Time is Relative

Blood, covered in the blood of a girl she'd only just met, was a stark contrast against the porcelain skin she bore. Her hands hadn't stopped shaking; her face was paler and visibly tinted green, and if she had anything in her stomach, it would have forced itself up, her eyes stung as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

"Diary.. entry," the girl's cough flung blood droplets into the air, landing on her jacket sleeve as she reached over to cradle her closer. She couldn't have been much older than her, maybe a few years, give or take. "Time is relative." Einstein, she was quoting Einstein at a time like this. "Time. Is. Relative."

"Time is relative?" Rose was confused, and she knew it meant that time was an illusion - but was it?

"Change it."

"Change it? How am I supposed to?"

"Diary." the girl was struggling to breathe; Rose couldn't help but notice how green her eyes were, like a wild moss growing in the forest.

"Diary?" the girl touched her bag, patting it lightly as she slipped from consciousness.

Rose reached for the girl's bag, the diary situated at the bottom amongst protein bars and water beads, designed to be busted open and keep you from dehydration. The water beads barely did the job. Hikers typically used them for long hikes and in case of getting lost. Many of the survivalists in the mountains had them in at the ready just in case something happened. Her father used to go on and on about how foolish they were to hoard weapons, water, and other necessities; now she guesses he was the foolish one.

The pages fell open to reveal a silver heart-shaped locket, its box chain laid in the book's spine, creating slight indents on either side of the pages. Peculiar was the words scripted on the page and weird drawings that looked like they were supposed to go together but had no meaning otherwise. on further investigation, Rose noticed the Einstein quote etched onto the back, "Time is relative."

The girl's elegant writing had her reading over the stained pages; under any other circumstances, she wouldn't have dared look at someone else's diary, but this was different. She asked her too, and it had been her dying wish.

Dad,

I wish I could make you proud, and I don't know how to do this without you. It's hard, and I've lost mom now too. I've made a few friends in this group I'm traveling with now. They seem to be survivalists of some sort. Proper too; they gave one of the kids a burial with fresh flowers. I trust a girl named Rose. She's much like Sissy, even has the same hair as her. She's been with me the longest, even helped when the radiation suit got torn when we were going through the remains of Southport - I remember vacationing there when I was little. It's crazy to see it as a ghost town and the radiation fog that still hasn't settled from the attack on the power plant there.

I've held on to mom's locket, and I hope by writing this all down, it'll make its way to the Time Fighter's with or without me. They can't keep doing this. It isn't right - it isn't fair. We're supposed to be free. Why are they bombing their nation? Why are they melting the plants down? I don't understand, dad, and I'm so angry. Everything this country has been through to burn us to the ground! It's insanity just because they've lost control because they feel the need to make us clean again. Clean; whatever that means. Clean? They've done nothing but dirty the cities and destroy families while the rich sit in their bunkers and hide out for the rest of us to be purged of life. I know if I can get this back to headquarters, everything will be okay.

Louisa. July 4th, 2062

Rose's heart shattered, Louisa, she'd thought she'd heard the girl use the name Lou, but she wasn't entirely sure as most of their time together was spent running. She was so brave being all alone in this messed up world they lived in, and she'd made it past the worst of it - the radiation, they'd lost more than half of their group, six to be specific: a slow, painful death, sores, and lots of blood. Most lost consciousness due to rips or holes in the suits, and the others had tried to help patch the holes and get the unconscious out faster. It was a failed mission leaving only a few of them left. They'd not watched more carefully for traffic cams, a part of the Elite Surveillance, near Sunny Point, and it was no surprise when they'd been bombed as they rested- the Elite had struck in the early morning hours just before the sun came up. They'd wiped their whole team, except for Rose and Louisa, who had just passed in her arms.

"Time Fighters? Time is relative?" Rose whispered aloud, trying to make sense of it all. She'd heard dimension jumping and time travel in the news. Rose just wasn't sure it was a legit operation. Rose's fingers trailed over the sunk-in lines of the pen on the paper, the little drawings of the heart-shaped necklace she now held in her hand - it had a beautiful floral front, and the inscription on the back had been dulled with time.

She flipped further back, hoping for an address or coordinates, thanking the Gods when she realized at the very back were coordinates.

34.2104° N, 77.8868° W

Reading maps was something her grandfather had taught her from an early age, a survivalist who had pushed away his only son. Rose shook her head at the thought as she scanned the map. Landing in the dead center of Wilmington, NC - Rose knew there wasn't much left of the city as most of it had been bombed during the beginning, the historic district was under strict lockdown, and not many people still resided there. She also knew she was a day away from Wilmington by foot. An ATV shop in Boiling Springs was about an hour and a half from her current spot nestled in the overgrown woods, which provided some safety from onlookers and government spies. If she could get to the ATV shop, there was a chance she wouldn't have to brave the entire walk on her feet. All she had to worry about were the animals; a few she'd seen had been mutated due to long-term exposure to the radiation. The animals had been more frightened of her than she had of them.

The weather was so sporadic she couldn't tell if it was against her or for her. The rain was a lovely welcome in the humid heat of the summer; it also helped rinse any remaining blood off of her skin which helped her feel more human. The thunder shook the ground and had her looking for shelter, the sky was turning a sickly green-grey, and she prayed to whatever was out there that there wasn't a tornado in her path.

Quiet, eerily quiet the earth seemed, an occasional tree frog would bark, causing its entire pack to start up, deafening all other sounds out. Her exhaustion was more prominent than ever, and she was close to giving up until she saw the ATV shop, which had been grown up and covered with moss and Winter Creeper, a type of vine or shrub, which in this case happened to be both. She spotted a UTV, a Prowler Pro, older, of course, but she knew it would be quieter than any ATV.

It was a start, but she would need to look for a gas can - or if she could rig it, the solar panels on the side of the building would work wonders. She set to work, unable to succeed with the solar panels but deciding on keeping them with her; if she could use them later, she would. She found a few gas cans and was puzzled as to why they were still here, why no one had thought to come here?

She waited until nighttime to move into Wilmington. There was no other way except the bridge. She cursed herself, wondering what Louisa would do at this point. The bridge was a hotspot for camera's she would be watched the moment she entered the city. Rose pushed forwards only after she'd torn the diary to shreds and fastened the necklace around the nape of her neck, her stomach dropped, and the pit in her stomach felt like it was growing. She wouldn't be sick, not even as eyes were peering down at her from the houses that remained. Her senses were heightened, and the necklace was vibrating against her chest. Something was wrong, and if she hadn't been looking as hard as she was, she wouldn't have even noticed. At the top of the street sat a blinking red sign.

We see you.

Her stomach flipped, her face paling in the moonlight, as she watched the militant police surround her from each street. She made to play with her hair and pulled her shirt collar up slightly so the necklace fell against her bare skin and would be hidden.

She didn't resist, her memories filled with police brutality stories; she was female and alone, she wasn't a threat - no weapons, nothing incriminating on her; just a young lady trying to survive, or maybe even turn herself in. She'd known that almost all the cities had a holding cell in the middle of them, malls or hospitals being used as prisons. Prisons, for the poor.

It was there she met Luka, a dark-haired green jewel-eyed man who meditated ninety-five percent of his time. He would mumble things like "Optimal timeline." "Quantum jumping." and caught her eye as he would say, "Time is Relative."

She wasn't sure if this place drove people crazy, if she was going mad herself, or if something much bigger was going on.

She sat beside the man who was mumbling deeply in a trance state, "Teach me." she whispered to him; he opened one eye to look at her.

"To quiet your mind? Or to shift us all out of here?"

"Both."

"It's all about understanding that every timeline you can think of exists. Immortality is available to all of us once we are called home to start again."

She spent weeks trying to calm her mind, seeing and believing she was in a different reality. That the reality already existed, to lay out exactly what she wanted in her mind, to escape.

"You must first accept where you are now." he was soft-spoken, well versed, and his emerald eyes gleamed with how satisfied he was with himself.

Was this what Louisa had meant, to learn the secrets of reality? To transport herself, her soul somewhere else entirely? If that was the case, it was the ultimate form of escapism. It certainly beats being imprisoned, a war criminal, someone who fought on the "wrong" side.

She closed her eyes and pictured her desired reality, placing her hands on the ground to stabilize the dizzy feeling that had come over her. She felt grass. Had she done it? A park, she was in a garden, and her younger brother was swinging, "Push me, Rosie!" his boyish laugh echoed in her ears.

She grinned. She was safe. Her brother was alive, and she was alive. Not imprisoned or on the run anymore, but safe. She touched the locket, fiddled with it for a moment before stating, "Time is relative."