<< September 20th 2026, Adlestone prison's entrance, Afton city, South America>>
_23:30 pm_
Unrecognizable voice: "Marcus! Marcus!, hang on....officer down!!! you're going to be just fine, my friend, put some pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding, you're having a massive loss of blood!"
The sound kept blasting in Marcus' ears, alongside to the sound of mayhem outside Adlestone prison; gun shots, grenades, and the screams of police officers as they fall down to the ground wounded, burned and dead! he thought that he would be the last man standing at worse, it seems like he won't get through the night, and won't get out of there alive, unless...
He opened his eyes slowly, everything was blurry that he couldn't recognize who was trying to save his life but apparently he would fail because he missed a drill, "wait, Michael?, Michael Carrington?!! god, that's unexpected, and totally abnormal, there is no way i would depend on him, i guess i have no choice...no, i do have a choice, get off me Mike!!", said Marcus to himself after realizing it was Michael Carrington, the person who tried to save his life, but Michael wasn't really qualified, and he wasn't that smart neither which made his coworkers show him a little to no amount of respect, as they couldn't tell if he's acting dumb to avoid responsibilities, or it's just who he is, and it's hard to consider the second option as it's hard to believe that a grown man, aged 26 years old could be that dumb.
Michael: "thank god, i thought we lost you, mate! i thought you were dead!"
Marcus: "i'm not...yet! i have to get somewhere..."
Michael: "where? you can't get any further with that injury, can you?"
Marcus: "stop asking questions and help me up!"
For the first time in his life, Michael was actually useful, he gave his old friend and coworker a helping hand, they walked through a raid of bullets and they reached a police car with broken lights and no wind shield, "there, you got the keys?", said Marcus, whispering to his friend who nodded yes. Michael handed Marcus the keys as the expressions of confusion and disbelief appeared gradually on his face, he attempted to hide them, "i have to go back to the battlefield, but good luck with whatever you're going to do..."said Michael to Marcus who replied: "see you another time."
Feeling numb, exhausted and barely alive, Marcus started the car, put his left hand on the hollow in his chest; and the right hand on the steering wheel, and drove away on a dark path, hoping that he'd get to his house on the other side of the city in one piece although he didn't have much of a clear vision whilst driving, owing that to Michael's idiotic behavior that left the front lights of his car broken, and his massive bleeding, he was running out of time, blood and patience.
_00:25 pm_
After 5.6 miles and half a gallon of blood, Marcus finally reached his destination, his house in east Afton city, it was a lovely place to live in, painted all white, has beautiful round-shaped windows, and a wooden black door with a fancy lock and a high security system that often locked him out of his house, but Marcus didn't really have the time to observe that architecture masterpiece, he aggressively unlocked the door and ran through the kitchen leaving blood stains all across the kitchen floor, and tripped over a wet towel into the basement, where he hid what he always thought it would be his greatest invention, ERIKA, a secret time travel room, painted all blue with white stripes creating multiple square shapes, named after his deceased fiance, Erica butler, the room can only be used by its creator, Marcus, and it can teleport him through the entire timeline in an extremely painful process owing to the pressure that he had to handle whenever he went back in time, and that is what's called "the black hole effect" which is something that happens to any object traveling at the speed of light inside a black hole in the outer space, the object stretches, and its molecules become more unstable with time, although he had to go through such pain and suffering, he only had an hour before he snaps back to the present.
Marcus: "ERIKA, protocol 14.668, now!..."
ERIKA: "Welcome home, master Marcus, your health condition does not allow me to start the process, please abort and consider visiting a health care professional"
Marcus: "i don't have time for this, code: 1569, it's an emergency"
ERIKA: "the teleportation in your condition may lead to potential death, do you want to proceed?"
Marcus: "yes, just do it!!..."
ERIKA: "please, stand by, starting the engines, uploading data files, checking the location, gathering the dark matter, the process would take moments, please wait.....analysing the object....the teleportation will begin in: 3....2....1, complete...see you in an hour master Marcus..."
Marcus (whispering underneath his breath): " i'm afraid you won't, farewell ERIKA..."
As he took that painful ride into the past, Marcus was so calm and stable, although his molecules were not, this time seems to be different, he didn't scream or swear as he was experiencing the most excruciating moments in his life, it's not his first time doing that for sure, but it felt like it's his last...he literally saw his life tape before his eyes, and smiled to it, it was another way of him saying "i don't regret any moment of my life". He opened his eyes in the street he used to live in with his parents just to realize that he blacked out five minutes after he got into his destination, and that he wasted a lot of time, fortunately, he was near his old house, he ran as fast as he could holding his chest and coughing blood, he climbed the fence of his parents' house and jumped into the backyard, where he met and old friend who started barking, "Rocky?? it's really nice to see you again" said Marcus to his old dog who died two weeks after his graduation, but Rocky wasn't too pleased to see him, how could he be and he's considering him an intruder!
"easy, buddy, it's me Marcus" said Marcus to to his dog who didn't stop barking, he was aching badly and wasn't thinking straight and Rocky's behavior wasn't helping, as he approached the house's backdoor, the dog ran into him and bit his left leg, (gunshot) Marcus shot the dog dead, his bullet pierced through the dog's thick skull and blew his brain out, he walked a few steps towards the backdoor, then he fell into the ground, he ran out of blood, in other words; he died.
"what's going on!!, did i hear a gunshot? was i dreaming? no, it felt so real...maybe i should check it out? what am i saying right now?!!!, i can't go there alone, i have to wake up dad, but my parents' room feels so far from here, or maybe i'm just too scared?!, why do i have to sleep in my own room??!, i think i'm going to piss myself, my heart is racing, i'm such a coward...maybe that's why Jessica will never like me, don't be silly Marcus, any man would be terrified to hear a gunshot for the first time, it's louder than it sounds in movies, but why is no one awake? didn't they hear it or they're just as scared as me? (looks out of his window), wait!! is that a corpse down there??!! and...and...Rocky?!!! did Rocky sacrifice his life to stop that guy from threatening ours? (sobbing) such a hero..., that means that Rocky had more courage than i do, a dog!!, i'm going down there, but what if that man brought a partner with him?!!, no, that doesn't seem to make any sense, after all, if that was the case, Rocky wouldn't have been able to kill one of them; outnumbered....(going down the stairs slowly) why do i have to deal with this?..."
As he turned the knob slowly, to open the backdoor; he thought that he would die as soon as he got into the other side of the house, but what he had to encounter was much worse, he flipped the corpse to the other side, and started searching for anything that can help him identify the dead man, to help the law enfoncements in their investigation as he always had a strong sense of justice and one of the sharpest brains in the city, maybe in the whole world, he was shocked, terrified and his right hand was shaking as he held the dead police officer's badge, "but that's...me!!!"