Lost in a Locket

The Hunt

Kaylec’s athletic body stood peering into the middle shelf of the small kitchen’s overhead cabinets. All of them were empty of anything useful, just like the last three houses that he had searched in the Southeast Boise suburbs. He was following his usual pattern of picking smaller homes in decent condition. The larger homes would have been cleaned out long ago and the smallest run down houses would have little to nothing in them to begin with, or at least that was his theory. He checked a few more cabinets before grabbing his large backpack, slinging it on his back and heading out. No sense in staying for very long. He had found a promising street and was intent on searching the houses as quickly as possible.

He left the front door and headed across the street to a bigger house on the corner with the front door set back between the garage and a large family room window. The glass storm door was locked even though the previous houses had not been. A hard quick tug failed to pop the door and told Kaylec it had a deadbolt. Undeterred he pulled a crowbar from his pack and jammed it in the door. The glass broke as the metal gave and the door swung open to reveal another locked, dark, cherry, red door. This one received a quick, hard Spartan kick to the side of the deadbolt. The frame splintered and Kaylec stepped through the door.

To the left was the living room with an open concept kitchen behind it. That was Kaylec’s target. A door stood in the right wall in the back corner of the kitchen. Kaylec opened it hoping for a pantry. To his surprise he wasn’t disappointed and the pantry wasn’t empty either. In fact, it looked as though it hadn’t been touched for years and probably hadn’t. He threw his pack on the countertop and filled it with the treasures of the pantry. Among the items was a large bag of rice, a can of salt (nearly full), some pasta noodles of various kinds, and several cans of fruits, vegetables, and beans. His rations had been heavily diminished over the last few days so the extra weight in his pack was much welcomed. Kaylec thought he would have to search a lot more houses to find even half of what that one pantry held and for the first time in years he sat in a comfortable recliner and relaxed.

Reliving the Past

…April, three years ago…

“Dad, are you watching sports, again?”

“Hey, sports are what made it so that you could live in such a nice place and have such nice things.”

Everest crashed on the sofa next to her dad’s recliner. “Are you going to take me this summer?”

“Take you where?” Kaylec responded, paying more attention to the TV.

“Dad, I’m serious! You have been promising me we’d go, for two summers, and I graduate next year. I haven’t been there since I was twelve.”

Kaylec turned in his chair and whined, “June, Evey is bugging me again while I’m trying to watch the game.”

As June turned in the kitchen with phone at her ear, Kaylec caught a throw pillow meant for his head. June spoke into the phone, “Okay Sydney, I have to go my kids are fighting again. Bye”

June’s long blonde hair hung down to the island that she leaned on as she scolded, “You know how much this means to her. Your not going to break her heart again this year, are you?”

Kaylec retorted, “No fair! Two against one late in the fourth quarter! What kind of hold does that locket of yours have over you anyway?”

“Dad you know the story.” Everest said as she fingered the heart shaped locket hanging around her neck. “Mom gave it to me on my eighth birthday just like Grandma gave it to her and several generations back. It’s tradition!”

“Hgh… I’m outnumbered and can’t hear my game anyway. It’s a long trip all the way to Trinidad.”

“Evey, I think your dad is allergic to small towns. How he was able to survive seven months there courting me, I will never know.”

“Mom! Don’t try to bail him out! Dad, pleeeease?” She was now kneeling on the couch with puppy dog eyes combined with a concerned look that seamed an impossible combination. “I want to go to the lake with Grandma and Mom, on my birthday, to our special spot.”

Kaylec wasn’t even paying attention to the TV anymore. The game wasn’t close anyway. “I know how much it means to you Evey, but, I am pretty sure that I don’t belong in Colorado. Why do you want me there so bad.”

June was blessed with an elegant figure that swayed slightly as she moved over to sit on Kaylec’s lap. “I know I would like to have you there. I never sleep well without you.”

Everest chimed in, “Dad you always make our trips more fun.”

“Breaking News” Kaylec had forgotten the TV was even on. “The cat five hurricane Claudette, that was expected to hit South Carolina later this week, has changed course and speed and is currently making landfall in Maryland and Virginia. This storm is bigger than any storm that has hit the U.S. coast. The people in the area were not evacuated and many from the expected land fall area had evacuated to Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.” The voice of the reporter began to tremble a little as she continued. “Casualties are expected to be worse than any storm… I have to go.” The reporter handed her microphone to someone trying to get her to stay on set, put her hand to her face and hurriedly left the set. A male reporter took up the report though he was also visibly shaken. “We excuse Cally from the set. As we understand it, her husband is in Maryland right now. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to all those in this storm’s path and their loved ones.”

A few days later, the news was reporting a near total loss of Maryland and D.C. with damage being reported as far inland as Wisconsin. The storm had moved quickly and had been drawn through the Great Lakes. Horse hooves on pavement? That didn’t belong.

Caught

Kaylec woke up as he realized he was dreaming, or rather reliving past events. The horse hooves on pavement were plenty real and it sounded like they were just outside. Horses were rare these days and none of them would have wondered into town on their own. Kaylec grabbed his pack and slung it on his back. As he approached the front door he heard voices.

“Hello, that door wasn’t broken last week. Hey, Ryder, Slim, think we should check it out?”

The man on the horse was visible in the window now. His two companions were walking over to the front door. The rider spoke, “Yeah, Grim, you lead the way.”

There has to be a back way out, Kaylec thought, and then bolted to the door closest to him. It lead into the garage. Kaylec quickly shut the door. He could hear their muffled voices in as they entered the house. “Well, someones been here. The dust has been disturbed on the counter and the recliner.”

A slender man that could only be Slim responded. “He must be big. His shoulders went almost all the way to the top of the chair. He might be bigger than even you, Grim.”

“Or maybe it was your mom, Slim.”

Kaylec noticed a door on the other side of the garage. He edged through and carefully shut it. As he turned he heard Grim yell, “Ryder, he’s headed out the side door!”

Kaylec sprinted down the street at a speed he didn’t even know he had, hoping that they would just let him go. A chill climbed his spine as he heard a horse going into a gallop. Ryder caught him in the back of the head, the bat broke and splintered with the impact. Kaylec went down and rolled on his left shoulder on the pavement. Both his shoulder and his head were bleeding his vision spinning as he went to get back up. Ryder stopped on the horse a few feet ahead looking a little shocked at a mix of the bat breaking and Kaylec being able to move. Kaylec regained his feet just as Grim caught up. Grim was a few inches shorter but about equally built. His fist was quickly buried deep into Kaylec’s stomach. Knowing this was a fight for his life, instincts told him to fight back. As he was falling to his knees Grim’s left knee flashed into his vision and he used his left palm to smash it sideways. Grim dropped in pain and Slim stepped over him and at full swing smashed his foot into Kaylec’s left side. All went black as Kaylec dropped to is right shoulder, his pack stopping him from being able to land on his back. Kaylec was kicked a few more times before Ryder recovered from his daze and yelled, “Enough! We’re not killing him here, today.” Grim lets get you on Charlie You won’t be able to walk back with that knee. Slim, Grab his pack.”

Ryder climbed down helped Grim on the horse, Charlie, and then helped Slim get Kaylec’s pack and pass it up to Grim. As Grim put it on his back, he grunted, “How the Hell could he run that fast with this thing on.”

Ryder answered, “I don’t know but that has got to be the strongest man I have ever come across. Let’s get outta here.”

Wounded

It felt like an eternity that Kaylec laid there. It was actually about twelve hours. During that time Kaylec blamed himself again, for all that had happened since the events of his dream. Two weeks after the family was getting ready to go to Colorado when A tsunami wiped out most of California. Kaylec used that as an excuse to go clean up in California. His family delayed leaving the Portland area where they lived, for a few days, hoping that he would return, and they could still get to Colorado before Everest’s birthday. While in California, Mount Hood exploded. The entire Portland area was presumed lost. Kaylec’s body was being carried away when his dreams made him relive hearing the news. He lashed out “They are lost in the locket!”

An unknown woman’s voice responded, “He is waking up.”

A young man answered, “After the beating he took that isn’t very likely. His mind is probably just as tortured as his body. Still we’d probably best keep him tied up back at camp.”

Kaylec’s mind again drifted deep in the past. He speed the whole way to Colorado hoping they had headed there. By the time he had arrived the South Sister had erupted in an equally devastating fashion to Mount Hood. Trinidad was abandoned, the residence taking refuge in larger communities. A note on Grandma’s door read: “I will be back on her birthday. Meet me here.” Two days later, Everest’s birthday came, no one showed. Kaylec would stay and scavenged the small deserted town for six months in which time the entire country seamed at war with nature. Nature won, slaughtering half the population and crushing the government. Then came the coldest and deadliest winter ever known to occur in North America and the Pandemic that would kill every other government and more than three quarters of the worlds population.

I meant for this to be submitted to the recent challenge but was unable to post it. Hope you all enjoy this story. I am probably going to continue at some point but I have some other projects I am working on right now. I have four or five more episodes bouncing around in my head.