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Adam moves closer to Dr Walters “The older me, the one from this time, said we should ask you about the people ent to the future before us”

Dr Walters starts coughing, big, racking coughs that shake his entire body He grabs a tissue and holds it to his uy I briefly debate if we should get the nurse again, but he told her to leave and we don’t have ti us to wait, and his coughing finally settles down “We never should have done it All those people…and what happened to you…”

“What happened to the others?” I ask hiuess there’s no point keeping it from you now” He stares at the crumpled tissue in his wrinkled hands “They all came back broken Paranoia, memory loss, madness…future shock, we called it”

“Future shock?” Adam asks

“Yes, shock from the time dilation It proved too be too much for the human brain to handle” He shakes his head, his eyes lost in his es We warned theht make it worse We reduced the hours spent in the future We sent people only ten years forward instead of thirty The daht if we used teenagers, whose brains were still developing, theyclicks into place The conversation they had in the hallway The reason they sent foster kids to the future instead of scientists We were disposable

“Did we…” I stop to take a breath, afraid to ask the question “Did we come back broken too?”

Dr Walters stares up at me with pale eyes “I’m sorry”

“What does that o crazy?”

“It was all my fault,” the old man mutters, his eyes unfocused “I built the accelerator…I never should have listened to Kapur”

Chris grabs on to the edge of the hospital bed “Answer the question!”

“Yes You were all suffering from future shock You had no meround and shatters If on’t re that happens in these twenty-four hours, hoill I be able to save us?