Anera Trilogy Book 1 The Great War Chp 1

Chapter 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 Nelson 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 time machine.

         

         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 time machine.

         

         The time machine 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 year would be displayed. He could only move into the future, not the past, so it would display the current date and how many years into the future you had traveled. He had technology that was so far ahead of the times that he probably could have programmed the time machine to go into the past, also.



         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 time machine; 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, filed with only four 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 Nelson, 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 time machine 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 time machine? Would it work? Would it take him too far into the future?



         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: Year 2189. He didn’t want to go too far into the future, but he also wanted to go far enough to ensure that he would be able to see what life would be like after he was gone.



         Fred never anticipated going to another planet.



         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.