The Locket

She clasped it tightly as she slid down the chute. Despite being tarnished by the harsh environment, the silver heart-shaped locket was still a beautiful little thing. The picture inside had almost faded away, but she could still make out the shapes of two people wearing clothes of a forgotten era. “This is going to be worth lots, but I'm not sure I have the heart to hock it.” Amy chuckled at the accidental pun as she reached the bottom of the chute and made her way down the tunnel towards the exit. Amy was a salvager in the wasteland formerly known as Ohio. The lush forests, relaxing rivers, and exciting cities had become a sprawling wasteland of overgrown dumps, carcasses of cities, and forests full of creatures barely resembling what Mother Nature intended.

The end times were not kind to Ohio, or anywhere really. State lines vanished. Laws were more like suggestions. Currency became a joke replaced by anything someone desperately needed at the time. One day it might be bullets, the next day it might be this locket, able to be melted down and fashioned into a jury rigged repair for some barely functioning machine.

This was the new world. Nobody remembers what exactly happened. It wasn't war like everyone expected. It was a series of poorly timed natural disasters and infrastructural failures. Earthquakes destroyed parts of California. The wildfires that followed caused survivors to head east. As cities and economies slowly collapsed under the influx of people, so did the reactors and the refineries. Nobody knows if the oceans are inhabited much anymore. In some areas, boats had gotten stuck in the sludge and are now permanent fixtures. More than once, the boats disintegrated from whatever was in the water, sending the entire crew to a slow, excruciating death. Survivors that were barely rescued described it as “like watching human alka-seltzers.” The collapsing societies and destroyed oceans created a ripple effect across Earth. Everywhere descended into chaos. Nobody in what was left of the Americas had left the continent in centuries. Nobody was even sure what was left of the rest of the world. Or what year it even was.

As Amy made her way home, she stared at the locket, thinking about the world it came from. It was definitely from the before-times. The photo was probably of a couple, and this was the girl's keepsake. She decided to keep it. There would always be some junk to scrap, but this unique piece was worth not eating for a day. She'd found it on accident when a scrap pile came toppling down, sending her rolling down a mountain of garbage. Where she stopped, there was an old, rusty toolbox. Too worn to use or salvage. Expecting tools inside, she was surprised to instead find this locket along with sewing supplies, faded photos, and useless paperclips. Useless because they couldn't really be turned into anything, and because nobody has needed to clip papers together as long as she'd been alive.

When she arrived at the shanty-town she called home, she was greeted by a few locals. “Since when do you come back empty handed? Bad day at the dumps or what?” asked a gruff older man as he clanked away at some machine. Amy laughed, replying with a quick “Everyday is a bad day!” before wandering into her shack. She dug out some crackers she had squirreled away and sighed, knowing she probably wouldn't be eating unless she wanted to part with the locket. She laid down on her bed and took it out again. Staring at it, she thought about how it may have ended up where it did. Suddenly, Amy was pelted with small rocks. “Yo! Find anything? Are we eating good tonight or what?” In the doorway stood her longtime companion, Taylor. Most people called her Wingnut, partially because she was handy with tools, and partially because she was a bit goofy. She had a strange accent that was like a mixture of what was left of a Bronx accent, somehow mixed with a Texan one. Her vocabulary was an amalgamation of whatever buzz-words she thought sounded cool from any ancient pop culture magazines they found in the dumps. “Wait, you don't look like you brought a damn thing back. This is most non triumphant, Amy. Hey wait, what's that around your neck? Ooo is it a present from a secret admirer?” joked Taylor, dropping onto the bed next to Amy.

“No Wingnut, I found it at the dump, but I don't really want to hock it! Look how nice it is. This is some ancient shit right here. People used to wear fancy crap like this all the time, and gave it to each other as presents! ...and here we are debating if we want to trade it for some jerky! I wish we could see what things were really like, y'know?”

“Well... maybe we can sneak a peek. You know, I heard from Crowbar and them, while they were out hunting, they found some shack out there. Some chick's living out there now doing who the hell knows what. Sounded like that witchcraft stuff. Can you believe that? Some chick out there in the woods, mutant deer prancing around killing careless hunters, and she's just pocus hocusing or whatever it's called. I think I heard they can like … read.... stuff about...things. Or something.”

Amy grabbed one of the rocks from earlier and bounced it off Taylor's head. “This is why people call you Wingnut. Are you really saying we should go out in the woods and probably die just to ask some strange lady to cast spells on a locket I found at the dump today?” chided Amy. “Yeah! Sure am! They said it wasn't THAT far into the woods. We can take a bush buggy and get there lickity split. The deer and shit don't come that close to the edge since they know they'll just get shot in the face! Man I hope those things don't ever get smart enough to like wage war on the town.” Taylor shivered a little at the thought of the forest mutants invading town.

Before Amy really processed what was going on, she found herself riding shotgun, literally, in a bush buggy. She gripped the gun tightly, watching the tree line for anything coming towards them. Bush buggies were just ATVs that had been reinforced with a cage around them. Loosely following whatever directions Wingnut had gleaned from the hunters, they eventually stumbled upon a shack. They approached the door, but before knocking, a woman's voice from inside already beckoned. “Come in. Let me see it.” While this alarmed the girls, they just exchanged glances and stepped inside.

Inside was not what they expected. The dimensions inside clearly did not match the outside; it was much larger and spacious than it should have been. Lanterns placed about the room were producing an unnatural white light. There were deer skulls, plants, and other things taken from the woods placed about the home. A woman was seated at a large wooden table in a chair fashioned from tree branches. She pulled back her hood to reveal a young face with chemical burn marks across her left cheek. One eye was completely white. Her jet black hair was braided into a long ponytail resting over her shoulder. “Welcome to the weird woods, ladies. Don't be alarmed. My wards keep the things you fear from coming anywhere near here and the town you sleep in.” she said while peering at Amy.

Amy clenched the locket around her neck before asking “How did you know?” The woman relaxed and smiled. “I can sense your thoughts. My kind dates back to far before the end times. There aren't many of us left, many sadly taken away by the collapse, but I am still here. What is it you wish to see, exactly?” she inquired.

Caught off guard, Amy stuttered as she started speaking. “Well, I found this beautiful locket out in the dump. I was imagining what it was like before all of this. I wanted to see what was here. What we could've been. That's when Wingnut talked me into---” Wingnut barged into the conversation. “I took her out here! You can read stuff, can't you!? Like if you touch it, you can see things about it right? Can you touch it and show us? Does it hurt? Hey what is your name anyways?” Wingnut was really living up to her name.

“Esther. I am Esther. To answer your other questions, yes, I can show you, and no, it doesn't hurt...physically. Mentally, or emotionally, you might become distraught at what you see. Are you still willing?” Both girls exchanged glances, and their eyes said it all. “Show us!” they answered in unison.

Esther prepared some strange concoction and passed it to the girls. “Drink this. It clears the mind and spirit.” While the girls forced down the strange potion, Esther began lighting candles and burning strange things in bowls she had placed around the room. “Esther what's in this? It's so grodey!” shouted Wingnut from across the room. “If I told you, your mind wouldn't become clear. Don't worry, it's safe. Now, come here.” The girls approached Esther, who was now sitting on the floor in the center of the room. “Give me the locket, and join hands”.

Upon forming a circle, Esther began singing in a strange language the girls did not understand. Suddenly, they found themselves elsewhere. A city. Cars rushed by them. Through them! They were pulled along, taking in all of the sights around them. Before long, it was clear that they were tethered to the locket! A young girl was wearing it around her neck. She strolled along a clean but crowded street before meeting with a young man. They kissed and had a long conversation inside some restaurant. The girl was leaving for awhile. She gave the locket to the man, with a photo of them inside. It was a very sweet, but sad moment to witness. Amy and Taylor found themselves holding hands, floating above the two. Suddenly, the entire scene vanished as images of collapsing buildings began to appear before the two. They found themselves again staring at the young man as he took off the locket and placed it in a toolbox. He removed other garments before putting some kind of suit on. A radiation suit. Before long, the girls saw him in a new place, entering a reactor. Alarms were blaring, and people were fleeing. The man never returned as everything exploded.

More images formed of the girl clinging to the box, tears in her eyes. Next, she had the locket back on, toolbox visible in the room on a shelf. Before long, they found her laying on a bed withering away. She placed the locket in the toolbox and laid back down. The two hung there for a moment as they watched time pass, the room untouched as she died of radiation poisoning. Slowly, everything deteriorated. Blasts went off as the building collapsed. Soon, everything around them crumbled into what would become the very dump they salvage at.

“He died, and she couldn't let go... and it... killed her.” Amy whispered as everything faded back to Esther's home. Taylor, wiping the tears from her eyes said “Well now we definitely can't melt that thing down...” The two got up in a rush to leave, thanking Esther for her time. “Take care. Come back sometime. I have more in store for you.” was all she said.

And so, the two returned home, sobbing over some crackers, staring at that silver, heart-shaped locket.

“Amy, what do you think she has in store for us?” asked Wingnut, quietly. “I'm not sure I want to know.” replied Amy, through her crackers.

“Don't worry, I think you'll like it.” answered Esther's voice.

… from within the locket.