His Rose

The sounds of twigs snapping, echo through the woods. Worn leather boots make a pathway of smushed grass and flattened leaves as Edwin continues to survey his surroundings. The sounds of loose leaves moving through the trees deeper into the woods, loud insects looking for a fellow lonely soul, and the smell of wet grass, all just background for Edwin as he focuses his senses to find what he’s looking for.

Edwin remembers the day that helicopters crashed into the ground, the day planes fell like meteors to the Earth, and buildings began to crumble and destroy everything around them. The screams from that day still leave Edwin with only a couple hours of sleep every night. He always had something to do when awake anyway, whether it be creating better shelter, roaming through the woods, or his favorite thing to do, look over Rose and tell her bedtime stories until he falls asleep.

Edwin always loved having Rose close by, but keeping her safe was more important. He trusted no one but himself around her, so she had to stay hidden. There was a day when hungry raiders came trampling through the woods, looking for Edwin. They found him, beat him, and took almost half of his water, but what was important, is that they didn’t find Rose. He couldn’t risk that ever happening again, so he made sure that his hut was now under the ground, under a hollow log, big enough for his metals, his bed, and his Rose.

The big cities were the first to fall. Nobody saw it coming, the waves and pulses of energy coming from the ground, knocking out all the electricity in the world. It was the quietest moment ever witnessed, followed by chaos and screams of terror so quickly afterwards. Explosions, sparks, cries, horror, and fear; all happening at once, for a long time afterwards. Once dust had settled, the only authority left belonged to government uniforms with guns. They offered a system, some order to the chaos. The people now had to rely on solar panels and man-powered turbines. The government, however, planted themselves around surrounding nuclear plants, coal plants, and wind farms, and live within their 20 foot, plastic and rubber walls. Paper money is now just kept for nostalgia or ways to keep warm at night.

Faint dripping noises catch Edwins’ attention, as he hears the drops hit something light and metallic. He looks around, making sure he is alone, before he slowly makes his way to the source of the noise. A minute passes before he sees a shiny glimmer ahead of him, and he runs towards it. Edwin finally appears in front of what he figures to be the wreckage of a small drone, and picks it up, removing it from the drops of water falling from the leaves above. After removing some dirt from the drone, he sees it’s mostly rusted on the outside except for the propellers and a metal bracket holding onto an old camera. Edwin hides the drone by placing it in his bag, strapped to his back. Edwin looks to the branches above, and ground nearby, but only sees plastic and a few pieces of glass, and starts walking away.

Edwin continues to walk through the trees, marking some trees with a sharp rock, removing the silence of the woods from his ears. He misses the sounds of wildlife, of birds and critters making a home out of these woods. Edwin was there when his father was kicked out of his cabin by men in guns, part of the governments newest enforcement unit, The Wildlife, Ice, and Greens Syndicate, also knows as TWIGS. Edwin remembers the first time he heard of TWIGS, and always thought it was such a cute name for a preservation group, but when he was confronted by soldiers in riot gear and weaponry, it didn’t seem so cute anymore; just deceiving. The cabin was surrounded by deer, chipmunks, even birds of all kinds, which is why the government came knocking. According to TWIGS, all animals belonged to the government, so they could distribute their meat to the people, and preserve the rest. Edwin always hated the fact that no animal was free from federal eyes or butchers.

The sun starts beating down on Edwin from up on top, and he decides it is time to cash in his treasures of the day. He heads to his hut, beneath the log, and looks around to make sure no one is watching. He clears out some leaning branches from a tree and uncovers his water filter, made from a bleached cloth, a net, and a few hollowed thick tree branches with some string, all leading to a plastic bucket, sticking out of the ground. He uses a nearby hanging plastic bowl to grab some water and he drinks out of it, while speaking out to Rose, hidden nearby. “I’m going into town, okay? You have to stay hidden.”

With a small sigh, Edwin continues, “Just stay hidden. I’ll be back with some dinner.” Silence responds, but Edwin knows that Rose understands that he just wants to keep her safe. After a few moments of rest, clutching onto a heart-shaped golden locket hanging around his neck, he covers everything back up and starts heading to a nearby road. He hides the locket into his shirt, gold chain and everything.

Edwin digs into his bag and grabs a small board with rubber wheels on each side on it, and places it onto the ground before standing on it, and pushing himself off down the road. Every state had three TWIGS centers, where people can bring in all of their conductive materials, dead batteries, and unfiltered water. In exchange, the government gives back either food rations, a gallon of clean water, household chemicals, or a limited time of utility services to the house of the traders’ choosing, if they had a house. What they give out depends on what treasures the people bring. After the day the Earth destroyed its own resources, everyone fought for power, real electric power. Everything was traded in for electricity, so that the rich and powerful can keep their cars, start their own rations factories, or whatever else they wanted. Everyone else, though, they were left to be robbed, used, and abandoned. That’s what society turned towards, power; not compassion.

As Edwin approaches TWIGS, he sees very few people ahead of him in line, a dirty trio of people loitering nearby, and he puts away his board. America couldn’t even find the decency to make this an office with a waiting area, instead just a heavily armed outpost surrounded by gravel and a few solar panels on columns ten feet into the air. He keeps his head down to keep the Sun out of his eyes until finally he can reach the window and its’ attendant. Ed looks up to the attendant, and the attendant recognizes him.

“Oh hey, Ed. Your beard has gotten longer, I almost didn’t recognize you.” he says to the old, bearded man in front of him. Edwin nods and starts digging into his bag and shows the TWIGS officer the drone.

“Oh wow! Is that what I think it is?” The officer grabs the drone and inspects it, opening it up and seeing the copper wires inside.

Edwin speaks up “Hey, Theo, careful with that! Just give me 4 dinner rations and a bottle of bleach, before you break all the good stuff in there.” Filled with Anxiety, Edwin starts playing with the golden locket hanging around his neck, without thinking about it.

Theo chuckles and then gives the drone to a nearby officer in a different uniform. After a few moments of whispering amongst the officer, Theo turns his attention back to Edwin and sighs “Well, Ed, I can give you two rations at most, but no bleach. That drone is mostly rusted and there are pretty few wires in that thing.”

Edwin looks down, dejected, but opens his bag, ready to receive the rations. The dirty trio nearby start paying close attention and whisper to each other, staring at the old mans’ hand.

“You know, Ed—“ Theo speaks up as he hands Edwin the rations “you can always turn in that locket. That’s some heavy gold there, and in pristine condition. That could get you a whole lot of rations.” Edwin snatches the rations out of Theo’s hand and scowls at him as he walks away, putting the rations into his bag. The loitering trio is nowhere to be seen anymore and the woman behind Edwin shoves her way towards Theo with her trade. Edwin, annoyed with Theo’s suggestion, leaves on his board immediately. The sun begins to touch the horizon as Edwin starts to approach the woods where his hut is hidden.

Muttering to himself angrily, he tries to calm himself down, before approaching the hut. Edwin doesn’t like to be angry when he speaks to Rose, so he takes a few moments to clear his mind before starting to remove the log hiding his hut.

Suddenly, twigs and leaves start rustling near Edwin and he perks up, reaching out for a sharp stick nearby, but an arm jerks his shoulder and tosses him onto the ground, and Ed falls to a nearby tree. He looks up and sees two women, armed with stone knives, and a man with them, lifting the log up to reveal Edwins’ hut of scrap metal and a large box of rations.

“Well, old man, that’s a lot of rations!” The attacking woman yells at Edwin on the ground. Before he can respond, the woman standing with her speaks up “Yeah! Some of us are starving here!” She rubs her own belly in a cartoonish fashion.

The raiders laugh as the man starts grabbing the heavy box of rations and puts them in a nearby wooden wagon. “I’m only by myself! Please leave me alone! I just want to —“ Before Edwin can finish his sentence, the aggressive woman kicks Edwin in the gut and sees the golden heart-shaped locket pop out. “Oh, my god!” She exclaims “We’re about to afford a couple clean showers tonight!” The other two raiders start digging into the huts’ valuables as the woman snatches the locket off, and follows them inside, leaving Ed struggling in pain on the ground. “Rose!” Edwin exclaims “I’m so sorry, Rose! I’ll be right there!”

One of the raiders opens the heart shaped locket as Edwin struggles to stand and they see a photo of a girl inside. “What the hell?” The man inside utters as he picks up the photo and inspects it “Why would he keep this in there?”

Edwin pulls a vine nearby towards himself and as the raiders inspect the photo, they turn it around see “Rose Commercial Images” printed on the back. The trio inspects the stock photo before tossing it out of the shed, and stare the the golden locket, giggling amongst themselves. Edwin grabs the photo and whispers “I’ve got you, Rose!” and he jerks the vine. As the vine loosens, the raiders look up to see heavy tree logs and trunks fall from branches above and cave them inside the hut, trapped with nothing but each other.

The trio screams and begs to deaf ears as Edwin hugs the small image “I’ve got you, Rose! They won’t hurt you, it’s okay!” he sobs a little before putting the photo in his pocket. He dusts himself off, wipes his eyes, and places his water gallons into the nearby wagon and starts walking away from the cries for help. “Well, Rose—“ Edwin taps his pocket and starts pulling the wagon “Looks like we’ve got to find another home. Let’s make this one nicer, okay? Anything you want!” Edwin hums to himself as we walks further into the woods with the wagon behind him, looking for a nice shaded area for him and his Rose.