The Symbol

No one knew exactly why this war was started or when it would end. It’s been going on for over a century. The countries that started the war no longer existed and what’s left are warlords and survivalists. The warlords used weaponry and food as a means of power. The survivalist used any means they could find to protect themselves including animals, scavenged weapons, and harsh locations. The best survivalists had compounds that no warlord could break through or siege. Both sets used piracy.

As the soldier’s boots trudged through the thick ash of the latest firebombing campaign. He kicked something that caught his eye. It was shiny and golden. In this day, if it was gold, he would be instantly wealthy. Using the barrel of his weapon, he surreptitiously managed to lift the object without anyone seeing. He placed it in his pocket and would examine it in a more private and secure place.

After the patrol, the soldier slipped away to a latrine. It was the one place that guaranteed privacy. He pulled the object out of his pocket and revealed a golden necklace with a locket in the shape of an heart. It has to be gold to survive that bombing he thought. He opened the locket and saw a man and woman looking at each other with smiles. He flipped the locket over to look for the important karat information. There was an inscription on the back. “Our love is as pure as gold, may we never part for long. Our treasure is always ourselves: 48.2477N, 116.3071W” and beneath the inscription was 24K. It was nearly pure gold!

The soldier was elated. He would be able to leave this life and find somewhere away from it all. He heard the Ural mountains and Rocky Mountains had remote places that a person could live safely and without interference. He just needed to get to a surveyor and get his money. He put the locket in his breast pocket, grabbed his weapon, and left the latrine. Apparently he was smiling when he stepped out because a fellow soldier and friend asked “John, why are you smiling?”

“Oh! It just felt really good to rest and get that RS out of me.” He replied. Smiling was so unusual in the service. It often made people suspicious. Apparently his reply worked.

“Ah, yeah. I don’t know where they are getting the ingredients for these rations but they sit in you like a lump. Gad to see there some joy when it leaves you.”

“Yep, my stomach feels normal now. Hopefully you’ll get the same relief Mike.” John then retired to his bunk. His sleep was restless as his mind poured over the possibilities as well as how to get to a surveyor safely. Withholding resources and deserting the force had serious consequences. He could even be killed. He kept dreaming of his paradise only to be suddenly taken away. He would wake up in a sweat, heart pounding, and looking panicked. “I’ve got to leave now.”

As John was finishing lacing up his boots and adjusting his gear, the incoming alarm blared to life. Everyone in the compound was now awake. John, Mike, and the rest of the company grabbed their weapons and awaited to be told where to deploy and what was coming. “East wall, armored units and ground forces!” came the instructions. The company got into their defensive positions. Mike and John were on the frontline with mechs behind them, artillery, and finally tanks. They didn’t have to wait long before an enemy’s shell pounded against the wall. It didn’t explode. Instead John heard the unmistakable sound of the penetrator. This was a shell that was designed to pierce a wall and then deploy ten drilling mechanisms to breach or at least weaken the wall. Soon, another round will hit and this time it will explode.

“TAKE COVER!” Mike yelled. Everyone ducked behind the parapets. The mechs balled up like oversized armadillos, showing nothing but armor. Artillery and the tanks didn’t have to worry about the upcoming breach. The tanks positioned their guns at the wall. Anything coming through first was going to have twenty 105 rounds hit them in an instant. After what seemed an eternity, the second round hit with a loud explosion that shattered the wall. The force pushed the rolled up mechs backwards. After a few seconds, the tanks fired at the incoming troops. Hundreds of bodies immediately clogged the breach only to be removed a second later by another round. The enemy began pouring into the compound. John and Mike, along with the other frontline grunts, immediately began firing their weapons at anything entering the breach. The mechs fired their machine guns, raking across the opponents and felling dozens. The breach was a bad place for the opposing soldier but it provided a good window for the snipers.

“I’M HIT!” yelped John. Mike immediately was at John’s side.

“MEDIC! Where are you hit?”

“Around my heart. I felt…I felt the impact and then the volts.” John anxiously breathed.

“I..I don’t see any blood John. But the round is sticking out of your chest.” Mike said as he felt around the round. “It feels like the round struck something in your pocket.” John instantly became aware of what the round hit and what had happened. He knew if Mike was to find it, he’d be toast. John grabbed his chest and the round protectively.

“Oh, I know what it hit. Thank God. Don’t worry about it Mike. I’ll be OK as soon as the buzz wears off from the electrical shock.”

“John, what are you hiding?”

“Nothing Mike. Go back to your position and call off the medic. We still have to defend the compound.”

“Not to worry. The mechs took out the snipers and the tanks and artillery destroyed their mechanized units. We have them on the run. The drones are finishing them off. Now what are you hiding?”

“I can’t tell you…at least not here. We need somewhere private to talk.”

“I’m not going to the latrine with you, John.” Mike smirked.

“No you idiot! Somewhere away from the compound and from other people.”

“Ok, ok. Let’s do a sweep of the area. That’ll get us out of the compound without looking suspicious.” Mike said as he helped John to his feet. John grabbed his weapon as the medic arrived.

“Who needs help?”

“No one. It was a near miss. Electro-round grazed him and dropped him. He’s fine now.” Mike assured the medic. With the information, the medic departed to tend to other wounded. Mike informed command of their intention to conduct a sweep of the area. The two crawled over the bodies piled up in the breach. Robots were attempting to clear them away as fast as they could. Once they were over a kilometer away, Mike turned to John, “Ok spill it. What are you hiding?”

“Mike, you have to swear to not tell a soul.”

“Yeah, all right.”

“No Mike, make a solemn vow to me.” Mike grabbed his knife and then John’s hand. He quickly drew the knife across the hand before doing the same to his own hand. Then both men grabbed each other tightly and locked eyes.

“I swear to you John, not to reveal what you tell me on the penalty of death. If I should break this oath, you have the right to my property and my life.”

“Well the property is not worth much…but OK” teased John. For the first time since being shot, John moved his hand to rip away the pocket. When he opened his hand, the locket and the round were melded together. The electricity had ripped through the gold and melted the metal of the round. The tip was just pierced the other side. The inscription lost only the word gold from the impact.

“John! That’s gold!”

“24K gold. I found it the other day on our patrol. It’s a lovers locket. See the inscription on the back?”

“Ok, sappy but what are those numbers?”

“I don’t know. I was going to find someone who might know. Do you know anyone that we can trust?”

“Yeah. Me. But you know we are required to report this find. We could end up in front of an execution squad.”

“Not if you don’t say anything. Remember that oath you just gave me?”

“Ok, but what are you going to do? You can’t keep that thing around the barracks. Some snoop is sure to find out.”

“Before the attack, I was preparing to leave. I was going to find a surveyor and get the money and leave this entire area and the war.”

“Where were you planning on going?”

“The Ural or Rocky mountains. Somewhere deep into the mountains.”

“Let me look at those numbers again.” John showed Mike the numbers. Mike pondered for a moment before a look of excitement took over his face.

“Why are you smiling?”

“These are coordinates! There in the old method but they are map coordinates. Let me look them up…Hope, Idaho, USA?”

“What is Hope? What is Idaho and what is USA?”

“It’s an old city, state, and country. They don’t exist anymore but, the city was located in the Rocky Mountains. Sounds like fate has given you an answer.”

“Ok. So let’s head to the Rocky Mountains.”

“Wait! I’m not going.” Mike exclaimed

“Why not? Aren’t you tired of the war? Aren’t you tired of the crap rations? You don’t have family and I’m your only friend. You know this will bring more than enough for both of us to live quite well. Even just the chain will set us up for life and we can keep the locket as insurance.”

“How will we get out of the country to get over to the Rocky Mountains?”

“Easy. We take a ship.”

“You want to steal a ship?”

“No. We pay for safe passage. We can cut up the chain. You know one link is worth the passage. Two links will ensure our privacy.”

“Ok, but what about command? They are going to know we are missing. How do we get away with that?”

“Simple. There are a lot of dead bodies. We simply dress up two that are similar to us in our uniforms and then roast them with a flame thrower. Command will find them and assume we were killed on our scouting mission.”

“Gruesome…but doable. Ok, I’m in.”

The duo set about disguising two corpses and finding civilian clothes. They took the weapons of the corpses and left theirs behind. The next stop was a port that had ships willing to sail to that far away land. John felt the locket in his pocket. He couldn’t look at the faces of the lovers because the round welded the locket shut. “Hope, Idaho….I wonder what we will find there.” John didn’t want to tell Mike that he had no intention of selling the locket. He felt connected to the pair and it did save his life. Sleep that night was restful.

Mike stood the first watch…just in case anyone from the command should wander upon them. Twelve hours until port, another twelve to twenty-four before a ship could set sail. Mike was nervous. What was he doing? He was lost in thought and pacing when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his body. “Grab some sleep.” John said

“Oh…ok.” stammered Mike. “Thanks for relieving me.”

“Get some rest and when you wake up, will be at the port.”

The next day, they arrived at the port and were lucky to find a ship suitable to their needs. Mike seemed relieved and John was elated. As the ship slipped out of port, John watched the town slip over the horizon. Playing with the locket, John thought “Mike is probably not going to finish the voyage” and an evil smirk crossed his face.