Heart Keeper.

The worlds treaties were decimated, and bombs were launched. War. Famine. A sick game of survival - you don’t trust anyone you didn’t see the end with. When one carrier dies, the locket appears for the next Heart Keeper. They can’t predict who will be, one heart keeper rose, another fell. The world rapidly became a lonely place.

You are the only key to your survival.

I’ve made my way through country regions not far off where I grew up. Always returning every few months to check my lost family’s home is still standing. When this is all over, I will have something to come back too. I travel with my childhood best friend Aster; the only surviving members of our families. When the raiders came back, this time seeking the heart keeper, not the supplies they had so readily killed our families for, the fear had us running.

What if one of us was next?

The winter frost paints itself across our campsite in a thin white dusting of snow, I stare at the ground where last night’s fire sat, now cold and forgotten while Aster pulls on her boots ready for the long days hike ahead. “Ollie, why don’t you walk up to the road? I’ll be up in a minute,” she calls out, breaking me from my thoughts. I nod at her turning and looking at the path we’d stumbled down the evening before, I go to take a step and turn to Aster. “See you in a minute,” I tell her quietly and she goes back to her boots, I double check the hand gun I’d taken from my father is tucked securely into the holster on my side.

The path to the road winds around a bend, I slowly wander over slippery branches and listen carefully for the crunch of Aster’s footsteps behind me, but the sound of a car has my blood running cold. A foreign voice breaking the silence in an excited yell has me turning looking for Aster. “The last Heart Keeper is dead!” I inhale sharply and force myself to hide behind a tree in the bend. “The radio voice confirms that the Heart Keeper was hunted and killed in Greece. A new hunt begins today!” the voice is harsh and hoarse, yelling for everyone, every last living soul to hear. Leaves and underbrush rustle ahead of me on the bend and I shake myself from my stupor in a second, pushing away from the tree hiding me and running down the track back to the campsite.

I stumble along the path, too afraid of what’s behind me to watch my footing; I catch myself on a branch tearing my jacket open as I twist out of its reach. I slip across some icy rocks and hit the ground with a crash, frosty leaves crunching as I roll into the undergrowth and reach for something, anything that will save me from whatever is chasing me. My hand closes around cold leaves and wet sticks. I keep searching desperately, reaching further into the damp forest floor until I wrap my hand around something cold, icy cold and metal. My heart drops in my chest and I slowly lift the metal object up and into my line of view.

It can’t be.

A dull brass heart locket sits firmly in the palm of my hand, its surface covered in an intricate floral pattern, I try to open it to prove myself and the rumours wrong, but the edges don’t come apart and a voice in my head speaks quietly to calm me. “It’s not time yet. Soon dear one, but not yet,” I tuck the locket into my jacket pocket and push myself off the ground. Letting the fear escape me in a moment, determination pushing me onward.

Aster is just shouldering her bag as I come to stop in front of her. She takes in my appearance and her smirk quickly drops from her face sarcastic comment stuck on her tongue. “Did you hear the bandits?” my own voice has me jumping in fright, why do I sound so disconnected from this situation. “Heart Keeper is dead, a new one will be hunted…” Aster’s reply is cut off as I hold out my hand showing her the brass heart. “You! Dammit Ollie, I don’t – we can’t keep it!” Aster exclaims in shock. “We just need to get home, get you safe and then I’ll leave.” My words are final, leaving no room for argument and I watch emotions flicker across Aster’s face anger, frustration, fear. She finally takes in a breath and her face sets into a neutral disinterested scowl, I motion for her to lead the way and follow her quick pace back the way I came.

We’re stopped on a creek for lunch when I first feel it. This nagging feeling that we are being watched sits in the back of my head, has my eyes roaming around us and my body flinching at every sudden noise. Aster has barely spoken to me since we left camp, I don’t want the silence to linger. “We’re being followed you know.” Aster’s words are fact, a statement with no room for argument, I swallow my drink pretending to study the reeds in front of me. “I know, but we can’t let on that we know.” I mumble quietly, Aster is looking at me eyes filled with annoyance. “If you don’t want to travel with me Aster, then travel ahead. Either way we have their attention now.” I tell her casually, trying to protect my own feelings; Aster watches me take another drink and stands quickly. “That’s what they want though isn’t it?” she replies tiredly, standing up and throwing things back into her pack. “Let’s go Ollie, long way to go before nightfall.” She starts walking through the river, not waiting for me to catch up.

As the evening sets in on our second day of traveling towards home, Aster and I trudge tiredly through a deserted town close to where we grew up, we just need to walk another hour or so before we are home. We are both on high alert with our stalker but the feeling of being watched dissipated a while ago – though it hasn’t eased the tension in the air. I stop as a clock tower chime echoes through town, a chill sinking deep into my bones as I look to Aster halted mid-step eyeing something in the window of a shop to our left. “Aster?” my voice is rough with disuse, and she whips her head around to look at me, fear blowing her pupils wide.

“Dear one, get down!” the voice screams in my head, my body responds instantly dropping to the ground. Something whips past my ear I look up to see Aster looking at her stomach in disbelief, a black pole sticks out of her jacket. My brain doesn’t process it quick enough – Aster’s been shot. I crawl across to her, cold rocks cutting into my hands as I try to stay low. Aster stumbles back, eyes wide in shock as her body absorbs another hit and then another. “Aster!” I call out, fear ripping the fog of shock coating my brain. She hits the ground in slow motion, my heart races in my ears as I reach her. I lean over her quickly, taking in the arrows sticking from her chest, a third in her leg. “Oh god Aster, I’m going to get you out of here.” I promise her, trying to ignore the way she gasps for breath. “Ollie…” is the breathless plea that Aster wheezes out, her voice makes my decision easy. I turn quickly, grabbing my gun from its holster and spotting the archer, I level the gun at him and fire once a warning shot.

He holds his bow steady, aiming at me as I stalk forward pushed forward by the sultry voice in my head. “Yes, dear one, it’s almost time. They cannot hurt you. Make them retreat, the town will be ours.” I walk with purpose, ducking his next shot and firing again. The bullet hits home in his shoulder and I keep walking, he stumbles backwards bow forgotten in his pain; I stand over him, gun resting against my leg as he looks at me fear in his eyes. “I am Heart Keeper; this town is mine now.” My voice is full of confidence and authority, he shakes his head. “Tell them all that the last Heart Keeper lived here.” I demand of him his face contorts in confusion and I lift the gun landing a blow to his left temple without hesitation.

I walk away from my unconscious enemy, feeling at peace with my choice. “Heart Keeper, dear one, the first I never truly belonged too.” The sultry voice leads me back to Aster, lying in the dirt eyes wide and searching. “This is the dear one, your dear one.” The voice tells me gently, guilt floods through me at Aster’s dying state. “Aster, hold on. Please, I know how to fix this.” I promise her tearily, slipping down onto my knees at her side. “Ollie,” she wheezes out again, her shaking hand finds mine I wrap my hand around her and reach for the first arrow. “No,” she pleads, and I shake my head. “The locket, it was never mine. It was yours.” I promise Aster squeezing her hand and pulling on the first arrow.

Aster cries out in anguish as I pull each arrow from her body, when I drop the third and final arrow to the gravel, I pull the locket from my jacket pocket and place it in Aster’s hand. “I need you to open this for me.” I tell her softly, watching the haze of pain on her face while her eyes try focus on me. “The world was broken, bursting at the seams with war, famine, death, disease. And we all cried out for a release from suffering, we cried out for the end.” I tell Aster gently, pulling her upper body into my lap, wiping a tear from her face.

“When the world ended it took away hope. That’s what a Heart Keeper holds onto, what they were hunted for. When I was gifted the locket, it felt my hope at surviving with you… I don’t need a locket to hope for survival, I just need you Aster. But you, you see what the whole world is missing; so please, open the locket Heart Keeper. The world needs your hope.” I’m pleading with Aster, and I look at her shaking hands holding the locket tightly in her grasp. “Open Pandora’s locket, all the other bad things are already out there, what harm can a little hope do?” I ask her and she sniffles at my words, pressing her fingers into the lockets seam and pulling it open.

Bright light flares from the locket, blindingly white and hot; when it burns out, I look to Aster, her tired body entwining with the light. Her hand reaches for mine and I feel the burning energy surrounding her wrap around me and then everything goes dark.

On a small hill a cottage sits surrounded by blooming flowers, singing birds and buzzing bees, nomads from all over the world flock to the small town surrounding the cottage. They call the town Hope, for surviving together, is more than most could’ve wished for. The end of the world is a lonely place, but the story of Heart Keeper and her Hope is enough to bring humanity together again; to fight bandits, radioactive monsters and whatever else may hunt them.

Because this is the beginning, after the end of the world.