2 Chapter 2- Time

In the year 3000, the population got too big. I guess you could say that birth control over us didn't exactly work the way the government wanted. We had even more than what we have now. Everyone was forced to be split up by religion. If you were Christian, Jewish, Orthodox, or Buddhist, you would need to stay on earth. If you were a Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, or Baptist, you would take a trip to the Goldilocks planet they had found in 2016. If you were anything else, you'd fly off to Mars. Mars had just been colonized, and life was supportable. That trip to the goldilocks planet had taken them five years. The trip to Mars had taken five days. Today it would only take a few seconds to get to Mars, with light-speed technology.

As of 2041, they had begun colonizing Mars. It took until the year 2978 to finish it. They filled the sky with gasses, to create an atmosphere. Then, they began to fertilize the soil, bringing in plants and living things from the earth. This produced oxygen. They did that for a while, and a few other things (I couldn't read what it said because the ink on that document had been completely smudged).

Back then, it was normal to switch religions. Everyone did it. Apparently, my ancestors did, too. My mother told Ryan and I the story, about how half of our family lives on Mars.

It gave me a warm feeling to know that the people who live on the other planets would live a happy life. I know I should have probably been angry at the fact that us earthlings were the only ones suffering, but it wasn't about that. I

Some nights I stare up into the holographic sky that is displayed for us all and wonder what the real sky looks like. Are there any galaxies that we can see? Are there some constellations that the designers missed? Can we even see anything with all of the satellites blocking our view? Life is a sea of questions.

You know what else is a sea? Everything I know. Speaking of everything I know…

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Ryan snatched the paper from my hands.

"Wow, I had just picked some random document. Now that's luck!" He remarked, but I didn't hear him. Everyone on that document had their fingerprints marked under it. The probability of such a thing happening was close to impossible.

"The last ingredient to our time machine!" I declared excitedly, my hand in the air. Ryan was confused. I turned to him.

"Remember what we learned in that designing program? Your family's DNA from a certain time period can be mixed together with DNA from the present. And that makes…"

"Time travel!" Ryan yelled in celebration.

"Exactly," I told him.

Ryan and I have never liked the problems on earth. We've always wanted to fix them. We decided that all of these problems are connected to global warming. It swallowed the whole planet. Even the tallest mountains. We've always wanted to go to the start of this, in the 2000s. We wanted to fix it. Hopefully, if we survive our journey (Time travel has never been achieved, and the fact that two children made the first one isn't very reassuring) when we come back, a mission accomplished would be a different world. Hopefully, it's not half underwater.

As stated in stories about time travel, "You can't change time. Events were meant to happen." But have those people ever gone back in time themselves to prove it? Ryan and I have spent half of our lives planning, building, and keeping our machine a complete secret. This really needs to work.

We headed down to our hideout (basement). We were so excited that we practically trampled each other in the hallway. Could this finally be the moment we've always waited for? Could it be the last ingredient that our time machine needs? The door opened in front of us, and the unfinished machine sat in the middle of the room.

It looked just about ready. The color was a mix of dull gray and rusty brown because we used metal scraps we had found on the ground to build it. I stared at the paper with the girl's fingerprint as I slowly approached the machine for what could be the last time. I faded writing, it read, "The United States Maine Census 2020."

There was a slot that was built to take in and analyze the paper. I glanced back at Ryan. He was deep in thought.

"Ryan," I alluded, "What're you thinking about?"

"I… we…" he slowly said, "Only one of us can go."

I wheeled around to examine the small machine, "What are you talking ab-" Then, something caught my eye in the coding.

"Cf-40d-24fg-5(5)g3(h)-b9-f," I read aloud, then turned back to him. "How could we have missed such a detail? The machine has only half the energy we thought it had!"

I thought hard. At this point we had two options: the first one being we spend five more years collecting enough metal and coding experience for another energy chamber, and the second option is that one of us waits in the present, while the other goes to 2020 alone. I didn't even have to think.

"Definitely option two." I announced.

"What?" Ryan said, confused. I couldn't blame him. It wasn't like he could read my mind.

"I'm going alone."

"What? No! I can't let you go by yourself!" He protested.

"Would you rather go?" I asked him.

He took a step back, "Well maybe not, but who knows what'll happen… what if you never come back?" he said, tearing up. I didn't know what to do. Should I tell him that everything will be alright even though it won't? Should I give him the truth and make him more upset?

"Look Ryan…" I sighed, patting him on the back, "We both agreed that we'd risk our lives to do this. We did that five years ago. I'm sure this is what we meant to do."

"I mean, we could always wait until we gather enough power to take both of us!" Ryan tried to sound optimistic.

"But that's gonna take another five years! By then who knows what'll be left of society?"

Ryan bit his lip, "I guess you're right. We really don't have a choice."

I patted my finger in ink and pressed my finger on the paper. It was fresh paint, so I put it in the ink dryer to dry off. After a few seconds, it dinged, and I took it out. I slid it in the slot and strapped myself in. There was one seat, with a helmet attached, wires all over, and the most important part- the button to blast off.

"Wait!" Ryan bellowed right before I slapped the button impatiently. I looked at him.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"What will I tell mom?" He panicked. I thought a little.

"How did we not think about that?" I said through the glass protecting the explosion that is about to happen. Maybe we were less prepared than we had thought, "Tell her that I went camping and that she gave me permission but doesn't remember it."

"That's good." He said, thinking, "But what if you don't come back?"

"You say you don't know what happened," I said, biting my lip, "Just, if I don't come back… steal another document, okay? And make sure it has one of our family members on it, or it won't work. I don't know how that's going to happen again… but do your research. Come after me. You probably won't have any signal in that time period though. Oh, and don't forget, the cooldown for the time machine is about a week. It doesn't work if you come earlier than that. Let's just hope I can survive a week…" I instantly regretted saying that last part.

He nodded, and I prepared to leave. Right when I was about to smash the button I've been wanting to smash for ages, Ryan sprinted towards me and threw his arms around me. I did the same. He stepped back and we waved. I punched the button before I could change my mind. I wasn't sure if that hand flop of Ryan's was waving back or just something involuntary. My stomach flipped around, my hair went crazy, and my skin was stretching. It didn't hurt, though. Or maybe I just didn't feel anything. I gave up trying to follow where my body parts were because they were everywhere. Would they reconnect? I could barely even think. Before I knew it, I saw a bright light, and I landed headfirst on the ground. But it wasn't the ground I was used to seeing.