The Heart Locket

I walk across the desolate wasteland. I don’t know what happened, I always ask why. All I know is that I must find my beloved whose picture I keep in this heart-shaped locket. That tan hair, hazel eyes, gorgeous smile. I can’t believe…I lost her! Tears are streaming down my face. We got separated in the cataclysm, and I’ve been tracking her ever since. Tears fall down on the picture. I wipe it off and close it, moving forward. These were once streets of a bustling city, now all torn apart by the ravages of time. The concrete upheaved by forces unknown, buildings no longer straight. Instead they are in several different angles, held up only by their weakening support structure. Some have already fallen. My blue eyes look to the distance on my side, but my sight is obscured by the ruins of a knocked down skyscraper. I look up into the sky wondering when the madness will end.

I fix my eyes forward about to take a step when I notice a small red light under me blinking. The concrete is thin enough with enough cracks to dig through with normal tools. However, you can’t completely cover it without risking setting it off and being completely obvious about it. This street up ahead is a minefield. On a building, I saw somebody wielding a machine gun. Crap! I run before he starts firing setting off the entire minefield causing a chain reaction of explosions. I run behind a standing building covering my ears to shield them from the drowning, deafening sound of the explosions. Gust of winds blow past and the windows break above me. I run deeper into the alley. My gray unbuttoned jacket flapping in the wind. Luckily, around the halfway point I reach safety. The windows above me are intact. Cracked, but intact. Especially compared to the ones earlier in the alley now littered with shards of broken glass. I hear guns clacking. Crap. I thought I had more time before they went looking for me. I reach into my jacket pocket on the inside and pull out a pistol. Man, they probably got full-ass sniper rifles and here I am with a lowly pistol! Granted ammunition has been scarce lately. So scarce that many people and gangs have resorted to gouging out used bullets out of the corpses of their enemies in order to reuse them. It’s both terrifying and utterly sickening. Hugging the wall, I sneak over to the other side of the alley, gun in hand. I poke my head out only for a warning shot to fly past it. The owner, a tan muscular young woman cocks her gun as she warns, “Poke your head out any farther and I will not hesitate to blow your brains out.” I put my head back to the wall. I breathe deeply before going into panic mode. Another crazy psychopath who thrives in this hostile environment. Of course. Why? Why do I keep finding these types?

The woman walks the corner and aims the rifle at my head. “Freeze right there. Don’t move or I’ll-“

Her eyes turn to the locket. All reasoning leaves her as she gets on her knees and reaches for the locket. She opens it up and sees the picture inside. The young woman looks at me in a new light and asks rather hostile, “What’s your name?”

“Taro. Taro Giovanna.”

She stands back up and puts the rifle next to her, the top of it pointed up in the air. She holds out her hand and I take it confused as she helps me up. All she says rather quickly and aggressively, “Follow me.”

She starts walking in the other direction and confused, I follow her. At this point, my chances of survival are a lot higher if I just do what she says, no questions asked. She fires three shots in the air and then I break my idea of “no questions asked”. “Why are you firing up in the air? Aren’t bullets scarce?”

She answers, “Yes, but that’s the signal to hold all fire. Unless you want your brains blown out in which case, I’ll be happy to arrange it.” She points the gun at me during that second sentence and I quickly stammer, “No, no. Please, continue.”

She puts the gun back to her side using it like a walking stick as she turns around and comments, “Just as I thought.”

We continue walking through the streets, but it’s painfully clear that we are being watched at every corner. Apparently, the minefield I stumbled upon earlier wasn’t their only one, but she guided me safely through it. And I still don’t know why. I know that it has something to do with my locket. I just hope that they don’t believe in public executions.

Suddenly, I hear the familiar sounds of Futurama playing in the background as I hear a familiar laugh. Wow, they got a working T.V. here. The young woman kneels down and says, “My queen. I am sorry to disturb your episode, but I brought the intruder here and figured you might to want see him.”

She pauses her program and turns her chair around and I notice the hazel eyes she has and the tan hair. In disbelief, I open my locket and it’s a perfect match. I begin to cry as I could only mutter out, “Hanna?”

She mutters out with her heart-shaped locket dangling down her neck, “Taro?”

Tears start flowing down her face as we run towards each other and embrace one another in a bear hug. Crying our hearts out refusing to let go. I’ve never felt so happy since our wedding all those years ago. I can’t believe that’s she here. We slowly loosen our grip as we gaze into each other. Locking lips losing ourselves in the steamy passion of intimacy only obtainable by separation.

The muscular woman says nervously and awkwardly, “I’m gonna go now.”

She rushes out of the room leaving only the two of us here. Now I could describe the wondrous things we did, but I’ll spare you the steamy imagery. Let’s just say it lasted for hours until we worn ourselves out and fell asleep naked next to each other under the dirty rags that qualified as blankets nowadays. We woke up the next day, groggy and sore from our escapades yesterday.

“That was…”

“Amazing.”

“Yeah.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I ask, “So how did you become Queen of this gang anyway?”

“Well, they were kids when I got here and they needed an authority figure so I took up the mantel and raised them. In the three years I spent here, they all grew up into wonderful people capable of defending themselves.”

“So wait, that lady? She was…?”

She quickly shakes her hands saying, “No, no, no. She joined later. We merged with a few other gangs in the past three years bringing in more mature members, yet somehow I still remained queen. I don’t know why. All I know is that a lot of people still didn’t want to harm any children, so instead they decided to protect them. We keep a play area for them in the back, free from all dangers other than our sentries and a fence.” She shakes her head. “In all honesty, I wish we could find a safer place for them.”

I smile at her and as I was getting ready to kiss her, someone clears her throat. We look in the direction of the muscular woman, blushing in embarrassment. “Umm…I know this is awkward…but um…we need the queen to get back to her duties. There’s a lot of things we…need to go…over.” She can barely look at us. A far cry from her attitude yesterday. Hanna giggles and simply says, “Of course. We’ll be there in a moment.” She walks away in embarrassment as Hanna gets up and puts on her clothes.

She says, “Sorry about Emera. She can be quite a handful, but she’s a sweet girl at heart.”

I put on my clothes and once we were both dressed, she holds out her hand, “Shall we go, my king?”

I smile and say, “Sure thing, my queen.”

I take her hand and we walk out of there, our lockets dangling from our necks.