Illusions Kiss Reality

There was no anomaly with the timejumping this time as Michaela took her time to cry without the bother of what came next.

"C'mon! Let's get out of here now." Michael said to his sister who had cried her eyes out and was wiping them off already.

She really needed those cathartic tears and she slowly got up with her hands in her brother's as they retreated to take cover.

Before they could get to the concrete where they'd formerly taken cover, they time-jumped. This was a different experience in more ways than one. They arrived here in a change of clothes in what seemed like biological hazard prevention suits; an upgrade to the regular hazmat suits they'd known.

Something rained from the sky and danced off from their helmets to the ground. It wasn't rain, it was lighter and appeared to be dustier.

After a few seconds of fixed analysis, Michael realised that this was ash. It was raining ashes in the city of Pretoria, South Africa.

"What year are we in again?" Michael asked while trying to get a clearer picture of it all.

"2053. We're in the aftermath of the World War III"." Michaela said as she lifted her eyes above the wristwatch.

They were in the middle of nowhere in what must have formerly been a city central park. But as of that moment, there was no proof of human or even animal existence right here.

"Warning. Fatal conditions incoming. Atomic showers estimated to begin in 11 minutes. Take cover. Get somewhere safe" The automated hazmat suits said to both of them.

Michael turned his face in a bid to find anything that could serve as shelter.

Michaela found one towards their East side and tapped her brother as they walked towards the Skyscraper that had been decimated at most of its West wing.

As they approached nearer to the building, they could hear something indiscernible that sounded like music being blasted from huge woofers. It was a different kind of music as the beats were audacious and the melody became outspoken as they were nearing it.

They entered the building whose doors were either taken out by a running mob of people or by some huge weapon that seemed to have left a trail of ultra red ash around the walls.

Michaela stepped on a piece of paper which was written in English language and she read it without much attention.

Michael went up the stairs which were rather intact and found his way to the room where the music came from.

It was a Tesla showroom that had an exhibition of Tesla electric cars with all trendy and mind-bending designs, curves and innovations of its time.

Michael was an ardent fan of motorcycles, but this sight changed his mind in that very instant.

It was a car that at the rear end of the room that produced that sound which was very melodic now that Michael was in the room. He walked by the side of every cars with awe and more surprise for each one as he passed the other.

This was an amazing futuristic experience for Michael and he basked in it.

He hadn't paid much attention to the destroyed glass window that surrounded the room as the wall. He only noticed this when he looked at the car where the music was coming from which was halfway out of the window with this rear end tilting towards falling off and it's front tyres holding it back from falling.

This car was an edifice and maybe the sports car of its time.

"He did it after all" Michael said in appreciation of Musk's electric car and AI driven cars which filled this room.

He extended his hands to touch the door knob of one of the cars that struck him as royalty and as he did, he disappeared away from here.

They had time-jumped again and Michael was glad he had that eye-worthy, mindgasm adventure. Their suits were off their bodies now and they were back to their regular clothes in an alley within a city of people.

"Michael, do you recognise this place?" Michaela asked with a little smile spreading across her face.

This was New York, and it looked more beautiful than ever with people walking through every clustered road.

Michael and Michaela hurried out of the alley to get to the road where they saw people.

The view of the people changed as they got closer and it was a puzzling sight.

These weren't people,not in flesh and blood, at least.

Like doubting Thomas, Michael put his hands through one of the people that appeared to be strolling happily with a dog and just as he guessed it would, his hands passed right in without any pain or difficulty.

These weren't robots or humans, these were holography projections around the city.

What manner of thing was this? Was this the evolution of this decade?

"Care to tell me what year we're in again?" Michael asked the dumbfounded Michaela.

"2078". Michaela understood that this Holographic creation was not without a solid power source. She wondered to herself as she checked every part of the city out with her eyes from where she stood.

"The African continent to become uninhabitable for life sustainability in a Century, League of Unity statistics declare" Michaela saw this on an electric mega billboard while her eyes roamed. That news was not of much surprise to her given the ash rain of South Africa.

Michael and Michaela, still dumbfounded to talk, looked around as they moved a few steps to another block nearby.

Two teenage girls passed beside them and they looked real with VR glasses over their faces.

Was this even real? Why stroll New York with VR glasses? Michael had an urge to find clarity in their realness, so he attempted to touch one of the girls by the shoulder and he did so, and to his utter shock, she was real. Flesh and blood.

Before any of the girls could react, Michael and his sister had vanished.