The WW3 TransportA Chapter by Steven SchroeckChapter 1 The WW3 Transport Year: 2012 Location: Somewhere outside New
York City
Fred’s eyes opened in a flash, his
body shaking and covered in sweat. His nightmare had chased him into the state
he was currently in. His vision was like no other he had before. The lab was
dark, and Fred was huddled in the corner, still suffering the effects of his
nightmare. Fred Jacobson was a scientist who
was known by no one but himself, yet he was working on something that would
make even the most brilliant scientist cringe. It would be something that if it
in fact worked, nothing like it had been done before. It was a planet transport. Fred stood up, using his arms for
support, as his legs were still shaking. Continuing to stare off into one of
the corners of the lab, his hand scoured one of the tables for his glasses. He
found them, put them on, and started walking towards the corner of the lab
where he had been staring. There was a large object covered by a blanket
huddled in the corner. A single lamp stood over it, looking puny next to the
thing. He switched the lamp on and removed the blanket, revealing the transport.
The transport stood approximately
eight feet tall, was shaped like a half oval with a flat bottom, and was completely
white. Fred had worked on the blueprints for it for many years, dating back to 2002
when he was just a mere 10 years old. He was not the brightest child, but was the brightest when it came to
dreaming. He dreamed of distant worlds and different creatures, ones who had
far more intellect than was possible in the current time. Fred stepped back to admire his
work, seeing where it is he should start his work. He would have to work
quickly, wherever he started. That was because there was a war going on in the
United States. And it was World War III. He put his lab goggles on and started work on the
dashboard where the galactic coordinates would be displayed. Fred worked well
into the day, sweating almost nonstop while trying to finish his work as quickly
as possible. He worked into the night hours, falling asleep several times
before finally deciding that enough was enough. He was technically finished
with the transport; all he had to do was put the finishing touches on it. So he
decided to fall asleep. He didn’t know it, but his life was about to change
forever. The same nightmare awoke Fred the next morning, but
this time it was all too real. Outside, Fred could hear explosions, gunshots,
and screaming. At one point he thought he heard someone yell in the window for
him to get out, but he didn’t finish his sentence before blood splattered
against the window and the man slid to the ground dead. His nightmare was coming true, but in a different
way. The nightmare started out normal. Everything was peaceful,
seemingly unable to get any worse. But it was
in fact a nightmare, so it did get
worse. It was a quiet little neighborhood, filled with only
ten houses. Everyone knew everyone else in the neighborhood, so all was good.
But then the world war broke out on American soil. The neighborhood members
gathered to discuss what they would do in case their neighborhood would be
attacked. All of the men in the neighborhood had some sort of weapon which they
could use as defense. But it would prove to not be enough in the end. The days
passed, and the neighbors would hold secret meetings in the basement of a man’s
house. And that man’s name was Edward Jacobson, who was
Fred’s father. The meetings were brief: they would check to make
sure no one was missing, injured, or killed. Nothing happened for two months:
and then they came. They came in the middle of the night, taking the
whole neighborhood by surprise. They captured the families’ belongings first,
then when the families themselves would go downstairs and investigate, they
would be captured as well. In his nightmare, Fred’s point of view shifted
toward his father’s home, where right next to it, the barn was being set
ablaze. He figured his father had stayed inside the house. Fred yelled out,
“Father!” to no avail. But then a scream came back, but it was not in answer to
Fred. Edward Jacobson was in the barn. The enemy invaders left as soon as they had come, taking
the families with them as hostages and slaves. Fred’s nightmare only worsened
when his point of view shifted to the burned down barn. He was right in front
of where it used to stand, looking at the remains of his father and the rest of
his family. He cried, and then the nightmare ended. Only this time, it wasn’t over. It was continuing. Fred knew he had to finish the transport before he
got killed or else his life-long work would be destroyed. He got straight to
work finishing his work while the battle raged outside his lab. He wondered how
the battle was going on here in the middle of nowhere. He thought no one had
ever seen this place before, and he never saw any straying commuters walk by
the lab. So seeing and witnessing this was unbelievable. Fred finished his work in less than 15 minutes. His
head was spinning, wondering how this nightmare would end. But he also wondered
the more prominent thing: what was going to happen when he fired up the transport?
Would it work? Would it take him too far away in the universe? This was one of the only times in Fred’s life where
he was scared. And his fear grew worse when he heard more screaming
orders of “Hello?!” and “Is anyone in there?” followed by gunshots and
explosions. Fred was hoping that the American soldiers were not the ones
getting killed, but he had a bad feeling they were. Fred had no time to lose. He took off his lab coat,
made sure everything he wanted to take, including his camera, was on him, and
he boarded the WWIII Transport. As
soon as he sat down and started to strap himself in, he was stopped when there
was a loud bang on his door and the whole thing was forced off its hinges and
went flying into the lab, showering splinters every which way. He frantically
typed in random coordinates. He didn’t know where in the universe he was going,
or how far away it was from Earth. He pulled the lever, and nothing happened. He panicked.
A soldier ran into the lab and saw Fred. He aimed and fired. Contact. Only not with Fred or the Transport. The bullet deflected and hit the soldier who fired it.
He screamed in pain and fell dead on the lab floor. Fred sat astonished: not at
the fact that the soldier was dead, but the fact that he forgot he put an
invisible shield on the Transport
last night. The lab grew darker, and the world thinned out, as if some
invisible force were stretching it. Fred felt himself being lifted into the
air, and then his world turned to darkness. © 2014 Steven Schroeck |
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Added on July 29, 2014 Last Updated on July 29, 2014 AuthorSteven SchroeckCincinnati, OHAboutI am a junior in high school an an aspiring author. I'm currently in the process of writing my first novel. more..Writing
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