FUTURE

 "We've built this cool time travel machine which can send you to future! Just got it down from the Neibolt Street Wallmart! Who wants to go first?" Mr. Tazen finished his 'big surprise' of the evening for school-stay. What a coincidence...

As he finished speaking, 30 hands shot up in the air, all among the bunch we are at this one and only school left in the city. It's future already for me. Nobody goes to school now though they used to, my grandma told me so. Everyone home schooled on their iPad in their comfort coffee smell of home. Nobody wanted a bigger fun of hanging out under a scorching sun though and a chilly night though but buT bUT BUT- FRIENDS! Yeah friends Sherlock. The one concept which is like on the school books under the ancient social skill system. What the-

"Nessa, you wanna go in first?" I'm snapped back to the present. To the moment where yes I go to school, have been since 5 years now, 13 years old with big dreams of building magnetic skyscrapers, self-cleaning sewers and a jet lander in the fucking high sky. Yes I'm the soon-to-be-architect. Yes I'm-

Hera nudges my arm with a soft gaze, telling me I need to reply with my lips and voice and not in my head like they could read it as the AI at home. 

I nod feverishly. "Yes." Is all that I say. 

"Good. Now come over and put down your name, desired year and destination on this silicon card we have here guys which when inserted in the system will make a whirring noise and then boom! We're in the future in this nut capsule in 7 seconds." Mr. Tazen goes on as I make my way through the crowd of children towards the spot beside the machine. I look back at Hera and she raises her brows and lips in excitement as if she was the one going in. I smile back. 

When Mr. Tazen puts the card on my hand, I see it as the transparent pale blue thing it is through which I can see the birthmark on my palm crease. I take the pen and write down my name. 

Nessa Tozier

Then the date. This I've it straight. 29.01.2041. I'll be 29 Sherlock. Finally celebrating my 29th birthday if not alive until then. 

29.01.2041

Then over to the destination. My pen hovers over it for a while unsure of what to write in as. Where could be the place I think I would be at when I'm 29? On my birthday? I haven't been to many places though yet. But even after all these uncertainties, it came as a lightning strike on my bipolar brain and I wrote it down as carefully as I could. 

Home

Cause honestly, if I'm not there, where the hell am I? On my birthday? 

I insert the card as careful like a dead feather floating on the lake, in the slot. Mr. Tazen opens the door for me. I get inside. Put on the seat belt. Lay down. And just close my eyes. I'll be home soon.

The machine buzzes and comes to life like a dragonfly maybe stuck in a shoe. It shakes violently as we proceed and I hold onto life like its almost a dear thing. A bright flash from the white walls inside this blinds my eyes and I fade back into black. 

Don't know for how long I was pseudo dead. There's a sign which glows in green on a square screen right beside me. "YOU'VE REACHED 29.01.2041." Out of the blue a smile comes over and I take off my belt. I glance down on my watch to check the time but to my lingering doubts, it has stopped. I sigh and once I'm done detaching myself from the seat, take a deep breath and open the door. 

A musty smell invades my nose. I've landed in the far corner of the house, the room which my dad currently occupied. I take down my step. There is a yellow-dark blue shade spread over the house from the lights outside. No noise. All dark. Maybe ever did literally leave this house as we had started talking about it. 

I try to budge open a window in the room but its so long ghosted, it's unmoving urge mocks me like I'm the one who ghosted it. Well...could be. But did we really leave? I walk out the room and notice that all the furniture is gone from the living room. Where the pictures once hung on the wall, the periphery is now marked black rotting fungus. I glance left and back at the kitchen and it almost looks like a horror movie scene I could be pulled into. Now I get where the rotting smell came from. 

All the house is mostly covered in dirt and germs. I try to open the balcony door on the corner but its hinge is rusted and has bled itself into the socket intertwining its fate with this house forever. Glass windows seem now more fragile. Maybe I should break it...maybe. I look around myself on the ground to catch something to throw at it. When I couldn't find something, I pulled out the generator plug which was hell rusted to even hold it but managed to come off. I threw it at the window and it instantly broke to pieces like it was long waiting to be.

Then I get the look of outside and my mouth goes open wide from shock. The view of houses and small trees lining it like garden which used to be there when I last left is no more. Instead right from the edge of the railing it is surrounded by something glass and blue. Like a big big window right out. Nothing can be deciphered though. How can it change so much in just like....oh 16 years. 

I walk forward inside the house, bathroom walls about to shatter to rust, and all the rooms have the same dark, black vibe. The room at the forefront of the house which used to receive the most sunlight now feel like its been covered in shade for longer. I enter the last room of the house which has one balcony and one bathroom. Everything's gone, no signs. 

Suddenly a siren sounds from above or maybe from the outside. I push the balcony door and fumble to the open air. My mind is baffled to see large buildings circling the area. Taller than one I've ever seen. Our present day people have not been able to build such high ones which disappear into the sky. The siren I notice is being blown from like a rover flying above which has a red light on it. I notice it rotating left and right before fixating its light on...me? 

I eye the rover long before the siren dies and someone speaks from inside.

"I see a human. 5 feet 2 and a half inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. Identified most probably as a girl of 18. They're wearing a blue jumpsuit with black checks on." And then a loud beep seemed to reset it. The rover comes down and we're now 10 feet away face to face with his red light still on me. 

"We request you to clear your name human." The rover asks in a robotic...voice. 

"Who are you?"

"I'm a CCX27 Gen robot named Carey. This is Earth 122B4. You're the only inhabitant human on this planet. Hence I request you to clear your name."

"This is Earth 122B4? I'm Red. What happened here?"

"OK." I got away with the lie. The rover beeps again. "Identity cleared. You want me to take you to Earth 139C? That's where all the human inhabitants live. Earth 122B4 was destroyed four years ago in a green war viping out 99.78% of the population. Only about the remaining have been successfully inhabited on a different planet. Let me assist you to there too. Or Xencos will be arriving soon for their devastating patrolling. I need your consent."

"Who are the Xencos?"

"Xencos are intergalactic creatures, sons of God as they call themselves, who travel to worlds which are destroyed by the previous I inhabitants. They walk over the lands and crumble down the rest left. They're the keepers of the galaxy. I'll tell you more. This ground is far from their destruction hence they haven't reached here yet. So maybe we're in a safe position to leave now. I need your consent."

You know my mind is too lightened to think straight. 

"No its fine. I'll just-" Before I could finish the rover was snatched from the sky and teared to pieces. I heard a faint robotic bye before it lost its identity. A big hand crumbled it to pieces and when it bends down to check the rest of the situation, I lock eyes with a devil the robot might have referred to as a Xenco. It had big red eyes and a brown black face almost like all the creatures we saw in movies but just much more terrifying and ugly. Almost magical.

It roars at me and I'm snapped to life. I back away from the balcony and run towards the shuttle I came in. The Xenco's hands continued inside the house destroying everything on the way. I realize the building can give away and cannot hold too long. I run with all my might and manage to reach the shuttle. Just before I close the door I see the Xenco's big hand stuck in the doorway. I close the shuttle door, quickly click the button to go back and before the creature could snap me into half, I was gone. 

The lights blinded me and with a loud shaking and buzz I lost control and came back again after reaching. I didn't realize I was so terrified my hands were still shaking. The teachers and students asked me what I saw and I lied that it was just another sunny day and we were all more than happy, which is far from the reality. There were no faces at all. 

That night I went to my parents and told them I loved them to death. I snucked into my bed early but couldn't sleep. Faint sounds coming from outside made me keep alive for long. What it was I cannot ever know.