My Best

by Brandon Noll

"Isn't this exciting, Boss?" asked my assistant, Bob. "It

overwhelms my brain at all the adventures that we have before us."

"I feel the same way. I haven't slept for days, just thinking of all the

unending possibilities before us." And then IT hit. And now I

haven't been able to sleep again, thinking of all the unending

possibilities before me-now takes on a whole new meaning. My

assistant, my family-where are they now? Are they alive? Do they

need me? Will I ever be able to answer these questions?

I have heard explosions and gunfire above me for about a

week, the great war, man vs. extraterrestrial life, no one knows how

the battle began but one day, they came, like the waves of the ocean,

a tide continuously marches towards a Earthly takeover. Why they

came to earth, I don't know. But I intend to find out.

Before the great war began I was a temporal displacement or

time travel research scientist at Smithinson Technologies. The

morning of the day the war began, my research team and I finally

completed the construction of our time machine that we had worked

so hard on. We were just about ready to test it out when the first

bomb hit! I can't recall if the time machine was damaged, or not,

but somehow, miraculously, I made it to the company's bomb

shelter- where I am now. I need to test out the time machine [to go

back in time] and find out why the aliens came to destroy us.

So now, the task of getting to my lab which contains the time

machine. I put on my protective clothes, put some food rations in

my pockets and holster my 9 mm pistol, "just in case."

What year-how far back do I have to go to try to correct the

wrongs that have been done and by who? The President or some

overzealous minister? OR possibly no wrongs were done against

the aliens but they just saw us as a threat to them. Maybe some

scientist had discovered them and threatened to expose them and

with their mentality they thought -kill or be killed.

I must do my best to use the time machine to make everything

right with the world. I can only hope and pray that my best will be

good enough.