JOURNEY TO THE FUTURE
"Professor Jacob, are you there?", Romy called out as he
walked into the lab. The door to the lab was open but there was no
response, so he assumed that the Professor was inside his lab
conducting his experiments. He had a reputation of conducting crazy
experiments trying to bend the rules of physical dimensions known to
men.
And he was right, as he walked into the particle accelerator lab ,
he could hear the professor shouting in joy. "Eureka , eureka,"
Romy could see the elated face of the professor as he was looking
into the screen of an apparatus he had only known as the dimension
bender - a device which the professor was working on. He could see
a light crackling between the two ends of apparatus."Professor",
he called again. "Romy , you are in at the right time," professor
looked up at his favorite student, "What you see here is one of the
greatest discovery of mankind , this would change the future
forever". Romy looked at the apparatus confused, what was so great
about this - he couldn't see anything except static crackling
between those ends. "What is it professor, I am not able to make
out the importance of this", he asked. "Romy, what you are
looking at is not merely a static current, this is the point where
the time dimension has been bent like a folded paper." And then it
hit Romy, his eyes opened wide," Professor, you mean to say you
have found a way to travel between time, but.. But that is
impossible", he stammered. "Well, that's insulting. Do you
think I have been working on a fool's mission these many years? Or
do you think I am lying to you now?" professor shot back angrily.
"No, I didn't mean that, I meant time is not supposed to be bent
as per our current understanding. ", Romy replied, though he felt
guilty for having doubted the Professor. "Romy, what you say
impossible has happened here, I have proved it today - to you and
countless others who have doubted me. This is the wormhole, which
will allow man to travel between times. And yes, I have achieved this
without need of huge amount of power. Do you understand the
importance of that?""Yes I do professor",replied Romy,"You
now have the power to change our future or past"."No Romy, change
is not what we should do, you don't tamper with time, never
ever.",Professor Jacob replied.
"Yes sir, I do remember you telling me this. But..." he
stopped himself from continuing further. "What happened Romy, you
were about to ask me something", Professor Jacob asked while
keeping an eye at his computer screen looking at power levels of the
apparatus. "I mean I get that you think that we are talking about
the wormhole here, but how do you know that this is the actual
gateway into time. You haven't travelled in it yet, right?" "I
don't, but all my stats confirm my theory, this is the gateway to
the future as well as the past. Yes, I do need to prove it
practically - I was planning to time travel to the future to prove
my discovery." professor said.
"No sir, I think you need to stay here to look at the stats when
a human body travels through this wormhole. Any instability would
have to be rectified to keep the path open for return. And nobody can
do that other than you." interrupted Romy."But I can't get
anyone to be a human test subject.""You don't need to, you have
a volunteer,"Romy said. The professor realized what Romy was
saying. "No Romy, I can't ask you to go in there. This is an
experiment, I don't know what lies on the other side, neither do I
know what effect will this travel have on human body and..", as the
professor was about to continue Romy interjected. "Forget all that
sir, tell me this, do you think the travel would have any effect on
human body"."No I don't but I don't have proof to back me
up", reflected the professor. "Sir, I believe you and your
theory, I have said impossible once and I didn't mean it then. I
have always believed in the accuracy of your theories and will always
believe in it. If your calculations say nothing will happen to me,
then nothing will happen. I am volunteering. And I am doing it right
now," Romy was determined. As he finished his sentence, he started
moving towards the apparatus. "No Romy don't....", professor
words trailed off as Romy entered the wormhole. And suddenly it was
as if Romy wasn't there in the room, the Professor looked as Romy
disappeared into the static crackling. There was bright light and as
a magician's act Romy was gone. Professor Jacob jumped towards the
screen to look at the stats. The energy levels had increased but were
still below the danger levels, things did look stable.
For Romy though, the world had turned topsy turvy. As soon as he
had come near the wormhole he was pulled into it, he was feeling as
if he was falling down. The gravitational effect was playing havoc on
him; it was as if he was falling into a deep chasm. Streaks of light
were passing besides him so fast that he couldn't make out anything
except lines made of light- it was as if a continuous stream of
light was flowing at supersonic speed - he had to close his eyes.
He was beginning to lose consciousness when he felt things slowing
down, the g effect was reducing. And moment later it all stopped, as
suddenly as it had started. Romy slowly opened his eyes; it was
difficult, bright light was blinding him. With great effort he opened
his eyes, he saw himself standing between mazes of buildings, tall
buildings, he had never seen such high skyscrapers. He was in a
different world totally; he tried to look up at the sky and could see
vehicles flying above him - so many that it felt there was a
freeway in the sky. Romy was having difficulty breathing, he was
feeling suffocated, it was as if somebody was choking him - his
mind was shutting down due to the lack of oxygen, he was blacking
out. He fell on the pavement gasping for air, his limbs were
contouring and his vision was dimming out. All of a sudden, he could
see a few figures leaning over him; they were covered in suits and
helmets. He couldn't see their face. "Cover him up, put him on
oxygen", those were the only words he could make. Where was he? Did
he travel in time or to a different world? The thoughts kept ringing
in his mind as he blacked out.
"We found him at the coordinates you had given us, he was
suffocating as we reached him. We were able to hook him to oxygen but
he had passed out by then". These were the first words he heard as
Romy slowly gained consciousness. He tried to open his eyes but it
was too great an effort, he had to slowly work through it. "I hope
the lack of oxygen hasn't effected his brain function," he heard
another voice. As his senses were slowly gaining their normal
strength he realized that the second voice sounded as if spoken by an
elderly man. There was tremor in the voice. He could sense more than
one person present around him. He slowly blinked his eyelids open, as
he tried to make sense of where he was. He could see a roof, which
was plain white, he himself was lying on a bed, and he saw apparatus
around him and felt he was hooked to them. It felt as if he was in a
hospital. He was breathing into an oxygen tube. As his eyes adjusted
to the bright light and the white environment he could make out
figures around him. Straight ahead of him was a man in a wheelchair.
His face was so wrinkled it seemed as if he was very very old. He was
sitting in a wheelchair which had so many devices attached to it -
he was hooked to those. The man was looking at Romy with concern.
Next to him was a group of people. They had pale skin and looked
thin, very thin as if they were starving. The old man looked at Romy
and smiled,"Welcome Romy, glad that you are back. Are your senses
working fine?"
Romy looked at the man confused, "How do you know my name? And
the biggest question of all - where am I", he asked weakly. The
old man smiled," You know me Romy, and to answer your second
question - Welcome to the Future. You are 250 years ahead of where
you started". Romy's eyes opened wide as he heard the answer. He
was now totally conscious. He was in future, was that true or was
this a dream.
"No it's not a dream Romy, you are in future. Professor Jacobs
invention did work.", the old man replied. Romy was shocked, "How
did you know my question, did I think aloud, who are you." The man
smiled again through his wrinkles. "I know your thoughts Romy, and
as I said you know me. You and I have the same mind frequency, and
before you ask me again - there's a reason for that. Look closely
and you will get your answer." Romy narrowed his eyes to
concentrate on his features, he looked familiar, he had seen that
face somewhere, without those wrinkles without those tubes, but
where. And at that instant the truth hit him, as if somebody had
thrown a bucket of ice water on him." This can't be true ", he
blabbered. "It is", the old man smiled. "I am you."...
"Yes Romy, its me, your future version", he smiled again,"250
years into the future". Romy was now fully awake, he had
disconnected himself from the apparatus and stood up. He walked
towards himself and looked closely. It was him but with a lot of
wrinkles. "But how did I survive 250 years", he was perplexed,"
and who are these people with you and what happened to them". The
old man smiled at his younger version. "Let me answer your
questions one by one. Romy, you and by you I refer to myself too, we
successfully completed the time travel and followed Professor Jacobs
footsteps. We achieved great many things in science, which changed
the world for good. And to how did we survive this long, it's
because of this lab. This enclosed space; this fully equipped
wheelchair has kept us alive for this long. Though the mind is still
sharp, the body deteriorated. We cannot venture out as once we are
out of this controlled atmosphere we will die for sure, but in here
we are immortal - at least for a little more time", the old man
smiled. Romy was trying to absorb all this information; it was all
too fantastical for him to believe.
"Now, to who these people are, they are our fellow beings, they
are humans, they are part of a small resistance group led by me",
the old man continued. "Resistance??" Romy's mind was going
kaput," Are we in a Star Wars movie?" The old man tried to laugh
out loud but ended up coughing instead. "No, we are not in any
movie. And yes this is a rebel group like in the movie. But we are
fighting aliens, unlike the movie, who have made us slaves".
"Aliens, slaves??", Romy quipped. " Yes aliens and slaves, let
me tell you from the beginning. About 50 years ago, we had our first
contact with the extra terrestrials, they came in gigantic spaceships
from a planet, which they were forced to abandon as it was destroyed
by their activity. These beings do not thrive on oxygen but nitrogen
instead. We thought it was friendly contact but it was an invasion.
There was a huge war, in which both sides were equally poised. But
then they used their master weapon, which came as a surprise for us.
They destroyed the entire flora from earth in one go, which was a
source of oxygen; they trapped the carbon dioxide to the upper levels
using a machine in their mother spaceship, which prevented the trees
from getting their staple hence dying off. As oxygen reduced from the
atmosphere nitrogen became prevalent, the humans had to hook
themselves up to oxygen produced from other sources like water hence
carrying oxygen generator on their back - which made them less
mobile thus handicapping us in the war. We lost. They took control of
all the water sources except a few and hence control of the source of
oxygen thus enslaving the humans. With less oxygen available, humans
had to stay indoors or in their vehicles which had oxygen source
connected resulting in less exposure to sunlight which resulted in
the pale skin you are seeing, the food source too was controlled by
these aliens leading to starvation, malnutrition. They also released
a virus into the atmosphere, which affected the human brain, leading
to reduced brain activity. I and a few other scientists throughout
the world were already in a controlled atmosphere by then which
protected us from the virus, we worked on a vaccine of this virus,
but by then it was too late. The entire human population had already
been effected. I could not move out of this lab, as I had to hook
onto my life support system, I somehow managed to lure a few humans
into the lab and injected them with the vaccine. The virus was killed
but the reduced brain activity did not achieve the previous level,
just enough for them to become my comrades, as they understood the
reality. They can follow my suggestions, but it is a great effort for
them to think or come up with ideas on their own." the old man
paused his monologue to look at Romy. He knew it was too much to
process for him immediately.
Romy took sometime to understand the facts presented to him before
speaking. "So what about the aliens and why didn't you vaccinate
everyone already?" "Well, first it has to be mass produced which
I can't do. Secondly, just vaccinating them wouldn't work. For
human beings to regain control of the earth, we have to take control
of the all the sources to mass-produce oxygen into the atmosphere.
For last 10 years I have perfected my work on these pods," he
pointed to a glass enclosure which had thousand of pods in it,"
These pods contain seeds to bio-engineered plants. These seeds have
been genetically modified for accelerated growth, as soon as they
come in contact with the carbon dioxide they grow at unprecedented
rate, reaching a full tree stage in matter of hours instead of years.
I have millions of these pods stored in my lab so that they can be
released into the earth's atmosphere at the right time."
Romy looked in disbelief at the pods in the enclosure pointed by
his older self, years of growth in hours, that's an engineering
marvel. "So why haven't these been introduced to the atmosphere?"
he asked the old man. "Because, the carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere has been sequestered or trapped by the alien machine in
the mother spaceship. Without CO2 in the atmosphere, the plants will
not grow hence rendering the pods useless", the old man replied.
"So you would need to destroy the mother spaceship and the
machine", Romy reflected. "Yes that's true. Once the machine is
destroyed CO2 will be released to the atmosphere that would be the
right time to release the pods. The group of people we had vaccinated
spread throughout the world, they are waiting for my signal to
release those pods, as soon as the trees grow and oxygen will be
replenished in the atmosphere forcing these aliens to either live in
an enclosure or wear a nitrogen tank. Either way, earth's
atmosphere will again become toxic for them, it will be some time
before they can destroy the plants again and make earth conducive for
themselves. That time would be enough for us to mass release the
vaccine which will show enough effect for humans to get their brain
activity back and we can rally them to attack the aliens and force
them to run." the old man said.
"Why haven't we destroyed the machine
yet," Romy questioned. "Because ", the old man could understand
that Romy had so many questions,"The spaceship has a layer of
protection. It is a radioactive shield produced by nano nuclear
generators, which form a dome like web around the spaceship. I and
the group of surviving scientists wanted to take the guards of the
spaceship down with a virus, but the radioactive shield kills any
virus which comes through. For the machine to be destroyed the shield
has to be destroyed, and the only way we could think of that was by
introducing a stray neutron into one of the nano nuclear generator.
If one of them gets unstable and explodes, it will cause a chain
reaction and the entire shield will explode simultaneously taking
down the spaceship and the machine with it."
"But wouldn't that sort of explosion cause a radioactive
fallout thus effecting human population", doubted Romy. "Yes it
will, and that's why we would be releasing nanobots prior to
introducing the stray neutron which will envelope the dome. These
nanobots will contain the energy and radioactivity released from the
explosion and neutralizes the ill effects outside the dome. I know it
sounds dangerous but that's the only option we have".
Romy thought hard, that seems like a plan. But why hadn't it
been implemented yet.
"You forget that we have the same mind frequency," the old man
smiled reading into Romy's thoughts. "Oh yes", Romy smiled
back," So will you answer?" he asked.
"Of course, one of things that Aliens did after enslaving the
humans was to map the DNA of every single human being alive. They
made IDs out of it and stored it".
"DNA as ID, wow that's brilliant," Romy couldn't help
wonder at the brilliance of the plan. "Yes it is," the old man
replied, "Except a few of us scientists who were hidden, every
single being has been mapped. Any human being who ventures into the
area is identified by his DNA and recognized at which point he is
eliminated. We lost a few of our comrades this way. The only people
who can safely go near the shield is me and few of the other
scientists whose DNAs haven't been mapped, but all of us are too
old to do this - once we move out of our enclosure we will die".
That's when the truth dawned upon Romy. If the old man's DNA
hadn't been ID'd that meant his DNA hadn't been ID'd and that
meant only one thing. He could successfully reach close to the
shield.
"That's correct", the old man had read his thoughts," You
are the one who can save this world. You have to destroy the machine.
You are the only hope".
"But I don't know if I can", Romy said. "You can Romy, you
and I are the same. I believe in myself, I believe in you", the old
man replied.
"But we have had time travel possible for centuries I guess, why
did you wait so long for somebody to come", Romy still had
questions.
"Romy, you forgot the basic rule. We can't tamper with time
and its events. This event had to happen by itself, somebody had to
come by him or herself to this future. We couldn't influence
anybody to come. You arrival was destined to happen, if you believe
in destiny."
Romy was now clear about the whole thing. He understood that he
was the only one who could do it. He had to do it, for the future of
the humanity; he had to become the messiah - the last hope of
mankind.
"So are you clear about the whole plan?" the old man asked
Romy. "Yes, I am", Romy replied in affirmative." The old man
nodded and pointed to the comrades, "These men will accompany you,
they can't make decisions on their own, but will follow your
advice. I can be in contact with you only upto a certain distance,
after that the shield will interfere with the comms." Romy nodded,
as he understood the odds. He would be on his own as he reached
closer to the shield.
"The main strategy would be to reach the shield without
detection, that's why we are doing this in the dead of the night,"
the old man was going over the plan with everybody. "If you guys
are spotted, then comrades you would have to cover fire for Romy
whose main task would be to destroy the shield. It would take some
time for the alien computers to identify Romy as a human and a threat
since they don't have his ID", the comrades nodded as they
registered the order to their brain. The old man gave Romy a gun like
device. "Romy this is a neutron gun, you will have to point it at
the right area and fire, and the stray neutron released from the gun
will do the rest to the shield. But remember, you have only one
chance, because by the time the devices charges to produce a second
neutron you would be identified and killed." Romy smiled weakly,
"Well that's an encouraging thing to say", he joked. The old
man smiled. He knew the odds were heavily stacked against them. But
this had to be done. The reward far outweighed the risks.
"I told you Romy, I believe in you", the old man sounded
confident this time. "We have to do this for mother earth, for
humanity. So that we can die peacefully knowing that we did save us
all." He continued, " The precise moment the machine is
destroyed, CO2 would be released into the atmosphere as all the
machines the world over are controlled by the mother ship. As soon as
that happens, our guys will release the pods and within hours oxygen
would replenish the atmosphere enough for humans to breather again.
That is the time we will also release the airborne vaccine."
Romy smiled to himself. "These aliens do not believe in
distributed architecture, I guess. Concentrating the control of
everything at one point", he thought.
The old man smiled too as he read into the thought, "Well that's
true, I guess if they had decentralized the control, it would have
been too difficult for us to do this".
Romy smiled again." Lets do it", he said aloud," Comrades,
towards victory". "Towards victory", several voices echoed.
It was pitch black in the valley. Romy and his comrades were in
black camouflage suits to avoid detection. This was the first time
Romy was seeing the future world outside the lab. They had travelled
through the cities, which were huge skyscrapers and had aerial roads.
Not a single tree was visible, not a single animal. People moved
around in suits or in levitated vehicles.
The mother ship itself was sitting in a midst of a huge valley.
This valley was once rich with flora, but today in the future it was
a desert - a dry barren land, not a single tree or a grass blade.
It was filled with rocks and dry mud. The rocks were helping them to
camouflage as they slowly crept closer to the shield.
Romy could see the mother ship sitting in the center all lighted
up with various colors. The machine in the mother ship was making a
humming noise. He could see the shield around the ship in form of a
dome. It was faintly lighted by it own energy.
He could see nodes connected to each other through light stream
forming a web. Each of those nodes was a Nano nuclear field generator
as his old self had mentioned. He had to aim at one of those with his
neutron gun. Would be have enough time to make the shield unstable
and then run away from it?
"Romy !!!", the comms crackled in his ear. It was his older
self, "Can you hear me??"
"Loud and clear", Romy replied. He had watched so many
Hollywood action movies , he knew what to reply in wireless comms.
"Good , so keep moving as close to the shield as you can, in a
couple of minutes our comms would die but you would still be able to
communicate with the comrades. Lead them well. Wish you all the
luck", the old man said.
"Well, thank you and I hope you guys do release the pods and the
vaccine at the right time," Romy quipped. He looked at his comrades
and nodded, they moved ahead as a unit in the dark. If they could
make closer to the shield they could release their nanobots and then
the neutron generator. No sooner had he thought this, than a shot
rang in the silence of the night. It was a laser gun, Romy looked at
his comrades. One of them was lying on the ground dead. They had been
detected; he looked out from his hiding position behind the rock and
could now see lights flooding the area. An army of aliens with laser
guns was moving towards them. They were fast; they didn't need
suits like Romy and his comrades since the nitrogen in the atmosphere
was enough for them. "This was about to change, they were about to
get the taste of their own medicines", Romy thought. "CHARGE
!!!!", he shouted to his comrades as they pulled out their laser
guns and started shooting back.
Romy had inched closer to the shield having circumvented the
incoming battalion and also aided by his non-identification as a
human and a threat. His comrades were fighting valiantly but they
couldn't hold back for long. They would be run down by the army if
Romy didn't do his work fast. Romy was hiding behind a huge rock
close to the ship. To reach the shield undetected, he had to either
go around the rock or climb it and get down from the other side.
Going around was not an option, as he would be exposed to army
fire. His only way was climbing the rock. He sling his weapon across
his shoulder and started climbing the rock. He reached the top of the
rock swiftly and was getting ready to descend when a shot hit him in
the shoulder. One of the aliens had spotted him and shot him. Romy
had been identified as a threat. A sharp pain sprang through his
shoulder and he lost his balance. He fell and rolled down the
descent, hitting the bottom hard. The alien who had spotted him was
running around the rock followed by a couple of other aliens to
finish Romy off.
Romy gathered himself; he had dislocated his right shoulder and
was in intense pain. "Not now, I can't fail now", he thought.
With great effort he got up, and reached for his gun. He was close to
the shield but his neutron gun had slid off his shoulder during the
fall and lying at a distance away from him. "I have to do this
quick", his mind was racing. He shifted his laser gun to his left
hand, it would reduce his accuracy, but he had no other option. He
lunged towards the neutron gun. But, the alien who had shot him had
reached in front of him. He shot at Romy with his laser gun barely
missing Romy's head. An inch closer and he would have been dead.
Romy started shooting wildly with his left hand. He did not care
at whom; just shot wildly swinging his gun. As luck would have it,
his first shot caught the alien who collapsed immediately; the next
shot hit the alien following the first one in the shoulder bringing
him down. The other aliens took cover.
This was Romy's chance, he ran towards the neutron gun shooting
wildly forcing the aliens to take cover. He reached the neutron gun,
but his right arm was dislocated, he couldn't do it without both
his hands. Still shooting wildly, Romy's brain was searching for
ideas. Suddenly the scene from Lethal weapon movie struck him. He
knew for sure that he would have to re enact Mel Gibson. We sprayed a
barrage of laser shots at the aliens who tried to inch forward. As
they ducked for cover, Romy stopped shooting and slammed his right
arm to the rock. "Crack!!!" the dislocated shoulder set itself
back into its socket. He had both his arms working now.
He gripped the laser gun with his left hand and shot wildly again
at aliens trying to come out of hiding. They shot back, injuring
Romy's leg. He was immobile, but it didn't matter, he was close
enough to the shield. Romy removed his backpack and threw it at the
shield. The backpack was disintegrated, but it had served its
purpose. The resilient nanobots released from the backpack started
covering the shield. This was Romy's cue. He shouted into the
comms, "Comrades I am using the neutron gun. If anybody has a
chance, cover me or else in case I die, it was an honour fighting
with you." He didn't have time to wait for anyone's reply. He
could only hope that one of them would have heard and would come to
help him.
Romy reached for the neutron gun with his right hand and let out a
barrage of shots again from his laser gun at the lurking aliens. They
had dared to venture out to take a shot at Romy, but the wild shots
had hit one of them square in the chest. The others had to duck back
for cover. Romy looked at the nanobots engulfing the shield. He took
aim with the neutron gun. He couldn't miss. This was his only
chance to save humanity. He adjusted the view of the gun aiming at
one of Nano generator node, which was yet to be engulfed by the
nanobots and took the shot. "Bam!!!!" the neutron hit the target
just as the nanobots completely covered up the shield.
The aliens watched in horror at what had transpired, they
understood what Romy had done. The Nano nuclear generator hit by the
stray neutron had become unstable. One of them exploded starting the
chain reaction and in no time the whole shield exploded, the
explosion was huge, it swallowed up the mother ship destroying the
entire machine. The nanobots contained the explosion within the dome,
even then a lot of heat was generated. Romy could feel it; the heat
emancipating from the dome singed him. But his mission was over, he
had destroyed the machine.
Precisely at the same time, the seedpods and airborne vaccine were
released into the atmosphere. As the machine stopped working, CO2
concentration increased, the pods cracked open and plants started
growing at a furious rate as predicted by the older Romy. The plants
ran through their lifecycle to reach a fully-grown state, where they
started consuming CO2 in large amounts. In a few hours the planet
would be replete with oxygen.
But few hours was what Romy did not have at that moment. The
hiding aliens were stagnant for a few minutes, horrified by the
destruction of their mother ship. But, as they gathered their senses,
they came out of their hiding to attack Romy. They knew they had few
minutes, before they had to get back into their suits to protect
themselves from the toxic atmosphere. They wanted revenge, wanted to
end Romy for what he had done.
They aimed their guns at Romy angrily, Romy was too weak at that
point to pick up his laser gun and shoot back. He knew that was the
end, but at least he had done his part.
Precisely, at that moment, shots rang and three aliens aiming at
Romy were shot from behind. A comrade had broken free from the
fighting and had come to his rescue. He pulled Romy up and patted
him. Romy checked his atmospheric oxygen indicator attached to his
suit. The oxygen in the atmosphere was increasing steadily. The
comrade went back to fight off the remaining aliens.
Romy waited for his strength to come back to him. It was a long
wait; he looked at his oxygen meter, which indicated oxygen levels
enough to sustain normal breathing. Romy removed his suit and for the
first time breathed freely in earth's future atmosphere. He was
rejuvenated now. He picked up his gun and with a huge war cry charged
back into the fighting. The comrades saw him without the suit and
understood that they had won, they shed their suits immediately and
the aliens were forced to put on their masks. But, the tide had
turned, the aliens were losing.
The rebellion had started.
All over the world, the comrades who had been in hiding got the
news of the increased oxygen levels and the vaccine. They attacked
the aliens , destroying their bases. A number of ships were destroyed
while many of them escaped from earth in their spaceships.
The war had been won. Humankind was saved.
Romy's battalion had successfully destroyed the enemy contingent
and came back to their base. Not only the rebels but normal people
too had shed their suits and containments and come out to rejoice.
Everyone knew the story now and knew about Romy. They were
celebrating. As Romy inched towards the lab to meet his older self,
he was mobbed by the jubilant crowd grateful to him.
For the first time in a while, the older Romy ventured out of his
lab. He was looking proudly at his younger self. As Romy got close to
the old man, he shouted happily " You have done it, you have saved
the world. I have come out of my hiding and can't stay out for long
outside my lab, but I had to see this moment. You have done it. Thank
you". His eyes were swelling with tears. "No, we have done it",
Romy shouted back at him, jubilant, relieved and happy - a plethora
of emotions running through him. He turned towards his comrades -
many of them had perished in the war. "We have done it. Together",
he shouted acknowledging their sacrifice. The jubilant crowd let out
a roar. The comrades raced towards Romy and hoisted him on to their
shoulders. Today, he was their messiah and he had saved them. The
crowd roared again.
In all this caucus, suddenly Romy heard a voice " Romy!!!
Romy!!!" The voice was faint at first, but then he heard it again,
this time loud, "Romy!!! Romy!!!" and he felt a jerk. He had been
shoved; he lost his balance and started falling. He was falling onto
the pavement and couldn't save himself. He was sure to hit the
ground headfirst.
"Bang!!!!" he hit the ground. Romy got up and looked around
groggily. He saw somebody stand beside him. "Romy, Romy!!" - that
somebody shook him. "Wake up, you need to go to school. It's
late". Romy looked up, it was his mother. He was perplexed. He
looked around and saw the TV. The end credits of "Interstellar"
movie
were showing up. He looked back at his mother. "Get ready for
school. You slept watching the movie", she said. Romy looked back
at the television.
He smiled as reality dawned on him. What a dream !!!
****** THE END *********
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