Entry number 9 (chapter 2 final)

This is the end of the second chapter and nearing the end of material written in November.

“Sam I am not going to explain anything to you until you calm down” said a surprisingly put together Tesla. “You know what, fine! I don’t want to know. Take us back and I’m going home. You can have one of your poet or actor friends help you take down shady organizations, I am done with you.” The two men starred at each other in silence unwavering for several minutes. The silence was only broken when the two men were cast in shadow. They looked up and saw a large prehistoric flying creature. The bird like animal let out a horrifying shriek and then appeared to let some go from it’s talons. After a few seconds it was clear whatever it dropped was headed their way, the two men made a quick dive into a set of bushes. There was soon enough a large crash and a know unidentifiable animal landed on the time machine. “Quick Sam help me push this thing off the machine and help me get the machine itself the hell out of here.” “I can never be done with you” said Twain. They pushed the large heavy animal off the machine. “Dear god Tesla this thing is huge.” “Think about this Sam, whatever dropped this was large enough to hold it in its talons and we couldn’t even tell” Twain pushed much quicker after this and helped tesla pick up the time machine. There was a cave not far from where they arrived so they took the machine in that direction.

“This is lighter than I expected it to be” said Twain. “That is by design, I can never know when I have to move the machine, and it makes sense to make it mobile. We need to remember where we came in though because we don’t want to come back out of place. Once the automobile gets perfected I’d love to build a machine into one.” “I doubt that fad will ever catch on Tesla, so keep on waiting. Also it should not hard to find the animal carcass” “Touché Sam” said Tesla and he and Twain moved the time machine into the cave. “So why the hell is a giant bird dropping animals on us?” asked Twain as he sat down against the rock. The machine wasn’t heavy but Twain was not a young man and the journey took the wind out of him. “Well I doubt it was a personal attack. Some birds will drop animals onto rocks to get at the insides easier. From high up the machine probably appeared to be a rock. They say that Greek writer Aeschylus died in a similar manner. The rumor is that an eagle dropped a turtle on his head, mistaking the baldness for a shiny flesh colored rock.” Said Tesla. “Please tell me our machine has faired better than Aeschylus,” said Twain. “I hope it isn’t Sam, let me examine it and see“ Tesla takes out several small boxes out of his pockets and opens up a panel on the machine. Tesla also pulls out of his pocket a cyclintrical tube and flicks a switch illuminated the cave with light. “The hell is that?” Asked Twain. “This is a modification of an invention by David Missel. His model was crude and featured a knob on the side. He asked what I should change and when I made suggestions he balked and me and refused. He said he had no time for those changes since he had to rush for the patent. I said fine and loaned him money for his trouble if he agreed to let me keep the model for personal use. He agreed and I fixed the glaring errors, I put in an easier switch and modified the battery. The previous battery only gave quick intermittent  flashes, my batter keeps the light on a steady stream, also it’s solar powered.” Tesla shines his light into the machine and takes various tools out of his boxes. For the next twenty or so minutes he tinkered on the machine, pulling wires out, unscrewing this, screwing in that, and once he seemed to just hit something with the butt of the flashlight. After twenty minutes he stood up and hit a switch and the machine hummed into life. “Eureka” Twain and Tesla said simultaneously. “So it is fixed then” asked Twain. “Almost, the only problem is that the battery cells were drained. I repaired them but I need more fuel.” “Oh well that’s no problem, we just need to wait for millions of years for it to be invented, excellent. Do you happen to have a pack of cards in that endless dream coat of yours? The waiting might get tiresome.”  “Your sarcasm always helps even the direst of situations Sam. I have prepared for such an occasion; my battery cells work off iron ore. There is a natural deposit of it here not far off from here.” “How was is not far Tesla?” Tesla took a round device from his coat and then reached into the machine and put some of the iron ore that had spilled from the batteries into a small compartment. “According to this, about sixteen miles west of here.” Mark stood up from the wall and brushed himself off. “Sixteen miles huh? Well good thing we there are not gigantic creatures able to literally tear us limb from limb. Let us go.” Said Twain. Twain then headed out of the cave with Tesla not far behind. Up ahead they could see the bird creature devouring its prey. “Sam we have roughly a day’s trip there and back, and unless we want to send up like whatever that was we should probably mend fences.” “For the sake of not being digested I forgive you for not helping me. Why did you travel this far back in time anyway, and why did you lie?” “I have been doing a long form experiment on soil degradation and composition over time. This was my control of soil to observe how much it changed between ‘now’ now and ‘present’ now. I lied because I knew you wanted to use the time machine and I was trying to demystify it as much as possible.” “Some advice Tesla? Next time you wish to stop someone from using your time machine, just tell him or her that soil story. They will stay as far away as humanly possible.” The two of them shared a hearty laugh as they walked their long journey. In the distance the two heard a loud roar. Tesla retrieved another gadget, this time from his back pocket. Another cylindrical tube, Tesla extendend the tube from the top and revealed a smaller eyepiece. Tesla looked through the telescope behind the two of them in the location of the roar. Tesla’s eyes opened wide and he closed the telescope and placed it back in his pocket. “Say, Sam, how are you legs feeling?” “Now that I’m not carrying anything they are fine, why do you ask?” asked Twain. “Because dear friend, now would be the time to RUUUUUUN” Tesla bolted past Twain continuing to say run as he went. Twain ran ahead of Tesla. “Do I want to know what we are running from?” Tesla caught up to Twain and then ran ahead of him. “Not really no, I’ll explain when……” The rest of what he said was unintelligible since he was two far up. At that point the two decided to forego conversation and just run for their lives. They were in a deep forrest and in the distance behind them they could hear a charging. Whatever it was behind them was giving chase. Twain and Tesla ran past trees, ducked under vines, and jumped over small prehistoric animals. With each step they took they knew the creature was gaining on them. As they ran behind them they heard large stomping followed by the sounds of trees falling down. They observed ahead that the trees stopped and a series of mountains started. They hurried as fast as their legs could go. Ahead of one lone rock face was a large healthy tree with long branches. Tesla ran ahead of Twain and ran backwards “See that tree Sam? (Pointing behind himself) We’ll climb it and shimmy ourselves onto that rock face.” Tesla then ran ahead. Mark struggled to keep up “So shimmy to you means climb twenty feet up a tree and jump on to onto a jagged mountain. Noah Webster would like a word with you.” Ahead of him Tesla had already made it to the tree and Twain hurried as much as he could to catch up. Tesla cupped his hands together so he could give his friend the leg up. “It’s so rare that the youth of today will help an old man make death-defying leaps to mountains in pre-historic New York.” Said twain as he climbed onto the branches of the tree. When he was sure Twain was safely in the tree, Tesla backed up several feet and made a running jump to the branches clutching the bark on his way up. The branches of the tree were long enough to stand on and the men were able to reach and climb up the tree with relative ease. Relative ease compared to their age and previous run of course. Mark breathed heavily as he reached and pulled himself up to another branch “Since when (heavy sigh) are you such (heavy sigh) an acrobat?” sighed Twain. Tesla hurried up the branches “Since my embarrassing encounter with the Italians I have been training my body to be in tip (Tesla hops from one branch to another) top shape. They reached the jump to the mountain, Tesla helped Twain up onto the branch with him. “Ok Sam I will go first and you just follow right after.” Tesla then ran to the edge of the branched and leaped to the mountain. “Oh is that all?” said twain with an elongated sigh. “Well we might as well just be on the schoolyard with (elongated sigh) with a game as easy as that.” Twain started to run but then was sprung back to the tree. Twain’s pants had become caught on branches in the tree. Another roar could be heard. The creatures movements could be felt in the tree, leaves shook off as the creature neared. Twain struggled to un-adhere his trousers but it was stuck to more than one branch and pulling only seemed to make it worse. The ground began to shake again this time more violently. Twain was hopped a few centimeters off the branch this time and had to steady himself to keep balanced. With no other option Twain knew what he had to. He pulled himself up on a higher branch and undid his pants, letting them slide to the adhering branches. Twain then let himself down and ran across the branch to jump, half in a tailored suit and half in a union suit. Suitingly enough only half of Twain made it across the mountain. His torso held onto a rock for dear life whilst his legs dangled like a worm on a hook. Tesla pulled twain onto the mountain completely. Twain turns around for the first time since their ran began, and he finally sees what he was running from. It was gigantic dinosaur with an enormous head, large legs, and tiny arms at its torso. In modern times we know this creature as the Tyrannosaurus-Rex. In Twain and Tesla’s time the creature’s bones had not yet been discovered so it was a new and terribly frightening animal to them.  “What that Hell is that?” asked Twain. “Actually, Sam I have no idea. I just hope it cannot jump high. If we survive this I have to take notes on this gigantic animal.” Said tesla. A loud familiar squawk filled the air. “Hey look Tesla, there goes our friend from earlier.” Indeed it was the bird like creature from before. The T-rex had encroached on it’s hunting grounds. So the bird creature ,which would later be known as a Quetzalcoatlus a family member of the pterodactyl, lunged head first into the T-rex. “So we wait for those two to kill each other then? Sounds good.”  Said Twain as he went at say by Telsa. He continued “You know what this reminds me of?” Twain and Tesla said it together “Louisiana” They shared a hearty laugh and remembered their time in the southern state.

Entry number 8 (chapter 2 part 5)

A longer update for the the new year and also because school is starting and my video project is taking up some time. 

                                         Chapter 2 part 5

Several months passed since that day. They had thankfully not heard anything from the angry Italians and the restaurant was actually picking up in business due to tourist season. Tesla and Mark had to settle affairs in their lives. Mark had to visit his family and take care of writing and speaking engagements, while Tesla had to work on experiments and patents. Luck brought them together when they conveniently were in the same city and they had little adventures. Now, however is what they have been setting away time for. Mark was having Tesla explain everything in his lab, since he missed some before and there were new additions since his last visit. “So what is this Tesla?” Mark indicated a large machine about 8 feet long by 6 feet wide in the middle sat a chair. “Oh that, I almost forgot about it. That is a time machine. Now this machine makes people always tell the truth but only in riddles, I still need to work that part out.” Back up Tesla. This is a TIME MACHINE?! As in travel back in TIME!” “Forwards and backwards actually ”forw and ba…..TESLA why are we using this to change things? We could stop crime before it even happened! We could save…anyone.” It was clear whom Twain was talking about. Before he was famous for his writings, Sam Clemens was just a young kid working on a steamboat. Sam had traveled all around to try and figure out what it is he wanted out of life. Typography seemed to attach to him but something didn’t feel right. On a trip back to Mississippi he noted that a steamboat captain carried a position of honor and authority. Not only that it also brought with it a hefty salary, at least $250 a month, a significant amount of money in that time. So Sam approached steamboating like he did everything else, head on. He studied the ins and out of the Mississippi river more than two years before finally being granted his license. A downside of traveling up and down a river to learn about is that it can be monotonous. Sam begged his brother Henry Clemens to come along with him. Unfortunately the trip along the Mississippi river was the last trip the two of them ever took. The steamboat that Sam and Henry were on violently exploded killing Henry in the process. He died just a month short of his twentieth birthday. Sam said he predicted Henry’s death and took an interest in Parapsychology and even joined a psychic organization. Sam did everything he could to seek closure on Henry’s death but nothing worked. Sam worked as a steamboat pilot for 2 years until the civil war broke out. Sam was out of a job and traveled the country. Before long he started his writing career and Sam Clemens became more well known as Mark Twain.  No matter what Twain did or where he went he still carried the death of his brother with him. Here before Mark was a chance to not only see his brother but save him as well. Tesla could see the concern in his friend’s eyes. Twain confided in Tesla the story of his brother’s passing the very first time they met. “Sam I know what you are thinking but changing anything in the past in inherently risky. What if you saving your brother would somehow prevent me from building the machine? You would have never been able to use the machine to save him. That could create a time paradox and undo existence, as we know it.” Mark lunged at Tesla and grabbed his suit shaking him “Tesla we have to, there is time now. I have to sa…” Mark let go of Tesla and sat down on the ground. “Why do you even have a time machine if you don’t use it?” asked Twain. Tesla sat down on the ground near his friend “oh it gets used, every now and again I’ll go back in time and take a week off. I have to avoid myself, but other than that it’s very relaxing.” “Tesla you are a strange man, and a good friend.(they both stand up) That’s why I’m sorry for doing this” Mark pushes Tesla aside and jumps on the machine pressing every button he can hoping to activate it and finally he does. The machine hums into life and lights go off on it from every angle. “Sam no!” Tesla jumps on the machine hoping to knock his friend off, but it’s too late. Swirls of light surrounded the machine and over the heads of Twain and Tesla. White light began to fill the room, eventually the details of the room faded into nothingness. Tesla and Twain could feel the subtle movements of the machine but they sat in purgatory of nothingness. “Ok Tesla, since you are here, how do I set this god damn thing?” “That’s why I tried to stop you, Sam. You can only set the time destination before starting the machine. If you don’t set a time then the machine defaults back to the last time you visited.” “So then when was the last time you used this contraption?” “I used it about six months ago Samuel” “Well then no big deal, we will go back six months and one week ago then you help me set it and we go back with enough time to stop Henry.” “You are under a strange assumption I would even help you use this for your own needs. Even if I was willing to do that, I’m not, it is more complicated than that. Last time I used this I went back further than one week.” “How much further Tesla?” The white light started to diminish “You’ll see” said Tesla. The white light disappeared completely and the two of them were back in the lab, only around them time was moving in reverse. Around them they saw experiments being unperformed and even Tesla having an unbirthday. They saw the building around them get unbuilt brick by brick and saw the surrounding buildings slowly whither away into piles of bricks and eventually the bricks disappeared. Surrounding them was an empty town with roads the roads slowly unpaved themselves revealing more brick. The brick roads disappeared leaving their surroundings as nothing more than a dirt road leading in all directions. It stayed that way for a good while, the sun moving backwards across the sky. Eventually grass grew back threw the road and trees sprung back up around them. Time passed slower and slower in reverse. Eventually going to a crawl before stopping entirely. The bustling city around them had turned into a lush forest with strange unfamiliar sounds all around them.  Twain looked all around himself. He stabled himself on the time machine and then a few seconds later he ran to a close bush and vomited. After a good 20 minutes Twain finally came back to the time machine. “Sorry about that Sam I forgot to warn you, the first couple travels can cause some serious nausea. Mark grimaced at his friend, “Where the hell are we?” “The proper question would actually be ‘When the hell are we’ and to answer that question, we are in prehistoric times” said Tesla. “HOW CAN YOU BE SO FUCKING ALOOF ABOUT THIS?” screamed Mark. “Sam freaking out will not help us now, it helps to keep a level head.” “Here is a question for you Tesla. Remember when you said  ‘I only go back a week every now and again’? What the hell happened to that? Even in my infancy I could pretty easily put together that one week is less time than MOTHER FUCKING PREHISTORIC TIMES YOU FUCKING LUNATIC!”