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Two Minutes Out of Step

sci-fi◐ Teen
5 contributors · 3 paragraphs deep

Mara panicked and ran for the door. Maybe getting away from the coil would help. But the second she crossed the hallway, the gap jumped to four minutes. Distance from Ines was making it worse, not better. She froze, heart pounding, and turned back.

Out in the hallway, Mara saw the building's main breaker box. Cut the power and the coil would die. But she was four minutes ahead now, and she couldn't warn Ines in time. If the machine stopped wrong, Ines might be stuck lagging forever. Mara's hand hovered over the switch.

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A possible continuation

Mara couldn't risk freezing Ines forever, so she pulled her hand back from the breaker. She ran inside, got close, and the gap fell to two minutes again. The fix wasn't out here alone. It was beside her sister. She grabbed a pen, wrote out a slow plan, and the two of them worked the dial down together until the screen read zero.

IF
Inés Ferro
4 votes · future 1 of 2