In the near future, the first attempt at time travel is made. A single man was sent three days into the future. The initial temporal event occurred without a hitch. The world waits for three days and at the appointed hour... all hell breaks loose.
In a single flash the entire world changes. The temporal effect radiates out to a range of 500,000 km. Mineral deposits in the Earth's crust magnify or scatter the effect, leading to a hodgepodge of different times in different places.
On the east coast of the United States a bewildered present-day nation tries to come to grips with a western United States that has somehow reverted to a neolithic state.
Across the Atlantic, a flabbergasted 22nd century New British Empire finds itself under attack... by the Luftwaffe. Easily defeated, Nazi Germany turns its attention to Russia... which no longer exists.
Meanwhile, the ancient Chinese dynasties are curious as to why their neighbours in India have disappeared... and why whenever they send emissaries and scouts no one returns.
A bewildered 1957 Australia tries to come to terms with an ice-free, heavily forested and much nearer Antarctic whilst rural farmers fend off Megafauna that haven't been seen for millennia all the while, a gigantic crystalline structure hovers above their heads, impassively resisting all analysis.
A nanotech age Africa meanwhile tries to keep out of the affairs of the "Primitive Savages" whilst exploring the Cretaceous-era flora and fauna of South America.
The world at large, meanwhile, must struggle with the chaotic tides of a monstrously large moon that is far nearer than any living being has been witness to since long before the rise of multicellular life...
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You get the picture, I think. The overall idea is that everyone in the "Present" gets thrown off into a kind of quasi-broken hodge podge of the Earth at different times. Major geological formations would form "Boundary" areas of "General" time, though there would also be localised effects.
Consider that if you were on holiday in say, Florida several months ago while you live in California and the two states come out relatively intact but with a few months difference between them, yes, there would be two of you, the you that is still on holiday and the you that came back after having had a blast.
Change your location and you necessarily change which hodge podge you end up with. If you were living in Present-Day Britain when this occurred, you might be facing a world where Europe is in the throes of the Plague, China is in the middle of the 27th century while tribes of Homo Erectus are trying to migrate into the Middle East circa 1921.
Each geographical region gets its own slice of the pie, its own story, its own strife and its own struggles. If you just so happened to be visiting China, then present-day China must face Neo Communist Russia in the 35th century, a Japan still under the Shogunate a Europe devastated by World War One and a United States still fighting the civil war.
One of the central ideas that I wanted to keep in mind was that the world is broken. There is no fixing it. There is no "reversing the polarity" and neatly tying up the problem. What's done is done and we have to make the best of bad situations all round.
There is no "Jumping" from one present day location to the next. There is no communication so you can get in touch with old friends. Once the disaster hits, except for moments of serendipity where several geographical regions share an approximation of "Present Day", you'll find very few if any familiar present day people to get in contact with.
The only hand-wavium I feel necessary is that the attempt to time travel is made at all, AFAIK, current theory says "Possible, but not with our technology". Apart from this, I'd like to keep the idea as close to reality as humanly possible. Probable future societies, no mysterious "Lost Continents" nor fictitious civilisations that were "Wiped from time", no aliens nor alien invasions, nothing that wouldn't be outright impossible over the the entire past, present and future of Earth given what we know.
The problem I'm having is one of scale... I just imagine writing this and I fear I may wind up never finishing as the scope I envision is a bit daunting to say the least. The other problem is feedback. I keep a small circle of friends and while they're good friends that give me good advice I kind of need more than what they can give me.
Thanks for reading, look forward to the feedback
