Chapter 1 - First Time...Traveler?
My alarm clock went off and I slammed the snooze button. I sat up and blinked trying to have my eyes adjust to the bright sunlight shining through my window. I slowly slid out of bed, too tired to move any faster out of bed. Then I realized the time on my alarm clock, it showed the time as 7:00 AM, which meant that I was going to be late for school. I quickly got up and got changed into different clothes for school. After I finished changing I literally ran out of the house grabbing a Pop-Tart on my way out and telling my mom that I would see her later as I did many times before. I ran all the way to school, which thankfully I didn't live that far away from the school, only a couple blocks away. I got to my first class late, like I did many times before this week. The teacher wasn't very happy and marked my tardiness in the book. This wasn't going to look good on my school record I'm sure.
"Ugh, if only I had more time every morning," I said, yawning.
My eyelids felt like dead weight and I had trouble keeping them up while listening to the professor's lecture. It got to a point where I couldn't keep them up anymore and I fell asleep with my head held in my right hand. The bell for the end of class rung and woke me up, and that's when I noticed that I had fallen asleep.
"I'm not going to learn anything if I keep falling asleep in class," I said, yawning again.
My name is Nathaniel, but people call me Nathan, among some other nicknames I don't want to mention. I am 19 years old, and in college, it's not a very good and popular college though. I'm taking classes on computer programming and science since those subjects I seem to be pretty good at. I walked in the direction of the science class that I am taking and entered the classroom. The professor was nowhere in sight, which was odd for him, he was always here before the students came. I sat down and pulled out my notebook, for taking down notes. I liked to keep track of what the professors say and write it down, so just in case I ever forgot it, I'd be able to come back to it later. As I waited for the professor to show up, I thought about going to see Doc Brown after classes. I heard that Doc Brown, also know as "The Doc" had interesting theories about time travel, and time travel always interested me, the mix of technology and science, and I liked both a lot.
After the professor finally arrived class started and ended before I knew it. I kept notes of everything I learned in classes that day. After that, all my classes for the day were done, so I walked over to Doc Brown's house, hearing the usual racket from his garage. I walked up to the garage door and knocked on it. The garage door opened in front of me shortly after I knocked on it, and saw a man with wild gray hair wearing a lab coat and staring back at me.
"Yes? May I help you?" that man asked.
"Yes, are you Doc Brown?" I asked.
"Yes I am, what may I do for you?" the man said.
"I heard you have a very interesting theory in time travel," I blurted out.
The Doc looked to both sides of me, seeing if anyone else was around and pulled me inside, closing the garage door behind me.
"How do you know that?" Doc Brown asked me.
I thought about that for a moment and couldn't remember where I had heard it from, for some odd reason.
"I honestly don't remember where I heard it from anymore, but I wanted to see your work, I find it very interesting," I said.
He looked me up and down, apparently wondering if he could trust me.
"Hmmm, you seem to be telling the truth there, I guess you can be trusted," Doc Brown said. "You can look around if you like."
I walked around his garage, which was made like a laboratory. I noticed some of the usual lab equipment, with some oddities as well. There was a small model of a city, with a road and an odd looking model DeLorean on one end of the small model road. This model, lab, and Doc Brown all looked oddly familiar to me, and yet I could have sworn I have never met him or been here before.
"I'm getting the odd sense of deja vu here," I said aloud, without noticing it.
"Deja vu?" Doc Brown said, with a look of interest on his face.
I stepped back from him, slightly frightened by the look on his face, I didn't like it at all.
"What? What is it?" I asked, with a fearful tone in my voice.
He stared at me for a moment, then stepped back and away from me. I relaxed just a little, not sure if he was planning something or not.
"Oh, it's nothing," Doc Brown said.
I somehow felt like he was lying like he was keeping something from me, something that he knew and I didn't. I decided not to ask him about it though, as it most likely was not really any of my business.
"Can you show me your theory of time travel?" I asked nervously.
"Theory? It's not an impossibility you know," Doc Brown said. "It is very possible to travel through time, but it can be very dangerous."
"Uh...alright," I said.
I began to think that this Doc Brown wasn't right in the head. I wanted to get out of there soon, so I thought of some excuse.
"Well, maybe you can show me next time Doc," I said, looking at my watch to make what I was saying look more convincing. "I don't want to be late, I uh...have an appointment to...um someplace."
"Okay then, next time," Doc Brown said, walking me back to the front of the garage and opening the garage door.
I stepped out and waved bye, being polite and not showing that I thought he was just a little crazy. I walked all the way home, slightly regretting I ever went to see that Doc Brown now. He wasn't the kind of guy that he seemed to be. Then I began to wonder how I ever knew where he lived, how I even heard of him, and why his garage looked so familiar to me. I had never met him before, and yet I didn't know how I knew about his theory and where he lived. I went to my room and fell back on my bed. I thought for a while wondering about the whole thing with Doc Brown. I ate dinner and went to bed early this time so that I wouldn't end up sleeping in late again, although tomorrow would be Saturday, and I didn't have any classes.
My alarm clock went off and I nearly jumped out of bed. I wondered why my alarm clock went off when I didn't even set it. I noticed the date on my alarm clock, it said the same date as what was supposed to be yesterday.
"Darn it, my alarm clock must be broken," I said.
I grabbed my watch and put it on my right wrist, without looking at it. I walked out of my bedroom, and to the kitchen to get something to eat.
"What are you doing? Don't you have classes today?" my mom asked.
"Classes? It's Saturday," I said, sitting down at the kitchen table.
"No, it's Friday, hurry up or you'll be late," my mom said.
"Friday?!" I said surprised.
"Yes, Friday, so hurry up," my mom said.
I looked at my watch and saw the same date that was on my alarm clock.
"I could have sworn yesterday was Friday," I said, getting up and walking back to my room.
I didn't think too much of it and got ready for school. I hurried up and got to class making it just in time. I thought to myself that I must have dreamed of having gone through Friday already or something like I have done before, so it wasn't anything new. I wished that I would stop having dreams where it seems like I'm living my everyday life, but just a day ahead or so, it's weird. The Doc Brown in my dreams probably just came off as creepy, cause I had no idea how he really was. I then decided that I would go over and see him after classes today.
Before I knew it classes were over and I was walking to Doc Brown's house. I couldn't wait to talk to him about his time travel theory, time travel always sounded fascinating to me. I finally got to his house, hearing some slight racket coming from the garage. I walked up to the garage door and lightly knocked on it. I could help but have this slightly uneasy deja vu feeling deep inside. The garage door then suddenly slid up and open, nearly causing me to jump out of surprise. Standing there was a gray-haired man in a lab coat, who I figured must have been Doc Brown.
"Yes? May I help you?" the man asked me.
"You're Doc Brown right?" I asked.
"Yes I am, what may I do for you?" the man asked.
Everything he said so far just the same as before, not one thing was different. It was almost as if this all happened before.
"You have a theory about time travel, am I correct?" I asked.
The Doc looked to both sides of me, seeing if anyone else was around and pulled me inside, closing the garage door behind me.
"How do you know that?" Doc Brown asked me.
"This isn't possible, you are responding the same way you did in my dream, or at least I think it was a dream," I said. "I just wanted to see your theory on time travel, since I've always found time travel very interesting."
"Is that so? That I will show you, but it isn't any theory, it is quite possible to travel through time," Doc Brown said.
I noticed a vehicle behind him, under a grayish tarp.
"What's that?" I asked, reaching for the tarp.
"Don't touch that!" Doc Brown said.
I pulled my hand away quickly at what he said.
"What's under there?" I asked.
"My time machine," Doc Brown said.
"Really? Wow! Can I see?" I said, eyes wide with excitement.
He pulled the tarp away to show me. It was a DeLorean with some modifications here and there. I peeked in through the front windshield and saw a device of some sort attached inside.
"And this allows you to really travel through time?" I asked. "Wait...is that a flux capacitor? I thought that was just a myth."
"Why, yes it is a flux capacitor, you know a lot about this, I'm surprised," Doc Brown said.
"I did say time travel was very interesting to me didn't I?" I asked, making sure I actually did say that.
"You said something like that, yes," Doc Brown said.
"Could you show me how it works?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure...I guess," Doc Brown said.
He opened the driver's side door and sat down inside, opening the passage side door from the inside.
"Come around and take a look," Doc Brown said.
I walked around to the passenger side and looked inside, noticing two separate time displays, one set to show the current time and date, and another I assumed to display the time and date you wanted to go to. I leaned in a little bit in order to take a closer look as Doc Brown got up and out of the vehicle.
"This is so cool," I said.
"Well, if you want to see how it works, go ahead and sit down in the passenger seat," Doc Brown said.
"Really?" I asked, excitedly, and sat down before he could withdraw his offer.
Then Doc Brown sat back down in the driver's side and pulled the door down. I followed his lead and pulled the passenger side door down. My eyes we so wide with excitement that it felt like my eyes would fall out of their sockets. Doc Brown flipped a few switches and started the DeLorean up. He pulled out a garage remote and opened the garage door, and drove the DeLorean out of the garage. He then closed the garage door behind the DeLorean.
"We have to reach a certain speed to achieve the time jump right?" I asked.
"Uh...right," Doc Brown said.
Doc Brown pressed on the acceleration and the DeLorean rushed down the road, the road disappeared before us, and the surroundings suddenly changed.