Yesterday we left Squint locked up in a holding cell on a Shadow Government space ship, just for sharing the secret of time travel with a member of his family.  But with the vampires out to get him, where on Earth could he possibly escape to?

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Chapter 17 – After The End Of The World

    More and more time went by, I felt like I was slowly being crushed by the cold walls of my cell.  But then one day a pair of hands suddenly came out of nowhere, and grabbed me around my chest.  The next thing I knew I was back on Earth, in a forest somewhere.  There where two people standing there next to me, and one of them pushed me toward the other like they were passing a basketball.  Then I was in different remote woodsy location, but now it was night time.  I felt someone pass me along to someone else, and heard them whisper “Hurry, they'll start tracking soon!”  All of a sudden we were in a desert, the hot sun was scorching and I tried to look around, but all I saw was sand dunes for as far as the eye could see.  Then someone else grabbed me and I was somewhere up in the mountains, by a waterfall.  My ears were starting to hurt from the changes in altitude.

    The process went on for at least a dozen or more passes, all over the world.  I didn't have time to keep track of all the different scenes unfolding in front of me.  I felt so disoriented.  Eventually when it stopped I found myself in the ruins of a large city.  A young man was standing there next to me, just smiling.  And without saying a word, he handed me a backpack and then simply vanished.  There were no special effects, sounds, or even flashy lights, he was just there and then he just wasn't.  It was as if he ran off while I blinked or something, but I hadn't blinked.

    I looked around at my new surroundings while I rubbed my ears trying to get the popping sensation to stop.  I was alone in what appeared to have been a big city a long time ago.  Now it was crumbling in ruins.  I couldn't believe it, had those people really helped me escape?  But to where?  I knelt down, and opened the backpack.  I was almost expecting some kind of portable time machine, or survival gear, maybe a weapon, or even just warmer clothes with a pair of shoes.  But instead it was just full of books.  I didn't understand.  But then I looked deeper and found a hand written note.

    Trying to read the note was difficult, that's when I realized that I had never properly learned how to read in this timeline.  My education ended abruptly half way through the first grade when I was abducted by the Shadow Government.  They never bothered to continue my education, they just kept me locked up in that cell for years and years.  I had to rely on my memories of other lifetimes to decode the symbols of text.  Reading was very hard and it took me a long time to decipher.  I had to look at it several times just to make sure I understood, but eventually I was able to read most of the note:

Dear Squint,

Thank you so much for saving me from time itself.  With that single act of kindness you have irrevocably changed the world.  I've taught many others what you taught me, and now the phrase 'human race' has taken on a great new meaning.  Now nearly everyone on Earth (from our timeline, and others) has mastered safe and effective time travel.  I'm sorry that it took such a long time from your perspective for us to rescue you from the Shadow Government, I hope you understand that timing is everything.  You see, some of the governments in some of the timelines had already learned about time travel and had been using that advantage to take control over other timelines, spreading their empires across the infinite dimensions.  But we let the genie out of the bottle, and now the people are fighting back against their invasive oppressors.

Honestly, I fear that a war between our free timelines and the worlds that are still oppressed could erupt at any moment now.  A lot has changed since your mysterious disappearance, Squint.  The remaining governments are very unhappy about loosing their control over the people, they call us anarchists just because they can't control us anymore.  Incredible efforts are being taken to ensure your safety.  If all went well, then you should be reading this letter in a parallel dimension, some time around the year 2018, about a hundred years after the 1918 flu ended all human life in that alternate universe.  Here in this abandoned world you are the last and only human being on Earth, and nobody can ever find you.  Now you're finally free!  Don't worry about the flu, it died off a long time ago.  And, we've discovered that those plagues you were worried about can come and go in waves.  But now that humanity has learned how to time travel, we've learned even more things from the infinite possible futures we've visited.  Long story short, nobody will have to worry about getting sick ever again.

Included in this package is a collection of text books and literature from various different timelines.  Please read them carefully, I personally hand-picked each of these books to help you understand the alternate histories, future technologies, and ways of unlocking your human potential that we now know.  As it turns out, human beings are capable of truly incredible things when we're not being held back.  These books will teach you how to travel through time and space safely without having to die in the process, and so much more.  It's actually a lot easier than you might think.  But please stay in this world for as long as you can, there are many dangers that exist outside of your new timeline.  I truly hope that you read every word, these books are the key to unlocking your human potential.  Please stay safe, and take this time to live your life.

Sincerely, Grandpa

 I looked around at my new environment again, I hadn't moved a step, and nothing had changed.  I had never even been camping in this life before, although I remembered some wilderness survival suggestions that I had picked up in other lifetimes.  First, I thought, I needed to find food, water, and shelter.  The shelter part sounded easy enough, I was surrounded by tall buildings.  But finding food and water seemed like it might be more difficult.  It also occurred to me that I was going to need a way to stay warm after it got dark. 

  I walked around aimlessly, just exploring for a long time.  All along I gathered plants that looked edible.  But that was the easy part, trying to palate them was much harder.  Dandelions and clover were the only plants that I knew were safe to eat, and the dandelions tasted awful.  I saw some deer wandering around and thought I should follow them, they didn't seem to be afraid of me but I still kept my distance. I followed the deer for a while until eventually I found a nature park with a subway station below it which was flooded with water.  I couldn't believe my luck.  It was beginning to seem as though I might actually survive here long enough to read those heavy books that my grandpa had picked out for me. 

  Looking around for some landmarks I found a statue of George Washington and a sign that read "Union Square".  Then I started looking inside the nearby buildings.  One of them was a theater, I decided to make that building my new home.  There were some spotlights that had fallen from the ceiling.  I examined one and it looked like it could hold water if I emptied out the broken bits of glass and reflective stuff from the inside. 

  It was starting to get dark so I had to hurry.  I went to the subway and gathered as much water as my new cup would hold, carefully, by filtering the water through the cloth of my shirt.  Then I made a fire in the middle of the street from a couple of wooden chairs I found in the theaters lobby.  Rubbing them together didn't work at first, until I went back into the lobby and found an old book of matches.  The matches were too old to strike like normal, their flimsy handles crumbled when I tried.  But by combining some of the match heads into a small pile of tinder and cloth from the chair's upholstery, I was able to get a flame going with a little bit of friction. 

  After the water had boiled for a few minutes I figured it was about as clean and pure as I was ever going to get it.  I was thirsty, but I couldn't drink the water while it was hot, so I lifted the container off the flames with two sticks, and warmed myself by the fire while I waited for the water to cool down.  At first I planned on getting some sleep, and then maybe somehow try hunting in the morning.  But that first night of freedom had some kind of an effect on my mind.  I didn't want to sleep for some reason.  I told myself that I could sleep at any time.  So I stayed awake that first night, just hanging out in the middle of the road, by my fire.  Freedom felt good.

  I sat there sipping my water and munching on clover for a long time, just looking up at the stars.  Before I knew it the sun was beginning to rise.  I had spent the whole night just staring at the campfire, stoking it with fresh chairs.  My meditative state was interrupted by my stomach growling.  I couldn't even remember what I had been thinking about that entire night.  Watching the sunrise I realized that it was the first sunrise I had seen since my childhood.  I wondered how old I was now, and felt my chin, there was indeed a little bit of stubble from facial hair on my chin and around my upper neck and I realized that I must be a teenager maybe in my early 20's now.  Unfortunately, all of the freedom in the world couldn't buy me a single conversation.  I was utterly alone in the world.

  A big fat pigeon landed right next to me, it seemed completely unafraid of myself or the fire.  “Hey there pretty bird,” I said quietly, “how would you like to be my breakfast?”  The bird just tilted its head to the side and hopped a little closer to me.  I felt a little tear run down my cheek, I couldn't kill this innocent little thing.  I reached out my hand to pet the bird gently.  I had never tried to tame a pigeon before.  “Aw, I'm gonna name you Horatio, and we're gonna be best,” but then it pecked my hand with its sharp beak and I recoiled in shock, “Ow!  Mother effer!” I yelled and punched it right in the head, knocking the bird out cold.

  I had mixed feelings about breakfast that morning, I tried to pretend it was about wishing I had oranges or something to cook with Horatio, the bland...  Yum, the thought of Chinese orange chicken made me drool a little bit.  Then I started thinking about egg fu yung with pork fried rice and, oddly enough, I was hungry again.

  But instead of over-indulging in food, I decided to try reading something.  So I opened up the backpack and began rummaging through it for something interesting to read.  Most of the books looked like they were about magical and amazing things, like how to hack the computer matrix that runs the universes, but ironically when I tried to read them it was all Greek to me, with my minimal education I was barely able to read grandpa's letter.  One of the books was a wilderness survival guide with pictures of the most common edible plants all over the Northeast United States.  That's when I noticed there was more than just books inside, I pulled out a box which I must have mistaken for a book earlier.

  Opening the box revealed some basic first-aid supplies, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a hunting knife, a thermal foil blanket, some fishing hooks with line and a couple of lures, as well, as, sandwiches.  “Oh, Horatio.” I murmured, looking at the pigeon carcass laying on the road next to the fire.  I was still hungry though, so I finished eating what was left of the bird first.  It turned out to be just enough food for my stomach.  Then I wiped my hands clean and carefully checked the sandwiches for condiments… nope, great news, they would last a while.  And half of them were vegetarian sandwiches, with no meat or cheese, just the right vegetables to last like cabbage, chopped carrots, onions, radishes and things like that in pocket bread.  Those ones would last the longest.

  After making a mental inventory of my new box, I was back to the books.  I opened the survival guide and looked through the list of edible plants.  I recognized a lot of them from the day before, and even spotted a few nearby that were in the book.  I began feeling more comfortable thinking it should be easier to survive than I had originally thought.  And who knows, I might even have some fun on this vacation in post-apocalyptic New York.

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