Heart of Hope

The world ended! Well the world as we knew it ended, everything had changed. No one had money, if they did have money, it was worth nothing. Our currency was now trade. If you had a skill that could help someone, you negotiated your time and then paid by using your skill.

Life became full of panic, suffering and injustice. The government, well the ones that survived, managed to stay in power. You became a pawn in a game that constantly had you asking the question “Will I make it out alive?”

My life was ruined fourteen years ago. My parents died, then my brother died a couple of years later and since then I have been on my own. I started living my nightmare. The remaining people that did not live within one of the sections started fighting over food, trinkets and such. It never stopped; people rebelled and wars would break out. Different sections would fight constantly and it was something you never wanted to get caught up in.

I lived in the woods; I would travel for days to get medicine or raid long forgotten libraries for books on natural medicine and books of doomsday preppers (who knew they would become so useful?) I grew my own hydroponic crops and would sell what I didn’t eat. I made a good life for myself.

After packing up my cart and making my way towards a small town three hours from my camp, I could hear a noise. I traveled different routes all the time as I didn’t want anyone to find my camp.

“What do you have wench?” I could hear a deep voice growl. I quickly pulled my cart into a hiding spot and covered it with the fallen branches. Sneaking closer I watch as a group of renegades looking for people stood over a woman and child. The child is young and scared and my heart breaks for them. I watch as the renegades fight with the woman; the child screams so loud that I swear the town close by will hear. “We have to go” one of the renegades call to what I am guessing is the leader.

“No way the guards in the town didn’t hear that scream” another calls, already making tracks to get away from the area. Once the area is completely cleared out I make my way to the woman and child.

“You have to be brave little one, you have to run. If the guards find you here they will take you” the woman weakly tells the child.

“But I don’t want to go” the child quietly sobs.

I make my way to the woman and notice that she has blood covering the front of her clothing. “I am here in peace, I can try get you to the town for medical help” I say while looking at her and the crying child.

“My time has come dear, I only care about what is going to happen to little one” the woman responds weakly.

“I can take him to the town, maybe someone can help him” I say. My heart breaking for the young boy, who looks like he is loosing his world. I know that feeling; for the first month after I lost my parents I didn’t move- I cried and screamed. It was only when the renegades came to raid our house that I left their bodies.

I moved closer to the woman and grabbed her hand. I felt the cold touch of metal. Looking down I noticed the woman had pressed a heart shaped locket into my hand.

“What…” I say

“This is called the Heart’s Hope Locket, it is the key…. Keep it secret, keep it safe, and please take care of little one” the woman gasps one last time before passing to the afterlife. The boy cries besides me, and I feel a tear leak from my eyes.

I turn to the kid and look at him. He is dirty probably no more than six or seven years old. He is thin, which everyone was these days, because food was hard to come by without doing something crazy for it.

“Hey, I am Luca.” I say as I look at the young boy. I watch as he turns his head and looks at me . While his face is dirty I can see brilliant blue eyes and a mop of light brown, possibly dirty blonde, hair.

“What’s your name?” I ask, I scan the surrounding area hoping that the guards or the renegades don’t come back. We have stayed here for too long and can’t stay here much longer.

“Matty” the boys small voice comes back.

“Hi, Matty, nice to meet you. We can’t stay here kid, we have to move. The guards will be searching the area.” I say as I stand and hold out my hand for him to grab.

“I want to stay with Annie” Matty says while turning his big tear-filled eyes back to Annie laying on the ground.

“I know kid, I get it. When this all started, I lost my parents and little brother, but it isn’t safe here anymore we need to move.” I say shaking my hand at the kid and moving away from him back towards my cart. As I reach my cart, I hear small footsteps. Looking behind me I notice Matty has reluctantly followed. I wheel my cart as close to Annie as possible and lift her body onto the cart and cover with the tarp. I start pulling my cart back towards home.

Matty doesn’t say much as we walk back to my place, though that could be because he has food stuffed in his mouth. I really don’t think he has come up for air since seeing the food in the cart.

“Look Matty, you are welcome to stay but I am telling you that I have rules. If you stay, you help. You listen to what I tell you and you do not tell anyone where we are when we venture into town. You got it?” I say while looking at the kid.

“Y….yes Luca” Matty says around a mouth full of food.

“Good” I respond and open the hidden gate that looks like a bunch of trees.

You see my parents taught me how to do lots of different things and while I may be a Jill or all trades it means that there really isn’t anything I can’t do.

Moving through the gates I quickly turn to shut them again. I stand and listen to the noises of the forest while note hearing anything different I move my cart to the east and walk for another twenty minutes before stopping. This was where I planted wildflowers and now it’s where we’ll bury Annie.

“You think she will be happy here kid?” I ask while grabbing the shovel

“Y……yes” Matty stammers.

Matty and I work for hours digging Annie’s grave and burying her. Once we stand in silence for a while I turn and put away the tools, grab my cart and take it back to the house. After putting everything away, I turn towards the kid and look at his scared, sad face.

“I have a room just through here” I say while pointing at the door. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable. I will make dinner after having a shower” I call as I walk into the bathroom.

After my shower I make my way out into the lounge room and notice Matty has also cleaned up in the other bathroom and is now asleep. I move around the cabin getting dinner ready, trying not to make too much noise.

Once finished I sit at the table and pull out the locket that Annie gave me. It’s beautiful- it’s sterling silver with fine swirls of decoration on it. I turn it and try opening the locket to see inside. After twisting and turning it for a while I push away from the table in frustration. Stupid locket, it doesn’t even open! Dropping it down to the table I hear a snick, whipping my head back I see that the locket has opened and inside of it is a little bright blue, glowing chip. Moving carefully, I remove the chip and see a tiny piece of paper. Pulling that out and unfolding it carefully I read the note inside.

“If you are reading this then it worked, the world has been reset. The chip will restart the normal life that we knew. However, I fear the government and the leaders of today’s world are much more interested in keeping things how they are.

It’s your choice, how do you want to live?”

I turn and look at Matty. “Did you know?” I asked.

“Yes. My parents did it” He responds.

“What do we do?” I ask.

“Keep it secret, keep it safe” Matty responds before moving back to the couch.