In Karma's Time

The wreckage of the cities left Janice with a sense of defeat. It was a continuous reminder of everything lost. Nothing cleaned up, nothing being built, all left to crumbled cement. The rain had wiped away the paints and vibrant colours of modern life.

The wreckage of the cities left Janice with a sense of defeat. It was a continuous reminder of everything lost. Nothing cleaned up, nothing being built, all left to crumbled cement. The rain had wiped away the paints and vibrant colours of modern life.

Her loss wasn’t merely material. After the end of it all, of what people she knew most had died. The others left without a word, not wanting anyone to follow. Why was this the way it was now? It no longer mattered. It was here. She kept trying to live in the moment.

Two days she had been walking, following a map she found in a heart-shaped locket. The trinket was wooden, hand-carved, and contained three things; a folded paper map, a micro SD card, and a photograph embedded into the back depicting—well, she didn’t know. It was a unique stone configuration, manmade or natural; she couldn’t tell in the tiny picture.

That’s it, that’s all she had. Herself, her dark sweat-covered clothes, a dirty bag, a map to follow, and an excuse to see another tomorrow. Why not? If she died, no one would notice; that in itself had its own freedom.

The journey this far had led her here, standing in an isolated desert at night in front of a half-mile-high rock wall. While she wasn’t about to scale it, the map indicated further ahead was the destination. She may have wandered too far west, with a better path to the east; it would take her another day to backtrack unless she could find a way through.

The towering rock barrier before her was etched with deep vertical cracks. Some were quite wide. Examining one of the largest near her, it was about a foot and a half wide and several stories high. She could fit, barely. She stepped in, inching her way sideways. The tunnel continued through the rock at a slightly curved angle; at one point she couldn’t see the entrance behind her and ahead was even more tunnel continuing into darkness. She pressed on.

It reminded her of when a—friend—left her trapped under a vehicle. It was after the power grid permanently failed. Kevin had an electric car he couldn’t figure out how to charge. They had traded for an older sedan with no electronic components. She was underneath tightening a bolt when Kevin released the jack. The car bounced down on its wheels. The area of the car’s engine in front of her face was fairly open; everything missed striking her face and head. She was thin and could fit under the old car without a jack. Still, when it landed, she felt a thud on her ribs while the tire pinched her loose shirt and long hair to the ground. For a moment she had quietly panicked. Realizing she was stuck, yet not seriously injured, she calmed instantly.

Kevin had laughed. He grilled her while she was trapped, accusing her of stealing the car. Apparently, the guy she traded vehicles with denied the trade ever happened, insisting she stole this one while selling the other and hiding the money. Kevin decided to believe the dealer; she didn’t know why. He walked out, leaving her stuck. Getting out from under the sedan had been a puzzle. Her chest was sore for weeks.

This crack through the rock was merely another puzzle in her life. The same calm she felt in that moment instead of panicking, she felt now. After a time shuffling along, she could see a sliver of the night stars; the exit. She emerged onto a shallow plateau. It overlooked an area reminiscent of a natural amphitheatre. The air here was still and cool. Sound carried very well.

Over the side, there was a drop of around 10 stories to the floor. It was three times as wide. At the centre of the canyon was the rock formation pictured inside the locket—along with about a dozen people milling about.

The five natural rock formations were a dozen feet taller than anyone down there. The people standing around were complaining. “We can’t keep staying out here night after night.” They chatted about the cold and the moonless dark, with small hand-held lanterns their only light. It wasn’t a useful conversation for anyone.

The light was bright enough to see faces; she recognized one of them—Kevin. The friend who left her to die. A couple of others were cohorts of his. Janice laid down on the plateau to be less visible. She tossed a few pebbles over their heads.

They jumped at the sound, freaking out at their shadows dancing by the lamplight. Screams returned from the rattled group.

Janice accidentally slipped out a giggle—it echoed eerily throughout the canyon. Even she felt chills. Complete silence fell upon the group below.

It was time to be blunt. After selecting a stone from the ledge, Janice pulled from her bag a sling. The goal wasn’t to hurt anyone, only to get some attention.

She shot it at the top of a stone formation above their heads. The rock bounced off, falling to hit someone on the far side. Everyone looked away from her direction. That would do.

“Who’s out there?!” a panicked woman screamed.

“Are you the courier?!” a terrified man asked.

“Maybe,” Janice calmly said. There was silence for a few moments.

“If you are,” another man asked, “you’ve been paid. We just want the shipment.”

She’d never been paid anything. “What’s the memory card for?” she ventured, letting them know she knew what the shipment was.

“None of your business,” he snapped.

That one was Kevin alright. He and everyone else were staring around the canyon, trying to find where she was.

This made sense to Janice. The end of this adventure wasn’t designed for her; nothing ever was. It was for them; everything always was. She knew what had to be done.

Janice wrapped the locket’s chain onto a stone using a long thin scrap of brown cloth, leaving the locket itself visible on the outside. Again using her sling, she shot the wrapped stone at the feet of the idiots. Their yelps echoed. That put a smile on her face.

“You’re not the courier I hired,” Kevin correctly surmised. “Who are you?!”

“No one!” she barked back.

“You must be after something!”

“Nothing.” She was used to nothing. It had its upsides. “I’m going to leave now; you should too!”

“You should come with us!” Kevin was figuring out her direction.

He wanted to know who she was; it didn’t matter, and she didn’t feel like being used again—she practically had already, having brought this to them. “No…I shouldn’t.”

She liked knowing who they were without them knowing who she was. Is this what having power felt like? She didn’t know.

Janice wasn’t angry. She wasn’t spiteful, or vengeful, or bitter. She was—abandoned, leaving her searching, usually in the dark. This was Kevin’s fault in part, partly others, and partly her actions. She liked the dark. Her sense of direction was impeccable. Where others were scared, she felt safe. She enjoyed hiding. And she had hidden the chip found in the wooden heart-shaped locket, inside her bag. Just another missing puzzle piece for Kevin to solve.

She snuck her way back through the crevice. Janice set off to find something more—if the universe would ever allow her a future of her own to be found.