Future Unknown

Trash littered the streets of New San Francisco while people were trudging amongst each other attempting to make a day’s living selling scraps and possibly stolen items. Ida kept to herself as she snuggled deeper in her heavy cloak, hood drawn and looking down. Even if she looked up, the hood was so deep and dark it would be hard to see her face except for her curly, brown hair.

The last three days have been difficult with the recent lotto drawing. People were desperate for a spot to work at the last standing tech companies that survived the wave and the separation from the U.S. The lotto came about when a new position opened which happened only twice a year. But the last few months they were more frequent. Rumor has it the tech companies were mining in the mountains for raw materials and were desperate for workers. Locals of New San Francisco fought amongst each other to get in line first and to draw their blood for the lotto. Others stayed away knowing the pay was not worth their lives being lost in mining for new technology that so far has not been used to help them. Only working to feed to the rich who starve the poor.

Ida scrapped, swept floors for shop keepers and even made crafts that were fine enough to be sold at the Blue Blood Market which was better than nothing. Her family and her were separated on the other side of the U.S. and she had no clue if they were dead or alive, if they were doing well or struggling like her. The separation happened when the San Andreas Earthquake finally hit. It cracked the continent to quite literally separated most of California and Oregon from the rest of the country. The wave came next as an after effect causing further damage killing people and almost destroying everything in its path.

Tech companies like SIFA (Separating Intelligence From the Artificial) promised the New San Francisco citizens a new beginning, to fix all of their problems and this was their chance to prove to the rest of the country they did not need them. SIFA had already had their hooks and money invested in the Old San Francisco Bay Area including the major systems of California and Oregon as a whole. Whatever was on the other side, the US was able to cut it off in retaliation. Everything on Ida’s side was taken over.

She thanked the Gods that she had her own place as she marched forward shoving people out of the way heading to the dump. A hand shot out and grabbed her arm, before she could react, they attempted to pull off her hood. All she knew it was a man who grabbed her and was insanely strong. She wasn’t a petite flower herself and has been in her fair share of fights. The hood could never come off. Being a woman here without a man to protect her would make her a target. Without a second thought she pulled out her knife from her side belt, slicing his hand that held her arm. A guttural yell sounded as she ran like a bat out of hell trying to find a place to hide. The Square was big enough but not that big.

She came upon a dilapidated hotel near the Pier and quickly pushed through the side door that appeared open. Ida knew not many people came near here. With the smell of old sea salt and sea moss growing on everything, it was obvious this was the first building hit by the wave. Things in the former hotel were damp, crabs scuttled the floor as she walked across it. The grand room looked the lobby with the ancient and once beautiful marble flooring. Touching her hood, it still felt secure but now she just wanted it off. Unhooking the hooks from the inside, it slid against her shoulders freeing her wild curly hair making her feel free and seen. She hated the cloak, but it was necessary for her safety. People assumed in New San Francisco that if people covered up the way she did she must have been severely deformed or contagious with the radiation poisoning that occurred with the power plants erupting. Turning in circles, something glinted in the corner of her eye. Perhaps it was the lighting from the skylight? She spun again laughing tiredly- there it was again. Ida stopped steadying herself. The shining kept glinting as if getting brighter.

Slowly in her worn, leather boots she walked towards it. It was stuck in an enormous bookcase with owl carvings. The books were long gone, moldy and decrepit. But the shelf she was looking at, there was one pristine book where on the right side the shininess was coming from. Reaching for it, her hand for some reason shook. Touching it she saw it was a fake book. It was not unheard of to have them at hotels, but this used to be a fancy hotel that sold rooms for $600 a night which was considered low price for this area. Pulling the book from the shelf there lay a necklace. Dropping the book to the floor she gently grabbed the hidden treasure from its dingy crevice. It was a gold heart shaped locket. Examining it with her fingers, turning it over it looked brand new as if it were never submerged in water. It shined as if it were polished consistently. An eerie feeling swept over her causing her to turn around. No one was there except her and the crabs who lived there.

Time was of the essence. Taking the necklace, she put it on shoving it under her worn tank top and then proceeded to hook her hood in its rightful place. From the skylight it was obvious it was dusk. She had to get home, yet she prayed to the Gods that she would not be attacked again. Ida cursed herself for not looking at the man but only so focused on her survival to be released. All she knew was that he was white, had various strange tattoos and was strong as hell. Cautiously she looked through the door she came through. Nothing to see except an empty ally way, The Square and the Pier tended to be deserted at this time. Nothing good comes after midnight. Chills ran up her spine and she decided to go out the other way, a window she spotted on the other side of the building.

Walking quickly, darting close to walls when she spotted anyone coming her way she managed to get back to her home. It was a large brick warehouse that housed people like her. Loners who kept to themselves and were creators who only wanted peace. She lived on the top floor which was like an attic with a Skylight since she already rented it before the wave and separation. Ida considered herself lucky on the location and the type of building it was sturdy and had metal doors for each apartment as thick as five inches with deadbolts. At this time of night, most of her neighbors were either asleep or working the night markets underground.

During her journey to her home and up to her apartment she kept fingering the necklace. It felt like an omen. Ida was not sure if it was good or bad but there was some hope within her. So much for scavenging for materials today. Luckily, she had cooked rice stored in her ice box. With companies like SIFA in charge, electricity was limited. So were the cooking techniques needing this energy and the systems humans relied on to communicate to each other such as mobiles and the internet. There have been a few times she tried to contact her family through multiple letters, but none were sent back, no luck it seems.

With her cloak off and still wearing her tool belt with weapons and tools she glanced in the long length mirror to see how the necklace looked on her. The chain was a thick antique cord, long enough that the pendant sat low between her breasts of her tank top. Realizing that she did not open the locket, Ida still hesitated for some reason, I don’t think you’ll like what you will find there…

Shaking she took the pendant and pried it open with her long nails. Her breath hitched.

Inside…was not a photo. It was almost like a live digital screen of her…and a man. Next to her with his arms around her small waist. Both were smiling, but his arms- one of them looked like the one that grabbed her today. It even had a large bandage where she sliced him earlier with some blood bleeding through. Ida’s heart pounded as blood rushed to her ears. Her feet back peddled away from the mirror as she kept looking at the screen until she felt herself slam into a hard body of flesh. Ida screamed seeing a tall man in front of her, the same man from her necklace. He quickly grabbed her and covered her mouth with his large hand quieting her.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. Looking down at his tattoos they matched the locket’s image. Slowly he let her go but held her brown hand in his pale one as he led Ida to her beaten couch sitting down. Fright and anxiety filled her as she froze not knowing what will happen. Without cutting eye contact, the man reached around his neck and pulled off a necklace. She looked down at it mesmerized. It looked like hers except it was silver. Slowly he pushed the necklace into her smaller hand nodding his head at her. He wanted her to open it. Hers was still open and he reached for it after he silently asked for her permission. While he looked at her locket’s screen his left her breathless. It was them at The Square. Cloak and all. Then it changed to what they were doing right now. Sitting together looking at each other’s hearts.

~~~

She was not alone. Not with this, the necklaces. Max, his name she learned later, created a technology he hoped to sell on the Blue Blood market to get out of New San Francisco. It turned out he unknowingly invented a technology with its own sentience that could tell the future, his soulmate and his hopes and dreams. The heart shaped locket she found was a surprise for Max. He did not know it would replicate. He did not know the tiny screen he saw at first would come true. But in this dim reality there was love and hope. The locket later showed them old, weathered yet happy in their own home with their own family away from New San Francisco and Old California.