The End of Time: Not Again!

         “Okay, Doc. Now you’re sure you’ve fixed that minor detail we talked about?” John looked at Doc through the glass of the chamber.

         “Absolutely, John! I’ve recalibrated all the instruments and tested it with a timer. No time passes during the transfer! I assure you!” Doc’s muffled voice reassured him from across the lab. “Okay. This time I’ll be transporting you to the other building, the one across town. You know the one, right?”

         “Yea, Doc. I know. If it happens again Doc…” He shook his fist at Doc.

         Doc chuckled. “You worry too much John! Are you ready?”

         John nodded.

         “Okay, John. Here we go!” He glanced over to his new lab assistant and the young man met Doc’s gaze. “On three. One… two… three!” They both simultaneously turned their keys, (a new security measure that Doc had implemented), and with a crash of thunder and a flash of light, John disappeared.

         “Where did he go?” Doc frantically turned his attention to his assistant. “Where is his signal?”

         The lab assistant grabbed the sides of a computer monitor and stared at it. He ran across the lab and, with Doc still watching him, opened the chamber John had just disappeared from. He picked up the pendant resting at the bottom of the empty cylinder.

         “Here’s the tracking device.”

         “Shit! Shit, shit, shit!” Doc yelled a stream of obscenities.

         “What do we do?” The lab assistant asked Doc for guidance. He always knew what to do in a tight situation.

         Doc grabbed the phone on the panel of instruments and computer monitors. He put the receiver up to his ear and dialed a number.

         “Marla! Yes! I’m still down at the lab! No, listen! I need you to come down here RIGHT NOW! Something’s happened to John! No, there’s no time to explain! I’ll tell you when you get here! Get over here NOW!” He slammed the telephone.

         “What are you doing, Doc?”

         Doc hurriedly tore off his white lab coat. “I’m going after the crazy bastard!”

         “What? What happens if you don’t come back either?”

         “Don’t worry, Tom. I’ll think of something. It is my invention after all!” With that, Doc began putting on a pair of the special boots he had designed that housed a layer of the strange metal they had recovered from the crash.

         “That’s crazy! Listen, we have to take our time and figure out what happened!”

         “By then it might be too late. The rift we opened might shift before we get a chance to follow him! Listen. John has been my best friend for 15 years. I’ve known him since he was 20, alright? I know he’d do the same for me.”

         The door to the lab opened and Doc’s wife Marla entered.

         “What’s going on, Steve?” Marla asked quizzically.

         “Steve?” Doc’s lab assistant replied in confusion.

         “That’s my name! I never told you my name?” Doc answered. “Listen, Marla. John’s disappeared and I’m going after him. I need you to take this,” he handed her his key to activate the device, “and turn it to send me after him!”

         “What? No! I.. I—”

         “Listen, Marla! This is something I have to do! Don’t try to stop me!” He embraced her and kissed her passionately.

         “Doc!” Tom yelled for his attention, “The rift is closing!” He turned from the computer monitor. “We’ve got 28 seconds!”

         “Steve, I love you! I’ll always love you!” Marla said through her tears.

         “Damnit, Marla! Don’t talk like that! I’ll be back! I promise!” He kissed her again and jumped in the chamber. “Okay!” He yelled through the thick glass as he gripped the pendant tightly. “Let’s do it!”

         “Ten seconds!” Tom yelled at him.

         “Go! Do it!” Doc screamed!

         Marla wiped the tears from her face. 8… She said to Doc silently across the room, “I love you.” 5…

         “I love you too, Marla.”

         4… 3… 2… “Turn!” They both turned their keys and a flash of light and a crash of thunder removed Doc, along with the pendant, from the room. He was gone.

         “Where is he?” Marla screamed at Tom.

         “Here.” He pointed at a computer screen. He didn’t know how this tracking system worked; it was Doc’s design. A red dot blinked on the screen in the middle of garbled code.

         “Where is that?”

         “I don’t know. There seems to be a glitch in the system. This coding shouldn’t be appearing! It says he’s in the year 00e0. What the hell?”

*****

         Doc was all alone. He could see nothing. Colorlessness was all around him. How can one describe nothing? It is neither black nor white, nor any other color for that matter. There was nothing!

         “Hello!?” Doc cupped his hands and yelled. There was no echo. “John! Where are you, John!?” A reddish glow emanated from his clenched fist. The pendant! He opened his hand and looked at it. It glowed red with some supernatural power. For reasons beyond his comprehension, he held the pendant pointing forward and extended his arm.

         A door appeared. On this particular door there was a small number near the top. A single “0” adorned it.

         “John was right!”

*****

         At that very moment, John, who was apparently elsewhere, (though he couldn’t really be sure) happed across a similar door. He recognized his surroundings immediately.

         “Awww, damnit! Not again!” He said as he realized where he was.

         The large wooden door he had chanced across the last time stood before him with its ominous “0” at the top. He prepared himself for the pain and heat and grabbed the doorknob.

         “Ahh! Cold!” He yelped as he gripped the doorknob. He jumped back in surprise!

         “Hey! I could take my hand off of it!” He thought to himself. “Well, at least it’s better than last time.”

         He grabbed the door and opened it. It dissolved into nothingness. He turned around expecting to see a light in the distance. He did. Far off into the distance he could make out a street light. Everything else was completely black.

         “Hey!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, “I’m coming Street Lamp!” He took a step toward the light, expecting to come upon it very fast. His foot hit the cobblestone and he was only a single pace nearer. “Damnit! I’m actually going to have to walk this time? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

         He started running full speed. The hollow sound of boot on cobblestone and his breathing were the only things audible. Suddenly he tripped over something! He went reeling through the air and slammed into a hard metallic surface that blocked his path.

         “What is this?” Blindly, he began searching the object with his hands. “A vehicle?”

         He was right. A wrecked old car sat there silently in the darkness from who knows where or when. The object didn’t bother him much. He was accustomed to strange happenings here in this dimension. He tried to walk around it only to find more garbage piled high. He climbed this obstacle and found another after it.

         “Geez! It’s just not going to be easy, is it?” He began climbing and making slow progress forward.

*****

         Meanwhile, Doc had a much easier time. Doc opened the door that had presented itself to him and found himself in a small room inside a house. An old television, sofa and rocking chair sat around the room and a carpet was on the floor. An ancient-looking man sat in the rocking chair apparently blind.

         “Hello, good sir,” said the old man in a raspy voice. “Welcome to my humble abode. You are the one they call Doc, are you not?”

         “I am.”

         “And you have come here seeking a friend, am I wrong?”

         “I have.”

         “John Steele has his own obstacle he must now face. I have for you, my friend, an offer of utmost importance.”

         “What is your offer?” Doc asked curiously.

         “Though you have reached a place removed from the plane time and space, I keep a timeline even here. I am the guardian of time. I have some important information for you.”

         “Please! Go on!”

         “Twenty three years of your time, of course, after you first used your ‘device’ hundreds of thousands of people traveled to the end of time. They came with nothing but greed and hatred. They traveled through the rifts their devices had created and laid waste to time and space. They created this place. This ‘End of Time’ as it has been called. In your year of 2012, your plane of existence shall end.”

         “My God. It’s all my fault isn’t it?”

         “It is.” The old man did not mask the truth. “The device you create will be marketed by the military of your government. It will fall into evil hands and replicate across the planet. Hundreds of thousands shall be made and then, time shall fall.”

         “What can I do?” Doc, a direct man of few words went straight to the point.

         “I shall communicate to you through this.” He held up his hand and in it was Doc’s pendant.

         Doc opened his hand and looked down. His pendant somehow ended up in the possession of the old man.

         “I shall direct you through rifts in time and you must stop every single time traveler before they alter your history.”

         “Wait. Can’t I just destroy my device? Won’t that take care of all of them?”

         The old man laughed. “You are clever, Doc. You always will be. That trait is what gives you the strength and ability to save your universe. However, destroying your device will only make it impossible for you to go back and stop them. You see, time is a fickle thing. Even if you remove your device from the big picture now, they are already in your past.”

         “But if I destroy mine, they wouldn’t have one to go back in time with!”

         “Please, Doc. Do not try to comprehend the vast logic of the universe. Your timid human mind can not handle it. Just trust in my words and heed them.”

         Doc looked very confused and thought for some time. “I will.”

         “Good. You will need the help of Mr. John Steele as well. I will send him back when he is ready.”

         Doc was ready to ask him an infinite number of questions when the television in the room turned on. He turned to face it and it grew and grew until it consumed his entire vision! Everything became brighter and brighter until he couldn’t see! With a crash of thunder, he appeared back in the lab.

         “He’s back! Everybody! He’s here!” John yelled across the lab. He ran over and embraced Doc. “God damnit, Doc! It’s good to see you!”

         Everyone came into the lab and celebrated his return. Things later took a serious turn as Doc explained to them all what had happened. After much deliberation, they all agreed to do what the old man had told them must be done. They could become “chrononaut bounty hunters”—a term coined by John.

*****

         Meanwhile, John was finally approaching the streetlight. He jumped off the last pile of rubble and landed in a fenced in, cobblestone square.

         “Hello, John Steele.” The light of the lamppost fluctuated as it spoke to him.

         “We meet again, lamppost!” He smiled. “I’d like to go back! Where’s the bucket?”

         “Doc has spoken with the Guardian of Time, John. He has learned the secrets of the universe. He knows what must be done and he needs you.”

         “Alright! Send me back! Gimme the bucket!”

         “There is one question I must ask you before you can leave, John. Are you prepared? You only get to answer once.”

         “I am. Give me the question.”

         “What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place?” it asked him in a calm voice.

         “A riddle, huh.” John thought to himself. He always enjoyed riddles. He and Doc used to try and stump each other with them. No riddle held either of them for long as they always devised a suitable answer.

         He sat down and leaned his back on the light post.

         “Take your time, John Steele. You only get one answer.”

         He sat there for an eternity turning the riddle over and over in his mind. He could still hear the light asking it in his thoughts.

         “The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place.”

         Was it a trick question? Start? No… the end of time and space. What was it? He deliberated forever. This kind of sounded like one Doc would ask. Doc’s riddles always had some trick to it. Something involving the words.

         That was it! The beginning of Eternity, the end of timE and spacE, the beginning of every End, and the end of every placE!

         He stood up joyfully, feeling confident he had the answer.

         “What is your answer, John Steele?”

         “The letter ‘E’,” he proclaimed confidently.

         “Congratulations, John Steele.”

         The place grew brighter and brighter until he couldn’t see anything! With a crash of thunder he returned to the lab. Doc, his wife, and Tom all greeted him happily.

         “You’re back!” Doc embraced him, “I came looking for you, you know! Boy have I got a story for you!”

         Doc explained to him what had happened and what they must do. John smiled slyly and asked, “So we’re ‘chrononaut bounty hunters,’ huh?” He didn’t know where it came from but it brought about a strange sense of deja-vu.

         The pendant Doc wore around his neck shimmered red!

         “Doc. Steele. You begin immediately! The first person you must stop is named Byron Miles! He is in 1923 New York City! I have opened a rift for you! Use your device and go now!” The old man’s voice rang throughout the lab.

         John grabbed another pendant from the lab storage chest and jumped in the chamber with Doc.

         “You don’t expect me to stay behind, do you?” John asked him with a smile.

         Doc smiled back, “Not at all, John. Not at all.

         “Let’s do it!” They yelled in unison.

         Tom and Marla turned their keys and with a flash and crash of thunder, John and Doc were gone.