Zootopia: Worlds Apart

15. The Future

Luke's POV

We were now wandering aimlessly around Epcot trying to find the machine. We were told by the Security guard that he'd give it back to us, but he didn't say where they were going to put it. We assumed it was where I'd left it, so we decided to go there.

When we arrived behind the Wonders of Life pavilion, we could see the machine gleaming and sparkling near a lamp post.

"Is that it?" Scott asked.

"yeah, that's the machine." I replied.

"Are you sure it's safe?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's taken us on tons of trips in the past." I replied, pointing back and forth between me and Zack.

We approached the machine. Everything seemed normal. The time lever was still in it's original place, the gauges and dials were all normal. Everything was fine.

We all jumped up into the cockpit and prepared for the future.

I pulled the lever next to the chair to power the machine up. After a few moments, the machine was ready to go.

The propellers swooped around us as we took a final look at Epcot before going to Bristol.

"9th October 2005 here we come." Scott said, clearly getting excited.

"Yeah." was all I could say as I pushed the time lever forwards. As quick as a flash, time started moving faster and faster. I set the teleporter location to Bristol and pressed it.

"Woah, Epcot's gone!" Scott squealed like a child.

"It's a teleporter, of course Epcot's going to disappear." Zack replied distastefully.

We watched as the years passed and people sped by. I watched as the dials flicked over. The year 2000 passed in seconds, then so did 2001, 2002 and 2003. I carefully pulled down on the lever as 2004 passed over to 2005.

Then, when the dials reached October 9th, I pulled the lever to a stop.

We were now in the future, sort of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We were outside a shop. Scott had his face pressed up against the window. We took a glance at what he was looking at. It was an advert for the Nintendo Gamecube, along with adverts for the Xbox 360, which supposedly wasn't out yet.

"This stuff's so cool," He said after a moment of gawking. "Back in '95 we have the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, nothing as incredible as this."

"Do you like the PlayStation?" I asked.

"Much, but I can't really afford one." He replied.

"That's good, because the PlayStation 2 comes out in 2000." I said.

"Really?" He asked.

"Yeah, there's also the PS3 in 2006, the PS4 in 2013 and the PS5 in 2020." I replied.

"Wow," He said, spellbound. "Is there anything else we can look at?"

"How about you go sight-seeing for a while, I want to talk to Luke for a bit," Zack interrupted. "If you need us, just use this."

He gave Scott a cell phone with his number in it. Scott ran off to go and look at things whilst me and Zack took a walk together down towards Millennium Square.

"Luke, I don't understand you sometimes," Zack said suddenly as we sat down. "One moment you're 'Taking a walk', the next moment you're eight hundred thousand years in the past prancing around with some rando."

"Sorry, I just wanted to experience the past." I replied.

"So experiencing the future isn't good enough for you?" Zack asked.

"It was, but I just wanted to go to the past for a bit." I replied.

"Look, I'm not mad at you or anything, I'm just confused," Zack said. "You should have at least told me you were going to use the machine. I had no idea where you were, I thought you'd died or something."

"I guess," I said. "I suppose I wasn't exactly thinking straight."

"You wouldn't think straight anyway because you're gay, but sure." Zack replied. I scoffed before giving him a playful punch.

"Didn't think you wouldn't take this seriously." I commented, turning back to looking down at the floor.

"I think it's easier just to forgive you," He said. "I mean, you've already done it now so I should just stop obsessing over it."

I looked back up at him.

"Thanks," I said, giving him a hug. "Should we try and find Scott now?"

"You think he knows how to operate a cell phone or are we gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way?" Zack asked.

"He'll figure it out," I replied. I paused for a minute. I didn't know whether to ask Zack a burning question I had in mind. I slowly built the courage to ask him, then I did. "Hey, uh do you hate-"

"I'll ring him now." Zack said before I could finish. He stood up and started dialling a number on a flip phone of his own.

"Before you do-" I tried again.

"It's ringing, shush," He interrupted, putting a finger over my lips. "Scott, hey! Where are you?"

Zack's POV

"I'm near this road thing somewhere." Scott's voice rung out from the speaker on the phone.

"Do you have a road name?" I asked, ushering Luke to follow me.

"Uhhh..." Scott stammered. "Silverthorne Lane?"

"Got it, we'll be there." I replied, putting the phone down.

We ran around Bristol for a while before we came to a small opening between Temple Meads station and an industrial estate nearby. I read the signage. 'Silverthorne Lane' it read.

"It's down here." I said, both pointing to the sign and dragging Luke from behind me.

We followed the pathway until we reached a large archway. We peered through it to see a building standing tall before us. It looked amazing. It was perfectly crafted in every way, everything was laid out to perfection of all kinds.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Don't ask me." Luke replied from behind me. We both stared at the ancient building for ages until we saw something scurrying around near the front of this marvellous piece of history.

"There you are." Scott said, jogging over to us.

"How did you get this far out in ten minutes?" I asked.

"I'm a fast walker. Always have, always will." Scott replied proudly.

"Are you finished here?" I asked.

"Not really," Scott replied. "I want to wait until it's night so I can see this building when all the lights inside are on."

He pointed to the building behind us. I kind of wanted to see it too, so we hastily agreed.