ETA

Creators: Ibrahim Ashmawey, Omar Ashmawey
Age rating: 13 and older
In the near future, a young man embarks on a prestigious tourist trip back to the Pliocene epoch using newfound technology. What is a routine, commercialized trip goes awry when we learn the rules of time travel aren't what we thought, and now humanity must pay the price.
Project collaboration: By Permission
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Synopsis: Logan Gruver, a young man, stands in front of a Judge being tried for murder. This is the first case of it's kind for the Judge...it is the first case of it's kind ever. This judge does not sentence but rather he only sends the accused to The Now.

A few weeks earlier, Logan, a New York city waiter, got the chance of a lifetime. He was selected to serve as a guard on what has become a commercialized time-travel trip to the Pliocene epoch. With the use of a nearby, newly discovered black hole, NASA has constructed a wormhole which can be used for time travel. After years of research and studies, havoc and mayhem, protests and outcries, the United States government, having claimed ownership of this hole in the sky, decided
the best way to use this amazing discovery - the greatest leap in human evolution - was to create the world’s first Time Trek Group. There are two ways to travel through this prestigious tour group, either to pay an extremely large amount of money and go as a Tourist, or to train for a year and put your name on an incredibly large waiting list to become a Guard and protect the Tourists on their trip.

Our protagonist has finally been chosen after seven years of waiting to join as a Guard. Meanwhile, Megan Hudson, a young female reporter from Detroit, has been selected by her newspaper to travel on the next Time Trek to give an in depth feature on the Time Trek group. In an attempt to boost sales and get readers out of the mood of the recent fourth world war, the optimistically named Final War, this article will give the public a way out of their misery and depression. Even before traveling, Megan experiences the amazingness of the timed construction of a stadium. In order to keep track of everything and not affect the past in an uncontrolled environment, the Department of Time Trek (DTT) keeps all time traveling relative and under scrutiny. One of the timed, controlled events is when those in the past, The Then, build a stadium for the Tourists which those in the present, The Now, can witness as it rises from the ground in front of them. The Tourists and Guards experience their first taste of the trip head of them.

Logan prepares for their task. As they board the shuttle and go into their berths and into a sedated sleep for the week long flight, Logan bids his current world farewell and puts all his problems behind him. For the next month, his only concern is to soak in as much as he can. Each Time Trek tour is exactly one month and always arrives at the same geographical spot in present day Beaver Creek, Montana. This area has been researched to never have been inhabited by humans. After arrival, Logan takes his post as stadium guard. This trip differs from others as the DDT has been able to get a hold of a number of Colombian Mammoths for display. The Guards also learn about the nature of the protective bracelets all travelers must wear during their stay. The bracelets serve two purposes. First, they sense if the wearer is in any danger and communicates this alert to large electromagnetic emitters which beam fatal waves at any time that they receive the signal. The emitted waves target any living being in the two mile radius. The second purpose the bracelets serve is to protect anyone wearing it from the waves.

Meanwhile Megan is taken to her living quarters and then decides to go exploring in the forest that is within the two mile radius which is securely walled. While discovering prehistoric plants and small animals, Megan meets Logan who she hears fall in the woods nearby her. She helps him up and sees that he is well except for a small crack in his protective bracelet. As chance will have it, they grew up in the same state and went to the same University. A spark ignites between them.

During the opening ceremony of the trip, The Audience watches a presentation by officials of the DTT that explains the nuances of time travel, as it is not what humanity had previously thought. There is only one instance of existence for every human. If one travels to any other time period, they will not see other instances of humans' existence. Rather, if one travels to the past, they see only the "images", or foot prints. These images are not real humans, only the imprints that a person leaves on the canvas of time.

After the presentation, the Audience is shown with the feature attraction, the Colombian Mammoth. As the gates open, the first mammoth comes out into the stadium ground. It is controlled by a trainer using a small electric shocker that controls the animal. As the mammoth stands and sits, the Audience bleachers roar with cheer. As all eyes are fixed on the creature, Megan suddenly appears in the stadium, shaking with tears in her eyes. She pleads to the trainer to stop the brutality of torturing the animal. Logan, standing nearby in his post and having recognized her, runs to her and pleads with her to go back to her seat. "This is wrong, Logan" she explains to him. Logan, his gun in his hand, is frozen with confusion. The emitters, having sensed the action, emit their fatal waves. The Audience, all wearing a bracelet, does not feel a thing as they are protected. The mammoth on the other hand, suddenly falls dead.

As the waves come to Logan, due to the crack in his bracelet, his body jolts forward, and his gun accidentally goes off. He falls to the ground and looks up quickly, to see Megan Hudson grabbing at her stomach where a large stain of blood forms quickly. She falls to the ground dead.

Logan wakes up to find himself in shackles. He is sentenced by the Interim Judge to be sent to The Now, escorted by two Guards on an emergency shuttle carrier. After arriving to The Now, Logan is awakened from his sleep by the other two Guards to find that earth as they know it has been annihilated. The planet exists, but is covered in a dark soot. The trio, completely confused and scared, decide to travel back to The Then to get an explanation for what has happened to humanity. After returning, they convene with the council of the DTT and they come to the conclusion that what they saw was the effect of murder happening on the canvas of time, thousands of years before it should. There is no way to save Megan; once one experiences death, there is no return. However, it isn't death that ruined The Now, it is murder. Logan then decides that this is something he can change. He knows he cannot save her, but he can change the image imprinted in time by not murdering her.

Logan quickly takes the shuttle carrier back to during the ceremony. When he arrives, he remembers that all he sees around him are images, and not real humans. He runs to the stadium. All images exist except for his own since his current existence there has taken its place. He sees Megan standing in front of the mammoth. He begs her to return. Suddenly, with no control, he pulls out his gun. He is unable to resist, as time does not like to be changed. Not knowing what to do, and with humanity's fate at his hands, Logan slams his wrist to the ground, completely breaking the bracelet. As the emitters send the waves out, rather than shocking him, Logan is killed instantly, never having murdered and successfully replacing the image of the homicide.

Meanwhile, in The Then, as the council is awaiting Logan's return, they suddenly discover his dead body in the stadium. They do not know exactly what happened, but they suspect that he had to sacrifice himself in order to save humanity. The council takes another carrier and travels back to The Now to see what the result is. They find a world other than the one they knew, completely flourished. As they exit the carrier at the DTT headquarters, they simply ask the official at the arrival gate who won the fourth world war. The official looks at them confused. "There have not been four world wars," he responds. When they ask him how many there have been, he responds, "There haven't." Self sacrifice trumps all.

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