Destiny's Locket

Josh liked to hold the gold heart-shaped locket and chain around his hand as tight as he could because it helped him steady his shooting hand. He wondered if he would ever see his father or anyone else in his family ever again.

The Quake occurred on August 18, 2028, so everyone called it the “Crazy 8’s” because it happened on the 8th month, of the 18th day, of the 28th year of the “new” millennium…

That was the day when California and the entire west coast of America dropped 13ft into the ground and the Pacific Ocean came rushing in, killing tens of millions - instantly. The ocean filled the valleys of California and we lost ¼ of our food supply.

People spray-painted “888” with “666” next to it, as if we needed to be reminded of what happened.

When the New Madrid fault collapsed, it changed the course of the Mississippi River and the ocean came in and flooded the river with salt water and we lost the rest of our food supply, and the whole country just fell apart, and then we lost the whole national energy grid, just like that. Within 2 weeks, of the big quake, the whole country was pushed back to a pre-industrial age, when only horses and sailboats were worth anything.

Within a year of losing the grid, most people had already died, starved, or killed each other.

Americans had 360 million guns and billions of rounds of ammo stored up for the end of the world and all of it was used up and gone within the first 6 months. The government spent most of its time trying to shut down the 110 nuclear power stations across the country and used this as an excuse to take all the food and fuel that was left.

The air was so polluted from the fires and toxic gases, that living below 5,000 ft was impossible. Survivors took shelter in the mountains to escape the toxic air and acid rain. Josh's father told him that the Hopi reservation was perched on a mesa, above 5,000 ft, but the mountaintops above 5,000 ft were more like islands surrounded by a sea of toxic clouds which filled the valleys. The isolation and desolation were complete.

Josh remembered a bible passage, about the abomination of desolation, and he thought this must be God's punishment for our own ignorance.

We made all these weapons of mass destruction to kill people in other countries, and now those weapons were being used to kill Americans. We brought about our own desolation when we released our own man-made abominations.

"God had nothing to do with our destruction – we did this to ourselves," Josh thought.

His father gave him a horse, a compass, and a GPS, but the satellites did not work, and the compass was not reliable enough. He knew that he had to go west to the 4 corners area and to the Navajo Reservation, but that was it.

“He must have thought of everything,” Josh shouted out loud after thinking of his father!

All those years he had been telling us to "be prepared," to learn how to camp, to make a fire, to grow food, and to have a bug out bag…all of it had saved his life dozens of times since the crazy 8’s.

By the time Josh made it to New Mexico, he was starving. He took out the Locket his father had given him and opened it to see the pretty little girl’s face, whom he did not know. The back of the locket said, “Destiny,” on it.

Josh never understood why his father gave him this locket of a strange girl, and for the longest time, Josh thought it might be a sister he didn’t know about. All his father told him was that if they were separated when the big quake happened that he had to take the locket with him to the southern entrance of the Navajo reservation and show them the locket.

Josh wasn’t sure what to expect when he got to the reservation, his father had been warning people about the quake for years, but not many people listened or took him seriously, not even Josh.

As Josh approached the border to the Navajo reservation, they were met by more than a dozen men on horseback. Each had a rifle, a bow, and a quiver of arrows. The lead man, whom josh assumed was the chief, motioned to Josh to come forward – so they could speak.

“That’s close enough…why are you here?”

“My father told me that if we got separated, that I needed to come to this spot, on the map. I have traveled all the way from Virginia, please help me, I have nowhere else to go, my father said you would help me, he gave me this locket and said that when I got to the Navajo border to show you this locket and you would know what to do.”

Josh took the heart-shaped locket off his neck and handed it to the Navajo leader. As the leader opened the locket, he looked surprised and angry, “where did you get this?”

“I told you my father gave it to me, many years ago, he said that if anything happened and we got separated that I should come here and give you this locket.”

The chief turned to his fellow horseman and said something in Navajo, and the horsemen quickly surrounded Josh and then the Chief went off to fetch something and within a few minutes, he came back with a woman on horseback. When the woman got off the horse, Josh recognized her face, it was the girl in the locket!

“My name is Destiny and I am the leader of my tribe... this is my locket…how did you get this?”

“My father gave it to me.”

“Who is your father,” she asked?

“William Walter Warwick IV,” Josh said.

As soon as Josh said his father's name, everyone in the group relaxed, and showed some relief.

An old man stepped forward and said, “Joshua?”

Josh turned to see an old man whom he recognized vaguely, and said, “I know you! I remember your name – my father said you were one of his best friends, I recognize you from the pictures of you from Tikal and Guatemala – your Guillermo right?”

Guillermo responded, “I am - but have you seen your father?”

Josh responded, “No - I have not seen or heard from him since the Quake…have you ?”

“Yes, he was here for a while, but when you didn’t show up – he went out looking for you and your mother and your brother…I am afraid we have not seen him since he left about 3 months ago.”

Josh’s heart dropped, as he realized that he was probably all alone in the world, without any family, he said, “Did he say where he was going?”

“No son, he didn’t, he just said he was going to find you – and disappeared, but we think he went with the Sky people…”

“The Sky People,” Josh asked? - “You mean the aliens?”

Guillermo replied, “Yes - we think he went with the Sky People, - but we do not call them aliens because they have been here for a long time and we share the earth with them, they are our protectors and our guardians, and they watch out over our villages so the government cannot hurt us anymore.”

Josh’s father had been an expert in studying UFO’s, it made sense to him that his father would be involved with the Sky People and was not surprised, in fact, he felt a sense of pride since his father had been ridiculed by so many for his beliefs and teachings.

As they rode closer to the Hopi border, Josh could see the smoke from the campfires, there were hundreds of teepees and other structures spread out all along the valley floor below the Hopi Mesas. As far as he could see there were rows of corn, squash, beans, and other foods with water all around them.

“I don’t understand, I thought this was a desert,” Josh asked?

“Before the Quake, it was all desert, but the quake changed the geology and now underground aquifers, bring water to the surface naturally…the Sky people brought us here thousands of years ago and told us to stay here, and now we know why…,” Destiny replied.

“This is the only edible living plants or fruits I have seen since the quake, how do you keep the government out,” Josh asked?

“The Sky people protect us,” Guillermo responded.

With that, Josh stopped asking questions, clearly, there was way more going on than a survival camp for a bunch of old Indians and hippies, which is what he thought he was going to find. The people were well fed, no one was starving and someone or something was protecting them from the government, or rogue military marauders, who typically came and took anything of value that anyone had.

The military people made up their own city-states, with each major city basically being taken over by the local national guard and people who could make it home, and had military training, formed their own “government,” which was really just a posse of people on horses going around shooting and killing people and claiming they were looting or rioting. They hung people on the spot for any offense, they were the judge, jury, and executioner. They preferred hanging because bullets were hard to come by.

As they got closer and closer to the first mesa, the home of the Hopi, they could see that it was covered with Medical Tents…

“What’s wrong, why are there so many sick people, you have all this food, and the Sky People,” Josh asked?

“Yes, my people are sick, we need medicine, soon or many of my people will die...” Destiny replied.

“Can’t the Sky people give you medicine,” Josh asks?

“They will protect us if we are attacked by others, but we are expected to take care of ourselves, when your father left, he said he would bring back medicine for us, Amoxycillin, and Insulin for our elders who have diabetes, or they will all die soon,” Destiny replied.

Guillermo took Josh to a tent and gave him some fresh corn and water, and Josh ate as much as he could before falling asleep.

Guillermo said, “We will pray and dance for the return of your father tonight – you must get some rest…”

The next morning Guillermo came and got Josh, and gave him his first feather, and said, "Come - I have something to show you…”

When Josh arrived at the First Mesa Village, he noticed there was a strange glowing light, he thought it was a Solar Panel or something reflecting, but as he got closer, he could see that it was a round glass and metal vehicle of some sort. It was glowing slightly and hovering just a foot or two above the ground and it made no sound, and he figured, "these must be the sky people…?"

Just then a door opened, and a voice said, “Son,”?

“Dad...is that you,” Josh Responded?

“Stay there son, do not come any closer,” Josh’s father shouted...!

“We cannot risk contamination, the Sky people have no immunity to our viruses or bacteria, I have come to give you the penicillin and Insulin for the elders, and then I have to go back again, but I wanted you to know how proud I am of you – and how much I love you, and when you look up into the sky at night - I will always be here watching out over you.”

Just as the craft lifted, Josh saw his mother and brother standing beside Destiny and Guillermo…

His father had found them and saved them...and so Josh knew he was not alone!

This is our Destiny… if we don't change.