The End

in The Ink Well3 years ago

Photo by Amy Treasure via Unsplash

I have thirty days left. We all do, but I'm the only one who knows. I don't think I'll tell anyone, because I don't quite see the point.

I had stepped into the machine, as directed. Seven of us were chosen to be a part of the testing. For some reason, they didn't ask to know what time period we would choose. Perhaps they thought we would return and report our findings?

It never dawned on me to return. In actuality, I destroyed the machine once I stepped out.

"Thirty days until the end of Earth" was still flashing on the screen, right before I smashed it.

I quite think I would like to say goodbye. Not to people, mind you. From the look of the buildings and ships, anyone I knew was gone for centuries. No, people didn't hold any of my interest anymore. They were predictable and had become boring to me. I wanted to say goodbye to this space that we had occupied as the human race.

I had planned an itinerary to visit sacred places and pay my respects. I wanted to speak my thanks into the air, have the soundwaves travel and absorb into the rocks, trees, water, air and whatever else was there to recognize thankfulness.

Throughout history, people said goodbye to loved ones that were passing on, but I wonder how often anyone said goodbye to this home that had loved us all so well.

It did what it was expected to do. Its reliable patterns never failed, though we all tried our best to use and abuse it for our own selfish greed.

In the end, I wanted to hold its hand, and praise it for a job well done.

Then, this "something" would give way into "something more".

What more? Who knew? But I wanted to be at the end of one and the beginning of the next, heart filled with gratitude and hope filled with expectation.


This post is based on suggestion #32 from @Theinkwell's 50 Imagination Ticklers. "If time travel was a choice, what day or period in history would you visit?"

Thank you for your visit.

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I would prefer the beginning, rather than the end. Where everything is a virginal paradise. And reeducate humans not to damage the only spaceship they have.

I like the character's feelings ^_^

Perhaps after the end, it begins anew in a similar virginal paradise? She was ready to find out. :-) I'm glad you appreciated this character. I did as well :-)

Weeeeell... Usually in the end the planet explodes and is consumed by the nearest star ;P

Exactly! That's what happens usually, but I think you can see how incredibly boring and predictable that is! So I challenge you now to think - what happens next? Join our character in her adventure! 😅She thinks a reboot of some sort, where they all begin again.
Could be they mutate energy and instead of being earthlings, now they are starlings. We must think outside of our limited human understanding and be ready to leap into the next evolution of time, space, and matter. ha ha!

If we aren't bigger than our own imaginations, then we get terribly common. I choose to be rare! Be rare with me, @jadams2k18 😅

You've remembered me, some time ago I created a story where the world was destroyed and it was the AIs that repaired it. In a world without humans, life is reborn with the help of androids. In the story, one of them encounters the most dangerous being on the planet: a human baby.

Be rare with me, @jadams2k18 😅

My pleasure! ^_^

Would you drop that link for your post, so I can read that story!

I have never been asked before, but it is really a pleasure for me.

Well, this was quite a while ago, my first story written on Steemit.

https://hive.blog/fiction/@jadams2k18/gaia-3155-english-version

With more experience, I dared to create a longer story.

https://hive.blog/tellastorytome/@jadams2k18/the-first-forest-sci-story-tell-a-story-to-me


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Thank you once again for this!

!discovery 15

thank you again for this :-)

Nice inspiration to write about respect for the planet.
Could it be considered as the last page of a travel diary?

Yes, what a beautiful perspective that would be.
The last day of a final journey.

Thank you for that.

Well, I'm glad I didn't get into that time machine with you. Rather misanthropic, don't you think? Or is that the point? The six people who traveled along might have preferred another destination, besides the one that took them to the end of time (earth's time).

I enjoyed reading this. But I found the end obscure. You leave us with a puzzle, but I don't think you provide enough clues for us (for me) to unravel that puzzle.

A very sophisticated, well-written story. Thank you for posting it to the Ink Well community.

Yes, I think the time traveler was rather finished with humanity, and preferred to just push the fast-forward button. ha ha

No, oh, perhaps I was unclear then. I should have made it clearer. The other six were in their own machines. They all traveled separately.

And the end - well, that is the greatest journey of all. What happens when this life is over? When this world ends? No one knows, but the time traveler expected that it wouldn't really be the "end", but rather the beginning.

Thank you always for your visits!

What an interesting story. It left me with so many questions, as time travel stories often do. I found it both intriguing and baffling that she would smash the time machine to prevent herself from going to any other point in time, especially if her hear is full of expectation. Well... it is very successful as "flash fiction," which tends to give the reader just enough to prick our senses and our curiosity, before leaving us to ponder.

I think people often find that they are tired of this world, and ready for the next (whatever may come) but there is a part of that person that thinks about how the world will continue to degrade, toxins increase, politics rot - etc.

She just wanted to have it all come to an end and take the journey with everyone into the next realm.

To start over, and have no temptation to go back. Only forward. :-)
I'm sorry I missed your comment!