The World I Left Behind
Compendium 2020 – Story 44
By Andrew Hawnt
April 15th, 1842
All is well. I have seen to it that the invasion was sabotaged and have buried my ship under the ocean floor. The process has been activated and it will be absorbed into the ground as nutrients over time. I have used the money in my supply capsule to found a small farm and now the deed is done with the invasion, I shall move away from the coast and begin my new life. I miss home and my own time, but having actual nature around me is fascinating. There are living trees nearby. I almost wept. The lack of any recognisable technology makes this time seem far more alien than any planet I have visited in the nine quadrants.
March 12th, 1868
My sincere apologies. I know that the envelopes you will find will carry with them no sense of the time passed between them, but to me it has been almost twenty-six years since my initial journal entry. I understand that the capsule was only meant to contain one letter to confirm my whereabouts, but I must let you know my circumstances have changed. My altered DNA, i.e. the part of our contemporary DNA sculpting that slows ageing, had begun to cause issues at the farm. While my peers had grown into later years, I still resembled the man that wandered into the area two and a half decades ago. I have thus moved to a town in Yorkshire. The precise coordinates are listed at the base of this letter. Life is good. In fact, with all that I have done now, all that I have tended to, I am feeling very much at home. I hope you are all well. I know you cannot respond, but know that you are thought of. Long live the Alliance.
July 28th 1914
I wasn't going to leave any more letters, but here we are at the dawn of a war I knew would come and is infinitely more frightening than the history feeds would have you believe. There is bravado, of course, but I know what will befall those poor youngsters. This is senseless, as are all wars. I wish I could tell them. I wish I could save some of those lives being lost for no real reason at all. I am still yet to age. It is becoming harder not to intervene.
September 1st, 1939
I must try to stay away from civilization. The horrors of another war begin today. I am well versed in what follows and I find myself struggling to carry out the oath I swore. I could go and end this war instantly and save millions of lives, but then what? The world I came from would never exist, and neither would I. The invasion from our own time would have come to pass and wiped out the planet. I hate myself. I have aged only a year or so in the decades I have been here. This feels so wrong. I want to cry out. To let them know.
October 10th, 1950
I watched the war unfold and all of the terrible things we knew would happen. They took place in a different order at some points, so the history feeds need to be checked. I live in a small terrace in South Yorkshire at present. My neighbours have just had a baby girl. Dorothy. She's a feisty little creature. Strange thinking that when she is in her fifties, I'll still look largely the same. The country has been rebuilding itself since the war ended. Life is hard, but these people are harder. This will be my final correspondence, as I am concerned about saying much else.
May 25th, 1987
I am on the run. A fugitive. There are agents here that know who I am. Be warned. This was not a safe place. I have been able to defend myself, but if they are here now, what have they done to the timeline?
August 30th, 2001
I understand now. Those agents who hunted me in the eighties were the first wave of aliens. Not an invasion with ships and giant cannons. An invasion of twisting government and the direction we take.
May 9th, 2020
A global pandemic has halted the world, allowing all manner of things to go unnoticed. The transmitters have been buried. The generators are being built. The lie that has been perpetuated is about to kill everyone. I have to take a stand. My current location is listed below.
February 19th, 2032
In this timeline, governments have fallen. One power has risen. The people are subjugated. The timelines have become divergent and I do not know where I am now. This is an alien place to me.
October 27th, 2059
I have seen myself as a child and am haunted by the knowledge of what will follow. I am young here and now, happy and loved. However, the world is in the grip of the New Earth movement, a vicious regime holding science back and killing millions whose only wish is to help humanity progress. I don't care about the timelines any more. I will fight them if I have to.
January 12th, 2101
All is lost to them. Their true nature was revealed. They knew the invasion would fail in 1842, so they sought to kill us from within. I have watched myself join the agency and now I see who my masters really were. We never had freedom in the first place.
March 15th, 2103
I have stolen a time ship. My hands are ageing now but I can still pilot it. I can still navigate the time stream and I can still fight. A world with hope.
April 14th, 1842
I have assassinated myself before I foiled the invasion. Now it will go ahead, and a new timeline can be born. I don't know what lies ahead. These will be my final words. I don't even know if the capsule will survive. I had to fight for you, for all of us. If I am to die, then let it be in the defence of the world I left behind.
Godspeed, one and all. I may never have existed in your time, but know that I did this for you.
© Andrew Hawnt 2020
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About Compendium 2020:
Compendium 2020 is a project from author Andrew Hawnt that consists of 52 original short stories, flash fiction stories and vignettes given away for FREE in 2020. Featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror and more, this began as a personal quest and due to the weirdness of 2020 has become an ambition to provide free distractions for anyone who needs them.
About Andrew Hawnt:
Andrew is based in Nottingham, England. Known for his music journalism career, comics writing and film critique work, Andrew is a prolific writer and is the author of a growing stack of books, including the cult hit VHS Ate My Brain. He made the movies The Demon And I and The Demon And I: Birthrite completely in lockdown with cast members filming their scenes remotely, and new films are coming.
Andrew is also the creator and presenter of the YouTube shows Planet Hex, Turn One Shock and the VHS Ate My Brain series as well as the video versions of the Compendium stories.
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© Andrew Hawnt 2020
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