Magick Locket

I woke up to the sounds of not birds but the sounds of shuffling feet, Tyler was pacing again in front of the window hoping to catch another. I grabbed my gun and belt I walked over to him.

“good morning.” I said. He waved back at me. A grunt is all that I get these days.

I watched as he held onto his rifle with the intent to kill. To kill anything without a pulse. My grandmother used to say “shoot to kill.” It seemed so long ago that we were together but in reality, that is today it’s been three years since the decay of humanity.

My name is Max; short for Maxine. My family and I moved from the mid-west to the east coast, shortly after a sickness spread across the mountains and killed tons of people, it almost wiped out my whole family, now it’s me and my sister; Lily. Tyler has been a great friend of ours, we met shortly after the move and Lily has taken a likeness to him. He was like her big brother. Tyler was all about fighting but I knew he had soft spot. I was not I a girlie-girl, not recently. I army boots over heels and scruff instead of dresses and jewelry, except for my grandmothers necklace, which held my parents faces inside I will always treasure them, they kept is safe and told us to always look out for one another. The necklace has been passed down from generation to generation on my mothers’ side, it stood for protection and a secret that only my grandmother really knew. One night my grandmother saw me creep down the stairs as she and my mother spoke in a funny language that only they understood, they set the locket on a table and placed theirs hands over it chanting words I didn’t understand. It flickered and jumped off the table. It has been given to me and was told never to lose it. It must be close to both of you at all times.

“I’m headed to the edge of the barrier if you want to join me, Max?” Tyler asked.

“No, thanks, I have to take inventory, and later get more supplies with Pepper.” I replied.

I would take patrol later that afternoon, the sounds of the moaning outside the gates, the sirens were an everyday occurrence now. Lily still wonders about what happened to mom and dad, everyday I remind her that they went away to help us grow. I can see that she was still too young or her to truly understand the concept of death.

I made food for Lily and I, after I went to find Brandy; named after the drink, she was older, her real name was never told to me. We met just after the plague. A school not too far from here held more of people like us. We were a small surviving group and we needed to find more people but everyday was providing to be more and more scarce including food supplies. I grabbed my knife and headed for the door I kept my walkie-talkie on so I could keep in touch with our group. Like many girls I used to twirl my hair but this time I ran my fingers over the locket, I felt it’s power; the protection that it gave me. I knew right then I would be safe from harm, nothing could ever hurt me. It was like magick. Magick like no other, I slowly made my was to the large food chain store knowing they supplied big item in the back of the store with extras, I was prepared for battle with the undead. They were busy with an animal in the distance so I was lucky enough to sneak past the horror, it was sad to see a deer being mauled to death by the dead. Survival of the…well…in this case I’m not sure.

The store was bare but still had some stuff left on the shelves, I was looking for medical supplies and a little bit of food that I could get. I was looking if the store had a dolly that I could use to bring back to the camp, with the provisions. Our new home, I missed our home. I missed the comfort it gave; I miss the comfort of my bed; the warmth of the blankets. The peace of mind that it provided. The food on our table each night. A shower and fresh clean sheets and towels. A ton of hugs from my parents each night before bed. I grabbed all the that I was able and tried to sneak out of the of the store and stand clear of the hungry parasites that now roam the earth. I got back to camp with supplies. Lily was with Brandy they were playing checkers. I watched her from the back room laughing and enjoying the delight of childhood unaware of the real terror of outside.

Over dinner Tyler and I took the late shift and he said, “keep the left clear, shoot them in the head.”

“I got it!” I shot back.

It was a quiet night, I sat up watching the trees sway back and forth, I could hear frogs off in the distance and the dead were ever quiet, I had not seen one creeper all night. I looked down at my necklace, I admired it’s beauty, I held it in my hand playing with the chain swinging it back and forth, I glinted in the moonlight, it was very special. My grandmother told me before she passed away it had been given to her by her mother and so on, my mother told me once that the necklace was made from ancient gods the stone was amethyst.

In the morning another girl took the look out and I went to look for Lily. She was sleeping on the cot in the back. She was gripping her blanket tightly in her little hand. I watched as her body twitched from a dream or nightmare. I rarely sleep anymore these days, I woke her up to see if she wanted to get some breakfast, we headed to the dining hall for some grub and we found a seat in the middle of the hall, we met up with some of the other kids. Lily sat at the end of the still holding her blanket. She a shy kid. After which, we went back to the room where all of our stuff was, I told lily to hang for a while I had planned to make a trip back to our house. But it would require some serious planning. After lunch I started to pack our things and some food for the trip. I told Tyler about it and he agreed to come along he agreed and offered to drive us.

Cars and trucks scattered along the edge of the roads bodies lay nearby, it was a horrific scene, we kept driving down the road and as the day got dark. We approached an area with houses lining the streets, some had spray paint on them others had damage to them. I started to recognized the street that I used to live on.

“Hey are almost there turn left Ty.” I said.

“Oh my god, what the hell happened here?” he said.

There was trash and electronics thrown all over the roads, trees and bushes cut up.

We got to my house it was unrecognizable, there was a giant sprayed red bio-hazard sign over the door. I was feeling a bit sad and upset that no one was here anymore and the neighborhood was not how I remembered it. Kids would be screaming and laughing running all over the place, people would be having dinner over each other’s houses and a lot of sleepovers.

Now it’s all in shambles. Dark and scary, it will never be the same; at least in my mind. My world is different now, the inside of my house was dark but there was some resemblance of home but my family was not all here. We dropped the bags on the floor put the food away I told Tyler I wanted to clean I took Lily to her old room it was still the same so I checked my room again the same. Tyler was on watch for any undead, I called down to him.

“Tyler, was staring out the window watch the streets. I came back down to meet him and tugged on his arm

“Hey!’ I said.

He turned around so fast he almost hit me with the gun.

“Oh, sorry about that, I didn’t hear you.”

We stared at each other and something in us both, a shock, he leaned down placed his hand on my cheek and firmly pressed his lips on mine.

I was not expecting that

“I wanted to do that for a long time.” I said.

He smiled at me and hugged me tight. I was safe here and I never wanted to go back to the camp. I think he heard me because he told me he didn’t either. So, we unpacked everything and started to clean what we could. In the morning we would get the rest of our things and stay here.

I woke after a very needed-long overdue sleep, to birds chirping and the breeze blowing in the wind, it felt so good to wake up in my own bed. The house felt like home again.

It’s been a couple days and things at my house are settling in. it’s starting to feel like a home again and with Tyler here I’m safe again, Lily and I played in our backyard like before and it felt like nothing was going to stop us from being safe and warm.

We had food on the table each night and medical supplies if we need to take care of something. Tyler or I would go into town for supplies each week and my sister would play games, this went on for months. Finally, in so many years we were happy again, we had not seen any undead in so long. It seemed to be getting back to a norm that I can remember. I got up out of bed and rolled over to meet Tyler, he was not in bed. I grabbed my necklace and headed to the kitchen my necklace started to glow and vibrate something was wrong I entered the kitchen and saw food on the table and Tyler next to the over cooking breakfast.

“Were is Lily?’ I asked.

“I think she is out back in the yard.” He replied.

I turned to look and she was running around the jungle gym from something, I had to go look. By then it was too late, I thought something had her by her leg I opened the door and ran to her side my necklace hummed so loud that it hurt my ears. I pulled my sister to safety. Tyler somehow was standing behind me and killed the monster.

I made sure that Lily was ok, I check her leg and I saw a small scratch by her ankle, Tyler screamed for me to move, but I just froze, this was my sister. Something had to be done.

We all just lived out this day, not thinking about what’s to come. All day I cried, I held her tight and said everything would be fine, my necklace hummed and vibrated all day, I knew what I had to do but I could not bring myself to do it.

That night we ate dinner and then I put Lily to bed, I sat with her till she went to sleep her head rolled to one side and a tooth grazed my arm I screamed…

That’s when I woke up. It was all a dream, or was it.