The Legendary City of Fulfillment

On Friday, January 14th, 2029, at 4:47pm, twenty boxes from the SweetArts4SweetHearts.globe Jewelry Company arrived at the AmGle Central Fulfillment Center forty minutes west of Bakersfield, CA near the I-5 freeway. These boxes contained all ten thousand of SA4SH.globe’s newest style of 14k gold-plated heart-shaped lockets. The shipment was placed on a paddock in a small corner of the enormous facility in preparation for SweetArts’ Annual Valentines Day Sale which was scheduled to commence Monday morning.

Sadly, SweetArts never sold even a single locket owing to the unexpected alien invasion that occurred over that weekend.

The alien invaders, the Reuleaux, appeared without warning. With little preamble, they commenced abducting nearly ninety percent of the human population. People emerged from their homes to behold thousands - in larger cities millions - of helpless human forms struggling within tall columns of light and energy, as they were ‘beamed up’ into triangularly shaped space vessels.

With millions of ships circling the globe, the entire abduction took less than a week. Upon completion, the aliens dispersed a poison into the atmosphere that would decimate another ninety percent of the remaining population. And then, in an act some labelled as ‘overkill’, they dropped to the surface of the ruined world several million pods containing crab-like robotic hunter-killers about the size of golden retrievers.

Their purpose was either to finish us off or provide the Reuleaux with something to laugh about on their flight home. Likely both.

Humanity, as it turned out though, was more resilient than that. We survived, and began forming a fragile, desperate and determined society.

Luna scampered quickly but quietly northward within the ScrapWall, navigating the narrow spaces created by the rusted out automobile shells. Jagged bits of torn metal snagged at her clothes and scraped her arms. The summer before last her Grandmother had bought vaccinations for her from a travelling medical caravan. Included in the cocktail she’d received was a tetanus shot.

At the time, she’d sobbed for days, for the cost had been one of her milking goats. Now though, she was thankful. Luna had seen what could happen if you got cut with rusted metal.

Nearly all the paved roads had ScrapWall alongside them. After The Reaping, millions of vehicles were left abandoned on Earth’s roadways. Survivors came and claimed some. The newest vehicles with the most efficient solar charging systems were valued highest, followed closely by four wheel drive trucks. Vehicles outnumbered survivors a thousand to one, however, and fuel was in short supply.

Eventually, the remaining cars were syphoned and bulldozed to the sides of the roads, creating in some places massive heaps of metal, miles and miles long.

Luna moved carefully. She paused frequently to listen. The ScrapWall was a slower and much more tedious way of traveling than on the roads themselves. But the fractions of a second you gained from not having to dive out of sight might mean the difference between life and death.

You never knew when a Sebastian might come clanking onto the scene, locking it's targeting sensors on you. While groups could usually destroy the robotic death-crabs, Luna was only eleven years old. She was also hungry, tired, scared… and alone.

Being alone in this world was a death sentence. Every group you met on the road was a threat. People would kill you for the empty water-skin around your neck, let alone the priceless item Luna carried at the bottom of her knapsack.

This was day three of her journey.

Luna was a refugee from the newly destroyed Castaic Clan. Castaic had consisted of approximately thirty families and up until three days ago, it claimed the shores of the Castaic Lake at the top of the mountain.

A contaminated water supply had caused the San Fernando Coalition of Clans to the south to break apart - the individual clans turning on one another. For several days the residents of Castac saw smoke rising from the valley below.

Luna’s grandmother, Taylor, had readied Luna for a quick escape. John, a boy from one of the other families was supposed to have accompanied her. But at the last minute, when the marauding group came up and over the ridge towards them, he ran towards danger with the other men. Brave, stupid and not very honorable, since he took with him Gran’s axe. Grandma Taylor put a hammer in Luna’s hand and pushed her out of camp. They’d barely had time to say goodbye. Gran was too frail to leave the mountain.

So now, Luna was alone. Hammer in hand, she was steeling herself to continue onward, when she heard it - the grating whine and clacking metal of a Sebastian nearby.

Luna froze. She saw, through the twisted hulks of automobiles, the Sebatian about thirty feet away. It's servos grated from old age as it swivelled it's bulbous head. It appeared to be damaged - a limp on it's left side. Most of the Sebastians were damaged at this point - decades of hunting humans had taken their toll. Sometimes, you could walk right up to one and it wouldn’t do anything at all except sputter and shake.

Luna flattened herself against the ground and held her breath.

Please... Let it pass by me... Let it pass by...

The Crab-like killer swiveled it's head towards her as a red beam of light locked onto her form. The Sebastian let out a muffled metallic scream. Luna broke cover and ran, looking over her shoulder only long enough to see the battle-scarred creature climbing over the husk of a small car to pursue her.

Despite its limp, she knew it could catch her. She fled for about a minute before she heard it closing on her, only a few feet behind.

It's okay, soon I'll be with Gran, she thought. With Mom and Dad too.

Ka-Blam!

Luna spun around to see the Sebastian crumpling onto its side, a huge hole in it's armor. A large man, shotgun in hand, advanced on the creature. He took out a metal club and beat the Sebastian until it was barely moving. He then turned bloodshot eyes towards Luna.

As Luna turned to run, another man seized her firmly by her collar.

“Now, that's no way to show gratitude, Miss!” said a man with a whiney voice. “You’d be dead if it wasn't for us! ‘Course, it's only cuz they pay more for runts like you up north than they do for ‘Bastian scrap.”

The larger man chuckled.

Their group had a total of seven people: four men, two women and, surprisingly, a baby. They pitched camp and made a fire as the sun began to set. Luna had been bound and gagged, hands behind her back. Her feet were still free, since they’d had to walk quite a lot. Fortunately, no one bothered to tie her properly once they stopped.

Luna slowly reached into her back pocket. Her Gran had always told her to keep a nail there… just in case. She began to work on the scratchy length of twine they’d used to bind her hands.

Scrape, Scrape, Scrape

The baby wailed.

“You shut that little brat up!” hissed the whiney man as he loaded his revolver.

“That's not half as loud as you get with your own cryin!” one of the women spat back.

The big man said, “Shut up both of you or I’ll shut you up for good.” Luna saw he wore a bandolier with several small hand-grenades on it. He set his shotgun down and began eating something out of a tin can he’d been warming by the fire.

Luna eyed her knapsack which sat atop a pile of their supplies. All she had to do was get free, wait for them to fall asleep, grab it and go. She just hoped they wouldn’t search it before then.

“How much you think we can get for the girl?” the other woman asked.

“‘Bout three or four hundred,” said the big man between mouthfuls.

“Unless we sell her to Gorshunn’s Clan,” said the whiney man. “They'd pay about a thousand for her, I bet.”

“We are not selling her to Gorshunn’s,” said the woman with the baby, as she held it up to nurse.

“Alright. If you say so,” said the whiney man. But he looked at Luna in a way that made her think the issue wasn't settled. She had heard of Gorshunn’s before. She knew she did not want to be sold to them.

Scrape, Scrape, Scrape

“Anybody check her bag?” said the big man.

Luna’s heart sank.

“Probly nothin’ there - she jus’ an urchin.” said Whiney, but he started rifling through Luna’s knapsack anyway.

Please... let him miss it, thought Luna.

“Sooey! Would you look at that! That what I think it is, Keef?”

The big man strode over and looked inside the little box Whiney was holding up.”

“...Yep,” he said. “Looks like it.”

Scrape, Scrape, Scrape

The big man walked towards Luna. “Where’d you get that thing?" he asked.

Luna considered for a moment, then said, “My Gran.”

“You’re Gran, huh? You know what it is?”

“J-Just something to remember her by. It ain’t nothin.”

The big man walked back towards the others, slowly, scratching his chin.

“Change of plans,” he said, finally. “We’re gonna go sell this brat at Logan’s Bizarre. Then we are all heading to Fulfillment. Think we just found us a ticket to paradise!”

Scrape, Scrape, Scrape

For the next few hours, the six of them celebrated with moonshine… a lot of moonshine. Eventually, they all passed out, including the woman with the baby.

At around midnight the baby woke up crying. None of the adults stirred. A few minutes later, Luna cut her way through the twine. Slowly, she got to her feet. The mens’ snoring was deafening.

Luna crept over to the big man, reached carefully into his pocket and took back the small black box her Gran had given her. Fearing pursuit, she hesitated… then carefully pulled the pins out of three grenades on his bandolier. As she turned to leave, the baby gave a loud wail.

Luna paused, considering. Despite the danger it put her in, she quickly scooped the baby up and ran out into the night. She had run for quite awhile before hearing the explosion behind her. She did not turn to look and continued northward into the darkness.

Nearing evening-time the next day, Luna saw, on the horizon, the fabled city of Fulfillment. It was impossible to enter the city without a Token of Citizenship. Luna held that token in one hand and the baby in the other as she approached, just before sunset.

A guard intercepted her.

“Move along, Miss,” he said. “There are trucks to the east taking refugees from the San Fernando Clans north to-”

Luna held up her grandmother’s final gift. The last light of the sun’s rays glinted off the scratched and tarnished surface of a gold, heart-shaped locket.

The guard paused for a moment. Then stammered, “F-Follow me, Miss.” He talked quietly into a microphone near his collar as he led her towards the city. Exhausted, Luna followed behind, holding the sleeping baby to her shoulder.

As they neared the wall, a door opened and out strode a stately, elderly woman in robes.

She stepped towards Luna as they approached and without asking, took and examined the locket.

“Who did this belong to?” she asked.

“My Grandmother, Taylor Charlotte Longford,” Luna said.

“And who are you?”

“I’m Luna. And this is-” She looked at the baby. “-this is… Geordie, my brother.”

After a long moment, the woman said, more to herself, “I do know this name… Taylor Longford.”

“Come,” she continued, this time to Luna. “We must find your Grandmother's old domicile. No doubt it has been repurposed, but we shall make it ready for you. It is yours now.”

She looked down into Luna's tired eyes.

“Welcome to Fulfillment, Luna Longford. And welcome home. You're not alone anymore.”