Bert’s Little Piece of Bread – Continued…

read part one – bert’s little piece of bread

January 1^st, 2121

A century later, in the same place where there had once been an orphanage which had later become a large bungalow, the land had drastically been altered. A large dump yard now stood there, constantly emitting smoke.

The earth, which had once been a lush, green planet, was now more of a concrete jungle, with most of its resources empty, now supporting a massive human population of fifteen billion people.

Right next to this enormous dump yard, stood a comparatively smaller building, completely sealed off from the public. Nobody knew what was in this building, but most of them didn’t care. There were rumours that it was some sort of a secret lab, but no one truly knew. Except for the people inside.

‘It’s ready’, whispered Dr. Roger.

He went inside the lab, accompanied by a few others. Nobody saw them go in.

They went in, and sat around a huge table.

Dr. Singh leaned forward. ‘So this is it? This is the machine that can save our world?’ He seemed a bit skeptical.

Dr. Roger nodded his head. ‘The first prototype. It may not look like much, but that’s what makes it so easy to handle!’

Some of the others leaned in closer with curiosity.

John Roger went towards the device, which placed on the centre of the table. It looked like a smaller version of a vending machine. He pressed a red button on its side. ‘Watch’, he said, excitedly.

‘Order, please’, a voice said. Dr. Roger looked like he would burst with happiness any moment.

‘Well?’ he asked grinning. ‘What would you like to have?’

There was silence for a few moments. Most of the others were still in quite a shock. Dr. Caliver then spoke up. ‘A Tutti Frutti bread for me, please’, she said.

The machine whirred and beeped. After a minute, it let out a terrific BANG followed by a wisp of smoke.

‘Processing’, it said.

There was a smaller holder-cavity which had a plate in it. By now, everyone had come quite close to the table, wondering what was going to happen next. They could see the bread slowly forming, it was not solid yet, but extreme curiosity pulled all of them towards the machine.

And then Roger suddenly stopped smiling. But no one even looked at him, all eyes were focused on the marvelous object that stood before them.

‘This is wrong,’ he said, but his voice was drowned by the humming from the food generator.

A second blast followed by a terrific bang threw all of them backwards, and they saw something, something which wasn’t supposed to be there.

***

The half – materialized food had now disappeared, and instead a girl and a small boy stood right outside the food generator. The boy stood right before them, staring for a few seconds, and then he let out a gasp and fainted. The girl’s mouth hung wide open with shock. She still hadn’t comprehended what had just happened.

Dr. Caliver was the first to react. She seemed to be a very sensible person. She grabbed a chair and pushed it under the girl, who flopped onto it.

‘What-’, said Dr. Roger. ‘What’s happening? This – I – This was supposed to generate a fruit bread! Not two human beings!’

‘I’m sorry to say this, but I think there’s something wrong in your machine’, said Dr. Singh.

John was a nervous wreck now.  ‘That – is obvious’, he said. ‘Who are you?’ he barked at the girl.

‘Dr. Roger, give her some time. She is obviously something created by your machine’, said Dr. Kramer.

The entire team of scientists watched in silence as the boy opened his eyes, and the girl still stared at them – her eyes wide open. They had to wait for ten whole minutes before the little boy in pajamas spoke. ‘That bread dough, it brought me here.’

‘A bread dough brought you here?’ asked Dr. Kramer. ‘How?’

‘I-’, the boy seemed a bit hesitant, but continued. ‘It’s my birthday today’, he said. ‘I went to the kitchen to have some cake, but then, I spilt – I spilt some stuff. Among those, I found this bread dough. It – it even spoke to me!’

‘What did it say?’ asked Dr. Caliver. ‘And what’s your name?’

‘I’m Bert’, he said. ‘The dough said something about the device getting activated. Dunno what that means. It also said it’ll send help to me. Why, though? Oh, and also, those Tutti Fruttis in it glowed.’

All twelve scientists looked at each other, bewildered by the mysterious happenings. They huddled to a corner of the lab, and whispered to each other, while there was an awkward silence between the girl and Bert.

Little Bert extended his hand to her. ‘I’m Bert,’ he said. ‘Emily’, said the girl. Before they could continue, the scientists were back.

Dr. Kramer spoke first. ‘We’ve decided to help you get back. Where are you both from?’

‘I live in Wool’s Orphanage,’ said Bert. ‘Wool’s?’ asked Dr. Roger. Bert nodded. ‘Do you mean the one where there was a strange boy known as Riddle?’

Bert nodded vigorously.

‘Oh my God,’ whispered the doctor. ‘This is extremely serious!’

And before the others could interrupt, Emily revealed where she had come from.

John Roger stood absolutely still, thinking. After a minute or so, he pressed a small button in his shirt pocket. A white screen appeared right in front of him.

‘How did you do that?’ asked Emily, astonished. Kramer looked at her, surprised, but said nothing. All of them watched Roger in silence.

‘Whiteboard – enlarge’, he said.

The screen became bigger, and stood, wavering in the air. ‘Alright now’, said Dr. Roger, mopping his brow. ‘For those who do not know, before this mega-dump yard came into existence, say, a hundred years ago, there was the Brown mansion, and before that, the Wool’s Orphanage. I believe that, standing right in front of us, are the world’s first ever time travelers.’

John Roger’s Diagram on his White-Board-Screen-Thingy