What Keeps Me Going

The clinking sound of the rusted chain against the rusted cans was about to drive Sheri insane. The kid’s homemade armor had managed to keep him alive before now, but it was already challenging enough to travel in a group trying to keep the mutants at bay, let alone while trying to scavenge for supplies.

“Kid, are you sure there’s not another place you can keep that stupid locket.”

The whisper, though harsh, had a point as Sheri turned back to look between her second in command and the lanky teen in question. Liam had long curly blonde hair that often got in his face. He was not the most graceful as his long limbs trapped in the middle of a growth spurt would often sprawl out in front of the fourteen-year-old in attempt to keep him upright. But by far, the most frustrating part of trying to keep Liam alive had been his unreasonable attachment to the heart shaped locket he kept wrapped around his wrist. When Sheri and her crew had found the kid hunkered down in dilapidated church, he had talked about nothing but his girlfriend he had been separated from for years and the locket he was so desperate to get back to her. Many survivors were trying to find lost loved ones and Sheri honestly didn’t have the heart to tell him that his girlfriend was most likely dead.

“Sorry,” Liam whispered, moving closer to the rest of the group as the hid behind the old city bank building, “I’ll fix it.”

Sheri smiled softly at him before taking another look at the perimeter around them. She took note of the familiar silence in an area that only five years ago had been a bustling metropolis. Many people had been blamed for the event. Countries and politicians had spent the first year trying to rally various groups to finger point and blame, but by the second year it didn’t matter who had started it. The world was the way it was now, and all that mattered was making sure to survive. Sheri motioned to the group to come in closer so she could whisper where they all could here.

“I haven’t seen any mutants,” she supplied, readjusting her dusty blue bandana to keep her long raven hair back, “but that doesn’t mean their not a little further away. I want everyone to keep sharp and keep quiet.”

She turned to the man closest to her, his one eye focused on the leader, “Tim, you and I will take the lead.”

She then turned to the other two people, both with nearly identical green eyes and chestnut hair, “Jacob, Rachel, you two take the back.”

Lastly she turned to Liam who sighed, “I know, I know, I stay in the middle, quiet as a mouse.”

Sheri ruffled the curly blonde hair, “Exactly.”

The mutants had started showing up early on in the event, evolving from the common field mice to deadly vipers. The chemicals that had nearly wiped out humanity had twisted the animals from their normal nature to beings of pure predatory instinct, driven mad by a “mutation” of their genes, until the animals people once knew and admired were now unrecognizable. These mutants did not travel in packs or herds and would only show up in large groups when they were all attracted to the same food source, even fighting amongst themselves. Their hostility could not be reasoned with and they made for the deadliest of adversaries. So now, as Sheri led her group of scouts around the abandoned convenience and department stores looking for resources, she kept her sharp brown eyes pealed for any signs of movements. They had already been attacked twice this week and they had only been planning on staying out for two days at the most. But the discovery of Liam and the group’s unwillingness to leave a fourteen-year-old to fend for himself had slowed them down a bit. They had found that Liam was rather resourceful and had managed to map out most of the remaining areas where supplies could be found. But his makeshift armor and that rusty locket that he refused to leave behind often made enough noise to attract the unwanted attention of nearby mutants. It had often led to brief arguments among the group, but nothing that Sheri wasn’t able to quell with a quick reminder that they all just needed to find some extra resources and get back to their compound which was a few miles away.

After several minuets they were able to find a few unopened first aid kits in the back along with some gallons of water and a few cans of food, which along with their previous haul had made the trip well worth it. Sheri was just about to lead them out of the store when she spotted some movement up in the air. She motioned for everyone to be still as a group of what might have once been buzzards circled over the rooftops of the remaining buildings. Knowing that they would need to move quickly and quietly she motioned to Liam to hold onto the locket so that it would not brush up against the cans on his arms he used to protect himself. He nodded doing exactly that while the others began to pull out their makeshift weapons. Tim positioned himself to kneel next to Sheri.

“How many?” He mouthed to her.

Taking another quick look she held up six fingers. Tim shook his head before trying to take a look for himself to see their positioning. He then mouthed,

“Escape Route?”

Sheri looked out again then turned back to the African American man pointing to the right then down, a series of signals they had learned to dictate direction. Sheri used these signals to communicate that they needed to head east then south to get to the compound as quickly as possible. If they could make it past the edge of the abandoned city, they would have a clear shot at getting back home. The group moved as quickly and as quietly as they could Sheri moving forward to hold open the door so that each member of her crew could get out. She silently closed the store’s door behind them as they continued to make their escape across the empty city sidewalks. They had made it three blocks before the worst thing happened at the worst possible time. Liam had been so focused on watching the mutated birds of prey that he did not see an uneven patch of gravel that quickly tipped up his lanky feet. He managed to catch himself before landing face first on the concrete, but the sudden movement cause the locket to once again collide nosily with the homemade armor. Before long the group was swarmed by grotesque avian monsters. Sheri quickly pulled her hatchet from her back and silently went to work on dispatching the mutants and protect her people. Rachel and Jacob moved on the other side to handle the back and Tim kept Liam under guard. Eventually they were ale to clear the path of the mutants and quickly dashed to the outskirts with only a few large scrapes along their arms and faces.

It took much longer than any of them had wanted to clear the edge of the city, leaving all of them winded from the quick sprints. But it did not quell the anger that had been building up for a while now, as Jacob angrily approached Liam.

“You clumsy idiot!” he shouted, no longer caring if their were any mutants nearby to hear them, “that’s the third time you’ve nearly gotten us killed this week!”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“Doesn’t matter, that stupid hunk of metal is not worth any of our lives.”

Liam attempted to reach out and keep Jacob off him, but the twenty five year old was much larger and quicker, yanking the metal charm causing the chain to break.

“That’s enough.” Sheri called out as Liam desperately tried to reclaim the locket.

“Please you have no idea what that means to me!” Liam begged.

“We all have stories kid,” Jacob said holding the locket aloft, “but you’re not gonna find your girl if your mutant meal!”

Jacob moved across the open plain until he was at the edge of a nearby cliff. Liam began panicking even further, trying to rush at Jacob, causing them both to tumble far too close to the edge.

“Jay stop it that’s enough!” Rachel called out to her brother, while Titus attempted to separate the conflicting parties. The two managed to get a couple of hits off each other before Titus and Sheri had them separated.

“We cannot afford this now!” She yelled at the two of them, “We have to keep moving if any of us want to…”

She paused, taking a moment to pick up the now open locket that seemed to be further damaged in the scuffle. Most likely due to old age, the clasp keeping the contents safely closed had now burst open. She turned it over in her hand expecting to see a picture of a cute pre-teen couple, but was more than surprised when she saw that there was nothing inside. The whole party stood silent, save for the quiet tears from Liam.

“I didn’t have anyone,” he said, trying hard to hide the sound of his voice cracking, “I was alone for so long…I thought I was gonna go crazy.”

He looked up at the Latina leader, blue eyes watery, “I found it, just lying in a pile of other useless junk a few months back…I thought, if I could just pretend…If I had someone to look for…I know it’s fake, but it’s what keeps me going.”

Sheri looked at the heartbroken young man and then back down at the broken piece of metal, before violently throwing it over the cliff. The shocked and somewhat horrified looks were lost on her as she quickly searched herself, looking for something that would work. Eventually she settled on the blue piece of cloth that held back her hair. She moved forward, dusting off the dirty bandana as best she could before tying it around Liam’s wrist in the exact spot where he had been holding onto the locket. He looked up at her confused and she replied,

“This is real. You have someone to keep you going. So let’s go home.”

No other words were exchanged, but the grateful look in Liam’s eyes and the way he walked a little closer to her as they all started to head back to the compound was thanks enough for Sheri.