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evolution, the beginnings of life, played out before my eyes. Too fast. I had no time to take in the sights. Once again, I saw the dinosaurs, their death, new animals, mammals, forests, tents, a town, a city, and I stopped. I was in the reactor, but this time the door was open. I leaped out, turned a corner, and burst outside. The sun was shining, cars crowded the streets, and the familiar newsstand lay on the corner. I ran over and looked at the newest papers. May 12th, 2022. Just a day before where I should be. Forward. Cycles of light and dark, too many. A ash of clouds, of rain, of sun. May 20th, 2022. Backward. May 10th. Forward. May 13th. This was the day I died. I ran back into the building. I sprinted down corridors and twisting hallways to the control room. The machine was powering up, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was hard-wired into the reactor to never stop at this point, as any sudden change could prove disastrous. I looked around. Other scientists looked at me with questioning eyes, no doubt wondering how I was covered in sweat. I didn’t have time to convince them. Backward. I hope this was the right time. I hope this is the night before today. I ran back to the branch in the halls, into the containment room, and nally entered the machine once more, taking a wrench that had been left outside. I tightened the last bolt now, hopefully saving myself from all this in a few hours. Would it? How did this even work? Scientists have always had theories of time travel, but who could say what was true. Could I change my past? Many had theorized about time travel, but nothing is really known. If I died, or if the other me died, what would happen? Could I ever go back? Guess I’ll gure out. Now’s as good a time as any. I guess any time is good for me. Stepping out of the machine, I heard the thud of the heavy door closing behind me. I navigated the corridors to nd the unused secondary observation room, the one with cameras rather than the traditional reinforced windows. Forward. This was the next day. And there it was, proving my suspicions, my fears. I saw myself on the cameras. He was, or I was, walking the same familiar path I had earlier today, but I didn’t turn into the reactor room. It worked. I’d saved myself from entering the machine. Did I save myself? Or did I save another me? I didn’t have time to celebrate, though. I felt a hand on my shoulder and whipped my head around. I saw a futuristic mask, seemingly a liquid metal in the shape of a face. It appeared to be a man, with his body covered in another material, one that seemed to suck the light out around it, making him appear more like a hole in my vision than an object. For a moment, I just stared, taking in the sight of his owing out t, trying to comprehend what I was seeing. Then we moved. His hand was rm on me as time ew back to before the building was created, then across the country. He could y as well. I guess that makes sense. It’s a common theory that time’s just another dimension, so why should space be any di erent? How could he do that? Could I? I didn’t have time to think about it. It was a distinctly di erent feeling than time traveling, which I hadn’t even realized had a feeling at all. Earlier, I’d felt like I was going up and down, forward and backward in the river of time. Now, I was being pulled to the side, yeah, de nitely pulled. I wasn’t in control. I could feel his willpower moving us. Forward. It worked. While we were still traveling, all around us, buildings formed as I ung us back to the correct time. I felt his attempts again. The days slowed, the sun crawling in the sky and then stopping. I could feel his own force, his own attempts to go back, canceling my e orts. The world was still. Then we slowed, our feet touching the desert ground, and stopped. My stomach lurched as I saw what lay in front of me. The Grand Canyon, in all of its terrible glory, like a God had taken his wrath out on the Arizona desert. I'd never been here. Once again, I had no time to savor the sights. He pushed, and I fell. Back. BACK! The sun rocketed from the West to the East, looking like a streak of light across the sky more than it did a single circle. In just a second of my fall, I traversed millions of years of history. Splash. I landed in the river at the bottom of the canyon. I was alive. I looked up. Twenty feet above me, the canyon walls gave way to the ancient blue sky. Who the f*** was this guy, and what did he want? How did he get the same powers as me? What did he want with me?
