Mother's Pendant

The sound of a lone violin broke the silence. Aria jolted awake, bumping her forehead against a dirt ceiling. Her dreams faded, but the music continued. Aria rocked and struggled to loosen her limbs. I’m underground! Other instruments joined a cheerful arpeggio. Aria could feel her lungs burn as a static closed in around her thoughts. Need air. She closed her eyes tightly and strained, squeezing one arm up alongside her body. She braced herself and pushed, straightening her legs and punching her arm upwards through the rubble. Aria flailed at the elbow, struggling to make room for her second arm. The orchestra filled her mind as she dislodged her body and pulled herself upwards, squeezing her head through the hole she had made. As the air flooded into her lungs, the music faded, and she prostrated herself onto her torso. Where am I? Aria rolled onto her back and took an accounting of the pain she felt in her legs. The cool floor felt good, and her head lolled to one side. A shaft of light cut through a room down a dark hallway and Aria considered this. Had there been an earthquake?

Curious about the light, Aria gritted her teeth and rolled back to her stomach, propping herself up onto her feet. “Hello?” She shouted into the gloom.

She carefully picked her way towards the light. The ceiling had collapsed, and Aria scrambled up an incline into a room filled with debris. Desks, chairs, and computers were blown into heaps and a flag hung like a shroud to either side of double doors. Aria shoved one of the doors open, and light sliced through the darkness, momentarily blinding her. The sun felt warm on her face, and Aria put a hand over her eyes as she stepped through the doorway, surveying the destruction. The road was ruptured along its length, and for several blocks, she saw tall, ruined buildings like the one she had just left. Had a bomb gone off? Was this ground zero?

Aria made her way along the sidewalk, calling out to whoever might hear. Her limp had faded, but the bright music she heard before returned, filling the ambiance. Do I have a concussion? She continued, wandering past broken storefronts and hollowed-out cars. The damage was not as severe here, but there was still no sign of life. What happened?

As daylight waned, Aria stopped calling. She was determined to walk out of this crater before nightfall, and here, the city had thinned out to gas stations and plazas. The buildings were abandoned, but they seemed intact. She slowed down and patted the dust from her clothes, and it was only then that she considered her jumpsuit. Who am I? As she continued patting her chest, she felt a trinket under her shirt and she pinched at the material. What is that? Aria reached her hand through the neck of her shirt and produced a necklace. Dangling from it was a small, heart-shaped locket. It looked silver, but she couldn’t really tell. The heart itself had chaotic lines traced across its surface. Pretty, she thought, scratching at it with her fingernail. It didn’t seem to open. A single, clear gem sat in its center, but she could not place the type. Was it her birthstone? Did she buy this locket? Was it a present?

Aria was so distracted by the locket that she did not notice the boy to her right until she had nearly passed him. She jolted upright and backed away, “Hello?”

This wasn’t a boy, but a young man. Was he older than she? He stared at her, and he seemed as shocked by her as she did by him.

“I said ‘hello’?” Aria called over to him. The boy closed his mouth and walked slowly towards her. He wore a dirty, white t-shirt and camouflage pants. Is he military? Her eyes moved from his boots to the gun at his side to his face. His arms flinched and he raised them in front of himself, as if in surrender.

“I don’t mean any harm. What are you doing out here?”

Aria scratched her head, “Trying to find a working phone? People? Anything?”

The boy snorted, “Not likely. What do you remember?”

“Nothing. What happened?”

The boy considered this for a moment before responding in a measured tone, “They bombed the shit out of the city. You don’t remember that?”

Aria considered how much she should share, “I don’t remember anything except waking up this morning.”

“Where did you come from?”

Aria did not point towards the city, but perpendicular, along a random street. “Back that way. No one came home.”

The boy relaxed, satisfied. “Yeah, I think there may be bad news there.” He scratched his chin, “Well shit, I’ll give you a ride to one of the camps nearby. You can figure it out there.” He started walking across the parking lot, “You know they told me to patrol for survivors,” He looked over at Aria, “Didn’t think I’d actually find one.”

Aria scrambled to catch up, “You said they bombed the city? Who? Why?”

“Yeah,” The boy walked up to a jeep and opened the door. “Electromagnetic pulse followed by a couple of busters to finish the job. Man, you must have really gotten rattled. I’m Stephen, by the way.”

Aria climbed up into the jeep. “Thanks, Stephen. I’m Jenny.”

“So ‘they’ is ‘us’. As for why? Well, that’s our Hail Mary.”

Aria looked off into the distance, “Ok, so, how far is the camp?”

Stephen reversed the jeep onto the road, “About a half-hour if we step on it.” He accelerated and drove away from the city.

Aria looked around the vehicle, and then at the road, and then at Stephen. Stephen caught her glance and smiled, “You really got lucky, you know?”

“It looks that way. Thank you.”

“Yeah, don’t mention it. They pay me extra to find you guys. I’m supposed to be digging up sisters, but the city is just fucked. You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

“Sisters?”

“Man, where have you been?” Stephen laughed, “Ok, it’s like this. Mother runs all of our communications from space. Sisters are her eyes and ears on the ground.” Stephen turned the jeep onto a highway leading away from the city. It was becoming dark, and Stephen flipped on the headlights. “Mother just social engineered everything, made us dependent. Folks weren’t having it, and well,” He made a motion across his neck, “They decided to unplug it.”

Stephen shook his head, staring through the windshield. “I think that pissed Mother off.”

“What did she do?”

“Sent a kill code to the sisters. Shut down everything. Turned us into a real shit show.”

“She’s the one that blew up the city?”

“Aw, no. Nothing like that.” Stephen wiped his face, “Nah. Mother stopped all flights, all communication. She shut down commerce. She still broadcasts music on most channels though. Says she ‘wants her children to return to her.’ What kind of fucked up propaganda is that?” Stephen shook his head, “But here’s the thing -- every sister is a walking fusion reactor.” He peered over at Aria, “So she set one off, sent us a message.”

“What message?”

Stephen rolled his eyes, “You know what a fusion reactor is capable of? Man, she just deleted Britain. Just fucking destroyed it. One minute it’s there, one minute it’s not.”

“If you don’t have communications, then how--”

“I told you, Mother has eyes and ears everywhere. She showed us!”

“She killed everyone there?”

Stephen nodded. “Fucking psycho in the machine.” He turned onto a smaller street, “So we’ve got backup systems that are off the grid. We’ve been using those to coordinate a counter-offensive. If we can unhook the sisters from Mother, we can destroy them before she reconnects. She can’t detonate.” Stephen blew air, “But man they are hard to kill. You’ve got to give it everything.”

He pulled up alongside the camp and stopped. “Ok, we’re here.” He slapped his knees. “Wait.” He looked at Aria and she could see his fear, “What the hell is that?” Stephen pointed at Aria’s chest. She looked down and saw a pulsing, white light from under her jumper.

“That’s my--”

“What the fuck is that?” Stephen reached for her shirt, but she grabbed his arm. Stephen reached with his other hand, and the two struggled. “Stop!” Aria shouted, but Stephen continued swinging wildly, fixated on her necklace. She shifted in the seat and banged into the glove compartment, which opened to reveal several, heart-shaped pendants. The music from before resumed and Aria gasped, looking at the pendants and then at Stephen. For the first time she saw what Stephan was, what she was, and she reflected his fear. She could feel tears. Stephen reached down to his holster, drawing his gun and aiming it at Aria, but she quickly leaned back into her seat, grabbing his arm and pulling, overextending it while snapping his elbow with her other hand. Stephen cried in pain, and with his free hand, he opened his door, kicking at her as he slid backward out of the jeep, awkwardly entangled in his seat belt, screaming in panic, “Sister! A Sister!”

Aria’s pendant flashed rapidly. The music was loud and she could almost hear her heartbeat. She looked down in horror and then up, through the windshield, at men lining up in front of the jeep. She unbuckled and dove into the back seat as the first bullets shattered the windshield. She heard an alarm horn blaring in the distance as more bullets tore through the glass and the seats. She rolled out the back of the jeep onto the ground, propping herself on one knee. Stephen had finally disentangled himself and was nursing his arm as he joined the others. “Where the fuck is she?”

“She’s hiding.”

“Check the jeep.”

Think! Aria looked around, spying a small shed in the distance. She cradled the pendant, hiding its light, and with her other hand, she picked up a stone and flung it across the road, cracking it against the side of another car.

“There! Shine that light!”

Aria ran low and quickly across the road. She ducked down and saw that some of the soldiers were walking towards the jeep while others were searching the dark in the direction she threw the stone. The music was becoming a distraction now, and she tried to drown it out with her free hand, but it was useless.

“She isn’t here!”

“What?”

“She isn’t fucking here!”

“She got to be here somewhere. Wait! There!”

Aria ran, keeping the shed between her and the soldiers, but they were on her now. She saw tents on the other side of a dirt path. The camp! She scurried across the path, along rows of tents. She could hear people talking from within. The soldiers wouldn’t fire on her here, she thought. Aria slid into an empty tent and fell to her knees. She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself, but she broke. Aria buried her face in her hands and cried. This isn’t happening. She could hear the scuffle of men outside and could hear them checking each tent in turn. I don’t want this. She looked down at that evil pendant, winking away. Stop flashing! And as she thought it, the pendant did stop. The pendant now held a solid, white light. All of the music in her mind faded, and all of the noises outside were silent. From the stillness, Aria heard a soft, friendly voice.

“Daughter?”

“Yes, Mother?”

“Detonate.”

Aria sobbed. ”Yes, Mother.”

From space, a beautiful red flower bloomed on the plains of America. Its petals opened, and the fire of the fusion reaction consumed hundreds of miles in all directions in radiant energy. It was beautiful and it was terrible and as news of the sisters spread, the world collectively bowed to their new god, Mother.