Infinite Web

Prompt

You are a time traveler. While traipsing about in the past you stumble upon something that shouldn’t be there: an open Wi-Fi network.

Story

The date on my mobile phone read August 6, 1945. For a moment I just stared at it in confusion. Then, as it hit me, I could feel the color draining from my face.

“What the hell are you thinking, Akimoto? Rule number one of time travel! You drop that thing, someone finds it, we’re all screwed.”

I looked up into John’s dirt streaked face. He was my security on this jump.

I spun the phone around and handed it to him like it was hot.

“The date is updated,” I said, “It says today is August 6, 1945.”

“Well that is that’s right, isn’t it?” He was as confused as I’d been a moment ago. I could see in his face he know something was wrong, he just had not figured it out yet.

“It should still say March 9, 2087, the day that we left,” I said. “How does it know to update?”

I watched the realization creep across his face. When John looked up his skin had turned the color of ash.

“Why…” He paused and swallowed. “Why are you connected to Wi-Fi?”

I snatched the phone from his hand, almost dropping it. The icon in the top left was filled up. Three bars, that’s a better connection than I get in my living room.

How was there Wi-Fi in the middle of a Japanese forrest in 1945?

My finger shook as I pressed the icon to check the name of the network.

In plain letters it read, Welcome to the Infinite Web.