A Hearts Secret

So tired, all we do is walk I can barely keep up. I’m not sure why we always have to be quiet and why we only come out early every morning. I wish we could sleep in and stay in one place. But for some reason my mom and my boy, Lazarus, are always scared. Everything is broken, dirty, and dark, but no one tells me why. Lazarus tries hard to keep me fed and happy but I miss my toys and my fluffy bed. “Lazarus, it’s time to go” mom quietly says. She grabs her backpack as Lazarus puts on his shoes. “You have to be really quiet girl” he whispers. All is calm, for now, nobody is outside. Rustling comes from in back of us. “Run!” Mom yells. Lazarus and mom start running. I follow unsure of what we are running from. Then I hear why, men yelling and laughing. “There they are!” one yells. I hear a loud bang coming from behind. Mom screams and stumbles but quickly gets back up. I want to grab mom and Lazarus and take them to safety but I can’t, all I can do is run. We finally lose the men and go into an old house, so many smells I don’t recognize. Lazarus picks me up and holds me tight, he tells me to stay quiet. Mom is crying silently as she tugs the shiny red thing around her neck, she always talks to it, I don’t know what it says to her, I never hear it speak but she seems to find comfort in knowing she has it. Mom is acting weird but doesn’t let Lazarus know. A little time passes and once again it’s safe to come out of hiding. We look around for food and water. I’m so hungry but I know my boy and mom are hungry too, so I help look. “Mom, I’m scared, I wish we could go home.” Mom sighs and touches his face; a tear rolls down his cheek. I go to him and wait to be picked up. I give Lazarus a kiss on the face and don’t stop till he smiles again. Suddenly mom falls to the ground moaning. “Mom, what’s wrong? Mom!” Lazarus sounds frightened but mom says nothing and continues moaning. I run up and smell something funny, I’m not sure what it is but it smells like those small dark things Lazarus keeps in a box, he calls them pennies. Why does she smell like pennies? "My son, I love you so much don’t ever forget that, and don’t stop running.” Mom whispers. Lazarus is crying harder; all I can do is kiss mom’s face. She takes what she calls a heart locket off her neck and puts it in Lazarus’ hand. She whispers to him, “take this my brave boy, it will help you get to where you need to go. Don’t ever lose it; you will know what to do with it when the time is right.” Lazarus looks at the locket in his hand and cries more. “Mom you can’t leave me, please mom, don’t leave me!” I rub against Lazarus and kiss mom again as Lazarus puts his face on her chest. She touches the back of his head then her arm falls to her side. She isn’t moving, she’s gone. Lazarus stays on her longer, crying, I know we have to keep moving, that’s what mom always said. I push Lazarus with my nose until he looks at me. “It’s time to go my boy.” I bark. He doesn’t want to leave his mom but knows we have to. He grabs an old cloth and covers her then we begin to walk away. He continues to look back every few steps. Lazarus looks at the heart locket in his hand as we walk out of the old house. He stops and leans over to me, “here girl, I am giving you this; please don’t lose it, if something ever happens to me just keep going, mom said the locket will help you.” My boy puts it around my neck. I know I must guard it with my life and I will.

Weeks go by, not sure how many but it’s been long. So many bodies all around, some missing parts, some burned. People we see either run away or run after us. Most want what we have but I will never let them get it. I hear a noise coming from behind a bush, I run in front of Lazarus and begin to bark loudly at it. “What is it girl?” Lazarus asks. Suddenly something small and fuzzy bounces out at us. It looks scared, part of its tail is missing. It rushes up to me, I stop barking. What is it? I wonder. “A rat!” Lazarus shouts, laughing. “It’s just a rat girl.” She jumps on and off my back. I smell her, she tells me her name is Rosie and that someone was trying to kill and eat her and that’s why her tail is cut off. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you.” I bravely stated. “I see you made a new friend; I suppose she can stay with us." Lazarus says. Rosie climbs on my back and we head off. She tells me not to trust anyone, she has heard about our heart locket and that people know who we are. I wasn’t aware so many knew of our locket. All I know is that it is the answer to everything and that I must protect it with my life. As I will. I am not sure how much time has passed but my boy is not looking so good. He’s tired, hungry and really thirsty. I know I need to keep pushing him, mom would never want me to let him give up. As we walk through a large dried up corn field, we see an old somewhat burnt abandoned building. Lazarus says we will look inside and maybe we will find somewhere to sleep and maybe something to eat. Windows are broken, huge birds are sitting along the top of the building looking down at us. “They look mighty tasty.” Rosie whispers in my ear. I have to admit they sure do. Anything looks good right about now. As we get inside there are cobwebs everywhere. Broken chairs, broken doors, trash, and a few bodies are scattered. But it seems to be free of anyone living. We then hear something coming from upstairs. “Hide!” Lazarus loudly whispers. We run and duck under the stairwell. We then hear tiny footsteps coming down the stairs. “Hello? Anyone there?” A petite voice of a female echoes through the building. We each peek out over the stairs and see a small young girl. She is getting closer to the bottom of the stairs, crying. Rosie jumps off my back and runs quietly to a large post across from us. She then runs back to me. “No, no, no, I don’t like this.” Rosie says shaking her head and rubbing her ears. I look at her confused, why wouldn’t she like this poor little girl? Lazarus pops out from under the stairs and says, “my name is Lazarus and this is Pebbles, we won’t hurt you.” The little girl looks at us with tears in her eyes. It is strange the way she looked at Rosie but I ignore it, for now. “I’m all alone, my entire family is gone, I have no one.” She cries as she rubs her face. She gets closer to us, Rosie hisses. I look at Rosie then begin to bark at the girl. I don’t know what it is but something about this child is wrong.

“What’s your name?” Lazarus asks. The little girl wipes her eyes and looks up at my boy. “I’m Zoey, my mommy and daddy were taken and killed by bad people. My mommy hid me under some floor boards so the people couldn’t find me, but I saw everything.” Lazarus looks at me then at Zoey and walks up to her and gives her a big hug. I get closer and bark louder. “Quiet Pebbles, she’s just a frightened little girl.” My boy says as he holds her. Then I notice Zoey looking over my boys’ shoulder at my neck with a strange grin on her face, an evil grin. I growl at her but Lazarus turns and looks at me angrily. I step back and stop, but I am not happy and neither is Rosie. Rosie and I walk around searching for food and water as Lazarus and Zoey stay behind talking. Rosie begins to tell me that she does not like the girl and that Zoey is the one that cut her tail off with a large knife. Rosie tells me that we cannot trust Zoey and that there were many more of people with the girl. “We have to warn Lazarus!” I shout. We begin to run around in search of my boy and Zoey. They are not where we left them, we have to find him. I wonder where they could have gone? “Let’s try upstairs, we’ve already searched down here enough.” Rosie says sounding as panicked as I feel. Rosie jumps on my back and I begin to run up the stairs as fast as I can. We suddenly hear talking coming from up ahead. It’s Lazarus. I run faster barking as loud as I can. He comes out of a room with Zoey following behind. I continue to bark loudly and growl as aggressively as I can toward Zoey. Lazarus stares at me with a look of confusion, “I’m sorry, Pebbles is never like this, with anyone.” I continue trying to get my point across to my boy; I jump around in circles trying to get Lazarus to follow me as I backup away from them. “What’s wrong Pebbles? Why are you acting this way?” Lazarus asks me. He takes steps toward me. As he bends down to grab me, I see liquid pouring from his neck and once again the smell of pennies. Lazarus grabs at his neck and begins making a strange sound. As his body collapses to the floor Zoey stands over him holding a large knife. That’s when I hear Zoey yell, “get it! The dumb dog has it around its neck; Hurry!” Rosie and I step back as people dressed in dirty torn clothing and masks start running straight for us. We turn and begin to storm out of there. “Run Pebbles, run!” Rosie shouts as she jumps on my back. I run down the stairs and out the door we came in from. Once outside I have no clue where to go, I just run. It’s dark, so many things on fire, so many loud explosive sounds coming from all directions. I feel Rosie shaking on my back, “I’m scared.” She tells me nervously. People I have never seen are fighting and shouting. I am terrified but don’t dare stop. I begin to howl as loudly as I can. My boy is gone, what am I going to do without my boy? I miss him already. Then Lazarus' voice pops into my head, “if something ever happens to me, keep going.” I know that I hold the key, the answer to all this chaos. It’s so dark but I keep running. It seems like we have been on our own for a long time. Rosie and I finally find a stream of water with trees surrounding and fish swimming. Suddenly an old woman approaches smiling. “So, you are the one I have been waiting for?” She reaches down and allows me to sniff her, I am where I need to be and begin to feel at ease. I let her grab the heart locket, she smiles so big, as she begins to opens it and I now know all will be right again.