A Hope for a Future

The sun rises yet again. The sight never ceases to amaze. There was an old saying, from before, that you don't know what you have until it's gone. That saying was true since the impact winter of the asteroid that hit earth blocked out the sun for a few years. However, the saying was even more true for the father who was watching it alone.

He sat there, watching the sun rise from his bedroll that he had slept in. The only thing he could think about was how he and his daughter had watched the sun rise when she was young. He clung to her little heart-shaped locket, which was something he always did as he thought of her. He decides to open it, as it had a picture of him, his wife, and daughter together. He had given it to her so that she would know her family was always with her, but now it seemed he needed it for that reason.

His wife had died from the harsh, cold environment caused by the impact, freezing to death after she was separated from him. A rockslide had left them on opposite sides of the pile of rocks and crushed her leg. As he held her lifeless body in his hands he wanted to die with her, but one thing kept him alive. His daughter was still out there. That is what he hoped for at least.

He closed the locket back. The memories flooding him was not something he needed right now. He stood up and began packing his things. He didn't carry much since he was always on the move, but he still had to pack quickly. He was being hunted by a group of hunters trained to track down anyone who roams the wastes freely, since it is illegal to do so.

With no real government left, makeshift governments are rising and putting laws in place to keep anyone from moving freely. They put this all in place under the guise that it's safer to stay together in their closed communities. However, reality is that they want to control the people. The world is still harsh, but it is improving. If people can't rebuild, things may stay harsh. Though, despite the law, he had to be out here.

With all his things packed, he began walking in the same direction he started walking in the day before. As he walks, he begins to slip on his old gas mask to protect him from any gas pockets he might run into, or if the hunters use tear gas. He gets it fastened on his head, and makes sure he can breathe right. Then he continues walking. He had no clues and no hints as to where his daughter could be, all he knew was he found her locket instead of her body.

Before the hunters took over, his family lived in a survivor community. After a raid by bandits, his daughter was gone. All he found was her locket laying on the ground. For a while he and his wife tracked down bandit camps, but most were abandoned or destroyed by hunters. With his wife gone and stories of bandit raids becoming rare, he had no choice but to search aimlessly.

"We can't give up, Ethan." His wife would tell him every single day.

"I know, Abbey. And we won't." He would always say back to her. So he kept searching, despite the harsh wastes and being hunted. He would never give up until he found his baby girl. Though she probably wasn't little anymore, since it had been years, she would always be his baby.

"I know, Abbey. I won't." He muttered out loud to himself, to reaffirm him of his mission that most would have already given up on. He stops walking for a moment to look at the terrain of hills and rock he would now have to walk through. He was getting to old for this, is what he thought to himself as he decided to keep going. He was suddenly startled when he heard a noise and he quickly scurried behind a pile of rocks.

He peeks over the rocks to try and see what he heard. As the sound gets louder, it sounds like talking. It seemed like casual chatter, but he didn't want to take any risks of it being dangerous. He finally catches sight of them, and they were wearing full body hunter armor. the blueish armor with gas mask like helmets make them obvious. There were three of them two sounded like men and one sounded like a woman. They let out a few laughs, but most of their words sounded muffled and he couldn't hear. It was as if they were patrolling instead of hunting, so he hoped he could lay low as they passed. However, as he turned, his pack knocked a smaller rock causing it to fall. He tenses up as he hears their jokes stop, and hears them getting closer.

He could not get caught. He refused to get caught. He suddenly takes off running up the nearest hill. The hunters that already had their shock batons out, spotted him and begin to give chase. He makes it to the top of the hill, and quickly slides down it's sandy slope, before moving on to the next, much more rocky hill. The hunters weren't far behind him as they slid down the hill and began up the next as well.

Once Ethan was at the top, he saw no easy way down. so he began running along the top of the hill. One of the male hunters made it to the top before the others, but lost his footing and went sliding down the other side. The other two made it to the top and looked to see if he was alright.

"Don't worry about me, I'm just a little bruised up! Don't let him get away!" The hunter would yell up at the other two. They didn't bother responding, as they needed to catch this free roamer. They moved quickly to try and catch up, but also trying to keep their footing. Ethan remained ahead of them, but he knew he couldn't keep it up. He tries to climb down the rocks, as he ran out of hill to run on.

The hunters make it to the edge, and begin climbing down after him. As they head down, the woman hunter almost slips. She manages to catch herself, then yells a warning to the man hunter.

"Be careful, I almost..." Her words were cut off by the other hunter making a panicked yelp and rolling down the hill. She grunted to herself in annoyance and continued descending down. Ethan made it to the bottom and ran past the hunter that fell as he laid there groaning in pain.

Ethan kept running, and tried to run around the rocky hills this time, but where he ran wasn't as flat as he thought. He quickly tried to stop short as he reached a drop off, but lost his balance and fell off. He bounced off a few rocks on his way down, and hit the bottom hard. The remaining hunter reaches the drop off and looks down. She sees Ethan laying there and begins slowly making her way down.

Ethan could barely move, he was certain he broke more than a few bones, but managed to roll over on his back. His gas mask was covered in dirt and he had a hard time seeing out of it. He wanted to pull it off, but it hurt to move. He heard the sound of the hunter reaching the bottom and making angry noises.

"I have you now roamer. you are coming with us." She said as she walked up to him. He didn't say anything back to her and she couldn't see his face, so she began searching him. She could tell by his chest that he was breathing, but cared very little about his well being. As she searched she came across the locket. She picked it up and began looking at it. She opened it and looked at the picture, and dropped her baton.

"Where did you get this?" She asked angrily. "Where?!" She begins acting frantically. She walks away from him a few steps, before pacing back towards him. She heard him say something, but couldn't make it out. She then kneeled next to him and began to pull his mask off.

"I swear if you hurt them, I'll..." She stopped as the mask came off and she saw his face. She pulls off her helmet and looks at him with tears in her eyes.

"It's.. you.." he barely gets out as tears fill his eyes.

"Dad? is it really you?" She could barely contain her emotions as she took in the sight of his face. "Where is mom?"

He couldn't speak it, just shook his head as more tears filled his eyes. She began to cry more too, at the thought of her mom being gone. This was all very unexpected.

"I'm so glad I finally found you, I never stopped looking." Ethan said straining out the words. "you're a hunter?"

"It's a long story." She summed up through the tears. "I just wanted to help people."

"The only true help people need now is to be free." He replied as he reached up caressing her cheek. "Just like how, for the first time in years, I'm finally free." with that his head suddenly dropped back and the light left his eyes. She began to sob and held his body close.

After a while She composed herself and made it back to the others. Her helmet was on to hide her eyes and she held the locket. She tried not to act like anything was wrong.

"Hey, Hope!" they called to her. "Where is he?"

"He's dead." She replied shortly and began walking past them. It was a long walk back to the closed community, and she had a lot to think about. She had her doubts about how things were run, but seeing it now, the community looked like a prison.

The next morning, she would approach the guards at the gate, and acted like she was covering for them. When they walked out of sight, she entered the gate control room. Inside was an intercom that was used to announce things across the community. She leaned over and began to make an announcement.

"Attention all citizens, this is an important announcement. Freedom is yours. You just have to walk through the gate." After she spoke, she pressed a button on the controls opening the gates around the community. She smiled as the sounds of people could be heard thundering around. This was going to get messy, but she knew it was the best option. She then looks out the window at the sunrise.

"This is for you, dad."