Welcome to Limbo

It’s always the same. Shift, observe, report.

The Department existed for 25 years and the procedure just never changed. We always change into “era appropriate” clothes, shift, sit and watch, and then report. It’s not exactly an exciting job is it?

Every Recorder wants to explore the past, and I’m no exception.

If you could travel back in time wouldn’t you, for example, want to watch the Hindenburg from a little closer than 150 feet? (us Recorders aren’t allowed to get closer than a 150 feet of a “historically significant” event for fear of affecting the past accidentally).

Wouldn’t you want to see who actually shot JFK? It was Oswald by the way. Every branch of the government was just rushing to get their incident report in after the assassination that they didn’t actually check them so all information clashed and voila! conspiracy theories are born!

“Yo Pete. Here’s your doc. Looks like you’re going to back to 1937 New Jersey”

“Hindenburg again? I already finished that assignment 2 weeks ago”

“Apparently you missed something from one of the ground crewmen”

“Seriously? A crewmen? What the hell else can we learn from them. We already know what happened”

“How should I know?” says Alvarez while shrugging his shoulders. “just shut the hell up…” he lifts me off the bench and pushes me forward towards the door “… and do what you’re told. You’re almost retired man! Take the easy assignment with both hands and think about the Bahamas”

“You really think I’d retire in the Bahamas?”

“What? New Jersey more your speed, seeing how you love going there?” says Alvarez jokingly

“Ha! If you think Jersey is terrible now… wait till you see it in the 30s.”

“Yeah whatever… just head off and finish this. Remember Sonia invited you to dinner tonight. 8.30 sharp, don’t forget”

“Don’t worry I won’t. I know I might end up as dinner myself if I’m late. Forgive me for saying, but Sonia is definitely the alpha in that house”

“You think I’m gonna disagree? I don’t know how, but I’m sure she’d find out and then I’m toast” said Alvarez while waving and walking away.

“Alright then-” I look down at the doc. “-where am I heading to” I check the info provided to see which room I’m heading to. “37B… FUCK!”. A passer-by looks at me. “What?!” I shout, and he just looks away and continues walking.

37B. That’s the shabbiest of the shabbiest shifting stations. The machine is never calibrated properly and even with all the complaints from Recorders, the HQ never does anything about it. Shifting is supposed to be relatively painless. It should feel like you’re just taking a step forward from the present and appearing in the past.

37B makes you feel like you somehow contracted food poisoning on your way to the past. Nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting. All the wonderful accompaniments to shifting from 37B.

I walk in and Sara, the operator, looks at me, and then back at her screen. “so you drew the short straw today”

I start taking off my necktie and head straight to the wardrobe “no offense Sara, but seeing your face literally induces migraines for me”

“I assure you, the feeling is mutual” said Sara with her infamous cold tone.

After changing, I grab a second outfit and then take the necessary medicine from the cupboard. This medicine cupboard is not standard issue for shifting stations.

“Why do I have to change before going there, if we both know I’m gonna have to change again after a few minutes?”

Sara sighs and massages the bridge of her nose “like always. What if you land somewhere with people? You can’t be wearing modern clothes”. Sara gives a dismissive wave “you can head out now. Bye”

“Yeah, yeah… whatever”. I pick up the bag of clothes and medicine and head to the Shifter.

I can see the green indicator on the door signifying that link is already up so I grab the door handle, but hesitate a little bit. “fuck it!” I push the door open and rush through the shifting threshold.

The Shift

I feel mud underneath my feet. I choose to believe its mud anyway. “damn it. They’re brand new as well!”. It looks like I landed in an alleyway somewhere. I take a few steps and then hear my stomach gurgling. I run to the side and start vomiting non-stop for what felt forever (more like 10 secs).

I take a few breaths and wipe my mouth. “No diarrhoea. I’ll call that a win”. There’s no need for changing clothes so I stash the bag I had with me behind a dumpster. “let’s just get this shit over with”.

I reach the landing site and see people and ground crewmen just waiting for the Hindenburg to land. Right now the blimp is making its final approach.

I see the crewman they mention in the doc and record all I see. It does look like there is something in his pocket, but I can’t tell what it is. “that’s something for someone else to worry about”. I close the record book and turn around to leave.

“This is probably my last shift. I just gotta check this out”. I turn back around facing the landing site and start walking. I get a warning about the Interference radius so I stop. “I still can’t see anything”. I look down at my watch and hesitate. “Fuck it. It’s just theoretical anyway”. I switch off the alarm, shut my eyes tight and take a step forward. I am now within 149 feet of the event.

I wait a few seconds. I open one eye, and then the second eye. I look around me and nothing happens. I stand up straight and fix up my jacket “ha! I knew nothing would happen. Those lap coats don’t know shit about the fiel-”. I start walking towards the fire truck at this point someone slams into me and falls back.

“What the hell are you doing standing there?! idiot”. The man gets back up, bumps my shoulder with his as he walks past me. I stand there thinking about what just happened. “nah. He was going that way anyway. I didn’t really do anything”.

I continue walking and stand around 100 feet from the site. I watch the whole thing like I never did before and after I’m done, I go back to the shift site. Pick up the bag I stashed and start the sequence for returning. After a few minutes the shift manifests and I walk through it back home.

I walk out of Shifter and I’m greeted by the ever-so pleasing voice of Sara “done already?”. I can imagine her sarcastic face just looking at the screen and eating her chips.

“Yeah it was easy.” I take my clothes off to change. I open up the washing machine and put the clothes in. “did they get a newer one? It looks much better” I say to Sara.

“ha? What’re you talking about?”.

Sigh. I bet my life savings that they installed this thing while her face is glued to that screen.

I change my clothes and walk out. “Pleasure as always Sara. I’m out!”. She gives a half-hearted wave as a I walk out of the room.

I step out of the room but then I suddenly halt. I look back and the 37B station door slowly closes behind me. “The fuck…”

The Change

Everything is different, yet not so different. Technology is definitely a little more advanced than when I left, and there are some smaller changes like Station 37B door. It definitely did not have an automated door. The uniforms are a little different, with some organic computer hidden in the sleeves (I switched it on accidently while I was walking).

I have no idea what else changed. “I need to speak to Mike”

Mike is my little brother. He also works in the Department, but he’s one of the lab coats. He does calculations and other things to do with time travel that I won’t pretend to understand. I’m sure he knows what’s going on.

****

“WHAT THE FUCK!”

“Hey! Keep it down” I grab his head and sit him back down on his chair. “what’s wrong with you?!”

“What’s wro…” Mike looks around and gets closer to whisper “What’s wrong with me! What’s wrong with you?!”

“We put restrictions for a reason! To stop this exact thing from happening!”

“I know, I know… but it’s all good. I checked everything and it all looks fine. Everyone is still here and knows me, and you’re obviously still here so there’s no problem man”

“Stop acting like an idiot. You know damn well that we can’t predict the changes that you might’ve caused. You left a computer behind in the fucking 30s!”

“I dropped a computer in the 30s. just to keep the record straight”

“who the hell cares!”

Mike kept pacing and ranting on about the possibilities and how stupid I was for around 30 minutes until he finally calmed down.

Mike took a sip of his water. “What’s done is done. This is reality now. Well it was already my reality anyway, but you’ll need to adjust to it. Luckily my Pete from this timeline went on a shift, most likely at the same time you did. When he returns, he will return to a different timeline-”

“How does that work?”

“Well the theory is that when travelling through a shift, we’re in this theoretical space out of time we call Limbo. And when we try to get back into time, if we already exist in that timeline, there will be a quantum interference and a branch timeline will be created to allow for your existence. Because there can’t be two Petes in the same universe.

“Doesn’t that mean we create alternate timelines every time we go to the past?”

“Yes. But if we don’t make any changes and comeback, the timelines would follow the same path and eventually merge into one. But if we do make a change significant enough to change the path of events, then the timeline becomes its own, and runs parallel to ours. That how you ended up here. Right now the original timeline that you were from still exists and is probably running fine, but you won’t be there. So, while you didn’t change the past of that timeline, the future will be slightly altered because you left”

“But in this timeline everything is fine, and the other Pete will be going back to a new timeline of his own, is that right?”

“Yes, exactly”

“Then it’s all good.” I rejoice with my arms up. “I checked and everyone I know is still here so I’m fine”

“I suppose. And everyone here has technically already been living their lives in this timeline, so they’re not missing anything either. But we need to meet up regularly to make sure that you’re up to date with everything. Not everything is gonna be the same”

“Yeah that’s fine. I’m tired anyway so I was gonna clock-out. I’ll meet you at your place. Tell Julie I got her a present”. I get up the chair and start walking out.

“Tell who?”

I freeze up. Everything I checked. Alvarez, Sara, my boss, my office, even my house through the security cameras. Everything in my life was fine, but I forgot to check on one of the most important people.

Talking to her was so routine that I almost forgot. I should’ve realised when my brother is at the office at this time, but I was too wrapped up in this.

“Hey, Pete. Everything alright?”. I hear Mike’s voice. It sounded so distant even though I’m right in front of his desk.

“I…I… yeah. I’m fine”. I turn back around and sit down again. “I was so busy with this craziness, and didn’t even ask about you. How’s your life here?”

“Okay…” Mike gives me a quizzical look but keeps going. “well, it’s nothing exciting. Quantum physics graduate from Brown, I assume it was the same with your timeline since we both work here?”

“it’s Harvard actually, in my timeline”

“lucky bastard” Mike cursed his other incarnation. “Anyway. Work is basically my life. I live in a shitty little apartment a few blocks from here, and that’s it really”.

Yep. Looks like Julie, his daughter, doesn’t exist here. I messed up. A little tear rolls down my cheek while I just stare at his desk.

Mike realises what must be going through my head. “Remember what I told you earlier? My life is in this timeline. I don’t miss what I don’t know. The other Mike is also living in his own timeline, whatever it is you’re thinking about, he still has it.” Mike is trying to reassure me.

I know he doesn’t miss her. But I know how much happier he was when she’s around. He was always a logical guy, just like the man in front of me, but Julie added a little spark of joy and happiness in him, just like she did for her uncle. I loved how she ran to hug me whenever I come over, and how she just sat there playing with her imaginary friends.

“Yeah you’re right”. I wipe the tear from my face and get up. “It’s not like I can change anything now”.

No I can’t let this be, I have to try to go back to the original timeline. I can’t see Mike without Julie. I get up and walk out of the rooms

“See you later then” Mike says. I can tell he was curious. But I know he wouldn’t have asked. One of his motos is ‘ignorance is bliss’.

Don’t worry Mike, I’ll fix this for you.

I head back to 37B. After each mission, the Shifter stays active for 24 hours, in case the Recorder needs to travel back and finish off something from the report.

“Hey Sara. I’m gonna need to go back. I missed something in there”

“Whatever. I’m leaving now anyway” Sara says waving me through. I quickly take a change of clothes and head into the shift

Time Unchanged

I don’t know how many times I shifted so far. I came back to so many different timelines. In some, Alvarez didn’t exist, in others Mike didn’t work at the Department. One timeline even had a happy and bubbly Sara… it was creepy.

I tried everything I can. I recorded the event further than 150 feet, but something always happens and my computer ends up left in the past. Once I tried to leave the area completely just sit at a diner for the whole time, but I ended up getting arrested for not being able to pay (I didn’t bring money with me) and of course my computer ended up with the police.

Another time I brought money, ate at the diner and paid. But on my way out I bump onto someone and they end up knocking me out and taking my things. It feels like time doesn’t want me to fix this.

I remember reading a paper on the Department resources server. My brother actually wrote it. In it he hypothesised that if a change is introduced to the past, and then that change itself becomes an anchor point for any new timelines that sprout from that point onwards. And because of quantum entanglement, the Recorder that introduced this change becomes attached to it as well. That means that the Recorder’s reality will always have that change, and they can never reverse it.

Somehow me dropping the computer in the past became a part of my existence that I can never change no matter what I do.

Does that mean that I can’t change this? EVER?!

I need to keep trying. Maybe there’s a way I can fix this, I’ll speak to Mike again.

I get up from the floor of this dark and dirty alleyway. I just got mugged around the corner from the diner. “Fucking Jersey.”

I walk back to the Shift site and leave. I walk out of the Shifter expecting Sara with her nonchalant demeanour staring at her screen, but what I see instead is 3 guys in black suits waiting for me.

“Pete Holloway, you’re under arrest for suspicion of time tampering. Please come with us to the 75th wing.” One of them says.

“please wait..” I straighten up. “I just need one more try. I’m sure I can do it”

“cuff him” the short guy in a middle says with a cold look on his face.

One of the big guys grabs my wrists and cuffs me. I struggle but its futile. The guy didn’t even flinch.

“PLEASE I NEED TO GO BACK! I NEED TO BRING HER BACK!”. I struggle more, but then I feel a pinch on my neck and everything goes black.

When I came back to I was in front of a shifter marked “75”.

“He’s one of the originals, so his rooms are in A-0”. The short guy hands one of the guys dragging me a key card

“Roger” the big guy says, and then we start moving towards the shift

“heh. Do I have to give my breakfast order now, or can I do it later?” feeling groggy still, I hang my head down and left them drag me.

The other side looked like the typical prison. Metal constructions on a lot of the things I can see. No windows. I’m feeling a little better so I’m walking myself.

We get to A-0 and the big guy scans the key card on the reader and the door opens. Inside there are cells on both sides. The place is 3 floors, and each floor had at least 15 cells. I can tell that almost each cell had people inside… all of them slowly coming closer to their cell doors trying to see the fresh meat.

“We got a new one boys”. A familiar voice says from my left

“he looks skinny” the voice continued. But it was on the right now.

They take me all the way to the end where a cell door was open and ready. They shove me inside and lock the cell behind me.

“What the fuck is this place.” I never knew the Department has something this this. “I need to speak to Mike, I’m sure he can look this shit up and get our out of here”

“hahahahaha…” a hoarse laugh comes from the upper bunk. I just realised that there was someone lying down there. “if I was ever this naïve, shoot me”

“Excuse me?”

“Heh. You think you can float about in time and be left alone?” the guy sits up. Its dark, so I can’t see his face but I can tell he’s an older man, albeit healthy looking. “Time Unchanged. That’s their slogan and they will do damn near anything to make it so.”

“I know what I did was wrong, but it didn’t cause any issues did it?! They can’t just lock me up here for that” I look around for anything. Maybe I can open up this cell.

“You know Mike’s theory about the anchor?”

I stop looking around “you know my brother?”

“He thought that if a Recorder ever changed history, that change becomes part of them and they, along with that change, become entangled. One can’t exist without the other.

“You didn’t answer my question…” the guy just keeps rambling on. Who the hell is he? One of my brother’s friends?

“I’m just a tired old man-” the old many jumps down and stands face to face to me. “-and I’m trying to sleep”

“The ffahh…” I stare at him with a stupid look on my face. The eyes, the cheek bones, the nose, the mouth… everything. This is me?!

“Oh ooohhhh. Did he faint? Hahahaha” an uproarious laughter comes from the cell apposite us. A man slowly walks to the door and leans his arms out of the door and looks at me. “Ha! Priceless. What a dumb look. At least I didn’t have that look on my face”

“Shut the fuck up. You fainted and pissed your pants” another said from the side.

Then more and more people started talking over each other. All sounding very similar.

“Is this all…” I just can’t finish that question.

The old me goes back up to his bunk with a grunt. “We all thought we can just take the place of the other in a new timeline, and they would go to a different timeline exactly like the one they left. Only that wasn’t exactly true.” He fluffed his pillow and laid his head back down and stared at the roof. “Somehow, every single one of us decided to do something stupid at the exact same time, so whenever we return, it’s not exactly the timeline we left.”

“So we all…” I sit down on the lower bunk with my face buried in my hands.

“Yep. We saw something changed so we, being us, decided to go back and reset the change” old me sighs. “Of course no one could because of the anchor theory, so we end up doing going back more often, creating endless branches.”

“But why are we here?”

“The Department’s job is to record and observe history right?”

“Right”

“Wrong” the old man says slowly. “they also correct anomalies, but that’s beyond our pay grade.”

“Correct anomalies?” I ask, looking up above me.

“Well the whole anchor theory, if you remember, basically means that the Recorder who changed history, and the change itself will always exist along with the other”

“That’s right, that’s why we couldn’t change anything.”

“Exactly. But that doesn’t mean someone else can’t”

“What?! How?”

“First they would need to negate the anchor. And the only way to do that is by separating the Recorder from the change in a way that would disrupt the quantum entanglement.”

“How would they do that? even if they kill us, we still exist in the timeline, that’s not gonna change”

“True. They would need to somehow make it so the anchor and the Recorder don’t exist in the same reality plane as each other. And since they can’t exactly move the ‘change’, the next best thing is to remove the Recorder”

“To where? No matter where they take us, we’re still part of the timeline. It’s not like we can just leave the tim…” I finally realised what he meant.

“Looks like it finally clicked for you. Welcome to Limbo”. Old me said, while turning around and facing the wall.