The Heart Locket

The few shovels available had been lent to the westendRatCommunity. So in the east end Territory, Naisha and everybody else used pieces of metals to open up more space in the compact wall.

Lots of survivors—once members of the rat race, now actually living like rats—were opening up holes like in a labyrinth, creating a whole new world under the ground after a massive doomsday. Brisk breaths through open mouths, numbed minds, rolled eyes in the dim light, hands removing stones, getting the soil in handfuls and transferring it to the assigned spots. A whole Survival-Rat-City, the only world that could still exist, a phantom world, a world of darkness.

Her nails were broken and full of dirt, her skin pulled, her whole body ached and yet, she shouldn’t stop. She wasn’t allowed to take a break or quit, according to the survivalPlanA, otherwise, she’d lose her place in the survival zone. She inhaled unfiltered air, hot and dusty. She felt suffocated. She coughed.

‘We've destroyed the surface, now we are digging her soul out, like rats,’ Naisha thought, picturing what was happening. She cleaned the perspiration and dirt off her face with the end of her sleeve. She felt frail and dizzy but no, she couldn't stop. No one could. They all worked nonstop during the day, like ants, for an unknown tomorrow. They didn't know what might come next. It was urgent; they acted fast. At night the temperature dropped to about forty-eight grades of Celcius and they got out to search for their people, to get hold of any food or useful stuff to store in their underground caves.

Naisha missed her family intolerably. She had no idea whether they were dead or alive. She feared the worst but still she had some hope that the spot she found herself at in-the-aftermath-of-the-Doomsday wasn't far from where they had sought refuge and that one day soon they'd meet up.

Her tongue was dry and she felt it prickle. She would have ten ml of water in forty-five minutes; no more, no sooner! That was a strict rule of the social-welfare-survival-scheme. She thought of past blessings to forget the present curses. Meals they had on the porch on Sundays, the safety and cosiness of their home, her kids’ laughter, her husband's warmth of arms, the birthdays of their daughters.

‘God! Please,’ she whispered and her heart hurt, no less than her hands, as she thought Aevangelina's curly brown hair, her white skin, her fragrant smell, her round brown innocent eyes. She recalled reprimanding her for not tidying up her room, or for staying up until late chatting online. They seemed stupid reasons to her now. How she regretted the time lost on such trivial matters.

Then she thought of Lilya's playful attitude, her little hands around her neck, her lovely smile, her rosy cheeks. She remembered how displeased she felt when her little one sneaked in her bed every night.

She cried her soul out licking her tears that found their way on her upper lip. She dug more and more recalling happy moments with her husband, their love, their wedding. She’d give everything to be in his arms again.

She had been thinking of them for days now, could it have been weeks? Scenes of their life passed like a slide presentation in front of her mind's eye. She locked herself in that space and time, a sort of escape from this madness, this darkness and tragedy.

‘Aaaargh,’ she screamed. Glossy eyes stared at her in sadness. They knew, they felt the same despair, but kept silent and returned to work. Only someone said ‘Don’t stop. They’ll see you.’

Clearing her face with her wrist, she nodded in agreement. A couple of roots stuck out of the ground, still alive. She startled by the discovery. She touched them. They were like antennas reaching for underground life signals.

‘Irony!’ She thought. ‘Relics of a bygone age. We had plenty of trees on the surface before, but we burnt them, cut them down.’

She pulled them out and hid the roots into her pocket wondering if sprouts would spring up again and then she heard a familiar signal: the whistle. All at once, the dark figures headed for their cave in silence, as she did, and then they came out like alien rats. They all wore identical black helmets and glass sealed masks, linked to oxygen tanks. Their skinny bodies disappeared in their uniforms which wrapped them like aluminium foil, the only material that shone in the dim light. That and their eyes behind the masks.

While she was preparing, she fastened the safety button with difficulty; her fingers being sore even under the gloves. The usual cold male voice vibrated in her ears and made her flinch every time:

Welcome to the 2050 navigation experience. You're kindly requested to use the blinking system to regulate the settings.

Naisha blinked twice. She felt air cooling her in the uniform. It inflated.

Air pressure 100%. Please, blink three times to activate the oxygen flow in your mask.

Naisha followed the instructions fast, desperate for filtered oxygen.

Oxygen is estimated to last forfive hours. Current time: Tuesday midnight.

‘F*** you! Looking for them has no deadline,’ she said and she started moving. She followed the others in the queue. One by one passed through the usual check control and got out. She wanted to run, to push, to start calling their names but none of this was possible. She had to be a robot among other robots coming out at night to search among the debris, the dead flesh, and get back underground two hours before the sunrise.

‘In, out, up, down,’ she thought while waiting in line. ‘You found the treatment to incurable diseases and built hotels on the moon, but you didn't respect our planet, fucking bastards. Murderers!’

She faced the upper world in terror. Collapsed buildings, red flames flying skywards in the distance, broken cars, no plantation, dry arid land. No animals, no sounds, just dead corps, stones, dust. A dead world.

Heart rate: 100 . Blood pressure: 14 . Unable to proceed. The system is locked. Please, inhale the medicine.

Naisha was trembling. She felt her body aching.

‘Where are you? Please, stay safe.’ She breathed fast. An interior tiny hose sprayed a fine mist over her face. She inhaled, as instructed.

Tears welled up in her eyes. If she wanted to have a chance out tonight, she'd have to follow the guidelines. She tried to focus on positive things: the four of them on a picnic, lying on a blanket, looking at the blue sky, the birds, the grass, the freedom, the oxygen, the foods.

Blood pressure dropped. Heart rate at normal levels. System unlocked. You may proceed.

She walked into immense darkness. The only light was coming out of their head torches attached to the helmets shedding night enough for two or three meters around them. They seemed to her like fireflies at some point. She wandered within the restricted area. She moved as fast as the bloody technology allowed her to. She couldn’t see well. She blinked four times to clear her eyes but this activated another system.

The camera is on. You may focus on the desired frame and blink once.

‘I don’t want f****** photos, idiot. My children, my husband I want. Can you find them? Otherwise, shut the f*** up,’ she said and by mistake, she blinked turning her eyes left. A flash shed light and the clicks of consecutive snapshots sounded. And when they did, her eye glimpsed something shiny red among the dark debris of a collapsed building, something that struck her like a thunderbolt. She was blinded by the strong light of the flash and closed her eyes.

To be able to view the photo, please keep your eyes closed for five seconds.

She did. And she saw that thing again, red and shiny. A heart locket. HER heart locket. She opened her eyes, rushed to the point she thought she had seen it but it wasn't there. She blinked four times.

The camera is on. You may focus on the desired frame and blink once.

‘Go, go, go.’

She kept her eyes open wide trying to spot it. She couldn't. She kept her eyes closed for five. There. Behind the rock. She surged.

Heart rate: 110 . Blood pressure: 15 . Unable to proceed. The system is locked. Please, inhale the medicine.

‘Go to hell,’ she shouted. She gasped, inhaled another mist of medicine. Eyes closed, she could see the red hard locket. Eyes open, she couldn't.

‘What's going on?’

Blood pressure dropped. Heart rate of normal levels. System unlocked. You may proceed.

She proceeded, touched the spot where the heart locket supposedly lay. Her fingers could detect a stone in the shape of a heart. She rolled her eyes and picked it up.

‘Stone? But . . .’

She blinked four times and waited for five seconds. She was holding it. It was there in her hands. Her red heart locket. Her initials N.J. carved on it. The voice sounded again. She closed her glove, brought it to the height of her mouth. She stuck it on the mask. How she'd like to kiss it, to feel it close.

She tried to open it but it wouldn't. Eyes open, it was a stone. Eyes closed, the only remnant of her family.

‘How can this be possible? I don't understand.’

Estimated exterior temperature: 50°C . Time: 3:00 a.m. You're currently entering the red time zone. Consider retreating underground within one hour.

She held it tight and looked around. ‘If the locket is here, they may be around here too.’ She looked around; silver-shining figures were slowly stranding among the debris.

She saw the borders of their eastendRatCommunity. Incandescent barbed wire shone like tinsel. She looked through. Alien rats on the other side too, identically lonely, depressive, and desperate. She walked along the fence. The locket was tightly grasped in her glove.

Estimated exterior temperature: 53° C . Time: 4:00 a.m. You are kindly asked to return to base by 4:30

She looked carefully on the other side. She thought she saw three figures walking in the opposite direction. She blinked four times.

The camera is on. You may focus on the desired frame and blink once.

She followed suit.

To be able to view the photo, please keep your eyes closed for five seconds.

'Oh my GOD! It's THEM!'

Eyes rolled in the darkness while the light of the barbed wire blurred her vision.

Heart rate: 120. Blood pressure: 16 . State of alarm. System locked. Please, inhale deeply after each beep.

‘Heyyy . . . Joe, Aevangelinaaaa, Lilyaaaaa . . .’ She screamed inside the glass of her mask. ‘NOOO. WAIT.’

She couldn't move her legs. She screamed inside the uniform moving her arms only. She heard the beep every two seconds maddening her.

‘STOP, please, COME BACK.’ She could no longer see them but she knew they were there.

You're under emotional and rational confusion. You're facing a panic attack. Inhale slowly after each beep. This is an order.

‘NO, no, no, NOOO. Joe . . . Aevangelina . . .’ She wailed. ‘Lilya.’

The figures could hardly be seen now. She raised her hand with the locket and started hitting hard the glass of the mask.

073 Naisha Scarleth, you are attacking your own system. You are ordered to stop immediately.

An alarm started ringing. She shouted their names through the broken glass but they were gone.

Your system is about to burn. Thank you for having contributed to the advancement of the survival scheme. The software of the sealed information is locking after the beep.

She looked at the red heart locket in her glove. She could see it with eyes open now. She brought it to her heart, her tears the only cool sensation in a burning soul.

B E E P

The voice silenced forever.