Adam moves closer to Dr. Walters. “The older me, the one from this time, said we should ask you about the people who went to the future before us.”
Dr. Walters starts coughing, big, racking coughs that shake his entire body. He grabs a tissue and holds it to his mouth, his eyes watering. Poor guy. I briefly debate if we should get the nurse again, but he told her to leave and we don’t have time to mess around.
He holds up a hand, asking us to wait, and his coughing finally settles down. “We never should have done it. All those people…and what happened to you…”
“What happened to the others?” I ask him, stepping closer to the bed.
“I guess there’s no point keeping it from you now.” He stares at the crumpled tissue in his wrinkled hands. “They all came back broken. Paranoia, memory loss, madness…future shock, we called it.”
“Future shock?” Adam asks.
“Yes, shock from the time dilation. It proved too be too much for the human brain to handle.” He shakes his head, his eyes lost in his memories. “We made changes. We warned them not to look into their own fates, which we thought might make it worse. We reduced the hours spent in the future. We sent people only ten years forward instead of thirty. The damage was lessened each time, but not enough. Dr. Kapur thought if we used teenagers, whose brains were still developing, they might be able to withstand it better.”
Everything clicks into place. The conversation they had in the hallway. The reason they sent foster kids to the future instead of scientists. We were disposable.
“Did we…” I stop to take a breath, afraid to ask the question. “Did we come back broken too?”
Dr. Walters stares up at me with pale eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“What does that mean, old man?” Chris asks. “Are we going to go crazy?”
“It was all my fault,” the old man mutters, his eyes unfocused. “I built the accelerator…I never should have listened to Kapur.”
Chris grabs on to the edge of the hospital bed. “Answer the question!”
“Yes. You were all suffering from future shock. You had no memories of your time in the future.”
My heart falls to the ground and shatters. If we won’t remember anything that happens in these twenty-four hours, how will I be able to save us?
Does this explain why I kill the others and then myself? Maybe Aether tricks me somehow, or I’m confused after we get back…
“How can we stop from being brain damaged?” Trent asks.
Dr. Walters shakes his head. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“How could you do this to us?” Chris yells. “You knew this would happen, and you sent us to the future anyway?”
“We thought we were gods, trying to control time.” He lets out a bitter laugh. “So arrogant. So stupid. After your mission failed, Kapur wanted to try again with younger kids. But I couldn’t let him do that. I destroyed the accelerator.”
“You destroyed it?” Adam asks.
“I had to. I couldn’t let them hurt anyone else.” He starts coughing again, his back bouncing off the pillow. When his cough settles down, he continues. “Aether couldn’t build it again without me. They threatened me, but I didn’t care. I was done trying to be a god.”
Zoe kneels beside the bed, almost like she’s begging. Or praying. “Dr. Walters, please. We need to know how to stop this. What about Dr. Kapur? Where is he?”
Dr. Walters scrunches up the sheets in his hands. “That bastard. After I quit, Aether put him on another project. Something involving memory. I didn’t want to know. But karma found him, and he died in a car accident not long after.”
“What about Lynne?” Trent asks. “Future-Adam said she helped him bury the project.”
“She might be able to help you, although I haven’t seen her in years. Adam is the only one who visits me.” His gaze rests on Adam and he smiles sadly. “Such a nice boy.”
“This is bullshit.” Chris paces back and forth, smoke practically steaming out of his ears. “We’re going crazy and we’re all gonna die and there’s nothing we can do? No, screw that.”