The Timeless Shadow of A Minute

If you had sixty seconds to change the world and save millions of lives would you seize it. Trigger in hand sixty seconds on the clock, I wondered if I had it in me. Crazy how I made it this far, but here I was frozen.

“Fifty seconds take the shot and get out of there” Yelled the voice on my ear piece, so loud it’s tremor tickled my brain.

I felt the world around me wavering. I aimed in the scope and saw a young poignant Hitler deliver his speech to a 1933 Germany and Nazi party. My throat cracked with a dryness that often came with time jumps, and it left me feeling like I had been traveling the desert without a sip of water for days.

I could feel them approaching . I had to act fast and warp back to my time. My hearts racing like I took an adrenaline shot, but I’m sober as a toddler. When time travel became legal in 2040 I never thought I’d be time jumping to assassinate one of the most evil men in history. In fact it was illegal to use time travel for any history altering events. Time travel was offered through TTAs Time Travel Agencies that followed strict guidelines to ensure no changes or alterations were made. For even the slightest alteration could have huge implications on our present or future day.

Needless to say not everyone followed the rules. When the underground organization known as REACH Reshaping Earth and Civilizations History recruited me I was skeptical and never really thought I’d be here about to alter history in such fashion. The 1.5 million credits they offered me was enticing enough, but when the Jewish owners told me about the millions of lives I’d be saving I felt morally justified as well. Fuck this government and new world. At the end of the day most of us were just cogs in there machine anyway, of course they wanted to keep time travel as pay day and just another form of escape for us modern day slaves.

It all starts with Hitler they told me. A great villain, yet hero to some. By killing him early he would never have such a significance on society, not to mention out of the millions of lives saved many would have a profound and positive impact on the world.

They had done the calculations and ran the simulations. February tenth 1933 was the date and time for the assassination. It was his first speech as chancellor, and did much for the Nazi regime, indicting politicians and creating a new German Empire. This is when it had to be done they said. By killing the young enigmatic chancellor at such a pivotal moment the Nazi party would collapse in turmoil, and save millions of lives.

For me it was as easy as handling the time jump, and having the balls to take the shot. Time was of the essence though. I’d have sixty seconds to set up and pull the trigger before TEAL the Time Enforcement Agency Legion would be here, and take me down and REACH as well. I mean overall my task was simple enough, but was easier said or imagined than actually acted upon.

See we learned early on that there is a strange sort of sensation one must overcome when changing past events. It’s like something inside fights you and resist your every motion. You feel it in your core and even see flashes of thousands of possible timelines and realities. It takes a strong man to alter the future they tell me, but all the test say I’m one of the rare ones who has what it takes. Time shifters they call us and when they found me they say I’m a prime candidate for major alterations, and that’s a one out of ten million occurrence.

The anomaly that makes me a great shifter has me here in Berlin Sportpalast about to kill one of the most evil and influential men in all of history.

My cloaking device covers me from the crowd of German eyes. They probably wouldn’t notice me anyway, as they stare at Hitler while he powerfully begins addressing the vast crowd. Behind him hangs a huge Nazi banner. The stale musty odor of the old air makes me cough so hard I lose my line of sight in the scope.

“Forty seconds before TEAL is on your ass! Take she the shot the voice barks in my ear.” I know he’s not joking and with crimes like this the punishments would be harsh. I steady the spitting German legend in my scope once more. I can see droplets of spit flying into the crowd as he speaks. My hearts thumping like a scratching dog, and as the fever hit me I feel as if I were infected with some rare illness. I already know it’s happening.

It starts with such a high pitch ringing it makes you want to split your head open. Then the amalgamation of images and thoughts pierce your brain. Like sodomy they fill your vision. Nazi rallies, the holocaust, dying Jews, Hitlers Original unaliving, they flash in the first wave then are torn and burnt to shreds. They are replaced by a flurry of new images Joseph Gobbels, Heinrich Himmler, the rise and fall of German and Nazi empires and similar scenes with other countries all play out in this cranial sodomy. It’s crippling and only the sound in my ear snaps me from the lucid nightmare bringing me back to my current reality.

“T minus thirty, you’re going to blow it.” Hitlers rallying now, the crowds erupting. I know now’s my moment, I have to act. I take a breath and squeeze on the exhale just how they taught me. The trigger feels soldered in place and resist me, but eventually it gives way. Bang! The sound echoes, screams shrieks and chaos follows .

Across the way I see another flash of light and can recognize an incoming jump portal, TEAL is earlier than expected, but I still have time.

I turn away from the madness and pull out the black box that consist of Temporal Quantum Chrono Core. Produced by Einstein Rosenbridge Genrators the device is powered by the EARs (energy absorption and redistribution system) which draws power from a star fragment and tears through the fabric of time generating a small stabilized worm hole.

As I hit the activation button and flip the chrono stabilization switch there is a long loud humming that cuts through cacophony of screams. The pulsing vibration makes my every hair on my body stand erect with static electricity. The time portal across from me is nearly formed and stabilized now, mine is about five seconds behind. I glare at my watch 20 seconds to go, it’s strange how my ear piece has gone silent, but I figure it must be interference from the two time portals.

The other portal is fully formed now and I see a man in a TEAL uniform stepping through. My augmentations let me see through his cloaking device but it’s still blurry as he stabilizes.

Fifteen seconds left and my portals formed. We barely escaped TEAL which is strange because this should have been planned to the minute. Either way I’m relieved that I’ll have a chance to make my escape. I wipe the dripping beads of sweat off my forehead and step back in the portal. I can feel the vibration emanate through me, and just as I fade I see the TEAL officers face, it’s me.

My heart seems to stop and my mind goes blank as I’m reconstructed in an empty building. This isn’t where I left or how things should be, something wrong, and I feel it in my gut the second I exit the portal.

Light rays blast from the outside through blinds, and while my heart sinks to the depths of my belly I have to look. I crack open the blind and see the futuristic streets below littered with Nazi symbols, and pictures of Hitler and Heinrich. Wehrmacht and Gestapo march through the streets.

I try to let out a scream, but as my mouth opens I find only a broken silence. I fall to the floor below tasting my own tears and wondering what I had done. Had I turned Hitler into a martyr? How had the Nazi regime become a super power? And maybe even more mysterious how was it that I saw myself as member of TEAL? Why was I trying to bust REACH and myself. The thoughts flooded me as did the only solution. I had to find a way back to unravel and fix the mess I had created.