EPILOGUE

Riley opened his eyes and immediately felt stabbing pain in both, forcing him to close them again. He groaned. His head felt far heavier than before, his throat was too parched to swallow, and what little saliva he had tasted like metal. As he laid on the bare ground, slowly breathing in and out, he could feel the inside of his nose burning. Riley took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes again. The pricks of pain spread around the edges of his eyes but less sharply than before. He pressed his palms against the floor and pushed himself up to a seated position. His body was uncomfortably stiff but Riley pushed through the pain. When he was finally sitting, he looked around. He was sitting in a scorched field with grass so dry that it crumbled at his touch. The ground was so hot that it burned his skin but he couldn’t get up. He was too weak to fight.

The last thing Riley could recall was the sphere disappearing into the future. None of them had been sure that it would work but, somehow, Isaac’s calculations had appeared to finally save the world. The black hole had seemingly disproven that. Riley shook his head, trying to remember what the breach had looked like. It was unlike any he had seen before. If it wasn’t a breach, perhaps he was dead.

Isaac. Bethany.

Riley clenched his teeth and held his ribs as he struggled to his feet. He could feel the wind pushing him from every direction but something about it felt strange. It smelled rotten and tasted metallic. He saw a body lying face down nearby. It was Isaac. Riley hobbled to him, fell to his knees, and turned him to face the sky. Riley lowered his ear to Isaac’s nose. He was breathing. Riley breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced around and saw Bethany getting back to her feet in the near distance.

Riley cupped his hands around his mouth and called Bethany. She looked around for the source and her eyes widened when she saw Riley. She closed her eyes and took Isaac by his shoulders and shook him a few times. Isaac mumbled and slowly opened his eyes. He smirked when he saw Riley standing over him. Isaac slowly got up as Bethany arrived. The three of them stood together, checking that they were all okay.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Where are we?” Bethany asked, her voice cracking as she spoke.

Riley looked up. He couldn’t understand their surroundings. The dry, crumbling grass, the scorched ground that thudded with every step. He couldn’t recognize the pink and yellow smear across the sky but he knew the sun as soon as he saw it. He knew the way the warmth hit his face, how the light spread across the sky, how the ground reflected its radiance.

“We’re on Earth,” Riley said.

“It doesn’t feel like it,” Bethany replied.

Isaac laughed. He touched his forehead, then placed his hands on his hips. “How are we even alive?”

Bethany shrugged. Riley moved away from them, walking up to higher ground until he reached the edge of a cliff. He stopped and took a step back. Isaac and Bethany walked to either side of him.

“Dear God,” Bethany gasped.

Hundreds of feet below them sat the wreckage of the container that sent the sphere to the future. The container was empty, rusty, and discolored, with too many holes and cracks to count. It rested in the middle of the sandy valley, with its base buried in the sand.

Riley frowned. Suddenly, it all made sense. The strange smell of the wind, the metallic taste of the air, and why, despite being on Earth, it did not feel like it. Riley kicked a stone off the edge and watched it bounce from one part of the rock to another, thudding its way down. He looked at Bethany. He knew he didn’t have to explain anything to either of them. Riley dropped his shoulders and sighed.

As they stood at the edge, each reliving everything that had happened to bring them to this point, an eerie wind blew over them, sending a sharp chill up their spines. Soon, a grim veil of darkness descended on the cliff and the surrounding valleys, covering them with a sudden night. They stared up at the sky with despair as they each saw the source of the shadow across them. Bethany staggered toward Riley and held his arm tightly as tears pooled in her eyes. Isaac slowly moved toward them, stumbling over the uneven ground. He moved behind Riley as his knees trembled with fear.

Riley, Bethany, and Isaac stood together, watching with horror as they began to comprehend the nature of the future they had stumbled into, the future they had created. With a roaring gust of wind, the shadow slithered across the surface, leaving sand storms in its wake.