The entire neighborhood had changed. I no longer was in a small neighborhood of duplex houses with comfy garages, comfy living spaces, and a comfy unused neighborhood pool. But how do I get to work from a neighborhood in another state? Also, where do I work now? Am I just another person, like someone made a wish with a genie to swap lives with an ordinary person in the midwest?
“Oh well, whatever. I’ll just walk my usual path to my usual office, or at least take the steps I would take, and maybe there’s something magic about walking through doors or something. Maybe the next door I go through will make me a dragon slayer, that’d be fun. I’ll go to work, do my work, and enjoy it, because I’m an 88-year-old man and that’s apparently what 88-year-old men do. And they talk to themselves out loud while drinking coffee.”
While reading the newspaper and making sure not to stray too far from the road, I’d realized one thing very quickly. This version of reality was a lot more doomed than what I knew. There were threats of nuclear bombs all over the paper. I honestly was surprised the world hadn’t blown up yet with all the different countries that hated each other. And what’s that weird sound that keeps flying by me? Is that what engines sound like now? Their engines sounded weird, and their hoods looked even more unusual. What had changed about this world? As I looked down at the paper at the wanted ads, I saw what I thought was the missing link in his mind. Nuclear. Everything was nuclear in this world. Those cars all idling next to me at the stop light were using nuclear engines. My dangerous butler robot that brought me the newspaper was nuclear. The school buses carrying children were probably nuclear as well. It’s a good thing I didn’t drink the robot’s coffee. I figured it couldn’t hurt to read the paper to find what else had changed. New presidents of course, Doc Brown hadn’t invented time travel, Alaska in trouble. Why was Alaksa in trouble? My thoughts of the chilly north neighbors were interrupted by a blocked road and an angry man who looked a lot less confused than me and a lot more of the “holding a gun” variety.
“Get out of here, civilian. This is off lim--”
I determined quickly that I had bumped into one of a party pack of army members armed with rifles and staring problems. Just as soon as I started to explain himself, though, the man spoke again.
“Sorry sir, I didn’t see the badge. Go ahead.” The man and the rest of the soldiers parted their blockade of the gate. I figured it’d be a good idea to look down at my badge to see if that gave any hints, and luckily it did.
“Kazri - vault 417 - dorm 3.” I thought back to everything that happened so far, and decided that this was normal for all else in the past few hours. Upon walking further up the hill, though, I found that he was the only non-military person in the upper area. Staring out at the vibrant colors of the neighborhood and cars from the top of the hill was when I fully realized my explanation of what had happened. I had been teleported.. The sun made it look like the early afternoon, and every house on the street had a robot similar to my own outside clipping the bushes and grass of their yards.