Life on Mars

Chapter Six

The pair exchanged no words on the remainder of the journey back to civilisation. Professor Touchreik as deep in thought as his young counterpart. He'd jumped decades back in time, but the voice in his head refused to accept it. 

"Look around buddy, nothing's changed. Dead people are still dead and old people are still old, more importantly, buildings that were bulldozed years ago are still bulldozed." That voice worked perfectly until the occasion he faced physical evidence. When coming across the un-dead, the un-old and the un-bulldozed. Then the voice went quiet, it turned away and left him to deal with it. Just over a week ago he'd taken a suicidal leap of faith and survived; now he knew the assignment had begun.

"That's your problem bubby," his comforting voice said. "I'm just trying to help ok." The voice was that of ignorance, the voice that is blind to realities our conscious mind struggled to cope with. That your friend died, or your lover and you will just be dust someday. The people from whom he's acquired the belts had been willing to make the same leap until circumstances changed that. Even the people who had designed the belts accepted that using them was probably a suicide mission. Their expectations ranged from the wearer's physical contents being scattered across space and time, to them frying themselves where they stood. Touchreik's motivation to attempt the leap went way deeper than the fear of death.

ϟ

The sun was coming up as the professor walked up the lane away from the village. Sneaking away from a grieving boy's bedroom like a thief in the night, and he was a thief. The night's spoils wrapped tightly around his waist. If it were possible to be elated and terrified in a single moment, then that might describe the emotion he felt. After years of adversity, there had been no time to pause or rest, and there still wasn't. Satisfied he was far enough from the village, he stepped off the track and into the undergrowth. He had no idea how these things work. Would there be an explosion, flames or noise as was the case in fantasy sims or literature? He'd no wish to alert anyone and certainly no wish to endanger life other than his own.

He found a small clearing and looked around in the dim light for the spot he'd pre-planned to make the leap. A grey mound protruded from the dead leaves and undergrowth. He made a final check in his rucksack and discarded a small metal fire-maker. Once he was satisfied, there were no non-organic materials on him, he tightened one of the belts around his waist. He quickly adjusted the dials and prepared to leap. He'd been told that the belts would transport only organic materials but which organic materials wasn't an exact science. Standing on rock would prevent him taking a few feet of soil or the odd tree with him. Above the numbered dials was a simple button which would activate the belts.

"Here we go," he thought. "Sayonara, arrivederci and adios cruel world."

He closed his eyes and pressed the button which popped under the pressure and then, nothing. He opened his eyes and looked down at the belt and a cold wash of disappointment ran over him like a wet blanket. Then he noticed the dim morning light fading until suddenly it became very bright again. Shadows drifted across his vision as if someone were shining a searchlight in the forest. His surroundings became blurry and the light became dark and light again, much quicker. He saw his surroundings in a kind of time-lapse that increased speed until the day and night became a single blur. Trees and shrubs around him went from huge adult forms to seedlings and back again. In the space of a few seconds, he couldn't distinguish the changes taking place in front of his eyes as the universe rewound across the decades. It was as if he wasn't travelling backwards, but the universe was, whilst he stood still, frozen in time. At one point he was shoved to one side as a large tree grew next to him. As if he was in a protective bubble, impenetrable to the outside world. Then things slowed, the searchlight again and then stillness. The atmosphere changed instantly as if he'd stepped outdoors on a chilly day. He was thrown to the ground and lay on his back, a couple of metres from the grey rock he'd used as a launchpad. Had he not known better, he might believe he was simply in another part of the forest. Physically he was in almost the same location excepting the nudge from a growing tree. He sat up and looked around.