Tag Archives: emergency list

#228 – Write a Survival Guide for a Character

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…Ten Things to do in an Emergency

A Time Travelers Emergency Guide

  1. Remain Calm: This universal piece of advice is as important in this situation as any other.  Panic can only make the situation far worse.
  2. When are You?: By any means, discover what time you have been stranded in.  If possible, get as accurate as you can.  However, even just the age would be more beneficial than not.
  3. Assess Potential Threats: Have you landed in a hostile times?  Will the locals confuse you as a witch and burn you alive?  Are the crusades going on?  Do dinosaurs roam the Earth?  This knowledge will allow you to properly strategize as well as give you an idea if you can find outside help.
  4. Keep Clean and Quiet: This one is very important.  Do not, under any circumstances, allow anyone to discover what will happen in the future.  Make sure all traces are cleaned up and that nothing from your time period gets left behind.
  5. Set to Stun: In the event that you must defend yourself, you are to use non-lethal force only and no lasting damage.  There is no telling what affect any living creature can have on the future.
  6. Avoid Cities: While it may seem ideal to get lost in the sea of people while you work on going home, this also opens up the possibility of altering more futures.  This must be avoided.  If possible, avoiding all human contact is advised.
  7. Keep Stock: Make sure you keep your emergency case with you at all times.  It will provide you with currency from all times and places as well as appropriate clothing.  It also has a quantum signal that allows technicians from your original time to lock in on and locate you faster.  Without it, you may be lost forever.
  8. No Cheating: This has been covered repeatedly in Time Travel Basics, but can’t be stressed enough.  Under no circumstances are you to use your knowledge of the future to better your own life.  Even if you are trapped in the time period indefinitely.  Maintain zero quantum footprint.
  9. Stay Together: This one is important for several reasons.  First and most obvious, there is safety in numbers.  Secondly, spreading out increases your chances of being discovered and caught.  Thirdly and finally, an emergency retrieval will only happen at the location of the case.  Those not present at the time of retrieval risk getting left behind.
  10. Have Fun: This may seem odd, but enjoy yourself.  You just traveled through time!  So take a moment to revel in that fact.

Good luck to you all out there.

Behind the Random: This one took me a little bit to figure out the theme for.  At first, I considered doing a zombie survival guide, but that’s been done to death (pardon the pun), so I tried various other monsters such as vampires and werewolves and even alien invasion.  I even tried to write a How to Survive a Supervillain Attack but that proved to be too obscure.  Then I figured I like time travel so why not?  It was a fun assignment, though a bit of a stretch at time.