15 Into the Future Again

CHAPTER 15 Into the Future Again Once again, I felt the strange sensation of hurtling into the future. I became dizzy, and my stomach was queasy. I had the feeling that I was falling. It was even worse this time, because I was sitting sideways in the seat. I hung on as the machine swayed and shook. Still, I was glad to be free from the clutches of the Morlocks. I

had left them behind—not by running away from them, but by fleeing through time. After a few minutes, I looked at the dials in front of me. The hand that showed the passing of thousands of days was sweeping around like the second hand of a watch. I was racing through time faster than ever. I was speeding ahead so rapidly that the blinking of day and night turned into an even, gray light. But then, I was puzzled to see the flashing of day and night again. The sun should have been moving across the sky too fast for me to see it. But for some reason, I could see it moving from horizon to horizon. As I watched, it seemed to slow down. Then the sky grew dark, and the sun disappeared altogether. Moments later, it rose again. I was surprised to see this. The dials did not show that I was slowing It was as if a single day had become thousands of years long. Finally, the sky turned the color of twilight.

Even though I was still traveling swiftly into the future, there was no more night and day. The sun sat motionless near the western horizon without rising or setting. It had also grown larger and redder. The moon had disappeared, and the stars shone, even though the sun had not set. Then I realized what was happening. Today, the earth spins around on its axis once every day, so we see the sun and moon move through our sky once every twenty-four hours. But far in the future, the spinning of the earth has slowed and days have become longer. I had reached a point in time when the turning of the planet had slowed to a complete stop. The earth did not spin, and the sun didn't rise or set. I pulled back on the lever very carefully. The hands on the dials slowed until only one was turning—the dial showing the passing of single days. Slowly, the dim outline of a beach grew visible. I pulled the lever back all the way to its starting point and came to a halt.

I sat in the Time Machine and gazed out at the new world. To the east, the stars shone in a sky of inky blackness. Overhead, there were no stars and the heavens were a deep red. To the west, the sky was a brilliant scarlet, lit by the sun sitting on the horizon. The ground around the Time Machine was covered with rocks that glowed red in the light. The only plant life was the green moss that covered the rocks. Farther from the machine was a beach that sloped down to the sea. There wasn't a breath of wind, and there were no waves on the surface of the water. The only motion was the slow rise and fall of a gentle swell. A thick crust of salt ringed the water's edge. I felt light-headed and noticed that I was having trouble breathing. I could tell that the air had grown thinner. It was like trying to breathe at the top of a tall mountain. I looked up the beach and saw what looked

like a huge white butterfly. It darted about through the air and disappeared over a small hill. Then I noticed something moving on the ground nearby. At first, I thought one of the large, flat rocks was moving. Then I saw that it was a giant crab, slowly crawling toward me. Its shell was as wide as a table, and it had many legs. As I watched, it unfolded two big claws from under its body and waved them in the air. The thing raised its long antennae and whipped them about. Its eyes were small black balls sitting on top of stems that stuck up from the shell. The crab's broad back was rough, like the surface of a rock, and was spotted with green moss. Its mouth was an opening near the front edge of the body. There were small pincers on either side of the mouth. The crab probably used those pincers to feed itself. As I stared at the strange creature crawling toward me, I felt a tickling on my cheek. It felt like a fly, and I brushed it away with my hand.

But then I felt another tickle on my ear. I waved at it with my hand and caught something that felt like a piece of string. The string quickly pulled itself from between my fingers. I turned and saw that it was the antenna of another giant crab, climbing up on the outside of the Time Machine. Its eyes wriggled in front of my face, and its mouth pincers moved hungrily. It reached toward me with one of its large, grasping claws. I quickly grabbed the lever and sped a month into the future. Because the crab had been on the outside of the machine, it did not travel through time with me. When I came to a stop, it was gone. But dozens of other crabs crawled along the shoreline in the dim light. As I sat looking at the bleak and barren world of the distant future, I felt a great sense of sadness. The red sky, the dead sea, the giant crabs, and the thin air—everything made me feel hopeless and alone. After a few minutes, I pushed the lever and