~* A/N: Took me a while to write this! Hopefully you'll like it, and please review! *~
Rob packed two matching pistols into his pack, a long silver knife, binoculars, night-vision goggles.. the list of military supplies that he'd obtained was endless. Meanwhile, Greg was inspecting a camera; he had one digital one, two disposable cameras, and a video camera. An expensive-looking laptop was tucked into his pack.
"Do you think we'll need all that?" Greg asked Rob, not truly sounding nervous, but rather skeptical.
"Do you know what can happen in a thousand years?" replied the other, opening a plastic case, full of metal bullets, checked it, and then closed it again. "The would could have been taken over by giant rabid llamas for all we know. We should be careful."
I snickered a little, shaking my head and rolling my eyes, sharing an amused look with Denise as she double-checked a GPS device, which displayed location, temperature, barometer readings, anything a scientist might need to know about the weather. I packed food, freeze-dried stuff like astronauts eat.
Just in case.
~*~
"Stand still," came the electronic voice into our machine as the four of us stood within. "Eyes open. Deep breath." I inhaled sharply, filling my chest and stomach with air. "Hold it... NOW!" Then a flash, and more flashes, each time everything around me seemed to get bigger. I'd only done this once before. Then, I'd reassured myself with that - I wasn't shrinking, everything else was getting bigger. After the first trip, it was easier to accept. Darkness and then lights. I always tried not to watch the lights, they seemed to make me ask questions, second guess what I was doing. And blackness again, so dark that it seemed like nothing could ever light it - even the strongest light from the brightest fire could not, it would even be lost in the dark.
It is darkness like that, that makes you think of your journey. What would we find on the Earth? What will be there, what civilization; what life, if any exists at all? And if there is nothing, just a vast expanse of darkness even darker than the one we were sinking through now, what then? We go back, and what do we tell the others? Our race is doomed? Mankind has a lifespan of maybe a few more hundred years?
Do we stay and look for answers? What if what we find is worse than nothing; something so terrible has befallen the human race, something so bad that we haven't been able to realize it's even remote possibility, not even in our worst nightmares, in the dead of the night, have we dreamt it up?
As the leader, it was my duty to make such decisions. But I do not know the answers - I've only just begun to ask the questions.
We sank, for what seemed like forever, before finally, at last, the doors opened and we looked out. Got our first look at the future.
The land was barren. A wasteland, riddled with dust, ash, and scattered remains of rock. It was a desert, in all but temperature. It was not hot, nor cold. It was a perfect temperature; room temperature.
Greg stepped out of the machine, beside Denise and Rob. Each of us carried our small ceramic slab with a button on the side, to call back the machine.
"Sixty eight degrees," murmured Denise, pulling the GPS system from a pouch in her backpack. "We're in the middle of the Arizona desert.. sixty-eight degrees? We're in the middle of August."
While she pondered this, Greg was adjusting his digital camera on a strap around his neck. Rob came up behind me, glancing about.
"What do you think?" he asked, quietly, and I shrugged.
"I assume we're still in the desert. Though it is cooled."
"That's odd," Denise said, off to the side, and finally my attention was drawn back to her.
"What?"
"The barometer reading.. it's strange."
"What do you mean?" asked Greg, glancing up with raised eyebrows.
"Well, usually it'd be.. this is a reading like you'd get in a pressurized room."
"Hm," said Rob, shrugging off-handedly. "Oh, well. We're not in a room. I don't see any walls, do you?"
There was a few moment's pause, all of us glancing back and forth. I could see no walls, just endless flatland.
"No," said Greg, his eyes drifted upward. The rest of us followed his gaze. And then he stated that which had become obvious to us, what the rest of us were thinking. "But I see a ceiling."
~*A/N: Oooh.. aaahhh.. review! *~
Rob packed two matching pistols into his pack, a long silver knife, binoculars, night-vision goggles.. the list of military supplies that he'd obtained was endless. Meanwhile, Greg was inspecting a camera; he had one digital one, two disposable cameras, and a video camera. An expensive-looking laptop was tucked into his pack.
"Do you think we'll need all that?" Greg asked Rob, not truly sounding nervous, but rather skeptical.
"Do you know what can happen in a thousand years?" replied the other, opening a plastic case, full of metal bullets, checked it, and then closed it again. "The would could have been taken over by giant rabid llamas for all we know. We should be careful."
I snickered a little, shaking my head and rolling my eyes, sharing an amused look with Denise as she double-checked a GPS device, which displayed location, temperature, barometer readings, anything a scientist might need to know about the weather. I packed food, freeze-dried stuff like astronauts eat.
Just in case.
~*~
"Stand still," came the electronic voice into our machine as the four of us stood within. "Eyes open. Deep breath." I inhaled sharply, filling my chest and stomach with air. "Hold it... NOW!" Then a flash, and more flashes, each time everything around me seemed to get bigger. I'd only done this once before. Then, I'd reassured myself with that - I wasn't shrinking, everything else was getting bigger. After the first trip, it was easier to accept. Darkness and then lights. I always tried not to watch the lights, they seemed to make me ask questions, second guess what I was doing. And blackness again, so dark that it seemed like nothing could ever light it - even the strongest light from the brightest fire could not, it would even be lost in the dark.
It is darkness like that, that makes you think of your journey. What would we find on the Earth? What will be there, what civilization; what life, if any exists at all? And if there is nothing, just a vast expanse of darkness even darker than the one we were sinking through now, what then? We go back, and what do we tell the others? Our race is doomed? Mankind has a lifespan of maybe a few more hundred years?
Do we stay and look for answers? What if what we find is worse than nothing; something so terrible has befallen the human race, something so bad that we haven't been able to realize it's even remote possibility, not even in our worst nightmares, in the dead of the night, have we dreamt it up?
As the leader, it was my duty to make such decisions. But I do not know the answers - I've only just begun to ask the questions.
We sank, for what seemed like forever, before finally, at last, the doors opened and we looked out. Got our first look at the future.
The land was barren. A wasteland, riddled with dust, ash, and scattered remains of rock. It was a desert, in all but temperature. It was not hot, nor cold. It was a perfect temperature; room temperature.
Greg stepped out of the machine, beside Denise and Rob. Each of us carried our small ceramic slab with a button on the side, to call back the machine.
"Sixty eight degrees," murmured Denise, pulling the GPS system from a pouch in her backpack. "We're in the middle of the Arizona desert.. sixty-eight degrees? We're in the middle of August."
While she pondered this, Greg was adjusting his digital camera on a strap around his neck. Rob came up behind me, glancing about.
"What do you think?" he asked, quietly, and I shrugged.
"I assume we're still in the desert. Though it is cooled."
"That's odd," Denise said, off to the side, and finally my attention was drawn back to her.
"What?"
"The barometer reading.. it's strange."
"What do you mean?" asked Greg, glancing up with raised eyebrows.
"Well, usually it'd be.. this is a reading like you'd get in a pressurized room."
"Hm," said Rob, shrugging off-handedly. "Oh, well. We're not in a room. I don't see any walls, do you?"
There was a few moment's pause, all of us glancing back and forth. I could see no walls, just endless flatland.
"No," said Greg, his eyes drifted upward. The rest of us followed his gaze. And then he stated that which had become obvious to us, what the rest of us were thinking. "But I see a ceiling."
~*A/N: Oooh.. aaahhh.. review! *~