OUTCOME 3
“Hello, Georgia. I’m Dr Whitman. Mrs Winston has filled me in about your war theories. I'd like to hear from you how this all came about. Mrs. Winston said this started a decade ago?”
“I know how this all sounds. But.. it’s true. It started back in 2009.
I was a sophomore in college when I started noticing a red blinking light in my bedroom window. It looked like it was hovering over St. Johns Bridge. One night I had a dream that I lifted from my bed floating straight through the second floor window of my bedroom. When I woke up in the middle of the night my pajamas were gone. I looked down towards the foot of the bed when I saw them on the floor below my window sill neatly folded in a pile. I looked around to see if anything else in the room was strange when I saw my blankets piled in the corner of the room. I got up to get dressed and walked over to the living room to check the front door locks. Everything was still how I left it the night before and my shoes were still blocking the front door. I told myself I must have been sleep walking even though I had never done that before. As I walked back into my bedroom I noticed the window sill. It had finger tracks in the dust that looked like a hand had been dragged out the window and brushed along the sill. Something I know wasn't there the day before. I checked my fingertips; they were dirty. I walked to the sill and placed my hand on the points where the lines started and they did. I laid in bed for awhile but eventually I fell asleep. ”
“I see... So then how does that connect to the war you sound very passionate about.. and how did you come to be here?”
”Well 10 years went by. I had all but forgotten about the incident that is until three days ago. I was watching T.V on the couch when I noticed a red blinking light out the sliding door. Staring at it, not knowing why it looked familiar. I stood up to go turn on the porch light. Staring into the dark I flicked the light on; it was staring down at me on the other side of the glass. I was so scared that I stepped backwards and fell onto my chase. I laid there trying to catch my breath when I heard a “Hello” inside my head.
I thought “Is it talking to me?” when it shook it’s head yes.
We were talking with our thoughts.
“Don’t be scared”
It said, then it lifted its hand up and waived it in front of me. My fear was gone.
My body lifted from the chase and was pulled through the sliding glass door. The glass moved through me like a sheet of fog. The white noise from the cars on the street and the wind blowing through the cracks of the fence had stopped.
“Did you take me a decade ago through the window?” I asked.
“Yes, we had to make sure it was you.”
“Why are you here?”
“You are outcome three and we need your help. 40 years ago, my kind arrived on earth hiding amongst you. Mostly to observe but in some cases to maintain the balance of power. Some of us are even hiding in your government. In the past 20 years we have seen the rising hostility between humans. Our home planet seer has seen a war amongst the human race starting in 2061. This war would not just end your planet, but would end ours. There are three outcomes. The first outcome: our worlds both end following the war. The second outcome: intercepted the idea of war from the root of its creation on the timeline altering the state of the war itself. This would mean the war would still occur but would not lead to mass destruction. The third outcome was about a young human female whose voice would travel to a place that would change the timeline, causing the war to never occur.”
It was tasked to run analysis on that young woman in case outcome three was pursued. Since all outcomes are true outcomes and only based on the timeline that correlates to it.
“Did you try the second outcome?” I asked
“Yes, the second outcome was our first plan however we miscalculated the interception and nothing changed. We can only go back a set amount of years and we’ve missed the only opportunity we had. The only solution where we all live ends with you. You are outcome three. If you do not succeed your government will come to war with another country. Unlike in the past every country will become involved. Your most prolific weapons will be used. Treaties will be broken, alliances will sever. AI will be brought into the war almost immediately and this will be the beginning of the end.
However, the end of wars will not happen if the elected 2060 president A.J.H. is never put into power. Your task is to tell everyone you meet in the next week about this event. Someone you tell will be the catalyst to altering the course of this timeline. We do not know how or why this will work, just that it does.”
“Do I get a choice in this?”
“No, this is our only option and as a fail safe we will be compelling you to tell everyone. Under our observation we’ve noticed your embarrassment can cause you to withhold information at times and we cannot risk you not telling someone you cross. Since we don’t know who the catalyst is. You must tell everyone what I’ve told you.”
“2061 is 40 years from now, why me. Why now? When will I even know I’ve told enough people?”
“The seer says it must happen this week, it must be you. You will stop telling people once you tell the catalyst.”
Then it pushed me back into my home through the sliding door and on to the couch disappearing into the night. I didn’t wake up from the couch until the next morning. The urge to tell people was intense and I had no control over it. Every person I crossed would hear about the war coming 40 years from now. But no one believed me because I sounded crazy. In fact, they asked if I was okay. They asked If there was anything they could do for me. My husband James had come home the next evening after a business trip. And I told him what had happened. But he didn’t believe me either. The next day I was getting out of the shower when I overheard my husband talking to my mom. I was called into the room where James handed me the phone.
My mom was worried but I just told her I was fine and hung up. James and I got into an argument that day about the situation. I asked “How could you know if it was true or not?! Even if I wanted to stop telling people I can’t.”
He gave me the cold shoulder the rest of the night. The next morning he said he would take me to work. Something he didn’t do often but did when we were fighting. Instead of going to work he brought me here. I know him and my mom were concerned because I’ve been depressed in the past and sometimes I go a little unhinged but it’s only really when I’m under a ton of stress and I.. I’m not stressed.
“I’m sorry about that Georgia. I have another appointment now. I’m going to have you wait in the common area and I’ll come and get you as soon as I’m done. It’ll only be 30 mins and then we can pick up where we left off.”
He pressed the button on his phone
“Mrs. Winston can you take Georgia to the common area. She’s going to wait for me there until I’m done with the next patient.”
Mrs Winston appeared in the door jam. Waiving me over she put her arm around my shoulder leading me to the common area.
"Now Georgia some of the girls here are easily agitated. Do your best to not talk to any of them. You’d be in the right mind to not look at them either. They can get fairly aggressive when provoked.”
I sat at the couch facing the TV that was playing Matlock when a woman sat next to me. She had a pen and paper.
Turning to me she said,
“You know this is my trial, I’m getting out of here once they find me not guilty.”
She was clearly insane but I was also compelled.
“Hi, I’m Georgia. A war will happen….” I heard myself continuing on with the compulsion when the woman turned to me and said
“shut up! I CAN'T HEAR!”
She was now aggressively scribbling notes on the paper she had.
But I couldn’t shut up. “It’ll happen in 2060….” The woman started screaming
“shut up! shut up! shut up!”
“There will be 3 outcomes…” I couldn’t stop my mouth from moving. I stood up realizing I had crossed the line, still yammering about the war when she lunged onto me I felt her pen sink into the side of my neck. I laid on the old couch choking. Hot liquid spreading down and across my shirt. Mrs. Winston ran over to help me.
Having heard the commotion Mr. Whitman ran out of his office
“Get Jenny back in her room”
“No! I need to see my trial.”
“NOW! Mrs. Winston.”
Mr. Whitman placed his fingers on my pulse. I was dead. That evening they called James to let him know and asked him to come identify my body. James headed to the hospital and met Mr. Whitman at the morgue.
“James I’m so sorry.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s through that door. James, did you know she was pregnant? We saw it when we did the blood work during intake.”
James collapsed.
“We always talked about having a son.”
“I’m so sorry.”
It took a week before James would get my funeral put together, he found out after the full autopsy we were having a boy. That day he buried me and our unborn son Arlo James Hart.
A.J.H..... The future president... of 2060.
