37
William was lying in a fetal position on dry earth. His face was blistered from the heat and sweat was beading down his forehead. He could feel the hot sun pounding on his head. He opened his eyes and in the distance he could see what looked liked a building. As his brain realized the vision before him was familiar and modern, he darted his eyes open and attempted to spring to his feet. He was weak, weaker than the other times he had traveled in time, and felt dizzy. And as he stood up, he lost his balance and fell down to one knee. William rubbed his head while he stared at the ground in front of him. He could no longer see the edge of the water. As a matter of fact, William noticed as he looked toward the middle of the stream under the Natural Bridge, that it was no longer there. All he could see was scorched earth and what looked like litter. Litter! Did he see garbage? William crawled a few feet and stretched to grab a plastic wrapper that was rolling like tumbleweed over the dry bare soil that was once the bottom of a stream.
The material he grabbed disintegrated in his hand as soon as he touched it. It turned to dust like a piece of burned newsprint does just before it breaks down to ashes. He was not able to read it before it vanished. Just ahead, another item that seemed to be an empty plastic bottle was flat as if a car tire had run it over. William moved closer; immediately beside it there was a second plastic bottle also flat, but this one was almost gone. It had decomposed to the point it was barely visible. When William rubbed his hand over the bottle, the particles that had once made up the shell of the bottle disintegrated as if he had rubbed a light dust print. The cap of the bottle was denser and remained more intact. However, as he tried to pick it up, it too broke down like a wet cookie does when it is saturated with milk.
William decided to study rather than touch the remaining bottle. William could clearly see the label and was instantly horrified! The label on the bottle confirmed his fears:
COCA COLA
A PEPSI PRODUCT
WE WON THE WAR!
And in small writing under the large caption he could see clearly:
THIS IS A BIO-D CONTAINER-GONE-IN-FIVE COMPLIANT-GLOBAL ULTRALAW 2345-23