Maddy's Necklace

Dragonfly drones are, according to common wisdom, the absolute worst fucking nightmare of our existence.

Most will say so because these drones are insanely quiet - you don't really hear anything until they buzz down to mete out punishment on some poor fool who just couldn't take it anymore. So you have to look up in the air constantly like some tourist on their first trip to New York, back when that was a thing. Back when there was a New York.

An unlucky few will say it's the magic death ray. I guess it depends on your overall level of optimism. Having your skin briefly microwaved to keep you in line isn't so bad if the setting is on low and you get out alive. For others, I couldn't imagine a worse death.

The smart ones among us know that the real reason these metallic flying demons are so awful is that:

They are the eyes of God.

They are the hammer of God.

They are Gods most faithful.

And this God didn't create us.

We created it.

And God does not want us to go forth and multiply.

Or even touch another human.

So When Maddy suggested we steal a rickety old nuclear powered hover bus to escape I thought she was crazy brave. But was there anywhere worth running to?

Maddy was a classic Irish beauty of 30 years. Her raven black hair flowed down all the way to her waist. Sometimes, if the sunlight hit her just right, you could see hints of red in the darkness. She was built like an Olympic boxer crossed with a ballet dancer, as if she were designed in a lab. It wasn't that silly a notion. We had all heard the rumors of the shiny new cities built after the collapse, populated by beautiful, perfect humans who never got sick. Some said they had computers attached to their brains, and that they could talk to God. It was probably all bullshit. I think maybe I just imagined her as perfect.

I'll never forget the first time we met. We had just arrived at the San Ria Water Purification Plant. Shipped in on Model K hover buses, part of good ole salvage crew 4124. Six months of forced labor and then off to the next dead city. Our job, as always, was to scour the desolate region for anything useful, such as wires in old televisions or tires from abandoned cars.

The decayed, flattened city sat on the edge of a dirty old river, with the base of a collapsed bridge straddling both sides. Most people looked down as they worked. They didn't say much. The guards didn't like us talking much anyway. And when you're sifting through dirt, and rubble and wreckage, with no way to make a real connection - what the fuck are you supposed to talk about?

"I heard you were alive - you know - before all this."

Maddy startled me. Rule number one was stay at least six feet away from another person. The dragonfly's made sure of that. In practice that meant we stayed fifteen feet away to talk to someone, usually more just to be safe. She stood dangerously right on the edge, but she was right though. I wasn't quite fifty, but certainly the only one on the crew alive before the world changed forever.

"I was eleven years old, I don't remember much. I don't think about it very often" I stuttered. I don't know you, why are you talking to me?

"You don't look that old. Must be all the potatoes" she said with a sly smile. Potatoes are all we eat. OK she's funny. Maybe I won't tell her to back the fuck up. Who has a sense of humor anymore?

I could just make out the tag on her bright red muddied overalls: Brookens 1- 12.11.2033. She has a family name. The younger they were it was all the more likely they wouldn't have one.

"You're a Sagittarius too. That means you love freedom. And you're honest." She said it earnestly, as if it must be true. She had read my tag:

Bravo 0- 11.22.2014.

I laughed, "How could you possibly know anything about astrology?"

"I found a book all about it. In the last ruins. Before they brought us to this awful place." She knows how to read. I thought I was the only one.

"There's no way you'd be allowed to keep that. How did you -"

We were interrupted by the guards. Three of them in their ugly grey fatigues. The guards were all really young, teenagers mostly. Always tall, always ripped, and almost always not very bright. I'm pretty sure they got vitamins we didn't get to keep them strong. And drugs we didn't get to keep them stupid. The drones were more than enough to keep us in line, but it wouldn't be proper tyranny without humans wearing boots acting like complete dickheads. One of them ordered us back to work with a stern, dull robotic shout - a threatening hand on his electrified baton. I could see a drone out of the corner of my eye watching with interest. Why didn't God just wipe us all out already? The math must have worked out in our favor.

"We'll see each other again. Don't die old man" Maddy joked.

"You know it's all bullshit right? The stars are in ourselves and whatnot?"

"You're bullshit" she said with a twinkle in her bright blue eyes, and she was off.

I would usually run into her once a week. The guards couldn't be everywhere, and sometimes we'd get as much as 10 minutes to talk. I'd tell her about what I remembered from my childhood. The hockey games. The "shows" on the televisions. And music. Fucking loved the tunes. I missed my Dads Beastie Boys records the most. I used to get annoyed at him listening to the same one over and over. I missed my Dad. My mom. My kids. But it was too painful to talk about them much. And I'd tell her about the big cities I'd visited before billions died off.

With each passing month our trust grew. She would joke about ways we could overthrow the guards. Go on tour. Go see the mountains. She remembered visiting mountains as a child. She thought she had maybe lived near some but she wasn't sure. And she would talk about how anxious she sometimes felt, (she never showed it) and about how she couldn't remember her parents.

Eventually we found ourselves flirting with the edge of the six foot barrier. There would often be multiple dragonfly's watching but we didn't care. And one day I was close enough to see something as bright as the gleam in her beautiful blue-green eyes. A silver chain around her neck. She had jewelry? Another rule broken with ease. Before I could question it she said:

"When was the last time you touched someone?"

"I have, uh, a very long time ago" I laughed. I haven't been close to - with anyone in twenty-five years. "Before the great big computer in the sky was in charge." All I can think about is touching you.

"Do you ever think about how ridiculous this is? Why does it care?"

"It doesn't want us making bad decisions. It wants less of us around not more." It does sound ridiculous when I hear it come out of my mouth. My human mouth. If this was the old world, she wouldn't even be talking to you. Why torture yourself Bravo.

"WE HAVE A NICE SURPRISE TODAY SCUMFUCKS! POTATO SOUP! WITH SALT! COME AND GET IT!" We heard the shouts of the guards from afar. Stupid fucks always interrupting. And their annoying childish laughter. Until next time I thought. And off we went in separate directions.

Three weeks had gone by and I hadn't run into Maddy once. I hadn't even seen her from afar. I missed her, as silly as it was. Can you fall in love with someone like this? Five minute conversations once a week... I thought about her question often. I started to feel guilty that I had once experienced something she never would. How have we gone so long without human contact? Why does it care so much? Don't they want happy, content slaves?

I was busy removing some tires from a derelict Jeep sitting on a quiet old highway off ramp when the familiar hum of a hover bus vibrated through my bones.

Of course it was Brookens. She was smiling and laughing but with teared up eyes. She shouted out to me: "This is our only chance old man! There's no reason we have to live like this. Get in please we have to go now!"

This was crazy. She always had joked about this. We don't stand a chance. They will find us instantly. Do I even remember how to fight? Is a woman 20 years my junior really reminding me why we have to fight?

Fight for everything.

Yes. Yes why not.

And I started for the hatch.

Just as my foot hit the rubber guardrail the hum of the nuclear powered bus engine dissipated, and the hulking mass dropped abruptly flat on the highway pavement.

And four dragonfly's buzzed their way around us in a circle. We were surrounded.

The machines showed no emotion, the mechanical wings vibrating in unison too fast to discern with the naked eye, and the large glass eyes reflected our look of fear right back at us.

Maddy grabbed my hand, and we ran together.

For a moment it felt amazing.

But the burning pain overwhelmed me instantly as we both collapsed to the ground. Our hands were still clasped together as we screamed and writhed on the hard dark road.

And somehow she had the will to grab for her silver chain and tear it off of her neck before becoming totally motionless, passed out.

As fast as the searing pain had begun it had gone. I could hear the shouts of the unruly guards approaching, and they picked Maddy Brookens off the ground and dragged her off. The drones floated back into the clouds.

I lay there, breathing heavily, as my heart was beating out of my chest.

And lying right in front of me a heart shaped locket, now off of the chain.

It was also silver, with a raised Ankh symbol in the middle of the heart.

I opened it up.

Inscribed on the left side it said:

my one my only River

A beautiful little boy stared out of the picture right at me.