AlexMcGilvery Array - Nano Bytes

They appeared exactly where I predicted, being so close I witnessed their arrival. Minutes before they came the air was alive with static, my greasy hair standing on end, goosebumps spreading over my body. As I watched, a small crack formed from nowhere, a fissure of incandescent light spilling out. A ragged rip suddenly split the air and the distorted forms stepped through. They are indeed in some kind of protective suit; a light, paper thin all–in–one, faces behind clear plastic visors.

There were five, always five; three men and two women of varying ages. The oldest seemed to be in charge, although no–one spoke. He pointed to different parts of the destroyed cityscape, and they nodded solemnly. I even think I saw one shed a tear.

It wasn't long before the light returned. They hurriedly stepped back through and for an instant appeared almost panicked, desperate to leave. Once through, like lightening the tear closed.

I know where they will be tomorrow. Tomorrow I will reveal myself.

What have I done. I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted some answers.

She was so beautiful, so young. All I did was reach out, desperate to feel the touch of another. She shrank away, piercing blue eyes full of terror but I couldn't stop myself. The thin suit tore so easily, like delicate tissue paper, and the second I gripped her thin pale arm she was gone, consumed in a phosphorescent flame, reduced to a fine floating ash.

The others fled as soon as the rift opened. Only the old one looking back, pity and sorrow in his eyes.

I lay curled in a ball for hours, regret paralysing me. I have killed again but this time there was no justification, no self defense, only selfish want.

I need to know why, though. Maybe it's the scientist in me but I need to find out who they are and why they come. I shall go again tomorrow and see if they come. I have my doubts.

Ignorance is bliss. I know now who they are but I'm conflicted as to whether this is a good thing.

Only one came today, the old man. I stood back, not getting too close, not wanting another death on my conscience. He smiled at me, but it was not of joy, his eyes showing a deep pain. I asked him who he was, where he came from, what the light was. But he did not, or could not, answer.

Slowly he lifted his arm holding out an object to my face. In a clear container, made of the same material as his visor, was a dogeared, battered book. I stared in wonder, slipping my hand into the waistband, pulling out the book's twin. I held up the journal and he smiled; the understanding hitting immediately.

His crooked smile; his grey eyes, flecked with blue; the scar above the left eye where as a child he had fallen while stealing apples from old Bernard's orchard. He did not just hold up my journal - he also held his own.

My mind tumbled in confusion and realisation, fighting to comprehend the incomprehensible.

I stumbled forward and stood millimetres from his/my face, angry tears welling in my eyes. He did not move, he knew what happened next, he had of course, been through this before. I screamed at him, wanting answers he obviously could not give, wanting to know why if he knew the future, he did not stop the previous days tragedy. Why he had let the girl die when he already knew her fate.

He lowered his head, a tear rolling down his wizened cheek, shaking his head. He turned, head still bowed as the fissure appeared, and I knew this would be our last encounter.

He paused before his last step, looking towards the west and pointed. In the distance a fiery speck shot across the sky, a smoke trail splitting the evening sunset. The old man nodded one last time and disappeared into the light.

I sit in a Mars rescue shuttle, still numb from yesterday's encounter. They think it's the shock of being alone for so long; how can I tell them the truth. In some ways I still don't believe it myself and the doubts continue to hover in the corner of my mind; just mad thoughts from a deranged mind. But we shall see. If time travel is possible I shall make it my life's work to discover the answers, I shall not rest until I find a way to undo the hurt I have done.

I must stop my past and future.

This short story was kindly included by permission of bobjan70, and is included in his collection of short stories A Little Known Fact About Ducks on his profile.

A single snowflake floated past the windowpane, and Thea Jackson knew that it was the end of the world. They’d had warnings for decades, and they knew it was coming. No one had reacted the day the methane clouds had hit the atmosphere. No one questioned the turbulent weather. No one had taken notice of the change in the jet streams, and this was the result.

She stared down through her closed window at the street below. People were running from the apartment complex, some loading up their cars and others flagging down air taxis.

We knew about it, but we didn’t believe it.

When the reports had come in about a glacier here or a drop in temperatures there, none of it had seemed real, not when she was sitting in the centrally heated offices of Devlin Corp, working her way up through the ranks for all the wrong reasons.

She’d been as blind as everyone else had, and her agenda had all been for nothing.

It feels real now. We’re screwed.

She closed her eyes for a moment. Her life was a mess of secrets and lies, but none of it seemed to matter anymore. Why should it on the day the world ended? Nothing mattered anymore.

William…

Her heart ached at the thought of him. Where was he now? Was he running for the borders too? Was he clawing his way through the crowds, trying to escape the inevitable?

She brushed a stray tear away from her cheek. She’d lost him the day she’d been sentenced. Fear had kept her silent. It was fear that had driven him away in the end, the fear that if he knew what she’d done, he’d forget that he ever loved her. She wanted to speak to him now, one last time before it was too late. There were so many things that she hadn’t told him, so many things that he didn’t know.

She shook her head. She couldn’t wallow in regret right now. It was not the right time to lose it.

Watching the crowds below, she realized that there was enough insanity outside without her joining the ranks of crazy people. The concept of human decency seemed to evaporate as she watched a young couple mow down an old woman on their way to their car. They looked like a perfectly respectable couple. They probably thought they were, judging by their designer clothes and perfectly coiffed hair.

Not so respectable now that the world is screwed, are you?

In the wake of the announcement that an environmental disaster was inevitable and heading straight for them, people’s identities were falling away, giving way to their animal instinct to survive instead.

Thea’s pulse raced. She knew that if she didn’t get out of here, she’d die, but it wasn’t as if she had a choice. She couldn’t leave her apartment. She helplessly stared across the vibrant city. The thriving metropolis of Carilona was lit up. In the distance, a vast line of headlights glowed from the many cars trying to leave the city and head south while industrial chimneys pumped smoke into the atmosphere behind them.

That’s why we’re in this mess. The cars, the shuttles, the fossil fuels, we made this happen.

Trying to stop herself from panicking, she clenched her fists.

Why this week? Why did this have to happen now?

She shook her head, her blonde bangs covering her eyes for a moment before she brushed them back. Her life hadn’t been easy so far. This was just another unbelievably crappy event in it.