Heart City

The air grew thick, on a warm summer night, with the scent of a world long forgotten. A man and his dog search the nearby forest for a safe place to get some rest, after a long day of foraging. They stumble upon an old, broken down vehicle, and decided to take shelter in the backseat. The man, with his faithful companion at his side, exhales a sigh of relief as he settles in. He feeds his dog the last scraps of food they have, and then bows his head for a prayer, uncertain of what the next day may bring.

"Dear Protector,

As we lay down to sleep, please look over and protect us from the dangers of this world. In your name, we pray.

- Amen."

This man and dog are much like many other people these days, stuck fighting to survive in a world overwhelmed by danger. Just over a century ago, man's lust for power overflowed, and in the wake of a great war, the world was engulfed in fiery rain. The war decimated most of the planet, destroying civilizations, ruining food and water sources. Most of humanity was lost, but some people were lucky enough to survive by hiding underground in subways, sewers, and bunkers.

For the last twenty years, people have been emerging from these underground safe havens, due to lack of food and clean water, and have been attempting to repopulate the planet. New civilizations have arisen, although they are few and far between, but they rarely let newcomers in due to the threat of pillaging and thievery. The unlucky people who can never make it to these civilizations are stuck out in a cold, dark world, fighting to survive. The world is plagued by more than starvation, radiation, and disease however. Mutated beasts, fused together by the nuclear wastelands and turned into ferocious monsters, now roam the planet, feasting on unsuspecting and undefended survivors.

The following morning, the man and dog are awakened by the sound of shuffling feet dangeously close to their night time shelter. Frightened of what lies outside, the man pulls a large knife from his backpack, and slowly opens the door, readying himself to protect their lives at all costs. He creeps from the backseat of the car, opposite of the approaching sounds, and holds his knife close to his chest, waiting for the opportune moment to hop on the threat. The dog jumps from the car, and accidentally kicks a small empty can that was sitting on the floor, causing a noise loud enough to give away their position. The dog turns around quickly, growling viciously, and the man hops up from his hidden spot, as a women leaps on the car's trunk, brandishing what appears to be a handgun. Petrified, the man raises his hands, and shushes his dog, as the lady speaks to them with a quivering voice.

"I am not here to harm you sir, but if you make a move towards me, I will be forced to shoot you. Please don't make me do it. I'm only out here searching for my daughter. She and I got into an argument over a safe place to go, and I haven't seen her in three days."

The man, with his arms still raised, calmly reassured the woman he means her no harm. He then, insisted on helping her find her daughter, knowing she must be worried sick.

"Ma'am, my dog is an excellent tracker, and we've been around this area for some time now. If you allow it, we can help you look for your daughter. If you have anything that may contain her scent show it to the dog and he could lead us to her."

The lady, reluctant yet thankful, pulls a bandana from her back pocket, and puts it in front of the dogs snout. The bandana was very ragged and bloody, giving proof that the woman and her daughter were out in the wild for a long time. The dog takes a long sniff of the bandana, and within seconds, begins wagging his tail, indicating that he already picked up her scent somewhere nearby. The dog lets out a commanding bark towards the man and woman, and begins running off down the road. They follow for some time until they come across an old, eerie and dilapidated gas station.

As they approach the gas station, the dog turns to his owner, and then back toward the station, pointing his nose at the door. The man knows this means the girl must be inside, but is also wary of what else may be there. Catching on to the situation, the woman without warning, begins running towards door, excited to find her daughter. She is quickly stopped by the dog however, who begins pulling at the leg of her pants, forcing her to stop in her tracks. The man knowing what that means, says to the woman.

"My dog only pulls at my pants if he knows danger lies ahead. There most be something inside that bothers him. I don't think it would be wise to rush in alone. I'll go. I'm pretty good at looting buildings. I'm sure I could find your daughter, without alerting anything else nearby. You can stay out here with my dog, he will keep you safe."

Unsure, yet thankful, the lady gives the man her handgun. She tells the man to be careful, and to bring her daughter out, whether she is dead or alive, as she hands him a photograph of the girl. He agrees and heads off to the station, instructing his dog to hide with the woman.

Th man slowly approaches the front of the gas station. There is a window, boarded up, with a hole just big enough to peek through. He looks around the dark storefront, but all he can see is a small light coming from what appears to be a candle in the corner. Certain someone is inside, he decides to investigate the perimeter, looking for a quiet entrance to the building. Around the back, he finds steel crates stacked up high enough to reach the roof. He pulls himself up, creeping slowly as to not make a noise, and discovers a hole just big enough to fit through. He climbs down through the hole into a small office.

The room was very dark. A stomach-churning stench filled the air, which the man easily identified. Living in the world that he does, has made him accustomed to the odors of death. He lights a match from his pocket to get a glimpse of what mess he stumbled upon, only to be shocked at the gruesome scene before him. Mangled chunks of flesh littered the floor of the office. Mutilated corpses hung from the ceiling, with buckets below them, filled with curdled blood and guts. There wasn't an inch of the room missed by blood and chunks of meat. None of the bodies appeared to be animals or monster either, these bodies were all survivors at one point. The man was instantly overcome with terror for the girl he was searching for.

Uncertain about what he may discover, the man moved on from the room. He crept out the office door, and down a hallway leading to the storefront, still very cautious as to not make a sound. He maneuvered around old boxes, slowly, until he finally reached the swinging doors that seperated him from his destination.

He slowly pushes the doors open, surveying the area, and immediately was fixated on a body in the same corner he saw the candle in. A person was there, presumably asleep under a mound of old blankets. He eased his way through the door and edged closer to the sleeping person. As he approached, he realized it was a man, and not the girl he was hoping to find. He turned to search elsewhere when he heard the sounds of rattling chains from the other side of the store. He clenched the handgun tightly as he moved around a shelf that seperated him from whatever he may find across the room.

Chained to the wall was a young lady, naked and afraid. He instantly knew this was the girl he was searching for. He made his way over too her, calmly, as to not scare her. As he approached the girl, however, she got frantic, and began screaming, pleading for death.

"NO! PLEASE NO! YOU'VE HURT ME SO MUCH ALREADY, I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE! PLEASE JUST KILL ME! KILL ME AND EAT ME! I KNOW THAT'S WHAT YOU DO, JUST PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY!"

The man did everything he could to assure the girl that he was not going to hurt her. He was just about to tell her that her mother was waiting outside, when he heard a sudden crash from behind him. The sleeping man was now awake, visibly angry, and ready to kill. He screams at the rescuer.

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY PRIZE!"

The angry man charged toward the rescuer, brandishing an axe. He raised the axe above his head, swinging violently at the man. He missed two swings, and with the third, got the axe stuck in the wall. In that moment, afraid for their lives, the other man raises the handgun and shoots the attacker clean through his eye. Relieved, he turns to the girl, aims the gun again, and shoots the lock off of her chains.

Immediately after being free, the girl runs over to her kidnapper's corpse, and begins attacking him, screaming at the top of her lungs. She continued for a few minutes until she tired, and collapsed to the floor, weeping heavily. The man takes some clothing from his backpack, and hands it to the girl, in an attempt to comfort her. She puts the clothes on and thanks her rescuer, knowing that she was finally safe.

The man tells the girl that her mother is waiting outside. He goes to help her up and take her to her mother, but the girl refuses. She explains to him that she lost a necklace that was very important to her mother, and that she could not leave until she found it. It was a heart-shaped locket, on a thin chain, that once belonged to her father. He gifted it to her just moments before passing away, and it was all they had left to remeber him.

The man agreed to help her search for the necklace. They looked through all of the dead man's belongings, finding many stolen trinkets, but were unable to locate the girl's locket. They were just about to give up, when the man decided to search the corpse, thinking that he may have been wearing it or keeping it close. After a moment of searching, he finally found the necklace around his neck. The girl glowed with relief as he handed it to her. They both then exited the building, happy to put that horrid place behind them.

Outside, the mother and dog were waiting anxiously for their people. As soon as the doors swung open, the mother saw her daughter, and ran to hug her. The reunion was sweet, they held each other and cried for a while, and for the first time in a few days, everything finally seemed okay. The man and dog were happy to help.

The group then decided to travel to a safe haven together. They traveled on for months, over time adding more survivors to their group. Eventually, they had enough people to settle down in the ruins of a town, where they began building their own safe haven. Over the following years, the town grew to a city, and their defenses stood true. Food and clean water were abundant and open to all newcomers. The man, now president of his own civilization, named the city after the necklace he helped the girl locate... Heart City, a bastion of hope for humanity.