The Locket in the End

A man sat upon a rock in the dying sun, looking longingly at a heart-shaped locket. His eyes were damp, his cheeks stained. The light of the fire, small and overshadowed by the rocks for their protection, barely illuminated the small picture contained within the locket. Hard to make out but for the man, it didn’t matter. Any light or no light, he could upon the locket’s inner sanctum and seek out in remembrance of the love of his life, his life, who had passed eight years ago, to the day. Eight years ago… a different world, a different life. A life where he had the love of his life. A life where he worked in the city, at a job that gave him the resources and the desire to have a child, to complete his life. And that dream came true.

On that warm late May afternoon, his life was changed for the better. His wife told him she was pregnant and soon, they would have a family. Everything that he had ever wanted, was all coming together. And to celebrate this, he gifted her a heart-shaped locket, complete with the picture from their first date, at a simple art museum, where they fell in love over and over as they walked upon the exhibits, taking in the exquisite works of art and truly immersing themselves into the artistic creativity of humanity.

But life… well… to him, life was cruel and inhuman. Once it saw the first spark of light in anybody, it snuffed it out with extreme prejudice. Only two weeks later, on the early morning of a bright and sunny Saturday, the world came crashing down. The beasts, the annihilators, the terrors, the passers, the very worst of human nature, whatever they were to be called, rose to strike fear and bring the world crashing down. The dead were no longer worthy of being respected, rather be feared in every regard. He, like many, fled the cities, although, unlike many, he succeeded in escaping the city with his pregnant wife to a countryside cabin deep in the mountains with their lives. Unfortunately, the locket was the only possession they could escape with, having been forced to abandon their car outside the city. But at the time, to them, it was alright. The crisis would soon pass, the authorities would regain control and they would be free to return home to resume their lives and have their child.

But again, life was cruel. The military retreated, tv news stations went off the air, the internet went offline and the very last remnant of civilization, the last connection to a better world, radio, held on for as long as it could, but even it finally ceased a few months after, leaving those who had survived with nothing but a terrifying silence. The world that they knew, the world they wanted to raise their child in, was gone forever and nothing was left. The hopes and dreams they had, witnessing their child’s first laugh? Gone, for how can a child laugh in such an unforgiving and brutal world. Watching their child take their first step? Gone, for how can a child even survive in this new world. Watching their child fond over old family photos and experience the memories of the past? Gone, for the cities were overrun and burned to the ground. Watching their child take their first steps into a new school? Gone, for there were no more schools and no more children.

All that they wanted to experience with their child the man knew then that they were gone. There simply was nothing left anywhere. They may as well have been the last two humans alive. His wife, though, in the face of unrelenting terror and fear, still held on hope. She still held onto the idea that despite the destruction of civilization in a few months and the deaths of everybody they had ever known and loved, there was a place out there. Somewhere, somehow, a community, a safe zone, a military base… something had survived. Her pregnancy was not going as smoothly as she had hoped, but she kept telling her husband that once they had their baby, they would leave the cabin in search of this place. A place where they wouldn’t have to worry about the things that had destroyed the old world and replaced it with a far more brutal one. A place where they could live rather than survive. A place where they could truly raise their child in an environment similar to what had existed before.

The man knew it was a pipedream, but as long as it gave his wife hope, he held on to the slightest possibility that this place that his wife so fondly spoke of existed. But in the end, it was a pipedream. His wife, sickly from the pregnancy and no longer having the ability to go to a hospital, went into labor and although the baby was born, she died. There was nothing the man could do but bury his best friend and the love of his life, leaving him with a baby to raise in an unforgiving world. He stayed at the cabin for four years, although there was no point in that. It didn’t make a difference whether the child was a few days old or a few years old, they were always the first to be hunted by the terrors that now walked the Earth. Still, he was determined, albeit in a desperate attempt to hold on to the memories of his wife, to fulfill her greatest desire, to search for a safe community, somewhere out in this new world, so their child would regain something that the world had taken from them.

He set out in the world with supplies on his back, a weapon in hand, and the locket around his neck, to forever remind himself of the mission that he had to fulfill when what little hope he had wavered. His child, although upset about leaving their home, carried on silently. It broke his heart having to teach his child to be quiet when beyond the safety of the cabin, but when there was one terror, there were usually hundreds more just waiting to strike. But all would be fine once he found what his wife dreamed of finding. He could teach his child everything, but most importantly, teaching them how not to fear the world anymore.

During their travels, they did find people but not the safe havens that they sought. The people that they found were always nomadic, always on the road, hiding out in abandoned houses. But they always had one thing in common, they always sought a place to live. A place where they could build a life for themselves. To those ends, they sought out legends, rumors, little notes, messages painted on the sides of buildings that spoke of a safe community. And every time they sought those out, all they found were mere pipedreams and death. The man and his child always managed to escape, even if the rest of the group weren’t so lucky. He could assume that the love and the life of his life, contained within the heart-shaped locket, was responsible. It kept them moving, it kept their will to live alive and strong, no matter what was in their path.

After two years, the man and his child ceased to find any more groups. Everything was always quiet as if there was nobody left. But in the quietness, the man found himself constantly being proven right, that what his wife wanted was a mere pipedream. Sometimes, as he and his child wandered the Earth, they would find places that were once teeming with life. Signs like gardens and walls. In the end, they all shared the same demoralizing quality. Abandonment. Overrun. Destroyed. Now, four years after he had left the cabin to realize his wife’s hopes and dreams, he sat at a small campfire in an overground national park campground, roasting a rabbit for dinner. His child quietly napped, even if they were hungry, leaving him with only thoughts. For four years, he marched on, with the locket as his strength. The realization that there was no place for him or his child to go was tearing apart what little hope he had in his wife’s dream.

His new plan was to give up searching and make for the cabin. Maybe there he could give his child a fraction of what his wife wanted. At least that was something. Out here, there was nothing. To get back, he had planned to travel in the safety of the mountains, as well as traveling by night. The terrors weren’t as active during the night as they were during the day and they rarely ventured up into the mountains, the terrain too difficult for them to climb. He had to climb two mountain ranges to reach the third, the one that would carry them all north to the cabin. But to do that, he had to cross a valley he had never been through before. Traversing it could very well result in their deaths, but he had to try for his wife’s sake.

Retying the locket around his neck, he gently woke his child so they could eat dinner before packing camp and moving on. The campground was a reasonable place to stay for a few days, but he would feel safer and more relaxed if he crossed the valley before taking a few days to rest. His child was tired though and their pace was slow. By the time they were to crest the ridge and begin descending into the valley below, his child was limping. If he continued his pace, he would be risking a severe injury with his child. But if he didn’t cross the valley, then their chances of survival would drop. If his child injured themselves and couldn’t walk, then their chances of survival dropped to nearly zero. He gripped the locket, praying for his wife to give him strength in a decision.

And a decision came to him. He would crest the ridge and hold on up in a shelter for a few days while his child’s leg healed. But upon cresting the ridge in the early morning night sky, his heart stopped. For years, he had searched for a place. For years, he braved this awful, terrifying world, to honor his wife. For years, he risked his child’s safety to find somewhere that they could live. Always chasing after rumors, taking massive risks in traveling into abandoned cities in search of a place that had long since been gone. For years, he had found nothing, failing to give his child what his wife was dead set on finding. But there, in a twist of fate, led by a decision that he had made weeks ago in the ruins of a chapel, was the answer. Down in the valley, standing as a shield against the darkness of the new world, were the lights of a community, a community that despite the odds, still stood even in the face of the unrelenting terrors that had plagued this world.