Lilly

She stood there staring at the rubble. The world around her now grey, barely any color. She began sifting through piles; not really sure what she was looking for. She stood up, sighed and glanced over – the partial sun reaching out a small beam hitting on an object; she walked over to find a heart-shaped locket peeking out of some charred paper. She bent down to pick it up; it was engraved “To my sweet Lilly, Love Dad.”

She picked it up and held it in her hand looking it over, “hmmm” she thought, wiping it on her shirt. “Probably a good find,” she said to her dog “it looks like real gold, I could probably get a nice amount of cash for this” and placed it in her pocket.

“What’s that you got there?” She heard a creepy voice of a man behind her, she slowly turned around in the direction of her dogs growl. “What’s what?” She said, as she looked the man once over, he was tattered looking, rough; his teeth were rotting out of his face, his white beard matted with dirt and soot. His black jeans had holes, his leather jacket was decorated with spikes and his baseball cap said “LA Dodgers” on it. Kacey had no clue who the LA Dodgers were, but she knew instantly, she didn’t like them. “What’s that you just put in your pocket, dysto-kid” said another voice, this time coming from a woman, almost as disgusting looking as the man, walking up beside her mate. Kacey rolled her eyes at the term “dysto-kid”. Anyone that was born after the apocalyptic event was called a Dysto-Kid, meaning they had no idea of what life was like before the apocalypse. “I don’t have anything”, Kacey said, she turned to her dog “come on Charlie, let’s go.” As they turned to leave, the woman jumped in front of her, Kacey about gagged at the odor of the woman, “I don’t think you’re going to go anywhere until you show me what you just put into your pocket, little girl. You see, you’re on our turf, we own this area, anything you find, goes through us first.” The woman said looking at her mate, they both laughed a spine chilling chuckle. Kacey looked around for way to get out of there, she saw no escape. Either fight, or give them what they want. “Look,” Kacey said, and turned out her pockets, there’s nothing in there. Angrily, the woman looked at her, then patted the sides of her pants, “I ain’t feelin nuttin” she said, as she looked at the man. He walked over, just as confused and grabbed Kacey’s hand. She had slid the heart-shaped locket inside her glove when they weren’t looking. “Ahh, haaa” said the man as he took the locket from her hand, “sneaky sneaky little dysto-kid”. He pulled it up in front of his face by the chain and looked at his woman “do you have any idea what this is?” He asked with a wicked looking grin. “I do!” said the woman, with excitement in her voice, “this will be worth a fortune.” “What do we do with this little vermin?” asked the man, the lady grabbed a knife from inside her leather vest pocket and said “well, we certainly cannot allow her to breath word of this, can we?” About that time, she grabbed Kacey with the knife to her neck, the man grabbed Charlie and grabbed his mouth clothed. Suddenly, they heard a loud humming noise coming their direction, a young man on a motorcycle spun dirt at the older couple and pulled out his gun “let them go!” he stated. The old man dropped the dog and put his hands up, Charlie jumped on the young man’s lap “I said, let her go” he said, as he stared the old woman hard into her eyes “I’ll cut her” the lady said, snarling. “By the time you even move your arm I’ll have shot you square between the eyes, do not test me” the lady hesitated, then pushed Kacey towards the man. Kacey stood there a moment, “come on Kacey” Jackson said, as he had the gun aimed at the woman, Kacey looked at Jackson, then the man, then again at the heart-shaped locket. She then punched the man in his face and grabbed the locket. She jumped on the back of the bike as they drove off. The man and woman looked at each other in anger “we need to let Barrett know.”

Back at their run-down shack, Kacey and Jackson sat down to eat. “I’m pretty sure people are going to come looking for this,” she said to Jackson as she laid the locket on the table. “Why?” He asked “I’m sure it’s not even real gold, it probably won’t be worth that much.” Kacey said “I’m not sure, they acted like it was something important.” Jackson shrugged, “I wouldn’t think too much into it, scavengers will make anything seem more important than it is.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right” Kacey said, as she stared at the locket.

Later that night, after washing, she wiped the fog from the mirror. She stared at herself, then down at the locket. Looking at herself again, she rubbed her neck. Then reached for the locket, and clasped it around her neck. Suddenly, she was transported back into a different time, a time before the apocalypse. She saw a little girl running into her father’s study giggling, the father laughed “Lilly, I told you, you cannot be in here.” Lilly peered down from her dad’s lap, looking over his paperwork, an article catching her eye “New foreign Trade Deal, may not go as planned”. Her father was working on something regarding the trade deal, Lilly went to glance, but before she could see what it was, the nanny came in to take her out of his study.

Kacey took the locket from her neck in shock, curious if what she saw was due to being tired, or if it were real. She tried shaking it off and went to bed.

The next morning Jackson was out gathering food, Kacey stayed behind. She paced back and forth, then, placed the locket on her neck again, this time Lilly was in another country as her father was preparing for an important meeting. Lilly was fixing her dad’s tie for him and asked how he was feeling “I’m a little nervous” he said. “It’s okay dad, this new device you created is going to change the world” said Lilly, as she glanced over at an odd, silver and blue shaped orb.

Kacey could remember a newspaper clipping with that same blue orb, “The End of Times”, was the title, and there was a picture of the orb. Kacey knew instantly that’s what caused the apocalypse. She gasped and stumbled backwards into a lamp in the room Lilly and her dad was in, the lamp wiggled and Lilly and her dad both turned to the lamp. Kacey gasped, and took the necklace off.

Jackson came in panting, “I swear I had to catch this rabbit with my bear hands, but we have dinner now!” He looked at Kacey, as she stood there staring at him. “Kace, did you hear me?” Kacey nodded and he held up the rabbit to her and said “well, what do you think?” She looked at Jackson deep in the eyes and said “I think….I think, I need to find a way to contact Lilly.” Jackson dropped the rabbit to his side and said “who’s Lilly?”