Fiction: The Future Breakout
By Daniel (12 years old)
This story is featured in ‘A Users Guide to the Pandemic’
‘You have been sentenced for 15 years for creating a dangerous invention’ the Judge says as he strikes the hammer down.
‘But it wasn’t…’ I plead to the Judge.
‘Guilty! Now while you’re in prison make me an invention to help me around’.
The guards grasp my arms as they throw me into the jail cell.
* * *
‘Mark, I think it’s ready,’ Bruno says excitingly. ‘The Trash Collector is ready and set.’
The invention was going well until it started to do crazy things such as write and dance and a man called John called the FBI: ‘Hello, yes one of Mark’s inventions has gone wrong, it has nearly killed his lab assistant Bruno. Yes, we need all the help we can get.’
Fifteen minutes later I find myself in court and here is where we have caught up.
‘Guilty!’ The Judge says as the hammer strikes down.
* * *
‘Here’s the parts you need to build the invention for the Judge’ the prison guard says as he gives me the parts to build.
A thought suddenly pops up as the guard leaves the cell. ‘What if I built a Time Device?’ I start to work on the invention straight away, while making it look like a robot assistant.
It took hours, and days, and then eventually I finished it and asked the Judge if I could demonstrate.
This would be where I would travel back in time and never invent the Trash Collector.
* * *
‘Demonstrate the invention Mark, then give me it so I can use it.’ The Judge orders as I walk into the room with the Time Device.
‘When you press the button, it will…’ I demonstrate as I press the button and disappear before their eyes.
‘WhAt iS HaPpENing?’ I shout as I see swirls and things that I have never seen before. I had noticed that I was in New York City, but it’s not my New York. The streets were empty and trashed, and buildings were destroyed.
I realised one problem, my Time Device was broken. If I wanted to get out, I would have to fix the machine before it’s too late and I would be stuck here forever. I started to look around to find anything that could help me fix it or any clues that would tell me what year I was in. After a while I found an old torn up newspaper that had the date of 28th of July 2051, titled ‘Leaving tomorrow to Mars’. I read a bit more, it said ‘Mars has now become habitable to live and because Earth is losing its photosynthesis, we will have to move there as quick as possible…’
I realised I was all alone, with no hope left, I started to look for food because I was getting hungry. Suddenly, I hear a pile of boxes fall to the ground, I run and check it out. I grasp the boxes in my hand while I start throwing them away, an unfamiliar face suddenly pops up in front of me, ‘AHHH WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE U STILL ON EARTH??’ we both exclaimed in surprise as we stared at each other in astonishment.
‘I am Sofia, I was abandoned and accused of being mad after having the curse of the virus, and being vicious, when I felt fine. I had to flee and hide because I had no other choice.’ Sofia sadly said.
‘Can you do me a favour? I need to get back to my dimension, but I can’t fix my machines because they wouldn’t work in this dimension anyways.’ I ask.
‘We can probably find Professor Mark’s Lab, his work is a bit like yours but it’s more advanced now, come on follow me!’ Sofia replies.
As me and Sofia walk to the lab, I explain my backstory to Sofia so she gets to know a lot about me.
‘Here we are, to your future lab. Do you think you have the parts you need to build this thing?’ Sofia asks. ‘I’m sure I do.’ I reply.
By the time I’m almost done, the building starts to collapse. ‘Mark! Get out of there!’ Sofia screams, ‘Grab everything you can! I need the parts to finish this thing!’ I shout back. We start grabbing everything, but I get stuck. ‘Help!’ I scream. ‘There’s no point Sofia, just finish it and teleport back to the moment the building collapses… it’s your only hope.’ Sofia does what I say and tries to finish it as fast as possible. *Teleporting*
* * *
Sofia runs as fast as she can, she grabs Mark and throws him in the teleporter, and sets the time to 15 minutes before the incident. ‘Goodbye...’ Sofia says for the last time.
* * *
‘What are we building today, Mark?’ Bruno asks as Future Mark walks into the lab. ‘Stop! Don’t build anything, if you do, something bad happens in the future.’ Future Mark says.
He starts to explain and when this happens, Future Mark disappears because of the change. Leaving me behind.
‘So what do I build?’ I ask Bruno. ‘Maybe a robot assistant?’ Bruno replies. 20 mins later…
‘You have been sentenced to 20 years in jail’ the Judge says.
‘Here we go again…’ I think to myself.
A User’s Guide to a Pandemic is a digital collection of writing by young people in Australia sharing their experiences of living through the current surreal times of COVID19.
Produced by eighty three young writers from all over Australia, in collaboration between youth writing centres Story Factory (Sydney), 100 Story Building (Melbourne), The Story Island (Tasmania) and StoryBoard (Byron Bay).
