Rewind

So this is the end. Trapped in a mechanical fortress in the middle of downtown New York lying down on the cold, hard, steel floor as blood pours out from the opening in my chest. So much blood, but that’s not the worst of it. I look up at the screen in front of me, the only thing displayed on it is numbers. 00:27, 00:26, 00:25. It’s a countdown to destruction. Once that timer hits zero, everything will end. That machine is set to destroy all life on the planet. A nanoscopic nuke if you will. 00:21, 00:20, 0:19. It was my job to stop them. I was supposed to be the hero. 00:15, 0:14, 0:13. In the end, I couldn’t win. Every story I read, the hero always wins. 0:10, 0:09, 0:08. I guess I’m the exception. 0:05, 0;04, 0:03. I’m a failure. 0:01, 0:00. I’m sorry everyone. There’s the sphere that will engulf everything and end all life. Why do supervillains want to kill everyone? Wouldn’t that include themselves? Everything is going white. I’m dead.

Wait, the color is returning. The sphere is receding? My blood is flowing back into my body? That’s not how physics work. Granted, I only have a C average in high school but even I should know that water does not naturally travel upwards, less so blood. The sphere is gone. 0:00, 0:01, 0:02. The countdown is counting up? 0:05, 0:06, 0:07. I don’t know how to describe this. 0:13, 0:14, 0:15. Is time moving backwards? But why? Why is it moving backwards?

0:32, 0:33, 0:34. Somebody is coming. And they’re…running backwards? Ok, this is hell, right? There’s no way time would just rewind like this. I recognize this guy. My archnemesis, Xander with his blond hair, red eyes, and black costume. All of a sudden, I’m falling up as my blood splatter flows back into me. Xander got his curved dagger, I think it might be called a kukri blade and is slashing at me but instead of removing any more skin, he slashes the exact line of my cut and my skin returns. This is unreal. All of a sudden, he stops and brings the blade back to my chest and slices me open again in the exact same manner. Blood splatters all over the floor as I fall down.

I reach out and gasp, “Xan…der.”

“I expected better. Farewell,” says Xander disappointed before he runs back out the door.

0:32, 0:31, 0:30. Time is moving again. This is the end. Didn’t I think this already? What just happened? 0:24, 0:23, 0:22. It makes no sense. 0:18, 0:17, 0:16. Will I die this time or will it rewind? 0:10, 0:09, 0:08. Is this hell? Do I have to relive my death over and over again? 0:05, 0:04, 0:03. I don’t know. 0:00. The sphere comes once more and everything goes white. This is the end…or so I thought.

The color returns and the blood flows up as the timer ticks backwards. 0:05, 0:06, 0:07. I just lie there stunned. 0:25, 0:26, 0:27. Sure enough at 0:35, Xander comes in running backwards. He slashes me again restoring my skin. 0:41, 0:42, 0:43. He slashes me again and I block it with my rapier. 0:50, 0:49, 0:48. He goes for the reverse of the slash he just made and I block it before going for the fatal blow. Not knowing what’s going on, I block that attack too with my sword. I raise the blade up high and knock the kukri out of his hand sending it flying across the room. I stabbed him above the heart while he was stunned in shock. I take my sword out of his chest causing him to bleed. I sheathe my sword and before I could turn around, I hear a gunshot and a bullet pierces my skull. I fall down lifeless.

0:40, 0:41, 0:42. Time is rewinding again. But now I’m rewinding from 0:40 and not 0:00. What’s going on? As the timer ticks up, I repeat the exact motion I just made backwards. 0:50, 0:51, 0:52. Now I remember, there was a sniper up there. 0:56, 0:57, 0:58. Xander jumps backwards as the sniper runs backwards down the stairs. 1:00. Xander suddenly reverses direction in midair and the sniper runs back up the stairs. I dodge his initial attack and duck for his second strike. 0:55, 0:54, 0:53. I slash at his legs. Last time I aimed for his back. 0:50, 0:49, 0:48. The slash causes him to drop to his knees. I take the opportunity to run up the stairs. Xander is clearly annoyed. I make it up the stairs at 0:43. The sniper fires and hits me on the shoulder. 0:40. Xander is now running up the stairs. My shoulder is bleeding, but I run and hit him with the flat of the blade knocking him over the railing. He hits the floor but is still alive. 0:35. Xander slashes me in the back splattering blood but I think he overestimated his distance as it wasn’t as deep as the first cycle. I turn around and slash him leaving a good gash in him. 0:27. The sniper is rustling. I jump down and land on the sniper knocking him out. I run as Xander jumps down himself. 0:23. I run to the control panel but remember Xander. I swerve to the side just in time as he tries to sink his blade in me. This makes it land in the computer. Electricity flows through the control panel before it explodes. 0:18. It’s blinking. Did I win? Xander, who was blown back by the explosion punches me in the back. The countdown still says 0:18.

Xander says, “I’m impressed. I didn’t think you were that good at prioritizing.”

He kicks me in the chest which makes me hack a bit, but I get back up as he continues, “Unfortunately for you, Dr. Crabinoski has a backup switch.”

I gasp, “What?”

The timer starts again. 0:17, 0:16, 0:15.

Xander says a little bit annoyed, “As much as I would love to kill you right now. I don’t want to be here when that thing goes off.”

He pulls out a device that looks like an odd remote control with a big straight antenna on it with a half cylinder resting at the antenna’s bottom and a single button. He presses the button and he disappears in a weird sphere of white electricity. 0:08, 0:07, 0:06. I came here to stop Dr. Crabinoski and that’s just what I’m going to do. 0:02, 0:01, 0:00. The sphere comes once more and it engulfs me.

I relive the last cycle backwards as I formulate my plan. Each subsequent loop seems to go 10 seconds further back than the last. I saw the doctor with the sniper when I first arrived. Most likely, the backup switch is at the other end of the teleporter. So I have two objectives. One, grab a teleporter. Two, destroy the two control panels. Once that is done, the world will be safe.

1:10. Here we go. We are just coming out of the hall into the room with the machine. I wish I had another 10 seconds. I throw my sword like a javelin at the sniper and roll to avoid Xander’s attack. The sniper was surprised and was pinned down by his shoulder thanks to the sword. I grab the gun and try to shoot Xander with it but the recoil was more than I was expecting causing my arms to go back a bit. It stings but I’ll endure it. I knew I shouldn’t have skipped weapons training. 0:57, 0:56, 0:55. Xander falls down on all four clutching his bleeding shoulder. I quickly peruse the sniper’s person finding the teleporter in a pouch on his belt. I knock him out with the butt of his own gun before dislodging my sword out of his shoulder. 0:47, 0:46, 0:45.

“Dick move,” complains Xander still in pain.

“Sue me,” I say before I start running towards the controller panel.

He is utterly shocked at how I am blatantly ignoring him. After 3 seconds, he begins pursuit but I only needed around 5 to reach the control panel which I slice in half stopping the countdown at 0:37. I grab the teleporter and push the button as Xander goes to slash. He misses.

I appear in a dark lab. I hear a voice, “Don’t move.”

I look towards the voice and see a ray gun pointed at me being held by a tall man in a lab coat with a red mechanical eye, sharp teeth, white hair and beard, and one blue eye.

“Dr. Crabinoski,” I say calmly.

“I’ve been watching your actions over the monitor. There is no way you should have known about the teleporter. In addition, your actions are too calculated and inconsistent with all previous data on your character. Where are you getting all this information?” asks the Dr. before I slice his ray gun in two with sword before pointing it at his throat.

“Where’s the second control panel?” I demand.

He steps aside and I see the countdown. 0:03, 0:02, 0:01, 0:00. It beeps but I see nothing. He points towards the window. I look through it and realize his plan for escaping from his doomsday as I watch the Earth get veiled in a yellow sphere. Suddenly, I feel a pain in my back. Xander is behind me, his kukri in my back. He takes it out and I fall to the floor face first this time. Who would have guessed that I would go from New York to the moon in no time flat as everything gets blurry.

As my vision grows dim, Dr. Crabinoski asks me one more time, “Before you die, I must know. How did you acquire said information?”

I answer, “You’ll have to figure out on the rewind.”

I bleed out as my vision fades and I die, again. Once again, everything moves backwards and I rewind through my last loop, my last cycle. Teleporting is even weirder in reverse. I just unsliced the first control panel so the countdown is restarting. Now, I’m running backwards towards the sniper so I unshoot his gun. Never thought I hear anyone say that. Much less me. Teleporter returned. More running as my sword suddenly flies backwards. Now we’re in the hall and running back further into it. We end up in Dr. Crabinoski’s room, as I’m calling it and time resumes upon exiting the hall.

I’m chasing after the sniper. Once again I throw my sword like a javelin confident that Crabinoski teleported the second I left the room. It hit the sniper in the back pinning him to the floor. I take his gun and hit him with the butt of it knocking him out. Once again, I steal his teleporter and his gun and dislodge my sword from his shoulder, which I sheathe, before moving to the end of the hall but I don’t exit it. Instead, I hug the wall farthest from the first control panel and aim the gun at it and fire. The recoil still hurts but I destroy the first control panel. I toss the gun aside and teleport. I quickly swing my sword behind me as Crabinoski brings out his ray gun slicing it in half. I then kick him to the side and run to the second control panel as he skids across the floor. I plunge my sword into it and it explodes knocking me back. I hit the floor once more but it wasn’t that hard of an impact.

“How? How did you know exactly what to do? Every action you’ve taken deviates from the path,” rants the doctor struggling to comprehend it.

I put my sword to his throat as I get out handcuffs and put them on him. I say, “Maybe you can explain it to me. I keep rewinding every time I die. I don’t know why. It happened the first time your machine went off and it’s been happening ever since.”

“The first time?” asks the doctor confused.

“Yes, the first time,” I answer.

He finally comprehends it and asks, “I don’t know how you’ve done it, but you achieved the impossible.”

He starts laughing manically and says, “So, no matter what I do, if you die it’s meaningless.”

“What do you mean by that, Doc?” asks a voice.

We look at the source and see Xander.

“Your archnemesis here is an anomaly. If he dies, he just goes back. We can’t win if we kill him,” explains the Dr. in a hysterical laughter, not that I find it that funny.

“Really? That explains a lot. I have never seen such cowardly tactics before from you in my life. Well, there’s no point in continuing,” says Xander as he throws his kukri into the window cracking it. Alarms start buzzing.

“If you don’t want to die again, I suggest you get out of here,” states Xander as he presses the button on his teleporter and disappears. I grab the doctor and use mine to get us out of there. We end up back at ground zero, Xander is nowhere to be found. I report into my communicator, “I have Dr. Crabinoski in custody and an unconscious sniper in the hallway. Xander unfortunately escaped. I’m requesting an immediate pickup for the two prisoners.”

“Granted,” says a voice on the other end of the comm. I look up at the machine that caused my death so many times now. The timer displayed on the screen is now blinking 0:55. I’ve done some good work today, but there’s one last thing to do. I let go of the doctor and walk up to the machine. I slice its metal base as if it were made of butter and watch it go tumbling down hoping it will never activate again.