The Gift from the Past

The wind was picking up.

Climbing through the towers, Jericho made his way up to one of the still-standing skyscrapers. Maybe this time he will get lucky.

Most people would use the findings here to trade for water. But for him, it was much more than that. Water is simply a resource that prolongs life. And there is no point in living without a purpose. These treasures were his purpose. A new piece for his collection. A portal into the old world, what life was like before the drought.

He began to carefully climb up the steep stairs. As he passed the floors, coming up higher and higher, he saw many broken entrances. He knew from experience that if a door is broken there is nothing to search for, so he kept on walking, focusing on simply putting one foot in front of the other. But on the 55th or 60th floor - he lost count - Jericho finally saw an intact entrance, right behind a piece of a collapsed ceiling.

Picking up a metal bar he found along the stairs, he jammed it in the opening, and after a few hard pushes, it flew off the hinges and collapsed on the floor with a loud bang.

Jericho walked in through the cloud of dust, squinting with a smile to see what awaits him inside.

His excitement was quickly taken over by fear. In the corner of his eye, he saw something move.

A shadow clawed through the obscure space and disappeared deep inside the dusted, old room.

Fright clutched his body. Grabbing the stick with both hands, he pointed it in the direction of the shadow.

“Don’t move!”

He shouted menacingly.

Walking up closer, he saw a crouched-up silhouette in the corner of the room. A shadow of a small human. A child?

Through the hair strands covered in dust and dirt, a girl's large green eyes were staring right through Jericho’s soul. Eyes full of terror.

“Hey, there…”

He said as gently as he could, slowly moving in closer.

She stayed silent. The orange sunlight crept into the room with a new wave of heat, and for the first time, he took a good look at her. She could not have been older than 10. Her dark teeth, her hair that were more like pieces of tumbleweeds mixed with sand and concrete dust. The length of her nails, the scratches all over her body, the wounds and poorly healed cuts and scars, along with bony limbs and visible ribs.

She was one of the Lost Ones.

Jericho slowly pushed the stick away in an attempt to get her to calm down at least a little. At which point he saw how something bounced the ray of sunlight off of her chest. The spark caught his attention in an instant. Looking in closer, he saw a small heart-shaped locket around the girl’s neck. Seemed that as she grew it got tighter and now was piercing her skin, causing it to begin growing around the chain.

Fascinated by the gentle locket, Jericho forgot about her, as he reached in for his finding. This small treasure is like nothing he has ever seen!

The girl had a different opinion of his attempt.

As soon as his hand crossed a threshold between her hair strands, she leaped up and her rotting teeth pierced into his arm.

With a painful scream, he threw her across the room and grabbed onto his stick.

“Fucking animal!”

Jericho ground through his teeth, getting up and looking at the bite. She bit off a chunk of his forearm, and the teeth marks stretched together into a bloody symmetrical flower.

With fear in her eyes, the girl ran towards the door on all fours. He reached her with two running steps. In a split second, the stick pierced the girl’s back and chest.

She fell to the ground, barely moving, as her blood began to flow on the dusted concrete.

Jericho reached down and ripped the locket off of her neck, finally getting a chance to admire it fully.

A smile appeared on his face, as he felt a tear run down the side of his cheek. He did not remember the last time he felt so happy. Maybe the month’s journey was worth it after all.

When he made it to the door, he looked back at the girl’s still body and tied a strand of cloth around the bite. The blood instantly colored the fabric, but the pain was bearable, and the rest did not matter.

Jericho went down to the first floor of the skyscraper with ease, and right before meeting the orange sun face to face, he covered his smile with a piece of cloth.

Once he left the building, Jericho looked through the horizon. The skeletal skyscrapers still stood proud and tall, though more have fallen since the last time he visited. The sun was rising further and further from the horizon, now revealing a cloud of sand within miles' reach. It moved at a quick pace, enveloping the distant buildings into itself. Yet Jericho knew he had a few minutes before he had to look for shelter. He wanted to take the moment to simply admire this view. As if thanking the skyscrapers for this gift of the past.

But he had to move forward. The wind was picking up.