Another Dark Night

It was another dark night on A Street. As always an eerie fog had drifted over and almost all of the lights had gone out. One man was awake playing on his computer and drinking soda, just like every other night. But tonight something was different, maybe it was that there were two identical cats on the fence post or maybe the fact that his reflection stared back at him from what looked like twenty years ago. But no matter what it was, tonight was different and this is just the begging.
An email popped up on Ed’s desktop. It was from Jim.
Hey Dude,
Come on down to the bar, I’ve got something to show you. I know it’s late but it’s very important.

“Eh, that’s weird. O well I guess I’ll go but I’ll have to walk, man ... that’s no fun.” Ed said to himself as he grabbed his bag and laptop. Ed walked out of his apartment and onto the dark street.
Only one or two street lamps bulbs hadn’t burnt out and as he walked further from his apartment, they exhausted what little life they had left, and died. The darkness swallowed everything but the sidewalk in front of Ed. Ed walked for at least an hour before he got to a large wall with three doors in it.
An older, dark skinned man, sat on a chair in between two of the doors, reading a news paper. He looked up, “you must have pissed someone off kid.”
“Oh? Why do you think that? And for that matter, where am I? I’m just trying to get to the Pub.”
Kid no one comes here because they did a good deed. You must have done something wrong, I don’t know what, but know you’re gonna pay for it.”
“Ok, so what should I be doing here?”
“Pick a door, the rest is up to you.” Ed starred at the doors trying to figure out if there was something special about them. A few small differences were the only things he could notice now that the moon was out. Above each door there was a letter: P, P, or F. The left door had a P above it and the door itself was made Pine and had a steel door handle. The middle door also had a P above it but it was made of a reddish wood, possibly cherry. The door on the right had an F but it was worn and it had a greenish tint to it. As he stared at the doors thousands thoughts ran through his head and for every good idea there was a “what if...?” that followed. So finally he made up his mind, “So, what if I don’t go through one of the doors?”
“Kid, I’m tellin’ ya that there is only one way out of here and it’s through those doors. You can go anywhere, but the only way out is through one of these doors.” Ed, being quite stubborn, turned around and walked away. A big grin appeared on the man’s face as if to imply that this will teach him. A few minutes later Ed appeared out of the darkness right where he had started. “What the heck? I was walking straight and I ended up back here.” The man started chuckling, and then with a smirk, “I told you so.” Ed plopped down on the ground and looked for the obvious solution. “What is up with these doors? There must be something that shows which one to choose.” He said to himself. Finally he decided to go with the one that was the most used and with the most differences. “Well wish me luck old man,” He said as he opened the door. Cautiously he touched the doorknob, and then opened the door about an inch. Nothing popped out so he started pulling the door back a little more when the door flew open and a bright light appeared.
Ed covered his eyes from the bright light and when he opened them again everything was gone. Ed was in a hallway with green doors stretching to infinity. On each door there were four numbers starting with 2005. Odd numbers were on the left, and even were on the right. Behind Ed was the door which he had come through, but it had a large pad lock on it. “Well I’m not goin back that way...” he said to himself. Fluorescent lights lit the way dimly as he walked down the hallway, and as time passed by he got to door 2068. There was something different about this door. It was yellow, and it had a clock that told the time and day. According to the clock it was eleven am on March twenty-second. Ed again opened the door slowly but instead of a bright flood of light he saw a beautiful coastal city.
Ed walked through the door and down onto the street. He quickly took some pictures of this beautiful city and started walking down the street. Ed passed many immaculate store fronts and perfect apartments. But after walking a few blocks he noticed no one was on the street. No crying children, no fighting couples, and no kids playing in the street. It was a perfect city with no one to look at it. “Stop that girl!” someone yelled from behind him. He heard a loud crash and a girl came flying out of an alley. She landed like a cat, and then started running towards him. She threw a piece of paper at him and then dashed around a corner. Then a car flew out of the alley where the girl had come from. It didn’t stop fast enough and ran into the wall across the street. Strangely enough, neither the car nor the wall was injured. There was some sort of buffer zone like a force field in the Star Wars movies. The men dazed but not injured yelled, “did you see a girl come by here?”
“Ya, she went that way.” Ed said as he pointed the opposite direction she had gone.
“Thanks Pal,” they replied, and sped off. Ed opened up the piece of paper, which was a flyer for some sort of meeting.
Come to the coast at 11:30. Very important.
Ed felt that he had no where else to go so he took a right where that girl had turned. He kept walking and after awhile he came to a white railing. As he looked over, he saw a perfectly white wall running 100 yards into the ocean. Ed stared in awe at the cliff, and then something tapped him on the shoulder and flew up into the air.
“Ahhh! What was that?” Ed screamed as he turned around.
“It’s just me silly.” A girl said to him.
“And who are you?”
“I’m Calista; I’m guessing you’re here for the meeting.”
“Umm...” Ed said cautiously.
“You must be new around here. Would you like a tour?”
“A tour? I just want to know where here is.”
“Oh. This is Neo San Francisco. It was built after San Francisco flooded because of the ice caps melting.”
“Really? So then what’s this meeting about?” Ed replied confusedly.
“Follow me I’ll tell you while we run.”
“Ok...”
“Well as you probably know, we are at war with Chicago. We are the two large cities left after the great flooding and we have both become our own nations. I’m worried though because today we are supposed to launch a Cf-Bomb at Chicago which would level the city.”
“A Cf-Comb?”
“Ya a Californium Bomb. They are about 10 megatons, but their blast radius is very small. The shockwave does most of the damage; The Chicagonians have something like it called an E-bomb.”
“In this cave they have the launch center, let’s go check it out.”
“Ok.” Ed replied after trying to catch his breath. Inside there was a table with two circles on it. Each had a few red X’s on them. And then there was a clock. 11:38:07 it read, then a man stood up out of a chair that was in the shadows. “Alright, launch it!”
“Sir the Chicagonians have also launched, but it’s too late to change our trajectory.”
“Damn,” the older man said.
“Impact!” yelled another voice...
Another bright light and Ed found himself in the hallway. Excruciating white hot flares of pain shot through his right arm, and the number eight appeared in his skin. “What the heck?” Ed thought to himself. He stood up and looked at the door. All of the doors past it were red, and the doors before it were still green. Ed reached for the door again but this time the clock said ten thirty instead of eleven. Ed went through the door, and he was right back in the city, as if nothing had ever happened. Ed looked down at his watch, and noticed it was half an hour earlier. So he decided to run towards that cave. He could not find the cave but at eleven thirty five he found a map of the city. He put it in his pocket and when he looked up he heard it. One missile leaving the water, he followed it with his eye and he noticed another missile pass it and then he was back in the hallway.
“Damn this is getting annoying.” Ed said with disgust. All of a sudden the pain ripped at his flesh again. This time there was a 7 and it glowed red for awhile before it created a scar. Determined not to give up Ed went back into the door. This time it was ten o’clock in the morning and again started running he got lost quickly. Then he pulled out the map and he found the coast. He started running when he saw the girl about 200 yards ahead of him. “Hey wait up!” He yelled to the girl. She slowed down, “come on we’re almost there.” She said to him as he caught up. They sprinted towards the cave and he heard it again. A missile flying through the sky, and as the two missiles passed each other, he mumbled to himself and plopped down on the ground. Another white light came from behind them as Calista looked up in horror.
“Not this hell hole again.” Ed said as he stood up in front of the door. The pain lit up in his arm, which now had a six and the pain now hit his chest also. This time it was 9:45 and the next three tries, the same thing happened, and it was like Groundhog Day all over again. Ed stood up in the hallway now with a three on his arm and the pain hitting his whole upper torso. Ed ran down the street, and as if someone was trying to stop him, he fell and broke his left arm. “This not the right time! I’ve got somewhere to be, ARGH!” Ed yelled into the sky. Ed just couldn’t take seeing that expression on Calista’s face. It was so peaceful and energetic, innocent even. But as those missiles flew over he just couldn’t take it. He stumbled to where the railing where he met her, and realized how little he knew about her. He watched the missiles pass over, and the shockwave pushed him over the edge.
He fell into the hallway. Where without even thinking he stood up, perfectly healed. His whole body surged as the pain from his arm changing. Two tries I guess, this should be interesting. Ed punched the clock and the hands moved back to eleven o’clock. He opened the door and did the same thing he had the first time. He walked onto the street, grabbed a piece of paper, gave bad directions, and ran to the cave. But this time he made it in time. “I made it! In your face,” he yelled at the captain.
“Can I help you?” he replied.
“Ya don’t launch that missile!”
“Why?”
“Well because Chicago will fire one back, and you’ll die.”
“That’s not going to happen just watch. Boys, Launch ‘er up into the sky!”
“Yes Sir!” they chimed in and by the time Ed got outside he saw the o too familiar scene.
Ed shook from the pain this time as the one was etched into his arm. He walked through the door, and onto the street. He took a right turn and just kept walking to the base. He didn’t talk to anyone; he just walked into the base and grabbed the fire equipment. He put the Axe in his hand and walked over to the control panel. He put the axe through the control panel and then sprayed the desk with foam. He turned around to see two things. One was the smile on Calista’s face. The other was the captain with a gun. Two shots echoed through Ed’s head as he collapsed to the ground and a zero appeared on his arm.
“Hey kid, wake up.” Some one was shaking him. “Come on kid, there’s someone to talk to you.” The ringing in his ears and everything was so bright. “As he opened his eyes he seemed to be on a couch in a white apartment. “ Where am I?” Ed said in a trembling and tired voice.
“You’re in heaven kid. God wants to talk to you.”
“What?” Ed said with much disbelief.
“It’s ok, I just want to talk.” A taller figure in a cloak said. “You passed my friend. You fixed the future without worrying about the past or present. That wall is an invention from 2095; I use it to test my disciples.”
“I never was much of a religious person...” Ed replied in disbelief.
“It’s ok; those three doors went to the space time continuum. Depending on the door color it showed the years status. You turned all of those red doors green. I can’t do much myself, and well you were the closest. But of course you now realize how unpredictable destiny is. You deserve a drink, have a good night.”
Ed walked stood up and walked though a door, strangely ending up in a pub. “Hey man what took you so long?” Jim said from the bar.
“Get me three beers, It’s gonna be one long story.” So Ed told his story. Not many believed it but Ed has a nine on his arm and life is good.

“The future works out great men's destinies; the present is enough for common souls, who, never looking forward, are indeed Mere clay wherein the footprints of their age are petrified forever.”
- James Russell Lowell