The Time Traveller

Written by Nicholas Carbone

The Time Traveler

The day was February 29, 1988, my birthday. On that day I turned three, or twelve in actual years. My dad would have finally returned from a long trip from a scientific expedition in Brooklyn. What he got me would change everything.

“Now, Sam, what I am about to give you will change your life forever. This, my amigo, is a time travel device. Type a date into the past and go wherever you please. Just make sure to not change anything in the past. Also, NEVER go to the future. So, have fun and tell NOBODY about it. M’kay?”

As surprised and excited I was to use it, I was scared that I would inadvertently cause harm. But what's the worst that’ll happen? I set the date to the day August 27, 1776, just to try it out for the first time. Now, history is my weak subject, so I forgot that the Revolutionary War was going on! Also, the war was on my doorstep, literally. My house used to be a little stone hut, actually, and injured soldiers were being taken care of. I ran out to the greeting of gunfire of hundreds of muskets. Looks like the Battle of Monmouth was happening. Great.

I clutched the device in my hand and ran into a forest nearby. Great, more soldiers! Even better, they noticed and started to run toward me! Now, I look quite Italian and French, and the French were helping the thirteen colonies with the war. So, I was captured. A few hours later, I was brought into a cell on a ship. I then noticed that the device wasn’t in my hands, but in the British hands. Thankfully, they didn’t know how to use it, so they left it on a table nearby. I had to get that now. The lights went out, and I had probably eight hours to get the device and go back home. 

I grabbed a part of a chair, and grabbed a little piece of wood from it. I saw it, and it was glowing. So, for the next seven hours I didn’t make any progress, until I heard footsteps and talking coming from upstairs. Then with sheer luck, I got the device to fall off of the table, and I was able to grab it. I quickly fetched it, and went back to February 29, 1988…BCE.

I woke up on the cold grass. Most likely around 15 degrees, and I was, of course, in a T-Shirt and terrible pants. Shivering, I ran under a tree, for there was a storm coming. I looked back on the device and noticed that it said BCE instead of CE! Also, to make the situation even better, it was out of batteries. Where in the world would I find the batteries for this?! 

It was now night, so I decided to sleep under a tree, and start to build the shelter the next morning. To not mess with history, I’ll destroy the hut, proving that I never existed. I sat down, and didn’t sleep. I swear, the threat of a wild animal and me being cold made me flip out! I soon got to work, grabbing the wood that was on the ground. It took a few days, but I finally built an “okay” shelter. It was honestly nothing, just a square with a roof. But, I’d soon need to decide what to do, especially before it gets very cold.

I’m going to the Middle East! Yes, it seems quite impossible, but it’s the best thing to do! Nobody can help me here, so maybe the people in somewhere like Egypt would be able to treat me with adequate supplies to sustain the rest of my life. I’d just need to somehow cross the Atlantic Ocean. AHA! I had an idea! I’ll make a boat, and cross the Atlantic! I just had to spend most of the year making a boat, so I can cross the Atlantic soon!

When the leaves started to change, I decided to start sailing. For the remainder of the day, I walked to the ocean, and the month-long journey started. I predicted I'll arrive around the Mediterranean right before my birthday, in 1987 BCE. The first few days of my house-boat started out well, until I ran into my first storm. With rain and thunderstorms around me, I stopped rowing and simply hoped I’d be safe. Thankfully, God was on my side, so everything was then smooth sailing except for the occasional storm. Food looked good, and I’d be a-okay until I arrive at the end of the Mediterranean Sea around March or February. Soon, the horror would be over until I finally arrived in modern day-Lebanon. I then walked and walked and walked for days on end. Then I studied the landscape of the desert, I realized that I wasn’t in the Middle East. I was in the Sahara Desert. 

Well dang it. I was stuck and I thought I’d most likely die in this vast desert! I then ran to a little hut that I found.

“Huh, people actually used to live here,” I told myself. I walked into the greeting of a terrible odor of dead wolves. When I looked at the table I noticed something quite strange- a time travel device. What was really weird was that it looked the exact same as mine. The only difference was that it was a little busted. I then heard the creaking of wood on the upper floor. With caution, I grabbed a sharp stick and slowly crept upstairs.

I then approached a door, to the sound of dust from a storm outside. Finally, I got the courage to barge open the door, and I was greeted by a middle-aged man. He had white hair, a long beard that definitely wasn’t trimmed in a long time, and he wore weird clothes. The clothes also looked “futuristic.” He then spoke out and stated,

“Sam, it is I, you. I came from the future to warn you about something.”

“WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH! How do I know you are me,” I asked. I then asked him multiple questions about me and he answered all correctly. 

He then told me,

“I am you from about 50 years in the future (2037 in present time). Fortunately, you soon leave the past, and help Dad with his company. But in 2031, robots started to take over Earth. After much time fending off the robots, the robots got to our homebase in Brooklyn on June 12, 2036. That is also known as the end of humanity. I was the only one to escape. So, I went back to the Sahara Desert. I built a little shack out here, waiting for you to stumble across here. So, me and you will be able to go to the future, and stop the robotic takeover.”

Thankfully, he had spare batteries for the device. So after being stranded for almost one full year in the distant past, we went to the distant future. The year 2037. My future self filled me in on a bit more about the next 50 years. Basically there was some virus, the USSR falls, a bunch of wars in the Middle East, the first artificial intelligence, and more about WWIII (aka the robotic takeover). When we arrived, we were met with a grassy plain, so I guess the Sahara Desert is no more. The future me then somehow spawned a teleporter out of thin air.

“Now we cannot go back to Brooklyn, since that is the capital of the world, but we can return to our parents house. Now what we’ll do is fight our way to Brooklyn, and take down the main power source of the robots- the internet. It will be hard, but it almost happened two years ago, so it’s certainly possible,” future me told me. I agreed, but was quite hesitant about this. 

After a few minutes, we arrived back home, which looked very abandoned.

“Practically every human house was abandoned after the full robot takeover,” My future self explained. I walked into my room, which had something new: a large bookshelf. It  then revealed itself to be a door. I walked in to realize this was a resistance base. It also had a few good robots that were able to easily get us into Brooklyn. This was our chance to finally go home. Return to my normal life. Most importantly though, save the world.

Me, older me, some robots, and a few other people walked through a large tunnel complex to get to Brooklyn. It took a long time, but it took long enough to make the sun set. We then approached a huge tower, which was about as tall as three Burj Khalifas. The plan was that the robots would bring us to the main power system, which was at the top floor of the building. The good robots pretended to be the bad robots, and led me and future me up to the tower. About one minute later, we arrived at the longest floor in length. It had a huge red reactor, and wires filled the whole room. At the center of the room there was an office room, which had two bodyguards, and a man turned toward the red switch on the back wall.

“Hello, son,” the man said.

HOLY HECK! That man, was my father. 

“What did I tell you boy. When you unwrapped my gift I said to NEVER GO TO THE FUTURE! The main reason for this was that I never wanted you to see this ‘mess’ I created. Oh and also, I was never a scientist. I was more of a dictator and technologist for this worthless planet. Now here's what you must do: Go back home, or turn off the main power source, killing me and preventing this from ever happening. Your choice.” I basically had to decide for a horrid future or a life without my evil father. Already then my future self was brutally beaten up, definitely nearing my future self’s time in the afterlife. Now knowing that I’d die by the time I’m around sixty, I needed to somehow shut off the main power source.

“GET HIM!” my dad screamed. All I knew was that I needed to get out alive, and shut off the power source. My dad then yelled,

“YOU CAN’T DESTROY THESE ROBOTS, SAM! Quickly, I evaded the robots and neared the switch. But when I was right there, my father tackled me.

“IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE HERE, THEN YOU’D NEED TO TURN ON THE TIME MACHINE ON FLOOR 222 (out of 500). IT WILL DESTROY THE WHOLE PLANET IN ABOUT 60 SECONDS AFTER THE FLIP IS SWITCHED,” my father said. I then flipped the switch, and the 60 second timer began.

Without wasting any time I ran to the elevator and typed in to go to floor 222. An alarm was blaring in my ears, counting down to the inevitable. 50, 49, 48. I cracked my knuckles and made some last minute prayers to my god while waiting. 38, 37, 36. There it was- the huge time machine. It basically upgraded from a small brick looking object to a full on machine! 20, 19, 18. I tried to remember the exact date of when I got the time travel device. Aha! February 29, 1988, at around lunch time! 10, 9, 8. I hopped into the machine, which would take five seconds to teleport me. 6, 5, 4. The time machine then closed, allowing me to hear the explosion. 3. 2. 1. 

Everything around me looked pitch black. I guess I was gone. Maybe the explosion caught up with me after all. I then tried to move, and I was in my room! The time was 6:23, and it was still February 29, 1988, CE!

“Sam, it's time for dinner! I made your favorite, pasta alla vodka,” someone who sounded like my mom yelled from below. I walked down with pasta on my plate, and realized I’m finally back home! All of that pain and struggle was finally over! But one person was gone: Dad. I don’t know how Mom will find out, but I guess I have to move on without him. It was him or humanity, yet I’m still not happy with my final decision. When I got up, I grabbed my time travel device and threw it out. It was time to start a new chapter in my life, with just me against the world.