The Empty: And the Girl who Saves the World.

We all fantasized of the world ending in a zombie apocalypse, or some other overly cliche chaotic nightmare come to life. And maybe we imagined that particular doomsday because it made us feel comfortable in the hope that the world would recover; that the monsters were flesh, something we could kill. But the real monsters were in the minds of humankind; still living, and breathing, and not feeding off each other’s organs, but our fear. The Apocalypse came in “The Empty”, where we lost our sense of humanity, and exchanged our compassion for hate. The first one to choose this; a man the world saw as our savior led the population to blind themselves from the truth. He figured out how to get us to flip a switch to our emotions, to turn on each other, and forget who we were. A few of us Awake remain, and the rest sleep in their heads; walking the Earth dead in their hearts, and minds, tearing the earth apart in fire and lies. My name is Nakona Wilde, and I am the girl in this story who changes its end.

The Arizona sun bore its blistering heat onto her tanned skin as she loaded the jeep with the next delivery round. She’d been making trips all over the Cabeza Prieta Mountains for the past six months, her turn for “camp duty”; getting needs to a small community who’d been suffering the after effects of “The Empty’s” war. “Need a hand baby?” His raspy, sweet voice kept her sane within the madness everyday. Jasper McCoy- her fierce, and loyal boyfriend of five years looked at her with a big smile. “You know I can't turn you down”, Nakona replied with a wink. Flirting in the Apocalypse, who would have known. Placing the last box of dry food into the backseat next to the Winchester, she felt a sense of dread wash over her; they’d done this so many times before, had to fire that shotgun more times than she cared to admit, but my God did she wish it all would just be over. It was a long stretch to the nearest safe camp, and Nakona was fighting to keep her eyes open from only three hours of sleep last night. Jasper glanced over at her from the driver's seat, his green eyes looking into her hazels with compassion, his wavy brown hair dancing around his face in the hot wind. “Rest baby, I got this one”, he said assuredly. He had always had her back, always made her feel safe when the word safe was the last thing that could be used in this living hell. “What would I do without you? She said almost too quietly. Same as what I’d do without you, he replied wryly; nothing good.” Laughing, and leaning her head against the window, she let her eyes fall closed. The sound of a hawk calling his prey in the distance, and the lull of the Jeep engine drifted her off into a deep sleep.

“Nakona, Nakona listen to me”! Her Mothers voice was frightened, and pleading. Sobs were pouring out from her as Nakona watched her Mother fading out. Joslyn’s hands were cold now, and blood from her wounds had soaked them both. “No, Stop, I can’t lose you Mom, please.. I can't”.. Her words trailed off into harder cries, and choked breaths. “There's something I meant to tell you.. It's.. important, Nakona. It’s up to you to save us now, take this”; handing Nakona her golden, heart shaped Locket, Joslyn held back her own tears, and slowly mumbled her last words. “Notice the signs, my love, they are all around you, and The cure.. the Cure is in the sound that wakes the soul sleeping, in the humm.. that turns dark to light, they will finally see.” Her mother fell silent in her shaking arms, and all at once Nakona’s world collapsed.

A memory, but a nightmare, the two had intertwined so frequently now she could hardly tell the difference; and maybe she was just going crazy, but this time it was different, this time she heard the message clear, and it was screaming at her.

Waking with a slam of the Jeep breaks, jolting her from her seat into the dashboard Nakona jerked herself back to the present reality; which was soon to become as much of a nightmare as the one in her sleep. What the hell Jasper? she said in response to the shock, She looked at him pissed, waiting for an answer until she saw that his expression left him pale. Looking where his gaze fell out of the window she understood his silence, because the horror in front of them said it all. The safe camp was being destroyed by the Empties, at least a couple dozen of them were screaming hateful obscenities, lighting fires, throwing out food, and the worst.. Killing the people who made this remote place their home the past five years. It's been that long since they had faced these monsters like this, when two of them had killed her Mother, and taken her father as one of them. Five years that they all tried to rebuild, and find peace. And everything they fought for, once again was being threatened right down to its last remainder of hope.

The only family she had ever known since the war broke out, aside from the man she loved sitting next to her, were fighting for their life. And she should have moved quickly to help them, should have rushed straight into the madness before her and never gave it a second thought; but she froze, her body stuck to the old seats like glue had been put on her ass. Her mind racing back and forth from that dream/memory nightmare to bits and pieces of things she couldn’t recall until now. Suddenly the world seemed to stand still, as if there was someone with a control switch hitting pause on life itself. She could hear Jasper calling out to her in distress, but it was in slow motion; the noise, and the movements he made and everything else around her. Like something out of a movie when it’s hit a pivotal point in the plot before the big showdown.

“Notice the signs, my love.. They are all around you.” Her mothers voice echoing in her mind. The grip she had on the locket necklace had popped it open, and a piece of tiny white, folded paper fell onto her lap. She’d seen it before, held it in her hands many times trying to make sense of the code written in sloppy cursive, “963 Hrtz”. The broken down road sign along their drive that said “Cabeza Prieta- National Wildlife Reserve,” had blue spray paint on the bottom right corner with the numbers 9.6.3. The lullaby her mother used to sing to her while humming at the chorus. “How do we wake the empties?” scribbled in her notepad, and a sweet voice of one of the camp's children saying, “maybe we just sing to them?” as she read over her shoulder; “Why would we sing to them sweetheart”? Nakona had replied in wonder, “Cause singing always makes you want to be happy, and the empties are so sad.” Jebediah (Jeb), who believed he was an Alien in human form sent to Earth to give us “A Message”, leading the camp in meditation with a high pitched, white noise blended with tranquil music playing from the small speaker; which he had managed somehow to work with the old ipod. “Frequency, he had said calmly, it’s all in the frequency. Sound and Energy dance together, and expand your mind to see what you cannot see at hand.” “Love is the center of everything Nakona, Joslyn had told her one especially difficult night; we have simply forgotten it. We are not born of hate, hate is never the answer, love is.”

The Empty needed to be filled, and we had filled it with bitterness, anger, hate, desire for revenge, and fear; all of the things that had caused the war, and the souls to walk to our Earth dead. Have we been so blinded by these things that we’ve only seen the blindness of the empties and not ourselves? The question rang through Nakona’s mind loud, and clear. Like Church bells beckoning you to wake up, and walk through those big wooden doors to peace. And there it was! The signs WERE there all along, the truth had been slapping her in the face while she’d been looking the other way. And all at once she was sucked back to the reality at the Camp, and the Jeep with her and Jasper. “I know what the cure is!” She blurted out bluntly. “Nakona, what.. Are you talking about? “Our people, our home, “We have to do something NOW!” Jasper replied irritated. “I know, and that’s what I’m going to do.. Something. And I need you to trust me.” “Trust you? Nakona what the f..?” Before he could finish speaking, the front of the Jeep was hit with a blast. Crashing, Movement, Rolling, Glass breaking, Smoke, Pain.. so much pain. The Empties had hit the jeep with their makeshift bombs, and were trying to pull her out of the passenger side door. “Leave her alone”! Jasper shouted with a dozen curse words in between. He was holding the Winchester, and ready to take aim. How he got out with minimal wounds, and standing she wasn't sure, but she was smiling at him there defending her, still alive. The three empties jumped up, and bounced over the rolled over jeep at him, shots fired and echoed across the desert. Nakona crawled out, and made her way upright to try and help her boyfriend. “Nakona Run, I got them!” He said in urgency. “I’m going to end this Jasper,'' she responded with tears in her eyes. He had taken out two of them with the shotgun, and was fighting off the third in fists. “Jasper!” “It's ok baby, Go, I love you.” “I love you too.” She turned on her twisted ankle, choking back the tears that could spill like rainfall, and sprinted as fast and hard as she could through the pain that was begging her to stop.

She kept her focus on the task. She had to make them wake up, and the cure had been there waiting to be taken all this time. The dose was in the frequency, and that frequency was on the old ipod that rarely left Jebs side. As if the Universe had chosen her in this very moment, she ran through the madness around her untouched. The sound of bullets hitting flesh. The cries of children, dogs barking furiously. The tents were torn to bits, and fires took what was left of them. Several people rushed to put them out in buckets of water used for drinking, and bathing. And then she spotted him, laying by the rubble of his things scattered on the ground. He was clutching his side with a gaping wound. “Jeb!” She called to him as she fell to her knees beside him. He took her hand and handed her the ipod, blood stained on its screen. “It’s ok dear, this was supposed to happen, as are you supposed to save us,” He said in short breaths. “My mom said that too”, Nakona replied sobbing. He smiled, and said, “963 Hrtz.” The ipod read the same, a mediation was on ready to be played. Text below it read, “The sound that awakens spirit.” She rushed to the speaker, and plugged the ipod into the cord attached. Cranking up the volume, she held it above her head. One by one the Empties stopped to listen to the sound that was making waves like the heat across the rocky desert cliffs; and they opened their eyes, and hearts. The Empty had been filled with love.