War for the Outside Locket

Feeling like you’re about to collapse is extremely inconvenient when you’re running for your life… and all of humanity. It all began with a 50-year long war, then betrayal, and now this. This metal, cold, heavy, heart-shaped locket I held was the key to everything we could have ever hoped for. A war was fought for it one hundred years ago. Well, we didn’t know that part until the war was over. Then the real war began. Our livelihoods were destroyed for what we thought was freedom, but now we are learning that we were all greatly deceived. They wanted us to destroy ourselves so they could take over. “How much longer are these guys gonna chase us?” Mel was clearly winded, too. She could barely breathe, and I began seeing stars. I was fading fast. “Mel, I think I’m gonna pass out.” Mel was determined. “Just keep pushing, we’re almost there!” I fished the locket out of one of the pockets on the inside of my jacket and suddenly felt nauseous; the adrenaline was gone, but we couldn’t afford to give up. “Mel! Take it!” Mel was indignant. “What? No!” My vision went blank and I felt my knees crash into the earth below me. I stuck my arm out to brace myself but it was of no help.

・・・

“David?” When he collapsed his head hit a tree root. I crouched and gently shook him. “David, wake up! David! Damn it!” Military personnel were closing in. I knew I had to leave him there, but I’ve seen what they do to people like us. They used to protect us before the war. Now we’re all afraid of them. My body was shaky from running so hard. We had had a few breaks where we lost track of them, but they weren’t very long. I began to see the tops of their helmets coming over the hill. “Shit. Shit!” Looking back at David one last time, I ripped the locket from his limp hand and ran like hell. I heard one of the soldiers shout “She’s over here!” Bullets hit the trees and various other random objects in the woods as I tried to dodge them. My breathing got heavier as I became more and more determined to get the locket to safety. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my left leg and I fell. I tried to stand but I couldn’t. “No. No!” With all of my strength I used my arms to crawl until I was shot in the shoulder. I cried out in agony. I heard someone ahead of me shout “Hey assholes!” followed by the sound of machine gun fire. I could hear the soldiers yelling in pain and their armor hitting each other as they were taken down. Then silence. Relief rushed over my entire body and I laid on my back. I was in masses of pain and blood, but at least I knew we still had a chance. “Hey kid.” There was an older, gruffy-looking man standing over me. He must have been behind the machine gun. “Who are you?” He stood at my feet now reaching out to me to help me up. “I’m the guy who helped save your ass.” I glared and thought to myself, ‘Great. Another sexist douchebag trying to be an apocalyptic hero.’ He began to coarsely chuckle and his demeanor changed. “I’m kidding, I’m not some sexist douchebag. I’m Mark. Short for Marcus. I’m with the people in that building you were running toward.” I must have looked confused and a bit alarmed, because he continued. “An APB was put out. We’ve been expecting you.” he said warmly. I took his hand with my uninjured arm and he supported me as I, poorly, attempted to stand. I winced as soon as my leg hit the ground. “Oh shit. Sorry.” I began feeling woozy. I was losing quite a bit of blood. He took some makeshift bandages and rags he had with him and quickly wrapped the bullet wounds. I leaned on him and he tried to help me walk again, but after a few steps I fell, which also hurt. “I don’t think I can walk.” After a pause, he said “It’s okay. I think I could probably just carry you. I have a bad back, but it really isn’t that far, right?” He looked at me as if I were a small child in need of assistance. I paused, then nodded in agreement. It’s hard to know who to trust now, but he did just risk his life to save the locket. Leaning the machine gun on a red, metal shed he had used to hide, he bent down, scooped me up with a grunt, and started walking. “We need to get you some help. You’ll be okay, kid. Just hang in there.” Suddenly I was reminded of my deceased father. My insubordination cost him his life, but it’s what he wanted. Comfort is something few people can provide in a world like this. I was about to crash when I remembered David. “Wait.” I slurred. Mark stopped. “What is it?” Attempting to point back to where we came from I murmured “David…Please…get David.” My body was so weak I couldn’t support my own head anymore and my vision was blurry. ‘Am I dying?’ I thought to myself. Letting go, I sank into him, still breathing, but very shallowly.

・・・

I lightly grunted upon trying to stand. I was amazed that I wasn’t in a government facility being tortured. “Oh no.” I had given the locket to Mel who also had the key to open it. ‘If they caught her, we’re all done for.’ I searched my pockets; maybe she hid it on me and distracted them? There was nothing in my pockets. “Damn, I knew I would mess this up!” After reorienting myself, I started running toward the base we were trying to reach. I suspected it used to be some kind of lab or maybe an office building. It looked to be about 1,000 feet away. “Oof!” My face slammed into the damp dirt. “Agh, what the hell?” I looked back to see what I tripped on. “Holy…” The soldiers we were running from were all dead. There had to be more on the way. I filled an empty clip on the ground with unused bullets and put it in one of my jacket pockets. They all had the same weapons. There was a handgun that I shoved in another jacket pocket and some kind of advanced rifle I ripped out of one of their stiff, dead hands. That locket contained something that all of humanity desperately needed, and I would have rather died than let it fall into the wrong hands. Our establishment used hate and fear to divide us and cause a civil war, only to reveal that they were the enemy all along when they stole the locket from the Outside. We were the most defenseless and vulnerable we ever had been. That’s where I’m from. The Inside is filled with government officials and people that assisted them in the war. When Mel’s father, an engineer, left the Inside, he took some secrets with him. He got a team together and they were able to hack the system, break in, and get it back. He hid it until Mel was old enough to finish the job for him. Mel was gaunt, caked in dirt, and didn’t have any friends when I met her. We would play together as children and over the years became very close. She vanished for an entire year and a half and the next time I saw her, it was a rainy night in September. She was banging on my bathroom window begging me to let her in. After I pulled her through the window, a military truck sped past. That’s when I knew we had to leave. We were 19. Now that we were 23, I couldn’t find her or the locket, and I was trying to make it to that building as fast as possible. Hearing a truck approach, I muttered “Oh, come on!” and hid behind a large pine. I could hear them unloading and discussing various topics among themselves. They were coming straight toward me. I ran. Heavy fire seemed to magically whizz past me as I ran as haphazardly as I could. I got a couple rounds in as I ran, but they were getting too close so I hid behind a tree. There was an intense shoot off. They didn’t need information; they wanted me dead. After a barrage of bullets I turned to shoot as much as I could when suddenly I was shoved to the ground. ‘They flanked me. They fucking flanked me.’ A power struggle ensued until I was pinned to the ground by another soldier, and the one that got me raised his gun. “Any last words son?” That annoyed me. ‘Son? Really?’ I responded with the classic line of, “You can kiss my-” He fell to the ground as even more chaos ensued. I could hear yelling in the distance and gunfire. People were here to help me. The female soldier that pinned me down said “Shit. Oh shit.” as she shakily pulled out her handgun to shoot me. She didn’t get very far before she was also taken out by somebody. I sat up, bewildered and a bit disoriented. “Hey kid!” A man approached me that I hadn’t met before. “The hell are you doing just sitting over here? Lets go!” He led me into the building safely and brought me to one of the upper floors. “Hey where’s Mel?” “Mel who?” My heart dropped into my gut as my face fell. “Just kidding!” He said, chortling up a storm. “My name’s Mark. Short for Marcus. She’s fine, she’s in the next room. She did scare me for a minute there. I thought maybe she wouldn’t pull through with all that blood loss.” I had been relieved but now I was worried again. “Wait what happened to her?” “Eh, she was shot twice. Once in the leg, another in the shoulder. She’s all taken care of now.” “How long was I out?” “I don’t know, maybe an hour? But hey, we don’t have much time to discuss that right now. Let’s get to the locket and have a little talk over brunch later, right?” I didn’t think Mel getting shot and me being unconscious for a concerning amount of time was small talk, but I went with it. “Right.”

・・・

The door swung open with a surprising amount of force. “David!” I couldn’t help but reach out for a hug as he approached me. “I’m sorry I left you there, they were coming and I didn’t know what to do.” “Hey, it’s okay. You did what you had to and we’ve all made it out alive.” A bright light flipped on above me. David covered his eyes with his arms. “Agh! That hurts!” “Yep. He has a concussion for sure.” “Mark, turn that off!” I said scoldingly. “Yes ma’am.” I stood and used my crutches to get over to a window that looked out over the newfound warzone. “Hey, can somebody get the key? It’s in my shoe.” Mark laughed. “Genius!” David took the key and I held the locket. “Everything is about to change, Mel. Are you ready?” “Yeah.” David turned the key in the lock and the locket opened up in similar fashion to a rose. We waited a few moments and nothing happened. It was silent. “Nothing’s happening.” David sounded so disappointed, it hurt. ‘It’s silent.’ I stared down at the people below. Every single weapon was on the ground. Wounded from the Outside were being healed by medics from the Inside. “What is going on down there?” Mark said with a hint of confusion. Then it hit me. “Love. Love was inside of the locket.”