The Man At The End Of Time

Finally I’ve done it! I’ve finally created the worlds first time machine I thought to myself.

The Asimov 2052 was it’s name. The 2052 being the year and the name being my surname. I had spent 27 years working on the time machine and it was all worth it. I had run the Diagnostics and run the program about 100 times to test if it worked and just as I hoped it was flawless. Except it did have one problem which I had not worked out the kinks for. The machine could not go backward in time, only forward. But then again who really cared for now, all I cared for was to not only win the international science man of the year award and have my name spoken for all of human history!

What I had not noticed during my daydream was the abrupt appearance of my 14 year old son, Issac. Issac was a good kid except he wasn’t as intelligent as I hoped he would be, he was just average. He got good grades in school but they weren’t like mine, he wasn’t like me. “Dad, Mom told me to come get you for dinner, Its about ready.” I stared at him blankly, not caring much for dinner, it could wait I was on the verge of making history, my history.

“Why do you do this. Why don’t you ever speak to me?” I stare at him quickly again and then walk into the machine to check and count the array of buttons, levers and screens that lined the machine. He stares at me some more and then shouts “Why don’t you love me! All you do is love you’re machine and it’s like you don’t even care! Why don’t you care!”

I snap, my brain loses focus and I lose my composure. “Because you’re a disappointment Issac! Thats all you’ll ever be you’ll never be special! And Im sorry but that’s the cold hard truth, Life isn’t fair!”

He begins to shed tears, but then he face turns red. Not a red like the red you get If embarrassed but red like if there is a boiling volcano inside you of years of quelled hatred filled lava ready to spill. He grabs the handle of the hatch and closes it shut as quickly as he can. “Issac what are you doing!”

“If you care about you’re machine more than you’re family then why don’t you just stay in it!”

I begin to shout, I shout the worst things imaginable at him as his tears get worse. I slam my fists onto the machine not caring not even focused only rage flows through my head. Everything is quiet it was like if you muted the tv while watching a movie, you knew there had to be sound but there wasn’t.

But then there was. The machines systems began to turn on and dials spun. I and Issacs rage subsided in a flash as we looked in horror. The machine was turning on and I was inside it. I tired at the hatch but it was stuck, I tried to turn the machine off but it would not shut down. Issac looked through the window of the machine and yelled “I’ll go get help!”

He ran up the stairs as if he was gliding up the stairs. That would be the last time I saw him.

The machine showed the date “09/21/2327” I blinked my eyes, It was only a quick blink like any other blink you’d had on any other ordinary day. This was no ordinary day, then as quickly has they had shut, they opened.

Rubble, debris, fire. I was speechless, I had been taken to the future. A second ago I had been in my basement laboratory with my son and now I was in the future. Where there were once tall buildings, suburbs and roads, now there we’re even taller buildings out of a sci-fi esc dream, but everything was rubble. “What happened here?”

I probably sat there for an half an hour, staring off into the distance of the port window. It was unmoving, no life, no nothing just rubble, dark scorched earth and a unmoving lifeless city reduced to rock’s. I thought to myself “maybe if I go further in the future, things will get better and they’ll have a time machine that can go backward”

So I turned on the machine again and went 1000 years in the future, the date read “04/15/3327”

Then I blinked.

Light, I saw light as I opened my eyes. Not ashy orange sky light, yellow bright and blue sky light and in front of me a small city of bustling people. It looked sci-fi and futuristic, the people looked strange but still very human.

Crowds gathered around the machine in awe. I had a speaker built in to the machine so I attempted contact “HELLO!”

They all jumped back and I realized they we’re all speaking a language I bad never heard. I feared maybe english no longer existed.

About an hour later a man on podium appeared in front of the machine with a book. He bagan speaking “Greetings traveler! I am a translator, I am speaking to you in the old language of English. What brings you here and what is this strange machine?”

I respond to the translator and explained that this was a time machine. Then I asked “Do you have a time machine in you’re possession? One that can go back in time?”

The man then responded with a curt no and sorrowful frown then he said “maybe we’ll have one in about 500 years maybe. Because we are working on time machine technology”

I grinned as I heard him say that. I quickly gave him a thumbs up and said thank you and goodbye and decided to try my luck for 300 year’s. I turned on a booted up the machine, the date 07/19/3627

The machine began to twist and turn, then I blinked.

A deep depression not even anger just emptiness filled my body. Rumble, just rumble, 300 year’s later and everything and everyone was gone again. I had the mans words in my head now “maybe we’ll have one in about 500 years maybe. Because we are working on time machine technology”

Not even 300 year’s later and they’re all gone.

This empty depressed state then quickly turned into an anger filled determination to get back home. I punched in a random date again and I wouldn’t stop tilled I found civilization again. 01/29/5602

I open my eyes and I see a grassland filled with giant plants and a strange animal that is like a mix of a giraffe and deer walk by. As it walks by a plant the thing lunges out and grabs the animal has it screams in fear. Then eats it whole, this is not the right time.

I open my eyes 06/13/6788

I see a town of strange humanoid people, very tall, probably about 8 feet to be average, pale but greenish skin with small oval eyes. But this is still not what im looking for.

05/7/8021 Im dunked onto a sand bar and In front of me is a vast ocean of deep blue.

An unsettling emptiness and lack of life, only the waves to keep me company, until a large claw splash’s out of the water, revealing a giant crustacean. Its probably about 35 feet in length and slow moving. It splashed out from the waves and turns it’s body towards the Asimov and begins to bring down it’s large claw to crush the machine. I quickly type in a new date and get out of there, not looking at what I type in.

01/31/300,008,021

“I had accidentally sent myself 300 million years into the future. All there was, was a scorched barren wasteland. It looked like death valley, except it was everywhere. There we’re no oceans left, no forests, no rubble, no life at all, all hope was lost. I began to start to lose count and stopped looking at the dates, I just started in punching in random numbers to see it all, thats all I could do. I saw the sun consume the Earth as it went red giant, I saw the sun go supernova, I saw our galaxy collide with Andromeda, I played games with myself where I bet which star would go out next. I tortured myself, for what should have been trillions of years, But they were only a few hours.”

99/99/9999999999999999999999999999

“All thats left is one supermassive black hole.” I said to myself and thought at the same time. “It would only be 10 minutes until this one went out. Then whatever type of light or ambience that was left in the universe would be gone. That was 40 minutes ago.”

After the black hole imploded on itself I sat in the chair in machine and sat, sat, sat and sat, sat and sat, pondered, I had realized it earlier before but now that it was quiet and nothing was left I could think about it finally. The International Science Man of the year award was a waste of time, it wasn’t worth it. My son the lasts thing I said to him was that he was a disappointment. He never saw me again, I never got to see him grow up. I wasted my time with him, downstairs working on this machine. The same machine that has become my undoing. There is a screwdriver and razor blade behind me in a tool box, I can feel the sweet release of the cold blade touch my skin, it yearns for me. As the great poet Dylan Thomas once said “Do not go gentle into that Good Night” I wish I didn’t have to, but what else can I do.

“Im Just A Man At The End Of Time.”