Locket?

Elijah looked up at the gray sky. It may have been a beautifully sunny day but one couldn’t tell because the spires of smoke that dotted the horizon rose up and blanketed the atmosphere. Some were campfires, a means for survivors to keep warm and cook a meal if they were lucky to have one. Others were just the remains of looting and pillaging.

It was a sad state of affairs, but a wholly expected natural progression after the virus killed over three quarters of the world’s population. Fear and desperation took over- and those who had a natural immunity did what they had to in order to stay alive.

“At least there aren’t zombies,” he thought. He heard a light rustling. Turning, he saw his younger sister stretching and beginning to wake up. The eight years that separated them never really seemed like a great expanse, but since the death of their parents a year ago, that distance spanned into a chasm. At eighteen he was the aloof older brother. Now at nineteen, he was an orphan, a parental figure, a guardian. Like so many others, they stayed pent up in their home with little interaction with the outside world. Their family had done well to stock up as the growing pandemic saw no definitive end. As food and necessities ran low they would go in search of supplies nearby or barter with their neighbors until they too had nothing left or simply were no longer there to trade amongst. The time was at hand to venture further to see what provisions might still be found.

“Zoe, we should get going. We have to be getting close.”

His sister looked up at him rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Do you really think we’re going to find it?” she asked through a partial yawn.

“Mom told me her gym was on the other side of town by a mall. If we can get to it, things will be better for us.” Elijah wondered if he believed his own words, but for the sake of his sister he had to. He had to provide hope, a purpose. Maybe his mother had done the same thing by giving him instructions before he passed. He considered this as he gathered their few belonging and started out.

They only move about in the daylight. It’s not safe in the dark. The smoky haze makes it too difficult to see where you’re going or to try and find anything at night. Plus, there was the matter of personal safety. Elijah worried about keeping them safe from would-be scavengers and thieves, but more than that, he knew he had to keep his sister safe from other things. Things he didn’t want to think about. Things he could barely let his mind accept as possibilities. So, daylight became their rule.

“I think I know where we are. At this pace we should find it by the end of the week.” Elijah said with a slight air of confidence. In truth, he wasn’t completely sure if they were on the right track or not. With so much destruction in the past few years since the pandemic hit, buildings fell to ruin and a lot of what was left standing was dirty and covered in soot.

“Eli...”

“You’re hungry?” Eli said, trying to finish her sentence.

“No, well yeah.” She was hungry. But that was a given. “What do you think we’re going to find?”

“I dunno. Mom just told me to find his gym and everything we need would be there.”

“That’s weird.” Zoe exclaimed while kicking a rock in the road. It sputtered across the ground and hit a hubcap near the curb.

“Zoe!” Eli spun around and shot his sister a stern look.

“Sorry…sorry,” she said. She knew to keep relatively quiet so as not to draw attention. They rambled on. Inside, Eli felt a little bad. He knew his sister was bored. She’s a kid, after all.

As they travelled along, they went in and out of buildings, looking for food. Every so often they would get lucky and find a candy bar in a desk drawer or a can of soup that rolled under a store shelf.

“Hey, a cell phone!” Zoe exclaimed with excitement.

“There’s no one to call, Zoe.” Elli said matter-of-factly.

“I know- but maybe there’s music on it!”

“A charge lasts three days. There hasn’t been electricity for three years.”

Zoe looked at her brother, crestfallen.

“Sorry kiddo.” Eli put his arm around his sister. “Want to split a candy bar?”

“Okay.”

They moved on. Up one street and down another on their quest for salvation. They would occasionally see another person or maybe a small group of two or three. For the most part, everyone kept to themselves and stayed away from others. What started out as social distancing turned into a general fear and mistrust of others. It was those who would come close you ‘d have to watch out for.

Night fell, then daylight came. Each day was much like the last. They would make use of their time hunting, gathering and searching for the gym. Elijah was not wrong. By the end of that week they made it to the other side of the city. By noon they found the mall and began looking at the buildings in the area. A sense of dread overcame Eli as he scanned his surroundings and realized that some of the buildings had either burned down or were crumbling. He couldn’t let Zoe see his fears. Until all possibilities were exhausted, there was no reason to believe they wouldn’t find their mother’s gym.

They went from building to building checking signs and trying to peer in windows. One building they tried was mostly boarded up. Eli wiped away the grime from the glass that was still exposed. He could barely make out the sign inside.

“This is it! Zoe, we found it!” Excitement overtook Eli as he jumped up and down and let loose for the first time in three years. Zoe’s eyes darted around feverishly, worried about others nearby. There were none. She too gave in to jumping with joy.

“Let’s find a way in…” said Eli, as he began scampering around the building. There was an alley on the right side of the gym. At the back was a dumpster in front of a window that wasn’t completely boarded up. They moved the dumpster and broke the window pane. Taking a moment, they looked around to see if they had attracted any attention. All clear. Eli carefully removed the glass and pried a piece of wood from the window. The path was now clear for them to enter.

Once inside, Eli looked around for the women’s locker-room. He found it towards the back-right side.

“Come on, this is it!” He grabbed Zoe’s hand and they raced in to the locker room. “Look for number 126!”

They went around the room methodically checking each door, looking for their mother’s gym locker.

“Here! Zoe! This is it! This is what mom wanted us to find.” He stood looking excitedly down at his sister, padlock in hand. She in turn looked at him with great anticipation.

“Heart Shape Athletics, locker 126…” Eli smiled as he said it.

“Wait…” Zoe stammered with bewilderment. “I always thought you said heart shaped locket…”