AN: Standard disclaimers apply. My story, my characters, my idea’s. Read it, share it, just don’t say you wrote it because that’s a lie. Enjoy.

“This had better be good.” Growled Robert Eflist to himself.

He was driving to the FBI agency at three a.m. He had only gotten two hours of sleep and an agent that worked under him had called saying something about a file he found in the system. It was probably nothing, but the only way he would get any sleep at night was if he knew everything was fine.

He got there and Agent Quinton immediately started telling him everything while they walk to his office.

“I was just starting my shift, a little after you left, checking that everything was where it should be and an encrypted file pops up. I know that’s nothing new, so I follow protocol and put it through ENCRIPT-HACK. You know that we’ve never found and encryption that it can’t hand-”

“I know, just get to the point and tell me why you woke me up at three am.” Interrupted Robert

“It’s been running for five hours.” He replied

They had just arrived at Quinton’s office as Robert looked at the four monitors hooked up to four different computers, but each shared all information and acted as one. On three screens right next to each other was a timer that each read 05/18/47/93. It had been running for five hour, eight-teen minutes, and the seconds and the moments were still climbing rapidly with no sign of slowing. On a screen next to those three was a file with a single program icon in it.

“That’s impossible, even the most advance encryption couldn’t last more than ten minutes.”

“That’s exactly what I thought too, Sir, so I figured it might be a virus, so I checked. That’s why I didn’t call you sooner, it was checking for three hou-.”

The computer beeped and they both turned to the monitors. The timers had changed, now it was a countdown. 51,263,999/23/59/30 and declining by the second. On the screen with the program on it, a hole opened up and letter after letter flew out and bounced around the screen. Finally the hole closed and the letters organized themselves. “The virus that will kill all others will be here. The programmer who is not born is here. Find both and the future is set. Find neither and the present is doomed. The clock is ticking.”

They both started franticly looking for the origin of the program, until Quinton went missing and showed up eight hours later in a utility supply closet, not remembering anything about the last twenty-four hours. Robert knew he had to figure this out, and according to the program he had 100 years to do it.

#!#)#))#)#)#(#)#)#(“ K +

It had been ninety-nine years, and everybody had heard about the famous countdown that prophesied the cure that saved humanity. It was one of the biggest mysteries in history, even bigger than the boy who spontaneously disintegrated in an airport one day, but someone had made a virus that killed other viruses by eating them, and got rid of all diseases, including cancer and AIDS. But no matter how many times the virus was examined, it was always different from the last. The only reason everybody knew it was the same virus was because no other viruses, outside medical freezers, existed in the world.

The countdown was known as a legend, and few who worked for the FBI ever admitted they had see how much time was left and the riddle that came with it. The legend goes that a mad genius made the cure and a computer hacker made the program. The countdown was to fool the Agents into going on a wild goose chase, until everyone got better that is. But everybody did know that the hundred years was coming to an end soon, and when the time was up the cure was going to start killing everybody but the purest of souls.

“We’ve got three hours to go. What do you think will happen?” asked Michael, the newly appointed head of the FBI. He was the great-grandson of Robert Eflist, the man who first started the search for the programmer and cure. He was about to fail that search.

“Beats me, but I don’t think that virus really has a timer in it. I mean, how could it know when a hundred years are up if it’s never the same thing twice.” Replied Will, the head of search team. “On a different topic, I’m going to get some coffee, you want some?”

“No, I haven’t been able to sleep for weeks, and I’m not starting now.” In reality he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for the last three months because of the timer.

“Your loss.” And with that William was gone.

The next 2 hours 58 minutes were torture. They had isolated the computer and destroyed all active copies so that if something did happen it wouldn’t spread. They also had 20 people monitoring the internet, if it did something it would be posted there within seconds. With only Michael and Will watching the monitor and a guard outside to deliver messages and make sure nobody else got in, they watched, and waited.

Finally it was at 03/46. 02/93. 01/13. 00/00. The timer stopped and disappeared. Nothing. Nothing happened. Then they realized that soft music was playing through the speakers. It started to get loader and loader. Will recognized it first.

“Is that….. Is that Happy Birthday?” He said, looking over to Michael. Michael was still looking at the screen, so he turned back. Animated ants were marching on the screen, single file, and soon some of them started to carry a cake. They all stopped mid screen and put the cake down. They marched off screen and the cake started to tilt until they could read what was on top. In big blue frosting letters it read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABRIEL VIGNT” then underneath the cake more letters appeared “It‘s been a long time“.

Michael wrote down the name on two separate pieces of paper and handed one to the guard. “Find out everything about him, then report back to me immediately. This is top secret, nobody should know this except the three of us.”

“Understood.” And with that he was down the hall and around the corner.

#!#)#))#)#)#(#)#)#(“ K +

“GABRIEL! GET DOWN HERE NOW!” Shouted Mrs. Vignt.

Gabriel was still in bed when his mother started screaming like the devil himself was after her. He groggily got out of bed and quickly put on some jeans and a shirt, taking only a moment to look at himself in a mirror. He was fifteen today, and in really good shape. He worked out regularly by practicing martial arts, and kept his mind tuned by making complex and impossible to hack programs. He had jet black hair and eyes that seemed to cut right through you. His parents were Hispanic, but he didn’t pick up the accent, although just by looks he could easily be considered Hispanic.

He sprinted downstairs thinking that his mother was just faking it so he would freak out, then be surprised when his present was on the table in the kitchen next to a cake and she would start singing happy birthday. He didn’t expect to see her sitting in the living room with two suits. One of them got up and shook his hand, then introduced himself as Michael Eflist, Head of the FBI and his partner William, but failed to say his last name or what his job was.

“So…what do you want with my son?” asked Mrs. Vignt

“Well we can’t say much, but what we can tell you is that early this morning we were monitoring a highly classified program, and his name came out of it.” Will answered, “We need to take him down for questioning.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, probably a computer glitch, but we have to follow procedure.” Reassured Michael. “You understand Mrs. Vignt?”

“It’s pronounced Vun,” Gabriel said before his mother could reply, “and no, we don’t understand. Why can’t you question me here, figure out that it was a glitch, and be on your way.”

Michael looked at William then turned back to Gabriel, “Ok, if we show you enough to convince you to come with us, will you without question?”

“If you had anything incriminating on me then I’d have already been down there by now, but since I’m not, then this must be extremely unorthodox. So yes, if you can convince me then I’ll go with you.”

William took a CD out of his inner jacket pocket and handed it to Gabriel. He got up and started towards his computer, Michael and William followed, and when Mrs. Vignt started to follow them Michael stopped her. “We’re sorry, but the fewer people who see this the better.”

When they got up to his room they Michael told William to stand outside. Just in case Mrs. Vignt decided to ease drop. Gabriel started up one of his older laptops, incase whatever was on the disk screwed it up he didn’t care if this one crashed. He put the disk into the tray, but didn’t push it in. Michael stood behind him and started to explain.

“Several years ago a file showed up on our systems, it opened up a timer and a…quest I guess you could call it.” and with that he recited the words that started this entire hunt. “The virus that will kill all others will be here. The programmer who is not born is here. Find both and the future is set. Find neither and the present is doomed. The clock is ticking.”

“Hold on….how long ago?” Gabriel asked. Not sure if he wanted to know the answer, but excited at the same time.

“One hundred years.”

“So this little CD has the countdown on it. How much time is left?”

“Look for yourself.”

He turned to the screen and popped the CD drive in. Immediately it read the disk and the screen went black. After a few seconds the familiar neon green timer started flashing. 00/00. 00/00. 00/00. Once the screen went black again the ants came marching in with the cake.

Gabriel couldn’t believe what he was seeing, firstly the famous countdown was done, then the program has a birthday cake with his name on it, then it saying it’s been a long time. WHAT THE HELL!!

“This has got to be a mistake, if this program is a hundred years old then your computers can crack it, and my name…it was a prank and they randomly put my name there, it’s just a conscience.” He tried to prove to himself and the Agent that it was impossible for him to have any involment with the program.

“No,” said Michael firmly, “William said before that we were watching it this morning, your birthday, your name.”

“What? This isn’t right, I’ve never…I Couldn’t….” stammered Gabriel.

“Will you come with us?” Asked the agent again.

Gabriel was silent for a minute, thinking it over. “Ok” was all said for the next hour.

#!#)#))#)#)#(#)#)#(“ K +

Once in Michael’s office the three of them started to talk. They told him that earlier that day they had gotten all information on him that they could. It spanned from how long his mother was in labor to how many virtual villains he had killed while playing a video game the night before and everything in between. How William had earlier looked at some of the programs he posted online, and found the older ones almost impossible to crack. The newer once were impossible. Then they pulled up the hundred year old program.

Gabriel sat at the computer and double clicked the program once more. It immediately popped up and the screen went black, then with no warning it started to flash from black to white rapidly. Michael and William quickly looked away, but Gabriel’s eyes were glued to the screen. After twenty seconds of flashes the screen quickly started typing the numbers one and zero. Again and again, from the top left of the screen to the bottom right random amounts of zero’s and one’s appeared. It took both a second to realize it was binary code, but it was writing and erasing itself too fast for either to pick anything up. They stared for a minute until they realized Gabriel was unusually still.

They looked at his eyes and saw they were moving rapidly, reading the screen. Whatever the program was doing, somehow Gabriel could understand it. He kept reading for a half an hour, by that time the Agents had attached a mini-MRI Scanner to his temple and were making sure the program wasn’t shutting his brain down. They watched the square foot monitor turned it to Doctor Mode, so they would know what everything meant.

“The subject is experiencing abnormally high brain usage, but the medulla oblongata and cerebellum are more active then the cerebrum. For idiots, the part of the brain that sleeps 24/7 is wide awake, and the part of the brain that lets you think is in Non-REM. It‘s shut down.” Said the machine with a hint of attitude.

“Can you find out what he’s thinking?” Will asked it.

“Yes, but only in fragments. His brain waves are changing to rapidly for me to process everything. Ten seconds ago his waves started to drop back to normal and are currently progressing slowly. At this rate he will fully normal in eight minutes.” It stated, but as the eight minutes expired he didn’t wake. “His mind is starting to use more and more of itself, he is currently using 37 percent of his brain. Nearly four times more brain power then Einstein. He should be dead. The mind can’t use more than 15 percent at maximum use, but he is….can…not….does…not…compute. 83...percent…100.…percent….does…not..-” Gabriel woke up and grabbed the little machine, he held it between his hands and crushed it like a powerful compactor.

“It was about to send an error report to the main server. They could figure out everything and you said it was just between us.” He said as the two men stared in shock, “I understand now, I know how this program works, how it got on your system, and what it did to me. It made me have a seizure and quickly put me in a trance then taught me how to read and understand. It optimized my mind so it could work at one-hundred percent, instead of just ten. I now know my mission in life, and how to accomplish it. I know how you can help me once I’m gone, and how to bring me back. I’m going to play connect the dots…but right now we’re the last dot, and I need to go back to the first one.”

He then went into explaining time travel, and how he needed to go back 100 years in order to write the program, and how he’s going to make the virus that ate other viruses. He explained how even at one hundred percent, he still needed to tap into his subconscious and exploit its near infinite capacity to figure out how to build a machine that can rip a hole in the nothingness that is the universe. By the time he was done all three knew what they had to do, and how to make sure the prophesy, that Gabriel made, comes to pass.

It took them a week to get all the parts, and Gabriel was working almost non-stop to complete the machine. He only did stop working long enough to lie to his mom and dad and tell them that it was all a mix up and that he decided to stay and help with updating a few programs.

“Gabriel, you haven’t slept in a week and you’ve barely eaten anything. Go rest” Said Michael sympathetically. He was eager to get it up and going as much as anyone would, but he didn’t want to jeopardize Gabriel’s health in order to do it. They had gotten him the parts and a few computers along with a large empty room and guards 24/7. They took turns helping him, in 12 hours shifts, but neither had seen him sleep. They were both amazed that he didn’t collapse, but what amazed them more was what he could do, not just mentally but physically. One day William accidentally bumped into a large piece of equipment that was poorly placed. It had crushed Gabriel’s hand, but before his eyes the hand grew back in seconds, although he had lost about ten pounds in the process.

“It didn’t look like it, but I fell asleep three days ago. I taped into my subconscious and told it to make me keep working, I was dreaming, but everything I dreamed was real. It was really, really strange. As for food I was going to ask for a pizza to celebrate in a few hours when it’s done.” he stepped back and looked at it for a second, “In a few hours I’m going to be the first and only time traveler. And soon after that I‘ll be back here.”

“You mean it’s almost done?” He said, stunned. He looked at it, and it didn’t look pretty, or safe for that matter, but if Gabriel said it would be ready then it would be ready. It looked like two big boxes on a teeter totter. There were wires everywhere and four, full length mirrors that would form sides of one box, and two half length mirrors for the top and bottom of it, all together they would make the box that would rotate on at one end of several long poles with a counter weight on the opposite side. Then the entire thing would spin on a central point. It looked like a messed up version of a G-force simulator that NASA had, where astronauts sit in a chair and spun around to see how many g-forces they can take before they pass out.

“Yea, once Will get’s here we can celebrate and I’ll sleep for while. After that you lock me in the box and press Enter. And if anything goes wrong then you hit the emergency stop button.”

“This entire thing feels like something out of a science fiction novel. I mean, a little over a week ago I would have laughed at you if you said that you were going to be a time traveler. And if I didn’t see you re-grow your hand, then I would never have believed it. I trust that you know what you’re doing…but….well something doesn’t add up, and I don’t know what. You know what I’m talking about?”

“Yea, I understand, but the way I figure everything, it all adds up correctly. So if it’s important then I’ve already taken it into consideration and probably corrected it.” Gabriel had said enough to put Michaels mind to rest for a few hours.

Finally it was done, they had ordered fifty-three pizza and Gabriel ate fifty-two of them one after another. He explained that when he started the machine and it got going, the gravitational pull inside of the mirror box would be thirty-five times earths normal gravity. He would have to not only keep himself alive, but force his atoms apart until they speed up and finally slip outside the universe, but the extra gravity would automatically force them back together. Once there, he only had to think about it and he would end up when he wanted, where he wanted. After that it was a matter of putting the program on the computer, making the virus and getting home.

Gabriel took a five hour nap, and called Michael and Will down when he woke up. They had just stepped into the room when they saw Gabriel at the controls starting up the machine. He told them that he was doing a test run, just to make sure that nothing was going to fly off. Once it finished he went over to it, tightened a few bolts and screws, and gave it a satisfied look. He turned around to face the agents and said “It’s ready, and so am I.”

They said their goodbyes and good lucks and Gabriel handed them a CD and told them it would help in the future. He then proceeded inside the mirror box while they stepped over to the computer. They were both thinking about what could be on the CD when Gabriel’s voice came through the speakers.

“You guys ready to throw away the rules of reality and make sure this future is set?” He asked.

“Yea,” Was Michaels reply, while Wills was hitting the start button. Michael immediately thought of what Gabriel’s words meant. We’re, indirectly, making a legend, and helping with the creation on the virus. The virus…the virus that’s never the same twice, that was found less than twenty four hours after the program. He’s fast but not that fast. It started to hit him. “Gabriel. How are you going to make billions of viruses in less than twenty-four hours, and get back here?” he asked quickly. He didn’t answer.

“He’s about to time travel and that’s all you can say?” Will asked

“GABRIEL!!” Michael yelled into the microphone.

“I can’t,” he replied. “but I can reconstruct myself. I told you…I figured everything out, and that means…I must die.” And with that he disappeared to the outside of the universe.

Gabriel was immediately transported as his atoms ripped billions of holes in the universe, and just as he predicted they were forced together by the gravitational force from the machine. He was amazed as he looked out to see the infinity that is the nothing outside the universe. After a second he remembered his mission and immediately thought of when and where he wanted to be and he was there. Back inside the universe, in the FBI headquarters, standing behind an unsuspecting Agent Quinton.

He immediately changed his chemistry so that his hand released a chemical similar to chloroform, and he knocked him out. It was only temporary, but he would be KO’d for hours. He quickly put him in a utility closet and rearranged himself to look and sound like him. He walked back to the agent’s office and started writing the program; it was midnight, so he had three hours, plenty of time. The program itself was one big movie that lasted a hundred years, and since Gabriel knew what time it would do what, he just programmed in the times. Once he finished, he deleted all traces of his work pulled up ENCRIPT-HACK and made it simulate that it had run for four and a half hours, and finally he called Robert Eflist.

As soon as Robert got there Gabriel, as Agent Quinton, immediately started telling him a bunch of crap, and he ate everything up.

“I was just starting my shift, a little after you left, checking that everything was where it should be and an encrypted file pops up. I know that’s nothing new, so I follow protocol and put it through ENCRIPT-HACK. You know that we’ve never found and encryption that it can’t hand-”

“I know, just get to the point and tell me why you woke me up at three am.” Interrupted the very impatient man.

“It’s been running for five hours.” Gabriel lied smoothly

They had just arrived at “his” office and the fake ENCRIPT-HACK was still running on three monitors. 05/18/47/93. In reality it had been running for about forty minutes. On a screen next to those three was the program.

“That’s impossible, even the most advance encryption couldn’t last more than ten minutes..”

“That’s exactly what I thought too, sir” He continued to lie, “so I figured it might be a virus, so I checked. That’s why I didn’t call you sooner, it was checking for three hou-.”

Right on time the computer beeped and they both turned to the monitors. The timers had changed to the countdown. On the screen with the program on it the hole opened up the letters flew out and bounced around the screen. After the hole closed and the letters organized themselves the agent read while Gabriel pretended to read. “The virus that will kill all others will be here. The programmer who is not born is here.” Yea, right in front of you. Gabriel thought to himself while mentally chuckling, “Find both and the future is set. Find neither and the present is doomed. The clock is ticking.”

They talked about it, and about what it meant, then Quinton went to his office to see if he could find anything about it, and Gabriel said he’d stay and do the same. A minute after he left Gabriel was out of the building and off the property. He changed back into himself and walked around for hours, until the sun was rising steadily. He found a car, got in, and hot-wired it all in under thirty seconds. He drove to an airport with the most international travel around, walked in, and quickly got to the main terminals. He looked around at all the people, most were happy about seeing someone again, others were sad about seeing someone go, some were both happy and sad. It didn’t really hit him until then how his parents felt when he was gone, and how the Agents felt when he told them that they would never see him again.

He let the feelings wash over him and he became sad, it had only been nine days, since he got involved in all this, but it felt like lifetimes ago. He knew everything now, how if he started rethinking everything then the future would be in jeopardy, and he couldn’t let that happen. If I don’t do this, then all the wrong people die at the wrong time, others aren’t born, including me. So I have to do this, because I already have, and if I don’t do this….but I have, so I will. Case closed, STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! He thought to himself.

With that he started change his genetic code, each strand of DNA and RNA became unique and his cells became partials of protein. He was turning his body into trillions upon trillions of different viruses, but each virus carried a small piece of his own genetic code, so when two different viruses met, they’d stick together until enough of them could start to re-grow himself. He told Michael that he was going to come back to the future, but he didn‘t say that it wasn‘t their near future. He was going to come back from the dead hundreds of years after he died and then was born. He slowly released all of the virus, first his hands left him, the tips disappearing then fingers, finally palms, then arms started. His head seemed to get smaller as his hair fell out, and soon his body left him and his blood spilled out, not to splatter on the floor, but to float away with a slight breeze. Within a minute the only things to prove that Gabriel Vignt had ever existed a hundred years before he was born was a stunned crowd who saw him disintegrate and a pile of clothing on the terminal floor.

#!#)#))#)#)#(#)#)#(“ K +

AN: In tenth grade I had to write two stores for English class (The 2nd being INFECTED), this was the first one and as I re-read it now I realize how krappy it is, but decided to publish it anyway. I know it’s rushed and only about 9 pages, but I really don’t feel like going back and re-writing it, so I won’t.

Anywho, I hope u liked it, even if it’s just a little and will read my other works such as Infected (link above) and The Black Rose (the 1st part in a trilogy).