The Locket

Justin’s footsteps echoed throughout the empty city, with the crisp sound of Hudson’s whistling intercutting the desolate silence of the ominous streets. Hudson was a stocky seventeen-year-old, just older than Justin. His thick brown hair fell over his face, concealing a stupid immature grin that immediately told you not to trust him around sharp objects. Justin got on well with him, which is why they always scavenged together. Scavenging is fun. One good thing came out of the end of the world, and that was everyone’s stuff suddenly scattered everywhere. Hudson gave Justin a nod towards the sun, with a quizzical expression on his face. The shadows were thickening as the blindingly orange sun brushed gently against the dusty horizon. Justin waved him off with an expression that said “Don’t worry about it”. Justin briefly stopped and looked around the city he used to live in and thought about the last time he was here.

Justin was a collector before the plague; little action figures and trading cards mostly. His mum would buy him exclusive figurines from overseas for his birthday and at Christmas, because she knew how much it meant to him. When she died, she gave him her locket as a final gift. Its heart-shape is almost cartoonish, with unnaturally smooth edges blurred by the reflection of light bouncing off the gold encrusted exterior. It was the most beautiful thing Justin had ever seen and it had become his most prized possession. Inside the locket was a photo from two years prior, with Justin and his mum standing outside the entrance of CollectorCon 2025. Her long auburn hair fell loosely over her shoulders and onto Justin, whose young face beamed as he held one of his many collectible Marvel figurines. Justin lost his entire collection when they left Sydney in the hopes of escaping the plague. They were picked up by the military and taken to a “safe-space”, which is where she got sick. Justin didn’t get sick; he almost never got sick when he was little. The plague took over and everyone was always coughing and so Justin ran away, with nothing but a gold locket and someone else’s shoes.

Justin snapped back to reality when Hudson came up behind him with the old rusting wheelbarrow they were using to carry their findings. His mum’s locket felt cold against his chest. Justin picked up a large coil of copper wire and threw it to Hudson, who caught it out of the air and stacked it onto the overflowing pile of stuff they had found. Hudson hefted the wheelbarrow and went to move forwards with it, only for the wheel to snap off its axle. The crash of the steel against concrete as the wheelbarrow overturned reverberated clamorously throughout the static air of the city fading into darkness.

“What the hell just happened?” exclaimed Justin, as Hudson threw his hands up in the air.

“I don’t–,” Hudson sighed, “The wheel broke off.”

“How did the wheel break off?”

“I don’t know! It’s an old piece of junk. I’m surprised it lasted this long!”

“What are we gonna do? The sun is going down and you’ve spilled everything! How are we gonna get it all back to the others?” Justin yelled. Hudson sighed and went to lift the wheelbarrow back up.

“A little help?” he said sarcastically. Justin walked over and together they were able to hoist up the wheelbarrow and lean it against an abandoned car. Begrudgingly, Justin started to pack everything back into the wheelbarrow, cursing under his breath and looking anxiously at the setting sun.

“We’re never going to be able to take this all back with the wheelbarrow like this.” Hudson observed.

“Well we can’t leave it here, so keep loading it up.” Justin commented.

“Why not? Who’s gonna take it? There’s nobody here. I say we leave this here and if we hurry, we can be back at base just after nightfall. We can come back for it later.” Hudson petitioned.

“What, and show up empty-handed? We wouldn’t get the chance to go outside the compound ever again.” Justin scoffed.

“So we carry all this stuff through the night? Sorry, but I like to be able to see when doing dangerous things, and as we’ve just seen, I have a knack for dropping things at the worst time.” Hudson flashed his stupid grin again. Justin shook his head as he threw a particularly heavy piece of aluminium onto the pile, emphasised by a dull clang.

“No. We’re not going to go through the night. Look, we’re about fifteen minutes from where I used to live. We can spend the night there and take everything back in the morning.” Justin proposed. Hudson considered this for a moment.

“Do you know if your mum had a spare wheelbarrow?”

“Who the hell has a spare wheelbarrow?” Justin turned away so Hudson couldn’t see him tear up at the mention of his mum.

“Anyways, I’m sure we can find one on the way.”

“Alright then. Lead the way.”

They had found a new wheelbarrow, but now that wasn’t what was concerning Justin the most. Justin’s heart pounded relentlessly against his chest, pressing the locket against his shirt as his breath tightened. Justin stepped foot onto the front lawn of his childhood home, run down with uncultivated weeds poking out of every crevice and crack in the pavement leading to the all too familiar wooden door, now beaten off its hinges and propped against the exterior wall. A loud crash made Justin jump as Hudson banged into the front fence with the wheelbarrow they had found on the way. This one was a bit bigger, with an intact wheel at that, but it was significantly heavier too. “I’m going to throw my back out by the time we’re done with this!” Hudson complained for the millionth time. Justin didn’t respond, as he was frozen in place. A crippling fear had taken its icy fist and clamped it around Justin’s heart, paralysing him, turning him back into a scared little boy hiding under his covers from the monsters.

“Hey, you alright?” Hudson grabbed his shoulder firmly. Justin blinked out of his trance and shuddered.

“Y-yeah, I’m good. Let’s go inside.” Justin closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. Justin slowly marched up the steps to the front door and was hit with the overwhelming smell of rotting wood. The furniture had all been overturned when looters had stolen whatever they could find. The living room smelled distinctly of urine, the rays of the setting sun burning through the smog of collected dust. At his feet, a picture frame lay shattered, the face of his mother smiling up at him. Justin’s breath caught in his throat, forcing him to take a second to compose himself.

“Okay, you can just leave the stuff by the door here. Help yourself to any room you want.” Justin called back to Hudson, still struggling to get the wheelbarrow through the door frame. Justin slowly moved through the house, towards the dark abyss of his old room. For the most part it had remained the same. His posters had fallen off the walls and his table had been overturned, but otherwise it was exactly as Justin remembered it. Justin lay down on his old mattress, and closed his eyes. He was too tall for it now, and the bedsprings stabbed him like dull knives, but after an exhausting day, he slept.

Justin woke up groggily. Sunlight pierced his eyes, although it couldn’t have been much past dawn. He stretched his back and felt an ache from a rough sleep. He lumbered over to the bathroom and splashed his face with water. The floorboards creaked as he came back to his room. There was something he had to check. Justin marched to his closet and firmly grasped the handles. He took a deep breath, and flung the doors open. A thousand figurines stared back at him, as if seeing light for the first time. His collection sat untouched. Justin smiled as he picked up his Captain America 1945, the same one he was holding in the photo in his mum’s locket. He took out the locket and gingerly prised it open with a satisfying click. He smiled sadly as he saw how happy he used to be with his mum standing over him. Justin looked around the room again and back at his collection. With a gentle sigh, he put the figurine back in place. Then he lifted the chain of the locket and pulled it over his head. The gold locket sparkled in front of his eyes as it spun aimlessly. He curled up the chain and rested the open locket on the shelf, just below eye-level.

“I still love you mum,” he told the locket, “but I’m not a kid anymore. I have a new life now; a new collection. I don’t belong here anymore.” The locket didn’t respond, and he was left in silence. Justin closed the closet doors and sighed with a newfound freshness. He turned and started to walk out, but as he reached the door, he hesitated. Justin looked back one last time and felt a surge of warmth spread through his chest.

“Bye mum.”