Group+1

= Tommy, John, Brian, Kevin = ** First Draft ** ** ELA Short Story ** **__"Time Terror"__** We weren’t allowed outside. Everywhere we turned, there was danger. We were hiding from it. If your shelter was destroyed, you were fighting for your life; every man for himself. The beast was at least as big as an airplane. Hardly anyone had seen the beast, except for on television. Almost everyone saw its power, though. It came without warning, leaving everything in its path in a fiery inferno. Word has it that everything it flies over lights on fire, creating a maze of flames everywhere it has traveled. Some say it looks similar to a dragon, while others say it’s a phoenix. The people who witnessed its perilous power first hand say it’s a dragon that not only spits fire, but has holes in each wing making fire trail behind it. It strikes stealthily, leaving behind nothing but destruction. Leaving any building and coming back in one piece was pure luck. News reports stated that scientists had found a strange egg unlike any they’d ever seen before. They’d originally set out for a dinosaur fossil expedition in Antarctica. The egg was engulfed in ice, which preserved it for, who knows how long? The egg cracked open when they brought it back with them into a much warmer climate. The warm conditions must have allowed what they thought was a dinosaur, to hatch. But this species of dinosaur was unique. They had never seen any with wings before. Soon enough, it grew enormous in such a short period of time. Now, it is our job to stop the beast in its tracks and get rid of it. The question is, how? Missiles weren’t the least bit effective against its diamond like scales. Bullets ricoched, as if we were flinging rubber bands at it. Bombs did hardly anything because it was soaring through the sky so often. “It’s time for plan B”, the chief said. We had devised a “last resort” plan that could be dangerous. We planned to go back in time and destroy the egg way before it could hatch. But what else was there to do?… “No!” a man yelled from the back of the room. “The time machine hasn’t even been tested yet. It could be dangerous.” “Why don’t we just test it now!” someone else said. “Silence.” said the Chief. “We’re in quite a mess. As the special force's agency, it’s our job to protect the people… You see. Before we can even test the time machine, we have to build something that will hit the start button from the inside. This way, we aren’t risking any lives in the test… So none of us die if something goes wrong.” “Lets just build the testing robot to hit the start button for us.” “It’s not that simple” the chief continued. “If the procedure went well we would need the Testing robot to bring the time machine back to us. Before we even consider testing the machine, we would need to build the testing robot. That could take up to a month. We can’t afford to lose anymore time. The longer we stall the more people are killed.” “Why don’t we just use one person to test it. That way, if something goes wrong, only one person dies.” “If you want to think like that then you can test the time machine.” The room fell silent. “I have an idea” said the chief. “If we all go at once, we can watch out for each other.” “But chief… What if the machine malfunctions and warps us to a different place….some destination where we don’t want to go. Is that not the reason we do a test in the first place?” “The probability of that happening is very small. The real risk is that we don’t want the time machine getting broken in a foreign time period.” “Why don’t we all go at once and bring Ryan?” “Who?… “The engineer…That way if something breaks he can fix it.” “You know what” said the chief. “That’s not such a bad idea………. “Load the cargo!” “Yes sir!” “Will the kid go?” They all pointed at me. “Is he not part of the special forces?” We loaded the cargo into the chrome time machine. “Here John, put this in.” I was handed a tool box and a laptop. After we completed loading the time machine, we all huddled into the time machine like an elevator. “Ready?” said the chief. He flipped a whole row of golden switches on the wall. A screen to my right glowed with a neon green hue, displaying the status of the time machine. The chief then pressed a start button on a touch screen and everything went dark. Green lights went on and a plasma-like substance started glowing in a clear tube, engulfed by red and blue wires. We heard no sounds at first. Then, we heard a faint noise. It sounded like a jet engine starting up. The numbers on the screen next to me were increasing, starting out slow, and then growing faster and faster. The numbers grew with the pitch of the sound. When the sound got to it’s maximum pitch… “BOOM!” … It sounded like something blowing a fuse. Steam burst out of little holes on the wall. “Is it supposed to do that?” “What!? I can’t hear you!” The first burst was followed by another and another until….Everything suddenly fell silent. The yellow lights came back on as the green ones went off. “Welcome to the dinosaur times” said the chief. “Right now we are in the exact spot where the egg was located, long before Antarctica was cold.” When the steel doors opened, a yellow moist fog filled the time machine. “Well, where do we dig?” “My temporal uplink says the egg should be right about…… Here!” He tapped his boot in the dirt. “Well what are we waiting for?” said Ryan. “Lets start shoveling.” We shoveled scooping dirt into a pile next to the hole. Ryan and the Chief wielded pickaxes And tapped away at the rocky chunks. After about an hour or two, “CLANK!” We hit something. “I heard that the egg wasn’t that far under” said Ryan. “Is this it?” We pried the hard object out with the shovel. “Good job guys. It looks like the egg.” “Raaaaaaaah!!!” “What the heck was that?” I said. “Some kind of dinosaur. “I don’t know” said the chief. “Here John, put the egg in the time machine. It shouldn’t hatch until it’s discovered by scientists in our time” “Raaaaaah! Raaaaaah!” the strange noise sounded again. “Quick John! Hurry.” Ryan raced to the time machine and came back wielding a magnum and machine gun. “Whoa! Looks like we came prepared.” Ryan was passing out guns that were brought in the time machine. Ryan sat down his gun and ran over to a strange plant by a stone cave. “Would you look at that!” He pointed at what looked like a foot long fly trap with a lizard clamped in it’s mouth. “Raaaaaaaaaaaaah! The noise sounded much louder than before. Everyone flinched and raised their guns. What looked like a giant flaming bird pecked at Ryan. “Ahhh!” he did a roll dodging the swift peck. “Shoot!” yelled the chief. A swarm of yellow lines hit the fire bird. It flinched back into it’s cave pulling Ryan in with it. Silence fell. “Ryan. Ryan! Do you come in!?….” the chief yelled into a walkie talkie. “Yes sir” said Ryan. “It looks like the beast doesn’t see me. I’m hidden in a lake. It looks like there’s a tunnel to the sea in here. Be ready… Looks like the beast is coming out at the entrance again.” “Roger that.” “You! John! We use gasoline in the time machine and keep a little extra incase something goes wrong. There’s a capsule of gasoline on the back. Press the green button and it should release.” I ran over to the time machine and pressed the green button. The capsule was released with a “Click!” I ran back to the chief and handed it to him. “Thanks John.” The chief was wielding a strange gun that looked like a steel water gun. He attached the capsule to his gun. “Boom!” Blue electricity was coming off of the time machine. “Awww gosh! It broke!” said the chief. “Ryan will have to fix it. We got to save him or else we’re all trapped in this time period. “Heads up!” said Ryan from the walkie talkie. The beast burst out of the entrance to the cave. Multiple rounds of bullets were fired at the beast. “Its not doing anything!” “Wait a sec!” said the chief. He aimed his gun at the beast and pulled the trigger. “It’s jammed!” he said. The chief turned the capsule attached to the back of his weapon and pulled the trigger once again. Black liquid sprayed through the air and hit the beast. The gasoline splashed on the birds fiery wings. “KA-BOOM!” The bird ignited and turned into fireworks of ashes. Ryan walked out of the cave soaking wet. “Jeez! That’s one big bird!…” The sky soon went dark and it started to rain. “Gaaaaaaah!” “Lets get out of hear before we get eaten alive” said the chief. He plugged the capsule into the back of the time machine. “Just enough to get home” he said. “We should be thankful we even found the egg. Oh! Ryan! I almost forgot. I need you to check the time machine.” He pointed to some loose wires. “Oh that! I’m on it. Where’s the tool chest?” “Here you go.” I handed him the rusty box. “He wrapped two wires around each other and welded them together. He then melted the blue rubber together concealing the wire. “It shouldn’t be exposed now. I think we’re good to go!” “Gaaaaaaaah!” The screech sounded again. “Lets move!” The rain started to pour as the sky went black. “Just in time” said Ryan. “Crack!” “What was that?” said the chief. “You did fix the time machine didn’t you.” “Of course!” said Ryan. “Crack!” “Look!” a man said. “The egg! It’s hatching!” “Ahh! Quick! Do something! Don’t just stand there! SHOOT IT!!!” “Chill out! It’s only a baby. What harm can it do?” “It must have hatched when we brought it into this time machine. There is a big temperature difference.” Said Ryan. “But who said it still doesn’t have the potential to breath fire? Plus, you remember how fast it grew!” “Whatever you do don’t shoot it! You might hurt the time machine and cause a warp malfunction.” said the chief. “Crack! Crack!” “Can’t this time machine go any faster!?” The lights went out and the green ones flashed on again. “Boom!” “We’re here! Quick! Get out!” Everyone ran out of the time machine. “NO! Get the egg! We can’t shoot it when it’s in the machine! I said that!” “SPLIT!…” The dragon hatched out of the egg in the time machine. Ryan ran to the back of the machine. “What are you doing!” said the chief. “Just watch!” He cracked open the gasoline capsule and sprayed it all over the ground. “GRAAAAHHHH!” The same dragon all grown up from our time period burst through the wall. The baby dragon slipped on the gasoline and fell. The adult dragon flew at the baby one as the baby dragon spit fire balls back at it. “Great! Now double the trouble!” “Hahahaha!” said Ryan. “What’s so funny!” said the chief. “It’s ironic how the adult dragon is trying to kill his past self without even knowing it. He’s killing himself in the process.” The two dragons collided snapping violently at each other. The baby dragon snarled blowing blue flames out of it’s nostrils. “If the dragon dies in the past he also dies in the future. Maybe bringing back this dragon as a baby wasn’t such a bad thing after all!” The dragons bashed into each other and dented the wall. “Look out!” Some men dodged the rampaging dragons. “Killing the dragon instead of bringing it with us would have been much easier.” Said the chief” “True.” said Ryan. The adult dragon blew flames out of it’s mouth. When they came in contact with the gasoline the baby dragon ignited as slime covered the bystanders. The time machine’s automatic doors shut right on the baby dragon’s skull splitting it in half. “And that’s game!” said Ryan. The adult dragon stood up ready to pounce on Ryan. A black hole appeared as it tried to snap at him. “Shooom!” The black hole sucked it backwards into thin air as it closed around it. The air suddenly went back to normal as if nothing had happened. “It killed itself…” said the chief. “Funny how we needed the dragon yet we didn’t. Well the dragon’s dead now… But why didn’t it disappear when we brought the baby one into the future. It can’t be in two places at once… Can it?” “It’s not said Ryan. Technically sense both dragons were from different time periods they weren’t in the same place at once. One was grown up while the other was still a child. It is possible to go back in time, to when you went back in time, and get the baby dragon to make the other baby one disappear, sense it’s technically the same dragon from the same time period. It’s way to complex and dangerous though. We could form a paradox or black hole.” “All that’s important is that we’re safe now.” said the chief. “Thanks.”