Journey's End

She heard the noise again, only it was closer this time. A metallic thud, echoing across the otherwise silent city streets. Five blocks behind, eight? The grip of Mia's hand around Josh's tightened but the boy knew not to complain. Two-and-a-half years on from the fall, they regularly had to bear witness to the depravity of man, denied of basic needs and willing to go to any lengths. Fear meant survival.

Only four years ago this district had played host to an international festival of science and industry. The area had been thrust from a bleak terrain of decrepit industrial lots into the twenty-first century. State-of-the-art medical firms moved in.

Was she being paranoid? Were people still following? Could they possibly know of her mother's message? Who were they? People like them? The questions span in her mind.

The folded scrap of paper that Vida had placed into Mia's hand four days earlier only listed three words - 'MAGPIES SEE MILES'. It was definitely her mother's hastily scrawled handwriting, the way she wrote a 'G' was archaic and unmistakeable. "She was here just yesterday, she said you'd know exactly what this means, you must get to her" Vida said wearily, glancing down at Josh. Suddenly an explosion sounded nearby, accompanied by a rattled burst of automatic weapon fire. Other survivors? She couldn't say. "Go, now!".

So here the pair were, and they hadn't encountered another human since leaving for the ruined state capital. In fact, thought Mia, they hadn't seen a single living thing - no isolated birdsong that could still sometimes be heard in the patches of forest outside the city, no roaming packs of dogs, a common sight since the calamity occurred.

The quickest way forwards meant passing through the abandoned factories at the edge of the district - far from the redevelopment. They passed down backstreets, away from the main streets lined with abandoned vehicles. The vehicles acted as tombs for their owners, taking a macabre final journey they were never going to complete.

She never liked Josh to see the corpses - the boy wouldn't be afraid, but would just stare. He had been silent and expressionless the entire time since the pair set off in pursuit of their mother weeks ago. Whether it was due to forced maturity at the tender age of seven, or a consequence of the horrors he'd already seen, his only act of expression now was ever to hold his sister's hand tight.

They continued at pace for another hour, eventually reaching the derelict paper mill which blocked their path. Mia held Josh firmly as they navigated the corridors through to the church next to the park; their destination. Rounding a final corner, the hunched body of a lady sat next to a stack of boxes. "Don't look" Mia whispered to Josh as they hurried past, using her hand as a blinker to protect the boy from his own curiosity.

The park was completely empty, and at the border on its east side stood the imposing shape of the Church of our Beloved Maria Galgani. Slightly inside the park stood the bandstand, surrounded by abandoned food stalls and empty benches. Most days a musician had played there, making it a pleasant lunchtime escape from city life.

After one lunch between a young Mia and her mother, the two had walked the parade from the bandstand towards the church. "Look mom, the birds!"

Her mother smiled, a row of magpies were lined up on the top railings outside the church. "Mia, maybe the birds like Miles Davis, what do you think?".

An elderly gentleman in his 70s was enthusiastically playing jazz, and the birds were silent, motionless, appearing transfixed towards the piano. "Don't be silly mommy!" Mia said laughingly as she tried to pull her hand away in protest.

Now here they were. Mia could romantically envisage their mom atop the bandstand, arms outstretched to them. But the bandstand was empty; she knew she would never wait out in full view of whoever might be watching. The church, expected Mia.

Hurrying between the cars across the junction at the park's corner, she nervously pulled Josh tight. Mia knew her mother was close and the relief of reuniting that she wished to feel was palpable. Her arms tingled with pins and needles, her heart raced, the aching in her legs from walking so many days subsided for a muted excitement.

Then, a loud thud and what sounded like the sound of wood crashing onto stone. Mia stopped dead in her tracks. It sounded like the noise had come from within the church.

Right out front of the 19th century building was a newsstand on the sidewalk. Mia pushed the door at the back of it as quietly as possible. Inside, the floor lay strewn with dailies from over two years ago. One headline read: 'Home curfews: military overwhelmed'.

"Josh, stay" Mia said to her little brother. The boy gripped her with both hands shaking his head, fear in his eyes. "Shh, it's ok. I have to find mom". Josh reluctantly sat underneath a newsstand display, wrapping his arms around his knees. "I'll be right back, ok?". Josh nodded.

Mia stole through the church gates to the large oak doors. She took a deep breath and pushed the left door. It wouldn't budge. She tried the right door, and with some force it gave. She slid inside.

It was shortly after midday and daylight streamed through the stained glass to illuminate the scene. There, twenty meters from Mia in front of the altar, stood a man dressed all in black. He was standing over the body of her mother, face turned away, motionless. Debris of a broken chair lay around at the man's feet. In a semi-outstretched hand he was holding the chain of her mother's heart shaped locket, the locket dangling beneath. The man looked towards the entrance at Mia, and raised an unpleasant smile.

"You must be Mia. We've been waiting here a long time for you, I'm very, very glad you could make it" said the man with a tempered Mid-Western accent.

"Your mother..." he hesitated. "Your mother was keeping me company, we were really learning a lot about each other. I thought we were getting along just delightfully but she did something rather unfortunate".

The man raised his right hand to wipe the blood from an injury on his face and Mia could see he was holding a bloodied knife. As Mia edged closer the man looked at the locket, his eyes slowly re-joining Mia's. "Tell me, where is the boy?"

Mia's felt a rage rising up from inside. "What have you done!?" she exclaimed. Ignorant to the danger, Mia clenched her fists and rushed down the aisle towards the man.

"Now, now" said the man through his smile with raised eyebrows. "I didn't say your mother was dead". The man placed a foot on the leg of the woman at his feet, a hunter claiming his prize, and waved the knife slowly side to side through the air. He then raised the locket, the heart pendant rotating slowly in the air, reflecting the light from above.

"This is key, isn't it? We'll soon take a little stroll to your mother's laboratory, but first...". Mia had stopped when the man raised the knife. "Where is the boy? Oh, you simply can't know how very important he is to me and the people I represent".

Mia felt helpless, raw, overwhelming tears of frustration welling in her eyes.

"Give that back!" she cried. She felt the touch of her own locket on her skin. It was a fifteenth birthday gift, just before the events that led to the fall. Mia grew up a tomboy and completely shunned any jewellery, but on this occasion, seeing the locket in its box she smiled and took it in her palm. "Keep this safe Mia, I have one just like it" said her mother. "Happy birthday darling".

"Give that BACK!" Mia exclaimed again.

"Oh this? Well how about I make you a deal. We get the boy, and I'll return this locket later on and let you both go free". The man looked at the locket and then blinked back to Mia. "I've been waiting a very long time for this".

Suddenly the man's leg was lifted upwards and he stumbled backwards, hitting the back of his skull on the steps to the altar. Dazed, the man slowly started to raise himself , but Mia watched her mother use the church pew to push her body upwards to her feet. Her blouse and jacket were stained through with blood and Mia could see her hands were bound behind her back. She gave an animalistic shriek, and launched herself forward with the zeal of one possessed to drop the full weight of her body through her elbow onto the man's neck. Mia heard a crack. The man's arms and feet spasmed for a few seconds and then he was still.

"Mom!" she cried, skidding to her mother's side.

"You got my message sweetheart". Her mother coughed several times, and Mia could see blood coursing from what must have been a stab wound in her lower-right abdomen. "I'm so proud of you and your brother. I wish I had the time to tell you everything, I've done some things I regret, but I recently learned something which will help put things right".

"Mom what can I do? You're going to be ok! What was he talking about?". Mia frantically ripped the sleeve off her denim shirt and pushed it against the gushing wound. The light blue material turned to black as it absorbed her mother's blood.

"This man is not alone. I need you to go to my lab at the university right now. Your brother Joshua is very, very special, I... I didn't mean to involve you both like this". Her mother's voice was raspy and quiet. Tears streamed down Mia's face. "Mom..."

"I can't go with you baby". Her mother forced a smile through tears of her own, trickling across and mixing with the drying blood on her cheek. She stroked Mia's ebony hair. "You know I can't. Go to my lab, take my locket".

Her mother gestured to where the golden locket had fallen from the man's clasp onto the cold stone of the church floor. "It will open a very special safe behind my desk. Take the equipment it contains and your brother to the address inside the safe".

"Mom, I...."

"Mia! You must go!". They were interrupted by what sounded like a bolt lifting somewhere in the maze of rooms to the rear of the church. "I love you, I cannot explain, go, NOW!".

She pushed Mia's hand away. Mia mouthed 'I love you too' and left the scene of the man and her mother lying together at the steps to the altar. She ran, everything became a blur of breathing and her heartbeat. Out through the front, she returned and pulled Josh from his hiding spot. For the first time in weeks, he spoke. "Where's mommy?"

Mia smiled and wiped her tears. "She's meeting us soon Josh, she's so sorry but I promised mom we'd go somewhere for her. We can do that for mommy, right?".

The boy looked very alarmed, but nodded.

Mia was still holding the blood spotted locket in her palm. She brushed herself and pushed it into the pocket of her jeans. She kissed Josh on the head, and they jogged quietly around the corner, back through the blockade of cars and into the relative cover of the city's backstreets.

Another man, physically identical in appearance and dressed in black, exited the front of the church, slightly too late to see them round the corner. He sighed and glanced across at the bandstand, watching a single magpie come to roost on its roof, then a second. They stared back, and one of the birds uttered a single caw to break the silence.