Hope

It’s been fifteen years since the world went black. Some say it was the sun, and some say it was man that killed almost every living thing on the planet. Those that survived have learned to keep moving.

The world is silent now. I only survived because of a heart-shaped locket my mother gave me when I was three, right before she passed away. I thought it was just a normal locket, until the day of the blackout.

The memory of that day is etched into my mind forever. I was ten walking home from a friend’s house when the ground began to shake with a ferocity I had never felt before. Terrified, I ran home, only to find my house in ruins. My parents, nowhere to be found. Overwhelmed, I screamed and cried unaware of the chaos going on around me. Slowly as I regained my senses. I began to hear the wails of people around me. Not knowing what to do, I ran. I ran for so long until I no longer heard the wails of people around me. I found myself in a forest where I passed out.

When I regained consciousness it was dark. No moon, no sun, and no hope. I wandered around aimlessly thinking the sun would come out eventually. After three days or so I gave up hope. I had to learn to survive. When my body was so tired I couldn’t walk any longer, and my brain was too weak to keep me going, I fell. As I was crying my locket opened, and began to glow with a light so blinding I couldn’t look at it. After a second the light narrowed into one direction like a path. When I followed it I found animals drinking from streams. The light immediately vanished, and the locket closed. From that moment I knew the heart shaped locket was my hope.

Fifteen years later my locket is still guiding my way. I have met a few people over the years, two of which have joined me, most of whom want to take my locket.

Without the sun the world froze over. The only animals we have left alive are the ones built to survive this kind of climate. My two companions Jake and Sarah saved my life one day when a massive dog caught me by surprise. I managed to kill it, but not before it bit my leg. My leg became infected, and caused me to slowly get blood poisoning. Luckily Jake was a doctor, and was able to fix me up.

We each had our skills and abilities. Jake with his medical skills, Sarah, his little sister, is a good fighter and navigator. I am a good fighter and engineer. Together we are headed towards Mount Everest. Approaching from the west side through Pakistan, one of the moser dangerous settlements. We are currently camped out just outside the border of the town thinking of a plan.

“Kara, are you crazy,” they said to me. We can’t just walk through the middle of the town! We would be caught instantly!” Sarah whisper yelled at me, turning to look at Jake for support.

“Not if we do it right, if we act natural, and let Jake do the talking we can make them think we already belong there.” I argued not giving Jake time to speak up lest they both decide to team up against me. “No offense Kara, but how do you intend to even get past the border?” Jake asked, causing me to smirk with an evil glint in my eye. “That is the easiest part.”

The next day we approached the gate full of confidence. It doesn’t take long for the dogs to start barking, and the guards to find us. Pointing their guns in our direction Sarah began to panic, but with a touch from my hand she calmed down. When we reached the gate I smiled scanning the guards to find the leader. I step forward causing him to step out from among the ranks. “Who are you, and what do you want?” He asks, eying me up and down.

I smirked “don’t tell me you forgot about us, it’s only been four months since we left.” He wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion. I sigh, turning to uncover our cart. “For this?” I asked, uncovering the flint and magnesium stockpile I had. I saw the man’s eyes widen in shock. My smirk widened. “Surely you wouldn’t want to keep the Pied Piper waiting, would you?” He looks at me with fear shining in his eyes.

“Let them through!” he hollers to the gatekeepers. As the gates open we cover the cart back up. I look at the man, and nod my head in gratitude as we walk through the gates. Once through we all let out a sigh of relief also knowing the hardest part is yet to come. The hardest part is going to be getting out the other gate. Three and a half days later we had a plan. We stuffed as much of the magnesium, and flint in our clothes as we could. Some of it we sold for other supplies. Reaching the gate the guards stopped us once again.

“Where are you headed?” The guard asked, eyeing us with disdain. When his eyes hit Sarah they became lustful. Jake saw this as well, and decided to speak up. “The Pied Piper is sending us on a supply run.”

When the man noticed Jake his face became aggressively annoyed.

“Who asked you? I was asking this pretty little thing here.” He turns back to Sarah with a sickening smile. “So sweetheart, where are you headed?”

She scoffs, “as my brother just said the Pied Piper is sending us on a supply run.” His smile drops at the word brother, and he becomes angry. Turning around with anger shining In his eyes he orders them to let us through.

“Open the gates!” He yells as he turns his back to us. We decided to hurry on our way before he tried to stop us again. In our haste we failed to notice him whisper to his companions. We still have about twelve days of walking ahead of us.

Sarah scoffs with a disgusted face “who does that ugly a** think he is talking to you that way? Calling me sweetheart too, as if!” I chuckle next to her at her outburst of anger. Deadly as she may be, I always see a little mouse when she gets mad.

“Relax Sarah, we all know you would kill him before anything could happen.” I say laughing, while Jake mumbles to himself on the sidelines.

*Ten days later*

“What!?!?!?!” Sarah yells both outraged, and terrified. I sigh exhausted. We have been discussing a plan for how to escape if we get ambushed by too large of a group, and neither Jake or Sarah like any of my ideas.

“Sarah I understand none of us want to do this, but if we split them up we would have a better chance for survival.” I calmly explained trying to reason with her. Jake places his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

“I agree with your logic Kara, but I have to side with Sarah on this one. We can’t just split up, do you realize how dangerous that is? Do you honestly think we could survive out there alone?” Jake speaks up for the first time, completely destroying my idea.

Exasperated, I throw my hands up in the air. “Fine, what do you propose we do?” I question, and he looks at me with a blank face as if what he is about to say is the most obvious thing in the world.

“We fight, and if we die then so be it, but we die together. Not alone, and scared, but knowing we have each other’s backs.” He finishes holding both of our hands, and looking us both in the eye. Sighing, knowing I have lost I stand up from our camp for the night gathering supplies. Catching the hint the other two get up to pack as well. Just as we finish, we hear a whistle in the distance.

We all snap to attention, and look in the direction the whistle came from.Putting our backs to one another for a fight. Jake wields a club. Sarah carries daggers, and knives. I carry a bow for long distances, and a sword for close range. As the people near I recognize one of them as the guard from the gate just in time for Sarah to recognize him too.

“Sarah calm down we don’t know how many we are up against yet, don’t be stupid.” I whisper next to her. “Jake?”

“I count twenty.” He whispers, and I smirk, child's play. We hold our ground waiting for them to get closer. The guard from the gate steps forward.

“A supply run was it?” He asked which caused Jake’s grip to tighten on his club.

As they near I let an arrow fly as the man falls I reload, and let another loose. As the second man drops I switch to my sword, because they’re close now. After that everything happens in a blur. When there are only two or three left standing. I turn to check on the other two when movement catches my attention out of the corner of my eye. There is someone aiming an arrow at Sarah’s back. Before I could even process I was standing between her and the arrow.

“Watch-” suddenly I feel a sharp piercing pain in my ribs. Startled Sarah takes out a dagger and throws it at the man with the bow who looks too surprised to register what just happened. I touch my ribs, and pull my hand back and see blood. Jake rushes over to me. My breathing is getting more ragged. I fall, and Jake is above me saying things I don’t understand with tears in his eyes. “Shhh” I whisper to him, and he stops speaking. Now they are both right next to me. Sarah with silent tears running down her cheeks, and Jake still trying to save me. I raise both hands, one to cover Jake's hand which is putting pressure on the area where the arrow was, and the other on Sarah’s cheek. “ no matter what I love you *cough cough* both,” I finish with wheeze. I cough again as blood comes out. I move their hands to cover my locket. “When I go, take it, and never lose hope.” I cough up more blood again while Sarah screams at me not to go.

“No! Kara no! You're my only sister! Please don’t leave us! Not like this, no!” Suddenly I feel something leave me, and Jake puts his hand on her shoulder as my last breath leaves my lungs all I see is white.

*Jake*

I watch as Kara takes her last breath feeling my world crumble. I never told her she was my sister too. As her final breath leaves, and our world truly becomes darkness, and we lose hope Kara’s locket opens. As the blinding light fills the area we shield our eyes waiting for the light to narrow into a path, but it never comes. Instead the light gets brighter, and brighter until I feel we will go blind. Finally when we feel we can’t take it any more it begins to rise. It rose so high it illuminated everything around us, and the ice instantly began to melt. It continued to rise, and get brighter. The higher it went the brighter it got. Until it rested in the sky where the sun used to sit. As Sarah and I sat watching this with tears in our eyes Sarah said one word.

“Hope.” I smile at her, and realize she is right, and I know Kara will never leave us again.

“Hope” I whisper.