Blinded

02/23/29 15:07—

The man grabbed the desk roughly, knocking scattered mechanical parts off with loud metal clanks. His mind reeled with future memories, none of it seemed possible, it just didn't make sense. They were painful and loud, his knees crumbled as his mind crashed. “How do I– I don't understand!” He gasped at what he saw. “This was a mistake, a mistake! I need it to stop…” He yelped, his hands shook while trying to pull the device off his head, tearing out his hair in tufts with it–

02/22/29 15:00 The Afternoon Before—

Felix flipped the switch to the welder and it roared to life; he sat down on a creaky chair in his no longer quiet lab and slipped on his welding glasses. The arc welder hissed as it touched the metal gently drowning out any outside noise. Hours went by as he worked diligently on the prototype adding the final touches for the upcoming trial on the morrow. His phone rang but the crackling of the arc, and engine rumbling covered up the chimes of the small device. He finished his work and wiped his upper lip after taking off his glasses, leaving the hot metal to rest. The phone had a quick buzz and he turned around to check the notification, there were two missed calls and one message. The message read “Test subject 58 has bailed and this is your last chance to get this working Mallory. Your project has cost too much for no results, it either works or you're fired.” He grunted in annoyance and began to reply, “Sir, with all due respect, a scientist cannot conduct his own experiment on himself, I must delay it and find another subject.” His boss was quick to respond, “It's either now or never, doctor. There is a board meeting in exactly 43 hours, you will present what you have there.” Felix pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh, an annoyed hum came from his throat. His hand squeezed the phone so tightly his knuckles turned white and he threw his phone across the room, shattering it into small glass shards.

02/23/29 13:00 The Day Of—

“Seven years of my life, the endless failed experiments, just for one result.” Felix solemnly muttered to himself. Each day felt more and more pointless to him, like his theory would never truly work. It's been a long, lonely road, his thoughts being his only companion. Felix's hands worked precisely, every move planned thoroughly as he assembled his device. His mid-life's work being built once again. “It’ll work this time, I can feel it, I know it will.” He spoke confidently lifting up a small wiry metal head cap, its outside appearance did not compare to the meticulous engineering done on the inside. He set the device aside and reached for a camera, positioning it perfectly in the center of a larger machine he’d invented in his early years. He took a deep breath and stepped forward brushing it softly with his fingers before pressing the record button. “Hello, I am Dr. Mallory–” His voice brittle before clearing his throat, "Felix Roy Mallory from the precognition sector of S.T.A.R. Labs Missouri, and this is trial number 58, prototype 29. The results of trial 57 left a wire burnout in the temporal area and a circuit over load due to the copper wires I used. I've made the necessary adjustments to the PraeVisor and I am so certain this attempt will work that I myself will be the test subject today.” Felix sharply exhaled and backed up from the camera, carefully lifting up his creation. A small cap shaped, cage-like device, close to a web of metal, glowed blue in certain electric areas, with slivers of light shining through the bottom. The doctor began to explain the purpose of his work enthrallingly, “This is New Genesis PraeVisor, its job is to give our future memories to us now, and if- when it works it will completely change all government tactics, maybe even prevent world wars, not to mention the future of technology.” Dr. Mallory placed the head-module down cautiously and plugged a long wire connecting to a large monitor into it. “It's currently plugged into a Neuro-Schematic Core, downloading some blueprint data. I will continue my video log at precisely 15:00 when the data has finished downloading and I continue my experiment.” He stepped closer to the camera and hesitated before turning it off.

02/23/29 15:00 The Experiment—

Felix reached out and clicked the button, the red eye blinking to life and a quiet hum came from the camera. He sat for a moment looking into it, he swallowed and mumbled his first words before he gained his chest and spoke clearly, “This is.. This is the 58th and final attempt on S-M-P-A-R-A, Synaptic Memory Projection And Reconstruction Apparatus also known as New Genesis PraeVisor, or ‘the thing that sees before’, if you will.” Felix got up and walked to the computer a couple of feet behind him, typing something quickly and powering it off before speaking again, his voice distant from the camera, “T minus two minutes before using New Genesis; the Neurocore Synthesis has officially been fully downloaded into the hard drive connected to NGPV.” He turned around and looked at his watch anxiously pacing a few steps, he glanced over at his creation while counting down quietly to himself. “29 , 28, 27…15, 14,” Dr. Mallory whispered only to himself and sat back down in front of the camera. “I'm attaching the New Genesis PraeVisor to my head now, it's going to take approximately 30 seconds to sync to my brains waves before automatically starting and revealing my memories to me or what's gonna be my memories" His tone was informative as he picked up the device, lowering it on his head. Felix adjusted it to his comfort and attached the EEG electrodes to his forehead and neck. “It should start any second–” He stopped talking abruptly, his eyes hollowed, pupils dilated. Minutes went by and suddenly he stood up, he stumbled over his feet, grabbed anything he could to stay up right. Felix's breathing became frantic and unsteady, he shuttered out, "I-I have to write this down–” he grabbed his head and held it still like the whole room was moving while being completely frozen. His hands trembled as he wrote something down urgently. He began to moan in pain drifting backwards and barely catching himself by grabbing a desk roughly, knocking scattered mechanical parts off with loud metal clanks. His mind reeled with future memories, none of it seemed possible, it just didn’t make sense. They were painful and loud, his knees crumbled as his mind crashed. “How do I–I don't understand!” He gasped at what he saw. “This was a mistake, a mistake! I need it to stop.” He yelped, his hands shook even more while trying to pull the device off his head, tearing out his hair in tufts with it. The camera's red eye started to blink quicker, the battery dying. Felix finally pried it off his head throwing it unconsciously across the room, his breaths sounded labored as he fell on his heels staring at the wall, his eyes were unreadable like he couldn't decide whether to be mortified or thrilled at his new found knowledge. A trickle of blood fell down his face, a small cut from his nails scratching at his head, frays of hair on the floor and all this in the silence of his lab. The only sounds were his own, now calmed breathing and groans as he leaned against a desk. The picture began to jitter and the camera's edges blurred, its visions collapsed and everything went black.

09/04/54 09:00 25 Years and 7 Months Later—

“Felix, look at me! You need to remember this on February 23 ,2029, you have to remember your future,” the woman's voice was thick with desperation as she grabbed his face harshly. “You- you are the only one who can stop this, look around, show yourself the destruction of today's world, you need to stop this.” Her nails faintly dug into Felix's cheeks before she let him go. He looked around, a brown haze covered the sky and the smell of burning wood filled his nose. “Priya, what if younger me doesn't listen? I was stubborn in my twenties and–” She held up her hand, his words stopped as she pointed off in the distance to a towering, rust-eaten skyscraper collapsing to the withered streets below, the two watched as if it fell slower than time. The building hit the ground heavily sending a huge title wave of dust straight for them. “Cover your face!” Felix shouted, shielding her with his own crunched over body. The debris rushed towards them, thousands of microscopic glass pieces swished around in the air mass, they both squeezed their eyes closed. What felt like hours for the two went by, waiting for the eruption to stop. When they sat up, chalk-like debris filled their lungs causing them to cough dryly. Priya wiped her face with her forearm and turned towards him, grabbed his hand and held it to her heart. “I didn’t know you then, but I know your heart well enough; I know you.” Her lips curved into a reassuring smile and she loosened her grip to his hand slightly, “Your technology will reveal the fate of the world to your mind, it’ll show that there are no cities left, no government, and soon…no people. Felix you'll understand that your technology came too early for this world; it was too much all at once. You mustn't go to the board meeting on the 24th, you absolutely under no circumstances will reveal your work to anybody. Not yet. Maybe some day but 2029 is not the year, not even in your lifetime.” Her gentle eyes welled up in tears but none fell, she squeezed his hand one more time before she let go, the sound of fighter jets flying low over them made the earth rumble and their ears split.

2/24/29 08:00 His Decision—

The camera flickered to life, the light adjusting in and out before settling on Felix's broad frame. The feeling was tense and awkward, he took a few deep breaths trying to give himself courage to speak, he licked his lips and began, “If you're seeing this, I'm dead. My name is Felix Roy Mallory and I created the Synaptic Memory Projection And Reconstruction Apparatus, or PraeVisor. The invention was meant to seek peace, and solve problems before they happen but the sin of man twisted it into a weapon. Government leaders replicated my technology and the world fell into chaos; within 25 years over 93% of the world's population vanished, the number rapidly increased every day.” His foot tapped the ground and he wove his hand together trying to gather his thoughts. Felix peered at something far away from the camera and got up leaving the frame, making his chair screech on the ground. There were rustling of wires and clicks on metal before he walked back in front of the camera and coughed lightly preparing to speak, “This is my recent work,” he almost sounded remorseful as he raised up the small device. “Ive spent seven years and four months trying to get it to work properly–” Dr. Mallory paused and studied it carefully before easily breaking it apart in his hands tossing it on the ground next to him, “My research cannot and will not get out of this lab, there is a hard drive within this camera holding all of my work, it's all of the information needed to build a new one, a new NGPV.” He tapped the glass lens softly and continued, “My hope is that in a century or so, somebody wise will find this, bring the PraeVisor into the world, I just pray man is ready for it. I've seen what the planet will come to if this gets out too early, it's horrific and I wish that fate on nobody.” Felix's eyes were luminous as he looked around the lab in reflection, he knew it was his last day there and he was prepared. “I’ve failed to bring a reasonable result to the board today, I won't be in this room for much longer, but I know something, someone is waiting for me.” He moved closer to the lens and the red light reflected in his glassy green eyes, the corners of his lips turned up as he reached out, there was a soft click sound and the camera's feed cut. Leaving it blinded