Now back to War of the Worlds --- The Forever Friends
“That is why I must do something. Don’t you see, Wells, this is a farce, a tragedy and a catastrophe all wrapped up in one? How can these invaders from another world think they can come to our planet and do whatever it is they wish. Not even the Germans are that stupid.”
Wells chuckled. “And they do act pretty stupid sometimes.”
“Yes.” Jules replied, chewing on the thought a moment. “Like the time they invaded Portugal and it turns out they had landed smack dab in the middle of their own Austria and blown half it up before they realized their mistake.”
“Like I said.” Wells agreed.
The two teens nodded their heads in a silent chorus of agreement, then eyed the empty boats again.
“Do you think it will reach shore?” Jules asked.
Wells gave Jules a very somber and dark glance. “Do bears…”
“Yes. I guest they do.” Jules said with a sigh. “Where?”
“Bristol.”
“They landed there a fortnight ago.” Wells said with a hing of melancholy in his voice.
“How many died?”
“Too many.” Wells replied. “Can we talk about something else?”
Jules nodded his head and sat down on a rough stone. He plucked a weed and stuck it between his teeth. Wells sat on his other side on the bare ground. He looked at his hands, as if they were the most intriguing things he’d ever seen and possibly contained clues to all the secrets and mysteries of Creation.
“I’ve stared a new story.” Wells almost exploded with a hiss and a sigh.
Jules got excited, despite the sadness he was feeling. “Really? What about?”
Wells suddenly got an excited look on his face. “Jules, what if we coud change any decision we ever made. Go back and rewrite history, go forward and change our future?”
“Whoa. That would be huge.”
“Much more than that.” Wells replied. “It would be earth shaking. Or more appropriately. Time altering.”
Jules eyes went wide as small moons. “Time Travel!”
“Exactly.” Wells said brightly. “The ability to move back and forth through time at will.”
Jules bounced to his feet and paced frantically a moment. “Why with a tool like that we could eliminate tyrants before they had a chance to murder tens of thousands of innocents.”
“Yes. Not only that. But we could accelerate the grown of technology. We could have steam engines in the year two thousand and travel like birds in the air by two thousand one hundred.”
“Flying machines!” Jules wondered outloud. “They would prevent war from ever happening. If you could bomb from the skies, no one would ever dare fire a cannon again for fear of that.”
Wells got up. He was growing agitated as well as excited now. “It would put us in a position to stop all wars. Jules, don’t you see, you could become the Master of the World if you wanted to.”
