In The Blink Of An Eye

In The Blink of An Eye

A Short Story By: SanQuentez Wingfield

And here it is, the day I’ve waited all my life for… My first day at Wingfield Corp Science Labs. I know today will be something special, and people will see me as odd because I’m only 17. I’m quickly and politely greeted at the front desk by an old friend of my Fathers. “The prodigal son arrives,” he belts out as he greets me with a massive hug. This place is awe-inspiring; I can only take it all in. He turns to a group of people walking through the lobby and pulls me beside him, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Quentin D. Wingfield, son of our company founder and prodigal genius. Today is the day our Quantum Physics department begins its journey to making Earth a much better place for Humanity. Young Q2 brings us his Time Linked Quantum mechanics theory, device schematics, incredible expertise in his field, and a few others. The future ladies and gents, THE FUTURE!”. Everybody gives a round of applause, and the handshakes ensue.

Finally clear of the over-welcoming crowd, Uncle Ruben takes me to the collider level, and I’m too excited to see it. Approaching the 61st floor, I can feel the hum from the particle collider. It's beyond my dad could even build something like this safely in Atlanta. The collider is incredible; the energy output humming through the entire floor is something. Uncle Ruben gets a phone call mid-sentence and steps away. My curiosity got the best of me, and I found myself drawn closer and closer to the collider until I stood next to it. Frozen in amazement at the sheer technology before me, I noticed a quick movement out of the corner of my eye.

I could swear….. I could swear….. I saw a reflection of myself in the window. Puzzled…. I had to check myself… then again, I saw a flash of myself. I stepped into the hall, and a man was standing at the end of the walkway, just standing there. He steps forward and speaks…” You’re on time… I don’t remember that. I need to show you something Q2: don't hold your breath, or you will puke on the other end.” EVERYTHING STARTED TO SPIN before I could say a word… literally in the blink of an eye. I can feel my body, but I can’t see myself. All I see is buildings flying by and then explosions and green lights everywhere. Suddenly, I think the motion stops, and I’m snapped back into my physical self… but where am I??

His voice breaks the silence around me as he steps up to my right; we both stand for a second as I take in the horror of what I’m looking at. The air is so stale, and the smell… I’ve never smelled anything like this. I’m nearly choking on the air; then I see something come over what's left of the building. “Where are we?” I ask. The man pushed us into a doorway and kept us hidden from the ship as it passed by.

‘Listen to me carefully, Quentin, because I need you to hear me. You need to walk away from Wingfield Corp and never look back. I didn’t want to do this this way, but we didn’t have time because they tracked my jump signal. You’re standing in Atlanta 11 years from your time.” The gravity of what he just said hit me like a ton of quantum bricks. My theory must be correct…. “you’re a time traveler?”….

He pulled up his arm and held out his wrist; the tiny screen projected from a small crystal in his arm, and the screen was fully functional. “ Yes, we are; I’m not supposed to do this because it could have created a paradox. I know that!! But look around you… look at what we’ve done. On May 7th, 2024, your Time-linked quantum crystal accelerator will go online, and a slight miscalculation in the time-link tachyon crystal matrix will cause a tare in time. It opens a window to the past and then shifts to the future, where an interstellar committee noticed it. We created time travel, and every alien race in this sector descended on Earth and nearly wiped out humanity.

Suddenly, the building was rocked by a small explosion that threw us both hard to the ground, pinning my future self’s legs in the process. Two beings began to enter through the blast hole, and I couldn’t believe the sight of them. They look like Angels bathed in bright white light; the temporal energy fluctuating behind them seems like a pair of wings. Future, I whispered, “Walk away from Wingfield Corp; we can stop this.” Before I could respond, I was lifted from the ground and thrown across the room, landing hard near future me. The screen on his arm reacted to me, so I jumped to my feet and ran for him. One of the beings reached out for me as he flew behind me. I dropped to the floor and slid just far enough to tap the button, and in the blink of an eye, I was back at Wingfield Corp Science Campus with Uncle Ruben looking at me in complete confusion…

I’m covered in soot and dust and a little scratched up; Uncle Ruben drops his phone and runs to me. “I turned my head for a second; what the hell happened?”…. Getting myself to my feet and dusting myself off, I grab my iPad from the floor and answer. “ I quit Uncle Ruben, and trust me…. It's for the best. “As I walk towards the elevator…. And as far away from Wingfield Corp as I can go.