Housed and Fed

JUST A SMALL SECTION FROM MY BOOK. VERY ROUGH, PLEASE ENJOY.

This time he could feel the wind on his skin. The cool night air stung like little needles. It was refreshing in a dark foreboding way. He felt Andrew’s presence on his right side. Andrew stepped up next to Ben. Blocking some of the wind. His mouth did not move yet he could hear his words. “You’re a time hopper Ben.” Andrew looked at Ben, Ben stared straight ahead the world in front of him an army of soldiers. All in black suits the smiling sun on their backs. Ben stood on a hill. He could see the sea of people for miles. A line of bodies traveling towards a bright light in the distance. “What is a time hopper Andrew? And why can I hear you? Isn’t this just a dream?” Ben finally looked at Andrew, his freckles on his face glistened from the bright light so very far away. Andrew’s lips didn’t move, “This is no dream. You are asleep, but what you are seeing is the future.” Ben looked at his hands confused, everything felt real. He clenched his fists, is this real? Ben still couldn’t shake the feeling this was all fake. “The future?” Andrew nodded in agreement. “Right now your powers are weak, you can only project so much. You just see a sea of people in a line. I see an entire city bustling with guards, observation decks, complete control of anyone not a part of the happy ones.” Ben looked again and tried to focus, slowly buildings started sprouting. On the left houses white and beautiful in a suburb surrounded by green. On the horizon sky scrappers popped up large, dark, imposing. Ben staggered back, it hurt trying to focus. His head started to buzz and his vision blurred. “Settle down.” Andrew grabbed Ben’s shoulder to stable him as he laughed. “There will be plenty of time to see it all, Ben. When you can see the future all you have is time, Now wake!” Andrew’s words echoed in Ben’s head. Ben’s eyes opened. He was back in the little grey room. The peeling walls of the basement gave an eerie vibe. Andrew yawned and stretched his arms as he stood up from the neighboring chaise lounge. They had to be big enough for them to sleep. “So, what did you think of your first trip?” Ben rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “What was that?” Andrew chuckled as he responded. “That my friend is something we like to call light speed projection.” Ben shook his head, “Light what?” Andrew cleared his throat. “Light speed projection or time travel.” Ben sat up in his chair and rubbed his eyes with his palms. “Ok, explain this like I’m a third grader. Are you saying we time traveled? So can we go back in time?” Andrew smiled and shook his head “Yes we did time travel and no we can’t go back in time”. Ben looked at him confused, “Why not?” Ben shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Andrew stood up and walked closer to Ben. He started pacing back and forth as he spoke. “I may butcher this explanation according to all my physic friends, but this is what I understand. What we are doing is based on Einstein’s theory of relativity. A simple explanation is this. If you had two identical twins born at the same time, and you shipped one out from earth at the speed of light, who would be younger?” Ben had to think. “I’m guessing the one you shipped out at the speed of light?” Andrew smiled, “Exactly, do you know why?” Ben shook his head. How would I know that? Ben thought to himself. Andrew continued as if Ben asked him to. “It’s because the twin moving at the speed of light, is moving at the speed of light. Their velocity is so great that time moves slower. Meaning if they came back to earth at the speed of light when they arrived they would be younger than their twin they left on earth.” Ben’s head started to hurt again. “Ok, but that doesn’t answer my question, why can’t we move backwards in time?”  Andrew rubbed his hands, turned again in his pacing and continued. “Because in order to reverse time, you’d have to move faster than the speed of light. We currently project with or at the speed of light.” Ben had to rub his temples. “Sooo, we could move faster than the speed of light and what does that have to do with aging?” Andrew laughed. “Because it shows that time is relative to speed and no, we can’t go back in time. It would destroy everything we know about physics. It would destroy the law of thermodynamics. It would be like an elephant beating a cheetah in a footrace. The elephant could never reach the cheetah’s speed based on mass alone.” Ben chuckled now as he stood. “What if the cheetah was dead?” Andrew grinned, “Ok smart ass, an elephant vs cheetah isn’t scientific law. The speed of light is. How do you see?” Ben shrugged his shoulders. “With my eyes?” He asked jokingly. Andrew nodded, “Yes and what feeds your eyes?” Andrew flipped the switch on the wall sending the room into darkness. The realization hit Ben like a brick. The basement was so dark Ben couldn’t see his hand in front of his own face. “Light?” Ben yelled into the void. “Yes,” came the response as light flooded back into the room. “Light is the limiting factor for all. It is the speed limit, the constant binder of our universe. If we break the binder there is nothing. Without the back there is no book. Without light you can’t see. You would be right back to your very own starting point.” Ben had to sit, he was so confused. “What did we just do then?” Andrew sat next to him. “What we did was travel at the speed of light.” Ben looked at the wall in front of him. His brain was on fire. “Why me?” Andrew patted him on the back. “We have noticed people with very high brain function. People like you with more gray matter in their brains can sometimes harness this ability. We can move with the speed of light to essentially see the future. Our projections move without mass. They have to, mass can’t move at the speed of light. When we sleep we don’t age. That’s why you wake feeling younger, you are. The more and more you train your brain while you sleep the easier it will get to move at the speed of light. The easier it will be to time travel.” Ben shook his head. Andrew respected his hand on his shoulder as he spoke. “The reason the world feels like a dream is because you are moving so fast that all the objects are compressed. You will get better at controlling this.” Ben had to ponder everything said. He felt like a kid back in math. A kid lost and confused and a little angry. “Why does it compress?” Andrew stood, stretched his arms one last time and chuckled again. “Ben, that’s more high level Einstein physics I don’t care to explain at the moment. Let’s go grab breakfast. I need your brain and strength in tip top order. The future you will see, when you can see it will be dark, evil and controlled.” Ahh Ben thought it’s exactly math. The tone in the room seemed to switch. Ben paused as he stood. Andrew’s eyes met his, Ben could see that Andrew’s seriousness had changed. Ben could see fear in his green eyes. “What?” Ben asked with some alarm. Andrew spoke quietly as if each word would fall from his lips, “What you’ll see for mankind’s future will haunt you and we need you to stop it.”