The Locket

Life as I knew it was over. The virus had wiped out entire cities and left nothing but death and destruction in its path. Scientists have yet to be able to find the cure for the virus, simply called the death virus. I was one of the lucky 100 who was totally naturally immune to this Death virus. There was no reason why we were immune, it just was fate. There had been many tests ran on the 100 people, but doctors and a team of medical professionals could not find any connection between them and the reason behind whatsoever as to why they were immune to the virus.

The least hit city was Las Vegas, it still was affected by the virus, but it was the only city that had the least number of deaths and had the least amount of destruction. Currently, that is where most of the survivors are living, the last few thousands of them. Part of the city was in ruins and the other parts looked like a complete war zone but at least the buildings were still standing. Still survivors had all banded together to form colonies and were separated into two zones. The first zone was designed for the healthy, those who had not caught the virus just yet. The second zone was for those who had been affected, those who were sick with the virus.

In full affect to find food and supplies, teams went to all the abandoned casinos along the once life filled strip and hunted for things that could useful. The only casinos and hotels not abandoned were the casinos where the survivors were housed in their zones. Upon entering the casino, the hunting team split into two groups, one group would start in the basement level and work their way up and the other group would start on the top floor and work their way down. We had two-way radios to communicate in case one group found something huge we could all go and assist with it. At first all we heard on the radio was static, then we heard a faint voice calling out “Guys we found something down in the basement.” We could not help but wonder what the other team had discovered in the basement. As we rushed down to the basement, with no power, it seems to feel more like a 90’s horror film, we reached the basement. Nothing but pure darkness, as we entered the room, we seen a glare of light striking the open doorway, we found the others. The first noticeable discovery was an extremely large, looked to be at least two stories tall, safe. It was black with gold lettering and a single dial on it. Getting the safe open was an entirely different problem.

One of the team members, in another life, happened to be a safe cracker. With the right tools and enough time, she would be able to crack open the safe. What was in the safe we all wondered. Was it money, cause if it was, we were just wasting our time because money was no good? As the safe cracker worked to open the safe the rest of us looked around in the basement to see what we could find that might be useful to us. After about three hours the safe cracker yelled “I’ve got it.” We all rushed over to watch the door open, we all hoped it was something good inside.

When the door opened, all we saw was a single wooden jewelry box. There was no writing on the box, it was just a plain wooden box. As I stepped toward the box, I was nervous and as I opened the box all that I found inside was a solid gold heart shaped locket. Inside the locket was a photograph of a young couple and a little baggie of a green substance. At first look, I did not know wat it was. Little did I know at the time, but that green substance was the key to saving us all.

As it turned out the green substance was the dried leaf of an orchid plant and when introduced to the virus with a combination of salt water completely eradicated the virus. However, it was after all that heart shaped locket held the key. After about a year and a half, the virus was completely gone, and life had returned to somewhat of a normal sense.