On the Wrong Side of Tomorrow

By Erik Wilcox

Mostly set in a post-apocalyptic world, this mind-bending story takes you on a fast-paced journey across space-time, all the while asking larger questions about life and our very existence, and at the same time injecting subtle humor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329142275

Book preview

On the Wrong Side of Tomorrow

On The Wrong Side of Tomorrow

Erik N. Wilcox

www.lulu.com/spotlight/ErikWilcox

© 2014/2015 by Erik N. Wilcox

All rights reserved

All characters in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to real, living people is purely coincidental.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1- Escape through Exploration

Chapter 2- Journey by Sea

Chapter 3- Things Are Looking Up

Chapter 4- Angel’s Plan

Chapter 5- The Grass is Always Greener

Chapter 6- An Unforeseen Transformation

Chapter 7- The Perils of Space

Chapter 8- Questions Without Answers

Chapter 9- Reawakening

Chapter 10- Breakdown

Epilogue

Prologue

A light flickered and then went black. Still half-asleep, I struggled to focus my eyes towards the area from where I’d seen the lights emanate. Somehow, I expected to hear the electrical buzzing noise that often accompanies the flicker of lights but it didn’t materialize; nor did the lights flicker again. A faint and constant humming was the only sound that broke the seemingly eternal silence. Though I had no idea what the humming sound was or where it was coming from, it was strangely comforting; something that was at least constant and stable when nothing else around me seemed to be. I tried to remember what had happened but my mind was still groggy. My heart raced and a touch of panic came over me when I realized that I didn’t even know where I was.

It was bitterly cold. I shivered in the darkness for what seemed like hours while tightly gripping the woefully undersized blanket that only partially covered my body. The air was thin and musty as if I was inside of an enclosed area that hadn’t seen the light of day in a long, long time. A slight odor of mildew and the oddly familiar stench of stale cleaning fluids hung in the still, damp room.

My surroundings were dark and the uneasiness I felt seemed at least partly due to a constant yet unpredictable and inconsistent motion. It was as if I was an unwilling passenger in a bouncy vehicle that was moving from side to side as it traveled over long rolling hills. The uncontrollable aspect of this thought was unsettling. Nauseous, I tried to make the uncomfortable time pass but my equilibrium wasn’t quite right and it was difficult to think or concentrate. With each unexpected motion came a stronger urge to close my eyes, as staying awake and facing what surrounded me seemed like a rather unappealing alternative. Finally, realizing I wasn’t dreaming and that my creeping curiosity wouldn’t allow for sleep, I sat up. I felt around to see if I could find a light switch, but there was nothing, nothing at all. Slowly, my eyes rested on a series of faintly glowing lights on the other side of the room. I squinted at the lights and as they came into focus, they revealed themselves to be a small cluster of dimly lit gauges and dials that stood several feet away from me. I begrudgingly got up and staggered over to them, my legs numb and strangely unresponsive. The gauges showed measurements with foreign characters that I didn’t understand. I attempted to convince myself that I was still dreaming, as the reality of the situation seemed too frightening and confusing to fully contemplate.

I sat back down, leaning against the cold metal wall of my stark, imprisoned enclosure. The stinging sensation from the frigid steel surface against my skin seemed to awaken me. Once again, I attempted to collect my thoughts. What was the last thing I remembered? I couldn’t have been asleep for that long, could I? I tried to remain rational and analyze the current situation. By now, my eyes had adjusted enough so that the dim glow from the mysterious gauges provided just enough light to reveal a partial picture of my eerie and still unfamiliar surroundings.

It looked as if the oval shaped enclosure that I was somehow trapped in measured approximately twelve feet long by eight feet wide; yet I didn’t see any door that would lead out of this place. On one side of the room, a narrow opening led to a much smaller room that I somehow knew was a bathroom. A few feet above me was a pane of glass that I thought could be a window. But looking through it, all I could see was blackness; if there was another room on the other side of window I certainly couldn’t see it. I repeatedly banged on the glass with all my strength and until my hands hurt, but to no avail. The glass seemed very thick and the only response I got was the hollow thumping echo from my feeble and weak pounding. Exploring further, I noticed that underneath the area where the gauges were located, there was an odd compartment which looked just big enough to crawl into. As I heaved open the clear and heavy glass door that led inside the smaller compartment, I felt a burst of warm air rush out into the cold, stagnant room I had been in. This warmth was quite inviting so I climbed inside the tiny compartment. It wasn’t nearly as cold in here and somehow it felt safer. The soft, cushioned surface of this floor felt much more pleasant than the hard, dusty surface where which I had awoken hours earlier. There was an odd sense of contentment here, as if this was where I should be at this moment.

As I clumsily closed the heavy glass entrance behind me, I felt a reassuring whoosh! sound of the door sealing against the smaller enclosure that I was now inside of. The humming sound was fainter in here and though it was very quiet in the larger enclosure, I felt like I could better collect my thoughts in here.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small