Heart In A Locket

Jackson was walking threw a field of corn stumbling, tripping over roots and stems wondering if he was ever to make it out the other side of the field. Shortly after having the thought he was greatly lost he saw a gap, the corn field widely opened onto a sea of lush green grass with an abandoned town not to far down. "Well now that is a relief, hopefully i am lucky and stumble across some fresh water" Jackson sighed to himself. He made his way down to the abandoned town, as he walked threw the streets a subtle eeriness crept over him.

SMASH!, Jackson leapt as quickly as he could over to the side to cower next to a glasses shop, he peeked over his shoulder and around the corner of the old abandoned building, but surely not, "do my eyes deceive me?" he questioned himself. A beautiful woman, long wavy hair as blonde as the sky just before the red of dusk, it looked though it smell of sunflowers and taste buttercups. Jackson cowarding beside the glasses shop felt his heart leap from his chest but before he could build up the courage to step out he heard a shout from afar moving closer, what seemed like two no, maybe four men. In the blink of an eye the four men arrived and approached the fair haired woman, she was quite startled, "well allo lovely" the grisly man at the front said to the seemingly frightened woman.

"There are to many of them" Jackson thought to himself, one carried a big axe with two sharply edged sides, another a rifle of a high caliber, and the other two with bats one with nails and the other with barbed wire surrounding it, the grisly man had the double sided axe, he must be the leader of the gruesome looking gang. "Give us a look at that!" the grisly man ordered, he pulled his hands towards her chest and grabbed what looked like a locket, a heart shaped locket. "Enough!" the four men turned to find a skinny figure standing down the street holding a handgun. "Let her go!" Jackson shouted, "why should we?" shouted the grisly man back.

"Shoot him," looking at the second with the rifle, "aight boss" he replied. But before he could pull the bolt back to load his rifle, BANG!. "What the" the leader wept, the second man was dead, BANG!. Followed the fourth and shortly of course the third, looking distraught the grisly leader glaring at his once friends and gang whom now lay in the very mess they got themselves into, turned to find that the skinny man down the street was a skilled shooter. He then looked at the fair haired woman who had pulled out an old revolver. "What, no!" he shouted just before, BANG!, now he joins his brethren.

Jackson was shook at his own bravery, not even a minute ago he seemed like a coward, hiding, but if she was to be real, he knew with her pure beauty alone she will need to be protected. The monsters that would come for her, she approached Jackson, suddenly his legs turned to jelly speechless he muttered, "uh hi," "you saved me" she said. "Yeah, well you know, no biggy," he blushed and looked down at his feet, he is making a fool of himself. She laughed " hahaha, my name is Mary, thank you," "your welcome, oh uh my name is Jackson haha" he hastily replied. "Well where are you going?" Mary asked him, Jackson took a while to think straight, this can't be real, not in 100 years did he think he would ever find such beauty in this wasteland. "Well?" she asked, then he remembered , "uh right i am going north, to the so called safe city," he replied, " if you want to make it there alive we better find somewhere to stay safe for the night before the Oldies come out" Mary said. Jackson was shocked that she wanted to stay with him without hesitation, something didn't seem right, he frowned suddenly to remember the Oldies, every day he hopes they won't come out at night.

What a fate to age, when you hit the age between 60 you become one with the virus, it plagues your mind turns you savage, you become a killer a creature of shadow, only lurking in the dark waiting for innocent prey to get lost and take their life, that's if you can make it to 60.

Months had passed now the two became quite close, they had traveled north every day getting closer to the safe city, a city with walls the size of sky scrapers enclosing it. That is what the radio said at least, it was getting late in the evening and they did not realize how much ground they had to cover before it gets dark, they were stranded out in a field of oak trees, there was a town not far but still half an hour out, they made their decision and ran, by the time they got there it was already dark, a scream was heard from the towns abandoned pharmacy, an Oldie must have been resting there threw the day, a sleeping spot for blood hungry lurking Oldie. "This way" Jackson whispered, "they are everywhere," Mary did not say to much lately she started to seem distant, something was bothering her and Jackson did not know what it was.

"Ahhhhh" a scream echoed in the corner store they retreated to. "Run!" Jackson shouted grabbing Mary's hand running for the exit but the Oldie was on their tail he was holding a machete in hand leaping at them, Mary pulled a knife out of her coat and sliced the Oldie across his mouth, the old man's jaw hanging down let out a curdling scream and others heard him and started running towards the corner store. Jackson realized it is to late to be quite now, he pulled out his hand gun and shot the old man, he was down for the count quickly Jackson ran to the counter where long ago alcohol was once sold, Jackson grabbed a bottle of alcohol he then ripped the bottom of his button up shirt off, he opened the lid of the bottle shoved the ripped shirt half way in the bottle, turned it upside down then flipped it back and lit the rag. "Lets do this, over here!" he aggressively said, Mary was shocked clinching in her hand the locket around her chest.

Jackson often wondered what was in the locket, she kept it so close, one time he asked what was in the locket and she told him, "don't worry about that let us just focus on getting to the city." this brought much confusion to poor Jackson he was somewhat angry yet curious, after all at the time they had known each other for sometime now. Standing there behind the counter gripping the moltov in one hand and Mary's hand in the other, the Oldies came running in, from Mary's faint flashlight there seemed only to be five in count holding whatever they could find to kill with, from a broken bottle to a bat. "Alright, ready?" Jackson asked Mary, "do it" she replied, he threw the moltov at the door and sure enough he got all of them in its blast of flames, screams of pain and anger filled the air sending chills down the spine of who ever heard them. They fled out the back door unseen, "that was to close" they both said simultaneously.

Sneaking threw the street as quite as they possibly could, flash!. A bright light poured over them, "who is it?" Jackson yelled, a few gun shots went off culling the surrounding Oldies who were closing on their position. A figure threw the light appeared, walking closer aiming an automatic at them. "Alright lads" the mysterious man said to his fellow soldiers, they lowered the light and everything came into view, they were surrounded. "We finally found you" the mysterious man menacingly said, "I am the general of this men, general Glad is my name, what is yours?""uh my name is Jackson," Mary remained quite, " Jackson you say, you killed my men, they were good soldiers"general Glad said. "I am sorry but we had no choice" Jackson replied, "you did, but Mary did not" general Glad said pointing his automatic at Jackson's face. "What" Jackson mumbled, he then felt a presence upon the other side of his face, turning he noticed Mary standing there pointing her trusty revolver at his other cheek. "What!" Jackson repeated louder. "They were my friends, i had to kill Tommy because you probably would of killed me, i had to play the victim," Mary said looking upset yet relieved. "I don't understand, I love you mary!" Jackson said with tears running down his cheek, as though the past months were a lie, he knew it was to good to be true, it felt as though a sharp dagger of betrayal rippped threw his chest. "Please!, please don't Mary, please explain why" Jackson said dropping to his knees, Mary looked down at him, she put her left arm to her chest pulling the heart shaped locket from it, opening it, inside on the left there was a photo of an older looking woman with fair eyes and wavy hair like Mary, this was her mother but suddenly a gasp, Jackson realised on the right side, there was a photo of him at a younger age, he did not understand.

"10 yeras ago when i was still a teenager, we were living in a cabin it was myself, my mother and my father" Mary said turning to general Glad. "Father was gathering wood when mum and I heard someone walk onto our deck, mum told me to hide, we were scared the virus started not to long before then" Mary said shaking with tears running down her rose cheeks. "I hid under the table terrified, a man burst threw the door" she said now weeping, "when the man entered my mother lunged at him with a knife because she could see he was armed, bang!. you killed her." Jackson lowered his head in shame. "All i had was my camera she gave me for my birthday, I managed to snap a photo of you before you could slip away, to show my father, who was to late" Mary said pointing her revolver closer to Jacksons face, "I swore i would get revenge for my sweet Meradeth," Mary's father Glad said, "I had to expand you were good at running, so i created this group of soldiers looking for casuse, to find you" Glad said looking down then focusing his gaze up at his daughter, "i am sorry it took so long, I-," "its okay father" Mary replied.

Jackson looked up at the two,"I thought she was an Oldie, in my youth i was to quick to judge, i really am so-"BANG!. Suddenly Jackson felt a warmth run down his chest, Mary had shot hime right threw the heart, Jackson fell back, Mary held him in her arms. "I am sorry Jackson, i have been waiting for this moment for to long now, i waited so father and I could both say our fair well together, to put our minds at ease," Jackson looked at her beautiful fading face, he said "i loved you!" his last breath was drawn in her arms, she looked down at the locket removing Jackson's photo and putting it on his chest. She then looked at her mothers photo in the heart-shaped locket. "This is all i have of my mother, my heart in my locket."