The Change in the World

The cities were abandoned. That first night when skyscrapers fell like dominos, the mad rush to get out was overwhelming. Thousands lost their lives that night. No one knew how or why, but something was coming and something didn't like us.

When the cities cleared, small centers that were walled off began to pop up. This happened about five years after the fall of New York, LA, and Chicago and about three years after they went after the smaller cities like Buffalo, Boston, and Las Vegas. Pretty soon, every place you had ever heard of was quite literally taken off the map.

These small centers were located far enough from the ruins of the cities, but close enough for people to forage the cities for supplies. What was found out early on was that whatever was after us, wasn't after humans. In fact, we never found out what they were really after, but once the cities were abolished and people lived in smaller communities, the Aliens, for lack of a better term, left the humans alone. Most people figured they were slowly taking people back to their ships, others thought they were mining for some material we never knew we had, but overall, we all still lived in fear of their next step so no one dared to rebuild to the scale we once had. We were all forced to the beginning of time.

My center became known as Village Forage. I have to admit we were not creative in our name, but it suited us for exactly what we did. We were the closest center to what used to be Boston. So many other centers relied on us to forage for supplies, set up shops in our center, and supply most of the Eastern Seaboard with what they need to live. My job used to be data analysis for Fortune 500 Companies. My job now was metal finder. The centers still had a Democratic rule, the jobs were just different now. Once things settled, and we figured out what was needed, everyone really pulled together. Nothing like a cataclysmic event to really put things into perspective.

On my journeys to the desolate city of Boston, I always take my android. The droid helps with deciphering metals we can melt down versus metals that are worthless to our endeavors. This particular trip, we needed metals for beams to install as the base for the city they were building under Boston. With subways and sewers already providing a new haven for some, the powers that be decided it might be best if everyone moved underground. Now the plan was to connect the country again, just different than before. It felt liberating to be part of this new world order. I felt like the people who brought this land to what it was before the destruction. Before everything changed.

As my droid and I searched for materials, we would often find pieces of past lives. Today would be no different. I knelt down and picked up a heart-shaped locket that just barely made my metal detector ping. Slightly buried and rusted, I lifted and held it between my thumb and forefinger, slowly removing the dirt.

"Do you know what this is?" I said to my robotic friend, knowing full well it did.

"It is a small piece of metal that will give us .004% of our target weight." It replied in its all so mechanical way.

"It sure is." I replied, knowing it wouldn't understand what this .004% of metal truly meant. This was someone's keepsake. A piece of their life that meant enough to them to keep around their neck while they did mundane tasks. Something they probably never thought about. Something that was a part of them. I sighed and slowly stood up. "It sure is."

Later that night, after we had collected 100% of our target weight, I laid in my cot with the locket. I held it gently with both hands and a soft click allowed it to open. Exactly what I thought. Two pictures. A small child and a happy couple. I slowly closed it along with my eyes. I pictured this family, happy at one point, unaware of the devastation that would become us. A moment in time where all was well. Contentment. There would be no finding these people. Without the luxuries we once had, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But I couldn't give it to the welders to melt down. They wouldn't need the .004% of this. I put it around my neck. It would stay there until I was no longer here, then all I could hope would be that someone else would find it and do the same. Keep a memory of the past, of the happiest, of the mundane alive as a beacon of hope that one day, maybe if we were lucky, things would return to a normal we knew.