A story by Evan Lundell

It was a Monday morning, and Matt was late to work. He had been up late the last night, catching up on his work from last week. Matt was a programmer at a small software company that made software specifically for hospitals. He worked nine to five on Mondays through Fridays, in a small cubicle, staring at a computer screen all day, and he hated it. He felt completely average, as he had throughout high school, where he finished towards the middle of his class, and in college, where he maintained a 3.0 and didn’t do anything in his four years that he felt made a difference. Even his physical appearance was pretty average, being a little less than six feet tall and somewhat physically fit, but not in great shape by any means.

All of these thoughts were running through Matt’s head as he drove down the road that went to the city. Matt lived a few miles out of town, and had to take a small, rarely traveled black top into the city every morning. Matt was about two miles out of town when he saw a police car turn onto the road behind him and turn the lights on. “What could that be for?” Matt thought. He was in a hurry, but he hadn’t been speeding. He pulled over to the right side of the road and waited as the officer pulled over and got out of the car. The officer was a man, about six foot four and pretty built. “Great,” Matt thought, “he looks like one of those cops that will pull you over just because he feels he has something to prove.”

“License and registration please,” the officer said when he got up to Matt’s window. Matt dug through he glove compartment and found what he needed and handed it to the officer. “Mister Fischer, please step out of the car,” the officer said after looking at Matt’s license for a few seconds.

“W-what… why?” Matt stammered. He was confused; he still didn’t know why he had been pulled over. He paused for a second and regained his composure. “I’m sorry officer, I just don’t know why I was stopped,” he said.

“Mr. Fischer, I will explain everything to you, I just need you to step out of the car first,” the officer replied. Matt decided it was best to not argue with the officer, and stepped out of the car. “Turn around and put your hands on top of the car,” the officer told Matt. Again, Matt wanted to protest, but again decided not to argue with the officer. He did what the officer asked, and turned around. The officer pulled out a syringe and injected it into Matt’s neck. Matt felt the prick of the needle, but before he could turn or offer any resistance, everything went black.

Soon after Matt passed out, a van pulled up with two more men in it. They helped put Matt in the back of the van, and one of them got in Matt’s car and drove it away. The officer got back in his car and drove towards town, and then soon after the van took off in the same direction with Matt unconscious in the back.

Matt awoke a few hours later in a room that reminded him of interrogation room from the movies. It was bare, except for a table and two chairs, one of which Matt was sitting in. Matt was confused and scared. He looked for a way out, and saw there was only one door. As he was thinking about getting up and trying to get out, the door opened and in walked the police officer from earlier, only he was no longer in uniform.

“Hello again, Mr. Fischer,” the man said as he walked in and sat across from Matt.

“W-what am I doing here?” Matt demanded, trying and failing to mask the nervousness in his voice.

“What I’m about to tell you is going to very hard for you to believe,” the officer started to explain. “My name is Tim Rabe, and I am the head of a special operations team created by the United States government, and you have been chosen to be a part of this team.”

“Me? Why me? I’m nobody special. I don’t have any special skills that could aid your team,” Matt said.

“We have reason to believe otherwise,” Tim responded. “We know that you have the proper qualifications for this team.

“How do you know? I don’t even know who you are, how do you know me?” Matt asked.

“We have been watching you for some time now,” Tim said.

“You’ve been spying on me?” Matt asked.

“Not exactly.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean not exactly? And what is it this ‘special operations team’ does, exactly?” Matt asked. Matt was started to get very anxious, and Tim thought he was close to breaking down completely.

“Matt, you need to settle down and let me explain, and this is the part you may have trouble believing. The public has not been informed yet, and may not ever be informed, but not long ago time travel was discovered to be possible. Scientists were working on teleportation, and found that were actually sending the objects they were testing on through time. After a few months of refining the technology, they were able to send people through time. As they continued to experiment with time travel, they came into contact with an agency from the future, our agency. They were able to explain to the researchers many of the questions they had about time travel. They told our researchers time is a definite, continuous loop. It was impossible to change any part of it. They told us that it was our time to start the same agency that they worked for in our time, and explained what it is we were to do and other details, such as the members of the team. They told the scientists there were many events in the past that had been influenced by people from the future going back in time, and that because time was a continuous loop, it would be up to our agency to continue doing this. They helped us develop a new technology that could monitor other periods of time, like having a one-way window into that time frame. That way, we don’t actually have to send an agent back to observe the time period, we can just monitor it from the present. That way, we know when and where to send our agents so that we can make sure the past happens the way it is supposed to. We began recruiting, and have been operating for several months now. We found by looking into the future that it was time for us to recruit and train you, which is what I meant when I said that we had kind of been spying on you.”

Matt had many questions all running through his head. Time travel? The idea was absolutely absurd to Matt. He decided he needed to start somewhere. “Wait, so you’re telling me that at any given time there can be people from the future in our time and influencing it so that it will turn out the same as their time?” he asked.

“Yes, it has been going on as far back as we have looked and will continue into the future,” Tim explained.

“Well what if we miss a time we are supposed to go back? Or what if one your agents decides that he doesn’t like how something turned out in the past, and decides not go back and influence it?” Matt asked.

“It’s not possible. Remember, time cannot be changed. It is set the way it is, and it will always turn out the same way.” Tim answered.

Matt did not like the sound of that. “So, everything I do is determined already by time? Does that mean I can’t choose anything I do?”

“Well… sort of. I guess if you want to look at it like that. I prefer to think of it as me making choices, but the choices I make are already laid out in time. There are, however, a select few people who believe that time can be changed, but they say that because we keep following patterns under the belief that we have to, we end up not changing anything, or at least not noticeably. Nobody wants to test this theory though, because we have no idea what kind of repercussions would come from changing the past or future. Our time could cease to exist, or there could be different versions of our same time, and who knows what kind of problems that would cause. That is why the time travel technology is so heavily regulated. We don’t want anybody to test this theory just in case the typical view is wrong and they end up destroying the world or something.”

“I-I see,” Matt said, sounding unsatisfied. “I’m still having trouble grasping all of this. I just can’t believe that people can actually move through time, and have been for, well, all of time.”

“I know,” Tim said. “It took me a while to wrap my head around it, too. Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”

“My room? Wait, I didn’t say I wanted to do this, let alone live here. What about my life? I have a job, a house, a…”

“Not anymore,” Tim interrupted.

“W-what do you mean?” Matt asked.

“Well, as of this morning, Matt Fischer is dead. To the rest of the world, you died in a car accident on your way to work. Like I said before, time cannot be changed, and we have seen in the future that it is your time to join us.”

Matt was furious. Who were they to decide how he was to live his life? Tim got up and started walking towards the door, and Matt reluctantly got up and followed. They walked out of the room into a short, plain white hallway that split to the left and right about twenty feet ahead. There were doors on both sides of the hallway. Tim led Matt down the hallway and took a left.

“Down this way is the living and training sections of the complex where you spend most of your time for these first few months,” Tim explained as they walked. “Back the way we came is the office area, and to the right of that, down the hallway straight behind us is the actual time traveling facilities. You are absolutely under any circumstances not allowed to go back there yet.”

Tim continued to lead Matt through the hallways, pointed out places of importance to Matt, such as the bathrooms and the dining room and various rooms that would facilitate his training, but Matt wasn’t paying much attention. He was tired and scared and really confused. Finally, Tim stopped outside of a room that was set up like a college dorm room.

“Normally, you’d have a fellow trainee as your roommate, but you’re the only trainee we have right now,” Tim said. “I’ll give you some time to get your thoughts under control and get your bearings. We’ll eat in an hour, and you can meet some more of the team and most importantly, your mentor. See you in an hour.”

Matt, still not really paying attention to what Tim had said, mumbled a short goodbye as Tim turned and walked away. He walked into his new room and look around. His walls were a plain white, like every other wall in the complex so far, and there weren’t any windows. The dull light of the single fluorescent light made the room look dim and dreary. There were bunk beds pushed against one wall, and a desk and chair pushed against the opposite wall, with a single chest of drawers against the back wall.

Matt walked over to the chest and opened the top drawer. He saw that some of his clothes from his home were there, along with a couple new outfits. He then walked over to his bed, laid down, and try to settle his thoughts.

“Get up, it’s time to eat,” Tim said to Matt after what seemed to Matt like a few minutes. Matt opened his eyes and got up. He followed Tim to the dining room and they got their food. The food looked average at best. Tim took Matt to a table and introduced him to the people that were sitting there. Matt met two field agents, one agent in charge of monitoring other times from the present, and one technician that worked on the time traveling machinery. Matt ate in silence and listened as one of the field agents explained to the others what she had seen on her last mission. She had gone to Rome and helped the Roman senators set up and execute the assassination of Julius Caesar. Matt was intrigued by the time travel aspect, but was apprehensive about the whole thing. He didn’t like the idea of going back in time to help set up the murder of someone.

“Where’s Sam?” Tim asked after the field agent had finished her story. “He was supposed to be here to meet his new trainee.”

“Oh, right, he told me to tell you to meet him in room 13 after you and Matt had eaten,” the technician said.

Matt and Tim finished their food and said goodbye to everyone else at the table. Tim led Matt out into the hallway again and headed towards room 13. When they arrived, the door was open. Inside was a man who looked like he was in his mid-forties. He was about the same height as Matt, but much more fit. The most noticeable thing about his appearance were two very large scars running across his face, somewhat disfiguring it.

“Matt, this is Sam, and he will be your teacher and mentor throughout your training period,” Tim said. “I’ll let you two get to know each other.” He tilted his head to Sam, who tilted back, and then left the room.

“Nice to meet you,” Matt said, extending his hand.

Sam roughly took his hand and shook it hard, and asked “Are you ready to get started?”

“Now? But I just got here, I don’t even know what’s going on,” Matt said, a little confused.

“Don’t talk back to me!” Sam yelled all of a sudden. “It is time you get started on this training, we need you ready for time travel in a few months.”

Sam started training by going over what a typical schedule would look like. Matt would spend morning learning about various periods in time, the culture of the time, and learning the basics of various languages. In the afternoon, Matt had physical training. That ranged anywhere from training in hand-to-hand combat to learning how to wield various weapons throughout time.

This routine went on for several weeks. Matt began to wonder when he would get to experience time travel. He hadn’t even seen it yet, and he didn’t feel he was anywhere close to ready for a mission. He wanted to ask Sam, but was too afraid. Sam had not been very nice to him, often shooting him down whenever he had a question and sometimes just yelling at him for no apparent reason. Finally, about two months into his training, Matt’s daily routine changed.

“We’re in here today, Fischer,” Sam called to Matt as Matt walked by a room on his way to his usual training room. Matt looked inside curiously, but didn’t want to ask Sam what was going on. There were a few desks and a large TV inside the room. “Today, you are going to get to see a mission. We tape every mission, and it is time you see what one looks like. This particular mission takes place in 1440, in Germany. Our agent is going to help Gutenburg come up with the printing press.”

Matt sat down as Sam started the movie. Matt watched the tape, paying careful attention to how the agent handled himself in the past, respecting their culture and being knowledgeable of the time. He also paid close attention to how the agent got his idea across to Gutenburg, subtle enough to not completely give away the idea of a printing press, but giving enough for Gutenburg to figure out the idea he was trying to give him. Matt was impressed by the agent, and enjoyed watching the mission.

From then on, Matt watched one mission a week. He usually liked watching the mission, but there were some he didn’t because he felt like there could be better outcomes if the agents did something differently. He wanted to talk to Sam about theses concerns, but he knew Sam would just yell at him and tell him not to argue.

After another two months of this routine, Matt was finally allowed to see the time traveling machine and watch a mission live from the present as it happened. Matt is excited for the change in routine, but not really to see the mission. He was beginning to get tired and frustrated with his training. He felt like there was so much more potential with time travel, but the agency holding onto their belief on a non-changing past and future due to fear.

Sam led Matt into the half of the complex he had never been in before, the half with the time traveling machine and observers. Sam showed Matt around, and they met up with Tim and finally stopped by the actual time machine. Matt was surprised, as it look quite similar to the type of teleported one might see in a movie or TV show. It was just a frame that when powered up would create a window to the time the agent was traveling to.

Matt watched as the scientists prepared the machine for the travel, and overheard them say the agent was going back to the year 1963. Finally, the machine was ready and Matt was taken to the observation room. He watched as the agent stepped through the frame that was the time machine and disappear. He noticed the agent was carrying something he hadn’t seen earlier, but couldn’t figure out what it was before the agent had disappeared. He then turned to the screens that would follow the agent as he completed his mission. Matt then realized what the agent had carried with him to the past. It was a rifle. Matt started to get a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized where the agent was and the year the agent was in. The agent had been sent back to assassinate President Kennedy. Before Matt could say or do anything, the agent fired the fatal shot, and the time machine techs were already getting the agent back to the present.

“Mission success,” Tim said to Matt. “What did you think of seeing your first live mission?”

“W-why did we let that happen?” Matt asked. “We could have stopped the assassination, we could have saved Kennedy’s life!”

“Matt, I thought you understood, time doesn’t change. We had to do this because that’s the way it’s always been,” Tim started to explain.

“Bullshit!” Matt yelled. “You’ve never even tried. Why don’t we try to change the past for the better?”

“Assuming we could change the past, which we cannot, how do you know it would make things better. There is no way of knowing. We could make things so much worse,” Tim argued.

Matt opened his mouth to argue some more, but Sam silenced him. “Enough!” he yelled. “Fischer, I have had enough of your attitude. We need to get to debriefing. Finish the rest of the day yourself.”

Matt was furious. He wanted to argue more, but he didn’t dare argue with Sam. As he was leaving, he heard Sam and Tim begin to argue. He turned the corner and stayed outside the door, listening.

“Are you sure the Matt observed in the future was this resistant to training?” Sam was asking Tim. “I don’t remember him being like that.”

“Are you saying he is acting differently? Are you becoming a skeptic?” Tim asked.

“No, I’m just a little confused. Why don’t we have somebody look back and see what he was like?” Sam asked.

“No, we are too busy right now. He will be fine, you know that better than any of us,” Tim responded.

Matt decided he had better leave before the two of them walk out and catch him eavesdropping. He walked back towards the gym. Matt was fed up with his training, with this job. He wondered why he had been chosen. He wanted to leave, but knew he couldn’t because it was his “destiny.”

The next week, Matt was permitted to go on a mission with Sam, but he was told he couldn’t do anything but observe Sam. They were sent back to medieval France. Their mission was to protect a French lord from being killed.

“Stay close to me, but don’t touch anything,” Sam said to Matt. They walked into the village where the lord was staying and set up a watch. “The assassination party should be here in a few minutes. Be prepared for a fight.” Matt put his hand on the hilt of the sword he now wore on his hip. He had been training in sword fighting for a few weeks now, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready. “They’re here,” Sam yelled and pointed ahead of them. A small mob of people was charging the house the lord was staying in, torches lit and swords drawn.

Sam jumped up from his hiding place and charged the small mob, yelling in French for help. The lords guards came running out of the house the lord was staying in and met up with Sam. The fight broke out in front of the house, and Sam and the other defenders held the attackers off and starting pushing them back. Matt saw that Sam was in a one on one fight with a skilled fighter.

Matt was sure that Sam could get the better of him, but he was worried that someone else would stab Sam in the back while he was engaged. He started sneaking closer to Sam, ready to jump out and help if he had to. Sure enough, one of the attackers saw the opportunity to kill Sam and charged in. Matt jumped up, drew his sword, and charged in to intercept Sam’s attacker. The attacker was surprised, but was able to parry Matt’s charge. This attacker was also a skilled fighter, and soon had an advantage on Matt. Finally, the attacker pushed Matt’s sword out wide and took a swing aimed straight for Matt’s face. Matt dodged most of the swing, but the end of the blade still cut him from just under his left eye to the edge of his jaw. Matt yelled and recoiled in pain. Just as the attacker was getting ready to deal the killing blow, Sam jumped in and stabbed the attacker through the stomach.

“Come, we have defeated the attack of the attack, we must get back to our time and you need medical attention.” Sam said. He helped Matt back to the portal that had been created when they traveled there and stepped in. As soon as they returned to their own time, Matt passed out.

Matt awoke a few hours later. His face had been stitched up, and Tim and Sam and a few doctors were standing around talking when he woke up.

“Finally up I see,” one of the doctors said. “It’s about time. You took a pretty good hit there. It will heal fine, but I’m afraid it will leave a pretty nasty scar. You should be good to continue training in a few weeks. However, you’re free to go back to your room whenever you’d like.” The doctor talked to Matt a little while about caring for the wound, and then left the room.

“I told you not to move,” Sam said after the doctor left.

“He was going to kill you, I had to do something,” Matt responded.

“Next time just follow orders,” Sam said. He glared at Matt, turned, and left.

“He’s right, you know,” Tim said. “You should follow our orders.”

“Does it even matter?” Matt asked sarcastically. “According to your little theory, I had to help Sam because that’s the way it has always been done.”

“Well, I guess you’re right. I mean, we did know you would receive that injury,” Tim responded.

“Wait, I was kidding. You’re serious? You sent me on a mission knowing I would get hurt and didn’t even warn me?” Matt was furious. He was tired of this agency, of Tim’s crazy obsession with his theory and Sam’s constant berating and never being satisfied.

“Matt, please, you have to settle down, it’s part of your training,” Tim started to say.

“I’ve had enough you and your agency!” Matt yelled. He got up and started walking away.

“Matt wait…”

“Shut up and leave me alone,” Matt said as he turned and walked out. Matt stormed back to his room. What had happened to him? Matt had never flipped out on someone like that. “I’m becoming more and more like Sam,” Matt thought to himself. He laughed sarcastically, “I even have a scar now.”

Through the next few days, Matt just went through his daily training without really thinking. He refused to talk to Sam. Finally, Sam approached him at the end of the day. “Tomorrow is your first solo mission, so whatever is causing you to act like this, get over it and be ready for tomorrow’s mission. We need you thinking clearly.”

The next morning, Matt was taken to the time traveling section of the facility again. He wasn’t sure what his mission was going to be, but he wasn’t looking forward to it. He hoped it was at least something that had a good outcome, and he wouldn’t regret doing it. When he arrived, Tim and Sam were waiting for him.

“Okay, Matt, today’s the day. Are you ready?” Tim asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Matt responded in a disdainful tone.

“Okay, we’re going to be sending you back to 1943. The mission is similar to what you went on with Sam earlier. You must prevent an assassination,” Tim explained.

“Who’s the target?” Matt asked.

“Hitler.”

“What? You want me to protect one of the most evil men in history. You can’t be serious. Don’t make me do this,” Matt pleaded.

“You have to,” Tim said. “It’s his...”

“I know, I know, it’s history, it has to happen,” Matt interrupted. “I told you before, I’ve heard enough about your stupid belief. I don’t care what your scientist and philosophers or whatever say, I am not going back. You cannot make me do this.”

“Matt, you must do this,” Sam said, sounding somewhat nervous. “You don’t know what will happen if you do not. You could change things that are way above you.”

“Don’t feed him that crap, Sam,” Tim said. “You sound like you’re buying into what he’s saying. What don’t you understand? Now get ready to go, you take off in a few minutes.”

“Come on Matt, get your gear,” Sam said.

Matt looked him square in the eyes and said “No.” All of a sudden, Sam was gone.

Matt jumped back. “Where’d he go?” he exclaimed.

Tim look shocked. “There’s no way, that can’t be possible.”

“What happened?” Matt demanded.

“I-I don’t know, all I know is that you have to get back in time now and finish your mission”

“No, I already told you I’m not doing that.”

“Then I’ll go.” Tim turned to the technician and told them to prepare the machine. “Call security and don’t let him leave,” he said, pointing to Matt. Then he grabbed his gear and walked through the portal. Security showed up a few minutes later, but Matt didn’t try to get away. He wanted an explanation. Tim returned an hour later. He was able to prevent the assassination just in time, but he was really upset when he came back.

“What just happened?” Matt asked.

“Well,” Tim said, “it appears that I,” he paused, struggling to actually say what he had realized. “It appears we were wrong, I was wrong. You were supposed to be the one who did this mission. We saw it in the future. You changed time. I don’t understand, it was said to be impossible.”

“No, it was thought to be impossible. You just were too stuck on your belief that you couldn’t change time that you didn’t try. You could make the world so much better, but you were too set in your on ways,” Matt said. “Now, what happened to Sam?”

“Well, I have a theory on that. We couldn’t tell you, but Sam was actually from the future. And, well, he was a future version of you,” Tim said.

Matt was blown away. How could the future version of him turned out like that? Sam was so cold and, well, mean. Matt didn’t think he could ever turn out like that. “But I didn’t,” Matt thought. “I have chosen to quit this job so I wouldn’t become like him.”

Tim turned to one of the technicians. “Go to the observation machine and look into Sam’s time. Find out what happened to him.”

The technician went over to the machine. He tried looking into the future, but it wasn’t working. “I can’t get that time,” he told Tim.

“Damn it!” Tim said.

“What, what does that mean?” Matt asked.

“It seems that your little decision here today has changed everything we know about time and the future. It appears that when you decided you wouldn’t work for us, you changed the future. It would seem that doing that somewhere along the line, that change made Sam’s timeline end. In other words, somewhere between our time and Sam’s time, the world ends.” Tim turned to the technician manning the observation station and said “Find out at when we can’t see into the future anymore and find out what happened. I have a theory about why, but I can’t be sure.”

“What’s your theory?” Matt asked.

“It seems that when you decided you wouldn’t be a part of us, the normal timeline that has always been followed was altered. I don’t know exactly what happens in terms of time, but it would appear to me that we branched off from that normal timeline. We still remember our past, which was the past of the normal timeline, but the future is different. See, Sam always told us what events we had to go back and influence for our missions were. He brought that information from the future, and that future had gotten that from their future, and so. But now, in this branch of time, Sam as we knew him didn’t exist. He went on to be whatever it is you would become after you left here. So we don’t know what the next event to go back and influence is, and it is possible that without our influence in the past something bad happens and causes the future to cease to exist.”

“Sir, I’ve got it. We only have one hour until our timeline ends,” the technician said.

“One hour? Okay, what are our options here?” Matt asked. “Is there anyway we can go figure out what event we’re supposed to influence.”

“There’s no way to figure that out,” Tim said. “Maybe we could send somebody back in time a few days and try to convince you to not change your mind.”

“I don’t think that will work. I’m was and still am pretty set on not working for you, and having somebody tell me I’ve got to stay won’t help much.”

“We could explain the situation,” Tim reasoned.

“There’s no time, we’ve got less than an hour. Wait, I’ve got an idea,” Matt said. “Maybe we can avoid all of this altogether if we don’t allow time travel to be invented.”

“That could throw off the everything though. We have no idea of knowing what will happen,” Tim said.

“We have no idea what happened now. There’s no way of knowing anything we do will work, but I think it would be worth a try,” Matt said.

“It might not save our time, you might just make another branch,” Tim said.

“Well if that’s the case, there may be no way to save us now, but we can at least help other times.”

“Okay, it sounds like it may be our only option. Get ready, you’re going to be the one that goes back.”

“Why me?” Matt asked.

“You’re here, you’re ready, and you know the mission,” Tim said.

“But how should I do it. I don’t want to kill the men who invented time travel,” Matt said.

“You don’t have to. There was one man, Dr. Jon Campbell, who really headed up the research on teleportation and eventually time travel. Without him, I’m sure time travel wouldn’t exist, at least not yet. If you stop his parents from ever meeting, you stop him from being born.” Tim turned to the technician again. “Quickly, find out when Dr. Campbell’s parents met for the first time.” He turned back to Matt. “Get ready to go.”

It took another fifteen minutes for the technician to locate Dr. Campbell’s parents, and another fifteen to finish preparation of the time machine.

“Quickly Matt, you only have fifteen minutes. You must locate them and figure out a way to stop them from meeting.” Tim said as Matt headed towards the time machine. “And Matt, thank you for pointing out the error of our ways. We should have been using this technology to help people.” Matt turned and walked towards Tim. They shook hands, Matt gave him a quick nod, and walked through the portal.

“Quick, let’s watch him.” Tim said. The technician pulled up the live feed of Matt in the past on the computer console. Tim walked over to look along. Matt arrived on the outskirts of the college campus where Dr. Campbell’s parents met. He ran into campus and started asking for Mr. Campbell. Finally, somebody was able to point in the right direction. They pointed him to large group of people standing outside one of the bigger buildings on campus, holding up signs and protesting.

Matt ran towards the group and started yelling for Campbell, but the protestors drowned his voice out. Tim brought up a clock on the computer screen, counting down until the future had ended. They had less than a minute now. Matt was still running around, yelling for Campbell. As he was yelling, somebody came over to him and pointed him out. The clock read tens seconds. He started running towards Campbell. Five seconds. “Mr. Campbell!” he yelled. Four seconds. Campbell looked. Three. “Wait!” Matt yelled. Two.

“Did he do it?” the technician asked. One second. Tim shrugged. The clock hit zero.

Matt was driving home from work. He had finally had enough of his boring, average job. He was happy with his decision, but worried about what he would do now. He decided that he wanted to do something meaningful with his life. He wanted to devote his life to helping people.

He spent the next few days looking for ways he could start his new life. Finally, he was company that said they had a good opportunity for him. They arranged for one of their employees to meet with Matt and talk about what they did. Matt met the man the next day at a restaurant in the city.

He walked up to the man and shook his hand. “Hello, my name is Matt.”

“Hello Matt, my name is Tim, and I have a great opportunity for you.”