The Time Machine | Teen Ink

The Time Machine

May 16, 2008
By Anonymous

I can't allow them to catch me; if they do I’m toast. I thought to myself while considering whether to enter the junkyard or continue straight down the dirty road.

“Get back here, Adam!” I heard from a distance.
Junkyard, they’ll never find me. I decided and dashed through the rusted old appliances and twisted metal, I heard voices of my pursuers floating through the air with yells of, “He went in the junkyard.”
Dang, they found me.

Turning the corner, dread washed over me like a sudden rainstorm as I realized it was a dead end.
Oh no, I’m cornered. Then, I tripped over a piece of metal so twisted I could not tell what it had been…blackness. Suddenly, bullies became the least of my worries…

“Move, soldier! We're under attack,” a man said as the blackness faded from in front of me.

“Where am I?”
“Don’t play stupid. Get your weapons.” I stood up on the cold gray stones and grabbed one of the many bows and quivers hanging from the wooden hooks, and started to follow a small group of about ten hard-faced boys down the maze of cold damp corridors. While we silently walked, I had time to think about where, and when, I was and try and figure out what was happening as the shock from when I first arrived slowly wore off.
Well, sometime back in the middle ages, obviously. But exactly when? I mean, I could be anywhere, in a span of about 300 years, and what was that piece of metal. What if I can never get back? Will I ever see my family again? All these thoughts ran quickly through my brain with no real answers to help me figure out the puzzles. During the long march through the hallways, I remained lost in deep thought and hardly even noticed when we arrived at the rooftop until the brown-haired boy who had been following behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I’ve never seen you before.”
“I am...uh…new,” I stammered.
“Name’s Mat” the boy responded.
“I’m Adam” I mumbled back. Suddenly, he tackled me and we slammed into the hard stone floor.
“Hey what was that for!” A second later, an arrow hit the spot where I had been standing. “Oh, thanks.”
“No problem, but I can’t believe you didn’t see it!” Mat said as he helped me up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar reflection. On the other side of the castle, ten enemy soldiers were carrying the twisted piece of metal that had taken me here.
“Dang!” I accidentally let out as I realized what it was.

“What does that mean?”Matt said with a puzzled look.
“Never mind that. Is there any way to get over there?” I asked as I pointed to the spot were I had seen the soldiers, and my link to the present, moments before.
“Of course, but why should I risk my life to get you over there,” he yelled over the snap of bowstrings.
“See that thing there holding? With that they could take over the world,” I responded. well it is an exaggeration but it is true. I think?
If your telling the truth I could become a hero, fine I will take you”
As I followed him through the maze of stone corridors, the only noises were the echoing footsteps of soldiers and the clank of Mat’s sword against his belt. As we rounded another bend, a group of four soldiers, clad in the dark blue armor of the enemy, came quickly into view. I drew back my bowstring and let loose an arrow. With a thud, my arrow was embedded into the first soldiers skull. In what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, they all fell. Whether by my arrows or Mat’s sword, they all ended up cold lifeless corpses.
I gathered my arrows from the bodies and tried not to think about what had just happened. I didn’t want to think about the blood I could see and smell all around me. I didn’t want to think about these boys and the lives they would never lead. I shook my head as though that would stop the thoughts from coming. We continued down the corridors of what I figured to be a castle occasionally encountering other small groups of enemy soldiers as we made our way back through the maze of corridors. Every time the dark blue armor came into view, Mat immediately and instinctively started using his sword, and I, somehow also instinctively, knew how to use the arrows. All the enemies fell like the first group of soldiers. All lay lifeless in a path behind us.
As we came around yet another corner, suddenly the walls disappeared and I spotted what I now decided must be some sort of time machine. The only problem was the ten enemy soldiers surrounding it.
The clash of metal and snap of my bowstring immediately filled the air. All of the sudden, I heard sword metal hissing through the air and saw it heading straight for my head. I barely dodged the first attack but the second found its mark. The fighting around me became a fading blur as the darkness crept in on the edges of my vision and the swordsman’s sword slid out of my chest. My hand released the bowstring and fell upon the time machine...
“He's just around that corner,” I heard the bullies yell.
“What? I’m not dead.” I said to myself. As I began to realize that I was not dead anymore, I tried to take in the situation and get my bearings. I reached down and grabbed the bows and quiver that somehow traveled with me and I nocked an arrow. As the bullies rounded the bend, I released, my arrow found its mark. It hit the lead bully directly in the thigh. By the time the others caught up, I had already nocked another arrow. As his agonizing screams filled the air, the others ran away screaming like little girls. While they stumbled away in fear a smile appeared suddenly on my face. That was actually fun! I had been changed from the experiences in that foreign time. Before that I never would have been able to stand up to those bullies. I looked down and saw the twisted piece of metal that had been my transporter through time, the thing that I knew for some reason had wanted to help me. It looked like an ordinary piece of junk, all twisted up and trashed like everything else here, but this one was special. I cautiously bent down to touch it, but nothing happened.
“Weird.” I said out loud. No one was around anymore to hear me. I started out of the junkyard and headed towards home, all the while trying to sort out what had just happened to me. Had I been dreaming? The bouncing of the bow and the arrow loaded quiver against my hip reminded me that I HAD been through it all. I had been through time but could never tell anyone or I might spend the rest of my life in an insane asylum. Even still it was something I was willing to keep secret. I started whistling a happy tune and thinking that life was going to be a lot easier from now on. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to have any more bully problems. I patted the time machine, thinking happily of what it had done, as I turned into my driveway, I was home.


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