to get a better look.

One look in the mirror, and I froze. A large purple bruise had formed and was swelling faintly on my cheek. The symptoms…purple pain….

I tried to breath easy, one bad bruise didn’t mean I had caught the super virus, after all the man had said the virus had disappeared. But what if it hadn’t? I tried to shoo away the thought, but it continued with persistence. Suddenly a racking cough shook my body and the doubts flew from my mind. I had to stay away from people. I had to stay away from everything! The man had said 100 years ago, and this was 150. Perhaps he had been wrong, perhaps I had heard wrong, perhaps 100 years was when the disease became widespread, who cares! Panic instilled itself in my heart and I felt tears prick my eyes. If anything else he said was true, then I was as good as dead and I was going to bring the whole Earth with me.