The Dystopian Relic

When I set my sights confronting the people of the present, I could not have foreseen the effects dereliction had on humanity. It was evolution in reverse. Primal senses heightened to a degree where nobody was safe. I held in my hand a missing link, that could slot right between the cogs in their mind if they would only let me in. A good job then, that my burning desire was to see this through.

This desire I inherited from my father, who once told me a tale that didn’t make sense as a child. It was one of those things they pass on through generations. He was spiritual my father. But not entirely religious. An odd combination I remember thinking at the time, but none the less I tried to understand the meaning of his words. His focus and drive were relentless. Only matched by it was the faith he put into each idea he had. “If you want to connect with the ether” he smiled, “you must connect your thoughts with an emotion”. He said this as he handed me the ‘missing link’ I held so tightly in my hand, walking through peril with nothing but the clothes on my back.

After my escape from Alcatraz as I like to call it, I headed for the obvious place. A beat down church which rested amidst a polluted backdrop of smoke and eerie delights. Surely a place like this, still miraculously standing, would attract the likes of faithful old me. As I peeked through the broken window, I saw little to convince me of faith. However, the barricaded door served as a glimmer hope that if someone was inside, he or she wanted nothing to do with this outside world. I tossed a stone though the gap and heard it echo under the huge ceiling of the church. And with a stroke of luck. A scraping sound, almost like a limb being dragged behind through the dirt, which covered the hard-wearing floor. I whispered loud enough that only the nearest of people would hear me. “Let me in”. Then whoosh! The man of cloth almost took my arm off with what can only be described as a sacred, weaponised-cross! I immediately pulled back before pleading “you have to let me in, I carry a divine message!” And with this I held forward the possession my father handed down to me all those years ago. As I waited for my limb to be severed, the stranger snatched the relic from my grasp and before I could curse the man of Christ, I heard the doors unlock.

I tip-toed through the entrance. A group of terrified looking individuals swept me inside. Restrained, and patted down, they body searched me and to their surprise found nothing.

“What brings you here?” a soothing voice emerged from the dark alter and into the light. “And where did you find this?”

He held aloft the locket, belonging to my family. “It belonged to my father” I explained. “It is worth much more than its weight in gold”.

As he looked unconvincingly toward the piece of jewellery he snapped, “and what is the claim?”

The sudden change of tone should have been unnerving. Only if I had not earlier seen my life flash before my eyes for the second time. I took a deep breath, and with a faithful tone I described the nature of which I came to receive it.

“This is a reminder Sir. One that humanity needs to hear…” I felt the urge to pull out my hair, but for my arms pinned behind my back. “This world is so negative” I cried as I tugged my arms free. “The energy so dangerous.” The man of the church followed me with his eyes as I stepped away from the group that constrained me. “My father taught me that we can manifest whatever we want through our thoughts. This is a reminder of love and what we can hope for. The pendulum swings both ways father, and with the way things are going unfavourably at the moment, we can expect it, with faith, the swing back the other way with equal measure.”

I looked on as a silence grew upon the room. I knew the rule of polarity. I knew that evil wasn’t a state of its own. It was simply a measure on a single scale between evil and love. Like everything in this universe, apply the right mental state and we can ascend or descend up and down its scale. His eyes went from the locket, only to set on me with a blank expression as I waited like patient child, for him to endear to my idea.

“Take..”. His words were cut short by the implosion of his brains splattering outwards and toward us. Like a flash, I grabbed the locket from his still outstretched hand, before he plummeted like a sack of potatoes to the ground. His ‘crew’ turned to me in a state of frenzy. I turned to them, expecting an-every-man for himself situation. This changed with the onslaught of artillery, pounding through the old walls like a pin through paper. We all hit the ground, some of us luckier than others. Then I heard my name. That was unnerving!

There he stood. Xavier, the right-hand man of the mysterious leader by the name of Lady Red. His blood thirsty attitude brought him on to my tail once again. Amongst the bodies on the floor, one looked up to me and pointed toward the base of the alter. He was pointing to a latch which he then proceeded to crawl toward. Once again my name was called out aloud. I did the smart thing, ignored the crazed lunatic and followed toward the entrance at the base of the alter.

After clambering down, the young man, overridden with the shakes, locked the hatch behind us. He then led me down a small and narrow tunnel. Lighting was dim but for a downward ray at the very end. It highlighted a ladder, which led back up to the street level via a drain hole. I went first, made my way up to the top and lifted the hatched-iron cover. As my eyes met the light, I was greeted by a beautiful woman befitting the name.

“Lady Red?” I asked as she stood before me.

Curling her long thick hair through her fingers she smiled at me, “call me Alexandria.”

I felt drawn to her as she beckoned me in. But over her shoulder, stood the tall mountain-of-a-brute Xavier. And he looked jealous as hell. Lady Red took my arm, linked with hers and led me away from the drain. She conversated casually as Xavier dropped an explosive into the drain hole and laughed in the process. She was pulling the strings. But something told me there was more to her than met the eye. An intuition or a hunch maybe. And looking at the polarity of things, I am never quick to judge. So I went with the flow.

Later that evening I sat up on the edge of my new bed. Awoken by a fresh nightmare. I couldn’t fully escape the way Xavier mercilessly paraded down the cell block and took the lives of those who refused to conform. I stared down the barrel of his gun one too many times for my liking. On the other hand, my new bed was much comfier than the cell she had me locked in before, and I sensed opportunity. Why didn’t she kill me when she found me? Then the answer came walking through my door.

“You’re resilient Karl. I like that. And… You happen to be the only person I know to have stared death in the eyes and escaped it. I’m intrigued as to know why and how Xavier didn’t kill you.”

Was this faith I wondered as she sat beside me? Did she believe I was special for avoiding death at the hands of her mercenary? She was more than just a pretty face, I knew that right away. So I spread a little bit of faith to see if I could nudge her up the evil/love scale.

Taking her hand I went into my pocket and pulled out the tiny but meaningful locket and placed it on to her palm.

“This is love Alexandria. This is hope.”

She looked at me perplexed. “Love… it’s a myth.”

Although I knew what she said wasn’t true, I responded with a little-known quote “perhaps the greatest myth being purveyed, is that myths are just myths.”

She looked at me like she hadn’t before. I sensed she wanted to hear more.

“I believed you were a myth before I came to see you in the flesh. Then as with most myths that are believed in, they come true.”

I opened the locket to reveal a photograph of my grandparents, locked in this eternal loving gaze. It symbolised exactly the point I needed to make.

“You see. All they ever wanted for one another was happiness. They lived through compassion. That is all.”

Alexandria’s shoulders stooped as she told me a story.

“When the disaster hit. I lost everything. A hole so big, grew in my heart that it consumed it.” She held the locket in front of her eyes.

“I was rescued by a woman. The most charming person you could ever meet. Slowly this charm, won me over like many others. If you’re talking about faith Karl, I had the upmost in her. And although I had to keep myself to myself, for various reasons, I took in every word she said.”

She closed the locket. “The truth is. I used the charm to gain all this. I lost hope. Then you came along and started spouting words of wisdom and I could see you were different.”

“Before Xavier put me into a coma” I sighed as she faced me. I took her hand tightly. “I was ready to give up. I really was. But my father came through on a deeper level. If I could of gone over to the other side I would have, but they wouldn’t accept it. This was my path, long before I ever knew.”

“Do you believe we were meant to meet this way?” she asked.

I nodded in response, because I really did believe. “Through time we have soulmates which we meet, reconcile with and try to make progress for the good of The All. This isn’t the first time we have met. And that’s why you’re glad you haven’t killed me yet.”

She gasped, like the revelation had just hit her. She handed me the locket and pulled me into her loving embrace. I felt the release of all her tension as I held her up on her feet. I felt as though I had won. I closed my eyes, only to feel what can only be described as a sudden impact of no sensation. I felt numbness wash over me. That feeling then gave way to a horrible burning sensation. An extremely hot blister-like pain, but far more intense as I increasingly became flushed. The next thing I knew it was she, who was holding me up as we both fell to our knees.

Xavier inevitably made his way around us, holding a firearm by his side and a disturbing grimace upon his face. Then in an act of love, Alexandria took the next bullet for me. It pierced through her arm as I flinched to the side. Realising his error, I took that second as window of opportunity. I gathered what was left of me and I rammed that motherfucker toward the window and out the other side.

Then it dawned on me. The most powerful 'myth' of our dystopian times just took a bullet for me in the name of compassion. Together we will change everything.