User:ORakoon/OliverGodolphin
Arriving in Malton
It suddenly strikes me as I put pen to paper, that despite the quite unbelievable events having passed since my departure from my home in London, my perspective has remained firmly objective and scientific amidst the chaos. The method by which I arrived in this peculiar city is nothing short of astonishing. Simply to recount the events as they happened casts a pall of doubt over my entire memory, filling my mind with questions of the highest uncertainty, not only of the facts themselves but of my own sanity. If it were not for the incredible reality of my situation that forces me to act in a calm and calculated state of being, I fear I would have long since lost the ability to write, or even think, in a cohesive manner.
Regardless, I shall set aside my worries for my own state of mind so that I may concentrate on giving a comprehensive and truthful account of the series of events which has placed me on this path. It may be useful for you to know, in both helping you to imagine a playing image of this tale in your mind’s eye and for the historical relevance, that I am named Oliver Godolphin. Of more importance, I was born in the great city of London in 1874.
My life up until recent times, recent being of my own perspective of time, something which will become clearer later, has been of little interest or importance. Born into a family of relative wealth, my father being a factory owner and trader in the finer arts during his spare time, my upbringing was one of comfort and good fortune, if not for the need to act in a manner very formal and respectable, something unbecoming of a child. Such were the restraints of our modern society at the heart of the Empire. Being the oldest child in the family, as my brother of two years before me had died of a persistent cough incurable by the family doctor, my education was of upmost priority. Through my tutoring I gained my appetite for science. However, clashes with my father, who wished for me to continue the family business, led to me leaving home, all but casting aside my hopes of attending university and leading the life of which I dreamt.
Perhaps through chance I managed to secure myself a comfortable apartment using personal funds I had built up when working for my father, trading in paintings and vases of historical interest and considerable wealth. Receding into my work, I cut myself off almost entirely from society and the outside world, instead spending my time in my basement, in which I had constructed my own simple laboratory. After several months of this reclusive existence I made my exceptional discovery, one which has changed my life completely. The science behind it is nothing short of revolutionary, and I do not pretend to understand the exact mechanisms by which the phenomenon works. Unfortunately, I fear that this discovery will be lost forever. By shunning contact with other people I had told no one of my work, and now if they were to search the basement they would find no clue as to what happened, save for perhaps a few scribbled notes, meaningless without the machine.
It is now that I should tell you about the discovery which I made. The exact details are not necessary, but are recorded in depth in my journal which I carry with me. Any attempt to reconstruct the machine I built would be a wasted effort without both my journal and the ruins of the machine. What is of importance is what I built. For in my basement, to the surprise and amazement of even myself, I built a full functioning and workable time machine, capable of transporting a man from one time to another completely of his own choosing.
Foolishly, upon completion of the machine, I thought not to tell others of my invention, but to try it out myself. After all, my reasoning went, if it did not work I would only look even more of a failure in the eyes of society and my father. The machine was of relatively small construction, being not much taller than a standing man and about as wide as a door. That was itself a product of practicality rather than design, as the entire metal framework for the machine had to be constructed on commission and then carried through the front door of the house and down the narrow staircase to the basement. Within the metal frame a single seat was secured on top of a complex steam-powered mechanism, with several levers and dials rising up in front of the seat for use when a man was seated within.
I climbed into the machine, securing myself on the seat and familiarising myself with the controls one last time. My intention was to travel only a few days, at most a week, into the future, to prove that the machine did in fact work. Content that everything was how it should be, I pulled the largest of the levers sharply downwards towards myself, immediately pushing it back into the equilibrium position. The scene around me flashed black, the deepest darkness imaginable. For a brief moment as my hand directed the lever the world ceased to exist, absolute darkness surrounding me, leaving me with no perception of balance or orientation. It was as if I had fainted while remaining conscious. As the lever snapped back into position, light flooded back into my eyes, forcing me to blink. I had expected to be still in the basement, the dim gas lamp the only source of illumination. Instead I found bright sunlight surrounding me. I was outside!
It then struck me with sudden and vicious certainty that not only was I outside, but I was falling! The entire machine had somehow relocated itself several metres above the ground, and upon reappearing gravity had taken hold and was now pulling the machine towards the earth, me with it. The machine landed with an almighty crash, and I was thrown from my seat, sent sprawling across the hard ground of the street. As I picked myself up off the floor, I looked in horror at the scene around me. The machine had smashed upon the ground, its structure not designed to survive the impact of falling. I could tell just from a glance that it was beyond repair without the correct equipment. Panicked and shaken from the entire affair, it was only then that I notice the location in which I had landed. Strange looking buildings rose up on either side of the large road, all in poor condition. Masonry had fallen from many places along the walls, landing in small piles of rubble on the floor below, and the windows were either smashed or boarded up with pieces of scrap wood, many of which looked weak and rotten. The street itself was made of a substance entirely unknown to me. Primarily black in colour, it was like no stone I could think of. In fact, it bore more resemblance to ground coal, packed tightly and fixed together through some strange means. Other metal wrecks, all much large than my machine, sat at intervals along the road, the metal rusted. The wrecks were all subtly different in shape, but all of similar design. Each had a metal body in a rectangular fashion, rising up in the centre with what appeared to be windows. Almost all were smashed, but I noticed the dull glint of glass shards on the floor around them. Inside were seats, built in two rows, all covered in dust and debris. On one of these wrecks I noticed complicated wheels beneath it. Looking back at the other wrecks I could then clearly see the gaps where wheels should be placed, and so I drew the conclusion that these wrecks were once carriages, although seemingly without a seat for the driver to control the horses from. I recalled seeing several designs for steam powered carriages in newspapers, but none had looked like these contraptions. Was it possible that I had travelled into a future where these steam vehicles were commonplace?
I put aside my curiosity and sat down next to my broken machine. Clearly it had worked better than I had imagined, transporting me far into the future, and even moving me through space as well. But I did not feel elated; rather, I wanted nothing more than to fix the machine and return to the safety of my own time and place. This place in which I had arrived was ruined, without a person in sight. It looked as if a great horror had descended upon these people, destroying their world. Was this the future of England? Was everything we had worked hard to build to be destroyed in some unknown apocalypse, leaving nothing but the ruins of civilisation? It was all too hard to take in.
Pulling myself out of my despair I stood and started walking down the street. I needed to find out where, and more importantly when, I was. Perhaps I would find the rest of the city bustling with life, and a very logical explanation for why this area had been left to ruin. I also needed to find the parts to fix my machine so that I might return to my home and tell others of my discovery.
Reaching the end of the street, I saw the first of the creatures, and all too soon the reality of my situation and the state of this world struck me.
Surviving and Adapting
After being thrust so unceremoniously into this future, my first thought after observing the creatures for myself was that of survival. I found a building that had the doors and windows secured by various objects built into a very strong barricade, and entered into conversation with the people inside. I soon discovered that I had arrived in the month of November in the year 2009. Any thoughts I had for repairing my machine and escaping were quickly purged from my mind as I learnt the true nature of the city in which I had landed, of how the dead walk, and how all who live here are constantly hunted by both these creatures and other men and women in a unrelenting battle for survival.
My first few months in the city were spent in a very strongly barricaded hospital in the suburb of Dunell Hills. The hospital was populated by a variety of people, many simply moving through as they travelled to some other area of the city, simply stopping for medical attention and supplies on their way. However a core group of men and women belonging to Dunell Hills Police Department permanently resided in the building, and it was from these people that I learnt the skills people need to survive, from basic first aid, improvised weapon use, and the erection of strong barricades, all the way up to advanced training in using various firearms and the operation of specialised necrotech equipment. I stayed for several months in this hospital as I learnt, passing what spare time I had by working in the hospital to heal any injured.
Dr. Schwan's Research and Development Team
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Dr. schwan’s Research and Development Team |
| This user is a member of Dr. Schwan's Research&Development Team: ---Scientific Developmet Dept. |
