The Locket

Sam willed his feet to move. The oppressive heat seemed to sap any and all energy he had and yet he plodded on. This, it seemed, had become his new “normal”. Sam raised his head slightly wincing as the sun’s direct glare that assaulted his eyes. The horizon was obliterated by the rippling heat waves emanating from the roadway ahead. A quick glance behind him revealed the same dancing golden waves and also confirmed he was still alone.

Sam had been alone for as long as he could remember. His unprotected head exposed to the scalding sun that cooked his brain. This not only sapped his energy but also direly affected rational thought. Sam felt like an automaton, moving forward toward a yet to be determined destination. A destination every fibre of his body seemed driven to achieve.

One foot dragged itself forward of the other only to be beaten by the other in what Sam disconnectedly observed as a perpetual duel of wills, left right, left, right....

Sam’s skin was so tanned that the red flannel shirt he wore seemed to be just another texture of his wrinkled dust encrusted skin. His hairy chest, or at least the part that was exposed, was muscular and wiry, like that of a cowboy. On this curly mass bounced a heart-shaped locket dangling on a thick silver necklace. Each step made the locket bounce off Sam’s chest and seemed to beat a drum to which the team of Sam’s oarsmen pounded forward into the distance. Sam returned his gaze to the ground and contemplated the locket. He couldn’t recall ever getting it, it was so long ago, a present from his long lost mother he was told, and had been around his neck ever since. He smiled as he tried to remember the photo inside and couldn’t even remember ever opening it, although he was sure he must have at some point. The heat induced brain fog again entered and all reasoning disappeared. The left, right plodding was again his only goal.

The evening sun arrived 8 hours later and with it a welcome coolness. Ahead, emerging from the rippling horizon emerged dark forms. They were vivid against the golden horizon that Sam stopped and gazed at the apparition. The forms then moved and Sam was glad he had finally encountered other people. Again he could hardly remember the last people he had seen, it being so long ago it seemed a dream. His feet had decided to move forward on their own accord and before Sam’s brain could comprehend what was going on he was amongst the forms as they moved aimlessly about the small tents that Sam could now make out sprinkled randomly about.

“Who were these people?”, Sam thought to himself. He considered asking someone but he neither trusted his sun cooked vocal cords or his memory of vocalising. That and the fear that if he muttered a single sound he would be set on by this seething throng. It was then that his mind finally realized the reason for this concern, for apart from the shuffling feet and the distant wind, there was not a sound being made, not a word was being spoken. This despite the fact that there were numerous transactions being made at the tents. A chilling silence raised the blonde hairs on the back of his neck. Something was wrong.

Sam silently followed a communal movement toward a single large tent. A tent now silhouetted against the orange glow of the sunset sky. Darkness came swift and Sam had yet to arrive at the tent before the way became nothing but blackness. A seething blackness of silent human misery all striving for the large glowing tent that now was the single light source standing in contrast to the blackness now engulfing everyone around him. Their faces were vaguely discernable in the faint glow that became the only way that they all avoided colliding with one another. The stars blinked into existence as it drew ever darker.

As Sam neared the tent the glow that lit it now seemed to come from behind and below the it, and the masses of people ahead of him seemed to disappear into it. They all plodded towards the glow all silently driven to the edge. As Sam neared it himself he could make out forms collapsing and falling forward into what now presented itself as a cliff, a cliff these quiet forms seemed drawn to and now willingly fell to their imminent demise into its unseen depths.

As the hole yawned in front of Sam he started to drag his feet yet his momentum forward seemed steady as he now felt the pressure of the forms behind him moving him unwillingly to the light. Now Sam could see other forms, well dressed and official standing at the edge and steadily grasping at the people’s necks just before they collapsed and fell to their deaths. Sam started to actively fight the masses behind him yet made no headway, still steadily moving closer to the “Officers of Demise” as Sam now saw these officials.

“Let me through!” Sam yelled but to no avail. His vocal cords failed him in this desperate time either from disuse or having been brutally parched for days of scorching heat.

Sam was close enough now to see that the officers were removing necklaces from each of these forms before they died. Sam took a glance at his own locket and then looked up to the masses facing him and saw the glint of a heart-shaped locket, identical to Sam’s around each of their necks. A quick glance back again and Sam was mere feet from its edge and the officer behind him looked quizzically at Sam as he reached for Sam’s locket. A silent “No.” remained trapped in Sam’s throat as he ducked his head to evade the grasping hand and Sam renewed his fight away from the edge. Strength was something foreign to Sam but he drew all he had as he clawed a path between the advancing forms, their indiscriminate faces flying past him in numbers too great to count. It seemed like hours before Sam escaped this apocalyptic scene and fell exhausted into the night dragging himself, one foot at a time into the dark and away from the disappearing glow. Sam’s thinking again disappeared into the mental fog that eventually engulfed him and he fell asleep walking.

Sam awoke to a bright beam of sunlight shining directly into Sam’s eyes, his face mashed into the hard sandpacked desert floor, his lips parched and cracking as he removed them from the dry and dusty surface. Sam slowly rose from his impromptu bed and dusted himself off as he scanned the horizon. No memory of the events of the night before entered Sam’s head as he tried to figure out where he was. Looking down, Sam focused on the locket around his neck and tried to recall how he got it, smiling at the memory of his mother. The cold of the night was quickly replaced by the oppressive heat the sun provided. Sam’s dehydrated brain again fell into a fog as he mindlessly walked toward the bright sun. He observed his feet fight an endless battle of forward advancement and Sam again plodded into the rippling horizon.

Left, right…

The End