The Machine
     The barn doors retracted revealing the gleaming, silver machine. We didn't have much time. The Georgia air was so thick, and my labored breathing wasn’t enough wasn’t enough to restore oxygen to my muscles. I turned around and saw the jeeps racing across the field, their lights blinding all of us. This couldn’t be how it ended.
    “We have to turn it on!” Jimmy yelled over the pouring rain.
    “We don’t even know if it will work. What if it takes them too?” The jeeps rolled toward us lack a pack of hungry hyenas. Their lights grew brighter as they raced across the field.
    This story would probably make more sense to you if I told it from the beginning. I think the place to start would be a few days before all this happened.
“Matt we have to go to Dahlonega this weekend.” Mom hung up the sleek, new house phone, “Your grandfather passed away.” She wasn’t cold about it, but she wasn’t sad either. I wasn’t  surprised-- it wasn’t her father.
“Mom it’s not our responsibility. We barely know th-- knew the guy.  Why do we have  to go in the middle of nowhere and take care of his crap?  I don’t want anything from him.” After my dad disappeared on one of his “business trips”, my grandfather contacted us telling us that he only had a few weeks to live with some terminal illness I didn’t care about. My mom didn’t like to talk about it, and that means I did not get to either. I knew it was hard for her, but it was hard on me too.
    “Sweetie he left you a lot of stuff in his will. I know you don’t want anything to do with that family, but we could use some charity right now.”, I chomped on my mac and cheese trying to express my  indifference, “ I have to go to work.” She kissed my head with and headed out with her bag and dinner. The screen door sounded behind her.
Bzzzt. My phones deep pitched vibration on the kitchen table that also served as my mom's office alerted me to a call. It was Jimmy.
    “Bro what are you doing tomorrow?” Jimmy’s California accent was always easy to pick out of a crowd as it contrasted with all the deep southern voices at school. He was a smart kid by my standards, but he’d always rather skateboard than study.
    “I have to go out to Dahlonega this weekend to deal with my grandpa's stuff.”
    “Aha” he chuckled, “I guess that old southern dude had it coming.” Jimmy always kept it light, and on occasion, this didn’t help him. He knew about my situation. “Too bad bro Kaylah’s parents are gone, and she's throwing a party at her place this weekend. My parents won't let me go though dude they're so lame.”
         “You want to tag along to Dahlonega? Please man it's going to be so boring with just my mom.”
         “Yeah man I'd love to hang out with your mom!” He guffawed at his own joke.
         The drive up there was pretty, but by the end the scene of hills covered in trees began to blend together. I got sick of seeing so much green. It was nice to have Jimmy come along because he always kept the mood light. We stepped out of the minivan and into the gravel driveway that badly needed to be replaced.
         The ancient house was nestled into this clearing in the forest. Behind it, the massive property sprawled into an empty field that extended to the trees about half a mile from the house. There was a dilapidated  barn that stuck out in the middle of the field. It was bigger than the house, and it looked like it hadn't been used in years. As we got our luggage out of the van, a silver sedan rolled onto the gravel. A man in a suit the same color as his car stepped out.
         “Hi you must be the lawyer, I'm Jenny.” My mother made her way over to shake his hand. He gave a soft smile under his big, greying mustache as he swung his leather bag.
         “Yes Jenny we spoke on the phone. I have the will in writing here if you'd like to go over it in detail”. The lawyer went over all the details with my mom at the kitchen table as Jimmy and I unpacked upstairs.
         “Wow dude this house is sick! Look at all this old crap”, He held a blurred, black and white photograph, “Did he leave it for you guys?” Jimmy asked as we made our way into a bedroom.
         “I don't man. If he did, I don't want it.” Just then, we heard the gravel crackle under the silver sedan outside. My mom was standing in the doorway of the bedroom with the will.
         “He didn't have much, but we could sell the house to make some money. I know you barely knew him but he just wanted to take care of his grandson because he never got the chance.” An uncomfortable silence followed.
         “I'm gonna go uhh find the bathroom”. Jimmy slipped out of the room.
         “Sweetie I know you want nothing to do with this family, but we need help. We need money.” She sat down in the bet next to me, “We just have to put our pride aside and do what's best for us.”
         “Why couldn't he have helped us when we really needed him? Where'd he go mom? Why didn't he come back?!”
         “Sweetie it's more complicated than you think.”
         “No I think I get it mom.” I stormed out of the bedroom and slammed the door behind me. I made my way down the creaky stairs and out the front door towards the barn.

    My black combat boots crackled the gravel as I came to the edge of the forest. The barn sat in the distance like an unguarded tomb.
         “Probable location of target...barn on the southwest of the property.” My squad leader’s voice crackled over the radio.
        “Hold up we’ve got new people here”, I saw the van pull up the driveway of the farmhouse. My squadmate panned his binoculars over to the house.
         “That looks just like the one you drive your kids to soccer practice in,Tolbert,” My squad leader chuckled over the radio, “This could be trouble...hold up.” A pause over the radio, “Command just got reports of a stolen set of clothes and truck in the next town over...that's gotta be our guy.”
         “What about the machine?” My squadmate, Riley, asked.
         “That's a secondary objective. Right now our focus is on stopping the fugitive before he figures out who we are.” We slipped out of view of the house, and we climbed back into our jeep.

         I approached the front of the barn. The massive doors towered above me. “Yo Matt, wait up bro!” Jimmy hollered as he bounded across the empty field his golden locks bounced behind him. “Be careful. This place looks like it’s about to collapse!” He was referring to the rotting wood siding of the barn. The barn must have been built in the 19th century, and it looked like it had not been used in a long time. A cool breeze howled through the small opening of the barn doors. I opened them.
    If there was any kind of flooring it had been completely covered in dirt, and most of the structure inside had rotted away. Dust danced in the streak of light made by the opening in the barn doors. My eyes followed it to a covered figure in the back of the barn. A tarp covered in the same dust as the rest of place. I moved toward it.
“Yo, what is that?”
“I have no idea.” I still do not know why I was so drawn to this thing in the old barn. Jimmy was beside me now.
“Hey maybe it’s one of those old fa-” He stopped mid word as I yanked the tarp off. Even though there wasn’t a lot of light, I could tell the machine was a shiny silver. There was a crack of thunder outside. Rain started to seep through cracks in the barn. We stood there staring at the machine for a long time.
“What in the world was your grandpa doing?” Jimmy’s broke the silence.
“I have no idea. Look at these.” I found a stack of papers on a small workbench that sat behind the machine.  “What is this thing?” There were equations with symbols I had never seen and notes  I’m not the best student, but from what I could tell it looked like the machine was meant to move people.
“Hey this looks like it does something.” Jimmy was gesturing at a lever with a red knob on the side of the machine.
    “Jimmy don’t!”
Rain poured and flowed into rivers on the streets. “Eyes on the target. I’m moving in.” I had pursued the target to the woods outside of the town. “I hit him. He’s slowing down now.” I called over my radio as I ran through the woods. “Am I cleared to take him down?” I heard no response from my squad leader as I raced through the dense, green forest. Light shot through the trees up ahead. The fugitive was stumbling on his injured leg toward a huge clearing. Even though he had been grazed by a shot, he moved with great determination.  “Sir, I have a shot.” I lined up my rifle with the center of his body. They told us he couldn’t get away.
    “Take it.” My squad leader crackled over the radio. The bullet hit him square in the back, and he fell at the edge of the clearing. The forest was quiet again. I checked for a breathing and a pulse. Nothing. “Confirmed kill sir.”
    “We had some radio interference back there. Not sure what happened. Clean up that body. We need to make sure he didn’t come in contact with anyone.”

    The machine whirred to life. The multiple rings began spinning around one another. “Jimmy, what the hell?”
    “Relax dude I just turned it on.”
    “You don’t know that you don't know that. We don’t even know what this thing is!” Just then my mom came through the barn doors. The wind was howling and huge gusts blew the rain inside. She had been looking for us, and she must have heard the machine start up.
    “Matt what is going on in here? What are you boys doing? What is that?”
    “We don’t know. It was in here under a tarp, and I think Jimmy just turned it on.” I’d never seen that look of concern on my mom’s face. I just noticed that she was gripping a piece of paper in her hand.  “Matt we need to leave right now. I’m sorry I waited so long, but there’s a lot you don’t know. We were supposed to meet your dad here but he never showed up.” She no longer seemed worried about whatever we had just turned on.
    “Mom what are you saying? He’s gone!” The storm roared outside.
    “That machine. He and your grandfather built that, and right now there are people looking for your dad and that machine. I’m worried they got to your dad.”
    “What? I don’t understand. Where has he been this whole time?”
    “He used the machine, Matt. It took him to a different time. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense right now, but it will very soon I promise. They’re probably already on there way here. I’m sure they found us as soon as you turned that thing on.” She hurried to peak outside of the barn. There they were. She saw headlights racing across the field.
    “Matt...” Jimmy had a look of shame on his face.
    “It’s not your fault”, My mom told him, “Ok I’m going to make a run for the van and lure them away. Hopefully they’ll go for it. You boys hide in here. Don’t worry everything is going to be ok. I’ll come back, and we’ll get out of here. Just stay put.” My mother disappeared into the storm. Jimmy was petrified.

We had gotten radioed by command that there was a huge electrical disturbance in the area. Someone had turned on the machine, and we knew where it was. My squadmate and rode in our jeep a few meters behind our squad leader. “Approaching the barn. Converge on the front doors.” I could barely make out his orders over the radio. We were driving so fast across the field that the wipers couldn’t keep the rain off of the windshield.
“Contact at the house. Headlights.” I spoke on the radio.
“That could be a diversion. I’ll take the car. You boys go for the barn. There shouldn’t be anyone in there.”
“Copy that.” The jeep in front of us peeled off course and headed for the escaping van. We were forty meters away when there was a flash that poured light through the halfway open doors of the barn.
“What the hell is that?” My squadmate yelled over the rain.
“That has to be our guy’s machine.” I was out of the jeep before it had even stopped in front of the barn. We burst through the double door. Flash lights drawn along with our rifles.
Nothing. The dirt floor was soaked at the entrance. “What happened? Where’s the machine?” The beam of my flashlight came over a tarp that lay flat on the ground in front of a dusty old workbench. “They’re gone”