The Time Police         


             "I've finally done it!" He cried out with triumph. "All these years hiding away, working in secret will finally pay off!" The professor stepped back and marveled at the culmination of his life's work. A real, functioning time machine, which could take him back and fourth to any time period up to September 23, 2043, or in other words: present day. He laughed to himself at all the people who had scorned him, mocked him, and betrayed him over the years. Now he was the only one left, but he also knew what was coming. He took one last look at the tattered, run down wreck of an apartment complex that had been his hiding place for all these years, before abandoning this future and setting off for better times. He set the dial, adjusted his co-ordinates for the year 2014, and in a blinding light he vanished .

              When he arrived he appeared to be in the basement of a dingy building. He could hear footsteps overhead, and his own voice. This was a secret bunker he had prepared over 30 years ago in the basement of his apartment, having always believed time travel could be achieved. Unsure of the consequences, he knew he had to avoid himself at all costs. He used a secret door in the back of the room, and went on his way.


               The professor had one desire in the past, having lived a hard and miserable life, and his choice of time period was no random selection. All the years hiding and working in secret, the professor had kept one thing. A newspaper clipping with the wining lottery numbers for the very next day. He would live out the rest of his days in luxury before the uprising took place.  He took what little money he had bothered to keep, bought a single ticket, wrote down the winning numbers, and tucked away in his bunker waiting till morning. As he lay there, he recounted all the terrible memories from his lost future.


              He had once been part of a respectable league of scientists, unknown by the public, tasked with engineering the things that were going to launch mankind into the future. However mankind is an unstable species, and the marvels they were creating were destined to be abused. Leagues of highly technical, nearly indestructible robots, designed to be the perfect law enforcement, were used to start a totalitarian takeover of earth. There were traitors among the ranks of his team, and the designs were sold to those who would fight back, creating a devastating worldwide war of robots and men. The professor himself held a key code that would override all computing systems and AI for the machines, but this information was also betrayed to the usurpers, and he had been hunted every day since.


               The one detail nobody knew was that the robots would never be able to track him down. They hunted using the DNA codes from the personal records of all mankind, but he had excluded his own in the design process. He took what he could from the lab before he fled: old journals, parts, and blueprints, and put all his faith into his old schematics for a time machine. Now it was all going to pay off. He didn't care to prevent the future, for he had grown to hate mankind. They did not respect his works, they only sought power, and those he thought could be trusted would eventually betray him. No, he would let the future go on as scheduled, with himself caught in an infinite time loop of wealth and satisfaction.

                The next day arrived, and the professor took his ticket into the office where he could claim his millions. He was so excited, he didn't have a care in the world. He showed his winning numbers to the lady up front, who lit up like a Christmas tree, and invited him to come to the back.

                "This will be big news for sure! Nobody has won a lottery jackpot this huge in a long time, and never around here" she chuckled. "I'm sure you and your family must be so excited!"

                  The professor never responded. He was too lost in thought. He would miss working on his machines and gadgets, but there was no way he could go back. He would have to switch his mentality to that of a carefree man. He continued to follow the woman back into the building, lost in daydreams. He failed to notice the strange change in decor from a nice oak office to a steel corridor with very few lights and countless doors with no labels. They entered a room with nothing but a long steel table and a backwards chair on the opposite end. The professor was finally snapped out of his daze by the door slamming behind them.

                  "Where are we exactly? When do I collect my winnings?" The professor inquired, but the woman did not answer him, although she continued to smile. Then the professor noticed there were no windows, barley any lights, and a man was slowly turning around in his chair.

                     "Hello again professor" the man sneered with satisfaction. "I see you have fallen for our trap once again. I will be taking you back to the future now, so you can reveal once again how your time machine functions and where we can expect to find you when you leave. There are men who are very excited to see you in the future, lucky for me I get to see you every single day"

                     "Is somebody down there?" The man called out, having been certain he heard a rummaging sound coming from his basement. Having decided his mind was overreacting, he opted not to investigate further, for today was an exciting day! Today he was going to submit his research for approval to the board of technological advancement for a grant and a lab to begin working on his most ambitious project yet. He was confident in himself, and left the house eager to change the world!