The Locket of Cronus

In the midst of time and within the smoky, fogged out atmosphere, Macy could not see, could not feel and also could not hear. The blast she heard was similar to one of the big bang, which initiated the creation of life. Although this time, there existed no more life on earth, and the shock of this event rendered Macy numb to all her senses.

She thought she had lost her hearing but after a minute passed by, a small ringing sound appeared and then her hearing was back to a full sound. In her bewildered state, she could not grasp what had just happened. She rose from the ground and wiped all the dust and dirt from her white ruffled dress. Despite her unsightly appearance she was totally unharmed, and was fortunate to still be living.

She peered around her living room and all the bodies around were sprawled out onto the oak floorboards. Ironically, her mother had cleaned the whole home at the crack of dawn to welcome guests for a family feast. She approached her mother and father and in turn, shook them rigorously but they would not awaken.

“Noooooo!” she exclaimed and her emotional pain was unbearable. Perhaps she was just in a lucid dream or nightmare that she could not wake up from. It was obvious to her that they were no longer living but she could not bring herself to cry, because to her, none of this was real.

As she made the decision to walk to where the front door used to be, she treaded gingerly over her broken ornaments, smashed to smithereens, in the attempt to enter what would have been the porch of her home. Now everything was outdoors and there was no method in which she could call for help. She was indeed all alone and isolated.

The predictions made by the local town crier were correct. The townsfolk had belittled and humiliated him. The world had a habit of shutting down truth mainly due to people’s cognitive dissonance, where their own fears protected them from finding out what they really did not want to hear.

Macy could see a flock of crows, outside feasting off the dead bodies. They were quick to obtain their “food” as animals were mistreated during this time and none of the townsfolk were allowed to keep pets as animals let alone feed them. Many of the animals of the town had been in starvation mode, due to a food shortage, after the town had been hit by a deadly flu epidemic.

The only animals that had survived were the human hybrid chimeras; created by a mad scientist in his mission to play god. These animals had been kept in a nuclear bunker facility in the town but after the event, the facility had burst open and for the first time Macy saw the animal hybrids, named chimeras.

An insane experiment that had been carried out meant the creation of a new breed of animal – a human, a lion, goat and their tails resembled that of a snake’s head. They all walked and talked like humans but it was clear that they were in fact a completely different kettle of fish; or chimera, in this case.

“Please do not worry, we will not harm you!” said the chimera in a coarse voice “even though your people have brought us harm”. Macy sensed that the hybrids were sincere.

“What on earth happened?” questioned Macy to the chimera. At the age of fifteen, she did not possess an awareness of the whole picture.

“We are not one hundred percent certain, but we heard that the scientists took everything too far this time and should have not interfered with our nature. Take us for instance. We overheard from our crazy creator named Max Millane that there is a way to get us back to where things used to be.

This would be via a locket that fits into the Spacex vaults to send us back into time, before all this happened. It is called “The Locket of Cronus”, as Cronus is otherwise known as Father Time. Crazy Max Millane built this but there is word on the street that his own father was abusive to him and so he was full of anger! ”

Max Millane was the town’s most reputed scientist. He was, however, known to conduct experiments that were not ethically accepted by many. For the townsfolk that researched his activity, there were often weekly protests outside his headquarters. It was rumoured that he had created Spacex, which was an electromagnetic device that could transport people through various timelines.

“But Max is my father and he is not crazy!” she exclaimed and then realised straight after, that in truth, he was no more. There was nothing left for her now. The hybrids were astounded as they did not expect such a soft and humane child to come out of such a heartless, calculating scientist. She cried heavily and the hybrids comforted her.

“Please do not worry child! We must find this locket and only then can we revert back to our old way of living” the chimera assured Macy. “I am certain that your father would have given it to you”

“He did not give me anything” she said whilst blubbering “I just want my mother and father back!”

Macy then ran out into the woods where she often found solace. Surprisingly, there were still some trees intact but the majority of them were reduced to cinders and the remaining pieces floated around the atmosphere.

She could no longer see the skyscrapers in the distance when she reached the edge of the woods. Everything was now a hazy shade of grey and her soul sank right into a bottomless pit. She broke down to her knees and this time she cried silently. No-one could hear her anyway. As she got up, her bracelet caught onto a branch and all the pieces flew into air.

On the ground she could see the remains of the bracelet but one particular piece caught her attention. It was heart-shaped with a clasp. She opened the heart and a bright light emitted through as a sparkling rainbow.

When she rose and gazed around, a large group of chimeras were standing around her. She estimated ten of them. She sensed that she had nothing to be afraid of possibly based on the way the chimeras had treated her up until now.

“You have the locket! Come on! We must move quickly to Level Zero and find Spacex exclaimed the chimera”

“Where is Level Zero?” Macy was bemused.

The chimera pointed “I was told in that huge building over there. If we scramble through the rubble, we should be able to get into the basement”

It was a dystopian nightmare. Fortunately, the rain had wiped out the isolated fires but there was smoke spiralling from most of the giant corporate buildings. All the main headquarters were based in the city and the grey frameworks and steel interiors were now visible.

Macy had never seen anything like it. She could imagine what it was like to be in a destructive war zone but in this case, it was as if the major corporations had wiped themselves out through a competition war. The war-like images were not dissimilar to the images that she has seen on her black and white television, which was now reduced to smashed pieces in her lounge, just like everything else in her life.

The chimera stated “You are the only human left alive because you were wearing the locket and it has protected you from destruction!”

The chimeras’ possessed enhanced psychic abilities. Their purpose was to enslave humanity and become the army of the future and keep the world under control. Although now they were far from their purpose of creation and were actually helping Macy in her mission of reverting life back to what she understood it to be. She did not like this world they were in – the dystopian nature of it frightened her and she felt so alone.

It took them more than an hour to scramble through the remains of the buildings, and eventually the Spacex building was in plain sight. As futuristic as its name, it was triangular in shape, similar to the building outside the Louvres in Paris, and resembled a huge greenhouse but without any vegetation inside.

Nothing with life would reside in such sombre architecture. A ray of light emitted through the building showing all colours of the rainbow, very much like the light coming from the locket she opened. It was as if the locket had found its maternal source.

They managed to locate the device to insert the locket and Macy could see that the heart-shaped locket matched the size of the heart shape at the end of the cylinder. She slotted it in and all of a sudden there were several rays of light moving in a number of directions.

She and the chimeras were being transported elsewhere, into another space time dimension. Shooting stars appeared and within one flash, she was back in her home. All was back to normal and her mother and father reappeared. She was so happy to see them.

She hugged her mother and then approached her father and explained everything that happened. He believed her because she could have not possibly have known the details of the experiments he was about to undergo, as they were top secret and he had not yet disclosed them to anyone.

She exclaimed, “Father, please promise me never to interfere with humans and animals. It will be disastrous for mankind. The chimera taught me that it is important that we must look after ourselves and the planet and allow nature to take its course. So do not build Spacex. We have to leave everything as it is.

And father…the chimeras told me what happened when you were growing up. I am sorry what happened to you as a child but we are here for you as a family now and you no longer have to worry. We love you.”

Her father’s stern look quickly subsided and he broke down into tears. At this point, it was clear that family healing had taken place and just like the locket in Spacex, Max had found his own heart once again. He hugged Macy and just like that everything was going to get much better. She was just so grateful to be back to her old life and would never take it for granted ever again.