I was part of a secret time travel experiment. We were supposed to go back to the year 2000 and observe the events of that year. But something went horribly wrong.
We were a team of six: me, Jake, Lisa, Sam, Kelly and Mike. We had been trained for months on how to blend in with the past, how to avoid paradoxes and how to use the device that would bring us back to the present. The device was a small metal bracelet that we wore on our wrists. It had a button that we had to press at the same time to activate the return process.
We entered the time machine, which looked like a large metal capsule with wires and screens inside. We strapped ourselves in and waited for the countdown. The machine started to hum and vibrate. We felt a jolt and then everything went black.
When we opened our eyes, we were in a dark alley. We checked our watches and saw that it was December 31st, 1999. We had arrived at our destination. We got out of the capsule and hid it behind some dumpsters. We then walked out of the alley and into the street.
We were in New York City. We saw the skyscrapers, the cars, the people. It was like stepping into a movie. We felt a rush of excitement and curiosity. We wanted to explore this world that was so familiar yet so different from ours.
We decided to split up into two groups of three. Jake, Lisa and I went to Times Square, where we wanted to see the New Year’s Eve celebration. Sam, Kelly and Mike went to Central Park, where they wanted to see the fireworks. We agreed to meet back at the capsule at 1 am.
Jake, Lisa and I took a subway to Times Square. We were amazed by the crowds, the noise, the lights. We saw people wearing funny hats and glasses, holding signs and balloons. We saw TV crews and reporters interviewing celebrities and politicians. We saw a huge screen showing a countdown to midnight.
We joined the crowd and waited for the ball drop. We felt like we were part of history. We took pictures and videos with our phones, which we had disguised as old-fashioned cameras. We tried not to attract attention or interfere with anything.
As midnight approached, we heard the crowd chanting “Ten…nine…eight…”. We looked up at the ball and saw it start to descend. We felt a surge of emotion and anticipation.
But then something happened that we didn’t expect.
The ball stopped.
The screen went blank.
The lights went out.
The crowd went silent.
We looked around in confusion and fear. What was going on? Was this some kind of prank? A power outage? A terrorist attack?
We tried to call Sam, Kelly and Mike, but our phones didn’t work. We tried to find an exit, but the crowd was too dense and panicked. We were trapped.
We heard screams and gunshots.
We saw flashes of fire and smoke.
We smelled blood and burning flesh.
We felt pain and terror.
We realized that we were not in our past. We were in an alternate reality.
A nightmare.
And we had no way out.