THE HEART-SHAPED LOCKET

THE HEART SHAPED LOCKET

Lizzy had always been afraid of shots. But not now, bravely, sitting ready to receive the first dose of the experimental drug. Her father, Daniel, sat ten feet away from her and watched. She caressed the heart-shaped locket he had given her around her neck with one hand. With the other, she blew him a kiss and smiled. She could still smile, whereas he found smiling a difficult thing to do still. The cuff of her pink t-shirt had been pushed up as high as her shoulder. He had convinced her this was the best way to go. It would not hurt. She trusted him implicitly. If only mommy had gone this opportunity, it was too late for her. He had agreed to the experimental therapy. There had been great controversy following it. After hearing both sides and diligent research, he rolled up his sleeve. The risk of losing her was worth any chance offered. Up until that moment, he had not experienced any side effects. The nurse sat the tray down on the counter.

She stretched out the rubber gloves and put them on before wiping the area with alcohol and inserting the hypodermic needle. To distract her, the nurse kept the conversation light. Then she picked up the needle and inserted it into her small upper arm. A split second later, it was over. He smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

The nurse smiled down on her as she covered the spot with a bandaid. Then handing her a lollipop for her bravery. Her ice cream treat was only moments away. He gathered up her backpack as he readied to leave. Suddenly the nurse screamed a maddening shuddering shriek. What seemed like a second later, the lollipop was on the floor. Lizzy had fainted and fallen forward into the nurse. The nurse hit the Code Blue button in a state of panic. Her tiny, frail body now lifeless in the nurse's arms. Dropping her backpack instantly, Daniel ran to her. Before he could get in her reach, he was aggressively halted.

"Oh dear god, No," he shouted, "Lizzy, Lizzy!" he fought off roughly the men who held him back. Pandemonium set in. The sound of the rushing feet of medical staff coming to assist. The chaos ensued. He fought hard under their restraint, tho not giving up his fight. Yelling painfully in his restraint as he watched them rush Lizzy out of the room and to the Urgent Care part of the hospital. A nightmare from which he would never awaken. Sometime later, in the morgue, with his head buried deep into her slight belly, crying profusely. She looked as tho she was sleeping and would awaken. How could something this terrible happen? Her beautiful smile and the heart-shaped locket were the last living memories of Lizzy. The locket still around her neck.

Removing it ever so gently and cupping it in his hand before he was bodily removed from the horrific scene. She was all he had left in the world. It had been three months since the death of Lizzy. Daniel had not slept a wink, at least it seemed that way. Her smile, the heart-shaped locket, and the shrieking scream from the nurse was a constant scenario that played over in his mind. Others around him were dropping dead as a result of the new drug therapy. His sanity was fast-fledging. Sitting in an outside food stop, a man across from him began to have a violent seizure. Staffers came running with the blue light to give evidence of the drug therapy. Others in the area started to flee. Immediately jumping from his seat and turning his head to prevent himself from seeing.

He didn't want another brutal scene playing on in his fragile mind. Lizzy's visual still haunted him with profound guilt. She trusted him. Her last smile showed told just how much. Covering his ears as the sirens screeched past. The casualties were piling up from the therapy at rates higher than the virus itself. The people in the powerful places allowed it to continue. In many places, it had become mandatory for employment also to buy groceries and travel. He wanted them to pay for the loss of his daughter. It was not okay, but he was powerless. He needed to warn others not to partake willingly in this experimental drug therapy. He wanted to do it in the most significant way he knew how. Speaking publicly against the experimental drug therapy was a felonious crime with unknown consequences. It was worth the risk; everyone would know about Lizzy.

Money was scarce, but not for him. He was not shocked to see an answer to his ads quickly. Lizzy's picture had been blown up larger than life. Secretly hiring two pilots and paying them generously to help achieve his goal. The two hired pilot's messages would be seen at a statewide level. The skywriting visible vapor's read" NO TO EDT! Then released a puff of black smoke forming a skeleton's head. The sign following Lizzy's picture on the message airplane read: SHOTS KILL. Now feeling satisfied alone at home, he cried unashamedly. This intentional pandemic had cost him everything. When the pilots landed, policemen were waiting to arrest them.

For the first time in weeks, sleep came easy. It was 2:00 a.m. The banging on the door snapped him out of an awful dream. Suddenly there was storming up the stairs. It wasn't long before the intruders were standing at his bedside. As if he were a hardened criminal, there were drawn guns. Instead of the grieving husband and father, he was. Making their demands, roughly he was led down to one of the waiting patrol cars. Daniel drove off, looking back at what once was the American Dream that ended in a nightmare. The wind blew trash and debris around in the streets. Shattered windows on dilapidated buildings no longer occupied was the scene everywhere. Desecrated and ghostly, looking like a scene out of a war-torn society that existed nearly 100 years ago during the first world war. It had not been that long before this change had taken place. An alone and thin undernourished dog sniffed around in search of the tiniest of a morsel to eat. The dog's skeletal system could be seen easily through the skin. He somehow managed to survive when most didn't. Even human life was scarce as it had ever been since man's existence on the earth. Not many survivors.

The pandemic had made sure of that. It has been 35 years since its beginning. The promised cure had exponentially caused a genocide of sorts. But now, a new professed drug was founded. Anyone was afraid to try it or opposed it was subjected to harsh treatment and banished. They were considered impure and removed from society. Thousands were boarded on a train, then aboard a cargo airplane like cattle, and dropped off to a dystopian type world to live out their lives in sickness, poverty, and starvation. This world was far from the pure ones. The persecution had gone on for years as the fear propaganda continued.

With each shot given, A imprint was put beneath the wrist's skin that showed up like invisible ink under blue light. It was your passport to life. A temporary life, despite all the deaths that came as a result. The negative side of the new therapy was censored. Lizzy's death had never been publicized. He pondered when recalling what life was like before the pandemic and this dystopian society that was now ever-present. He believed it to be both here in this dystopian world as well as with the Pure ones. The selection was no different than the Holocaust. He knew eventually that this would be the extinction of mankind. It had grown far out of control.

Even for the creators of the virus that was destroying mankind in general. The most powerful had now become affected. This new therapy had become the new nuclear bomb that was gonna bring man to extinction. It was a weapon that had turned against them. It was just a matter of time. He sat lifeless and stone-faced. Then he heard the scream that had hunted him. It made him shudder violently when he heard it. It was as if he was receiving an electronic shock. It seemed to go on forever before it would fade. He had been given shock therapy after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Medications were now unavailable and a thing of the past.

Like a drug addict going thru cold turkey each time an episode occurred. With his boney hand trembling, he went into his dirty and tattered coat pocket. Feeling around for all he had left. His hand shook slightly as he opened it up. The orange fire glowing against his soiled skin, and tears streaming slowly down his face. It was all he had left. The heart-shaped locket. She was so happy when he had given it to her. She had never removed it from her neck. Even when she took her bath. The scraggly-haired man sat in front of a fire with a club in his bruised up hand. To remove that present thought, he thanked God for the rat he was cooking. The protein would be suitable for his body. His gaunt face covered by his scrappy- looking beard and piercing eyes looked anxiously around for the takers. These were people who at one time were law-abiding citizens. Hoping the rat would cook fast enough to be consumed before he would be robbed of it. Others like him were off in the distance.

They wondered like Zombies, all lost in despair. Some of them had become takers. It was survival of the fittest. But the ones now gone were the lucky ones. He was not supposed to be here being a Pure one. Who believed in the great reset. The Pure world was on the other side. A man-made paradise. But the great reset had proved to be a doomsday for both the Pure and the Impure. He was hungry. Removing the cooked rat from the fire and leaving it on the skewer. After blowing it too cool, he began to tear into the cooked flesh. The man himself was incapable. There was no paradise at all. Life one day can come down to nothing. To something so as a simple heart-shaped locket. It was over for him.

He snuffed out the fire with surrounding dirt. Picking up a dirty canteen and drinking the last of what it contained. His looks had changed drastically. He feared if he went on much longer, he would become one of them. They had lost everything, including their dignity. He stood up awkwardly, putting the heart-shaped locket back safely in his pocket. The locket represented the love he still held for Lizzy; it made him feel close to her. The thin dog approached him, whimpering. He knew he was hungry. Also, he knew how painful death by starvation was. He gave it the leftover carcass of the rat. Sadly he watched him devour it. He rubbed his head feeling pity for every living thing left, including the dog.

It was cold now that the fire was out. He started to walk. He looked around at the wretched life that the few left was trying to hold on to. They didn't understand they were walking dead already. Walking a long way in the cold to a spot he had visited many times in this awful place. It was strange how beauty could be found amidst the worse conditions if you looked for it. All he had been through, somehow, his belief in God still existed. It was peaceful and serene. The white caps crashing against the rocks below the cliff were inviting. Taking the heart-shaped locket out of his pocket for the last time, holding it against his heart as he plunged off the cliff.