A Couple Of Batteries

At the start of when everything fell apart, there were those who chose to blame anyone and everything. They had to find the villain, and often resorted to violence to get what they wanted, proselytizing a better age in recent past. Others chose to hide, giving up what they could to those they saw as having the power to fix things, and constantly pointing out any criticisms they could find to the injustices they felt. They were overwhelmed and wouldn’t fix anything because they were crippled by their own fear but raised their voices on a constant cycle wanting things to change, for us to keep moving forward.

Our technologies and discoveries stopped being curiosities, and soon turned into the necessarily possible solutions for the disasters following right behind us. We were burning the candles at both ends so to speak but could not imagine any path forward other than finding new things that created new problems. The last age started when an EMP emitter, the size of a water bottle was planted by a fringe group called carpenter’s hand. They first launched a terrorist attack in NYC, knocking out all trading for three weeks, and by then, the cult had hit enough targets across the country that our electric grid started to become too unstable to fully rely on. To say the least, companies lost billions.

The US government got pressure to respond, and not having a target, they declared war on known enemies abroad, spreading a lie that we had been attacked by foreign entities that had infiltrated our country and that we would respond as a nation for this aggression.

Within two years, 30 million U.S. civilians died due to a complete lack of domestic aid, and 6 million died in battle, but that was not even half of the devastation. China pulled all of its debts in and resorted ramped up a campaign of chemical bombs that were detonated in busy populations centers around the globe. Russia collapsed within the first 3 years with only a meager 1.5 million civilians without any form of government remaining. The European economy crumbled, sending millions into starvation, and India joined China’s efforts to fight against the U.S. causing untold casualties. For every US civilian, 10 of theirs were killed, but it did not matter, because no free state withstood the war.

Finally, as the dust settled, the world’s population had dropped to 2.5 billion with an estimated loss of 300 million within the next 3 years due to a lack of medical care and lower birth survival rates and life expectancy. It has been estimated that by the year 2060, with the effects of the early centuries global warming crisis, followed by the domestic devastations in medicine, food production, and the loss of the electrical grids across multiple nations, the population may drop below 500million, with no hope of recovering for an additional century.

The only trade worth anything in the new market consists of memento bartering. No production exists, except for scarce food production and medicines and those are all distributed to the governments for rationing. All that is left throughout the day to day for trade is what is scavenged. The death toll was so high that most places are barren, and hunters collect goods from border towns to bring into the hubs for trading. Local governors require a tax of all items. This tax of goods recovered is distributed to people within the town equally so that some form of trade can continue outside of the rationing.

Media has not changed much, other than it is printed propaganda rather than any form of digital media. The best stocks to trade, recent legislation, violence, fake new technologies that will improve our lives are often printed and distributed, but with one ever-slight change. Printed in bold letters at the top is the same message every day “The new world order has arrived; we will make it together”.

Today, an elderly man came into my shop with an item he claimed predated WWII. It is a locket, shaped like a heart, that opens from the side. His wife had given it to him when they were married, because it was a locket her grandmother had given her husband during the war. When we went into the war of the last age, his wife had become one of many victims of the chemical attacks. He told me that she had passed, but before she died, she held the locket in her hands one last time and said “I can’t give you a family, but fight for those who still have someone to live for.”

He served two terms in the Indian Ocean Blockades as a captain in the navy before returning home to no property, no source of income, and no food to speak of. The government told him that his new war would be with hunger so that they could feed those who he had fought to protect. He was alone in the world, but this 200-year-old locket still held two pictures in its heart shape. Him and his wife, and her grandparents.

He looked at me and said in a quiet voice. “I’m not much longer for this world, and I would just like the chance to hear her voice again, but I don’t have any batteries for my stereo.’ He gave a pause, his lip trembling a bit has he tried to get every word out ‘I have recordings that still work, but I need some power.”

I’m a softy, batteries are one of the most valuable items we trade now adays, and there was no way I was going to get the value from that sentimental locket for the batteries he was asking for, but worrying over value is what got us into this mess I thought, so I struck an alternative deal. I asked him to tell me where he lived, so that I could visit. If he passed on, I would take the batteries back, but if he wanted them for the locket, I would give them to him.

I checked on him the next night but heard no answer. Getting a Jammer, men who break down doors or other blocked spaces for scavenging, I had him break open the door. I walked in to find him fallen over himself, with the stereo by his side. I stepped up to his stereo to grab the batteries, but out of curiosity, I played what he had been listening too.

“Hello honey, I love you. I’m sorry I have to leave you. I want to sing a song for you.

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream…”

Her voice was perfect. Of course, it may have been more overwhelming that perfect because I hadn’t heard any voice sing for nearly a decade and the very memory of what she was singing brought tears to my eyes. I hadn’t thought about how much I had taken for granted and to hear her sing was like waking up from a bad nightmare. The jammer who had assisted me barged in behind me yelling.

“Oh my god, what is that!” He was so excited that he crashed into me, nearly knocking me to the floor on his way to pick up the stereo. After that I had kept the locket, but at sundown I left the stereo outside my store every night for everyone to hear her sing. I have also gotten a larger supply of batteries, but no one trades for them anymore. If anything, they give me any batteries they find to keep our stereo working as long as we possibly can.

I often look at the locket before I go to sleep. For such a small and seemingly meaningless thing, our little outpost has been able to hold onto a glimmer of light left by this lonely man. Everyone lost something, but some things are worth remembering. He may not be remembered by anyone else, but his wife is remembered by everyone, and I think that may be the greatest gift I can give back to him. As for me, I won’t forget him or the story he told me as he traded this small heirloom for a couple of batteries.